Shoulda

Today feelings like one of those days, the sort of day when you shoulda been doing so much more than you actually did. Oh well, the world did not come to an end and no one died in the process so I am just gonna move on. I can't change the day now. Its almost time to go to bed!!

Wonderful fun time with the No Cook Group on Friday night. We actually ate in a convenience store at a gas station. It felt a little funny sitting in the middle of a convenience store, right there between the drinks coolers and the racks of chips, having supper but the food was good. We have a great time no matter where we go!!

Saturday was groceries, errands and then home to do some house work. I spent the rest of the afternoon quilting. I am working on the applique butterfly quilt and loving every minute of it. Its really old and the backing is made from flour sacks. You can almost see the house dresses the butterflies came from. Little scraps of everyday used to make a quilt.

I am almost half done the quilting part. Its just a double bed size and I am not sure where I will use it but I know its like the saw toothed star quilt,(made by the same lady) I wanted  to bring it to completion. Make it the quilt it was intended to be. This one I get to keep as payment for quilting the other.

Last night, Teddy Bear, Kit Kat, Pooh Bear an I went to see the movie Philomena. I had seen it before but they had not. It is well worth seeing twice. This movie makes you laugh and makes you cry. Its a good movie to see. We of course went for coffee afterward. Part of the fun of going to a movie with friends is going for coffee and dissecting the movie afterward.

Today I slept late, I was up to all hours reading Love Anthony.  (Such a good book ). Reading to the wee hours means I slept late. Today I had planned to do laundry, clean the litter box, hang the pictures in the entry way, touch up the paint in the stairs, move the linen cabinet back into the upstairs hall and take out all the recycling. WELLLL so far I hung a few pictures. I did two loads of laundry and made supper. I have been quilting and then I had an hour and a half nap on the couch. Not much on my to do list got scratched off today I can tell you.

Its grey and gloomy here to day. My mind is restless and my thoughts are more sad than happy. Not sure what is up but I am still easily moved to tears. Slightly depressed and sad. I think its hormones. I wish it would take off, this wet blanket that has descended on me. I am done with feeling this way. I am ready for it to be done and gone. I also think that the weather, which is damp and grey, and makes me ache and slow to move, does not help my over all sense of contentment. I am getting tired of that as well. I long to be able to move with ease that I think I can when I am sitting. When I sit, I feel I can do all I could do before these aches and pains latched onto me. When I stand up, its a different story. I hate all the pills I take, I wonder at times if they do anything at all, or are they just a pacifier the doctor gives me to make me think they are doing something.

It is what it is. My belly aching about it will not change things. I have to change things. I just need to find the way and the will. 

Toodles

Linda

Easter Sunday

Well I promised that I had one more project to show off from this week. Its finally sitting and drying as the last coats were applied this morning and I have moved it to its final resting place. To dry in peace. Since I am feeling like complete crap today, its a good day to do very little.

Here we go, this is the before:

And here is the after:

The body is painted Cherry Cobbler, which is the same colour as the cabinet that I painted in the dining room. I sprayed the drawer pulls and oil rubbed bronze. The top, I sanded back to the bare wood and then stained walnut and gave it two coats of satin finish varnish.

I am particularly proud of it because I have very little experience with staining furniture. I wish I had a before picture of the top because it was scratched and had a black bubbly glob in the middle of it. Not sure what that was but it sanded off with minimal effort. The mirror that hangs above it has been pained red too but cannot get hung up until the wall has had some time to cure.

So that is the last of what I did not my Easter vacation. Today my ribs are sore from coughing. I am tired and have no energy. I sound like I have smoked way too many cigars and yet I am not so sick I cannot be up and moving. So I have decided to take it easy today. Once this blog post is finished I am going to sew up the back for quilt and spend the rest of my day quilting. That makes me happy and it doesn't take a lot of energy.

I was going to cook a ham and make scalloped potatoes today in honour of Easter but that sounds like way too much work. It will be cereal and the ham can cook another day. I am working on the laundry but that is an easy job.

Easy is my catch phrase for today!!

Toodles,
Linda

What I Did on My Easter Vacation

For those of you that may not know this yet, I love my days off. Love, love, love them!! I took four days of vacation with the Easter stat days we get and factoring in weekends, it works out to 10 days off. This makes me a happy bunny. The Carpenter and Busy are off helping The Pilot work on his house so he can get it onto the market, no Easter get together. This is something which worked for me. As much as I would love to see them, it meant I would be staying home and I could work on some projects of my own. Once I got the momentum going, I could carry on.

So here is a pictorial essay of what I did on my Easter vacation. I finished the sawtooth star quilt:

My entry way got a coat of paint. It went from '80's shiny silver wallpaper:

because the Banker came over and helped me do this:

Now my entry way looks all fresh and clean, painted in a colour called white Truffle. It is one shade lighter than the Chocolate Froth that adorns the living and dining room and makes a giant difference in the house.

The new curtains are actually a Mexican blanket I got at a garage sale. It picks up the colours of the stair risers and with the almost white walls, makes a nice pop of colour. Don't be silly, the pictures are going back up on the walls, I am just giving the paint some time to cure. Anyone who know me know there would never be that much empty wall space in my house.........ever. I plan to paint the brass curtain rod, (another garage sale find), black. I have some touch ups to do on the stairs but that is not a major task.

Then I did this; I had two balloon back chairs given to me by Princess Diva. She had them but had no room for them, When I saw them and mentioned how much I loved them she ever so graciously offered them to me. The seat covers were badly faded, and sported some stains (which I provided after I got them but don't tell anyone). I planned to recover them from the beginning.

I have had them for some time and I have had the material to recover them for sometime but it was just this week that I finally got around to making them look like this:

The seat covers are a warmer darker brown than the picture shows. There was a lot of sun coming in the living room window when I took the picture. It has nothing to do with my fabulous picture taking skillz.

I finally got brave, went out and got myself one of these.  Now I am learning to text, so I can be one of the cool kids. Lots to learn but I am liking it so far. Little videos of the Tater Tot are most precious.

The Hostess stopped in and we went out for sushi. She took my puppet stash and sold 13 of them for me, the sweet girl. I promptly spent that money on a few things I have on my "when he comes to visit me" job list for The Carpenter.

I have a couple more things to add to the pile. Not so much as to make him start coming up with  a list of reasons as to why he is never coming to visit again but enough that I will not have to hire someone to come and do it for me.

I also finally got the old gas dryer in the basement disconnected so now it can be safely removed and I will gain some valuable storage space. I have one more reno project that I will share later because its not quite complete. Its still drying and needs some assembly. I went second hand store shopping, I went up and had supper with KitKat because she has been sick all week and bored out of her mind. A lovely busy time which was mared by only one thing.

I have been fighting a cough and chest infection all week and today I had to cave in and admit I am not feeling at all well. Not sick enough to be in bed but not well enough to be doing a lot of stuff. I had planned to go for groceries today but easily talked myself out of it. The thought of stomping around the store and hauling bags of stuff was too much. I will go another day.

The Hostess, Teddy Bear and I went to see Heaven is Real last night. I coughed my way through it and annoyed everyone around me but the show was worth it. It was really good. More in line with my idea of what the afterlife is going to be like.

I have not heard the alarm clock all week. (Heaven). I have had a nap in the afternoon if I was tired. (Double heaven). I have gone out for breakfast and a coffee far more times than I should but that will stop next week. I have laid in bed and read in the morning before getting up and dressed for the day. Its a lifestyle I could happily get used to. I did not get through all the things on my "to do" list but I did the majority of them. I am happy. Tomorrow I will finish my last reno project and then I will start another quilt. Monday I will go for groceries and try not to pout because I have to go back to work on Tuesday.

Bring on retirement!!

Toodles,
Linda

The Silver Lining in the Snow Storm

So as I mentioned in the last post I spent the weekend quilting. As a result look what I managed to get finished:

Yep its all done and ready to be delivered back to its owner. I so enjoyed working on it, bringing it to life and fulfilling its purpose. So I am both happy and sad that its finished. However I can now move onto another quilt and this one can be put to use instead of living its live in a plastic bag, unfinished.

So I spent the day, puttering about and waiting on the gas fitter that did not show up. Sigh. I really don't know why I am surprised, its seldom that my plans go exactly the way I think they should. Oh well maybe he will show up tomorrow. I can always hope. I do have errands tomorrow so that just adds to the possibility that yes he will show up.

Wednesday I am hoping to get my entry way painted. The Banker has me penciled in for that day so I am pretty sure stuff will happen. She is very organized. I am going to go get the paint tomorrow, its one of the errands I have to do.

Not much else to say today. I maybe more informative tomorrow. For now I am headed to bed and to sleep.

Toodles,
Linda

Is It Ever Gonna Stop????

Woke up Saturday morning to this!! My car was totally covered but I had all ready been to Walmart for catfood and litter before I thought to take a picture. This was all bare on Friday. ALL BARE!!! Well mostly anyway, the sidewalks were clear as was the streets. Flower beds and the majority of the lawns/ Now its coated in the white stuff again. Blargh!!! I just slipped and slide my way to Walmart, Tim Horton's and then home again. Not to leave again for the rest of the weekend.

I spent my weekend quilting. Quilting, washing sheets, doing dishes and watching tv. All that heavy wet snow out there kept me in the house. The up side is I am almost finished the quilt, I have gotten rid of a lot of stuff stored on my DVR and all three beds in my house will have clean sheets by the end of the day.

I am at the beginning of  a week off and that makes me as happy as a wiggly puppy. I am hoping to get my entry way painted. Then I have a long list of stuff to do that will not all get done but even if I get a few of them stroked off it will be a good thing. I will take pictures and share along the way.

Tomorrow the nice gas fitter man is coming to disconnect the dryer in the basement that has not been used in I have no idea how long. I can get it out of there and maybe put some shelves where it sits. Its taking up some prime real estate in the basement and believe me, prime real estate is hard to find in that basement of mine.

So not much happening here, just quilting until my fingers are numb and lots of tv watching. I see nothing changing for the evening just more of the same.

Toodles,
Linda

Finishing Up Some UFO's

People searching the internet for little green men will be disappointed if they stumble across my little blog. My UFO's are not of the extraterrestrial sort, they are the objects of the unfinished sort. Over the course of the weekend, I have mended socks, mending mitts, made puppets, altered a drapery panel for a friend, and finished Babybug's quilt finially. I have been seriously tardy in getting it done. He was born in November and now its April and I just got it done. Yeesh, but at least its finished.

It is delightfully squishy and snuggly and I am very happy to have it all done and ready to get delivered. Before Babybug is headed off to university.


In between getting these jobs done, I did the usual groceries, laundry, some quilting and had a surprise dinner out with The Hostess. She called last night and treated me to sushi. It was delightful to see her. I had some puppets to deliver to her so it was good to have her in town. I just got the horns on her moose puppet about 5 minutes before we were to meet at the restaurant. Its always lovely to see her.I need to get up to her end of the country one of these days.

All those projects behind me now,  I can focus on finishing off the last of the other puppet order I am doing for a school in "Capital City". Its the aboriginal sacred seven and so far I have three made. I am going to quilt now though. I think it will be the best way to spend the remaining hours of my Sunday. Quilting and watching taped tv programs.

One more week to work and then I am having ten days off. I love days of, incase I have not mentioned that before, I LOVE THEM!!! I have a List. A big long list.  I am hoping to get the entry painted at my house. Continuing to do some purging and cleaning and do a million little things that need to be taken care of. I want to shop for a light fixture for the hallway upstairs and new taps for the kitchen sink. Flooring for my bedroom needs to be decided on and maybe even that room will get painted. I can feel I am doing it again. Making a list of a million things I would like to get done is an incredible small amount of time.

The chest of drawers in the entry needs to be finished. I have the drawers painted, but the body needs doing, the top needs staining. The carpet needs to be removed from my bedroom, well finished being removed. Wall paper needs to be dealt with and it goes on and on and on. So many plans, so little time.

Spring is finally showing its self, or at least it was yesterday. Today there were a few snow flakes floating down. When will it ever end??????????

Right now I most need a cup of tea, a snack and then maybe a little cat nap. Quilting will wait for a few minutes more. Sir Barksalot next door woke me at 8:00 this morning and kept up singing the song of his people until after 9:30. So much for me getting to sleep in on Sunday morning. He has not done that for a long time now. Maybe because the weather has warmed they let him out again. I don't know, I just know I don't appreciate it at that time of the morning on the one day of the week I like to sleep in.

Toodles
Linda