Happy New Years

Happy New Years to all.

Monday I will start back blogging and  ranting .  I will try not to digress too often and try not to rant too often..BUT...I make no promises.

I hope I have enough to say to be interesting.

I hope to do more sewing and less just sitting around with the boob tube (TV).

I hope to walk more..I certainly NEED that.

I hope to be able to clean up my sewing room and keep it that way..lol

I hope that I remember to take pictures..

I hope for world peace.

I hope for no child in the world to be hungry..

I hope that there will be less of me.

I wish you all health, happiness and prosperity.  And a very Happy New Year.

The turkey is in the oven...scalloped potatoes all cooked ..all that needs to be done is done except for the blueberry pie and sugar pie..Merry Christmas to all and too all a good night.

Only a couple of days left before Christmas..I am ready..I think...too late now!  The presents are wrapped, ready for the big day.  But we won't have the girls here until after Christmas...they are going to spend Christmas with the other grandparents  So I get a bit of a break on preparing dinner. We've got a small turkeyroll. (remember I don't want to eat it for a week).  I've cooked what I can before hand,  dessert is pie...maybe a sugarpie (that's a french canadian thing the mister loves)..and it is what it's name implies...sugar..pie..a pie made solely of sugar and milk or cream.

I don't make my own pastry anymore...if I did, we would eat more dessert.  Well, I would.  The mister would ask for something in particular and I would bake.....then he would go on a sales trip...leaving the rest for me......and...being that I have absolutely no self control...I would nibble away at it until it was gone.  Even if it was frozen....It would call my name.."come and eat me...I taste sooooo good...youhoo...come and eat me!" relentlessly.

So I buy the little pie shells, when the mister requests a pie...usually blueberries that he bought up north..So there are no leftovers.

Well, I think that this will be it for this year.. I will continue in the new year with my progress on The Farmers Wife Sampler Quilt and the other things that I am working on.  I have to get a push on getting things done for our Quilt Show this year.  It is coming up FAST.  REALLY FAST!

So MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HANUKKAH to all my friends and a HAPPY and Prosperous NEW YEAR...

I will see you in the new year!

oooopps

oops  ...you got 2 , now 3 posts today...so I will post Friday's tomorrow and then talk to you after the new year

Know what I really miss?  The school Christmas program.  
When the grand daughters started school over here, we always attended all the programs the kids did...Christmas and a "Talent" show..meet the teachers...all of it.

Well, we have a new principal for the last couple of years and now...no Christmas program...I enjoyed watching all the kids singing and performing.  The older kids used the opportunity to learn staging and using all the sound equipment. Kids that were learning to play instruments showed us their progress...the choirs sang ....

I enjoyed talking with all the parents and grandparents, praising our off-spring and marvelling at how they have grown, and how talented they all were.

The program was never just Christmas...but a small look at ALL the traditions at this time of year....and there are many....and the kids look forward to presenting their programs.

I know that several of the kids miss the choir, as do I.  And the band..

People complain about lack of community...here is an a great example... that has been discontinued..

Here is an example of tolerance...been discontinued...

Are we teaching tolerance?  or are we teaching intolerance?

I just saw something so sweet that I really need to share it....
I heard a noise outside and being that the mister is expected home any minute, I went to the window to check..It wasn't the mister, it was one of the neighbour's kid, not really a kid anymore, but a young man.

I watched as he went to the trunk and took out a dolly (not a toy, but a moving assistant, a platform with wheels) and he went to the passenger side door.  I wondered...what could he have in the back seat that he needed a dolly for?   Out of the car got Kefak...she is a very old black lab.....well over 15, maybe even 20.. by now she's deaf, pretty blind and I don't think she has her full sense of smell anymore....and she is getting pretty arthritic..  I know from my neighbours that she is having trouble climbing stairs for quite a while now, and I guess that she needs assistance getting in and out of the car.

 She is such a gentle girl, always so friendly and just loves my daughter and granddaughters..she would always run to greet them when she saw them...the boys next door grew up with her and they are now in their mid-twenties and beyond.  I bet she went for her  massage today.  She takes vitamins and glucosamine, has for quite a while and I can see that it does help her.  Such a nice dog....

It doesn't seem that Christmas is only a few days away.  No snow here as I speak and it hasn't even been that cold out.  Not like last winter...that seemed like it would never end.  Of course, with all that I had going on last Christmas, it was very stressful. 

  My favourite aunt died, she was my mother's adopted, only sister and only a few years older than me.  She was one of those people who didn't like their picture taken...so I have none of her..I have some of her hands...but that is all.

Then, right at Christmas, I had to take my mother out of her home...I knew that she was having trouble for a couple of years,  things weren't too bad because she was close by... but when she moved away to another city at one of my brother's behest (he didn't stick around).......  she wasn't coping at a all .  I had to have her elderly and sickly cat put down..( I told her a friend adopted it)..I knew that this was coming for a while.  If you have an elderly parent you know how well they hide the fact they can't cope.  Although, their fridge does show how they are not coping.

I had to bring Mom home here.

Then,  I had to sell my mothers house, but first I had to clean it up and out ...that took all the time between Christmas and New Years..Every day...all day long... Twenty loads to the Salvation army and 12 van loads home.  I couldn't sort stuff as I packed it, I had to bring it home to sort out important papers and such.   Thank goodness the mister was on vacation and our daughter gave us a hand, too.  The Salvation Army store was glad to receive most of her stuff.   And at that time it was just extra furniture and "stuff".  We left enough in the house to be lived in.  Haha,  I could use that service...someone with no emotional attachment come and clean out "junk" for me.

It was an extremely  stressful and emotional time for me.   One I will be glad to NEVER have to repeat.

Tonight is pasta night and the girls all stay for a family dinner. It's something we have done for years. Thing One and Thing Two came home from school and Thing one went straight to my laptop....Thing Two likes to help make dinner, so I waited for her to help.  I let her chop all the veggies while I cooked everything. While the sauce was cooking, Thing Two painted some christmas ornaments...we needed brown paint,  do you think that I could mix up brown?  no...I ended up getting my colour wheel and then we got brown.  If I didn't want it , it would have been easy.

Then Poppa cooked the pasta ,  then we sat down to eat, banter around the table was computer and texting jargon...Mommy said she needed to keep up with her peps and tweets...I told her not to confuse them with the perps and twits.
With young kids around, we are certainly trying to keep up on the newest jargon...

Crap...I just can't win...

I was doing laundry last night and my washing machine just quit...yes, at night, even though I am here all day...hydro rates are cheaper at night..I went to the machine when it should have been done and no...it went through  most of the cycle but it's off and won't turn on and there is a tub full of water in the machine.  I tried moving the dial,  changing the program..switching the plug.  nothing worked.
This machine is....6 years old maybe...still pretty new in my books..my machines have lasted as long as 20 years.  This is my third washer in 40 years..no scratch that..I had a little spinner washer  for a couple of years and before that a (GASP!) wringer/washer that I bought used..I had those in the first 5 years of marriage...used the wringer when we rented in a house and the spinner in the apartment. Landlords don't like you having your own washer..they want the money from their washers..
I digress...
Anyway, I started thinking about a new one... do I want a front loader?..it would be easier to reach into for me...I like the idea of less water..less soap..less impact on the environment..don't like how expensive they are...don't like the idea of having to shop around...
Next day, I called FAST EDDIE....they are fast and I've used them for years...

He said it would take a while to figure out the problem...he took it apartt and checked the timer...no juice....no juice anywhere ...can it be plugged into a different circuit? 

Darn...it was the outlet..it was a GFI outlet and it malfuctioned ...green light said it was good and it was not....I paid the repair man after he put my machine back together and called my friendly retired electrician...next day out he came and in less that a blink it's all fixed...Thank You Ron!
Sooooo, no shopping,  no new machine..THANK GOODNESS!

I had my eyes examined today...can't see close-up very well any more and I have noticed.  Got a new prescription, seems like I just got new glasses, and the glasses before that are still new. My eyes are pretty healthy, my Doctor says..I hate to toss these frames already.  At least her office (they sell glasses too) will just put new lenses in my old frames...hmmmm..sounds like the way to go.  I really like the frames I had , not this time but the time before and was upset that I couldn't get just lenses.  I guess the stores are finding more people want just new lenses.  Seems like a terrible waste to toss something like that out (or I usually donate them).

I have found over the last couple of years, that close work is hard to see and focus on.  And BLACK?  forget black...I can't see much definition on black..save that for the bright light of sunshine!

So quite often I need to stop and rest my eyes..sometimes they are blurry no matter what.  Getting old sucks... but it is better than the alternative! lol..

So after Christmas, I will see about getting new lenses in my older frames, but oh crap...that means new sunglasses too....I guess I will have to see if the can just put lenses in them too...getting old is expensive too!

Still haven't heard from the town about the leak.  Good thing it's not a big leak..

  I didn't sew at all this week,  just played with the machines as I said earlier and then I played with all the software that I have for embroidery.  Two different machines, two different embroidery programs.  Janome and Husqvarna.  I am used to the Janome program as it is almost the same as the one I gave to my sister along with an embroidery machine, and a bunch of stuff that went along with it.  I seldom used it lately, but when she got it, she used it a lot...unfortunately for her the machine stopped working and has been in the repair shop for quite a while.  So, I played with the software and I can see why the VIP or husqvarna software is so great..I can take an embroidery file and change the format.(that's the file the different machines use)..make the design bigger ...smaller...split it and if my computer would recognise a card or a card reader..transfer it to my Janome..but nothing is easy and I have to go back and forth between computers...I get frustrated with trying to do what I want to do.   I suppose that IF I was to upgrade to a newer version, I would have an easier time of it...this program hasgot to be one of the oldest of the Husqvarna's.  And the Janome is old too...and I need another program for it called Buzz Tools, which I have...
I considered getting a new machine,  really seriously considered it...they had a really good sale, but I don't embroidery enough to spend that much money..big $$$$...
Plus, I got a card in the mail, saying I need to upgrade another (sewing) program..my old version is not supported anymore....it just never ends...

Well, they did come with a big truck to fix the valve.   The truck looked like a cross between a vacumn and water truck and they had both water and the the ability to vacumn it up. They didn't make a bigger hole, fixed what they needed to and nicely cleaned up any mess and in about half an hour.  Now we are waiting for the town to come back and fix the meter.....soon I hope..I really don't care...as long as a pail is catching the drips..

Meantime, I bought some different yarn for Thing One's scarf..she has put aside her knitting, so I guess I will do it for Christmas for her.

I sat today and just played with my sewing machine..  Not sewing,  just exploring the machine.  Then I went to my other machine and did the same..explored.  I played with all the stitches...made them bigger..or smaller..played with the memory on both machines.  Played with the embroidery on the one.  I actually sat down and watched the CD that I got for one of the machines. 

fancy spool knitter

Thing One (Hayely) has asked to knit her own scarf..she is into scarves right now, I noticed.  So I went into my knitting and crocheting stuff and got her some knitting needles.  I don't have a lot of yarn,  I donated most of what I had to a neighbour who knits for charity.  I sat and showed her what to do...she did all right but was having a hard time dropping stitches...the yarn she picked was a boucle...not a good "starter" yarn.  I have this set of looms called "Krafty Knitter".  They are like a giant corking spool...remember those?... So, Thing One is working on her scarf and later that evening, I read the directions! lol  She is doing it wrong!we aren't looping the yarn and her project is very tight...it will be fine..if she wants to start over, that's fine too.

There are enough looms in the pack that Thing Two can work on one also..and I can go and clean up the mess in my sewing room..AGAIN.
Thing Two and I went upstairs to find her some beads for bracelets.  She has a kit that she has decided to use and we have lots of other beads that would be good for her to use...Well, she found the Perler beads (plastic beads that you fuse with an iron) and she played with them instead.  I gave her a stack of plastic drawers and told her they are hers for her crafting stuff.  She has to start putting things AWAY!






coffee cosy



 Here it is half past 12 noon on Wednesday and the town workers have not shown up, yet.  I wonder how long it will take them?  Good thing it is only a drip from the water meter..and now it is going into a pail.  I can now see how much water was dripping daily into that carpet under the stairs.  I will have to keep an eye on it.

  In the mean time, Thing 2 (Courtney) and I finished the  Christmas tree and redid the bannister lights and garland. 





2 coffee cosies

  Then I decided to make some coffee cup cosies. I drink tea, I don't drink coffee, I don't drink my tea on the run, nor do I like to drink out of a paper cup, so a cosy wouldn't be something that I would think about.  I researched online and found some ideas, then just went at it. I cut up a cup to size my pattern, cut out the batting, then did  "sew and flip" to cover the batting.  I put a button and a hair elastic (as a closure) on the first one and really didn't like it.  Then I started using hook and loop tape, or velcro. I tried satin stitching the edges and pinking the edges.  So far I haven't "turned" one....I've made a few now and they are really easy to do.  I'm using up some scraps of batting and more fabric.

One will be for my hairdresser, along with a gift card for coffee and another was for my daughter for my daughter, but she says she wouldn't use it!  I imagine the girls would like one for their teachers.









 

friendship block #1

I have been working on the Farmer's wife sampler quilt, did two more blocks.  They were quite easy...I jumped over the next block, it looked really complicated and I am not in the mood for something difficult.  The next two were Friendship or signature blocks ..the first I did in primary colours and the second in blue, along with a background fabric I have used quite often

Friendship block #2

Thing Two helped me in the sewing room,  I sewed some really small squares together Thing 2 snipped them apart and pressed as I sewed.  For some reason Thing 2 likes to iron.  Being that these were really small, I had her use my small clover iron .  She did an excellent job.  Between the "farmers wife sampler quilt", my "to the point" and the "slice and dice"  BOM, I am using up ALL of the squares that I have cut over the years.  This is a good thing.  I am tired of storing them and wondering how I will use them .

On the week end I started putting up the Christmas tree.  I say started, because it can take me days to get it all together.   Thing 2 and I worked all afternoon and didn't finish. I have 2 strings of flashing lights that have something wrong with them...if it's a bulb, I can't find it.  My fingers are sore from pulling all the ones that don't work and testing them.  So they are not going on the tree.
Mom brought the girls over so she and Dad could do some shopping.
Thing 1 read all afternoon with Poppa in the familyroom.
Thing 2 helped put the lights on the tree and put lights on the staircase,  but I don't like them and we will have to change them.  The garland still has to go up and Thing 2 wants to help after school.

used it

Well, the town workers came about the water meter.  First they had to locate the shutoff valve, which, by their maps and calculations, was under the driveway (paved of course).  So they cut a small hole with a hand held saw and dug down....then cut a bigger hole and dug down......the valve is ...guess what?????  BROKEN!!!..They need a bigger truck to dig around it, to replace it...sometime this week........how big of a hole, I don't know, how big of a truck, I don't know, but they will want us to move our vehicles. 

this big or BIGGER!?

The guy said I will KNOW  when they are here... Sounds ominous 

Oh my,  I had Quilt Guild on Thursday and it was potluck and they ask us to bring our own plates.  I thought that I would use paper plates and went downstairs, under the stairs to where I store them.....As soon as I opened the door...oh crap!    I recognise THAT smell....mould!!!!...nothing should be wet!...BUT... the water meter is there ...under the stairs...and ever so slowly...drip...drip...drip...there is rug down there, and I mean under the stairs.  The former owner put rug there and if you can believe it...on the back side of the stairs!!!  The rug was soaked...but I guess that was a good thing because the water would have run into the living area and ruined the carpeting in the hallway.  The Mister and I took everything out from under the stairs...boxes that should have been disposed of earlier are now gone...the rug was not one layer, but 2..gone also!!!  Good thing the Mister's golf clubs were at the front.  The town came to see what was up....this is THEIR responsibility, and oh crap again!...the main shut off is under the PAVED driveway.. so they will come back some time today to cut a small  hole and hopefully find the main shut off valve.  If not, they will have to shut off the whole street and we would still have a WHOLE lot of water in the lower level...oh my!

  I cooked beef shanks in one of those new pans yesterday and it was so tender and delicious.  I cooked it with onions and mushrooms.  Just a little bit of leftovers, so we dinner for another night...no cooking, just sewing.  Can't wait to try some lamb shanks in the new pan..  I think these new pans are going to be bad for my waistline.
  I was able to sew a little yesterday, worked on my " to the point " quilt..this is a neat trick to sew an on point top by sewing straight rows and creative cutting and resewing and no setting triangles..  At any rate, I got the top mostly completed and I haven't made it quite big enough.  I need to cut more 3" squares for it.  If they were 5" squares, I would have been fine.  Just would need bigger borders.  I have a bunch of 5" squares but I am going to use them for a slice and dice 4 patch, or a disappearing 9 patch  They are one of the "block of the month" blocks, I think either  would look really nice as a scrappy quilt .

mine, but in red

Most of my life I have coveted the Le Crueset cast iron pans...When I was first married, the mister's grandmother had one....      a beautiful orange roaster.  You could use that pan any where..oven or stove top...and it looked beautiful..cooked like a dream, and heavy as a rock.  After a few years of marriage and a couple of kids, we bought a set of  REALLY expensive  and heavy stainless steel pots and pans.  They were really big!  Some of those pots I very seldom used...but use them I did.
 Then microwave ovens came out and I EMBRACED them...now I needed glass...went to corningware..I gave the stainless steel to my sis, she used it for a while...then SHE gave it to mom.  Mom used them, but this set was really for a big family...she ended up giving them back to me.  I used them again for a few more years.




 The stainless is now ....maybe 40 years old, looks like new except for the handles ..the pots all needed new handles.  By now my kids are grown and this beautiful set is far too big for my needs. or my kids needs..sooo...I freecycled them...I gave them to a large family that could use them and the lady was thrilled to receive such a good set of pots and pans. 

cast iron

 All through the years I have had my cast iron fry pan.. made in Brockville Ontario..it originally belonged to my grandmother...she had it 30-40-50(?) years, I've had it now 45 years...very well seasoned ...black as coal inside and out...things don't stick and I've used it stovetop and oven..my go-to pan whenever I can and coveted by my kids.



mine but in blue



   This fall, the mister said to me..."I have all these points, if we don't use them, we lose them..Get anything you want"..So....I ordered some Le Crueset pans.  And they arrived within the week....one 5 litre. red french oven and 3 litre. blue braiser...I am so happy!...one is in the oven as I blog!