Nothing to Blog About

I have wanted to be more consistent with my blogging, not let things go for a week and then throw on a post. The trouble is in my life sometimes its hard to blog every day. Not much new going on here at the old homestead that is blog worthy. Even though I am sure very few people actually read this little blog of mine, its still hard to come up with stuff to talk about. I can bored myself actually, especially these days when I am feeling a little less than. I think I need a holiday. What I really need is to pull up my socks and focus on my goals.

Well let's see what can I babble on about tonight. I had a busy day at work and made a trip to Staples with Ladybug's Mommy. We both have a thing for stationary. I could spend lots of money in there, I love all tha stuff. I confined myself to some clips, notebooks and filing folders that are plastic and will last longer than their paper counterparts. Then after work I have managed to keep on track with the cleaning Quest. This week we are maintaining and so far the living and dinning rooms are still company presentable. Go me!! Made supper, made stuff for lunch tomorrow, and then crocheted while watching America's Got Talent.

I have finished two baby blankets this week but I have not taken pictures yet. I will do that soon and post them. Now I am going to move onto all things Quilty. I have three baby quilts and a table runner that need to be done. Not to mention I need to devote an hour tomorrow night to more tidying of the craft room. Maybe I will get some serious work done this weekend.

So you see it is hardly news worthy. Riveting stuff this, my day to day existence. Just the bread and butter details of an everyday life. A quiet simple life. Its ok to be quiet and simple sometimes, I just have to keep telling myself this.

Toodles,
Linda

Monday Moment with Minou

OMG are we doing this again?? Couldn't you wait until a girl is awake before taking her picture??

Saturday Reruns-----I like it

I am happy to announce that my plans to clean house on Saturday was changed again and I spent another great Saturday with the Banker. She does not have to work on Saturdays anymore so she was free to be out and about. It started out with us wanting to finish off the second season of Game of Thrones. She has it taped on her tv, so at No Cook she asked if I had plans and if not would we like to finish off the season. I had plans, cleaning, organizing, purging plans that I was 100% certain would wait for me if I decided to skip out  on them. Since they were not chiseled in stone I had no problem putting them on hold. Housework will always be there, fun days spend with wonderful friends are not always available.

So skip out I did. We got started early, we checked out a new fresh air market that has just recently opened downtown. They have a small mix  of vendors offering fresh veg, baking, and crafts. Its a nice little place and I am hoping that it takes off. I hope that they attract more vendors. Its a nice spot and we managed to buy a few things. I got some homemade soap and some new potatoes as well as some dip mix.

Then we went garage saling again. I just have to share some of the best buys of the day. I got some other things but they were not blog worthy, a small cooler, a little tea tin, and a stool for the kitchen. Nothing costing over $3.00. Here are the blog worthy things:

I got this fabulous metal wall hanging for $1.00 .  It will be hanging in the back yard once I get the little patio area done.

The bird house and planter wheel barrow were each a $1.00 The little bird house it called the Garden Inn, it's printed over the little heart shaped door.

This rustic little lantern and the shepherd hook hanger were 50 cents. Its a little rusty but I like the look of it. I put it in the front yard by my Mom's old wash tub full of petunias.

Gwillam the Gnome has a night light now as he smokes his pipe and watches the world go by from his shady spot under the petunias.

Ok I did not buy this plant stand at a garage sale this weekend, it was purchased awhile ago but I love how it looks with the impatients in my fancy pots  and my mosaic bird house that welcome you as you come to the door. ( I really need to do something with the floor of the veranda not to mention I need to power wash the whole veranda area)

The Quest was resumed today. I did eventually get the kitchen cleaned up, laundry done and I got a couple of puppets made today. I finally ran the dish washer. Running out of cutlery is a good indicator that you need to get those dishes done. So the schedule survived. The craft room is not 100% but its much better than it was. Now I just need to  maintain it and do some major purging if I wish to. I also stripped the bed, washed the sheets and hung them out to dry. It was so hot and windy today it was perfect for drying laundry. I will sleep in sweet smelling sheets tonight. Yahoo. I love that.

Oh yeah I was talking about my Saturday. We finished the garage sales, watched 6 HOURS of Game of Thrones, ate pizza, chatted and then on the way to my house for her to drop me off, we stopped and got a few groceries. Both the cat and I needed breakfast fixin's for this morning, I did not want to go out today. I wanted to have a quiet, stay at home day. I got what I wanted. I still have to make collars and name tags for the puppy puppets but once that is done I will have done all I wanted to this weekend and more. 

I hope your weekend was as good as mine!!

Toodles,

Linda

PS I forgot to show you the puppy puppets:  here are Nixon and Odis, two golden puppies with their little tongues out ready to give puppy kisses

Turtle Interuptus

Ok the craft room is going to take longer than planed. I should have pushed through last night. I had high hopes for tonight but I got interrupted ................by a turtle. A turtle puppet that is. One of my co-workers was looking for a gift for child and she thought a turtle puppet would be good, and a piggy too. The pig I had on hand, the turtle not so much so this little guy hi-jacked my evening. I am not about to turn down cold hard cash. So out came the crochet hook and the craft room got the shaft. Here is the finished product.

He is cute isn't he? Of all the puppets I have made this little critter is the most popular. I think its because not only is he cute but his shell is removable. Naked turtle is a hit with young and old alike. Whatever his charm is he holds the lead spot amongst the puppets.

BUT don't give up hope, don't think I have totally abandoned the QUEST. The craft room was not completely ignored. Remember how it looked last night?

Well this is this same spot tonight

So I have made some progress but as you can see there is more to go. I also got the far corner of the counter cleared off but I did not take pictures. I puttered away at it while I chatted on face book with Miss Miles. We have not talked in awhile so it was great to catch up with her. While we chatted I sorted, recycled and destroyed my way through a mound of paper work. I can actually move the mouse for the computer now without getting paper cuts or being seriously in danger of being crushed by a paper avalanche.

Tomorrow night is NO COOK so I will be out and about and not giving the cleaning a passing thought. I will be back at it on the weekend though. I plan to finish the main floor this weekend. Then next week I can start going deeper into the quagmire that is my house. Hopefully there will be crafting on the weekend to balance out the cleaning frenzy.

Wish me luck!!

Toodles,

Linda

The Quest is in a Quagmire

So I am on day two of my cleaning the house phase of my plan. The craft room was the target tonight and I am thinking that maybe doing it in one night is more than I care to do. Its not more than I could do but its more than I care to do. I worked for more than an hour tonight and this is what I got done

There is still a lot of room for further purging and organizing but at least you can see the counter tops. There was crap important stuff piled up high enough that you could not see the first row of baskets. So I sorted, put away, recycled and tidied to get it to this point. You will notice that I am only sharing a picture of half of the room. That's cause the other half looks like this:

Yikes!! I think I will tackle the other half tomorrow night. For now I am going to pat myself on the back that I have half of it done and the other half will be done tomorrow.  I have rationalized it to this point, if I get the house semi cleaned up now, then on my next round of cleaning I can purge deeper, organize deeper and get things even more under control. Makes sense to me

Lately I have been coming to think that I need to be realistic. There are things in this house I do not use or need or even want. It is time for them to go and I mean to hunt them out and get rid of them. Are you sick of me going on and on about this yet??

On to other matters I have this  chest of drawers in the entry way that I want to paint.

I now have to go googling to see if you can get Annie Sloane Chalk Paint in Canada. I have been drooling over the re-do's at  http://mypassionfordecor.blogspot.ca/ and she uses this paint for her stuff. I love The look she gets and I think my little chest in the hall would look lovely done in the old white with a stained wood top. I also really like the wax finish that she uses. I have used wax on furniture before and I love the feel that it gives the piece. This little baby needs to be freshened up and I am curious about this paint that has so many people talking. 


For now I need to go and make something to eat then make some puppets. Yes I am back doing them at the moment. Just two for now but who knows what will happen.

The Never Ending Quest

Some days it seems that all I do is go on an on and on about being healthier, being organized, being more frugal, being better at everything. I go along in fits and starts and I think (I hope) that I am making progress. I have worked on the meal planning and as a result I am throwing out a lot less stuff so that is progress. Financially, time wise and reducing waste wise it has helped a lot. Tonight I started another plan.

Its not a new plan, its one I have used before with great success but somehow got misplaced and I am just now getting back to it. Its taking a room each night and cleaning it. So simple and yet so easy to forget or ignore.  It usually only takes an hour at most and then its done. When I do this, it keeps the house reasonably presentable and I do not have to spend my entire weekend thinking that I should be doing or actually doing housework. Because I was not totally feeling 100%  yesterday, I did nothing but tonight I did the living and dining rooms. So inspite of a lackadaisical start this week I am on track now. It did not take long and it looks nice. I like my house to look tidy, I do not like a jumbled mess so I am working to get to the tidy place again. My Craft room will be tomorrow night and I fear that it will take more than an hour. Much putting away and much purging/sorting is needed in this room. I will be very happy to see it accomplished even if it takes me two nights to get it done.


What makes me wonder is when it takes so little time each day to work on the house and keep it up, why do I not just do it. Why do I let the crafty bits pull me away when just a scant hour would take care of it and then I would have the rest of the evening to be as crafty as I please? My darling Mom's voice is singing in my head even as I type. "if you do a little each day, you never have to do a lot on one day". Irritating when they are right about stuff isn't it??? She was also a big supporter of "put it back in its proper place when you are finished with it". Hmmm yeah, another piece of her wisdom that I struggle with. A complete time saver and frustration stopper when I cannot find something because I have failed to replace it where it should go. I do take ages to learn some of the simplest lessons some days. I am working on it. A complete work in progress that's me!!


Ah well, at least I keep trying!! 


Toodles


Linda

Best Laid Plans

So yesterday was the day I was going to get stuck in and work on the house. Tackle that "to do" list and make a bit old dent in it. Well that was the plan anyway. So on Friday night at No Cook, the Banker says "want to go to the Farmer's Market tomorrow". I did not even hesitate, I said "sure".  A simple sentence that lead to a wonderful day.

She asked if I had plans for the day and I said nothing that can't wait, so off we went at 8:45 am to the Farmer's Market for lovely, fresh, local grown veg and yummy baked goods. I have not been to the Farmer's Market in years. I just got out of the habit of going. Long story and I had my reasons. It was a little sad to be there but it was ok. We finished there, made a quick run to the Hostess' place to pick up some things, before we hit some garage sales.

Not a good day for garage sales in this fair city but I did get two nice sturdy chairs for $1.00 each for my sewing room. They are currently red but I will recover them into a nice blue to match the room. I also bought a cork screw for .25 cents. I was amazed the Banker bought much more than I did. I must be getting better at this stuff. I will be sharing pictures of my chairs when I do the recovering so you can see the before and after.

Next thing we knew it was lunch time, so we stopped at A&W for a snack. Next on the list was her house to watch season two of  the Game of Thrones. We managed three episodes before it was time to go to the theater and meet S to see Brave. What a good animated movie. The animation now is fantastically real, almost like a photo. Supper for we three at the Banker's place, chat, chat, talk, talk and its 9:30. S takes her leave, we watch another hour of Game of Thrones and then I head home. I was back in the house at 10:40. A long lovely day with good friends. I love days like that.

SO now I have had my Sunday sleep in, my big Sunday breakfast and now I need to do some things. Laundry is a must, dishes, vacuum the living room. I bought a couple of plants yesterday so I need to get those into the soil. I have some crocheting and knitting to work on today as I am THIS close to having a couple of projects finished. I have managed to unload the dishwasher this morning and started to fill it again.

What I would really like to do is make a pot of coffee and go park myself on the veranda with a book but I am not doing that today. A little household maintenance is needed and today is the day to do it. Its too hot for me to be outside anyway. In theory it would be lovely to be on the veranda but it reality I would be a sweaty puddle!! Yuk. I will stay inside, in the air conditioned cool and tend to my home.

Happy Sunday!!

Toodles,
Lina

Makin' a list

What a surprise I am making a list. I am making two of them actually. The first one is the usual "to do" list for the weekend. I always make one on Thursday. Its usually way to long and there is no way I could get all the stuff done but it gives me a goal. Something to shoot for. I like to cross things off lists so I most often give it a good try.

The second list is jobs that have lingered in the back ground, desperate to be done but happily ignored by me. I need to get off the proverbial pot and get my act together. So I started a list of these jobs and I hope to start to tackle each of them and thus be able to cross them off the list. Things like finally finishing the wall paper job in the laundry room, (it has been waiting for 6 years to be finished ACK!!!) Painting the trim in the main floor bath, etc etc.  Finish the mosaic stars and hang them on the shed, heck paint the shed, move the carpet, clean out my closet and on and on and on. As always I am in constant pursuit of becoming organized, tidy and on top of things. This has been a life long pursuit and lately it feels like an vertical climb up a mountain. 


Lately I have been far to good at making a list, formulating a plan and then ignoring it completely when I get home. What is up with that?? I like a tidy house, I like things in there place. I can live with clutter as long as its organized but for the longest time I have just let things got to hell in a hand basket. Well enough is enough. I am going to try to bring myself to heel. Take my self to task and get back to being better at keeping this house as it should be. 

I have no plans to go anywhere this weekend so I should be able to tackle the list with both feet first, crank up the music, pedal to the metal enthusiasm.  Anyone want to lay bets on how much I actually do???

Mama, I'll believe it when I see it.

Toodles,

Linda

Forever in Blue Jeans

I am back, back from 5 days with Best Friend, back from the Neil Diamond concert and trying to convince myself its back to the normal routine again. I am not easily convinced, I want more days off. I always have such a good time with her but we never have enough time to do all that we want. Oh well, I will just have to go back there soon.

First things first, the Neil Diamond concert. Well to quote my face book status "I have sung as much at other concerts but I have never danced so much with my arms over my head SOBER in my entire life!! At age 71 Mr Diamond ROCKED IT OUT!!. No back up band, no intermission just two hours of a solid powerhouse performance." The man still has his pipes although at the end of the show you could hear a little rasp in his voice. So much energy, so much mutual appreciation between the man and his fans. We found out right away that he likes his audience to stand and sing with him. This is rewarded with an enthusiastic "one more time" from the man himself and we were treated to another round of  Forever in Blue Jeans from the second bridge to the end. We got FOUR repeats of the last chorus and verse of Sweet Caroline. One of the Sweet Caroline repeats he asked us to sing to him and he took a break. 13000 people obliged him and sang it back to him while he smiled at us, hand over his heart. His back up band is incredible. He has the obligatory trio of sparkly girl singers who belt it out with the best of them. Its such fun to go to a concert where the performer appreciates the audience and the audience appreciates the performer. I was so glad when he treated us to the rock and roll version of "When I Saw Her Face". I do not like it as a ballad, not even a little bit.  He still can give a great performance, still gives me the tingles when he sings the line "play me". It was well worth the trip.

Best Friend and I had a lovely time doing stuff besides swooning over Neil. I arrived on Wednesday in the mid afternoon. Before I got to her house I did manage a visit with my eldest brother, the Historian and his Mrs. which was an unexpected treat. They did not think they would be home when I was zipping through as they had a prior engagement but I arrived before they left so we had some time to catch up. Thursday Best Friend and I took a load of stuff out to the family camp that she attends each year with her girls. We hauled, food, sleeping bags, dishes and all the sorts of things on needs for a week in a cabin that has nothing. Her youngest daughter came with us and we left her out there. Driving to the lake took the entire day. Its a nice place to be, I am a little jealous that she has a week at the lake and I am back to work.

Friday we took to the City, had our tarot cards read, did a tiny bit of shopping, went for supper then hit the concert. Saturday was a lazy day, sleeping in, lunch at a tea room in a neighbouring village which is also an art gallery and play house. After that, it was back to her house for a lazy afternoon, pizza supper and watching Calamity Jane on TMC. All too soon it was Sunday, a flurry of loading cars, off to the city for breakfast at Grainfield's then I for home and she for the weeks camping with her girls. Now I am here.

It is good to be home again but I could have used some more days away. Minou is pleased to see me. Well as pleased as she allows herself to be. I have been granted the rare thrill of providing three belly rubs to Madam since I came home. A sure sign she missed me. Teddy Bear took great care of her while I was away. My flowers are looking lovely, the day lilies in the back have bloomed for the first time ever since I moved to this house. Just when I had thought I would dig them out and replace them with something else they go all bloomy and pretty on me. Hmmph!!

All in all, it was a lovey 5 days.

Toodles,

Linda

Next Project Please

Two quilts made, four more waiting in the wings to be made but now I am taking a break and doing a little knitting. I am headed off to spend a few days with Best Friend so I need a carry along project. Thankfully there a lots of babies happening in and around my work family so I am currently making baby blankets.

This is the one I started on the weekend. This wave pattern is so fun and so easy to do. I love that, it looks like it may be complicated but really it is super easy.

This is one I finished last week but forgot to show off. Its crocheted and worked up lots faster than its knitted cousin above but I think its perfect, bright and cheery, just right  for a new bundle of joy to snuggle up in.

Then when I was taking pictures of these ones I realized I missed showing off this pretty little crocheted shell number in a delicate peach colour. The pattern is from one of my Grandmother's books. The yarn is lovely and soft, it has linen in it and it feels fabulous. Someone gave it to me and I have two balls left so I have to find something to make with them. 

I have also been continuously knitting dish cloths. I give away a lot of them as gifts and I sell a lot of them every year. Last year I think I knit about a hundred and after Christmas I had none left. So I am back at them as well. I didn't take a picture of them but you know I will one of these days.

So I have one last day of work tomorrow and then I am off for some quality time with Best Friend. I will not have computer access as I do not own a lap top yet, so I will not be blogging for a few days. I will be back soon and I will tell you all about the Neil Diamond concert and my time off.

Toodles
Linda

Sunday Stuff

I had occurred to me that I did not share a picture of the Square Dance king sized quilt that I finished. So I hauled it outside an hung it on the clothes line to take a picture. I don't have the room to get a good picture on a bed, not to mention I do not have a king sized anything in this house.

Its a proper scrap quilt this. I made it is sections because I did not have the room to do it all at once. I just need to get it delivered now. 

So its another hot day today. The sun is out in full force and I am thinking that a day inside is called for. I was going to go out and hit a garage sale but I have talked myself out of that.The Lottery gods did not smile on me this weekend so work is on the table for Monday. Honestly those lottery gods have a lot to answer for. Laundry and knitting will fill in the day unless something more interesting shows up. 

So I need to go start the laundry, do the dishes and then maybe I will settle down to an afternoon with the needles. 

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

Toodles,

Linda  

Happy Saturday Part 2

Currently the Jazzy Jigsaw quilt for Best Friend is drying on the clothes line sucking up all the wonderful dried outside laundry smell. Its completely quilted, bound and freshly laundered. I could not be happier, I am going to get to deliver it to her and that is awesome because I was not sure it would get done. Its for snuggling under on the couch and as such is not a huge quilt but ample to cover oneself from nose to toes while watching classic movies.

Partly made from her Dad's dress shirts and some extra material thrown in from me it is a medley of her favorite colours in the world, blue, green and yellow. She choose the pattern and so here is a peak:

I think she is gonna like it. I rather do. I now am thinking I am going to reduce the size of this pattern and make a baby quilt for my Godson's first born. I have not sent him anything yet and the baby arrived in April I believe. I can see a crib quilt in bright primary colours. I guess I will drag the scrap tubs out again and start rummaging.

So its been a grand day for me. I quilted and go this project done. I patch painted the stairs finally and I managed to make some homemade laundry stain remover. I have yet to try it so I don't know if it works. I will let you know. I hope it does because it would be a cheap alternative to buying the stuff constantly. I did the dishes and have managed to keep the kitchen table clear of crap for the entire week. Go ME!!

I have to admit I missed all the shows I had taped on the old DVR today, I did not get my Coronation Street fix whist I stitched my heart out. Oh well, I have a new DVR and its not like I have not keep up with Corrie. I am miffed I lost the Hatfield and McCoy's mini series that I planned to watch all at once but now all I can do is hope it shows up on Netflix or the history channel re-runs it. Thankfully the HGTV stuff I can watch on the computer. Sliver lining in the cloud.

This evening I am going to start knitting a baby blanket for a co-worker. I have to find the pattern I printed off first but that should not be too hard. I hope. Tomorrow I have some things I need to do, laundry, check lotto tickets, and show my self at a friend's garage sale. Right now I think I may nip out to the LYS and see what I can find.

Toodles
Linda

Happy Saturday

So far this is shaping up to be a perfect day. I had a lovely sleep, got up and went for breakfast. Back home, coffee on the veranda and now I have the entire day ahead of me and no real "has to be done" stuff. Sigh, I love it. I can spend the day puttering, quilting and tv watching. I have some yard work to do but it can wait until this evening. Today is supposed to be hot so I am staying in where it is cool.

My sewing room is a complete mess but its mostly always a mess so I am not concerned. It will get tidy one of these days. So I really have nothing to say for myself. Just I had not been on here for awhile. May be back later.

Tooles,

Linda

Long Weekend Musings

I had the best wake up this morning. I rolled over and looked at the clock, it said 6:17 am. I instantly panicked, WHY had the alarm not gone off, WHY did I not hear it? Once I calmed down my fuzzy sleep filled brain remembered that I did not have to go to work today, the alarm did not go off because I had not set it last night. With a song in my heart I flipped over and promptly slid back into the land of Nod until 10:00 am. Bliss. I  like mornings like that.

So now I am up, fed and watered, still stiff and sore but thankfully, I am armed with Ibuprofen so I will get through the day. A day which will involve a lot of quilting, hopefully. It has been a fine weekend, things have been accomplished and its been nice to have the time off. The boxes of books have gone to the Rotary Club, the towels to the Humane Society. Laundry is done and the kitchen has stayed decent for the last two days. A miracle in itself.

I will be honest though, it has been one of those weekends where I miss the fact that I have no family of my own. I am not talking brothers and cousins and the like, I have those. I mean my own. Once in a while I really regret that fact and this weekend was one of them. This feeling will pass, the world will turn and time will float by and I will get over it. Its just occasionally I indulge and have a pity party, table for one and this weekend was it. July long is for camping, beaches, barbecues, fireworks, and family. Sigh. Life is what it is, and I will pull my socks up and get on with it. 

Well I need to get the backing for the quilt sewn up and ready for quilting. I need to plant that last dogwood bush and I need to stop feeling sorry for myself. Busy, busy, busy.

Toodles,
Linda

Sunday Stuff

Not a great start to the day, woke up this morning so stiff and sore I would rather do almost anything else but move around. There is no reason for it, I really did nothing yesterday to warrant all this pain but I sure am   creaky today. Oh well, lets hope this passes as I have things I want to do today.

I finally got the kitchen cleaned yesterday. That room, honestly, it never stays tidy. I clean and clean and clean it it looks like drunken monkeys have run through it seconds later. I blame the cat!. I also did some laundry, washed the sheets on all the beds. I also almost have the quilt top sewn up. I got groceries and had coffee with Teddy Bear. All in all a good day.

Today I wanted to move the rug in the living room about a foot to the east. That means moving furniture and from how I am feeling, I think that its not gonna happen, at least not today. I have other things I can do, I have two big boxes of books to drop into the Rotary Club donation box. (if I can carry them to the car) I have some stuff to go to the Humane Society. Once that's done, I can come home, wash down the stairs and do some patch painting. I have more laundry to do and a few dishes to wash. The quilt top can get finished and I have one final dog wood bush that needs planting. That should keep me out of trouble for a bit. I really should go get cat food and litter but that is not an urgent thing, it can wait.

Well I should get off my butt and get at the things I can do. I may be back later.

Toodles

Linda