Almost done!

Well, the renovation of our front porch and driveway is done, now we are just waiting for the new front door which will arrive in two weeks.  Here are some photos during and after.

I know, it looks like a building site doesn't it?  Which is exactly what it was for a while.  It should have originally been finished a couple of weeks ago, but as they were putting up the railing I just happened to be pulling in to the driveway and realized that it was way too high!  They ordered a shorter one, hence the delay.  But it was worth the wait as here is the finished result, along with the new driveway and interlock.

We are enjoying sitting out there on our rockers.  It's almost like we are in our beloved Maine!

I realized that I haven't posted the quilt top for my first quilt, so here it is.

I have just started quilting it this morning.  I did finish the free motion quilting class and I must admit that I found it very frustrating!  It does not come naturally to me and will require a great deal of practice!  But I will keep plodding along until I conquer it.  Did anyone else out there have the same problem?

This is my seaside quilt and it still needs one more border.  It is made from Riley Blake's seaside collection and I just love this fabric.  I found out today that I won a fat quarter bundle of this from Lindsay at the cottage home.  I am so excited as I love it.  This is coming with us to the cottage in Maine in two weeks time!  Can't wait!!

And finally, our little sweetheart!

 

Playing with Mommy

Laughing at her reflection in the mirror.

Have a great weekend everyone.  We are in for a real hot one (40C).  We are in desperate need of rain here.  I know those in England would gladly trade places!

A Great weekend!

We had a wonderful time last weekend when Adam & Alicia were down for a visit.  It passed way to quickly though, but we enjoyed every minute with them.  Lots of Norah time which they loved!

Adam has always been baby crazy.  When Andrew & Rebekah were born he loved to kiss and cuddle them and would kiss the tops of their heads and nuzzle right in.  He still does the same thing - some things never change!!!

They brought presents among which was this cute little cupcake hat.  Isn't she edible?!!

 

My baby (Rebekah) with our little sweetheart

 

We played ""Headbanz" along with many other board games (we are a family of board game lovers!)  That game drove me crazy!

 

Alicia made sure she got her share of cuddles too!

Saying goodbye (tear!)

We are already looking forward to Christmas!

Christmas in July?

I am on a role with quilting or at least the piecing stage!  I made this Christmas quilt top a few days ago and will start to quilt it when my machine quilting class is finished in two weeks time.  You can't really tell from the photo, but the outside edge has snowflakes all over it in red & green. Not that I'm wishing the summer away mind you - I love this time of year.  Next weekend we are off to Upstate New York for our church pageant in Palmyra and then in August we have our 2 1/2 weeks at the ocean in our cottage in Maine.  But before all that we have the best weekend this weekend as our oldest son Adam and his girlfriend Alicia are coming.  It will be wonderful having the whole family together again.  They haven't seen little Norah since she was a newborn as they live 5 hours away in Toronto.  So they are looking forward to some play time!  

Speaking of Norah - she isn't so little anymore!

She has just discovered her hands and loves to suck on her middle two fingers.  She puts herself to sleep every night sucking on them and she is sleeping really well.  Mommy & daddy get at least 7 hours each night (aren't they lucky?!) I just love the roll around her wrist!

She just melts all of us and we can't get enough of her!

With Aunty Rebekah watching TV

Big kisses from Mommy

Big smiles with Daddy

Yay for family!!

Giveaway at Lavender Attic!

Sally at Lavender Attic has a great giveaway here, but hurry as it's only open until July 1st!

Hope you are enjoying good weather this weekend, it's pouring here in Ottawa at the moment, but our lawns sure need it!

I won a giveaway!!

 Earlier this month I got an email from Julie at A tale from Toadstool house telling me that I had won her birthday blog giveaway. I was thrilled, as 

I've never won anything like this before and her giveaway was all British stuff.  You know I'm from England originally, so I was extra thrilled about this.

Well this parcel arrived as I was preparing dinner tonight.

Did I mention that I am thrilled with this?!  I can't believe all the goodies Julie included and I can't believe what she spent on postage to get it to me!  There was a copy of Mollie Makes, 3 British tea towels, a red & white polka dot notebook (how did you know I love polka dots Julie - I have a full dinner service of Emma Bridgewater Polka dot!), a pair of Jubilee socks, a beautiful Union Jack card and a GB team pack of Dairy Milk (THE best chocolate in the world!). Please go and check out her blog.  It's a good read.  Thanks once again Julie!  You're the best!

Sneek peek into quilt top

I have pieced together the first part of the quilt top and will be adding a one inch inner border in deep pink and then a 6 inch outer border in the floral fabric you can see in some of the blocks.  What do you think so far?

I am very happy with it.  It is a sampler quilt obviously, so that we can try out the various techniques.  It will be a large lap size when it's done and will fit well with the decor in our family room.  I will add more photos as it nears its completion.

We are having a lot of work done on the exterior of our home.  It started out with getting a quote to re-paint our front porch.  But we bought some white rockers for the porch and when we sat on them, we realized that the porch was rather more angled than we realized.  So painting it turned into demolishing and re-building it in a bigger size as well as a new front door and the driveway being resurfaced and having some interlock along the edge and at the steps of the new porch.  Oh and we are also having our back patio ripped up and interlock paving installed there!  Can you believe this all started with a paint job?  We have no plans to sell any time soon, so we want to get things the way we want them so we can enjoy.  Next on the list is a new bathroom and carpeting the 4 bedrooms, but that can wait for a while now!

I know all of you bloggers in the UK have had your share of bad weather lately, but let me tell you that our temperatures this week in Ottawa are very hot and humid!  Today it will be 39C with the humidex and the next few days will be 45C.  We are expecting thunder showers today, which will not help the humidity at all. We do have nice summer days, but when this humidity hits it is deadly and we are so grateful for our air conditioning!!!

Hope you have nice sunny weather wherever you are!

A very proud moment

Our son Andrew graduated from Carleton University on Tuesday afternoon.  It was a beautiful day and we are two very proud parents.  As you can see, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with highest honours in his Major of Political Science and a minor in History. Which means that he had an average of A- in all his major courses!  Wendell was unable to be there in person as he was away on a business trip in Regina, as Andrew didn't give us the final date until after Wendell's trip was booked.  But thanks to modern technology, he was able to watch the proceedings live via the internet.  It was a beautiful day and tears of joy were shed as we watched him receive his diploma!

We are a soppy bunch at our house!