FUTURE SHOCK

Happy Saturday! I like to blabber on sometimes. Yesterday I came across a way to make a sock into an iPod/iPhone arm band for people who are runners. Well I'm no runner, but I do like to listen to music while I'm working around the house and being a woman with no pockets in my shirt it's very difficult to carry around an iPod or even to have my phone on speaker and having to keep moving it with me. Ya, I know, I should wear an apron.

So I'm going to make myself an iPod arm band out of a sock. I'll show the result when I'm done. Once I get on YouTube it's very hard for me to get off. Everything just looks so interesting. On the same page as the videos for making arm bands I came across a video for the Cicret Bracelet. So I clicked on it. Take a look, you'll  be flabbergasted, or not, maybe it's just me. It's still in phototype phase but it reminded me of how much the world has changed since the early 50's when I was born. I really never thought I'd live to see something like this!

We didn't even have a telephone until I was 7 or 8. We couldn't afford one. But my dad finally broke down and got us one. It was a party line which I guess don't exist anymore. I'm assuming it was cheaper than a private line. Our phone looked like this

Boy was that sucker heavy! and to call a number with a zero in it took forever. I still remember the phone number CE2-0169.

By the 1960's when we moved we got a fancier phone. This one was on the wall in the kitchen

Still took time to dial the zero but it was lighter and had a longer cord.

Then in the 1970's when we moved West we got a touch tone phone. That was so exciting (it doesn't take much for me to get excited about things). My grandmother had gotten a touch tone phone just before we left and I thought that was just the cat's pajamas.

So much easier to dial or push or whatever the phrase would be. 

Eventually in the late 1970's we didn't have to specify rotary dial or touch tone when we ordered phone service and not only that they put 5 free phone outlets in our house so we could move the phone around with us! That was really something. We still had to rent a phone if we wanted a serviceman to come out free but we were given a wider choice. So we ordered one like this (but push button). I think it was called a Princess Phone. 

We had a couple of phones in the house but eventually as long as we rented one phone we could get free service so we were able to buy extra phones so we had them all around the house.

In the 1980's our neighbour bought a cell phone. It was like the size of a walky talky with an antennae. I thought it was neat but it would cost a fortune and how were you going to carry the thing around? Couldn't just slip it in your purse. He let me try it once to call my mother across the country. I thought that was so neat, but I ended up instead talking to an operator in Australia. I have no idea how that happened... but I sure hope he didn't have to pay for the call! I didn't try again.

In the early 2000's I got one of the new flip phones.

I never really did figure it out completely but it was nice to have for emergencies. Problem is the cell towers weren't so good so reception wasn't really good. And there was no texting in those days. If you wanted to text you had to push the corresponding number the right number of times to get to each letter. But it only cost 25 cents to text anywhere so that was neat, cheaper than a phone call in those days. Also the batteries didn't last very long and then you had to buy a new phone. 

Now I have an iPhone 4S. I don't need all that stuff but I can call my sister 3000 miles away and talk for 3 hours absolutely free (well, aside from the monthly charge) and we can even face time. That is so cool. 

I can even text to the US free of charge. My daughter was texting with a friend for about an hour before she realized the friend was in Palm Springs, not Vancouver. Very funny considering it was free.

I thought I was doing pretty well handling technology, I'm behind in some things. I don't tweet and stuff but who needs to do that? But when I saw the circret bracelet I just about fell off the chair! I honestly NEVER thought I'd see anything like that in my life time. Invention is just going faster and faster all the time. 

It looks like she has a phone embedded in her arm!

And now I saw an ad for an app that allows you to take a picture of a cheque and it will be deposited into your account! That is kind of cool but between that and being able to swipe your credit/ATM cards for purchases up to $100 I'm thinking technology is getting ahead of itself before it has the proper protections in place.

Is There Life After Quilting?

I want to blog again but I haven't been quilting. Then I realized maybe I don't have to be actively quilting to use this blog.

The last almost two years has been interesting to say the least. I can think straighter now,  even though my daughter would disagree cause at 64 I'm doing the going into a room and forgetting why I'm in there thing. On the other hand I heard that as we get older we've just learned so much in our lifetimes that our brains are too full of information and it takes longer to retrieve some things. Okay... I'll go with that one.

I found that after my husband passed away in 2013 I just didn't want to sew anymore. For anyone who hasn't been a widow it takes a very long time for powers of concentration to return. Dealing with numbers is the worst. And concentration is really important when making quilts. I've done some but when I look at the accumulation of quilts I have why would I need more? Half the ones I made I don't even like or use anymore. I've given 50% of them away, at least. And with the cost of quilting, where I live anyway,  that's a heck of a lot of money to throw away! I'm still doing volunteer things but that's becoming less and less. My group doesn't understand that to really sell things they need to look good. They use any old fabric they have whether it is appropriate for the project or not. I can't get excited about that. So I'm getting choosier. For last year's bazaar we did have a few projects donated by the family of a woman who had passed away. Some of them were embroidery and I figured I could handle that.

This is the only one I can find. I also did two snow people ones. They were a lot of work but I like embroidery. When I offered to embroider this year I was told the towels I wanted to use were too expensive, even though I offered to pay for them myself for a tax receipt for donation. So I said I'd go to IKEA and get the 79 cent ones. No, those are too cheap. So you can see why I won't be embroidering towels. They want me to embroider bath guest towels. Sorry, can't do that. Guest towel fabric is loopy and you can't hand embroider on them. Machine embroider maybe but I can't afford, and admit in the final third of my life I don't want, to spend money on an embroidery machine. I'm still attending the group but my enthusiasm is dampened. I only go to get out of the house.

But I did make one thing for myself. I did it by hand and it took a heck of a long time but I love it.

I'm simplifying my life as far as "things". But I still like a homey touch.

I like to do hand work but I've also lost the ability to hand sew/embroider and watch TV at the same time. With no one to share my life with I watch a lot of TV in the evenings. Maybe part of it is that now I watch things that I really want to watch and some need to be paid attention to. I'm watching a series on how volcanos formed the continents. Very interesting.

My health is not great but I feel good. The only problem is I can't spend more than 3 hours out doing something or it takes me two days to recover. I hate that. I have Polycystic Kidney disease and my kidneys are now operating at 20% of normal. That also affects my thinking because the blood travelling through my brain is full of crap the kidneys didn't get rid of. But I do feel good overall, I just pace myself a lot and I hire people to do things for me.

I've been working on genealogy cause it's a nice quiet hobby and interests me. I've written a 46 page chapter on my dad's family line, which I have back to 1555. I'm going to see if I can get a free website to post it on. If not I'll have to use thumb drives I suppose to send it out to my nephews and nieces.

My Changed Life

Hi fellow bloggers. I haven't been around for awhile cause my life has been totally turned upside down.

My husband passed away on September 13 and life has been a fog ever since. I was doing so well at first but I think it was adrenaline. Being Executor is an incredible amount of work and grieving on top of it has really worn me down. I'm not sick, I'm overwhelmed.

I called 911 on August 3 and by the end of the month the doctors told me there was nothing more they could do for him. He had cirrhosis and his liver was completely destroyed. So I went from hearing he had 5 years to live, to 2 years to live, to 1 year to live, to not knowing if he'd survive another month. They admitted him to hospice and he lived for 3 days there. My daughter and I were with him when he passed. He looked very peaceful which was good to see as far as he went. For us it hasn't been so easy.

I'm incredibly blessed to have so many supportive friends in my church. But this past week all the Christmas stuff is out in the stores, lights are up on houses, my classic rock station has turned to all Christmas all the time.

While I've been doing pretty well - most of my duties are done - for some reason yesterday I had a blip. I realized December is going to be a very difficult month and it hasn't even officially started yet.

I'll finally get a pension cheque on December 1. I haven't had an income for 3 months. I was okay though cause I sold our boat, albeit at a lot less than was owed on it, so have been living off of that.

My sister came from Ottawa and was a total, total blessing to have here. She even played the piano at the memorial service because she's a church organist.

I haven't been sewing a lot but did make some adult bibs - which we now call Shirt Savers. And I did some small crafts for our bazaar next week.

The first one is a cork reindeer. I made 5 of them. There is no tutorial for them but I saw a photo online in a few places and couldn't resist

Then I made cork snowmen. There is a tutorial online but I couldn't get the hat to look right so we'll sell them cheap. I just think they're cute.

I also found this tutorial quite some time ago for Soap Pouches I originally made one for my son Michael cause he has such a problem with grooming that I thought it might help him when he has a shower. He says there's too many "bits" to clean. His toes never seemed to be clean when he got out of the shower. But he loves this cause the soap doesn't slip out of his hand. 

Then I thought about using them for those little pieces of leftover soap. They're perfect. Then I realized that a lot of people at my church are older and have arthritic hands so I decided to add an elastic so they can put a full bar of soap in it and slip their hand through the elastic so they wouldn't worry about dropping it. So here's my final result:

I got the facecloths at the $ store. $1 each and you only use 1/2 a cloth for each one. 

I'll be glad when the bazaar is over. It's a lot of work and I just haven't had the energy to do a lot of the things I would normally have done. 

Spring is Springing or Sprung or something

What a difference a week makes! Just when I thought we were in for another non-spring is arrived... well for 3 or 4 days anyway, says the weather person. Yesterday the horses were back

And my Magnolia tree is waking up

She'll be in full bloom soon but unfortunately they don't last long :0(

Yesterday I spent the day on our boat. My husband has agreed to sell it. We really couldn't afford it in the first place but I wasn't in on the decision. I came home in a REALLY bad mood. I'm just getting myself into the groove at home, housework wise, and I have to go and clean this stupid thing. It's all wood (teak) inside and we live in a very dusty area so the thought of having to constantly go down there and clean while it's for sale doesn't please me at all. I have a headache today cause I'm really a bit allergic to dust. 

Not a good time to sell. No one is buying, but since ours is a trawler there is more chance of it selling. It's a beautiful old boat, not like the cookie cutter fiber glass ones that there are hundreds of for sale. 

I only got one room finished and the bed made but I've taken today off. I need to sew 2 adult bibs that have been requested for the craft group. I've also been knitting but I'm not so sure about it. 

I saw this book and couldn't resist it. I love the different colour rather than the standard baby blue or baby pink. When the leader of the group saw them she didn't seem to like them but another woman who's daughter has twin babies said her daughter loved the knit bibs. So I'll take them to our next meeting and get a feel for them. There are so many cute things in this booklet. There's hats and sweaters and blankets too. I think the moderness of them would make them saleable. We'll see. 

We probably won't have a bazaar until November and who knows where we'll be then. The church is renovating but they have no idea when we have to move out of it or for how long. So it makes things hard to plan. They need to raise another $2 million. There is another church here who have offered to let us set up a table at their Fall Bazaar so that would be nice. 

Off to sew bibs. They don't take long, it's just hard to get started. I've got them cut out and they're fast to sew up. 

Does anyone who's Canadian know of a charity that needs people to make quilts long distance? There don't seem to be any groups around here like Victoria's Quilts or anything. 

Tea Anyone?

So it's the only picture I could think of. I just cleaned the fridge - which seems to get bigger every time I clean it - and really needed a break. A few weeks ago I took a piece of coffee bean fabric and made myself a mat to keep my things on. I like it. It's flat so things don't fall over but it also keeps spills, especially sugar, off the counter.

What I really wanted to take a picture of was the horses are back! They graze in the field behind the house. We heard them coming- they're so happy to get out the ground rumbles when they all run at once. But they weren't out for long. The water has mostly evaporated from the field but I guess the owner still didn't want to take a chance.

I cut our front lawn yesterday and it just about killed me. The grass didn't seem that long but the ground is still wet so even with a self-propelled mower it was really hard.

Our craft group is such a mess but apparently some woman wants two of the adult bibs so I'll get to that. I cut them out last night. They're fast to sew up but I need motivation.

Has anyone been watching "The Bible" series? I was disappointed at first because I thought they left too many gaps but DH who doesn't know the stories at all is enjoying it. That's good. That's also why I have The Bible for Dummies in my reading section. I first saw it at a bible study. The minister had it. I thought we were in big trouble if that's the bible the minister uses! But now that I have it I like it. I need to read more of the old testament. I knew a lot of the stories when I was younger because that's what they taught. Now I know more of the New Testament so have to go back for a refresher.

Shopping and Lunch

I had a good day today. It's not over yet, but I enjoyed the first half anyway. Part of my feeling down was that I miss my daughter. She and her husband moved in with her husband's parents before Christmas. They live in the next town over so it's not convenient for her to drop in like she used to when they lived here.

She came out to the hospice with us in January to see her grandfather, and then in February she insisted on driving us to the memorial because she knew her dad would be upset and it was going to be a long day. Even she got sleepy. His parents (and the funeral home) is a 50 mile drive each way. I could have done half the driving but I get tired too. My husband is not well so a trip out there at all is hard on him. I'm afraid he's going to fall asleep on the highway.

Aside from that I hadn't really "seen" her since Christmas. She's off for two weeks for Spring Break so today we went shopping for a pair of shoes for her and we went for lunch. When we shop in Richmond we always stop at Browns for lunch. They have really good food, a great ambiance and the prices are good.

I was trying to see what other 60 year olds were wearing on their feet cause I just don't know what's age appropriate any more and I really need new shoes. Most of the women I hang around are 70 plus except for one girl who's 65 and even she wears sensible shoes. I don't like sensible shoes. If I want sensible I put on my running shoes. I can't wear heels anymore, I do know that. I fall off *LOL* Ever since my head injury I'm just not quite as steady on my feet as I was. It's most embarrassing when I get down to get something off the bottom shelf at the grocery store and can't get up again. I try to wait til the aisle clears out before I struggle my way up.

Problem today was there were no 60 year olds out shopping. I guess that now that they're on pensions they can't afford to shop any more. Oh well, that just means I'll have to go shopping again I guess.

So that was my day. Off to find that quilt I mentioned on Em's blog and see what can be done with it. Reading blogs again makes me want to start quilting again.

I found it! I saw it on the cover of a magazine and I wanted it but couldn't afford to buy it. So I figured "How hard could it be?" I did finish it but I didn't know to turn under the pieces and I didn't know how to quilt. The back is covered with knots of thread. So this is my new project. I need to find some white cotton or something because it's stained on one side and that will need to be repaired. 

More of a Diary really

I should have spent more time outside today!

I haven't been quilting/sewing for awhile so figured why blog? Now I've realized I'd like to have more of a diary type blog. 

I came across a website called The Happiness Project Now I haven't looked around it a lot but I like what I see so far. One of her suggestions is that we take a picture a day. I was doing that for awhile and it was a neat idea even if it was just simple things. Life felt more concrete. So above is my photo for today. We haven't seen the sun in so long I'd forgotten what it looked like! It's been a looooong winter. Dark, rainy days don't do anything at all for motivation. The problem now is that there's lots of work that needs doing outside but there's lots of work needs doing inside too cause I've been so lazy. Oh well, it will get done.

The first part of this month has been difficult. I always have difficulty with depression and anxiety in Aug/Sept and in March. After spending 30 years in therapy trying to fight the PTSD I finally found a therapist who told me to just embrace my feelings and let myself go fallow when I felt that way. Beg off some of my usual activities and concentrate on things I want to do for myself. Great advice. I'd still be going to her if she wasn't so expensive, but she sure was worth it!

I've been working on a shawl for the prayer shawl group but I think when I'm finished that (about 4 rows) I'm going to go back to either cross stitch or embroidery for awhile. It's nice to have a change.

I also am surrounded by a lot of issues right now which I'm sure doesn't help. But hopefully I can find something in the Happiness Project that will help me to reframe my thinking and to be happy.

I did Em's Tutorial

I finally got myself sewing today. It took me all day but I made this reversible apron to sell at our bazaar in November. I use'd Em's tutorial to make the pockets. It's so easy to follow Em. Thanks for posting it. 

Nervous

I don't know why this happens to me. I get so darn nervous if someone is coming to my house. Someone who's coming to clean the rugs, etc is okay. They don't know me and they know my rugs are dirty.

I'm also nervous cause I have to go for a CT Scan on my kidney's on Monday. The one of my head was easy, apparently this one involves putting dye through my system and the technician doesn't want to do that because it's harmful to the kidney's. Can't win huh? But my neuphrologist hasn't seen an image for over 10 years so she needs this done and gave the technician permission to go ahead. 

I'm going straight from there to the craft group at a house I've never been to before. It's close to the hospital, but still. This lady just moved in and she's really neat and tidy anyway so I'm sure it will show like new. She's the same lady that's coming to my house on Wednesday. I know it shouldn't matter, she's coming to see our craft fabric, not our house, but so much has gotten shoved aside this year because of DH working on the boat that it's not looking great, dirty windows, deck needs power washing, etc.  

Everyone else's house we meet at is always so spotless. I'm not a fan of housework, I have too many other things I'd rather do. I like a clean house but it does get cluttered. One woman that came over described it as "comfortable".  I'm taking that as a compliment. 

Today I'm working on a table centre piece for the boat. I apparently have the size wrong. I figured it would look good with 2" of teak showing around the edges... maybe not.

He Loves Me!

Look at what DH brought home right out of the blue!

He went to the store last night while I was making dinner to pick up something for dessert and came home with these (and chocolate cake :0}) They are so pretty.

I think what happened is he called his brother on Monday night and when he wasn't home his wife answered the phone. DH got an earful. I've never seen such a shocked look on his face in my life. She used to write to me until I told her she really should reapply for her landed immigrant card and her passport. Apparently that offended her so she hasn't talked to me for 2 years. But I remember the temper. I just considered myself lucky that she was gone from my life. I didn't realize DH didn't know about her temper. I guess I told him but he wasn't ever listening. So I figure that he realized how lucky he was to have an even tempered wife. I thought I was pretty bad last year when we were having problems but he said "No way". 

I've done very little today. Watered my neighbours plants for her.  Her deck is like a jungle. I've never seen so many plants in my life - huge suckers. I was expecting to hear a Toucan any minute. I finished my book, Fatal Fixer-Upper and it actually turned out to be a really good book. There's 4 in the series and I think I'm going to have to start reading them all.

When I took my books back to the library I had to check one out. I can't have a life without a library book in it! I've never been drawn to Debbie McComber's books aside from her Christmas ones but I saw one called Twenty Wishes. After watching Bucket List the other night I thought I'd like to see a variation on that. I constantly need new things to stimulate my brain and a list of twenty things I'd like to do seems much more manageable than a bucket list. 

Mars Rover "Curiosity"

Video of landing of Curiosity

Wow. I have been looking at the Yahoo main page at the news and I can't believe that the historic Mars Rover landing last night is way down the list of news! Yes, the Olympics are interesting and important to the athletes and I have been watching them, what little we are shown, but Curiosity is something that is important to all mankind! I'm sorry that people were killed in that Sikh temple yesterday but that's becoming a more common occurrence, unfortunately. And I'm sorry some guy was angry enough at the police that he drove his tractor over 6 police cars and crushed them, but Curiosity is about the future of mankind! It's a beginning to finding a solution to the overcrowding, poverty, hunger, in our world - not to mention the fact that nuclear weapons will probably be the end of us on this planet.

These people spent 2 years planning this and they actually succeeded, landing it 2 meters off their planned landing spot. I can't even imagine what that success feels like. I watched in awe, on the edge of my seat, while it slowed down to land. And when it landed and sent back the first picture? Holy Cow! Some of the technicians were crying I'm sure partly from the stress of not knowing if it would work but also the knowledge that they made history and the magnitude of what this means.

Time may seem short but it's been less than 500 years since Copernicus had his Eureka moment when he realized that the Sun was the centre of our universe. Considering the age of the earth that's a blip in time. And now man has landed a vehicle on Mars? Amazing.

It really does need painting

I'm more interested in people than I am in objects around me. We are starting restoration on our church. A church friend posted some photos on Facebook and I grabbed this one. I had no idea it was so bad! (Click to enlarge).

Yikes! It's also lead paint which is doubly bad. But by the end of September this will all be scrapped off and repainted. 

I woke up to a nice offshore breeze today. It feels SO good. We also have a high layer of cirus which makes the sun not so hot. This is BC Day weekend and the Sun Festival is on this weekend. I've never missed an antique fair yet. I usually go with my daughter but she's away so DH said he'd go with me. It's always more fun with another person, although I'd go by myself if I had to. This fair has been going on for 40 years now. I just realized I've been to 39 of them! Only reason it isn't 40 is because it started the year before I moved out here. 

I'm on to another book. It's so-so. I'm reading it cause it's there. It's called Fatal Fixer Upper by Jennie Bentley. It's pretty good for a first novel but I'll have to read a second one to find out if her writing style appeals to me. It's interesting enough but a lot of it is filler and it does bog down. I know it will all mesh at some point but I find there are too many different story lines. Oh well.  I borrowed it from the library and I always read what I borrow. There are very few books that I give up on and don't finish. Some just take me longer to read too. It took me months to finish "London" but I want to read it again. I'm also reading The Princes of Ireland right now.  I love Edward Rutherford's books. 

I love mysteries but I find a lot of the glut on the market of cozy mysteries have the heroine in her 30's. And there's always a love interest. Some I don't mind because it doesn't go into 6-packs and luscious lips. But the ones that do have more intense love interests kind of bore me. I'm 61 years old, well beyond the point that I notice these things. If the heroine was older and was interested in whether the guy had all his hair or mostly all his own teeth and wasn't so weak that he'd keel over on a walk through the park that's about all I need to know about that - and respect, of course. If I wanted to read romance I'd start reading Harlequin (I think - I've never read one). Maybe I need to start reading Agatha Christy Miss Marple books, I knit *LOL*

Okay, going to do a second post for today cause there's something I want to say that I think is really important. 

Afghan

I haven't been doing a lot besides reading but I am slowly working on this afghan for our prayer shawl group. I got the pattern free a couple of years ago, but I can't find the website now. If you're into crochet or knitting you gotta visit the Bernat website. You have to join but it's free and they have a gazillion free patterns (at least LOL). I like Bernat cause the yarn is such a reasonable price. I'm making this shawl/afghan from one ball of yarn that cost me $8.

and most importantly it's really, really easy! I've tried a few other projects and I'm just not that good at knitting/crocheting anymore. I had put it aside for awhile but have committed myself to crocheting 2 rows a night so it should be done by the time our group resumes in September. It will finish about twice this size.

Yesterday I did housework. Boy I'm not used to so much work. Because I wasn't able to do anything for a few months the whole house needs thorough cleaning. I need to pace myself. It's going up to 29C today (@90F), so far the house is cool but it's going to get really warm this afternoon. The outside needs a lot of trimming too but I can't stand the sun or the heat so I won't be going out there.

I may go down to the boat later and read. I've discovered it's a great place to sit on a warm day. I can't go inside much cause it's constantly breaking down and the floor is constantly just one big hole cause DH is working on the engines. But I can go up top.

I do have a blog where I was listing all the books I've read but I was reading so fast that I haven't been updating it. My current book is called Flash and Bones. Kathy Reich's books are the inspiration for the TV show Bones (which I love) and she really is a licensed forensic anthropologist in both North Carolina and in Quebec Canada. So the stuff that you read is correct to the processes. She's a great writer. 

I've been cheating on you :0(

I haven't been around much. And I have a confession to make. I've been blogging on another blog, like a personal diary. But I like it here with friends. So I'm going to try to blog more here quilting or not quilting.

First of all I've been reading a lot and when I went to the library the other day I finally got up the nerve to take a photo of one of their flower barrels. The first time I saw it I thought there was a tabby cat in there. Now there are a bunch of them. I have no idea what the plant is called. But since I love cats but don't have one I need one of these plants.

So what else have I been doing? I'm in therapy and my therapist can't believe how my face lights up when I talk about doing church things so I guess that's where I need to be. We're having the building restored and added to.  We're going to keep the chapel part the same but have the roof fixed and the lead based paint on the sides scraped off and repainted as a first step. On Saturday to begin to prepare for construction a bunch of us went and cleaned out the youth group room - furniture, fooseball table, everything. As we put stuff out on the sidewalk people kept walking by with their dogs or kids in baby carriages and asking how much we wanted for this or that. So it turned into an impromtu garage sale. We took some of the stuff to the thrift shop around the corner and a woman who bought a chair there asked if they knew where she could get another one. They told her to go around the block to the church and check the sidewalk *LOL*.

DH and I both feel well but we are both ill. I have to go to my kidney specialist twice a year now and go back to the kidney clinic cause I'm down to 30% function. Darn. I hate the fact that it makes me tired cause there's so much I want to do. I'm following all the advice, except getting back to walking - gotta remember to do that. DH is a different story. He destroyed his liver drinking for the last 40+ years. He still has a bit left and will live awhile as long as he quits drinking completely. He's still sneaking a glass of wine now and then. It makes me angry because I didn't cause my disease and I'm doing my best to combat it. He caused his disease and he won't do the one simple thing he needs to do to stop further damage.

The other thing I have to do is go to the local archives and see if they need volunteers. I love history and our area is full of it. It's only 150 years old, but still, it's interesting. A lot has happened in the last 150 years.

Sharing and Keeping a Record

Here's the latest thing I've made. I'm not too active cause I hate being squished into a small place to sew, but now that DH and I are getting along better he said I can have my sewing room back, thank goodness! Problem being I threw away a lot of stuff so I'm going to have to start collecting pattens again.

This is a luggage handle cover. I'm making a bunch of them for the craft group. A lot of people are tying ribbons on their luggage handles these days. Problem is if every ties on ribbons then they still all look the same. With different fabrics there's a way better chance of spotting your own bag as it goes by.

The pattern comes from Little Birdie Secrets.

I know I'm hardly on here any more but my memory is so bad that if I make things or take pictures of things I make I need to have a secure (Blogger is secure?) place to store an extra copy.

I'm 100% recovered from my head injury but my kidneys continue to get worse, can't win huh? But they are still working and for that I'm grateful.

I tried to knit a couple of things for our craft group cause no one knits. I discovered that I don't knit either *snort* so told the leader that from now on I will do only what I know I can do. Part of the problem is that we have to use donated wool or cheap wool and I'm not happy with the results. I am continuing on chrocheting afghans (the blankets, not the people) for our prayer shawl group.

Back to sewing!

Finally my head is clear enough to actually finish something. Earlier this week I finished the baby quilt I was making for my new great niece. The photo isn't great but it's a cute quilt. It's flannel so a bit warm for this time of year but I had bought the kit in November.

It's called season teddy bears or something like that.

When I was sewing the binding on my daughter came over and noticed I had some fabric left over. A co-worker just had a new grand daughter born on Monday so she asked if I could make a pillow. I think it turned out really cute.

I'm feeling completely better now so have gone back to my craft group and knitting group and relaxation group. Still not back at the chimes but that's mostly cause they practise at 6:00 at night and I find it really inconvenient. 

Oh! And one other exciting thing happened. I haven't been writing lately - not since 2007 or something actually. But I got an email from a girl in Northern Ontario who runs a small newspaper. She found my writing blog somehow and wanted to publish one of my stories! She sent me a copy of it and it seemed really funny to me cause she called me a professional writer.  

It's been awhile!

Hi everyone.

I thought since I haven't been quilting/sewing a lot that I wouldn't blog but then I realized there's nothing wrong with using the blog to keep in touch anyway.

Where to start?... Okay, I got it. I AM working on a quilt. I had a new great niece born on October 5. I bought a kit the beginning of November but have barely started it. I'm feeling like maybe getting back to it now.

I've been lacking the feeling of sewing for 2 reasons. First of all my dh wanted the downstairs to himself and insisted I move my stuff up into the office. It's very cramped in here... although there is a file cabinet that I think could go if I can find somewhere to put the two drawers full of actual files. The other two drawers are full of junk.

The second reason is because I was not well. I didn't know why but I just didn't feel right. Mid February I sent an email to my sister. It was 4 lines long and took me over 1/2 hour to compose. She called me as soon as she got it because it was gibberish. When she hung up from talking to me she called my daughter and told her there was something very wrong and to get me to the ER right away. It's funny to have someone 5000 miles away be the one to tell my family here what to do. But I am 11 years younger than her so I'm almost like one of her own kids. She basically raised me when I was little.

I don't remember much past going to the ER. I couldn't understand why they put me in a wheelchair when I was in triage. I remember them saying I had to go to a bigger hospital but I didn't know why. Turns out I had a subdural hematoma (my brain had been bleeding for 3 months). I don't remember a whole lot and maybe that's good. I do remember most of the stuff after my operation but very little while I was in the ER for 6 days waiting. The neurosurgeon finally blew a gasket apparently and insisted I needed to be operated on NOW.

Our hospital system here sucks. Sure we have universal medicare but not enough doctors and nurses so things get backed up. At this hospital they have patients in the hallways and janitor closets cause there aren't enough rooms and emergency patients get lined up too and more than once the hospital has closed down the Tim Hortons (like the US Starbucks) so that they can use that space for ER as well. My minister says if he ever needs to be in the ER he wants to be in Tim Hortons so they can just hook him up to a coffee IV *LOL* He loves his coffee... even brings his cup to the pulpit.

Anyway, I seem to be mostly back to myself. I still get tired and I get frustrated that I can't do more but they say it takes 6 months to recover. I also have to have another CT Scan this month to make sure that my body is absorbing any residual.

I've been reading a lot. I had been going through 3-4 books a week but now I'm down to about 2 most weeks. Plus on the side I'm reading the novel "London".  I'm finding it fascinating. I love history.

While this is going on my husband was told just before Christmas that he has Cirrhosis. I knew he did, he'd been getting worse for months, but he wouldn't listen to me. I was so glad to finally have a doctor tell him to his face. He's not really well I don't think but he is listening to what he has to do and he's doing it.

I better close for now. I'm looking forward to travelling around the blogs and seeing what everyone is up to.

Coming Back To Life

Hi again everyone. I just realized last night that I need to update my book blog so thought I'd drop in here first since it's linked from here. See along the left side where the cat is that says "What did I think of that book?" I'm listing all the books I've read and whether or not I liked them. I'm doing it mostly for myself cause I'm a voracious reader. I've read so many books from series that I forget which ones I've read so the blog helps me by listing them and reminds me what they were about. One thing I love about the Kindle is that if a book is available you can download a sample which is the first two chapters. So if the book is available on Kindle I can start to read it and I'll recognize it if I've read it before - usually. I've done so much reading in the last few months that I need to get at my blog again.

And why have you been reading so much Shirley? I was sick for 2 months. I've never been sick for 2 months before. I don't recommend it, it's the pits. I had a sinus infection which meant almost migraine like headaches - except with a sinus infection bright light doesn't bother you and you can jump up and down without it hurting more and reading doesn't make it worse. But my head hurt so much the last thing I wanted to do was jump up and down. It's impossible to get a doctor's appointment in the summer. So I went to the walk in clinic. The doctors there didn't give me anything that helped at all. I was taking 6 Advil a day. I eventually went to the ER and they gave me a CT scan which confirmed it was an infection and then I had to wait another week to get in to see my own doctor. Sheesh! At least she gave me antibiotics which got rid of the infection but the antibiotics also made me sick so it was another 2 weeks before I felt better. Boy it feels good to feel good. But I'm so far behind in absolutely everything now.

I haven't sewn much, needless to say. I did make a bag for the car for holding trash. It's neat. It hooks around the headrest. I don't have a picture of it but the tutorial is here. I made it as a bazaar idea. I don't know what the concensus is for the bazaar but I'm going to make one for myself and one for DH cause I personally really like it. No more receipts (or in DH's case chocolate bar wrappers and cigarette packages) on the floor.

I have a ton of projects lined up that I want to make but our summer has just now arrived so I don't want to be stuck in the house sewing. One of my niece's is pregnant so I'm hoping to get a baby quilt done for her. I still have a Noah's Ark panel that I'm going to use.

DH and I are getting along better now. He bought a boat which I didn't have much interest in when I was sick but I really like it and I'm enjoying starting to work on it now. It needed a lot of mechanical stuff done, which I couldn't do of course so DH did that. It also needs a lot of cosmetic work. The last owner hired someone cheap to stain the teak and to paint it so there's a lot of scraping and touching up to do. He renamed it, which you're not supposed to do. Poseidon doesn't like it when you do that. As a result DH ended up falling off the dock with his Blackberry hooked on his belt. It would have been an expensive punishment except he has insurance on it so it was replaced within days. Whew! Anyway, here's Cinnamon Girl (named after the Neil Young's song).

It's 42' long which is a little frightening since the only other boat we've had was only 19' but it's gorgeous! It's a 1970's era Trawler. It's beautiful inside, all teak walls and floors. It has two bedrooms, two heads and a V-berth and the galley is huge compared to most boats.

We hope to get out on a few days trips in the next couple of weeks. Then next summer we'll start going places. We have great neighbours at the marina so hopefully our first few outings we can just follow their boat until we get used to depths especially.

Guess I better get to work on my books. Going to surf around to everyone's blogs for a visit over the next few days.

Where on Earth has Shirley Been?

The last 6 months have been a long haul and a roller coaster ride like I have never before been on. I never did like roller coasters and this one is a doozie. I guess how this started is that DH is going through Mid Life Crisis and Life Transition Crisis. He's had highs and lows, he's had a emotional affair - which may or may not be continuing via email and text, and is misuse of alcohol is completely out of control. Good news is some days, or during a short period of some days, he seems almost normal.


The good news for me is that while this has all been devastating and confusing, especially at first, it has driven me to look at my codependency issues. It has forced me to become independent and I am beginning to feel like the person I was before that fateful day I said "I do"


I have done some sewing now and then but I have been so immersed in trying to become emotionally healthy again it has taken a back seat to my own recovery.


Last month I started yet another Blog and am basing it on my reading of The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie. I am sharing what I learn and giving my own feelings on what the topics mean to me today. I hope anyone who is interested will take a look at http://codependentme.blogspot.com/


I am using a lot of her books. Presently I am also using the Workbook that goes with Co-dependent No More. I am also doing daily readings in the book Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach and learning from the book The Courage to Be Yourself: A Woman's Guide to Emotional Strength and Self Esteem by Sue Patton Thoele.


I bought myself a Kindle for my birthday and I absolutely love it. I do find it harder on the eyes at my age than print books, more like a computer screen, but it could just be that I'm reading so much each day that my eyes would get tired anyway. I highly recommend Kindle though.


Thanks for reading.

Yes, I'm still alive and kicking

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted! Things are still up and down in my life but it's getting better. You know when you hit bumps and rough spots in the road is when you have your greatest growth so even though it's been tough I'm grateful for my personal growth.

I've become much more social in my real life thanks to my church. I hate to see that most people are either my age or older. It's a sad commentary on the future of the church.

I haven't been doing much quilting/sewing for myself lately but I've been enjoying trying new things that can be sold at the bazaar. How many quilts do I need anyway? Most of what I've made are put away in those shrink bags anyway never to see the light of day.

So lately I've made a few fun things. First of all aprons. These are really cute. They are patterns from Four Corners. They are meant to be made with a lining but seeing as we work with donated fabric it seemed a shame to put a lining on them when they don't really need one. It took some modification but I like them. I made mother daughter ones

I also had enough to make one with a sort of african fabric. Love it but I'm not really a sewer so the contrast fabric (which was a knit) kind of stretched on me. But it's still nice. 

I was trying to think of something new to offer and came up with the idea of iPad covers. I don't know how well they'll sell since iPad comes with it's own cover but you never know. I made two of these 

There are patterns on the Moda Bake Shop site but I used this one from - darn, can't find the URL and there are so many new tutorials popping up out there. Anyway, I think they're nice. 

I also made a small (10" x 5" approximately) heat in the microwave bag with a cover. Since we have a lot of older people in our congregation I thought it would be useful for those who have arthritis or something that need heat only in a small area. I've only made one to see if it is a seller. 

My goodness. I went to post this this morning and the Internet went down. So I went shopping and got stuff to make the adult bibs. 

I also bought 2 pair of pants and a sweater. Because of all the stress I've gone from a size 14 to a size 10 and I'm just not gaining anything back. Good excuse to buy new clothes but darned expensive.