cancer is a bitch ....a solelesss, mean bitch.
This Saturday , the mister's younger sister lost her battle with cancer.  she never had a chance....she was absolutely full of cancer.  bones. liver. lungs...she didn't even make it to her 60th birthday, which is next month....
This is the second sister-in-law I have lost to cancer.
Far too many of the mister's family is knocked to the ground with this disease.
A few from my own side of the family tree have been felled  by this horrible disease.  It makes me very sad...

Time to put up the Christmas lights...
The mister doesn't want to do the same old thing we always do.... a line of lights across the front of the house.   He wants to place them around the garage door this year.
I don't know...that means nails in the frame. I don't like that idea too much.
And I just bought all new hooks for the eaves trough! (big sigh).
We have a really big evergreen just beside the drive way...we could put the lights and decorations on that....or we could put lights on the deciduous trees we have.
I normally put curtain lights in the livingroom window, and the christmas tree is in the corner near the window.
As soon as I bring out the tree, MissT our cat, starts sitting and sleeping under it.
Last year I was still putting the lights on and I stepped on her..she was hiding under the tree....she wasn't happy that I didn't see her.
I have a tree that I bought at least 25 years ago.  I paid a lot of money for it at a boxing day sale at (now gone) White Rose.
 It still  looks great.  It has branches that look like branches, not wires wrapped in plastic.  I attach pine cones here and there to help fool the eye.
 The only thing missing is the scent...
And lights...I must put 700 lights on that tree.  But, it's a big tree....8 feet tall...with a base of 5-6 feet away from the wall.
When the grandkids were babies, I would cover the tree in toys.  Beanie babies, tiny teddies and tiny dolls.
Remember all the toys kids would get in a kids meal?....On the tree, tied with a ribbon.
So there was Grover, Cookiemonster, Kermit the frog, Miss Piggy...all sorts of kiddie stuff on the tree, including Wilie Coyote, Roadrunner, Shrek..Princesses and tiny little Cabbage Patch dolls, Tigger and Pooh.
If they wanted to play with the toy, that was fine, but we put it back when we were done playing with it.
Now,  the girls are past that...and we are trying for a more sophisticated looking tree.
I liked the toys....they were fun.

pin moor pin anchors

Have you discovered or heard of  "pin moor pin anchors"?
Leah Day(www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.ca) uses them all the time.

I made some ...
Mine look completely different, but then, I was using up scrap. 

This wasn't what I had planned to do.
I had planned on expanding my ring compartment in my jewellery box.

flexi-rods

 I went out to my nearest dollar store, he is an independent, not one of the big chains.  I wanted flexi- rods..I think that is what they are called, not perm rods... but those long foamy rods they use now for long hair.  I have curly hair, so I don't know about this sort of stuff....any way...he had them, I bought 2 packs..4 in a pack...only a few dollars.
I measured and cut and hot glued to some cardboard and made myself more ring roll for my rings.

Then I had these little pieces left over...about an inch long.


new ring roll

I threw them away....

I threw away the wires that were inside.

 I threw away the buttons that head the ends.

Then I tore a chunk out of my thumb on a pin....ouch!!!

I looked in garbage can and thought....hmmmmm.
 " I could cut up those and make some pin buddies"...
 I tried sticking a pin in them...and they didn't fall apart.
  It wasn't hard to insert the pin, but it didn't fall off either.


Add caption

The leftover rods were about an inch long with a hole down the centre, just a little too big and then there was that hole...I decided sideways was good enough.  I had enough width to insert the pin..so I cut them into slices.
The pieces that I have now are like Cheerios (a breakfast cereal)...a little doughnut with a small hole in the middle.
I took the second pac, took them apart and cut cut them all up.  Now a have a box full...enough, I hope...there are more curl rods at that dollar store if not.

Then, I thought....hmmm, and cut the shank off the button.  I could use both pieces for embellishment.


The wires I put back into the bag and as I was about to toss them, and I thought....
"Why not see what I could twist them into and embellish with them."

just a few
 

So I bent them (with small pliers) and shaped them...smashed and flattened them with a hammer..(and my finger)....lol!
Maybe,  just maybe ...I will put them on the ATC's (artists trading cards) I have to make for guild.  I coloured them with alcohol inks, then I took a drink can that I had cut up and tried to turn "coppery coloured" with heat and I used alcolhol inks on that.  I am gonna use that for my ATC's ...and I am going to work on them today!
After I clean up all the stuff on my table!

I still haven't really found my sewjo....
don't know why.............
I need to hem some pants that I bought MONTHS ago...
still haven't done them....and a pair for my son-in-law.
I put the right colour thread on my machine and turned it on....did some pinning ...tore my thumb......then did something else......hehehe...THE ABOVE!...
I haven't been idle....I've been playing with paper, trying to tidy and organise and reading a few book........
Tomorrow...I WILL turn on the machine , hem my pants, and sew some more.....if nothing stops me....