For the love of...

...The Manitoba Children's Museum!!!

As you probably know, the Manitoba Children's Museum is undergoing a huge renovation project.  They'll be closed for quite some time... sniff...sniff... but will be re-opening with new galleries and experiences for our children...  I think I may be more sad than P about the huge tree slide being removed...

Well... Paper Raisins has donated a hat, scarf & mitty set for their fundraising efforts!  ...the set will be auctioned off to the highest bidder - check it out here!  There are many great items there to bid on and the auctions will be up until November 24, 2010.

Go now... check it out and support this great facility!!!   Go....

the thing about Annie...

Hey guys! ...a tiny bit of down-time ...a moment to breathe and a little time for a new post! :)

So it's been insane in my world. I had a retirement party for a co-worker to plan and execute...which took place today... whew... despite being stressed about making it a success it went off without a hitch! yay! ...I like a good theme for a party so this one was a Country-fair, Farmer's Market type feel, complete with straw bails, a scarecrow, big bunches of balloons, 1/2 barrel full of flowers and veggies (I even got carrots with leafy tops!!) and a red and white gingham table runner! ...not to mention all the "in theme" signage...

Watering hole for the drink table... bake sale for the dainty table... farmer's market banners for the banquet table... photo op with the scarecrow... kissin' booth (goodbye hugs - free) by the honored retiree! ...and it was all named Annieville...

So my personal gift to our dear Annie was the gift of memories. I took pictures of each of the staff in our department and a few extras, retirees and others who asked to be included. About 30-35 staff in total. I also asked for a writing submission beginning with "The thing about Annie..." from each person participating. Once the pics were done and edited and writing submissions collected and proofed I did some fancy digital scrapbooking and had the whole project printed into an 8x8 hard-cover book! I am so in love with the finished project.... although I had to part with it rather quickly and didn't even get a chance to photograph the final result.

I'm sure you can image the "man" hours that went into this labor of love! But it was all worth it! ...I know she will treasure it for a lifetime!

Wanna see a couple sample pages??

And me - incidentally I hate pictures of myself... this one I didn't mind so much though!

Hope you enjoyed! I'm off to put up my feet for a few minutes... watch some Biggest Loser!

Stay tuned for my next post... I will have some new hats to share! ...and they are modeled by the sweetest little one, she's the gorgeous daughter of a co-worker...I got to play with her a couple weeks ago! :)

Monday Musing - Have a Nice Trip???!!!

So here's a fact that those in my close circles already know... I am a complete klutz! This is especially true when it comes to walking... seriously, I suck at walking. Lately I've been doing sooooo good...despite my case history which includes:

• Falling in gym class as a child and not telling anyone that I'd hurt my bum...didn't get my back fixed until I went to a chiropractor in my 20's!
• Falling up the stairs (that's right, now down them but up them...in high school, in between classes, the halls teeming with students... needless to say I was mortified).
• Falling down a flight of stairs at my old work while carying about 20 patient charts... they went flying...I tumbled down about 10 stairs, landed at the bottom and smoked the back of my head on the metal edge of one of the concrete stairs, can you says seeing stars and nausea??
• Falling down while exiting my apartment while my husband (then boyfriend) was driving down my street to pick me up (think ...now you see me.... now you don't...real smooth).
• Falling at the same spot on the sidewalk on Ellice near my work three independent times. The two most memorable were once while walking with a co-worker, she couldn't stop laughing...and the time I fell walking to my car - my purse went flying...the contents of my purse went flying ...my lunch bag went flying... I went flying...and a couple homeless guys stopped and picked me up of the sidewalk, gathered my things and made sure I was okay.

This brings me to today! ...it's been a while so I was overdue for a good fall... in classic Lee-Ann style I was at my 5 minute morning exercise group...all psyched for stair climing... I took one flight and at the bottom of it rolled my ankle and met the landing with a thud. I was stair climbing roadkill... seriously...people had to step over me.... LOL...

So I waited it out, moved it around gently and then climbed stairs for the last 2ish minutes, then walked my coffee-break 20 and my lunch 40, although a tad slower than my usual pace ...needless to say I'm feelin' the pain now! ...my foot's up, and I'm hoping this one fulfills my quota for a while!

A Beautiful Disaster!

A few months ago I got a call from a lady I've known for most of my life. Her daughter is a few years older than me and has 3 little ones, 2 girls and a boy. In fact, when her daughter was pregnant with her first, I was pregnant with Pyper, we were due the same week!

Grandma was ordering two hats to accessorize the two black faux fur coats she made for the girls. She had ideas for style and a specific color in mind. Grandma came over and we looked at a few patterns that I'd pre-selected based on our discussion, and sure enough there was one there that she loved. The color palate was white with a black band and soft pink flowers with black leaves, simple but striking. Here's where the distaster begins!!!!!

The brand of cotton I usually use doesn't have a soft pink... seriously, hot pink, dusty rose, peachy pink....no soft pink. I whipped out the laptop and we looked at the color options from the brands that I could order in. We decided on a tone and I placed the order as soon as she left, and then I waited....

And waited...

And waited...

I received an email from the supplier indicting that they were undergoing a change in their postal delivery service and that although it would speed things in the future it would cause a delay on this order. I phoned Grandma and let her know.

And waited...

And waited...

And waited...

I sent the supplier an email... a rather unhappy email indicating that they usually have a slower than average in the delivery time and that I understood that they were undergoing a change but this was CRAZY!!! I am running a business and their wait time is reflecting badly on me and my business ....where's my stuff?? I soon found out that they sent the package to my old address...despite the fact that I've ordered since the move. Of course the new owner rejected the parcel and it was sent back to the supplier. It was that close...about 6 blocks away from home! They said once the package was received back they'd re-ship to the correct address... ugh......

I phoned Grandma and let her know where things were at...and waited...

And waited...

And waited...

It took aproximately 2 months for the yarn to show up...... holy poopers... I was soooooooo irritated... I finished the embellishments for the hats that night... and delivered ASAP. Despite my many phonecalls throughout updating Grandma, she though these hats just were not going to happen. I take pride in beating the deadlines I give people... so needless to say I was mortified... and of course did my best to "make it right".

I had Pyper model one of the hats...so here you go, you can see my beautiful disaster!

What have I learned?? ....uh....find a new supplier... triple check to make sure the shipping address is correct... stock more colors so I don't have to order to fill an order!!!

You can't see me....

Some time ago.... and when I say some... I mean a big some...LOL, a girlfriend of mine emailed me looking for a couple gifts for 2 of her pregnant co-workers... they were having boys!

I'm always a little stuck for boys...I know, bad me... it's hard to not spend most of my time making little girl stuff...since as you know I have a girl! ...lends itself naturally to having an in-house model and fit-tester!

Anyway J wanted a camo hat for each of the babies...and little mitties "if I had time". Since I love making tiny little newborn things and I didn't have a little newborn mitty in my repitoire I was totally excited to get this project done.

So, here's the result... sweet little camo hats with thumbless mitties... attached of course by a nice tightly crocheted string. I ususally call it a dummy string.... definitely got to think of something nicer to call it!!!

I've got lots of projects in the works... some that I'm waiting to have fit tested.... a sweet hat I finished for a custom order, the hooded mommy wrap that is a beautiful work in progress! ...I'll be posting those as soon as I can...

My time is divided as I'm working on a project for my husband... setting him up with an ETSY shop... he makes gorgeous pens...fantastic for gifts... graduations, bankers, lawyers, Father's day, Mothers day.... any other occasion you could think of! They're totally unique and extremely stylish! ...I've got 4 posted in his etsy shop and working on getting the other pics ready... check out what we've got so far!!!