love and cold

let's start w/ the love :)

namely, this beautiful bouquet from my hubby :)
i absolutely love gerbera daisies! and right now they are reminding me of the warm summer days that i spend tending after the flowers in the Town of Bridgewater with my wonderful friend Wanda :)
they are also reminding me of how blessed i am to have such an amazing, patient, understanding, and o so loving husband :) thanx so much baby!

now on to the cold...
let's just say that once i get out in it, the excitement and smile soon turn into a look of sheer terror lol :) it is truly miserable outside!
but i am very thankful for this amazing coat that my hubby got me :) does a pretty swell job of keeping about 50% of me all nice and cozy :)

this past saturday dave and i took a trailer load of flooring supplies up to pikangikum for a job that he and Jeff Yutzy are working on today.

for those of you who don't know, pikangikum is a reservation that is NORTH of red lake...as if we aren't far enough north already!!! i about froze.
anyways, it's a 2 hr. drive. In the winter you can drive to it because the lakes are frozen over and the roads that go through muskeg are nice and solid and very bumpy instead of squishy and mushy. in the non-winter months you can only fly into pikangikum.

so we drove...

and drove...
and drove. yep, pretty much looked like this the whole way.
it's actually pretty scary driving on these roads because you have no idea where the edge is, and if your tire slips off the edge, the snow can just pull you in. it's not so bad as long as no one is in sight, but when you cross paths w/ an oncoming vehicle, it feels pretty treacherous.
on the way home we were going around a corner and another vehicle was coming our way, and def. going a little too fast for the conditions at hand. she was on our side of the road, and over-corrected, and ended up in the ditch. so we spent about an hour (along w/ about 3 other vehicles that stopped) pulling, pushing, and digging her out of the ditch. well, actually, my hubby and some other guys did that. i stayed all bundled up in the truck :)

here we are coming off the winter road onto the lake that you have to cross to get to pikangikum.

do you see the little saplings in the middle of the frozen lake? no, they are not growing there. people chop them down and put them up on the lake to mark the ice road :)

pikangikum

notice all the graffiti?

there were very few buildings that didn't have graffiti on them

pikangikum doesn't have running water...thus outhouses...brrrrr! i think i would probably get dehydrated and skinny if i lived up there because i would do just about anything i could to avoid going out into a freezing little outhouse to go to the bathroom!

so that's my latest little arctic tundra adventure :)

no more babies?

in case all the babes in your family are gone, just thought i'd let ya know i can make shoosies for tots too :)

these lil' double strappers fit a footsie that is 5 inches.

'til next time :)

This item was handmade using a Hook Candy crochet pattern, available at http://hookcandy.com.

pair #2

a lil' white, a lil' gray, a lil' pink...and whala!!!

pair #2 :)

This item was handmade using a Hook Candy crochet pattern, available at http://hookcandy.com.

baby mary janes :)

too warm outside for baby booties? (doubtful in this weather!!! we had - 33C/-27F this morning!)
or maybe you want somethin' just a tad more dressy or girly :)

my latest project:


lil' mary jane slippers :) so adorable!
they feature a double layered foot, so they are super soft :)

let me know if you want a pair!!!

This item was handmade using a Hook Candy crochet pattern, available at http://hookcandy.com.

i've been featured!!! :)

http://amy-showalter.blogspot.com/2011/01/special-shoutout.html

another set :)

a valentines day baby set :)


i wove a little crochet tie around the ankle of the booties that can be tightened so that they don't slip off the baby :)
this set is sized for a newborn.

the ice road :)

this morning we experienced temperatures of -22F/-30C.
my snot froze in my nose. lol

yesterday my hubby took me for a lil' spin on our amazing ice road :)

it's huge!!! ... kinda like a 4 lane highway ... except no rules!!!!
this one goes from red lake to cochenour

looking out the back of the truck at another truck :)

little ice fishing huts :) ... sounds like a miserable sport to me!

driving into cochenour.
the tall thingy is a new mine shaft that is going up.
for those of you who don't know, red lake is a gold mining town...pretty much wouldn't exist w/out it.

on the way home we passed the beach :) anyone up for laying out w/ me?

a lil' truck plowing the ice road.

notice all the tracks...snow machines have now become the vehicle of choice...and they are speedy lil' boogers!!! they go over 100 mph. i can watch them zoom by out our lovely lil' window :)

a picture across the lake that i rolled the window down for...notice my expression is not one of sheer joy...very, very cold!

driving back into red lake...our apartment is in the grayish building to the right. we live in the upper, far right side.

and lastly, the lil' ramp back to solid ground :)

life

life is good :)

yay! for blocks #3 and #4 :)

got my amazing crosscut saw hung :)

and then there is more crochet :)
i'm out of leather at the moment, so this poor lil' bootie doesn't have it's leather yet, but it'll get there :)

and my latest completed set :)

thank you cards

soooooooooooooooo....embarrassing story...

over the couple of weeks previous to christmas, dave and i dutifully wrote thank you cards to all the wonderful people who blessed us w/ gifts for our wedding. i wanted to have them done before we went to va so that i could mail them from the states. we got them done!!!! but guess who forgot to bring them w/ her to the states...yeah, that would be me. very unfortunate, especially since i wrote "merry christmas" on most of mine lol. so i apologize for the late "merry christmas" to those of you who get one w/ that!!!!

this is the card :) i love it :)
unfortunately, it didn't print very well for some reason. it turned out a bit blurry :(, and i didn't have time to get it redone while i was in va over amber's wedding. so for those of you who get one in the mail, sorry again!!!! i so wish it would have printed better!

dave and i are so grateful for each of you who have blessed our lives. marriage has been so absolutely wonderful!
thanks to each of you who have played a part in that by loving us, teaching us, being a godly example for us, and praying for us! we are truly blessed!!!

booties :)

so excited! are these not just absolutely adorable?!?!
little baby booties w/ leather stitched onto the bottom for traction and for cuteness :)





i made this set for one of my friends up here who is having her first baby sometime in march :)

blessings to you danielle and tim as you prepare for your little bundle of joy!!!!!

it's hard to believe....

it's already been 5 months!!!!


and they've been the best of my life :)

christmas 2010

i don't even know where to begin...i love christmas!!!! and this year was better than ever :)
it was so so so so good to be home w/ family. dave and i left around noon the wednesday before christmas and got to his parents' home 3:00 am friday "morning." i got to spend 9 wonderful days w/ my family before the dreadfully long trip back up to canada.

a picture i snapped out the window of our lil' tacoma on the way down to va. the drive was beautiful. the snow never ended.

we even drug our lovely lil' christmas tree all the way down to va :) let's just say it was def. worse for the wear by the time we arrived, but we had a christmas tree!!!!

it all started christmas eve up at grandaddy and grammy's house. there are 12 +1 of us grandkids and grammy always does her best to spoil us rotten :)
i always know beyond a shadow of a doubt that i will have the best meal of the year at her house on christmas eve...this year was no exception!!!
my favorite is the dressing and the pickles :) mmmmmmmmmmm!!!!! grammy even made me my own jar of pickles to bring back up to canada w/ me...not going to lie, they're already almost gone.
after our amazing meal, we all sit down out in the living room, sing some christmas songs, and then do our gift exchanges and open gifts. it's a wonderful time!


we also use this time to snap all kinds of interesting pics :)

christmas day was spent w/ dave's immediate family. they have a tradition of going up to the cabin on christmas eve and spending the night there. his dad makes breakfast for everyone the next morning and then gifts are opened :) yay!!! more stuff :)

this is a picture of the road going up to the cabin.

the cabin :)

christmas w/ my immediate family took place on sunday. we went to church in the morning. had an amazing shrimp lunch made by my mummsy dear and then we opened presents :) yay!!! more stuff!!!
mom is so good at coming up w/ fun stuff for us to do to make christmas absolutely amazing :)
she had 2 fun gift games for us this year. for the first one she bought 9 different books from the christian book store. we had quite a time picking them and stealing them and conniving w/ each other so that we would end up w/ the book that we wanted :)
the second round had various $20 gifts. i ended up w/ a lovely bamboo plate/platter. it's so fun getting new things to add to our lil' home here in red lake!
mom also fills up a stocking for each of us kids :)
after all the gifts were opened, we finished out the day w/games...

dave and i brought home a game that we bought in winnipeg called "ticket to ride." it was quite a hit and got played quite a few times throughout the week.
also, in this pic you can see the hats that i made for melissa and rebecca for christmas :)

and here is autumn modeling hers :)

the final game of the day was progressive rook :) it was so much fun...even though i lost :(

after all the christmas festivities were over, dave and i spent the rest of the week doing different things w/ our families.
mom said that when i was down that she wanted me to dip some chocolates for her.

i dipped some pretzels and ritz bits

and made buckeyes!!!! :)

bec made some amazing white chocolate red velvet truffles...i'm super excited to try them out sometime in the near future :)

another fun lil' activity that i did was to paint a crosscut saw w/ my mummsy :)

friends in canada gave us the saw. we hauled it down to va, got it sandblasted, painted it w/ black rustoleum, and then mom and i set to work

the finished product :)
it's a treasure to say the least!!!!

you can see mom's signature on the top pic, and mine on the bottom

another christmas tradition that our family has is to have a fondue supper around christmas

this year we had granddaddy and grammy and uncle joe and aunt ruthy down for the occasion.

everyone getting into the game "ticket to ride" after the meal was over.

another fun thing that i got to do while i was in va was to take some pics of benjamin and his girlfriend melissa.

love them :)

unfortunately i didn't get pics of everything that i got into over the past 2 weeks...but this should at least give you a small glimpse into my amazing christmas :) so much fun!!!! so many blessings, so much joy, love, hope, and peace :)

ps. one thing i did forget to do was to bring my thank you cards from our wedding home w/ me to mail...sooooooo, if you get a thank you card at it says merry christmas on it, i apologize ;)