this time of year

oh my golly it is nearly Christmas and for me this is a very busy time of year. i have seven gatherings, i rarely make it to all of them every year. it is very stressful trying to be everywhere in a span of two days. however this year i am much more calm about things, trying very hard to not get stressed out about being everywhere and pleasing everyone. people pleasing is such a dangerous thing at times, i can spread my self pretty thin in order to please those around me. this year i did not want to do that. i have been having a great holiday thus far doing things at my own pace planing where i am going and when and if people don't like that well then that is to bad.

so far on my holidays i have gone to ontario and went to my dear friends wedding. it was wonderful and amazing to share the day with them. the wedding was so them, everything that happened and everything they did. it was great! from there we braved the road and had fun trip back to manitoba. on they way my boyfriend lost his license, we cheered when we got back to the prairies (once a prairie girl always a prairie girl), enjoyed the odd gas up because we were able to stretch, beth and i sent mark subliminal messages while he slept :), and got home in time a Christmas gathering. once we got home most of the fam had the flu so it was a very restful day. later we opened gifts, it was so much fun having kids around at Christmas they just get so excited about every little thing. after staying at my boy friends for a few days i made the journey back to my mom's place. from now till school starts i'll be house hoping, two days per house, should be fun! hope my car stays happy!

i leave you with this verse as a reminder of the truth about the Christmas season.

"Today in the town of David
a Savior has been born to you;
he is the Messiah, the Lord. "
- Luke 2:11

Blessing to you and your family during this Christmas season.

i have this wonderful yarn and have been wondering what to make with it and so i thought and looked at it loving the bring red with flecks of blue and yellow, there is just something about it that i love!

{my beautiful red yarn}

as i've been learning more about knitting i am realizing that i am able to make so many things for my self (or as gifts). so as winter came into full swing i realized that i really love leg warmers and i figured i'd give them a try so i used my beautiful yarn that i love so much and made some!

{my leg warmers - sorry for the horrible picture}

they are perfect for keeping me warm and they add such a burst of colour while i walk through the snow.
*as a side note - i find it merely impossible to find crochet hooks at thrift stores, there are always buckets of knitting needles but never crochet hooks... where are they hiding??

well i guess i should get back to my studying as exams are fast approaching.

thanks for stopping by
have a wonderful weekend.
blessings

goodies

ah such a wonderful week! i have spent good quality time with friends and there is more wonderful hang out time coming up soon (tomorrow)! i know i have said this time and time before but i have wonderful friends! this week some wonderful ladies and i went to the local thrift store and found some sweet goodies!! i got some more knitting needles, which i am so very pleased with as well as this treasure...

{super cute tin}

i love this colour of yellow, it has a way of showing up in a lot of my possessions. i also was gifted this...

{beauty... soon to be pillow cover}

and as if this day couldn't get any better one of my dear dear friends brought me starbucks while i was babysitting! i am so blessed!

as i had mentioned in early posts it was my birthday and brace yours i got a sewing machine!! i won't be bringing it to school because i would never get anything done! i will post pictures, its a wonderful vintage viking machine, i absolutely love it! (thanks momma!)

thanks for stopping by
blessings

warm fuzzies

well for the last while i have found a new love aside from scrapbooking and card making... knitting and crocheting. i often bring my yarn, hooks and needles to class, this may or may not affect my grades. after i had completed my first knitting project, the french press cozy, i decided to complete a crocheting project. i found a bag of scrap yarn, at the thrift store, in colours i just adore. i wasn't so sure what i was going to do with them but i knew i would figure something out.

so after a couple classes, some evening with friends and completely ignoring my home work i completed my very first scarf. isn't it lovely?! i enjoy it.

There is also a sweet Christmas give away at The Creative Place . Hop on over for details.

thanks for looking
be blessed today

wonderful day

well yesterday was my birthday and i can say that i am truly truly blessed!

{this is what i woke up to - i love my girls }

it is a chair barricading my door along with signs and lovely cards on the chair. anyways, i have amazing friends and family! it was such a wonderful day. it started out like any typical manitoba winter day, 60km winds, visibility pretty much nil, eye lashes stick together the moment you walk out the door, ya know just a typical winter day on the prairies. however the day turned out to be just so wonderful! so many wonderful friends with warm wishes, amazing birthday songs on the phone, wonderful gifts, a sweet surprise party... with fabulous people and warm beer bread! also my wonderful boyfriend braved the elements and drove out to spend the evening with me, it was the best!
thank you! to everyone who was apart of my birthday you made it extra special!

{my lovely boyfriend and i}... photo credit to MandyJay Photography...

he made my day!

thanks for stopping by
be blessed

productive?

well today there was no classes, there for it was going to be very productive. however, having a sleepover last night, which was amazing and much needed to catch up with a wonderful friend, made for a later morning. waking was a slow process so i sat in bed knitting, which was wonderful, i was able to get the majority of what i was making done. once i did get my self out of bed i had a wonderful visit with a friend over lunch, which was also much needed and long over due. after my wonderful visit over lunch i got back to my room to do some daunting homework, the day was going to be productive after all, right? however, against my better judgment left my knitting sitting beside my computer, after i had realized that i had gotten as far as i could with my homework i quickly took to my knitting. i am now able to say i completed my very first knitting project! i am pretty excited, i have many different projects on the go both with knitting and crocheting but i have actually completed one. there are a couple flaws but i try to over look those, it is my first project after all. what is my first knitting project you may ask, well it is a french press cozy! i love my coffee! as one of my friends said, " wow that thing is your baby, you are making clothes for it now!"

{french press cozy}

so to sum up! today was productive just not the way i imagined it to be. i have a new found love for knitting and crocheting. more importantly my friends are just the best! they are a huge blessing in my life and i thank God for them daily.
thanks for stopping by.
be blessed!

winter is here

well today was the first day of snow! which is so exciting because it means winter is here! with winter comes many wonderful things, such as:

• my birthday
• hor frost
• snow angels
  
• skating
• skiing
• snowball fights
• hot chocolate
• CHRISTmas

so so exciting! i have been in a Christmas mood for sometime now and with that comes Christmas music, only 2 gifts shy of completing my Christmas shopping, and of course Christmas cards! here are a few that i have done this past week.

{Christmas card no.1}
{Noel, little forest}
{Noel}
{pink holidays}

as i had mentioned my birthday is coming up but so is my wonderful grandma's as well as my grandpa's so here are their birthday cards.

{grandma's birthday card}
{grandpa's birthday card}

have a wonderful rest of the week!
be blessed!

glad to be back

last week was just so so crazy with papers, reading and studying. i should really be working ahead now but, there is no fun in that. during class today i just wanted to get back to my room and scrap. this weekend, at my boyfriend, we set up all the Christmas decorations and tree, this got me in a Christmas mood. i have been listening to Christmas music all afternoon and going through my all my 'Christmasy' scrapping stuff. so i have been working on Christmas cards.

{holly berries & blue bird}

{oh, Christmas tree}
{charlie brown Christmas tree }
{rustic Christmas}

so as you are preparing for Christmas enjoy the season and try not to get to caught up in all the details. relax and enjoy! there also happens to be another birthday in my dorm this month, so i made up another card. i am very pleased at how it turned out.

{purple birthday}

after a very wonderful and productive scrappy day i leave you with this,
'He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts to grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.' -Ephesians 4:16

thanks for looking
be blessed this week

been a while

it's been a while since i've posted anything i blame school! i have papers to write in all my classes and it seems like no time to do them all. as i was taking a break from writing i came along a wonderful blog candy give away check it out at Scarp it Girl. well i should get back to my papers.

blessings

birthdays birthdays birthdays

well this week in my dorm there are three birthdays! so wonderful! so instinctively i put aside all regard for school work and scrapping takes over. this week was short due to thanksgiving monday. however it seemed much shorter because all week i was either scrapbooking or making cards. both of which are two of my favorite pass times. i completed a scrapbook of a missions trip to vancouver i chaperoned. i had been working casually on it during the summer but of course once i have mountains of homework and studying i pull it out and finish it.

{birthday card no. 1}

{birthday card no. 2}

{birthday card no. 3}

thanks for looking.
be blessed this week

why do you have poison ivy berries??

well over the past week i have been plagued with the wonderful poison ivy! it was on my face and i had no idea where i got it from, i had been out on a hike last weekend but no one else had gotten it, i was baffled. well today i found out why i have poison ivy. i have had poison ivy berries sitting in a vase in my room for the past week. why, you may ask, do you have poison ivy berries? well let me tell you a wonderful story...

last weekend i went to my wonderful boyfriends place and he had planned a wonderful evening, a surprise for me, he had prepared a wonderful picnic! we drove out to the hills and he had set up a table that over looked the hills and was in the most perfect spot for us to watch the sun set.

{at sun set}

while we were there i found these delightful looking berries. they were small, green and looked so pick able, so i picked a bundle of them. brought them home and was enjoying them greatly, but not enjoying the horrible poison ivy rash that has been spreading. well today as i was sitting in my room with some friends one of them asks, 'why do you have poison ivy berries?' ..... oh my goodness!! well needless to say i threw them out instantly and we all had a good laugh about it.

lesson learned:
poison ivy has cute berries

reflecting

as school has been underway for the past two weeks now it is interesting how i am still seeing new faces around campus. i am at the point that i call prov home, i've been here three years after all. the only down side of that is that most of my friends have graduated. i look around and see a sea of new faces and names. however today one of my dear friends is coming to visit me and i have not seen her since graduation last spring. it just so happens that her birthday is coming up and so i put together a little something for her. the one thing that i love to give for gifts is scrapbooks! they are so fun to make and become so personal. throughout making this mini book for her i was able to reflect on the past couple years i've spent here at prov. looking through pictures which triggers so many wonderful memories.

through reflecting on the past couple years at prov i was also able to see how God has been shaping and molding me into the person he wants me to be. he has allowed of both high moments and very low moments. when going through a valley it is often hard to see why i was going through this or why it has happened but with God walking by my side, or even carrying me at times, i am able to see how it has shaped and how God has used each situation to mold me more. being able to reflect on the past gives me such hope for the future even though it seems so uncertain at times. knowing that God has a plan and is leading me through it allows me to have a peace about it.

on a side note something very funny that happened this week: driving to timmy's with some friends and we are talking about how it is hard to have patience with some people. once we got to timmy's we sat done, maybe five minutes later a man came and sat with us and would not stop talking, he was unaware of social boundaries. once we left all we could do was laugh because we knew that God was laughing at us because he was allowing us to grow our patience.

so it begins

this is a day of firsts, my first blog posting, first day of classes in my senior year of college, first time being an ra and first time driving my car with only a donut tire on.

i am excited yet slightly nervous about having a blog. i will have a hard time posting on a regular basis but i'm excited for the challenge.

school has started which means that classes are under way now, i have been at school now for just over a week and a half. lets just say that i am ready for classes and dare i say homework! i believe that this year at school will be a wonderful growing experience. i know God has a wonderful plan i just need to trusting him and accept his will. it has been a somewhat difficult start going into this year as the majority of my close friends have all graduated or moved on to a different stage in life. this had left me feeling very alone in a place i loved to be. however i realized that i was not the physical place that i loved so much as it was the people surrounding me that i loved.

being an ra is part of the plan that God has for me to grow this year. my dorm is filled with some amazing girls and i know that new friendships are going to grow...fast! pray for me as i start this new journey at school. pray for my girls as many of them are freshmen, they too are on a journey.

my car! oh my car... it seems to me that cars only give me grief. i am currently on my third car after replacing the engine this past summer i now have to buy new tires because the ones i have are shot. this wouldn't be so problematic but as noted earlier, i'm a college student! therefore i am not a fountain of endless money, this seems to be what my car needs. so today before my class i hope to go and get new tires for my car and not spend a fortune!