Sunday

That delicious day of the week that presents the quandary, does one stay in bed and indulge in sleep or does one get up and partake in all those tasks that cannot be dealt with during the work week. Oh my, the curse of first world problems. I try to partake in a happy balanced mix of both activities.

So much has been happening, so many good things. I have not been blogging and that needs to change.

Ok, I will fill you in on this last week because I cannot remember everything. Birthday Twin was here. She was in the province visiting family and came and spent an afternoon with me last Monday. I had the week off as Busy and the Carpenter were coming so it worked for us to get together. If she has not made this trip for her family we would not have managed a get together.

She liked her birthday/housewarming gift. We went for Chinese food, spend some time on my veranda visiting and knitting, We had birthday cake ( we share a birthday) and then it was time for her to get going back to her relatives.

It was not quite the get together that was originally planned but things worked out the way they did. It was very nice to see her even if it was a very short visit.

The Carpenter and Busy were next on the list. Birthday Twin was here on Monday and they arrived on Tuesday. My good brother came to shingle my kitchen roof for me. I was soooo pleased.

In no time at all shingles were raining down into the back yard. Neither of these two mess around 

once they get going.

While he was up on the roof, Busy got things done on the ground. She planted the rest of my flowers

She trimmed my lilacs, loaded tons of garbage into the truck to haul to the dump. She cooked the meals and did clean up afterwards. We weeded the hosta bed in the back. Just in case you were thinking I did absolutely nothing while they were here

The waist high weeds are gone and much to my joy some of the hostas are actually growing back. I thought that all of them had winter killed. I planted the two new one that I bought and then I put in the last five marigolds.  I still need to get more hostas but I will pick them up as they come on sale.

In no time at all the new shingles were on the roof and looking lovely I might add.

The eves were cleaned out. My new to me kitchen table was set up and the cabinet I am giving to KitKat got brought downstairs. So many things I cannot do myself or could do but it would take forever, were taken care of in not time at all. Not to mention all the waste got taken to the dump and is not still in my backyard.

I am so grateful to them. I am blessed with family that cares about me and friends that are good to me. I could not ask for better.

I will share pictures of my new to me table once I get the chairs recovered. I found the material but I need to wait for payday to get it. Busy and I made a trip to Fabricland and I found it then.

So today I will spend the rest of my time doing laundry and working on quilting a quilt for them. We cut the material out at Easter. She is making it for the new bedroom in the new house. She got the top and backing sewn up and I am going to quilt it for them. Its not often that I can do something for thos two so I am very pleased to be able to do this .

Well the laundry is calling my name

Toodles
Linda

Getting things done

Oh my spring is moving along and sliding into summer. I was out on the veranda this morning, a beautiful breeze wafting by, delicately scented with that wonderful perfume only the lilac can provide. Bird song everywhere, It was fabulous. My second favourite season of the year. Its not to hot, not too cold. Everything is green and full of promise.

I am actually getting some yard work done. Thanks to the Banker I got a kick start last week. She is worth her weight in gold that woman.

She got me the shrubs I wanted, brought them to me and even planted them for me. I now have a lovely little row of spirea bushes along the front fence. I am doing all I can to make sure they take and begin to grow.

Not the best picture but there are my new little babies. She also picked up a dogwood bush for the corner and she planted it too. Its one I have never seen before, it has golden yellow leaves and I love it.

Another one I am working to keep alive. this will be my third attempt to get a bush to grow in this corner after I  killed off the original dogwood bush. Never spray round up on the weeds below a bush and think the bush is going to live. Just sayin'

So today I was up early and I buzzed down to get a few plants and find some breakfast. I got some hostas and some petunias and then treated myself to breakfast on the veranda. Having been fed and watered I took a stab at weeding.

I do not do a pristine job of it like the Banker. Mine looks more like goats have been having a rave but I get the most of the weeds out of there.

before

After

I need to deal with the weeds on the sidewalk but its looking much better. I got petunias planted in Mom's washtub and I weeded the front hosta bed

Somewhere between those two visible hostas' are a lot of other little ones just bursting through the soil. So I doused them with weed and feed and we will see what takes place

I took my time this morning. I have a very small yard and really this should not take all that long but for me it does. My bad knee and pinched nerve make me wear out very quickly. So I paced myself. I want to be able to keep doing as much as I can for myself. It was work a bit, rest a bit, work a bit, watch an episode of The Blacklist, do some more and I got the most of what I had hoped to done. I need to plant flowers down either side of the sidewalk and deal with those sidewalk weeds. Plant three more pots of flowers and then I can start on the back yard.That is going to be a job and a half but I will go it a bit at a time. I am not a gardener by any means, but I do like puttering about in the soil. My goal is to get my yard to look as nice as it can with as little maintenance needed.

I feel triumphant today. It feels good to be getting things done, getting them done on my own no matter how slow. I have to stay independent, I have no wish to be a burden on anyone, thank you very much. Asking for help now and then is one thing but being helpless is another.

I will do some more tomorrow if I can. Depends how my legs feel after their workout today. I will be able to plant the pots no matter what. That I can do sitting down. 

I have discovered the Blacklist, I am into the second season. Yes I know I am late to the game since its already run its course. Thank goodness for netflix!! I cannot believe I missed it first time round. Its very very good.

Tomorrow will be yard work (maybe). Laundry, sewing, and house work. I am going to wash the kitchen floor. Now I don't have to work around a Christmas tree I can get it washed properly. I may even go to Michael\s tomorrow. Hard to say, I need a few things but I tend to talk myself out of going anywhere on Sundays.

I hope your weekends are going well!

Toodles 

Linda

Netflix and Quilt

It only took three visits from the cable guys to get my new TiVo to actually work. Its been a few days now and it still is working. I cannot believe the last fix was a simple unplug and plug it back in fix. However and whatever, its working now and I am soooo happy. I spend yesterday binge watching British cop shows. It was heaven. Netflix in the living room. Beyond happy.

Ladybug's finished quilt. Just needs a wash and a plan to get it to her.

Yesterday I tackled these.

These are my quilt scraps stash. There are four of these bins and I decided to sort through them and get rid of the real scrappy bits and any material I knew I would not use. I cannot be trusted. I ended up with a very small kitchen garbage bag of stuff to get rid of. No one would be able to tell that I had purged a thing

See my pathetic little pile?? The bins are as full as ever. I did manage to empty a small basket of excess fabric. It fit into the bins and now I can use the basket as a place to keep material I am using on current projects while working on them. I wish now that I had taken the time to sort the material by colours. Sigh. I will got that another day, because its always smarter to do things twice that just once. Right???


I have two projects I am going to be working on. One is secret and the other is for KitKat. I got going on KitKat's yesterday. First a trip to the fabric store because four bins of material is not enough, must buy more.

Then I had to find the right blue to go with the grey in the middle. I had the blues but not the grey, hense the trip to the store. A text to the Banker to confirm my choice and some time later and things were starting to come together.

This little snowman runner is looking very good. She wants two of them and I have this one ready to quilt. I have the blanket stitching done and the button eyes sewed on. It was a fun way to spend a cold windy Saturday.

I did a little shopping in the house yesterday. I have a collection of the little baby vases that people pick when they sent flowers to new parents. I don't have many but they are in the green spare room, and I thought a shelf like this might be a good place to store them

This shelf is already in that same room. I would have to go and buy something. In the spirit of trying to make use of what I already have, I rooted around the house and  I settled on this.

I bought this little shelf/stool thing thinking it would be good to display stuff at a craft sale. I just really liked it but never found a use for it. It works nicely for my baby vase display. I even have room to add a few more, a pink bootie at the very least. I have seen them in the shape of blocks and I would like a duck but I can\t remember seeing one of those. Maybe a teddy bear?? It will give me something to looks for.  As of now I have the vases displayed, the shelf has a purpose and its off the kitchen floor. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

No yard work this weekend. My lawn did get mowed thanks to my neighbour. Yesterday was too windy and today I'm not up to it. So I am doing laundry and trying to get the kitchen organised. That kitchen is my nemesis. It and I have a constant battle. 

Tomorrow I hope to swap out the head boards and do some cleaning upstairs. I have that little cabinet to empty out. I wish I could find a drawer pull for the new table. I think I have some but I have to find them. I cannot even find the pulls I took off the little cabinet when I bought it. They were around an making me crazy now they have disappeared. Thats the way we roll in this house.

Finally got my eyes tested this last week. Now I have to go and find myself some new glasses at long last. No more squinting at every thing. I hate picking out glasses. Its a hard thing to do when you can't see. The best thing is the Dr told me I have no diabetic damage in my eyes. I was sure that was starting to happen but he says not. I am so grateful for that you have no idea. He says I have nice health eyes for my age. Big worry off my mind.

Well I must go and deal with some laundry. 

Toodles.

Linda

Its Just a Memory Now

Oh happy day and hallelujah the memory quilt is finished. I finally got my act together, my butt in gear and in one day I had it tacked together. Its gone back to its owner and I can now move onto other things. Whoot Whoot. The lady I made it for was VERY happy with it. That makes my heart happy, when someone likes what I have created.

I got that quilt all finished, just in time for Mommy Bug to come to town. We went for supper and a lovely visit. She brought me some material. Several years ago I made a crib set for Ladybug when she was just tiny baby. She loves her quilt but she is now too tall to use it comfortably. Mommybug and I had talked about making her a bigger version. Hence the material delivery.

This was stuff left over and so I used what was there and made her up a bigger quilt. Its lovely and soft and I am happy to say its all done!!. I just need to get it back to Mommybug in time for Ladybug's birthday.

I made my first purchase off of Facebook Marketplace!! I bought a headboard for my spare room. I have not taken a picture of it yet but I will once its in place. The headboard that is in there I inherited when I bought the house. I painted it white but it did nothing to make it look better. This new one is much more suited to the style of the house.

ITs on the bed that I used to take a picture of the memory quilt. There it is in all its 70's glory!! I cannot wait to get the new one put in place. Can't you just see it as it was , all dark brown wood grain:: So trendy when it was new and so dated now. Anyway the money from the giant slippers paid for the headboard. This Facebook Market place is neat. Thanks for the tip Busy!!

I finally got upgraded to TiVo. It makes me beyond happy to be able to watch Netflix in the living room

It has its own special little button on the remote!! Now if they could just get the cable working!!. The cable guy is coming to have another go round with my system tomorrow. Yeesh, it worked so well for the weekend and then its back to no signal and pictures that are so broken you cannot watch or hear them. I have high hopes that this next attempt actually leaves me with cable that I can watch.

I have finally finally finally started to move the tile off the veranda and into the house. Its only sat out there for two winters. Nothing like keeping on top of things. Lordy sometimes I make myself tired with what I can ignore. Its not even like its a lot. Princess Diva shared here stash with me and I have at long last have a container to put it in. This purging thing has yielded up some things that I need. Saves me some money and gets things put into their proper place.

Toodles

Linda

Actually Getting Stuff Done

So for the longest time my cable has been acting up. It would picsilate, freeze, and the sound would skip. This went on for ages and then it just got to the point where you could not watch anything or the majority of the channels would have a blue screen which stated One Moment Please, this channel will be available shortly. It lied, it would say that for days. Ok so for the last few weeks I could not watch tv but I could tape things. I called and made an appointment to have someone look at it.

I came back from Easter and voila I could watch all the channels on the tv. Cancel the cable guy. Then after he was cancelled I found out I could not tape anything. Watch live but not tape. Crap!! then in a couple of days it turns out that yes I can tape but only the preset programs and not if the tv was actually on the channel that was set to tape. Confused? Me too.

Call the cable company and they suggest I bring in my cable box as apparently its a dinosaur its so old. This means moving the wall unit, taking things apart and hauling stuff to the cable office. Today that is what I did. I faced down the man sized dust bunnies, shoved furniture around and got the cable box back to its people.

I am getting upgraded!! I'm getting TiVo. free for 12 months thank to a promo going on at the moment. I will get to watch Netflix in the living room. A guy is going to come and set it all up for me, which makes me happier than I can say. No cable in the living room until late next week but I can deal with that. I have been moaning forever about not being able to watch Netflix on the big TV and now I can shut up about that.

I have the DVD player set up in there and I am currently revisiting Downton Abbey. I like to have noise in the house.

I finally found a place to hang my Maud Lewis print. I think these two compliment each other rather nicely. I will eventually frame the Maud Lewis but at least it finally has a home.

The monster slippers are finished, delivered and paid for. I am so happy!! Tomorrow I am going to get the memory quilt sandwiched and start to quilt that. I washed and rehung the curtains in the downstairs bathroom, I folded a ton of laundry and I washed the bedding on my bed. I also partook of a nap. All in all a good Saturday.

Toodles
Linda

Easter Time

Its Sunday again, the weekend has evaporated with amazing speed and I am staring the work week in the eye. Laundry load number 4 is chugging away in the machine while the fifth and final one waits patiently for its turn. Laundry was most important to get done. I wanted to finally get it all cleared up

I went back to work last week after 10 days off and a trip home for Easter with the family

I had a lovely Easter.

Early start. That is 6:45 AM peeps. I wanted to get there in good time

All fueled up

I headed off with one of my favourite horizons in my sights. You can take the girl out of the gap but you cannot take the gap our of the girl. I have not made this trip since Thanksgiving last year and I was thrilled to be getting out of the City and actually going somewhere.

It was a fun family filled weekend. A five year old, a three year old and a nearly one year old add the magic to the day. They are so full of life and wonder. They also get along remarkably well for being little and not seeing each other all the time. 

Tater Tot is so gentle with Sweet Pea 

Lots of stuff was planned for the weekend, 

Tater Tot and the Wee Girl had much fun making Easter cards with Grammy

Then egg colouring was next on the agenda

Then the main event. Egg hunts in search of the chocolate and the toys and goodies that the Bunny brought

Aunty lent a hand to help find eggs

That Easter bunny was tricky. He hid things high and low

They has a blast and it was pure joy to watch them having so much fun.

Sweet Pea kept a close eye on the shenanigans from the sidelines, next year she will be right in there with them

"dis is ma foots"

games were played, rules went out the window but a lot of fun was had by all.

We ate good food, had lots of laughs, absorbed the children's joy,  All in all it was a wonderful weekend. I stayed until Monday then headed back home

Back home to the regular routine, work and the never ending things that need to be done here. I could have happily stayed there. I am so grateful they include me.

No yard work was done this weekend. Its too cold and I am way to stiff and sore to attempt it. I always get this way when the weather changes. I just hope we do not get snow. Time to deal with the laundry.

Toodles 

Linda

Staycation here I Come

End of work Friday marked the beginning of a 10 day staycation. No great plans for anything, puttering about the house, continuing to declutter, purge and organize. I want to finish the memory quilt and I have those giant slippers to knit. Visiting family and some girl time with the Banker and KitKat could happen.

Quilt block 13 is done and dusted. I now know that I have to make sure that all three colours are in each block.

I spent most of yesterday doing some housework, I vacuumed the living room and I have to admit, I miss my cats more than I can say but I do not miss this:

bales and bales of cat hair in the the carpet. Desi was the worst shedding cat I had ever met. This photo is from a while ago, I found it again and reaffirmed that I do not miss the cat hair at all. The cat very very much but not the hair.

I even did a bit of scrapbooking yesterday. I get frustrated with the fact that I cannot find the embellishments that I want. So yesterday I got busy and made a tea pot for my tea party page. I was rather pleased with the outcome.

Not 100% pleased with the lid but it will do. The down sid of this is that I managed to break by 3 1/2 inch punch doing this. That made me mad. Those punches are not cheap. Oh well next 50% off coupon at Michael's and I am going to replace it. I use those punches a whole lot.

My latest organizing endeavour was under the bathroom sink upstairs. I had made an attempt at it but it was not right, Dollar tree to the rescue. I love love love their little stacking bins.

So we went from this

to this

much better. Easy access and things are neat and tidy. This makes me happy. One cupboard, one room at a time and eventually it will be done.

I actually think that I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Things are starting to get better around here. Its been a slow and steady process but I am starting to see some improvements. Finally!!
It could be that I am starting to feel more like caring for things, I;m making an effort and that makes a very big difference.

Well I need to go send some emails. do some knitting and then who knows what!! I may make a coffee and sit on the veranda for the first time this year.

Toodles
Linda