Just look at all that suntan lotion! Twelve bottles! and some bug repellent!
Yes we do take a lot!
The mister has had skin cancer for years...he needs to really protect himself from burning.
We will reduce the number of bottles.  I just put most of it in the case so that we can sort it next week.  Be PREPARED ! I say.
Still adding to my list...Thing Two said something to me and it triggersd an addition to the list.  She asked if I was writing a book! lol
The mister teases me that I do use a list, every year I make my list...but I don't want to forget anything.

getting ready

So, I have the luggage out, laid out on the floor in the spare room.  Now I have to find everything that we take with us.
I need to find the cribbage board and the playing cards.  The MP3 player and earphones, and speakers.

I  have a couple of word finder books for the mister... some novels for me. I usually read 5 or 6 books on vacation, if I finish all of mine I visit the resort library and see what they have there.  Books I brought will be left there after the mister and I have finished with them.
Like I said, I make a list, add to it as I remember stuff that I want with me.
I like to pack a week before...the mister..the hours before we leave.   very    very   very aggravating!  One year he had some clothes he wanted to take and they weren't clean and no time to clean them.  So he was out of luck.
He still waits far too long to decide what he wants to take
I used to take sewing with me, but then my hands would be full of sun tan lotion...not good for the fabric.  Don't do that anymore.

The mister and I are getting ready for our vacation. We take a spring vacation, the mister is too busy with work in the summer to take time off.

 We missed last year,  with  my mother being here, then in a home and close to death, we just couldn't get away.   So we are planning to go soon.

The mister doesn't like to pack. 

I do it all for us.  I make a list..check it four or five times...constantly adding to it.

We need a gallon of sun tan lotion .  I use 4 and 8 SPF and occasionally 15 SPF if I get burnt...which doesn't happen too often.

The mister NEEDS 30, 45, 60, 80, and 90 SPF...and even then his dermatologist says "Stay out of the sun!".  Hard to do when you walk the beach all day long.  He comes home slightly tanned, but re-energised .

I just hope that all my work trying to lose weight since January isn't all for nought.

I called the repairman for my oven.  He brought an igniter with him and after I told him what had happened, he said it was the igniter.  He changed it within 5 minutes, tested the oven and pronounced all was well.  The mister wanted me to make pizza right away.  I said maybe Saturday or Sunday.  I make my own and the mister likes lots of cheese.  I don't want to have pizza...too many calories..

But the stove is fine now and I don't need a new one..thank goodness.  The part was $100.  With the service call, much cheaper than a new stove.  Even the repairman said the new ones won't last as long as thing one has.  BUT ..Magic Chef isn't made any more...so if they run out of repair parts..I will eventual need a new one..THEN, I will get the 5 burner, double oven range..lol  Until then, no burning money...just dinner! lol

Show and Tell...bring and brag..show and share...we have it at all guilds..proudly showing off our work.
Some people think we hide our talents or downplay our gifts.  Some think we are too modest....some are...some are not.
  Some of us follow patterns..use ideas gleaned from others...some of us design and sew our own...some in our guild even design and sell patterns and books.  Guild is full of many talented ladies...not all are little old ladies..some are..some are new moms..all are talented.
Here are a few pics of the show and share from guild.

Melissa's

Melissa likes to make minatures

















Bev finished up some blocks by making them into placemats

Bev"s

And a row by row winter pattern (Angie Padilla) she found online.  One of her grandkids will get this lovely quilt.

Bev's

Jackie showed her quilt, also for a grandson.  Hand quilted.

Jackie's

 a denim quilt

I went to quilt guild the other night, we had a good speaker...Dwayne Wanner, one of the few males in the industry(?)..should I call it an industry?   We are industrious in our quilting. I asked permission to take some pics of his work and he agreed.. I tried to take some pics.  I sat in my usual spot ...but the ladies holding up the quilts stood to the side and flashed them quickly..So not many good pics.  I got a lot of shots of the back of one lady's head.  I edited it out .

He spoke of his inspiration by Impressionist painters and his attempts to capture the painted image with cloth and thread.  All his quilts are his own designs.

His quilts have came a long way since he used to buy used clothing to cut up for quilts.

He is a member a one of the guilds that I belong to and he is a prolific quilter, he was and is, also Quilt Show Co-Ordinator of the other guild I belong to..

He showed us how he made this  stunning quilt and encouraged us to give the technique a try.  A highly textural quilt..quilted as you go

My appliances aren't old ...I don't think they are, but my stove must be...my stove is 17 years old.  It sits there and does it's job..
  I wanted to cook an oven dinner.

  You know, roast pork with onions, carrots and potatoes...all done in the same pot...slowly cooking...soaking up all the flavours from each other...the delicious smells wafting through the house  (drives the cat crazy! lol).  The brazier is great for that!

Well, it's a gas stove and I have never had any trouble with it, except today.  The oven would not light..

I could smell gas...I could see the igniter glowing..tried using the BBQ lighter..nope wouldn't light..I'm gonna hafta call a repairman....and not just anyone will look at it. I found that out with my dryer.  I need a certified gas repairman.  If it can't be repaired..I will have to get a new one...and I have a really good idea about what I would get!  I would love a 5 burner /double oven..but sooo expensive! .hmmmm..do I really want the stove fixed or not.?

First, I am going to take out the floor of the oven and make sure there isn't a spider in the pipes...they like gas BBQ's ...maybe there is one in there.

I don't sleep well.  I don't know why...maybe because I worked shift work for years...I used to find midnights would kill me. 

 I used to be able to sleep. 

When I was younger, I could fall asleep easily..and stay asleep.

  Now, I find I can't fall asleep and can't stay asleep.  I toss and turn so much I ache , and I am more tired in the morning when I get up, than at night when I go to bed.

I used to wake because I was too warm in bed...and having hot flashes...soaking ..sweaty  hotflashes...

I lost a bit of weight and the hot flashes diminished some...I hope they are coming to an end...but apparently they don't end.

Did you know that fat around our middles produces hormones?  Can add to those hotflashes!  Yup!  bad for you for a whole lotta reasons.

Now, I just wake up...or toss and turn..sleeping fitfully.

I've seen my Doc..he has given me sleeping pills..I've tried a few different herbal products...combined them with melatonin.  Even with the pills, I would still have a crappy sleep. 

So, now I have a little less stress in my life, and I still can't sleep.

I was walking through the mall the other day and one health food( (?) no food there) store..or maybe 'alternative health remedies' is a better name for it.  They have a product called "Ortho-Sleep"...It's supposed to help correct your sleep cycle, actually prevent insomnia.

 I decided to give it a try..can't hurt, right?  Expensive though!

So now ..is it my sleep cycle just at a point where I do sleep some, or am I  sleeping better?    I've taken it for a week and I don't know if it is working for me. Falling asleep after 3 isn't sleeping... I will let you know in a month if it does REALLY REALLY work!

So, if you can't sleep maybe it's worth a try...

Tomorrow is my sisters birthday...Happy Birthday Maggie!   Here!  I got you a cake!  no calories!!!...lol! a candle for each decade!  (otherwise we need  firemen standing by..Hehehe

 For my sixth birthday, I got a baby sister!  That is a unique pressie, don`t you think?  I won't say how old we are, but we both have put in more than a half century!

Her hubby gave her a beautiful amethyst ring for her birthday...I know where she is going for dinner...Olive Garden I bet!.

She also gets an long weekend ..Presidents Day in the USA.  Family day in Ontario.

Last year we got together for our birthdays.  She and her hubby came for a short visit for see our mother, who had just gone into a home.   Mom didn't remember her, but then she didn't remember me, either...then she didn't remember they came for a visit.  I made up an album of our family, spouses, kids, and grandkids with  names and their relationship to her.  We would go through the album every day.  It was for me, really.  This way I could gauge how much she was losing every day..

Well, I did go out for dinner for my birthday.  We sent the girls home a bit early and the mister and I  took off to Montana's. But first we all had a cupcake from Cupid's...very good...I don't usually like chocolate cake, but their's was really good.  We  had a very short wait for a table, the mister had soup and stuffed chicken and I had a salad and half of a chicken quesadilla.  We were back home in about an hour.  Service was pretty good and the place wasn't exceptionally busy as it has been in other years. One thing that we hate about resturants now is they are so noisy!  You can't have a conversation without yelling AND....they usually have some music playing ...duh!!! 
 So I will make a yummy dinner for my sweetie today, seeing as the girls stayed for dinner on Wednesday...nice dinner too....roast pork..


Guild tonight..  We have a pretty good speaker tonight.  I am looking forward to seeing him.
I hope I remember to take some pics.
I finished the paper pieced table topper that I had been working on.  I think that I will put that in the quilt show.

Well, we finally have some winter weather.  This weekend we had a snowfall and it has actually stayed!  All around us has been getting snow, but this is the first storm where we have had the backyard snowy..


Maggie's drawing of a nuthatch

 As I sit here in the family room with the fireplace on, enjoying a hot cup of tea, I can watch all the birds at the feeders.  A pair of cardinals has been here all winter, numerous chickadees and housewrens.  I've been using birdseed laced with capsaicin, the squirrels don't like it but it doesn't affect the birds. I would put out sunflower seeds and a song bird mixture and the piggy squirrels would empty out the 3 feeders in a couple of hours.  They would even eat all the suet cakes...
My sister Maggie has been "watching" the birds...lol
Here is one of her newest drawings.  Such a great artist!  She has been working on some owls and a bobcat.

Happy Valentines to everyone, I hope you don't over indulge in chocolate. It's my birthday today, so  Happy Birthday to me...I asked the mister to stop at Cupid's Cupcakes and pick up assorted cupcakes for my birthday.  I know the girls will love some after school and work...NO..not going out for dinner.  This is one night that I have learned to stay home!  Restaurants are just too busy tonight.  Many, many years ago we went out to a place called The Rainforest in Brantford.  It was FABULOUS!  We had a quiet, romantic dinnner.  Places are just too busy now.
I am not a chocolate freak, so I don't expect to get chocolates,(and it's bad for the diet)lol...mind you I DO like dark chocolate.  Roses are far too expensive to buy this time of year..although a mini rose bush is nice.
I am not expecting anything...I don't want anything and I don't need anything...That makes it really hard on the mister.....he feels bad he doesn't know what to get me....a kiss, a hug and a card will do me!

I went to a friends for dinner the other night and  we started talking about our quilting...of course!

She is a talented lady, she makes the most beautiful quilts, and of course she hand quilts, unlike me.

Her thing is usually applique, but she does do pieced quilts too.   I know she spends hours hand quilting her quilts.

She brought out this one to show my mister.  I had told him about it and he was anxious to see it.  He was duely impressed.  Of course he was...such a beautiful quilt.

Then she brought another quilt that she was just finishing the quilting on.  A beautiful pieced quilt..I took a couple of photos with my cellphone and shook as I took the pics so they didn't turn out too well. Also a beauty...pictures just do not do them justice.

I hope I get better at taking pics.

                      This is from another blog

http://www.bearhugquiltworks.blogspot.com/

This definitely worth seeing!

Thursday, January 12, 2012
Words to the Wise

If you love your sewing machine, here's a little tip...

You know those little cans of compressed air?

Don't use them to blow the lint out of your machine.

The lint has nowhere to go, you see...except deeper into your machine.

Here's a machine I saw earlier this week.  It's not an old machine and was serviced just a year ago.  The outside and the bobbin case area was clean as whistle.  But, the inside...the part the user can't get to (or shouldn't get to) was covered in lint.  The owner had been "cleaning her machine with canned air.

Here's the back view...

and the front view...

The canned air blows the lint and threads all the way to the handwheel and can cause all kinds of problems like binds, impeding your feed dogs, not to mention soaking up all the oil.

This is the top of the machine just under the bobbin winder.  Lint and threads around the circuit boards can cause damage to the boards...cha-ching!

All that lint in there can cause tension problems and can cause your thread to not loop properly - no loop means no stitch.

Here's just part of what I pulled out of this machine.

So...word to the wise...no canned air.  Use your lint brush in the parts you can reach and bring your machine in to your dealer's service department annually for a check-up.

WE can used canned air because we see your machine naked.

I spent the last couple of days working in my sewing room ..as I said the other day.  I have really been tearing it apart.  I worked on it again today, along with the other rooms upstairs.  If I haven't worn it in 2 years, I got rid of it. I probably won't wear it or use it.  Little knic-knacs from my mother and mother-in -law, I'm offering them to the granddaughters..if they want them, they can have them.  Books I've read, are going..patterns are going ...I had quilt hoops that I struggled to use...now I know my arms are too short for them.  Besides, I machine quilt.

I found numerous projects that I have been working on.
 This one I started years ago,it was a workshop with Shirley Stutz.. it needed some of the edge pieces replaced..I decided to finish it. So, I found the fabric that I had used, replaced the pieces, selected a backing for it and started quilting.

Now all that is left is the binding.

Maybe it will go in the quilt show....

I decided to replace one of my sewing desks.  I have a couple of machines and a serger.  Each machine sat on or in a desk and I had my serger on a micro wave cart.  My back was killing me, sewing with one machine ...the desk is just too high for me..If I raise my chair, I have to raise my foot pedal...then my thighs bump the  apron on the desk.  I have cut out parts of my desk to help fit the machines.(machines are getting bigger).  So, I went out to Ikea and bought a table top and adjustable legs....set it up, set the leg height for me...... Then I sewed all evening long...What a difference...my back wasn't sore at all.   I kept turning and looking at my other desk....next day, I went out to Ikea and bought another longer, top and adjustable legs..I have soooo much more room to sew. Both desks and the cart are gone..not "making do" any more!  I now have an 'L' shaped sewing area. I can move smoothly from one machine to the other.  I even have enough room for a cutting area, but I am

only using it as a sewing area. It should be great for quilting!

Now I really have to clean up my sewing room...I have fabric and patterns pulled out , sewing doll clothes...stuff around working on the FWSQ..a wall hanging that I NEED to finish. 
I lost a couple of drawers and shelves in the desks..that stuff has to find a new home.. .I have to re-arrange a whole lotta stuff .  I have things that I have been saving for decades...small fabric scraps..samples of upholstery fabric... ties that I was going to use for quilting.....must go ..must go..must go!
I will be busy for a while!

Wiarton Willie has forecast an early spring. Well, we haven't really had winter yet!  Maybe soon?  More spring -like than some springs we've had.

 I think this winter might cost us big time in this area.  We haven't had much in the way of cold weather yet..when we do have a drop in temps, it is just for a day or two.

I was outside today checking on my garden, wondering if the warm temps have forced anything up yet.  Good enough, the weeds are coming up, the spring bulbs are on their way up and I have a snapdragon plant at the front door that never really dies off (it's over 5 years OLD!) and it has all sorts of new growth.  I heard on the radio that the sugar bushes are tapping the trees already because the sap is running...if they don't tap, they will miss the run... Can't be good for the fruit trees..if they start to blossom, then we have a cold snap it will kill a lot of buds and blossoms..so no fruit...not only that..if the bees aren't active yet then....no pollination.  It certainly is nice to have the warm weather, saves a whole lot on the heating bills...but I think we will be paying for it with our food supply.

It will affect the fruit  harvest, winemaking....all sorts of food production...the ripples spreading far!

I haven't been sewing on my Farmers wife sampler quilt for quite a while now, maybe over a week.  Thing One and Thing Two  have been sick with a bad cold and Daddy took them on Friday, so they were able to sleep in Friday morning.  I spent all day making some doll clothes, Thing Two asked for some a while ago and I finally made some for her.  I made her 2 party dresses, one pink and one blue..a sun dress, a pair of capris and matching top and another pair of pants.  She was extremely anxious to get them, so I took them over to her and she was thrilled.  She asked Mommy to go and get them for her and she started having a dolly fashion show...and again ...I don't have pics...darn  it!..I thought about taking some, but didn't...silly, silly me!

The grand kids are here everyday after school, PD days and school vacations.  Today is a PD day and I hope to keep them busy.   Keeping them busy is a job in itself....but not one that is unpleasant. I have crafts for them to do..paper, modeling clay..sewing... I have numerous books for them; some I read to them and now it's books they are reading....how-to craft and drawing books...we been able to reduce the amount clutter stuff in the family room considerably lately..For years I had a kiddie kitchen in here along with a small kiddie table and chairs, plus all the pots and dishes for a toy kitchen  and dolls..their crafts...a kids paradise
Now their toys are electronic!..Nintendo DS...WII..Ipods..
Take up much less room !!
The WII is fun and we all can play..I suck at most of the stuff.  The DS is fun, we have numerous games that can be one or 2 players...we've never tried three!

Thing Two and I have been playing Mario on our DS's.....lots of fun! AGAINST each other!  And I suck at it!

I've really never played video games..When PACMAN came out, I got it for the kids, and tried it. The mister tried them and he didn't go for them.. I thought...Mheh!..couldn't figure out what the big draw was...sorry..I had work to do..work to go to..no time for or desire for it.  Games have come a long way since then.
At any rate, Thing Two has been beating the pants off me at Mario...we will play most days from the time she comes home from school, until mom gets here.  It's almost pathetic, well I am pathetic at the game.  lol..  I am slow and clumsy and she has not an ounce of sympathy for me..just jumps on me..pushes me down the ravine..steals my stars...is there no hope for me?  LOL!

She is having lottsa fun! 
Don't know what we will do today.  I just don't want them spending all day on the games, computer, FB , or ipods.  Maybe they will like to get out the modelling clay and work with that.  We will see.

Cold and Flu season....yuck...Thing One has come home with a bug. Stuffy nose, sore throat..and a nice little cough..Her mom says she is feeling stuffed up too now, and today, I feel a little foggy and stuffed up.  I hope it doesn't progress anymore.
Years ago when I first started taking care of her and then her sister, I knew that once they started school, they would bring home every bug that was around.  I sent each of them to preschool, and but, when anyone was sick, it wasn't passed around...why?  because EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING was sanitised.  Tables, chairs, toys...modelling clay was thrown away weekly..and new stuff made .   Kids that were sick were kept home by their parents..  Boy, not anymore..kids go to school with fevers and god knows what nowadays.  People go to work when they are sick.

I went to the theatre with the mister the other night and there was someone there with a cough!  Cripes!  If you are sick stay at home ...this is the one time that..IT"S NOT NICE TO SHARE!

Last month the mister was asked if he wanted hockey game tickets...he said yes he would take them...he took a couple of sets.  One for one of his customers and another for us.  He asked me ...."want to go to the Bell centre for NHL??  stay overnight in Montreal?"  ME?  you'are kidding, right?  I don't watch hockey..I go upstairs and sew or downstairs and watch tape....The tickets are a waste on me.  Don't get me wrong, I have been to a few games, and we've had  some awesome seats..(right on the boards, center ice!)..also been in nosebleed territory..and I had a great time..but, I don't want to go.  Soooo, I said ..take our son...it's his birthday, maybe he would like to go with you.  So, the mister gives sonny a call...."Wanna see a game???"  Sonny says..".hmm..funny ..I'm going to be in Montreal that weekend, I was going to see if you could get me some tickets!".. So, Sonny is going, and the mister is watching it on TV and I will be in my sewing room...warm and toasty.