Adjusting Those Priorities Yet Again and Baby Quilt Pictures.

I like to get myself a Christmas present each year. Something special, something extra, something that I want but takes a little effort to afford. NOW please do not get me wronge, I do not lack for anything, I live comfortably and rather well. I've a roof over my head, a decent job and I have a car. I have cable TV and I do not do without. I am far from hard done by. That being said I had my eye on a smooth top stove. I want a grey topped one and apparently they are going out of that type, or at least that is what the dude at Home Depot told me. They have a floor model on sale right now, grey flat top, self cleaning, four legs, oven that is actually the right temperature and a big front burner that does not work on its own whims and wishes. I had almost got my head wrapped around the fact that I could afford it at that price. I had been saving and saving and making and selling. Lookin' promising until.....................

I decided to get me some car repairs instead. Lets go back the the week I was celebrating Craftastic Palooza. I went to go shopping one bitter cold day, the car had no heating, I came home frozen and decided to call my mechanic. I took said car to the garage today and the heating issue was not a clear cut and dried problem. So they tweeked this and fiddled that and then sent me home with it to monitor the heat for a week. The car goes back next Wednesday, by that time, they will have the oxygen sensor that is apparently not functioning and they will have time to fix a leak in the heating system. Simple problems, hmmmm ..yeah....no, not in my world. The sensor is no longer on warranty so I get to pay for this one, my car had 4 of the little critters. I have two more to look foreward to breaking down. I also happen to own the sort of car that has a motor that thinks its an upside down Chinese puzzle box. Wonderful car, I love it to bits but its a bitch to fix. Apparently it requires a massive amounts of dismantling to get at what needs to be fixed. Sort of like my house where you have to move 9 zillion things to get at what you need same can be said for my car motor. To support this statement, I will provide an example. The first time I tried to find the battery, to help boost a neighbour's car, neither of us could find the battery. Its conveniently hidden under the motor, close to the wheel-well. My brother had to point it out to me.

So thanks to the puzzle box, I am going to have to pay a substantial, new stove equivalent, labour and parts bill next Wednesday. Can you really mourn something that you never had? I am in mourning for my stove. A moment of silence it you please. I have known better, I was the one that tempted fate and said I think I will get a new stove. I should never ever let my cars know what I am doing. They get jealous and then force me to rearrange my priorities. Ack!!

Enough about that, I will get a stove, its just not going to happen as soon as I would like it. Sigh. Moving on to baby quilts. This little cowboy finally made his debut and I can at last reveal the baby quilt that I made for him. Every little cowboy needs a quilt like this don't you think?

And matching bumper pads

I was rather pleased with how well this set turned out. So were the people that I made it for which is fabulous.
Its always nice to hear things like "oh that's perfect" and "awesome, I love the colours" when you have made something for someone else.

I will be sharing more of the Christmas crafting after the event is over and the items are no longer a surprize.
Right now I have puppets to be a makin '

Toodles

Linda

Embracing the Christmas........Oh Yeah!!

Currently I am in full Christmas mode. I am working to get my Christmas projects made and my shopping done. I am trying to think of what homemade ornaments I can make this year to torture my family with. I am planning how to decorate the house and put up all the trees. Yes there is more than one.........shut up. I have baking to do, cards to make, cleaning to be done and I love all of it.

In spite of the fact that I totally love this holiday, in the past and for a good part of this year it has caused  me a fair amount of angst. Each year I worry myself silly thinking we should be practical, we should be sensible, We need to keep the cost down. Dither, dither, fret, fret, fuss, fuss and more fuss. Well this year I have given my head a shake and made up my mind about a few things. What I can and should control (me) and what I should just let be ( what everyone else is doing).

One does have to be realistic here about gifts. Lets face it, your siblings, their off spring and your friends  may love you to bits, but they are not going to spring for the flat surface self cleaning stove, the 350 watt kitchen aid mixer, the 32" flat screen tv or the diamond tennis bracelet you have been jonesing for. Those gifts are spouse/significant other gifts, not be expected from anyone else. If you are single, you get that sort of thing for yourself or not at all. I know as much as I wish I could be Mother Bountiful  and buy everyone the big fancy things, its not gonna happen. When I win the lottery, then watch out Baby, the sky is the limit bit for now I have limits.

I know that I am at the stage in my life where the things I NEED are ether way too expensive for a family given gift or they are little things, consumable things. For example right now I what I need in life is a new scraper for the windows of my car, body wash, shampoo, a new sandwich maker, a couple of specific cd's , or a desk lamp for the sewing table, stuff like that. Gift cards are great for me. I can shop and I get stuff I need or would not buy normally. I can splurge without a second thought. Honestly I am tickled silly with most anything I am given. I don't give gifts with the expectation that I get something in return. I am not a terribly fussy picky person. REALLY I AM NOT :-)

I really, really, really  like to give gifts. I always think, that's it, I am cutting down, but I don't. You really can't in some ways, things cost no matter what. I know what I can and cannot afford so why do I keep thinking I have to clamp down on myself? I have come to the conclusion that at Christmas I don't want to be stressing. I enjoy giving gifts and I love to hunt for things I think that my nearest and dearest will like.  I love to make things and give them as gifts. Sometimes I am bang on and sometimes I am not but its ok, I have tried. I like doing it. It makes me happy and because it makes me happy I am no longer going to fret about it.

So my grand conclusion is that I am not going to fuss about it any more, I cannot and will not. I am just going to enjoy. I embrace the shopping and gift giving, I don't want to be concerned about being limited to a certain dollar amount or that's not enough, that's too much. That is not working for me and it was my idea. I was the one who thought this is how it should be. You would think I would know myself by now but I keep learning new things everyday. Mostly I am learning to go with what makes me feel good about me.

It Christmas time and its my chance to let the people I care about know that I am thinking of them. Life is to short to not be happy. I enjoy giving gifts, I am going to focus on that. Not to mention that I am not going to worry about what other people are thinking or doing. They are free to do as they please, I can only make rules for myself. This conclusion makes me feel so peaceful. I will give what I can, I will make the best choice I can for the recipient, it makes me happy to do this, end of story.

Oh yeah its all good!! Bring on Christmas, I am loving it !!!

Toodles, Linda

There are not enough hours or money :-)

Well its been a busy week here at the old homestead and its only half over. I need about 6 more hours in each day and then I could maybe get all the things done that I want to. Oh well, its all good, I love to be busy and have projects to do, I like to spend time with my friends so I am not complaining,............... really I'm not. It may sound like it but I'm not and I will change the subject now because I am repeating myself.

Monday night was the usual frantic flight of the bumble bees trying to get my house presentable because I had a guy coming today to do an energy audit. So I spent my evening, jamming things in nooks and crannies and cleaning like a white tornado ( does anyone but me remember that one?). Its not perfect but at least it did not look like an episode of Hoarders. ( do reference that show a lot don't I? because I can see it in my future and I fear it!!)

Tuesday night was sushi with the girls and then Breaking Dawn part 1, the latest Twilight movie. It was lovely. Good company, good food, good movie. I like those evenings. And yes I like the vampire movies, I LOVED the books. I secretly think I am a teenage girl at heart. A fact that was confirmed to day when I was all bummed out that my Outlander graphic novel is on back order. I may age but I am not gonna be a grown up, no way dude!! I want my adult comic book graphic novel, dang it.

Tonight I spend working on puppets ( Yahoo, Yippy, drunken monkey dance of joy ) I have two of the seven the university needs and this week I have managed to make two others for work folk. I want to have those little critters finished by early next week. Booyah!! I am a puppet making maniac.

My Christmas shopping and crafting is coming along, I managed to purchase three things tonight for a really reasonable price. This makes me smile. I want to have the Christmas gifts finished by next week as well. The rest of my week is going to go like this: tomorrow I am going to a local production of Annie and out for supper of course. Friday is No Cook Friday as always. Its special because we are going for appies and desserts. Yum. Sunday is Christmas Card making with my scrappy card making group. Saturday I may be shopping with E but we have not firmed up those plans yet. Busy busy busy.:-)

Oh yeah the Energy audit. Have I mentioned this house is 111 years old? I think you can imagine how this little exercise went. When he did that thing where they suck all the air out of the house, the back door popped open. That's really not good. Upside is he really didn't tell me anything I did not already know. Basically I need to insulate up and down and all around, replace windows, replace  furnace, fix the doors, I need exhaust fans for the kitchen and bathrooms and get that low flow toilet for the upstairs. Well I will just trot out to the big ole money tree in the back yard and get right on that. :-) Erk!!!


Toodles!!

Linda

Monday Moment with Minou

Don't even think about bugging me, I am napping

Craftastic Palooza Week is FINI!!!

My craftastic week is over, its back to work on Monday. Where did the time go? I got a fair bit done, and I am happy with what was accomplished but I would love to have another week. Oh heck, I'm not going to go into the whole "-I'd rather stay home than work" thing. That is a tired old horse just begging not to be beat again.

Where was I? Oh yes, the week. I did mending for friends, made some dishcloths, finished a queen sized quilt, started some Christmas runners, and made felt animals. See:

Knitting, crochet, quilting and sewing have been indulged in this week, non stop. One day I managed to quilt for 11 hours with only lunch and supper breaks. I loved every minute and stitch of it. I still have one large dish cloth to finish tonight but its nearly finished. The two sweaters on the end of the couch were just mending projects for clarification. I managed to get out of my house on occasion and do some shopping. I did wandered among the real people once in awhile.

This is a better picture of the quilt. Its for our yearly raffle at the office. Half the proceeds raised will go to our local Christmas charity. I did not get much time to get it made so its a plain old fashioned nine patch but at least its done and ready to be raffled off.

I also managed to get the old sewing table out of the dining room. Its dismantled and tucked away upstairs for now. I just cannot part with it and I am not sure what I am going to do with it so for now it is stored away. I am just glad I figured out a place to keep it. The middle of the dining room was not working for me for some reason.

So I have supper to make, the last large dishcloth to finish and then I need to wrap my head around hearing that dang alarm go off in the morning BEFORE the dog starts barking next door. Sigh. I also need to find my plug in for the car and plug it in as apparently winter kicked in while I was on vacation. I know that because I have had to shovel snow already.

This coming week is going to be great fun, Vampire movie on Tuesday night preceded by sushi, then on Thursday a local production of Annie, hopefully with supper out somewhere nice as well. That should take the sting out of having to be back at work.


I hope your weekend went well.

Toodles, Linda

knit, purl, quilt, lather, rince, repeat.

Craftastic Palooza week is chugging along swimmingly. I am getting lots done and sadly I keep thinking of more things I would like to do. So far I am keeping myself under control. There are only so many hours in the day and my poor hands can only take so much. Its half way through my week and my projects are all sort of half done. I am feeling good.

My days are blissful. I wake up when the neighbours dog starts to bark, I curse and swear, then doze off to sleep again. I usually get up around 9:00 or 9:30, have breakfast and a nice hot cup of tea or coffee, then I head out and go somewhere. Yesterday it was a trip to the second hand stores, today I went to the local over sized grocery store and stocked the pantry a little. Tomorrow I am going in search of Coconut oil to make soap with. After I have been out in the real world for a time, I head back home and spend the rest of the day crafting. Today I need to do a little housekeeping, the place is starting to look like a dump.

I still have not dealt with the entertainment centre or the old sewing table. Its amazing how much one person can ignore when you want to. One of my knitting friends stopped over last night for some help with her projects and I had to apologize for the mess my house was in. My mother would have been appalled. So today I need to do a quick tidy up so it is at least bearable. I don't even want to talk about the litter box. My poor cat is very tolerant. When I am in crafting mode I can be very single minded. I do have to haul stuff down to the basement today and smash my head on the joists at least twice. Its something I seem to feel I have to do every FREAKIN' time I am in the basement. I'm only 5' 8" but my house is over a hundred years old, ( 111 to be exact)  the basement is/was not created with ceiling height in mind. A fact I cannot remember for some reason. Yeesh.

Well my coffee is finished. I have been to the store already so the rest of my day is open to creativity. I hope everyone is having a good day. If you aren't I hope it gets better for you.

Toodles, Linda

Monday Moment with Minou

Will you rub my tummy and sing "Soft Kitty"?

Palooza Week has Begun

Well I have been on days off for 48 hours and I think things are clicking along rather well. I have a plan,  I have lists, I have motivation and I really need to get this stuff done. Christmas time is a comin'


What will be happening during Craftastic Palooza week you ask? Glad you asked :-)  Well there will be knitting and crocheting: 

some of this was done before and some was done one my first day off.

The will be quilting projects large and small:

Again one project was done before and the others were accomplished to day. I have 7 things ready to be quilted

There are lots more things on the list, but I am switching off, one day knitting and crocheting then one day sewing. I have to do this to keep my hands from getting over stressed and then turning on me, rendering me useless and frustrated and my least favourite thing, in PAIN. So slow and steady, with breaks in between and all should be well. I also plan to do some house work and some shopping during the days to give myself a break as well. I will need some fresh air, once and awhile.

Netflix kept me company while I sewed the day away. I am not sure I am impressed with them, the movie selection seems to be a little limited. Its like renting movies from the corner store. They are cheap but choice is limited. Time will tell if I add this item to my budget. The thing I do like is being able to watch movies in my sewing room. Maybe I should actually hook up the dvd player in here and then I could watch movies on the tv  and not just vhs tapes? Yes I am still kicking it old school. I still have a VHS tape player, two of them infact. Deal with it, I don't take change really well when it comes to electronics. The 8-track trauma of the early 80's did me in!! I have never quite recovered, I still get chills.

Right now I think I am going to go make my self a cup of hot cider, curl up on the couch and relax a bit before I head to bed. I hope your weekend is going well.

Toodles, Linda

Craftastic Palooza Week

In two more sleeps (yes I like counting things in sleeps, it makes me happy...shut up) I am on days off. I will have 10 days in which to dedicate myself to a crafting frenzy of productivity. I have many many things to make for Christmas and I felt I needed to take a break from the office to immerse myself in a gluttony of crafting fun. I will post what pictures I can but since most of the things are for gifts, I will have to keep a lot to myself. I am calling it Craftastic Palooza Week. Things are always much more fun when you add Palooza to the name. I'm just sayin'.

I have a list of things that I need to make, I have managed to complete a couple of them already and if I was not sitting here at the computer I would be knitting on yet another gift. I will be knitting on another gift, the evening is not over.

Now that I have found my knitting bag again, I can actually get at it. There has been a panic at the homestead for the last couple of days. My knitting bag went missing. I looked up, down and all around and I could not find it. Not in any of the usual places that I put it. Tonight after a thorough rip the house apart, no stone unturned, manhunt, it was found. Sitting innocently on top of the old sewing table, in a Halloween treat box, buried under some bags from the weekend. After the appropriate amount of swearing, I happy placed it where it can be easily found tomorrow. I have lost two days knitting time. This is not good, I have deadlines people.

Speaking of which I need to get at it, I need to make supper first but then I need to get at the needles.

All is well with your world?

Toodles, Linda

Its here!!

Got my new entertainment center delivered tonight. Its so good to know people with  a truck that will do furniture pick up for cheap, cheap cheap. They lift and carry and I sit at home and wait for the delivery. So that happened tonight and now my newest bit of furniture has arrived. I really shouldn't do this but I will give you a peak at what my living room and dining room have become.

As you can see the sewing table is in the dining room still and the new center is lodged in front of the floor loom. The floor loom lives in the living room because it has no where else that it can live. Poor thing.

Now I have to get up the nerve to unplug all the tv paraphernalia  move the old unit and slide all the new stuff into place. Eek. I have visions of undoing it all and then not being able to get it put back together again. I shall be brave, I shall be fearless, I shall triumph. Because I want to get the next part figured out and get Handy Guy building it. I have decided this is my Christmas present to me. I will move the new stove to my birthday present to me. :-)

I need to get crafting, cannot be blogging all night but I am so excited about my purchase I just had to share.

Toodles,

Linda

Sunday Snowy Sunday

Its snowed today, first of the year. They had predicted it for yesterday but it held off until today. I am grateful because it would have put a damper on my little road trip. Today I was snugged up inside, making soup, doing laundry and mending stuff when the white fluffy stuff began to drift down. I didn't even say "Oh Crap". Not even the snow could put a damper on my enjoyment of this day, this wonderful time change day. I feel like my world has righted itself just a little, in a very tiny teeny little way. I can't explain it, its like a delightful little present.

I bought the entertainment center and it's getting delivered tomorrow night. I zipped across town this morning, gave it the once over and realized it was the same one I had looked at in Walmart but decided I could not afford at the time. Once it is here and in place I can figure out what the matching piece will look like. Once I have the look and the measurements down, I can get my handy guy here in town to built me what I need. I will post pictures when it all comes together. I have been wanting to change this up for awhile now. Finding the corner entertainment center for so cheap has just made it happen all that much sooner.

I have of course not done a pea pickin' thing to make room for the new unit. I haven't even moved a dust bunny :-)  If I was truly organized I would have cleared out the old stuff to make room for the new stuff. I am going to have an old entertainment center to get rid of. Perhaps it can live on top of the old sewing table that I still have not dealt with. I sense that I am rushing head long into that hoarders episode I keep seeing in my future, so I need to deal with the excess furniture that is about to build up in my dining room, sooner rather than later.

My Christmas " to do" list is starting to shrink. I have at last completed all the dishcloths I need for my gift giving this Christmas. I figured out that I have knit over 70 dishcloths over the course of this year. (They are my carry about with me knitting). Even having made more that 70 of them, I still had to make six for myself so I would have enough to give away. They are a great little sale item.

Off to work again tomorrow. Where does the time go??

Toodles,

Linda

Perfectly Perfectly Perfect

Today I had a perfect "Linda" sort of day. The kind of day I so enjoy it makes me SQUEEEEE!!!. It started out a little crabby because my idiot neighbours two houses down, let their poor dog out again at 8:30 am on Saturday morning, in the cold and left him to bark, howl and moan for at least an hour. It could have been longer than than but I left for the grocery store while Barky Barkington was deep into his repertoire. By the time I got back with my McDonld's breakfast, and the groceries, he was back in his house and blissfully silent.

The Banker came and picked me up around 11:30 and we headed out of town on a shopping road trip. I do like spending a shopping day with her. We shop so well together, we like mostly the same sort of stuff but are different enough to keep it interesting. She is easy to chat too, has a wonderful sense of humour and we just have the best time. Ee headed out of the city to a couple of the small towns around to find their little gift/specialty stores. Christmas open houses abound and I FOUND THE PERFECT PURSE!! for $19.00!!!!! Its red, its the right size, I love it, its a shoulder bag, it has just the right amount of little pockets inside, I love it, its soft to the touch and oh yeah did I mention I love it????????? I would take a picture but I am tired and I don't want to go hunt up my camera. No more wrestling with that bag of jello I have been carrying around with me.

I got some Christmas gifts (yes I am nearly finished the purchasing part of Christmas, I still have the crafty part to complete) and I got some more ideas for the guys Christmas gifts. I found a deck of Angel Tarot Cards. I have been wanting a set for awhile. (Those are for me  in case you had not figured that out). We had lunch at a local cafe that has a gift shop attached to it. They have just set up their Christmas display and its so pretty. I love going there for either shopping or eating. If I had a bigger house and a bigger bank account I would run amok in this place. I was very restrained this time round, just the tarot cards for me, thank you.

 We found lots of other special places to snoop through and snoop we did. Christmas do-dads galore.  We ended up at her place for coffee, chatted for an hour or more, then decided we needed supper before we could call it a night. Off to a local Boston Pizza for super yummy jambalaya fettuccine.  Not a big fan of the spicy, me, but this was delish. We called it a day and I got home around about 9:00. Tired, happy and still with money in my pocket.

Tomorrow the time changes, we get an entire extra hour of Sunday to enjoy. This is the bestest time change of the year. In the morning I am going to check out an entertainment center I found for sale on the local web page that is super cheap and may be just what I am looking for. The afternoon is booked as I am off to the local fabric store with E.

Hopefully sometime this weekend I may find time to put the last of the groceries away, do some laundry and make some soup for lunches next week, hem pants for a friend and put a zipper in a jacket for another friend and empty the dishwasher. Busy Busy Busy Baby!!!

Toodles,

Linda


 

I Really Have Nothing to Say

Its true, I wish I had some fabulously blog worthy tidbit to share but really I have nothing to say. I finally put the ties on the bumper pads tonight, emailed the Mommy-to-be to let her know that its ready to go live at her house now, I read some blogs, made supper, has a little snooze, watched Dancing With the Stars, and now I am trying to blog. All completely snore worthy I agree.

Tomorrow night is book club, then I have C coming over on Thursday night for some knitting help, and Friday is No Cook. Saturday is a road trip with the Banker. We are going forth to neighbouring towns to check out whatever specialty stores they may have. Shopping road trips with her are always a lot of fun so I am looking foreward to Saturday. Still nothing blog worthy at the moment. Regular, everyday, boring even to some and that is ok. Its my life and I am content.

I have made my count of the things I need to make before Christmas. Compiled a list of my lists if you will. I am thinking I am going to need that week off I am taking this month. I have some serious crafting to do. I had hoped to make a trip to Saskatchewan and visit with a friend who will be there from Ontario visiting her Mom but its not in the budget. I am sad about that because her daughter and granddaughter will be with her. Ah well, such is my life.

My Halloween decorations are currently decorating the front entry. The former sewing table is still stuffed in the dining room because I have not figured out where to store it. I am blissfully ignoring them both, along with the mess in the kitchen that would really only take minutes to set to rights. And yet here I am doodling on the 'puter trying to be pithy and witty, failing at it but trying none the less.

So I am going to look at some magazines, then go to bed. How does that grab you for EXCITING??? No.........sigh........I will try again another day.

Toodles

Linda