Scissors, Telflon and Shampoo

For my birthday, I got a some nice gifts. I got a big bottle of Allsoft shampoo. That's the stuff that you can only get at a hairdressing shop. I used up the last of my Allsoft sometime this spring, and I've been using some smelly Almond stuff, which is good, but not the same as the Allsoft, so I was glad to get that as a gift.

I also got a Teflon Silpat non-stick cooking sheet. Martha Stewart uses one all the time for baking cookies etc. With this sheet you don't need spray pam or to grease the sheet at all. I've wanted one for a long time, but just never saw fit to get one. So now I have one and I'm going to make cookies this evening to see how it works. This is a neat gift for the baker in the family.

And I'm not sure if you know, but I have a scissor fetish. Here is a little collection of scissors I use every day. No exaggeration... I have scissors on my sewing table, my cutting table, my ironing board, and of course, my roller cutters get used every day. Here is a picture of part of my collection, the part that I could get to without disturbing too much. So on my birthday, I received a pair of cordless Black and Decker Scissors from Michele, Wade and the triplets. Of course all my scissors are cordless, but none are powered. I had never seen these before. How cool and they work pretty neat... no effort at all. See the video... I'm cutting the batting for Emily's quilt.

Thanks for all my birthday goodies everyone.

I'll see you in the Movies!

Well, maybe not a movie, but I got a phone call yesterday from Rogers Communications. They are doing various TV spots on "Green" ideas. Josie, the producer of these spots is organizing lots of interesting video's for Rogers Channel 10 and thought me making a recycled juicebag would be interesting for their viewers. The camera crew and interviewer will be here next Thursday to do the spot. So, my delimas are: I need to lose 20 pounds before Thursday... and my sewing room couldn't possibly be cleaned up by Thursday and it's too small for me, my makeup artist, my hairstylist, the camera crew, the interviewer, and the producer... So I think I'll set up "shop" in the kitchen for the afternoon.

I've had a half dozen juicebags on my to-do list for a month or two, so I've dug out the recycled juicebags and the old jeans and I'm preparing to sew this weekend. Since the Canada Day weekend sounds like alot of rain, I'll be sure to get some samples sewn ahead for video day.

PS: Look at my sister Donna's blog. The new washer and dryer are gorgeous..

Today is my Birthday

Today is my birthday. All day long. I get to do what I want today, and I even am being taken out for supper. It's such a special day. Well not that I can't do what I want every day, and it's not that I do all the cooking around here.

Actually, it's like every day is my birthday.

The best part about today, is that the Crossed-eye pair that my brother and I bought my sister (see her blog link to the right) arrives from Sears today.
It's so exciting since her washer and dryer are very old. When I stayed with her for a couple of weeks last month, I used the washer/dryer pair. They are so old that the markings are worn off the washing machine dial, and you need to turn it to the home made marker black line, or is it the red line, or is it the blue line. Some of Donna's make shift markings have worn off, and you need to know the secret combination to get the old washer going.

This new cross-eyed pair are more in step with Donna's energy efficient lifestyle. We bought this set for her as a special gift for all she did for our Dad. I can't wait to see the picture of the pair installed. Keep your fingers crossed that the Sears truck doesn't have troubles again.

We bought that for her as a special recognition gift for all she did for Dad

Shutterfly

My favorite photo developing website is Shutterfly. The problem is that it's in the US and it's expensive for shipping. I do put out the shipping dollars for their photobooks tho. I have tried several photobook places in Canada and none of them compare. Shutterfly has more page templates and page backgrounds than anyone else. Because I store my online photos there, I seem to get 1 coupon per year for a free 20 page book (in the end, this book had 42 pages, but the first 20 were free). I had received a coupon early last week, and I had until yesterday to use it. Even though it sounds like an easy job, it took me hours to sift through photos, and looking for good layouts. But I got it done. It's just a general book on the Mitchell's events/travels/kids/birthdays in the past 6 months. Here is the link.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/project/0CYtWjNqyasWEg/landing;jsessionid=DA7BE119E4935DC2E4286DCF7DD6B7C6

Don't tell me if you find a typo....:)

Emily's Quilt

I'm really coming along this week with Emily's quilt. I have all 28 blocks quilted and it's all together. I now have to do the borders. I will piece a small inner border, then apply to the tone on tone border. I will sandwich, and machine quilt the 4 borders separately. Then I will attach each of the quilted borders to the roses section. Then binding which I love doing. The final step is to wash the quilt, to get the french roses all fuzzy. I'm so relieved that I'm going to meet my deadline.

Next on my list of projects is to cut out sun dresses for the girls.

Can you spot the Poison Ivy

Does any of this look like Poison Ivy? Every year for the past few years, my poor husband gets poison Ivy rash. We think it's coming from a patch in the back of our cottage. Have a good look at these photos. Do you see anything suspicious? Some say to look for 5 leaves, and some say to look for 3 leaves. Some say to look for white flowers, and some say to look for red berries.

The secret is out!

Off to the cottage we went for the weekend. Knowing the weather was not promising, I had high hopes of making a few juice bags that I'm behind on. I packed up my juice bags, old jeans etc, and away we went. On Saturday morning, the weather was very overcast and I thought to myself... no problem, I'll just start sewing. I thought I had brought my older sewing machine down to the cottage during our first van full of stuff when we first started up the cottage in early May, but you guessed it... I hadn't brought it. So it turned out to be a super relaxing weekend of watching TV, walking, and lying in the sun (it came out late on Saturday). I took some pictures of the plants which are all doing quite well despite the wet start to the spring. The birds nest that was in our upside down canoe is now vacated, and I took a picture of that. I am amazed that birds can make a perfectly round bowl out of mud. I also took pictures of plants in back of our cottage, to see if anyone can identify if they recognize poison ivy. And finally, I made myself a list of things I need to do this week, so I feel like I'm all organized for the week ahead. Mert puttered around the cottage all weekend. One of the things he did this morning was play with one of Kenny's fishing rods to see if it worked. The lure was a rubbery little octopus like thing. When you reeled in the line slowly, it looked like a little frog swimming. Very neat how they do that.. The poor fish now a days don't have a chance. In the old days, I used to use cut up wieners. :)

My secret is out of the bag, sorta. Those who guessed it has something to do with my sister, are right! I won't tell you what the secret is today, but I will tell you, that my sister will have to change her ways. Her family will now include a cross-eyed pair. I think she's ok with all this. She'll probably take a picture and show you on Tuesday.

A secret

A forgotten early morning car tune-up delayed my run yesterday. But today, when I got up, I just put on my running duds, and that was all I needed to help me on my way. It's a beautiful sunny slightly cool morning. No need for sweathers or windbreakers. Just a nice morning. I ran my 4.5 k in around 37 minutes. That's 5 minutes longer than it normally takes me, but I was so relieved just to get out. Now the rest of the day is mine, mine, mine. Do you all know what I mean!!

I'm making great progress on Emily's quilt. I have all 28 blocks quilted and I now have 7 rows of 4 blocks put together. Once they are joined, then I'll work on the borders. That will take a week. Then the binding. I'm sure my July 11th deadline will be no problem and I'm feeling lots of relief.

This will be our first full weekend at the cottage and the weather looks promissing. We have no plans. Just puttering around the yard, mowing the lawn, picking up stray brush, weeding. Next weekend, I really wish the Canada Day holiday was on a Monday or any other day than Tuesday. That way the working folks get a long weekend. I think on the Sunday - June 29, I'll make a Canada Day picnic at the cottage and hopefully the kids will come for a visit.

Have a good weekend everyone. I'll only post on Monday. I have a secret to share with you..

Running and Emily's French Rose Quilt

Well, it's been a month since I have had a good run. I'm behind on my exercise. The guilt is now starting to drive me crazy. Mert dragged me out today for a walk . It was warm, I was a little overdressed and I was bushed when I got back from our walk. So I've decided that tomorrow is the day to get back at the running. Tomorrow, I'll get my running duds on and go out to give it a go. I know I'll be sore, but I'm afraid if I don't start soon, I'll not start again at all.


Also, today I had Valerie and Lois come for coffee. I invited them last week to come over to help me with my Quilt as you go project - the French Rose for Emily. A few weeks ago, Emily quietly asked me, if I was working on her French Rose quilt for her July 11th Birthday. I whispered to her, Yes.... Well, the truth is, I had been working on it right up until mid-May when I went to Nova Scotia to be with Dad. I had 28 blocks done which is quite a bit. But ever since she asked me that, I've been obsessing about making sure I have this done for her birthday. So after coming back from Newfoundland, and Campbellton, I knew this past Monday would be the big day I put some real time in by starting to sandwich the blocks and stippling them. So knowing that Valerie and Lois were coming over this morning for coffee to help me with the binding the blocks together part, I worked like the dickens on Monday and Tuesday and had gotten 17 of 28 blocks stippled and trimmed to size. I finalized my method of attaching the blocks together and we had a lovely coffee break with Val and Lois. This evening, I stippled more blocks and now have 25 of 28 done. Yippee....the pressure is starting to lift. Tomorrow morning, after my run, I'll work on stippling the rest of the blocks and trimming them all. I'll take it day by day, committing to only work on that project until it's done.


I'll report on my progress in a day or two.

Happy Birthday Grampie

What could be better than having a birthday party and all 6 of your grandkids with you to help blow out all those candles.

Happy Birthday Grampie.

Lighthouses and Knitting

Well, our trip to Newfoundland is almost over. Yesterday we travelled from Bonavista to Twillingate. Jill who is a friend of my sisters, told me her hubby is from Fogo Island. That's only a hop and skip away from Twillingate by ferry. Along the way, with so many coves, we saw lots of lighthouses. Here are a few really nice ones. The top one is at Twillingate, the other one is at Bonavista. At the Bonavista lighthouse giftshop, we saw some great knitting. These Newfie mitts have trigger fingers. I love the way the look when there are so many of them. I also love, love, love this knit sweater. If any of you know where to get this pattern, please let me know. It's definitely a classic sweater.

So, today, we're back in St. John's getting organized for our flight back to Freddy Beach. We're heading out to the mall to get some last minute things and souviners.

We'll talk you all when we get back on the mainland tomorrow around suppertime.

Bergs, Bergs, and More Bergs

Today, we along with Ed and Lois Mehan, drove about 350kms along the Irish Loop of the Avalon peninsula. Our drive led us around the coast where we saw lots of barren land, many small villages, and lots of interesting sights. I thought the land looks very much like Cape Breton. We started to come back on the back half of the loop and we started to see icebergs. We must have seen at least 8 or 10 bergs. We stopped to take pictures of lots of them. Icebergs are like clouds. They start to take on images, do you see the one that looks like a dolphin. It was quite neat. We saw this moose on the road too. We stopped the car, and the moose looked at me, then turned as if to pose. Then quietly walked off the road.

It was a nice day. Tomorrow, we're off to Bonnavista. Not sure if we'll have internet to show pictures. It might have to wait until Wednesday before you see more pictures. Tuesday, we travel to Tuillingate... Wednesday, we're back to St. John's.

Home, Home on the Rock

I'm currently in St. John's Newfoundland, and this is the last day of our Quilt Canada conference. I've spend the last 6 days staying in a sparse but adequate dorm room at the Memorial University. They are much like the dorms at UNB. The good thing is that I have a double room all to myself.

Daily quilt classes are held in nearby buildings. Today I take a beading/embellishing class from Bonnie Voice, who is from Alberta. Tonight is the grand final banquet being held at the Fairmont Hotel. I understand that we'll be piped in and the whole thing is expected to be spectacular.

Even though this week was fun, I've seen lots of works that have inspired me. Now I can't wait to get home to sort through pictures and see what goes on my to-do list. I won a book at last night's banquet, called Alex Andersons neutrals. It has lovely projects and when I opened the book, it fell to a quilt that I just love. So that is the first item to go on my list.

Mert arrived by plane yesterday, and he is staying with Ed, at the Ramada downtown. Lois and I will join them bright and early tomorrow as we head for a few days of sight-seeing.

It's not quite done, but I have to show you a wallhanging that I made in Judy Morningstar's "Home, Home on the Rock" class. This is a picture of my "Home, Home on the Rock". It'll be a great souvenir of my time in Newfoundland.

I'll be back in Freddy Beach on Thursday, June 12.