Have I Ever Mentioned???

How much I like being at home, not having to be on someone else's schedule. I think I may have several million times in the past and its still TRUE. I am ready to be retired. Now if only those lottery gods would cast a little miracle my way, my dreams would come true.

I am currently on vacation and am loving every moment of it. Broke to boot but I am managing to fill my time quite nicely, thank you very much. I have been sewing a quilt top.

Dove into my stash because I  have tons of material and the end result looks like this:

Same pattern as the black and gray one but looks so different in colours. I am so close to being finished but I ran out of white material so I need to make a run to the fabric store. Its on my list for Friday. Friday is my designated shopping day and I have a rather long list.

I need to add a strip of white around the edge and then it will be complete. I have another quilt picked out to start on as well. I have decided to get myself a year ahead with the donation quilts for the church at home instead of being a year behind.

I have been cleaning. I have four boxes of stuff ready to go to the second hand store. It should have been gone at Christmas time but I am running behind, better late than never.  I have decided to get rid of this chair

I had intended to recover it, refinish the arms and then maybe see if I could sell it but its sat in my kitchen for ages and I have not touched it. So out it goes. The only thing that sort of frustrates me is I can get rid of tons and still it never looks like I have made any progress. SIGH.

I found some dish cloth yarn so I am back to knitting dishcloths. I seem to have a lot of red and green, I am thinking this was given to me because I do not remember buying it. I have three knit already because today I did not feel like doing anything at all. I sat and I knit until Teddy Bear and I went out for supper. I need to find a new knitting project. I should finish the sweater I started for myself but I cannot decide it I want to finish it with yarn I already have or buy enough of the stuff that matches what I have already knot. No one really sees it and it would be a good way to use up some yarn but on the other hand the most of it except for the shoulder portion of the back are all a beige. I cannot decide. I am thinking I should maybe start working on some Christmas related stuff.

Ok pretend the shelf portion of this cabinet is painted white. It would have been painted today  but I was lazy and preferred to knit. This is the little cabinet that I had made and took forever to get the paint to paint it. I could have had it smaller but I didn't and its too late now. My Dad made the little book case portion years ago. . I am going to paint it white and eventually my egg cup collection will live in there and very important stuff will be hidden in the bottom. Storage is always needed in an old house owned by a collector.

Did you notice that its  mid week and I am blogging. What a crazy concept. Tomorrow I hope to do all the cleaning that I did not get done today, plus take the stuff to the second hand store. Now I have boxed it up I don't want to have it lingering in the kitchen while I ignore it. I can do that you know. I am a master at it. I could give lessons!!!

I have no idea how I am going to get to sleep tonight. I have no book to read.

Toodles,
Linda

Saturday Catch Up

Its Easter weekend and I am at home. I have things to do, stuff to make and no money to go anywhere so it will be a weekend of doing things and making stuff. Not really a bad deal for me cause I do like doing that sort of thing.

Yesterday I allowed myself a "do nothing" day, I could sleep in and if I felt like laying on the couch all day that would be ok. Well in  my usual perverse way, I got some stuff done. I did sleep in as long as I could until Desi went off and decided he was going to expire from hunger any second. So I got up, fed him, fed Lucy (who is more interested in attention in the morning than food) and then fed me.

Before I could think to hard about it I then knuckled down and got making the Roman Blind for the Wee Girl. Don't want the poor little miss graduating from high school before her Great Aunt gets her nursery decor finished. I just got at it, which is a trick I know about myself. Don't think, just do. I can get more done that way sometimes.

In no time at all it was under construction. This is fussy sewing, constant thread changes and careful maneuvering around curves but its a lot of fun. The end result is so stinking cute too.

I am rather proud of this little nursery set. I only had a picture to go off of but I think it has turned out really nice. The Teacher and Busy picked out some super cute material and I am rather fond of owls so its all been good.

And now my part is finished. I will bundle this up and get it in the mail to Busy. (Grandma gets to actually make the blind). I just was in charge of the owls. All I have to do now, is sew the ties on the bumper pads and then get them sent off  to the Wee Girl.

They already have her quilt, I managed to get that to them at Christmas time. One  Hoots Hollow nursery set is completed. On to the next quilt project.

Oh Ido love to make baby stuff!!

I got all ambitious and tried another one of those Pinterest cakes. This one was a cake mix, a pie filling and three large eggs. I happened to have a lemon cake mix and a blueberry pie filling on hand so I tried it

It smelled delicious as it was baking. The colour of the cake is maybe a bit off putting because its yellow and blue mixed together, however, it tastes really really good. I will make it again but this time I will try a different pie filling, peach or apple and see how that goes. I have just become cake baker these days. They are so easy and quick its worth it and I do like to have a little something after a meal now, or with a cup of tea in the afternoon.

Today I will be sewing on the Church quilt once I get off the computer. I was out already this morning and got cat food and WHITE PAINT at last. Now I can finish my cupboard project. I have had breakfast and am now ready to get on with the rest of the day.  Teddy Bear and I are going to see "Youth|" tonight at the theater, until then I will sew on this, the donation quilt for my church at home

and maybe do some work on the kitchen. (My kitchen always needs to be worked on). I have many things I could do but we will see how the day flows. As I said before sometime I get more done if I don't think too much. The cats have been fed, Lucy has retired to the upper level and Desi is parked in his sunbeam

Its a nice quiet day here. I think I will plant myself at the sewing machine and get to work on that quilt. I am sure it will be time to leave for the show in no time. Time evaporates when I am working on a quilt. Its magic.

Hope your day is going well.

Toodles
Linda

Feeling A Bit of a Failure

I may have mentioned in the past I am not overly fond of the month of March. I am not, not fond for many reasons. It has been the month in which some lovely, wonderful and important people in my life have passed away. I am sure its not the month's fault, its just when these things have happened and I find I have lost any fondness I ever had for this particular month. I dread its arrival and cannot wait for it to be done. The weather is unpredictable and its just generally not the best month for me.

March also seems to be a month in which if I am going be short of cash, it is the one in which I am the shortest. I should have gone to two out of town funerals this month, I will be attending neither for a lot of reasons. Short staffing at work so its hard to get away, month end so its super busy, and when you pay up all the outstanding bills, you have little to no money to do anything else. There are several other reasons that need not be shared on a public forum. I feel badly because I was not and  I am not going to be there to pay my respects, give my support and I feel like once again I have failed.

Failed to do what should be done. Failed to give back some of the many wonderful blessings, support and care that I have received in my life. One day, one day I will not have these issues. I will be able to do what I dearly wish to do when it needs to be done and there will not be a hundred little things in the way. Someday.

I did manage to get some things done that I had planned to this weekend. I managed to finish a puppet order. Three caterpillars and three butterflies.

It was a bit of a bug filled weekend at my house. I am glad to have this order finished. I have another for seven animals for a school, which I will start on this coming week.

I finally filed my income tax. I also have things caught up bill wise. Not sure how things got so mucked up but its unmucked now and that is the most important thing.  I have made the lunch things again which as I have said before may sound like a no brainer but I can talk myself out of these things so easily. I have even been thinking I may start to bake my own bread again. Four to five dollars a loaf, hurts ones feelings and homemade is so good. It makes the best toast ever. Laundry is all caught up and once I get to the post office I will feel like I am on an even keel again for at least a little while.

The dumpsters are finally out of the ice and I can wheel them out to the lane at last. I have been storing excess garbage in the compost bin as I have not been able to move the dumpsters for a couple of months now. I was grateful I had the compost bin. This week I shall have managed to get all the garbage away. I should try to figure out some solution for next year. a pallet perhaps to keep them out of the low spot. I will think on it. I have three whole seasons to come up with an idea.

Tomorrow its back to work and back to covering two case loads. I will be glad for April, The frantic need to use up the last of the holidays will be done and hopefully I will be able to just deal with my case load for a while. Two is hard to do at the best of times and I have had to be doing this for a rather long time now, what with sick leave and vacation time for my work buddy. I will be happy happy after this week, then I get to use some of my vacation time.

Toodles,
Linda

From Bumper Pads to Butterflies

Wow two posts in one weekend. What an oddity. I am not sure why but let's just go with it shall we?
My day started out with this little oddity:

When I opened my container of eggs they all looked fine until I pulled this one out. It was in the carton the other way round and looked very normal from above. Its a broken egg tucked inside a bigger egg shell. Someone had some time on their hands to hide a broken egg. made me say WTF.

I got working on the bumper pads for the Wee Girl. All done accept for the ties need to be sewn on. I had to do some juggling to make the material stretch to cover everything but I think it turned out all right.

It was a fun wrestling match for a good part of the afternoon but I am ever so happy that its done. I have other parcels to mail this coming weekend so I am hoping to send it sailing off to the Wee Girl then. I have all week to attach the ties.

The Banker called this afternoon, she and her Sweet Baboo are home from Mexico. We nipped out for a chatty coffee to catch up on all the news. Its nice to have her back again.

I have not got the blessed white paint yet. I had thought to do that today but like most of my Sunday shopping plans, it did not happen. I can go out for fun stuff like coffee but most other things get rescheduled. I did a test drive with the pulls. I like these little red babies. They don't look level but I am hoping that this is just a trick of the picture and will be level when the doors are installed. If I ever get the freaking paint.

Soup and sandwich stuff is made for the coming week. I have yet to make the crisp but I may do that yet tonight. Three weeks in a row I have done this lunch making lark. I am pleased I have managed to not talk myself out of it. I can do that so easily.

I was chatting with my neighbour today. He ownes the house where the Poop Monsters used to be.
He has moved back in which is very nice as he is a good neighbour. He was up on his roof and tells me he noticed that my shingles are bad. I said I know, the kitchen needs to be re done and he says "No I mean the main roof" Crap Crap Crappity Crap. Well I shall just hop out to the money tree in the back yard and fix that right up. Sigh. Its all part and parcel of owning a house. I knew that when I took it on. This too shall be fixed. Upside his yard is now poop free!! No more stink and my plants may survive the year as they are not going to be peed on on a regular basis. Other up side is he told me if I ever want to sell he would like to know first. His idea is that he would combine the two yards and take down his house. I am not ready to sell up yet but its nice to know he is interested.

I shall think about all the problems tomorrow. For now I am going to sneak in a quick nap, then spend the evening working on some butterfly puppets. Once they are done I need to get making some caterpillar puppets. I have not made one of those yet so its a challenge. Much easier to think up a puppet pattern than how to stretch the budget to new shingles.

Toodles,
Linda

Snippets on a Saturday

I should be in the kitchen putting away the groceries I bought this morning, loading the dishwasher and doing a general tidy. Not currently happening. I am savouring the last few sips of coffee and blogging, blissfully ignoring the chores that I should be doing. I will get at them in a moment, for now I am busy doing other things. Lollygagging if you will.

I finally got the latest completed quilt upstairs and convinced it to have a photo session. Not to mention convincing Lucy that I was not spreading it out for her personal use. Cats!! honestly. Please ignore any mess you see by the sides of the bed. One day I am going to get it tidied up but not today.

The blacks and grays are darker and richer than appear in the photo. This is a bit washed out but is the best I could do with my limited photographic skills. It gives you the idea though. (Pinterst is overflowing with great ideas for quilts).  I am currently working on another in the same pattern but in multi colours

I think its going to be very nice as well. (Modest little thing aren"t I ??) Every one of the large solid squares will be a different pattern. No two the same!! I am once again stash busting. I keep thinking I am using up my quilt stash but the collection keeps growing!!

One thing that is actually reduced, is my wool scraps. I have used all of the little bits and pieces of yarn and am now done making granny squares for now.

65 more to go to Michael's to be used for Blankets for Canada. 193 squares made in all. I am so pleased. I have rid my yarn stash of a ton of little balls of left overs, not enough to really do a project but too much to pitch out. This way they are going to be used and not end up hanging around the craft room for ever taking up space.

I am still painting on the little cabinet, but its proving to be a little bit of a challenge. I need a small can  of white paint. You used to be able to just go buy a can at a hardware store with no problem. Not any more. They have to be mixed or they don't have them. I checked Home Depot and Walmart. So far, no joy, I am going to try elsewhere at some point in the day. I don't want o have to pick a shade or tone of white, I just want white, dang it.

I had a small bit of  paint left from another project, so I got a first coat and part of a second on the cabinet but it needs another.  I have something else to paint white so I may just have to break down and get some white paint mixed. Crap!! I forgot to take "before" photos so picture this beige and with no legs. I also forgot to take "before" of these:

Picture these a very bright and gaudy gold. They will be the knobs on the cabinet doors once they are dry. I was going to buy something but instead I shopped the house and applies some spray paint. Cheap and cheerful!! Not to mention this is the third "new" life these knobs will be experiencing. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

This weekend I am going to finish the bumper pads and the Roman blind for the Wee Girl. I have been slack at getting them done and they need to be in her room. Busy has to actually make the blind so I need to get the cover to her. Wee Girl needs her room "stylin" She has her quilt so she needs to complete the ensemble.

Well I have lollygagged for long enough. I need to get at those weekend chores!!

Toodles.
Linda

A Day Late and More Than a Dollar Short

I really would like to post more than once a week but I need to find the time to do it and something interesting to blog about. Not an easy feat in my life. So for now it seems to be once a week, usually the weekend but this week I am late.

Not because I was doing all manner of wonderful things, I was just busy and never got a round to  it. Someone gave me a round "tuit" once but I lost it. Hmmm that explains a lot. I sat down Friday night after No Cook and perused the flyers. I had my grocery list and I searched out what was the cheapest at which store. Its not so hard to get around my city so even if you do have to hit every store, you are not spending a lot in gas to go hither and thither. I had a limited amount of grocery budget so I had to make it all count. I pulled it off!! I am not good with the budgeting. I wish I had inherited my beloved Mama's thriftiness instead of her arthritic knees. I didn't, I got the dodgy knees and no sense with money. So this is something I am working on now. Budget,budget, budget. |Looking for the best deal and trying not to spend more than I intend because I do that all the time.

Saturday morning, I ran errands, got groceries and manged to get home before 10:30 AM. Treated myself to a breakfast biscuit and coffee. (This budget thing is a learning process, I can't change over night.) I puttered around the house doing this that and the other until Teddy Bear tempted me away for coffee late in the afternoon. I got a lot done but as always I have lots more to do.

E and I went to see the ballet. It was performed by a Russian Ballet company and the interpretation of Giselle was incredible. Well at least that is what E said, who knows far more than I and is a harder sell.  I was impressed but I am an easy audience. I did not know the story so once I got home I was googling to see how close I was to figuring it out. Its not a complicated story line but I wanted more details. Thank goodness for Google.  I am always in total awe of the strength, and ease of movement of the dancers. For someone whose every move is wrapped in pain and stiffness, this fluidity is enviable to say the least.

Sunday I was painting the knobs for the little cabinet, cooking up stuff for lunches for the coming  week (Hamburger soup, chicken breasts for sandwich meat and rhubarb crisp) and still doing laundry. I am still making granny squares and I even snuck in a cat nap.

Literally a cat nap, Desi helps me out with this. Its like having a big warm furry blanket on you until he stands up and digs those big old paws into your rib cage. Good thing he is cute.

Then Teddy Bear and I went and saw Spotlight. It won best picture of the year, it was really well done. A horrible subject and that sort of topic always makes me horribly sad. Children should not have to be subjected to this sort of thing. They should be protected and loved and be safe. Its too sad.

Today its back to work. I get my hair cut this week, and am going to see Whisky Tango Foxtrot then of course No Cook Friday. In the mean time, I have mending to do for Teddy Bear, my income tax to file, a quilt to get delivered to the people its intended for, my book club email and some sewing to do for myself. Once I get some more paint, I can finish the little cabinet and then I can share some pictures.

This should keep me out of trouble.

Toodles,
Linda