Gifts of Grace - July

Here is July's applique/embroidery block from Val Laird's Gifts of Grace. I think I should have made the lettering a more toned down gold but I like it anyway. I love mushrooms, especially red ones with white splotches.

 We actually have summer here today.  I think in BC summer must be like Forrest Gump - "Summer is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're gonna get." So today is 28C (@86F), too hot to really do much. I cooked a roast that we can eat cold for dinner with some cole slaw. I've given up on Deli meats. I mean I never paid much attention to them before. I thought they were higher quality than packaged meats. Then one day I asked about the salt content in the turkey breast because of my renal diet. The kid at the deli went in the back and brought out this wrapped, supposed, turkey breast and showed it to me. Turkey breasts aren't round like that and they don't come in a Maple Leaf wrapper. And they don't have a way high salt content. Well, I guess unless they fed the turkey lots of potato chips maybe. So I guess deli meats are reconstituted turkey bits slammed together, cooked and wrapped. Ick.

We were hoping to get the boat in the water today. But yesterday we pulled it out of the shed and husband fired up the engine. The engine works fine but the hydraulics don't, which means you could sit by the side of the dock and rev all you want but the engine won't lower into the water so you're not going anywhere. So he's working on that now.

We try to involve Michael in these things when possible. A lot of the time he rolls his eyes and is annoyed that we are asking him to do things he doesn't want to. When we were done testing we asked him to drive the truck forward a bit into the garage (the shed is behind the garage). Because we'd been working with water the grass was sodden and the back wheel spun. Michael was upset but DH showed him how to put the truck in 4WD and explained how that works. The truck went ahead smoothly.

When we'd finished and the boat was back in the shed and the truck in the driveway Michael was looking at the spot where he'd spun the wheel and he was VERY upset that he'd done that. I told him it would have happened to anyone, it happened to DH when we first put the boat in there. Michael just shook his head, got down, and began pulling tufts of grass out of other places and trying to cover up the mud *LOL* He was fixing it. Gotta love him. It took quite a few reassurances for the rest of the night to get him to finally say okay. Once he stopped mentioning it I hope it really was okay, that he wasn't still feeling bad about it.

 I did vacuum on Friday and I did get my book finished. Now I'm almost done another book I started on Saturday. Darn this reading habit. I was told about this new book. It's called House Rules and it's about an 18yo boy who has Asperger's Syndrome and is arrested for murder. A lot of what the book says I know is true and I know I am extremely lucky that Michael doesn't have all of the more trying difficulties that this mother has to deal with. And yet there are things that are the same and I'm nodding my head and saying yes to myself. It's a sad read, for me, but it's also gratifying in that it confirms that I'm not imagining things, I didn't cause things, things just are what they are.  And some things make me smile because I know the disorder, I know the literalness and inability to lie that goes along with it.

I was glad to see that this book and another one that I have ordered in, when available, aren't on the library shelves. They are out being read and hopefully not by people who deal with Aspergers but people who can learn from the books.


Today's gratitude is I'm grateful for libraries... if there weren't libraries I'd go broke buying books.

Pin Cushion/Organizer

I made one of these for myself last year and I absolutely love it. Of course I do a lot of hand work so it's really good for keeping my scissors and stitch ripper handy and the little bag is great to have any time. You can use it to throw away wrappers or Kleenex or whatever too and then it just unbuttons to empty. So I made this one yesterday

I made it from fabric in that bag of so called scraps I got for $2 at the Thrift Shop last week. I was only going to make one bazaar item a week but I just had to try this one. The pattern is from Tip Nut They are not for retail selling but this is charity so I hope it's okay. She has amazing patterns, craft ideas, recipes and more. I got the link originally from Molly, she's the Queen of Links if every there was a Queen.

It's nice here today. A bit chilly in the wind but overall a pleasant summer day. I know I should be outside working but it's my vacuuming day plus I'm reading the novel Keeping the House and it keeps hopping into my hands. Very good book. I'm about 3/4 way through now. I'd had to put it down to read a couple of other books and am just now getting back to it.

Hope everyone is having a good Friday.

Table Runner

I've been wanting to get this up all day. I'm proud of this one. It's a free pattern from Quilt Bug  This one is called a table topper, I call it a table runner - tomato, tomato - wait, that doesn't work in typing. Anyway you know what I mean. She has some absolutely wonderful patterns. I'd forgotten.

This is for the bazaar again. The focus fabric I fussy cut for the middle is like a drapery or upholstery fabric but I love the design and it works really well for a focus. It has a neat texture. I have lots of fabric left so am going to make at least one more. I may switch the fabrics around, I'll see. 

I had one heck of a time with the binding. The first try didn't work at all. Then I tried sewing it down... major mistake. So I took it off and resewed it and instead of trying to do the quilt corner turn I took a small tuck. I only used the quilt corner turn idea on the ends. 

Also next time I think I'll quilt as I go. It would work well with this pattern and save time not having to stitch in the ditch to quilt it. 

It was a beautiful day again today but really too hot to be working outside so finishing this up was the perfect project. 

Then I went down to the store and picked up hamburger so when DH walked in the door all I had to do was hand it to him and say "Barbeque" and dinner took care of itself *LOL*

Oh, and by doing a search on the internet I think maybe what they were filming here was Fairly Odd Parents. I have no idea what that is cause it's on Nickelodeon, which we don't get in Canada. It must be an adult thing even though it's a cartoon. There was a lot of swearing in the video clips I found. 

Filming again

I wasn't feeling well on the weekend so didn't get a whole lot done. But antibiotics have done their job and I'm feeling much better. I did a few little jobs like sweeping off the patio and returning pop cans. I got $23 for them so we decided to go spend it on dinner. I wish I'd had my camera - actually DH did have his in his truck but he didn't tell me that.

We went to a waterside pub and sat outside. There are two restaurants beside each other, one was packed. So we went to the one next door. It was pretty empty but maybe it's because it's a pub so children aren't allowed. We sat outside on their patio which is covered. The sun hadn't gone down yet but at 6:30 in the evening it was so calming to watch the sun gleaming off the water and pleasure boaters just floating around. Can't wait til we can do that too. The food was delicious. Fresh caught Halibut and chips. I'm not supposed to eat potatoes but for some reason during the summer all rules go out the window. Hope I don't damage myself too much.

On the way home we noticed they were setting up to film again. This happens a lot here. It's a small quiet town so not difficult to close off a couple of streets. The sets were so adorable. That's when I found out DH had a camera so I jumped out and took some photos. I should have gotten closer but there you go. My daughter was looking at the pictures last night and said they look like Disney sets like Roger Rabbit. They do actually. The guy guarding wouldn't tell us which move/tv show they were filming. They never do.

One of the buildings they were using is an auto repair shop that renovated a couple of years ago and is just so cute. It fits in with the heritage of the town but also looked so cute as an ice cream parlour.

The next part of the building they used also as an auto place. Notice the A has fallen off and put back in in chalk. The original A was lying on the ground.

Down the street a lawyers office has been changed into a bicycle store

I had intended to go down the next morning when the plastic covering was off the bikes in front but didn't make it. 

And there was the cutest bus stop sign, which unfortunately was washed out from the sun shining on it, but this little kid was sitting on the bench so I took a photo anyway. 

Haven't done any sewing. Yesterday was my busy day of the week. Besides laundry we were totally out of food so I had to go shopping too. Then my daughter came over to do her laundry here. 

Today I need to iron. One problem with summer is that a lot of the clothes are cotton and that means a lot of pressing. I hang things to dry but collars, etc need a little press.  So do pants. I'm also working on sweeping off our patio so we can finally get it power washed. 

Gratitude. It looks like another clear week ahead and the boat is finally, FINALLY, ready to get wet. It will take some practice. DH hasn't steered a boat since the 1960's. But he's just so darn smart when it comes to these things. 

Chinamen and Bargains

I'm not a rude person, however I am getting so totally ticked off by all the comments that are left in Chinese that I have to say something. When I was a child (early 1950's) people were not so politically correct. The man who picked up the laundry next door was referred to as the Chinaman. It's the rudest thing I can think of to call these people. They don't have personal blogs.. they are advertising something or other, in Chinese, and I don't read Chinese. I also know it's not called Chinese, it's Mandarin or Cantonese but I can't tell which is which and so I will be even ruder by calling it by something that doesn't exist.

There, that feels better - not as good as if they would stop, but better. Yes, I have complained but I don't know if it's about these people cause I can't read it and Blogger will only accept one complaint about each person.

Now to my post.

I do get the occasional bargain but yesterday I hit the jackpot. I really need to stop going to the Thrift Shop. The things that I buy there lately are for the bazaar at the church and I don't get reimbursed. Not that I mind but since we bought this computer I need to be careful.

We have a chair that was in our living room. When I bought DH a Lazyboy there wasn't room for the other chair anymore. It's in great condition but I can't even give it away because it's too large. It has lovely large arms and is great for curling up in. So I went to the Thrift Shop with a photo and asked if I could take it there. They take chesterfields and other household stuff. The supervisor said no, that it was too big. But I couldn't just walk away, I just had to go in and look at the fabric shelf. And look what I got!

2.5m of good quality blue corduroy that will be perfect for book bags and other totes for $5

A meter of backing for some placemats and a table centerpiece that I have fabric for. This is poly, which I don't like, but it will work. Got it for $1.25

And the piece de resistance, scraps... large scraps .5 meter minimum that are absolutely perfect for making those pincushions and bags that go on the arm of a chair for $2.00! Hard to see but there are 8 pieces

And in the mail I got a FQ that I had ordered on eBay to make my husband a bookmark or two. He wanted M&M and the beads like the embroidered ones I made for the bazaar.

So now I have my sewing cut out for me but with this nice weather my first priority is to keep working on the yard. I'm putting down landscaping fabric and bark mulching around the edge of the yard so hopefully next year there will be very few weeds, just the things that I want. 

Oh, I forgot, a gratitude huh? I'm grateful that Michael has agreed to at least try medication again. His behaviours have been wearing me down. 

I'm kind of back. My computer was totally trashed. It probably had a virus. We worked on it for a day and a half and even I, who usually have the ability to fight frustration, was ready to throw it out the window. I asked DH to please remove the glass cause windows are expensive. He's suggested we use it for a boat anchor cause the boat doesn't have one *LOL*

So I now have an iMac. I doubt we can afford it but here it is none the less. The screen is stupid big.. 21". It was the smallest I could get in a desktop. The desktop was way cheaper than a laptop - by about $800. And it's all wireless and it's light so I could move it around the house if I really wanted to. Even though I'm having a bit of trouble using it because I'm so used to a PC I have to say I really like it. 

I also discovered that you can rent movies from iTunes for 99 cents. I don't see any I'd want to rent but I might one of these days and watching it on this screen is like watching a small TV. 

So this is where I'm at now. It's a lot cooler here now than it was. It's actually really nice. in the high 70'sF I'd say. But that's a little depressing too. I have so much work to do outside cause the weather was too cold and wet and then way too hot. So it's a mess out there and my poor house is suffering from neglect too. I hate feeling overwhelmed. Oh well, take one thing at a time and you'll get there right?

I also finished the July Catalicious Block. Having tea with Rilo.

Off to straighten up or something. Hope you're all having a good day.

Out of Commission

Won't be around for awhile. I downloaded a toolbar from Zynga on Facebook and it's totally trashed my computer. Things are corrupted all over the place and I'm going to have to go shopping for a new one.

I'm using DH's computer to type this but this thing is a real dinosaur and we never know if it's going to work or for how long.

I've lost a whole lot of stuff. I swore I was going to back up to a thumb drive - even have one sitting there in an unopened package - and I never did. So I've saved what I can. Lost all my favorites and email addresses. Guess I'll be starting from scratch so if no one misses me and doesn't write to me then  I'll have lost them. I do have my yahoo address that I use on here so I have the addresses that way but others who wrote to me on my personal account are out of luck.

  I didn't go to church and do that announcement cause on Saturday night I felt like I was going to throw up and I had nightmares all night so was exhausted by the morning. We did do sandwiches this morning with the 5 of us that I'd called and apparently the minister did ask for help for me.  I'm so glad today is over. We also had to go to a new lawyer this afternoon to update our Wills which is never fun, especially when I am so concerned about what will happen to Michael.