So Instead of Packing I Did This.....

Teddy Bear is working on redecorating her house, the No Cook group did her kitchen a while ago. Now, while, her daughter and grandsons have gone on holiday, she wanted to get her bedroom done. I had promised her that I would help with the flooring so on Saturday I headed over to lend a hand. Then I went back today to help finish.

She had the first coat of paint on the place so I helped slap on the second coat. It a lovely pale lavender colour or Lilac or whatever you want to call it but its pale, pretty and perfect with her new bedding. She has a lovely embroidery piece that was in her Mom's stuff that started it all. Its lavender, lilac and green. The green matches the chair in her room so off she went.

She pulled out the old  carpet and scraped off the backing that had been glued to the hardwood. Instead of refinishing the hardwood, she, well we, laid hardwood looking vinyl planks. A jig saw, a rubber hammer and off we went.

Once again, my magic photo skillz come into play but this will give you an idea. This is the before and after shot of the floor. Look at all that glue on the hardwood. Its a sin and a shame but that was the fashion 40 year ago. Cover that wood with carpet!!!

The new floor is  very pretty and I think we did a super job for two women who where learning a new skill. I have laid vinyl flooring before but not this kind. Mine glued together, this clicks together.

This is where we had to stop last night because she gave the hardware man the wrong room distentions and we ran out of flooring. We had to wait for today so she could get more. Another bonus, she has a box full she can return.

We even managed the closet. We learned lessons on cutting around things and maybe its not a perfect job but it looks fantastic to us. I came home wishing my bedroom floor was done.

That is the piece of needle work that inspired the room. (What HGTV would call the jumping off point.)The walls are not the colour they appear in the picture, I could not get them to show properly but trust me they are lovely.

So pretty and I am so happy I could help her with it. Its nice to be able to give back my good friends, after all they are so good to me. Can't wait until its all back in place, pictures up, furniture in place. It will be grand!!

Toodles
Linda

Saturday Stuff

Just sitting here, blogging away, sipping on my Tim's coffee and waiting for the cleaning bug to take a chomp out of my butt and send me into the kitchen to start getting my house in order. I do not want to go away and leave a messy house. Not to mention I promised Teddy Bear that I would come over and help her with her bedroom. I like to paint and I want to help her lay the floor. Its new stuff and I am thinking I may like it for my bedroom. So before I get all involved in playing in another house I need to spend some time with my own. I have hardly been home at all this week. Oh dear I digress, I am having coffee, yes that is where I was.

I phoned Amazon again this morning to see why my promised Kindle has not shown up. Well there is a good reason, the nice young man I spoke to, who promised to fix my problem, did not place the order for the replacement. So I have let a week go by, waiting for something to arrive that was never ordered. I really wonder why the universe think I should not have a Kindle. This morning's call, the third one about this situation has yielded me an actual order number and a delivery date. This is some improvement. I have been told it should be here on the 29th. I am holding my breath.........not. I am getting sick of telling my story to now 6 different people at the Amazon help desk.

Kindle problems aside, I am in the home stretch of pre-vacation prep. Doctor's appointment over and done with, and everything is good. We are moving in the right direction with everything but the weight. Sigh......... the weight, its my constant companion. No matter what I seem to do, it lingers and clings and refuses to budge. Oiy!! But on to better news, its nice to know that two sentences can change your whole attitude and thought process. "Oh one of your lymph nodes is enlarged, we need to watch that" has turned into "its going down, I am not worried about it". I have happily gone from total panic to rubber doll relaxed in a heart beat. "Lump" is never something you want to hear your doctor say. Happy Happy Happy that all is well and I can go back to panicking about the flight and not my neck. Having a swift and vivid imagination is not always a blessing.

Today I need to get started at putting the house to rights, starting to organize to pack and then heading over to Teddy Bear's to help out. Maybe I will even do a load or two of laundry. I think my coffee is kicking in so I best make the most of it while the mood lasts.

Later,

Toodles,
Linda

Busy Week

It has been busy around here but that is ok, I like busy. Went to the big City on Sunday, to see Mary Poppins performed at an open air stage. Went with a group of friends and it was fantastic. The play was wonderfully magical. The day was great and we had a lovely time. Good food, good friends, good entertainment makes for some happy times.

Back to work on Monday, getting fried by Mother Nature how thinks hot flashes are extra special fun!! Then I went to a Doctor's appointment on the wrong day so I will try it all over again tomorrow. Really my mind is mush these days. I have been helping Teddy Bear get her room ready for painting and new carpeting. Well by helping I mean I went over one night and looked at the floor and then we went to her friends place to see the colour of her bedroom. Tonight I actually did work, I washed the walls while she scraped glue from the floor and vacuumed up the dust. Then we made a trip to Home Depot for a scraper and came back with a ceiling fan. Don't you love how girls shop??

Tomorrow is Friday, No Cook night and then hopefully I will get my house cleaned up. 9 more sleeps until Ireland and I want to leave a reasonably tidy place. It will be great to come home to a clean and tidy house. I have some last minute details to organize, but on the whole I think I am ok to go. I have nearly everything that I need. Just the last minute bits and pieces to throw together.

 Tonight I am tired, I have been tired every night this week. The night sweats make peaceful sleep a thing of the past. Not permanently I hope, but for now, I would give anything for an uninterrupted sleep. Wish me luck tonight!!

Toodles,
Linda

Adventures in Shopping and Customer Service

I am not an unreasonable person (imo)and I honestly don't think I have outrageous expectations. I will own to being impatient and quick tempered. That being said, I appreciate customer service, good customer service. I really do not like to be mislead. This little song and dance that lead me to being annoyed to beyond endurance began with an impulse. I got a Kindle e-reader at a local pharmacy with my "points". Never wanted one an if I was not going on a dream of a life time vacation, and it had not been on sale and I did not have enough points to cover the cost, I would have gone on my way but I didn't. I bought it, I did not ask questions but I was not told there were any special circumstances or rules when getting said item. Off home I go to set it up.

I charged it up, went through a nightmare of trying to get it organized with out any clear concept of what wi-fi really is. I will give you the readers digest version of the next few hours of my life that ended with me nearly in tears and seconds away from smashing the reader AND the computer to electronic dust. Ok here we go, e-reader says you do not have to connect to wi-fi right away but EVERY THING I WANTED TO DO resulted in the thing asking for a wi-fi connection and a pass word. Quickly reduced to frustration. I then turned to the computer to find out more about wi-fi. Wi-fi is one of those things that I know a little bit about but not a lot. I wanted to know how to get it, where to get it, what it is. I never could quite got the answers. I found lots of invitations to join things and give them personal information, I found lots of deals on all manner of electronic devises created to make my life so much EASIER, more FUN, more CONNECTED and STRESS FREE. No real answers to my questions but I did get my high blood pressure to go up and got a new lesson in restraint at not doing damage to the technology I already own. For a little bonus I got a killer headache and a desperate need to consume alcohol.

The next morning when I unplugged the Kindle and hit the power button to see if it was completely charged, half the screen was dark and the letters distorted and hard to read. OH OH, defect, since its only a day old, I will just return it and get another, simple...no? NO. The first trip to the store garners me the information that they do not usually do returns on those sort of items but I was welcome to come back and talk to the manager who could "maybe" approve such a return. This manager would not be in until today. I returned again today to speak to helpful manager with the power to approve. I was promptly told that: they do not do returns on these "big" items, not store policy you see, even though they do not tell you that when you buy the stuff. Don't be fooled byt the fact that the till slip says "retain the slip for returns within the first thirty days". that does not apply to these "big" items. However I was more that welcome to come back on Monday and talk to the actual real manager with the actual real power to approve a return on this "big" an item. Hmmph. I was miffed most mightily. I did not pitch a fit or make a scene but I did let them know that while they were sorry, so was I because my shopping  there in furture will not be the sames as it has in the past. My good will toward this place has now and forever been tainted. On my way out the clerk said I would probably do better to contact the company through the internet. Oh yes, I am really good on the internet.

I did give it a try and eventually I got the Kindle customer support team to call me. I got to talk to a very sweet man who said all the things he was supposed to but only served to make me even more frustrated. Things like, the store should do the return, you need a wi-fi connection and password, there is nothing he can do without a serial number. God Bless him, he hung in there when I came close to loosing it. He patiently guided me, the frustrated fed up me, through the ins and outs of finding the serial numbers, registering the machine and keeping me calm, all without wi-fi access or a wireless password. The man was a saint.  The lovely folk at Kindle are going to send me a new one, no problem!! I was very grateful and certainly thankful of the young man's help and persistence in finding me a solution.

Then I went to Target to see if I could find a carry-on bag to suit me. No luck. I,  then decided to go to the bank to pick up the money for my trip. Easy  peasey, the bank had called and confirmed it had arrived. I was assured I could pick it up anytime, no problem. Of course it was no problem to pick up, providing that I came back on Monday when the head cashier would actually be working. She has my money, its all locked away safely, no one can access it, not a soul in the bank but her. I need to relearn the English language because to day I learned: pick it up anytime translates to pick it up only when the right person is working and free to help me. So sorry, ma'am, move along, we have customers to tend to.

Thankfully things went a little more up hill for the rest of my day. I got new walking shoes, and I got the material to make my own carry-on bag. They do not make one that suits my fancy. I am not sure why but I have not found one that makes me think, "that would work". Not to mention, the material was a fraction of the cost of buying one. Love a fabric store having an inventory clearance sale. Sweet.

I need a nap

Toodles,
Linda

Antiquing on the Weekend

I totally ignored the falling down wall paper in the bedroom and did some shopping this weekend. Saturday was practical stuff. Things for the trip, (I think 3600 pictures will just about cover the vacation memory card requirements) groceries plus ordinary odds and ends. I got some shoes for work and I still need to get running shoes for walking  but by the end of the shopping marathon I was pooped and I will have to get them another day. Hopefully tomorrow. I did treat myself to some cheetah print sneaks as a reward for going to the dreaded Mall on a Saturday afternoon. I cannot tell you all the things I would rather do than do that but I did it and I got these as a lollipop:

Nothing like a little animal print to perk a girl up. These are fun shoes, I need some serious running shoes for walking.

So I have most of what I need for the trip, I need to give the packing a dry run and weigh the suitcase but other than that I think I am good to go. SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Last night was bitter sweet.  It was drinks and snacks  with Teddy Bear, Hummingbird, the Hostess, her Lovely Man and me in the infamous garage. G & T's in the big chairs and fond fairwells as the Hostess heads off to her brand new wonderful life. It still has not sunk in that she is not there, with tea or gin whichever is needed. Ready for a chat. She is pursuing her new life and her dreams and that is what we all should do. All the best to her!!

Today, it was off and out with The Banker and KitKat. We went in search of a Flea Market which apparently no longer happens but we found one of those "antique" places where everything is piled outside in the elements and they want an arm and a leg for a piece of crap. That did not stop us from hunting and boy did we had fun hunting about. Did I come back  empty handed, hells no..........I found this lovely old gentleman.

He is probably 2 feet tall and made of plaster, sported one of the few reasonable prices, of course he had to come home with me. He badly needed a bit of a bath but I love him. He is supposed to be a piggy bank. Not a dime in his tummy but he makes a lovely addition to my Santa collection. This is my idea of Santa, the 1950's face, right Jolly old elf, he is.

We lunched at a cute little cafe that had a floor made of pennies. Yep pennies, the actual coins. It was fabulous. I cannot imagine how much work that was but it looked incredible.  I really should mention the good food and the really good coffee. We munched, then toodled off to two other small towns, with antique stores, bridges to cross, tea rooms to visit and then we ended up back home at a fancy new coffee shop before we parted ways. I only bought, Santa, an egg cup, a swan salt cellar and an old grate to tuck into the flower bed out front. No picture of the grate, as it is too dark and I am not going outside again. Its nearly bed time people. As always we had a completely fun day. Not one of us remembered a camera and we complained about it mightily. The light was perfect and every field, barn and puffy cloud was so vibrant, they cried to be immortalized by the click of a camera. Aw well, next time.

Tonight was the movies with E and now I am home. Happy, tired and not nearly ready to go back to work tomorrow. I still have some weekending stuff to do but I have run out of weekend. Crappity!!! I am going to say good bye before I start to have a little whine and a moan about work.


Toodles
Linda

Saturday Shopping........Oiy

In a frantic effort to get organized or start to being organized I went shopping today. I got my memory cards and usb stick, 3 new shirts, new jammies, purse and shoes. I still have walking shoes to get but frankly I pooped out, I had all I could take. A trip to Walmart, Home Depot, Pet Warehouse, Penningtons, Payless and Sobeyes did me in. I have not done all that much shopping in one day forever. A trip to the mall on a Saturday afternoon is something I will do backflips to get out of but I did it today. I am no longer a mall fan at any time but today I needed some things. Thank heavens for sales.  I treated myself to cheetah print sneaks to sooth my ravaged soul.

Nothing like a little animal print to make a girl feel all brand new again.

When I got home today I found this little lovely in my mail box. Princess Diva knows my piggie loving heart and she picked this up for me at a yard sale. I love piggies and I collect them, I have no idea how many I have in this house but there are piggie things in every room

So cute, and will match a cereal bowl and coffee mug I have had for years. I do have lovely friends.

I should really be doing some cleaning right now but I think I will leave that to another day or time. Tonight I am going for drinks at the Hostess' house. Probably for the last time. She will be moving soon so tonight is the last garage party. So sad to see this coming to an end. She is going on to her happy place and that makes me happy for her.

I think I will go and grub together some supper. Tomorrow its off to a flea market with the Banker and KitKat. Squee!!!!!

Toodles,
Linda

What Goes Up................

This is what you want to see after you spend an afternoon wallpapering:

CRAP.

Well it is a chance one takes when you paper over paper. Not to mention the fact that I have had the paper for a while so the glue may not be the best, etc etc. Blah blah blah. The rest of it is only up by the skin of its teeth, if I touched it it would come down.

Off to the Home Depot I go, to get wall paper paste and try to fix it. Sigh!!

Toodles,
Linda

At Last There is Wallpaper

In hindsight this pattern may not have bee the best choice for a house with walls as crooked as mine are but it was the best choice to go with the style of the house. At long last I finally got at the wall paper and managed to get the one wall done today. I am so happy. Its that paintable wall paper so right now it does not look like much but it makes such a big difference in the room. I attempted to take a picture so you could see:

It does not look like much, you can sort of see the pattern. You may be able to see it better if you click on the picture but trust me its nice. I will do the other end of the room another time. I think the painting and further wall papering will have to be done two walls at a time.

Teddy Bear got me moving this morning. I was laying in bed, reading, and thinking I should get up when the phone rang. Teddy Bear was willing to come and clean out some eaves for me.  I was out of bed like a shot. I cannot do it, (too big a chicken) I cannot go up high enough on the ladder. Since there was a small forest of trees taking root I was thrilled to have her take on the task. I don't have enough ladder to do the sides of the house  but we got the trees dealt with, so important to not leave them to continue to grow. They can pull the eaves off the house. To celebrate a job well done we went for coffee.

Once I got home again, I tackled the wall paper. It was on my to do list this weekend and I love to cross things off the list. Its not the worst job in the world and to be honest I like to wall paper. I am not great at it but I like to do it. I was about to hang  the last row when Kit Kat called in and dropped of enough fresh picked saskatoon berries for a couple of pies. YUMMY YUM YUM, I have not had fresh saskatoons for a long long time and I love them. Kit Kat and I have a barter going. She picked me berries, gave me wood chips for the yard and I am going to make her a quilted hanging to cover a small book case she has in her bedroom. Good deal I think. Even better deal was that she brought coffee with her. A good excuse to abandon the project and have a break and a chat, not that I needed much of a one.

I did go and do the last piece once she headed off. I can cross it off my list. Next weekend there may be painting happening!!

Toodles,
Linda

Spending My Sunday in Stitches

Ok so no wall papering took place in this house today. I woke up to a rainy drizzly day and it just did not feel like a day for DIY. I tried to talk myself into it but I could not do it. It felt like a day to do quiet things, restful things, things that involved sitting in my favourite chair, watching tv and working away at some sort of hand work. Next question, after breakfast and coffee on the veranda, was what sort of hand work to do? I have some choices in that area. My scarf project? Puppets? Dish clothes? Finish the latest quilt top? What to do????

I had finished the mending on a couple of princess dress up dresses for J's little granddaughter last night. Princessing can be a nasty hard business on the royal gowns.Quilts seem to fit the mood of the day and so I turned my attention to quilt mending. In 1985 I made an Ohio Star scrap quilt for a beloved Aunt. My dear Mother's only sister who was the sweetest person I have ever known. I adored her. Sadly she is not with us any more. Her great granddaughter has possession of the quilt and she is rumoured to be very fond of it Sadly the quilt is showing its age. It had been used people, and after nearly 30 years the use is starting to show. My cousin mentioned to me that her niece was sad the quilt was getting worn. The wondered is I could maybe fix it.  I agreed to look at it and see if I could do some fixing. Today was the perfect day to haul it out and tackle the job. Just the right project for a rainy day.

Its a little hard to see in this picture because I have FABULOUS photography skills but seams have let go, there are places where the material has just worn straight through. The little green triangle at the center top of the picture is nearly gone and the middle of the purplish print is gone as well. What looks like a milky white stain is batting showing through.  This is only a few of the places, there were many more all over the quilt but mostly down the middle.  Several episodes of "Cash and Cari", one episode of "Call the Midwife" and the quilt looks like this.

I put in some new patches and then stitched up the seams. I hope the current owner is pleased with the mend job. I have to say I am tickled that the quilt is still in use and hopefully I have given it a bit of a longer life.

When I had to add a new patch I tried to stay as true to the original colour as I could. I just have to let my cousin know that its done and arrange to have her deliver it to her niece.

I was still in the mood to sew. Luckily I still had quilts that needed attention. This quilt is not my work but The Hostess' Lovely Man had three quilts kicking around his place. He said they were made by a relative, one completed and two were just the tops. He was looking to sell them at her garage sale. They did not go and this one needed some repair.  Seams had given way, as can happen over time. I had offered to mend it and I was more that happy to do the honours today. Isn't it lovely?

The star and boarders are all pieced by hand. All those tiny triangles stitched together by hand, All 12 of them EEK!! The blocks and boarders are sewn together by machine. Its lovely. My little fingers just itch to quilt it. So much work went into it, it would be a shame not to finish it into the quilt it was meant to be. Hmm maybe I should offer my services for the job.

The other quilt top is mine!! I could not resist snapping it up as it just made me drool when I first saw it. When it did not sell at the garage sale I knew I had to have it.  Its made from flour sacks and old prints. All hand applique and blanket stitched. I cannot wait to get it quilted. I have a thing for butterflies so this little baby is just right up my alley.

Hopefully this winter I will get at quilting this little darling. I have a few other quilts to complete before I can tackle this one but I should have those done in the fall. 

Quilts all mended, laundry done, a couple of dishcloths were knit as well. Rather productive for a lazy day would you not say? The rain finally stopped and tomorrow is soon enough for any wallpapering. So far I have had three really good days out of my four that I have off. Makes a gal feel ever so grateful.

I hope your weekends are equally as delightful!!

Toodles,

Linda

Saturday Stuff

I really do like a day when you have some sort of plans and then things pop up and your plans change but its all lovely and fun. All I planned to do today was go to the hardware store and get a little plastic bin to wet down my wall paper. I had one for years and just when I thought I was going to use it, I snapped the end off if it. They get brittle with age apparently. Then I was going to maybe wallpaper the one wall in the bedroom. Maybe, I was going to see how the day went.

I got up late, which was a treat. I usually am up and at it on Saturdays. The combination of cool breezes and gentle sunshine, quiet summer noises was like a siren song and I succumbed to it, hence the lazy start to the day. Just the most perfect way to start the day. Finally I got up, made breakfast, fed the cat, rubbed her tummy and then started to tidy the kitchen. Kit Kat called and arranged to bring over some bags of landscape bark for me, She did not need it anymore and I did. Once she got here, we quickly decided that she would come with me to the hardware store (I was just as quickly talking myself out of going until Sunday and we all know how that usually turns out) and then we would grab a coffee. Perfect plan.

A quick trip to the store, a coffee and I was headed back home, grabbing some lunch on the way. Just got in the door and the Hostess called. She needed someone to help and inspire her to pack. Off I trotted to her place.  I do not think I did much to help but we did get the packing started. All of her lovely crystal is snugly tucked into boxes and ready to go. Tea and tarts later, I was headed home again and she was in the mood to keep packing.

I came home and decided to so something for the bedroom makeover. I grabbed the spray paint and gave the grate to the register in my bedroom a face lift. It was chippy and cream coloured, I gave it a shot of black spray paint to clean it up. It is currently drying on the kitchen table

Sadly my spray paint either ran out or the nozzle clogged before I covered all the nooks and crannys but it 99 % covered. In spite of my poor paint job it does look better than it did when it looked like this:

 You can see it in it filthy glory at the top corner of the picture. Someone  painted it  to match the trim in the bedroom but I think the black will be better. I am hoping I can get the spray paint to work again, just long, enough to get it completely covered but if not I will just get another spray paint at some time in the future and finish the job.

That much work done I had to have a nap on the couch. No wall papering but I did get to spend some time with good friend which is never a bad thing. I think I will spend the evening doing some mending I have plied up. Little jobs for some friends. Tomorrow is time enough to wall paper. I have two more days off before its time to head back to work. Right now I need to go tidy up from supper then I am going to start the mending.

Kit Kat loaned me some DVDs today so I may take them upstairs and watch a DVD in bed tonight. Oh it has been a good day!!

Toodles
Linda

Its My Day Off and I am Working.........Go Figure

I may be working but its doing something I enjoy and something that has long needed to be done but before I get into that I want to say once again that I have wonderful friends. They are, really, and I cannot say it enough. Casual mention of some things I was going to buy before my trip and BANG!! I have had the loan of a bag to use on the plane, I have a lovely camera loaned to me so I can save on buying a new one. Not trip related but I got a surprise supper last night, pizza, wine, home grown salad, oh my word, so yummy and so unexpected. I have someone coming to clean my eaves to save me from paying to have it done. I have had ever so many offers to come and help remove carpet from my bedroom. I am blessed. I know I deserve my enemies but I do not know why I deserve such friends. Love them, each and every one!!

OK now back to work. My bedroom is the second last final frontier in this house to be redone to my taste. It still carries the Ethel stamp and I am just now getting around to changing that. The budget it tight as always but that is neither here nor there, I started with what I can do at the moment. Carpet removal. This is what I have lived with for the last 7 years.

Seriously ugly 1970's carpet that I cannot even begin to imagine what is living in it. You can almost see it moving. Blech. Long past time for it to be gone. So I grabbed my trusty razor knife and went to work. This carpet is so old the backing has crumbled to powder. Happily this is underneath it

I think we now know what happened to Barney the Dinosaur after he died. Somebody used him to carpet my upstairs. The entire upper floor of my house was this colour at one point in its history. This room has matching purple wall paper with white swirls all over it , Snazzy!! Thankfully it has been covered up with the most boring wall paper ever made. Right now this purple beauty sandwiches the orange powder that was foam backing at one time and makes removal a tad cleaner.

This morning I got up, went and ran a couple of errands, got coffee then came home and got to work. I did this room like I did the other carpet removal I undertook myself. Cut carpet in manageable pieces,  stuff into a tote box and haul down the stairs and out to the dumpster. Lather, rinse repeat until the dumpster is full. It did not take a really long time but I have to take rest breaks and then paused for lunch. Before I knew it my floor looked like this:

Yeah, yeah, I know, its not much of an improvement in the pretty department but its preferable to the greebly carpet. This lino is all over the house, in this colour except for the entry way where its the same pattern only green. When I look at it I wonder who picked it out? Some new bride decorating her house for the first time? A middle class couple, first time buying a house big enough for them and their children? I would love to know who lived here before me. 113 years, there has to be some stories in these walls. I wonder who lived here first and what the house looked like when it was all new? What character features have been removed over the years? I know I will never be able to find this out but I love to imagine it. Where was I ?? Oh yes, I removed more than half the room's carpet today, I got to the end of the bed and then dumpster space made me stop until after garbage day. Those little dumpsters hold a lot but not enough for a full room's worth of dead carpet.

So next on the reno plan is painting and wall paper. I have the wall paper but not the paint. Paint will happen on payday and the flooring will happen after the money fairy comes to visit. (I wish) In reality the flooring will probably wait until after I get back from Ireland. I am going with a vinyl that I can install myself and then a nice are rug. Originally I wanted carpet again but that means paying for the install and totally emptying the room. Practical thinking says nope, diy flooring makes more sense. I will keep you up to date with pictures and the room progresses.

Right now I am for the shower and getting organized for No Cook Friday with the ladies!!

Toodles,
Linda.