Happy Thanksgiving/Columbus Day

To everyone else Happy Monday!

Life sure isn't like it used to be. Things like Thanksgiving used to be a big family deal. Maybe it's cause I'm not a kid anymore and my family is mostly gone now but I don't think so. I think the world is just moving so fast that the thought of slowing down and being thankful, counting our blessings, is overshadowed by sales and just plain shopping. Most people have to go out to work just to make ends meet so there is no other time for them to shop.

When I was a kid stores weren't open on Sundays and holidays, neither were movie theatres. We didn't have a television until I was 10 and even then television on a Sunday was rarely allowed.

We had time to *gasp* reflect, to spend time with family and friends and enjoy it. Maybe my mom who was stuck doing the cooking didn't think so but I never heard her complain. She never entertained at any other time so I guess she looked forward to it.

This year we're having our turkey a week late cause our daughter has 2 other places to go and she really wants to have the time to enjoy it at home instead of having it blurred into yet another dinner. My husband is retired and I'm kinda retired but still today is just another Monday. Except that I'm trying to focus on the things I am grateful for. It isn't difficult.

Have a great day.

Fall Embroidery

I finally finished my Fall embroidery I was doing. It wasn't my choice. I had two but hubby liked this one better cause of the cat. I think I need to get him a kitten. I was going to do the other one too but now I'm on to hand quilting my snowman quilt.

I decided to use crayon on it cause it was kinda blah without it. But I'm not sure. DH says it looks fine with just the sunflowers heavily coloured cause they're the focus. I think it all needs to be heavily coloured. Any opinions? I've never coloured before. Both husband and Michael kept telling me not to go outside the lines *LOL* I also said to DH "Bee's aren't all yellow like that." He said "This one is" *LOL* Gotta love a supportive husband.

I bought this frame at the thrift shop and was going to rough it up to use. But now I saw Angela's Ball stitchery and I'm so totally in love with that frame Jim makes.

DH also found out through the grapevine yesterday that the kid in the park that got stabbed was treated and released. It was really no big deal as stabbings go. Everyone thinks they got out the copter and all congregated around here cause they were bored. The never get to take the copter out cause nothing ever happens around here. Their motto is "No call too small".

There's never much action if they're assigned to the South district. We do have teenage parties and stuff that they break up and they do drive around looking for crime but on the whole I think the job is a bit of a snooze. Of course then they have to do rotations in the North District and it's gotta be a total adrenalin rush for the whole shift up there.

It finally got kinda frosty here last night.. okay 2C (@34F), which is mild compared to other areas, but still I'd have to put a coat on and everything to go out.

WINNER Hallowe'en Giveaway

Today's the day! I hope none of you are dizzy from being shaken around in a plastic lunch bag *LOL*

And the winner is
Quiltluver! Congratulations Karen.

I'll go down and press them (honest) and get them into the mail as soon as you answer my email giving me your address.

The little scarecrow above I made 5 or 6 years ago when I was in my need to try something new period. He turned out pretty well. I saw a photo and just tried to recreate it my way. He turned out kinda cute. His pumpkin is a plastic one I bought that has batteries in it and the eyes flash green when it's turned on. I really should try to find him and dig him out for the season.

Had a rather odd night here last night. I always say our area is so safe I could go out for a walk at 3am and not worry. We've been here for 15 years and I think that concept is changing. Probably cause life is changing... on weekend nights anyway.

A few weeks ago there were two groups of kids down the street and it was getting pretty rough. A girl started to scream. So I called the police and they said they'd already had calls. Of course by the time the police got here half the kids were gone. But they questioned the ones who were left and maintained a presence for a couple of hours.

Last night at 11:00 an ambulance came down the street. No biggie, the ambulance is frequently going down that street cause someone down there must have a medical problem. But then I heard a helicopter overhead. It was the police copter flying at about 200 feet, doing a grid, obviously looking for someone. First thing we locked all our doors and windows.

Just yesterday morning in the paper we read about that kid Colton Harris-Moore. Then there were reports that he was in Pt. Roberts, Washington which is right near us. So we started thinking maybe it was him they were after. We really need a police scanner, I'm way too curious to not have one. We had the radio on two different channels and kept switching back and forth to news channels on TV but nothing.

First thing I did this morning was snap on the 24 hour radio news channel and there it was. Stabbing in Cromie Park, which is at the end of our street. Yikes! It's a soccer field and has bright lights they turn on for night games but they really need to be on all the time cause teens do congregate there. That would be one heck of an electric bill though huh? No specifics yet, of course, but I'll be watching/listening throughout the day to find out what happened. Used to be the biggest thing that happened around here were horses falling in ditches. Times have changed.

To Stopper Border or Not to Stopper Border

Those of you who were on the old blog may remember that 2 years ago *blush* I was making this Catch A Falling Star quilt. I finally got the last two blocks attached last week. Now I need to finish it with borders.

I didn't like the finishing on the pattern. It had a black stopper border and then a large red border. It didn't fit in with my quilt, I guess cause I used more country kind of fabrics. So I decided to make 1/2 sq triangles to use as a border.

I looked at the quilt with no stopper border... looks okay. Then I tried black and I tried a light red. I think I like the red. So I'm crossing my fingers and going for it. So hopefully I'll be able to show this quilt again in a few days with the borders on. Then it's going out to be quilted cause I really, really, like this one. Funny how some can become our favorites.

Still sunny today. I may go out and use the outdoor Windex stuff and clean the windows. I like it cause it cleans the screens at the same time. And it doesn't go all streaky on me.

Hallowe'en Giveaway Reminder

Don't forget everyone that tomorrow is the day I choose a winner for my Blogtoberfest Hallowe'en giveaway. If you haven't entered yet go to my post here to sign up.

It's getting difficult to blog every day. Only now do I realize what a bore I am *LOL* I do have lots to do. I'm working on a fall embroidery which is taking longer than I'd hoped since I usually stitch in the evening and with my husband home evenings I prefer to spend time with him watching TV. I may finish it tonight though.

I'm also trying to fix up my Family Tree after my computer crash. When I transfered it onto the new computer it did fine but dropped all the vital statistics such as birth, death, etc. With 5500 people in my tree it's taking hours to go through and replace all those dates. Not that I really care about a lot of them but if the next generation wants to pick up where I left off I want to leave behind all I have for them. It's been labour intensive cause it's really not fun and I'm at a point in my research now that I just want to put together relevant stuff into a mini book and then move on to a new hobby. I'm genealogied out.

And then there's the fact that today and tomorrow are our last semi-nice days for awhile and I still have a lot of winterizing to do in the yard.. which I hope to get to this afternoon.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Tis the Season

It's official. I heard the first flock of geese headed over to the rendevous area at the George Rifiel Bird Sanctuary. This is a photo of my b-i-l who passed away in 2006 when he was here visiting in October of 2005. As you can see the area is inhabited year round by ducks but in the Fall the Canada Geese go there to fatten up for their trip south. This particular goose decided that rather than waiting to be offered seed he'd just help himself out of George's pocket *LOL*

I know Rifiel is an odd name for a bird sanctuary but it's named after the man who owned all that land and donated it for the sanctuary. It's a great place to spend an afternoon with lots of trails, lookouts and benches.

It still doesn't feel like October out there. The leaves are still green and even though today has been cloudy we've been having many gusts of sunshine.

I found an awesome blog today. I was checking out Facebook and I had joined the Lazy Girl Designs facebook page. She had a link to Pat Sloan - the pattern and fabric designer. That lead me to Pats blog. Her blog is amazing! If you check all the things listed down the side most of them are hers. She has free patterns and how to videos. I LOVE how to videos.. cause I like to "see" things done. That's how I learn. There's a link in my blogs I follow but here's the link anyway.

http://patsloan.typepad.com/pat_sloans_corner/

Off to do a few more fall clean up chores that I thought I could leave til Spring.

Snowman Quilt

A post a day? And it's only day 6? Oh boy, that's quite a bite that's rolling around in my mouth.

Okay, here's something I wasn't going to share til it's done but what the heck. I did the embroidery for this quilt once for a shop sample. They were so cute I just HAD to make the quilt myself. I mean how can you resist this face?


I've been using it for two winters now as a coverup for a white brocade chair in the livingroom. I originally had quilts on there cause we had cats. No cats now but quilts still look nice on it. So after clearing up my quilting room and finding all these UFO's I decided it's probably time to quilt it. I know part of the problem was I had no backing. But I did have enough of this fabric line that I could make a patched backing. Some of the pieces are from other projects so it's different colours than blue.. but that's okay Shirley.. stop being so picky!

This one I'm actually going to try to hand quilt. I figure it won't be that hard, quilt around the squares and then put a snowflake in the between spots. Haven't decided about the borders yet. Something simple.... maybe smaller snowflakes. It's going to be so snuggly. It's a very soft flannel.

What else is new since 24 hours ago? Geesh! Oh, I know. My husband LOVES pumpkin pie. But not just any pumpkin pie. It has to be made from my mom's recipe- which my older sister claims is hers but I don't think so. For one thing mine had Mace in it and hers doesn't, although she claims she just deleted it from the recipe. Plus the recipe calls for a "dessertspoon full of flour" That's definately a 1930's, maybe '40s kitchen measure. Since my sister wasn't born until 1940 I deduce it is my mothers, or grandmothers, recipie. Anyway, horrors of horrors I lost my recipe! So I had to write to my sister and ask if she had "the recipe" not "her" recipe or "moms" recipe just "the" recipe. At first she couldn't find her copy either. Isn't it funny how something like losing a recipe for pie can throw you into a panic? Well, seemed serious to me anyway cause I agree it tastes better than others. But she finally found it and emailed it to me so a pie was in the oven yesterday afternoon... and I did add Mace to her recipie.

Now I think I'm going to write the recipe out and put it in our safety deposit box *LOL* I bet other people have strange things in their's too.