.: Yes, We are still here!

Bet you thought we'd disappeared; but no we are still here. Life just got unexpectedly very, very busy and time consuming. My husband's parents decided to downsize to a smaller home and things moved quickly. My in-laws are 88 and 85 years old. All the rest of their children and families either live out of town or were unable to help. So guess who had to pack them up! The toughest part was sorting thru everything and deciding what to keep, what to give away and what to pitch. Living 50 years in the same place causes you to acquire a lot of stuff! Anyway, the girls, Jasmine, Season and Alanna, were the best of helpers...couldn't have managed it without them. The really know what it means to be "family" and be there for each other! Love you, you're the best!

Hopefully we will now be able to get back together and try our hand at some of the wonderful things we find on Pinterest.

Today I would like to share with you a little project that I have wanted to do for years but just never got around to doing it. I have always loved the way our US neighbours decorate for the 4th of July, especially the American red, white & blue bunting. Like this one I found on Pinterest:

Well, after coming up with a pattern and a wonderful sale on fabric, Jasmine and I were able to make this Canadian version:

The pattern was quite easy. We cut 3 strips of fabric 8" wide by 87'' long: 1 strip of white and 2 strips of red for each section of bunting. [I needed 3 sections of bunting {pictured above}to cover my window ledge]. We sewed the strips together lengthwise, making sure the white strip was in the center. We hemmed the 2 long edges. On the short ends we sewed "rod pocket" edges, like you would for a curtain. Then starting with one of the short edges we folded it up like an accordion and pressed in the folds with an iron. Making sure the rod pocket openings are left free to open, we sewed the rest of the folds together on one end only. The other end was then free to "fan" open when you threaded the 2 rod pocket ends onto your rod. I used 1 long piece of aluminum stripping [that my husband had hanging around] to thread my bunting onto. Jasmine used doweling, but thought that a simple, cheap, round curtain rod would have worked just as well for her since she was hanging each of her buntings separately, not in a grouping like mine.

So here is what my house looks like to celebrate "Canada Day" on July 1st.