Projects on display

I have done some crafting lately.  Just wanted to log them for posterity.

I made a card for a friend who was celebrating her 80th birthday.  She is a twin, so I am not sure why I didn't make one for her brother as well, but ended up buying his!  Go figure.

I used the "watercolour" technique.  I wet the paper, stamped the image in pink and then blended the pink throughout.  Then, using the "stampa-ma-jig" I restamped the image in a darker pink.  I think it turned out to be quite nice and watercoloury looking.

I used several colours of cardstock, a border punch, organza ribbon, embossing, teeny little sparkly dots.  I know I can see you yawning, but trust me, my cardmaking friends would be so proud of me.  And the stampa ma jig thing is HUGE to us.  Anyway, I liked making the card, and the thing is, you think about the recipient the whole time you are making it.  I try to always put real good vibes into what I am giving people.  Throw back to the hippie days I guess.

I am trying to learn the continental method of knitting.  I was taught the English or "throw" method, which is slower and I think it is harder on my hands.  Anyway, I started out with a simple scarf pattern of 6 row garter stitch, one row yo garter stitch.  As I went along I got a little better at the method, and my stitches got tighter.  The scarf started to get smaller as my stitches got tighter.  Soooo, I have put this one to the side for now.  It will remain a WIP until I decide what I want to use this yarn for.  (I cast on for another scarf, and using the continental stitch and same pattern my scarf is looking all the same size and more even.  Yay for me!!)

This last project is a baby blanket.  I have a friend who is having her third child soon and I wanted to make it for her/him.  I had lots of yellow left over from another blanket I made.  I think I will edge this plain little blanket with a nice lace edging in either pink or blue as is appropriate.  But, I'll have to see how it will look like that.  The edging in this pattern is very wide.  Might look good. 

Also I wanted to show the arthritic friendly crochet hook that Holly and family gave me for Christmas.  It is the bees knees.  I love it.

I also have a cardigan that I started for Holly last fall uh that is the fall of 2009.  Anyway, since then I have found a better pattern.  So, someday I want to get back to that and hope to post the finished project.  Please, no breath holding though. 

Off to aquacize tonight, and hope to visit my little boys when I am in Regina.  Hope the weather stays nice, I hate driving home in the dark at the best of times. 

/bye

Feelings of inadequacy

Have you ever checked out the blogs that I list on my site?  How do they do it?  They blog almost everyday - well with the exception of Holly and Christa - who are still at that point of their lives where carving out a minute to go pee is a huge challenge.  But the other two - sheesh!  Crochetaholic completes two or three crochet items a day, whilst reading many many pattern books she receives, searching through catalogues and on the net to order more yarn and attending some kind of Knit Knight at the Kings Arms on a regular basis.  As for the Yarn Harlot - she makes a pair of socks every month, along with other knit items too numerous to mention, writes books, attends Sock Summits and Vogue Knitting Conferences - where she is one of the guest speakers - and yet, blogs, blogs, blogs.  I also follow a number of other blogs, which I would love to include on my list, but I kind of forget how.  All of them.  Crazy prolific at whatever they do AND at blogging. 

I only work 50%, and on my work days I can assure you that once my duties as head cook are completed I settle in my favorite easy chair like sludge in a pond.  If I have remembered to grab the knitting needles before I sit down, then I might knock off a row or two - if they are short - before heading for bed.  My paper crafting, which consumes a fair chunk of my disposable income, sits piled high and for the most part untouched.  I got the sewing machine all oiled up and ready to use once, but the oil has since congealed.  I get my facebook status updated quarterly.  What is wrong with me???

Okay, too negative and will put me in a sulk and probably not enough gigabytes to contain the list.  So, what is right with me.  I am NOT an overachiever.  My family does NOT have to worry about my OCD.  People never worry when I walk in on their house when it is untidy - I may not be very athletic or agile but I can leap a pile of laundry while dodging bags of overflowing garbage and not land on the family pet.  I am polite. I don't turn down an invitation to dine out even if I have a roast in the oven.  I rarely put roasts in the oven, because I don't want to be rude if someone should invite me out to dine.  I know how to appreciate the truly wonderful - like grandchildren and pedicures.  I do not "covet thy neighbour's ass" or eat yellow snow.  I would rather be late for work than miss the wonderful sunrise at ten to 8:00.  I know full well that sunrises that occur earlier than ten to eight are not ever going to be that beautiful and so never have a moments guilt about sleeping through them.  So, that's a pretty good well rounded list.  Thanks I feel better now.

/bye

Winter holidays

Dominican 2009

We have booked our holiday for the winter.  We try to get to Mexico or some other warm sunny place for a week each year.  I am so ready for my sunning on the beach - I just can't wait.  To heighten the suspense, the weather has turned really freakin' cold and snowy. 

I have learned over the last few years the essentials of traveling are money, my prescriptions and English language books/magazines to read which will go in a carry on with me.  I have suffered the agony of lost luggage, but we go all inclusive so I can use unlimited  Pina Coladas to dull the pain. 

The holidays are hard on Murray.  Once there, he is not able to work.  He has to relax.  He gets really tense and nervous relaxing.  But, after a bit of time on the beach, he gets into a routine to take the sting out of doing nothing and settles down some.  Unlimited Pina Colodas help with that as well.  If he can't work himself, he needs to be seeing other people at work.  At first he would try to rouse me off my deck chair to do something - oh like, tidy up the room or clean off the leaves from our deck - but realized that he had better luck communicating with the dead and gave up on that type of thing.  So now he contents himself by wandering around the resort watching the guys trim trees or sweep leaves or fix stuff.  Still, he is always glad to get home and get to work. 

Anyway, I better get at my biggest job this morning, which is making an appointment for a pedicure.  My coworker suggested that I should get a belly button ring also.  Ha!  The sight of my belly and its button could make people go blind, much the same way me wearing a pleated plaid skirt does.  No, I intend to keep my belly button firmly out of sight at all times - so no need to decorate it. 

/bye

Welcome, 2011

I have had quite a long dry spell at blogging.  This does not mean I don't have anything to say - no never that - but that life has been hectic - in a good way.

Christmas, the actual celebration of Christmas, began on Christmas Eve.  The Scottish Cochranes brought Tourtierre and the French Bedels brought perogies to Holly's for a Christmas eve supper.  It was a very pleasant evening of cards with two little girls, who were too young yet to understand the undercurrent of 'na na na na, na na na na, whoaoooaaa, goodbye" but sung lustily anyway.  We are a family of really weird Christmas traditions!

Christmas morning, we had Eggs Benedict at Holly's and followed wave after wave of present opening as a new crew would arrive with their presents for us, our gifts for them etc.  Each new wave was followed by more grazing at the treat table.  Finally we hauled ourselves off to Indian Head to have supper at Sharon's.  She had dishes representing all the major nationalities of the world lined up along her counter and covering her kitchen table.  Just one spoonful of each item and you still could have used another plate to hold it all.  Four kinds of cheesecake finished off the meal.

At this point I decided that I would never ever be hungry again.  And so far, I haven't been!!  I made gravy the other night and had to grip the edge of the counter as I swooned through a flashback of Christmas Dinner.

New Years was very quiet with time for reflection on 2010.  It was a crummy year for most people.  Failing health, failed relationships, failing grades, failing eyesight, failing investments were the norm for family and friends in this awful year.  The brightest spot came late in the year with the arrival of Declan, who continues to brighten the world with his sweet little smiling self - when he isn't screaming like a red faced banshee!!  I am so ready to welcome 2011 - new year new start.  The only resolution one should ever make is to savour the good moments, and hold them in your heart. 

On the other hand, one should count one's blessings.  I was NOT attacked by a bear.  My basement DID NOT flood.  There have NOT BEEN any drive by shootings in my neighbourhood.  So, on the whole life is good. 

/bye

Okay, so I get it.

There are any number of close friends and family members who delight in pointing out that I am getting on in years.  I usually accredit that to jealousy or ignorance.  However, life does have a way of smacking you in the face with the fact that one is not as young as one once was!

When I truly take stock of myself, I find I am seriously wearing out.  I have one knee replaced and the other will have to be sooner or later.  I have arthritis in a variety of joints.  The twinges and muscle spasms and general aches and pains ping and pong throughout my body - somedays worse - somedays better - never gone. My blood pressure is high, and it has NOTHING to do with all the salt and animal fat that make up the base of my food pyramid. I can no longer remember a 7 digit phone number long enough to go from the phone book to dial it so that when I make a call I look like I am watching the final at Wimbledon - phone book - dial - phone book - dial - phone book - dial.  No wonder I am so annoyed with the person who answers the phone when I misdial - its a lot of work to redial!!! (Another sign of aging is referring to the number pad as a dial)

But, the worst insult of all is the failing eyesight.  A lot of it is working with computer so much.  I am squinting at it 7.5 hours a workday and when not at work I surf and blog way more than is healthy for me. But, my optometrist, a man who is annoying beyond measure - please see previous blog regarding getting new lenses in my glasses in downtown Regina - kindly pointed out that the ability to focus diminishes with aging.  Focus you buddy, I am not aging.

Alas, circumstance forces me to recognize the sorry truth.  The big element on my ceramic cooktop stove burned out.  I am big on solving my problems over the Internet so I googled "ceramic cooktop burner burned out" and literally hundreds of thousands of websites popped up to help me.  And each and every one of them required a Model Number or a Serial Number before they could help me.  I knew I was in trouble, but forged ahead anyway.  "Need help finding your model number" the red link asked.  I clicked on it to find a picture of a stove with a number of places where the model number may be located.  Was mine located inside the oven door, behind the stove near the top, or on the side of the stove?  No, sadly not.  Mine was located on the "lower left leg behind the utility drawer". 

With my knee replacement, crouching down is a strict no-no.  Kneeling on it is pretty painful.  Getting down onto the floor can be negotiated, but getting back up is so close to impossible I avoid getting down.  I overcame this, though, only to find once I was down there, the Model number blurred and swam before me.  I took my glasses off.  No help.  Was that a C or a G, that could be a B or maybe an 8? Could there really be that many numbers and letters in one Model?  I needed a magnifying glass.  I got up, I won't go into the details but it was far from pretty.  I hunted and searched and cursed and found the magnifying glass at last.  Now, I was so traumatized by getting up the first time, there was no way I could get down on the floor again.  So I bent over and put the glass to the Model number.  Yes, yes it did help.  However, now I had to bend my head at a 90 degree angle.  This made my eyes blur.  But, that was a B not an 8.  But, now I am getting kind of sick and dizzy from staring through this magnifying glass so long.  WTF, I would simply call an appliance repairman. 

So, I called an excellent repairman, highly recommended, who returned my call quickly.  He would be happy to fix it.  I just needed to give him the Model number.

/bye

A dress for Princess Kaida

Our little Kaida turned three in May, but she is 3 going on 13, or maybe even 33.  She comes from a family of very casual, sport sock, sweat pants, t-shirt people - on both sides.  Now we all have our moments of looking divine, but with Kaida, it is her mission in life.  She is a DIVA.  And, she needed a BEEEOUUTIFUL dress for Christmas.

Kaida's interpretation of beeouutiful is generally tempered by her Mother and Dad's common sense, but she only lets them go so far until she is stepping it up a notch in the glam department.  And there are some battles that are more worth fighting than others.  So, it was with this attitude that Holly, Kaida and I went in search of THE dress for Christmas.

Holly's first stop, without Kaida and I, was a complete bust.  Nothing at WalMart. Off to Zeller's then. To Kaida's credit her first choice was a really sweet little red velveteen dress, with sleeves and a collar.  None in her size.  She begged and pleaded and bargained with her Mom, but Holly had no choice but to drag Kaida away from that little dress because it was too small.

Next stop, the Cornwall centre.  The Children's Place.  The heat cranked to tropical, the aisles crammed with teetering piles of clothes and packed to the rafters with adults and kids all on the same mission as we were.  To find nice duds for Christmas.  We found a few prospects and a dressing room. But, alas, size was but one of the issues.  Too big, too small, not enough bling, had long sleeves, wasn't a dress, made out of material that didn't meet Kaida's standards, and on and on.  Remember, she's THREE.  However, if she didn't like it in the store, her mother was going to hate it more as it hung unworn in the closet.  She did find pink leggings with glitter in them, but Holly refused to buy them without getting the dress first.

Okay, so now we are tired and weak.  Across the mall from the Children's Place is BABY GAP.  We ventured over there.  There was enough tulle and sequins and glitter and feathers and spandex on hangers to rival the wardrobe of a Las Vegas Showgirl.  And the rest of the Lineup too.  Kaida was in heaven and raced to the racks of clothes to embrace every bit of sleaziness loveliness.  She picked a spaghetti strapped number, with a narrow satin bodice and rows and rows of tulle ruffles.  I found a satin dress with sleeves of the same style and colour, but no, it had sleeves.  Holly found one that had just a collar, still satin, but not the right colour.  Kaida LOVED this dress.  We begged and pleaded and bargained with her, but she was having none of it.  I promised to buy her a necklace if she bought the dress with cap sleeves and a collar.  Her mother pointed out that she would be cold with bare shoulders.  Kaida was unmoved by these and any number of other ploys we tried.  She LOVED this dress.  Her mother reluctantly dragged herself to the counter to pay for the dress.  Kaida insisted that she actually SEE the dress in the bag in her mother's hands as we left the store - obviously some kind of trust issues there.  Holly looked a bit pale and shaky and mumbled something about how she didn't like what went down here.  We went over to Michelle's where she dropped Kaida and I off and went shopping by herself. 

Personally, I suspect she went to a support group for parents of Divas.  Or a bar.

/bye

Owen and Declan updates

Michelle brought the boys down on Sat. for a sleepover.  I had plenty of Declan time - not nearly enough - but still it was a good visit.










Owen likes to hold him, for about 5 seconds.  He is really good around the little guy - very careful and gentle and patient.  Just wait until Declan starts getting into his stuff???

Check it out, HE'S SMILING.  He smiles mostly at Grampa, I think it is because they share a hairline.

He is trying to tell a story in this one - he will talk your ear off if you let him.













Such a little sweetheart.  Especially when it is his mom that has to get up at 11:30, and 3:00 and 5:00 and....

Hope you have a good sleep tonight little man.

/bye