This and That

I am a better blogger when I am on days off than I am when I am working. There is not enough time in the day to get all things done. Most nights I am so tired when I get home I just want to sleep and after I have a nap there is not much time to get everything else done. When I was off last week I blogged nearly every day and now it looks like its sliding back to being a weekend thing.

Speaking of weekend things, had a wonderful one last week. The Carpenter turned 60 and his loving family gave him a big birthday party. It was a great gathering of friends, family and other folk. The Historian and his wife Grandma L came as did cousins we have not seen for a while. Our one and only surviving Aunt was in attendance. New babies, old friends and all sorts gathered to wish my brother a Happy Birthday and a Happy Retirement. It was so nice to be together. It makes me very happy to spend time with my family and its been a long time since I have had both my brothers in the same room and got to spend time with them.

The Carpenter is a little shy and he does not like to be the center of attention but I think he had a good evening. He did not have to make a speech, he got to dance with his wife, visit with friends and family, it was all good. Miss Mouse made him a wonderful video that certainly brought a tear to my eye. Ghosts of days gone by smiling at us from a video screen. Breaks your heart a little to see all who have gone. Time passes, loved ones drift away, new people move into your life. Its how things are supposed to be.

The Tater Tot was one of the hits of the party. Dressed to impress he enchanted everyone that came into his line of fire.

I regret that his Great Grandmother is not here to see him. She would just adore him. He is a chubby, healthy little man, solid, alert, strong and such a good baby.  His Mommy keeps him squeaky clean and dressed like a proper little boy. Great Grandma would heartily approve of this. I know she sees him, but I wish I could see her with him. I can imagine it and it makes my heart smile.

I will puddle up in a second if I keep this up so quick change of subject. Tonight I did some mending for some of my co-workers. Patched knees, zippers, torn seams. Simple jobs but not everyone wants to do them. I should be doing some house work but I just can't work up any enthusiasm for it. I did a load of laundry and that is enough for me. I didn't even work on the quilt tonight. Its a little hard to do, its black thread on black material and its a tad hard to see for me. I can manage but tonight was not the time. Tomorrow I will spend the evening at it.

Toodles
Linda

The Magic of Ordinary Days

Just having a little coffee break, coffee, cranberry lemon cookies and I am happy. Soup is simmering on the stove and all is well with my world. Today started off with an incredibly kind and wonderful surprise. I opened the blinds, looked out and wondered where the chunks of snow had come from that were on the lawn. Looks like it should when the sidewalk has been shoveled. I flew out the back door and sure as death and taxes, the side was was done, down to the sidewalk all way out to the back alley and the dumpster bins were set free too!! My jaw hit the ground, that is a ton of work. But who could have done it??? I came in and then on a whim headed to the front door. There she was, The Banker, bundled up against the cold, shoveling her little heart out. I can almost cry I am so grateful. This is such a kindness to me and kick starts a chain reaction of events that I hoped to get done this week. Oh the bags of garbage, recycle and donation boxes that now can be removed from this house, with ease. No more penguin walk to the back. I am just speechless. I have such good, kind, giving, helpful friends. My circle is strong and wonderful and I would not trade one of them for anything. They are treasures.

Today I got the stairs touched up. the other painting project started and as I mentioned soup made. I have been knitting and watching television inbetween things. The backing for the next quilt is drying even as I work on this blog post. I have my shopping and errand list written up for tomorrow. While I have not accomplished all that was on my To Do list for this week, I am pleased with what I have gotten done so far.

I cannot believe its going to be Friday tomorrow, this week has flown by. I don't think I need to mention that I have enjoyed it. I love to putter around the house, I love my days off. I like to have my time at home, I like to spend time with my friends. I also like to be able to head out and do errands during the day instead of having to fit them in after work.

Kit Kat, the Banker and I had lunch yesterday, We pot lucked it at the Banker's house. We arrived at 12:30  never left until 4:00. We sat, ate, drank coffee, chatted, giggled and traded stories as the afternoon slipped away. It was so lovely. The Banker and I had coffee again this morning, it was the least I could do for her since she shoveled for me. I like that, I like having people here. I could get used to this life style with the greatest of ease.

Tomorrow I have errands to run, shopping to do and a hair cut appointment that is long long long overdue. Then Saturday will see me off to The Carpenter's home to celebrate his big birthday. Sunday brings me  back here and then Monday its back to work.

Toodles,

Linda

Very Pinteresting

Today I went and got some paint.  I have lots of plans but as always, the things you plan to do take longer than you expect. The shopping took most of the morning and then the painting took the afternoon. I had three things I wanted to paint today and I managed to get two done. Its OK though, I had fun.

This is what my stair case looked like this morning:

Well I was wandering around Pinterest the other day and now my stairs look like this: Pinterest is a very inspiring place.

I need to do some finishing touch ups. My frog tap pulled up some paint and I did not always get the tap put down correctly and therefore have some white lines that should not be there. However I like it. Its a shot of whimsy and colour in my entry way. The rainbow theme worked out rather well because I have 14 stairs. I will do the patch work tomorrow but for now I am pleased. If I ever get tired of it it is only paint and can easily be changed back.

I finished this too, took its little picture and then washed it. Its almost ready for transport home this coming weekend. Its the hanging garden quilt I made for the Church auction. I am very pleased with the results.

I have 3/4 of the next top sewn and tonight should see it finished. I will post pictures of the second paint project when its finished.  I really could get used to this not working. I like puttering about my house.

Toodles,
Linda

I Love Days Like This

I live a day that starts out one way and then quickly turns into fun times out with friends. That is what happened to me today.

I had planned to go get paint today to start a few projects here in the house but then I decided against shopping on what is a holiday here. I lay in bed this morning mentally redoing my list of things to be accomplished to day. Loving the fact that I managed to sleep for 5 hours straight without waking. A seriously rare event in my life. Once the To Do list was revamped and organized, I hauled my butt out of bed and started the day. Break fast first and then chores.

While breaking my fast, Teddy Bear phoned, and thus my revised list went out the window and the day took another delightful turn. Teddy Bear wondered if The Banker and I could come over and do a "design consult" on her basement. Well, I love to give my opinion on anything, and especially on home decor.  I promptly said yes. Several phone calls later it was determined that The Banker had some free time to come along. It all worked out. I would pick her up at 2:00pm.

I did FINALLY get something done in my house that has been waiting to be done for longer than I am sure most people would have put up with. I'll bet you can guess if you have read this blog or my facebook posts. Yep, it actually happened. A miracle!!!!Yesterday my dining table looked like this:

Christmas trees, Christmas tablecloth, (what you cannot see is another tree bagged and ready to go to the basement) waiting to be put away before next Christmas rolls around. Today my dining table looks like this:

Be still my heart,  the trees are in the basement. The Christmas table cloth is washed and put away, the ceramic tree is back upstairs in my closet. This table cloth and topper are freshly washed and back on the table. Now I can move on and find another subject I can worry to death.

So after I was finished  doing the drunken monkey dance of joy, I headed out to Teddy Bear's. Our little design consult turned into coffee with another friend, which basically took the lion's share of the afternoon. I came home, called Kit Kat and arranged lunch with her, the Banker and myself for Wednesday.  Kit Kat is on vacation this week too so its perfect to get together and be ladies who lunch. The Hostess is in town, she left a message and now we are doing Sushi on Thursday.. I love it, an afternoon of chores turned into a fun time out and the promise of two more. This is what I love about days like these, endless possibilities!! You never know what is going to come up.

I think I will spend the rest of the evening sewing on the quilt top. I got half of it put together yesterday and I am very pleased with how it looks. The faster I can get the top made, the faster I can get on with the quilting. Fun times for Linda!!

Toodles,
Linda

Little Bread and Butter Details of Life

All the drama of yesterday and this is still how the dining room looks:

I am giving serious thought to incorporating Christmas trees into the every day decor of this house because clearly they are not getting anywhere near the basement any time soon.  The ceramic  one goes upstairs where I go each and every night but there it sits, mocking me.

I had good intentions, I started out great guns this day. After breakfast, I slid into my coat, pulled on my gloves and headed out to shovel a path to the car. Now picture if you will a ridge of packed snow about 8 inched high that I am determined to chop up and shovel down to a level surface that I can walk on and not look like a little old lady doing the penguin shuffle. Lets just say the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak.

I worked for an hour, chopping, shoveling, chopping, huffing, puffing, shoveling, sweating, dealing with foggy glasses because my face is hot and the air is cold. I got about half way done before I pooped out and decided that the rest could wait for another day. Too  pooped to entertain the idea of hauling stuff to the basement, that is for dang sure.

I am not sure how well you can see it but the top squiggly red line is where the surface of the snow is and the bottom squiggly line is where level ground is. Inbetween is cement. Blargh!! It looks taller in the picture than it really is but its high enough. Maybe tomorrow I will get if finished. The car is parked out front at the moment because I have errands to run tomorrow. Errands the will result in hauling things into the house, not interested in shuffling from car to house with stuff. Of course, the pure joy of life is the fact the just after I went into the house,it began to snow and has done for most of the afternoon. SIGH!!! At least I can shovel what I did today with relative ease tomorrow. Unless it snows all night and then i just may have to rethink this whole idea of using the back door until spring.

Enough about snow, on to other things. I will share with you a little discovery that I made today. These are my slippers, I love these slippers. They are easy to get on, I love the leopard print fuzz, I wear them all the time. My floors are really cold and these babies keep my toes toasty.

Lately when I wear them, I notice that my heels are cold. What is that about? I have ignored it but today I flipped them over and this is what I saw. No wonder my heels are cold

I have worn the soles right off these poor little things, not only the soles, the foam and they are down to the lining is the only thing between my foot and the floor.  Mama needs a new pair of slippers. Now this is hardly amazing but its stuff like this that amazes me. Its like it never occurs to me that something can wear out and then when I notice it, its usually on its last legs. Sharp as a tack, me!! New slippers are on the shopping list.

I may not be the quickest bunny in the forest and I may not have the stamina that I need to shovel snow but I am good at somethings. I am good at this: This makes me happy from my head to my cold toes.....

I can make quilts. I think I have mentioned this before but I LOVE to make quilts. This is 1/4 of the top for the quilt my work place is going to raffle off to benefit our social committee. This was what I did this afternoon after the snow beat me up. (In between loads of laundry that is). It is what I intend to go back to after I finish this blog post.

Tomorrow I am off for some paint, some new slippers maybe and several other odds and ends that I have on my shopping  list. Shopping completed, I am going to get painting. I am looking foreward to it. It will make a nice change and take me one step further toward finally finishing the painting in this house. My bedroom and the entry way/upper hall are the only untouched surfaces in this house. They still have the stamp of the former owner. They need to be changed.

So there it is, all the bread and butter details that made up my Sunday. Well there is a knitting project on the go but I will share it when its all finished. Its too cute for words and its for me!!

I hope you are having a wonderful Sunday, doing things that make you happy.

Toodles,
Linda
                 

Saturday Snippets or Getting Stuff Done

It was nice today to wake up without the alarm going of and to know that its the first of many days when I do not have to hear the alarm. I am not fond of the alarm clock, and by not fond I mean I don't like it at all. I am in the first flush of the start of days off. The week stretches before me full of endless possibilities and potential. I just hope I manage to do some of the things on my list.

Mommybug had called last night and we arranged for me to come for a visit to finally meet Babybug. She was in town with the little man, staying over at the other Grandma's house. I am an additional Grandma to this little Babybug and his sister Ladybug. I don't have real grandchildren so I have pretend ones, I want to be someone's Grandma. I hiked it over there and finally got to see this little man, Oh my, he is just the cutest little thing. So full of smiles even though we did not catch one on camera.

I got to give him a bottle, burp him and snuggle him. Then he filled his pants for me. Thankfully Grandma's can pass them off to Mommies at moments such as that. He is a very cuddly little guy.

We almost got a smile on camera. Almost but not quite. He smiles quite easily when you talk to him. He is at that stage where he has discovered that he has hands. He is also starting to find his voice, he coos and gurgles and just generally entertained us to no end while Mommybug and I caught up on each others news.
Babies are just the best!! It was nice to have a visit with Mommybug too. We don't get to chat enough.

Once I pried myself away from the baby, which is not easy for me, I ran a few errands before coming back home. I did what I always do on the weekend, I cleaned up the kitchen. It seems to be a never ending job in this house trying to keep the kitchen clean. I ran the dishwasher, made a batch of laundry soap, and finally cut out the patches for the next quilt.

I plan to spend tomorrow working on sewing these patches together. I have to have this quilt finished by the middle of March. I am looking forward to seeing what it looks like once its together. Its not very complicated, just plain and simple in fact. I think it will appeal to the younger ones in out office. Tomorrow I plan to spend working on the quilt and then on Monday I plan to start to do some painting in the house. I will be posting pictures as I go.

I still have Christmas trees in the dining room, They are going down to the basement tomorrow come hell or high water. I did get the stuff off the front of the house, last week I  think, but the stuff is still in the front entry way. Sigh.

Yes its all in the house but not quite to the basement yet. I apparently have issues with transporting things to the basement. Tomorrow is "B" day.  Basement day!! As God is my witness, etc, etc.  Since I do not have a chore boy to fetch and carry for me I need to do it myself, before Easter is here. ACK!! ( I can be a bit dramatic if the situation calls for it.)  I also need to go some shoveling around here. I did not get at it when it first snowed and now I have a ridge of packed snow to walk on. No fun. The ridge is very narrow and I tend to slip off it. One of these days I will land on my butt.

The shoveling starts a whole chain of events. If I get a decent path to the car, I can haul out all the donation stuff I have packed up and get that out of my house. I have recycling to take to the dump. We have an electronics recycle station out there and I have several things that need to go, old microwave, printer, vcr's etc. However I am not hauling all this stuff to the car without being able to know that I am not going to land on my amble butt.

Now it is time to go and make some supper. I can start to sew on the quilt top tonight. I have plans to go to bed early and watch a DVD. I know, I know, its all too wild and crazy for the average person but that's how we roll here. None stop excitement.

Toodles
Linda

Quilt Problem Solved!

I have already mentioned in a previous post how I was happily quilting along and then I found this problem.

A problem which quickly reduced me to saying all manner of  unladylike words in rapid succession

. 

This is a completely solvable problem but its a right pain in the butt, considering I had almost 3/4 of the quilt quilted before the happy discovery. Yesterday I finally tackled the little rebel and fixed it.

I ripped out the four patch, turned it and re pinned it into place. I quilted it down to make double sure it did not move then I blind stitched the edges back down

Now it looks like it should and it will no long make me crazy. 

I just have to bind the quilt, wash off the pencil marks and its finished. I will have it done in plenty of time to take it home so it can be at the church for the auction.

Once this one is done I have another to start from scratch, then another to quilt (top has been made for ages), then two baby quilts to make. While working on those I can decide what I am going to do for sure with the quilt on my bed. Widen it or make a complete new one. I am hoping to paint the bedroom this month so I need to make a choice about the quilt.

E and I went to see The Monument Men today. I was not all that thrilled to go because its not my sort of movie, but she loves that sort of thing and won't go on her own. Her husband hates the movies so its the sort of thing one does for a friend. I actually liked it better than I thought I would. I would have been happier to stay home and work on the quilt but it did not kill me to get out of the house.

I do need to get at the laundry though, think up something for supper and work some more on the quilt while I watch Downton Abbey. The weekends are just not long enough. 

And Scene

Well here we are, another Saturday and that means the last section of the sewing/craft room is to be purged. So far today, I got groceries, had breakfast, did some quilting, FINALLY took the decorations down from the veranda. They have not made it to the basement yet but they are down and in boxes and that is a good thing. I swore I was doing that this weekend or I was making myself stay out on the veranda until it was finished. -37 wind chill is a great motivator to get you moving and make good on your promise to yourself. That all being done I moved on to this.

Here are the usual before and after pictures; Lets start with the before, my walk of shame if you will:

Oh my I love to pile stuff up rather than put it in its proper place. Set it aside, thinking I will deal with it tomorrow. Its the Scarlette O'Hara in me.... "I'll think about it tomorrow"

I hate to tell this but there was a laundry basket sized pile of magazines in this spot that I had already removed. Oh  yeah, walkin' the shame.

Ok I got nothin', no defense, its a mess, I know it. The container with the flyers in it is the recycle bin, the rest is total mess.

I am getting better at this purge stuff, faster and more determined. I worked for an hour and a half and now the last third of the room looks like this:

There is still room for improvement. All the containers and baskets need to be gone through and purged but at least I can move around in here and work, without feeling stifled.

Oh look you can see counter top, be still my heart. The pile on the left there is all things I need to work on my Ireland scrap book. I just don't want to put it away only to have to dig it out again when I go to work on the second scrapbook. So there it sits in a neat pile waiting for the time I am going to scrapbook again.

This makes me happy, this makes me take a deep breath and relax. I will try to keep it tidier and not let it get to the point it was before. I will not promise because I know myself but I am going to work at keeping it under control. Baby steps, baby step. I am work in progress.

Now this is finished, I am going to send the rest of the day working on the church auction quilt. I should be hauling stuff to the basement and I may do it yet but for now I am quiltin' BABY!!

Toodles,
Linda

Something That Makes Me Smile and Something That Makes Me Swear Like A Trucker

So I think I will start with the something that makes me smile. One of my friends who has moved to her dream place with her husband and has become a trophy wife sent me a wonderful present. Being a retired trophy wife leaves her free to pursue her fancies and one thing she fancies, at the moment, is painting with watercolours. She is talented, as I watch her post her efforts on face book, I see that talent growing and improving each time she puts brush to paper. The other day I received these beautiful little babies, made with love, from her, the Mermaid, to remember Ireland by. I am so touched, I cannot wait to get them framed and hung up in the living room

I am not the best photographer and I promise that once I get them framed I will get better pictures of them.

A sweet little cottage by the sea, I can almost smell the peat fire in the hearth. I imagine there are sheep grazing on an hill behind the cottage and soda bread with stew for supper. My wish, my dream, my someday life. A cottage by the water.........oh my.

O'Brien's Tower by the Cliffs of Moher. Can't you just  imagine a princess waiting quietly in her tower, looking out to sea, dreaming of her prince. I just have to look at these and I am there again. Excellent job, you talented little Mermaid, I will treasure these always. They put a big smile on my face. Thank you again.

Now the cursing portion of the blog. I have been happily quilting along on my Hanging Gardens quilt. Its been going along swimmingly, I am 3/4 of the way finished. Its looking great, I am happy as a clam.
\

Then I found this::

What is wrong with this you may ask?? Well its supposed to look like this....

ARRGH, I hate making mistakes like this. You can insert any sort of curse word you know and even some you can make up because I am sure I said them all. Its not an impossible fix but its a pain in the butt fix. No I cannot leave it. I am not able to do that, I have to fix it. Crap Crap Crapity Crap.

I have mo more words

Toodles,

Linda

Cleanin' and Quiltin'

This morning I got up and took myself to Timmie's for a breakfast biscuit. Its a Saturday treat and it gets me up an moving. Once the biscuit and coffee were history I ................. sat and quilted until noon. Tee Hee. I am busy working on the church auction quilt. I have to admit that it felt like a guilty pleasure to spend that time at the hoops and not cleaning this mess of a house.

Noon came and I finally tackled the kitchen. There are no before and after pictures, nobody needs to see that. Two hours later that place was clean, junk free and fit to be in. There is still more that can be done but trust me, I could let someone come into the kitchen now where I would have had bare the door before I got it under control. As I said nobody needs to see that!!

I washed towels, loads of towels, because I am am getting rid of the old and getting the new put away. I have had the same towels for years and frankly I am sick of them, they are done. Not worn out to the point I could throw them out but I am done with them. They will go to the local Humane Society to dry off freshly bathed puppies. I have lovely fluffy new towels that I got for Christmas to take their place. I do not donate dirty things so the washing machine and dryer have been chugging away all day today.

I also took on the second stage of the sewing room reclaimation. There are before and after pictures for this: TAHDAH here is the before: Mess mess mess!!!

I sorted, purged, put way, tidied, filed  and now this portion of the room looks like this:\

Two thirds down and one more to go. It fills me with joy to be getting this room back into order. Next weekend I am hoping to get the last portion finished. I would do it tomorrow but E and I are going to two movies and that will take the lion's share of the day.

Inbetween bouts of cleaning and purging, I was quilting, This is where my heart truly was all this day, here in this corner of the livingroom;

This Hanging Garden quilt is all I truly want to work on this weekend. Quilting is a great joy in my life, I love to spend time with my needle, thread and thimble. This quilt will go to a fund raising auction for my church in my former home town. Its my way of helping them as I can. Its been a few years since I have had an actual quilt to send. I have only sent a promise the last few years. I think an actual quilt is much better. Once I get this one done I am starting on another for a fund raiser for my office. I have almost narrowed down a pattern. I have two baby quilts to do as well and then several more that are cooking away in my brain, calling out to me. But most fun of all, I have a top to quilt for a friend. Its made from flour sacks and the tiniest little hand pieced patches. I am almost drooling at the thought of bringing this hand work to life and making it the quilt it was intended to be. This sort of thing is my crack of choice

Speaking of quilting I am going to end this and get back at it!!

Toodles,
Linda