Sunday Stuff

Below, the thing that looks a little like a giant white jelly roll, well, that is the completed bumper pads for the grandbaby. Mommy called this morning and gave me the pertinent info so I could get on with them. I am very happy to have them finished. I have been slow at getting them done, like a lot of things I have promised to do lately. So scratch this puppy off the "to do" list. Now I have an excuse to go a visitin'. I need to deliver the bumper pads and the baby quilt.

The pillow shams are quilted, bound and finished. Another item to scratch off the "to do" list. Whoot!! I even manages to get a  couple of dishcloths knit this weekend. All in all I think it has been a productive one.

 The church quilts are next.   I did not get the back made for my Happy Squares quilt ( yes that's it's new name because it makes me happy to look at those squares of colour) but its for me and I can wait. Quilting the quilt to match the pretty pillow shams I made this weekend is almost in the works. I can quilt on it and finish sewing the tops for the church quilts at the same time. I have one top started and the other one is currently living in my imagination but it will become reality once I get the blue and grey one done and ready to quilt.

Soon I need to get back at making puppets. I only have 18 on order but they do not have to be done until September. I would like to get them out of the way  as I will need to start thinking about things that need to be made for Christmas.

I was late getting up this morning, I stayed in bed and read for quite awhile before I hauled my carcass up and downstairs. Laundry got done this weekend and that was about it for general housework. I have to say I am rather please with my homemade laundry soap. It seems to get the job done as well as the other soap I was using. You have to spray the tough stains but I had to do that with store bought stuff. It is way cheaper, easy to make and I think I will do it again. I need to get some proper containers to store it in but that is easy enough. I feel so very frugal and earth friendly when I use it.

I have high hopes that I will get the dishwasher emptied before the end of the day. Only because the dirty dishes are taking over the kitchen sink and are begging to be stored in the dishwasher. The kitchen looks a pig sty with dirty dishes all over.  I suppose I should make some sort of supper between now and then as well.

I am off to do something, not sure exactly what. Supper, dishes.............oh the excitement!!

Linda

Saturday Stuff

This Saturday started out just as I planned it to when I went to bed last night, I decided to take a friend's advise.  I slept in, giving myself permission to be lazy and just relax, not have to get up to be doing stuff. Hoping it would help to lift mne out of this mood I have allowed myself to wallow in of late. I slept in, ate breadkfast late and then sat on the veranda and consumed half a pot of coffee in the cool morning breeze. All of this before I even thought of getting at doing anything. It was a wonderful. lazy, easy morning.

Once I got moving I did do somethings that have needed to be done. I put frosted film over the bathroom window upstairs. No one can see in it but it unnerves my company when they use the facilities and the window is uncovered ( I live in a city). So now all modesty is protected and the window is frosted over. I also finally fixed the catches on the kitchen hutch doors. They close now and stay closed. (I love my power drill )and I love the fact that I no longer walk into the kitchen to see the doors are gaping open and all the horrors they hide out on display for all to see.

I finally got the material cut out for making the grandbaby's bumper pads but I got stumped because I can not find the paper where I have the measurements written down. I am stuck. I don't want to go foreward and find out that they are too short.  I have placed an emergency phone call to Mommy and am waiting for information. Stuck on one thing, best get onto other projects. I washed the backing for the Carpenter and Busy's quilt and while it sloshed away in the machine I finished my super secret project.  It is  tucked safely away to be revealed at a later date.

I then got at it and finished the last blocks for this quilt. Its actually for me, for the red bedroom. Finally a quilt that will adequately cover two people and will eliminate any fighting for blanket coverage when folks come to visit. I love the loud crazy colours. It makes me happy just to look at it. I need to decide on a name for it though, every quilt needs a name. Its folded in half if you are wondering about me loosing my mind and thinking its wide enough to cover up two people. It actually measures 80 by 80 inches. Most adequate for a double bed.

This is the quilt I have been yapping on and on about. The one for the Carpenter and Busy. It started out its life for me but it is perfect for their spare room and they really do need a proper sized quilt for that bed. Its more golden that it appears in the picture and its lovey. Its 100% cotton and just a dream to work with. The needle slides though it like butter. This barn raising log cabin pattern is one of my favorites. I tend to like traditional quilt patterns on the whole. Once it is quilted I promise a better picture of the whole quilt.

Thank goodness I managed to scrounge around and get enough material for the pillow shams. They were not in the original plans when the quilt was going to live with me. I had to hunt and steal and fudge my way around but I came up with enough squares for two shams. So I have started to quilt those and am enjoying it to no end. I have spent a lovely quiet afternoon in front of the television, sewing and quilting away. A very sort of Linda day.



Its now supper time. I am taking a little break, having a bite to eat then get back at the shams. Tomorrow I hope to piece together the backing for the red room quilt. I really do need a name for it.

Linda

Finally Friday

At last, Friday is here and the work week has fallen away and two days of freedom loom large and welcoming before. Oh Miss Crankypants is still stomping her little feet and pitching a ridiculous hissy fit, I am still tired and cranky and feeling totally defeated but and here is the bonus of being a Gemini. You get to be fractured, you are more than just one person, you have alters that can take over. So while the baby is rolling on the floor having a tantrum your other self can take over and present a different face to the public. That is what is happening here at the homestead right now, while Crankypants does her thing, "get over it and get on with it" will get on with the business of doing housework, getting on with the quilting projects and doing odd jobs around the house. Staying home, not spending any money and being productive in the looming presence of the Problem.

SO tomorrow, I will wake to no alarm clock ( choir of angels sing), make breakfast, get at doing what household chores need to be done and then settle myself into the sewing room for a weekend of quilting, quilting, quilting. That will settle my mind and my heart. It won's change anything but I will be better able to deal.

Tonight it was out for supper with the No Cook Friday group and we always have a great time. Good food, good friends, good conversation, so many laughs. Its a wonderful way to end the week. Yes it would be wonderful to have some nice man taking me out for supper but since that is not happening I am not going to sit at home mopping about that as well. I have enough stuff to mope about so if I can avoid some its a plus. I spend enough time alone thankyouverymuch, so we started the No Cook Friday group. We do not have limits on who can join us, if you can't be there, that's ok, we are very informal. We go somewhere different each week for supper and then to Tim Horton's for coffee and chatting. It lifts my spirits at the end of the week Its a very good thing AND I have made some new friends because of it. All my life I have been blessed with finding really good friends.

Now it is time for me to haul my carcass up the stairs and tuck myself into my bed. Tomorrow is full of possibilities and things that need to be done.

Linda

I don't wanna be a grown up!

There are days when I don't wanna be a grown up. I don't wanna face up to the mess I have made and I so want somebody to come and fix it for me. I am not so far gone that I don't know that this is not going to happen. I am the grown up, I am the one who has to fix things, face facts and reality, blah, blah, blah, that's just the way it is. I still don't have to like it though. So for the moment my inner child ( Miss Crankypants) is running amok and having the mother of all temper tantrums. She'll get tired eventually and give up and then the "get over it and get on with it" portion of my fractured self will take over and clean up the mess. Sigh,  I really would like to just sit down and have a proper good weep but that ain't gonna happen.  I know what has to be done I just really, really, really don't want to do it and having a cry about it is not going to change the outcome at all.

Ok before this entire entry turns into a complete pity party, table for one, I shall move on. I did manage to almost finish a secret project. Its rather nice to finally have something almost done. One more night of work on it and it will be complete. This I am going to start on the quilt for the Carpenter and Busy. I am excited to get to working on it. Its beautiful 100 % cotton so quilting it will be lovely. That one I will be able to share with you and post pictures.

Tomorrow is Friday, my favourite day of the week. The weekend is almost here. Lets hope Miss crankypants is done with her tantrum by then and I can get back on track.
Linda

Monday Moment with Minou

Maybe if I am perfectly still she will think I am a Gnome in a fur coat.

Sunday Stuff

This has been a wonderful weekend. The weather has been beautiful, sunny, warm but not horridly hot. I did little to nothing on Friday. It was a lazy day and I took full advantage of it. I slept in, made a lovely breakfast, puttered around the house, drank iced tea on the veranda, watched dvd's. The Friday Night No Cook Club met for supper then we watched the fireworks from the Banker's deck. It was a lovely evening.

Saturday I was up early, ran some errands, did some housework, got groceries, looked all over town for two colours of dishcloth yarn and could not find either one, Drat. I hacked my way through the waist high weeds and uncovered my air conditioner. I washed the bedding and hung it outside to dry. I fixed my new mattress cover. It had that cheap and cheesy gauze stuff on the sides, while the top was thick and quilted and perfect. The second time I straightened it on the bed the gauze ripped so I fixed it. I went a bought a white fittled sheet, trimmed off the gauze and then sewed the quilted top onto the fitted sheet. Now the mattress cover stays in place and the sheets stay on the bed. The rest of the time was spent working on the afghan I am knitting for myself and working on some of my quilts. I started another new quilt top, that makes 4 quilt tops made, one half done, one not yet started and none of them quilted. Yikes.

Today did not go at all how I planned but that's ok, it went better. A thunder storm woke me up at 7:00 am and I could not get back to sleep. I watched an episode of the Tudors and fell back to sleep until around 10:00. I woke up feeling like a drunk person. Sluggish and grumpy. Teddy Bear called while I was still stumbling around half awake and pitching the laundry down the stairs. She invited me over for coffee and muffins so without a second thought to the laundry, I went.

We had a lovely chat and I got to have a good cuddle with her brand new grandson. I also got to enjoy her older grandson, they are both wonderful boys. Coffee, muffins and little boys perked me right up. We nattered away, ate, drank coffee and the morning slipped by before we knew it. We even managed to do a little shopping then she headed home and so did I. This was so much more fun than what I had planned. Housework or time spent with a good friend, its really a no brainer/ :-)

When I got home I should have just hauled the lawn mower out of the shed and got at the yard work but so far this afternoon I have managed to talk myself right out of it. I have finished the quilt top I started yesterday. Its all pinned together and its all ready to start quilting. (I can't show pictures yet but I will later). I am washing clothes and trying to think of what to make for supper.

I think I need to have a little nap and then make supper. Yep that sounds like a totally solid plan to me.

Linda

Gnorm the Gnome has been asaulted!!

This is what I found this morning by the day lily bed, poor Gnorm, unconsious and missing an appendage. ACK, Who could have attacked this sweet innocent Gnome? What brutal carnage played it self out in my back yard last night? I shudder to think.

Gnorm put up a goof fight, bless him. His amputated arm was located several feet from where he fell in battle. Poor little Gnome, brave to the last. Miss Squirrel is not talking, keeping silent in fear for her own safetly no doubt but she doggedly stood guard over his arm until help arrived.

Inspite of his battle wounds Gnorm maintained his sunny disposition as he headed off to emergency surgury. There is high hopes that his arm can be reattached.

After a brief but tense surgury and a short stay in intensive care where he was lavished with much love and attention I am more than happy announce that the surgury was a success. Gnorm is almost back to himself again. He is still missing a finger and the tip of his hat is gone but on the whole he is well  again

 and ready to return to his spot by the day lily bed. We may never know who his attacker was but we hope they met their just reward for such a viciouse and unprovoked attack. The bastards!!

Linda