Blessed

I am very happy we moved down to High River.  It's a beautiful place, we have a lovely home, the town is quaint and close to a lot of things to do.  But it doesn't have "my people".  I know eventually I will have "people" but I will be hard pressed to find as many great ones like I had here in High Prairie!!!!!!  I was and am blessed.

I spent more time with some of "my people" today.  Lunch with my quilt pals....Judy, Marla, Corinne and Sandra.  Then a visit with my friend Erica and her wonderful, fantastic store where I used to "work" (a term I use loosely as it was so much fun doing displays!!!!).  I need to squeeze in another visit with her before I head home.  Then off to my nail girly Sandy!!!!  She treated me to a luxurious manicure and luxurious it was!!!!!!  My nails look amazing (I haven't found a Sandy replacement in High River and honestly I really don't think I will.  One day I might find someone "suitable") and the scrub and hand/ arm massage were Heavenly!!!!!!!!

After my nails I ran up to the bank and drugstore.....good thing I washed my 4Runner today. :-(

As I write this it is really raining heavy again!!!!!!  Some thunder and lightning too....wowzers!  If this is going to be the weekend weather I'm happy I will be at retreat sewing!!!!!!!!

Speaking of which, Judy is picking me up at10:30 tomorrow morning and I am not packed yet so off I go.  Stay tuned for pics from the most amazing retreat place I have ever been to!!

Wednesday

Weird day weather wise.......sun, rain, clouds, sun, rain, sun, cloudy.....now it's sunny.  :-). But I had a great lunch date with my friend Darlene!!!  I sure miss our visits.....Darlene used to have a store in town and I'd go and have great chats with her there!!!!!!  Today's visit was too short!!!  I'm sure I talked her ear off!  hahaha. I thoroughly enjoyed it....I hope she did too!  ;-)

Before I left for lunch, my Dad was doing what he loves best.....cutting the grass!  Here he is with his dog Sophie.  He has a little dog bed and she stays there while he's cutting away.....it looks like he's wearing a slipper but that's the dog bed.

Now I'm just watching the tube....I should be cutting projects for the weekend retreat.  Soon!

Some Purchases

A quick post with pics of some of my purchases from yesterday!!!  The shopping is officially done for this trip!!!!  (Except the things I have set aside at A Few of Your Favorite Things!!!!!)

Fabric for the free pattern at the left side.

Close up of the boots

My shoe splurge!!!!

A few books and buttons and bobbins!

Having lunch with another friend today and I'm looking forward to that!  We need to catch up!!!!  Hmmmm I wonder how my weigh-in at Curves will go next week!!!!  :-/. Oh well, back on the wagon then!

G.P.

Today, day 5 of the vay-cay, I went shopping with my best buddy Kim, to Grande Prairie.  Not once was the radio turned on; not once was there a lull in the conversation (I just wondered why my throat is sore!!!!  Hahahaha!); the debit/credit cards were smoking!!!!!!!  First stop was the quilt shop.  I bought fabric for a new project and a couple of books and some buttons.  Lunch at Earls followed by Sole Addiction.  www.mysoleaddiction.com. They are also on Facebook!!!!  I had never been to the store before but WOWZERS is all I can say!!!  Neat and unique shoes and boots....a few of which came home with me!!!!!!!!  😜  Then to Timmies to grab an iced coffee (we were both thirsty....wonder why?!?!?) and then onto The Primitive Lane:

I took this on the way out...see the "Closed" sign???  LOL.  We closed the place down!!  Was nice to check out their new space although they had moved to this side sometime ago.  Made a small purchase there.  Next up, Fabricland before they closed.  I bought some different "fabric" for some non-quilty projects then to Starbucks for more refreshments....thirsty again!  London Drugs, Marks Work Warehouse then Pet Smart for some stuff for this precious soon-to-be new addition to our family:

Apparently she wouldn't stand still for her picture.  😊 She will be making the long trek home with me next week.  I can't wait to get some kitten snuggles!!!  It's been so long!

We made it back to my Dads about 10 pm!!!!  And man, I'm still thirsty!!!!!  So much chatting!  

An awesome day with a great pal!!!!!!!!  Now it's way past my bedtime!!!!!

Day 4...right?

Today my Dad had meetings so I went in to town for lunch, a bit of shopping then home as my brother, my sister-in-law and my nephew were coming out for supper and I was on salad and dessert duty.  Anyway, I took some time to walk around the yard.  Dad has a lot of flower pots planted.

The big MayDay tree right behind the house is in full bloom and smells amazing!  It's also buzzy with bees so sounds alive!

Our supper was yummy and I had another great visit.  Too bad my other brother declined our invitation.   :-(

Tomorrow I'm off to Grande Prairie with a great friend and I know we will be doing some shopping!!!!! Why else would we be going????  ;-)  I hope to remember to take a ton of pictures....if I'm not laughing too hard!!!  Kim and I usually have a couple of really good belly laughs when we are together!!!!!!!!!  LOVE it!!!! I can't wait!!!!!!

A Bit of Sewing

A cloudy Sunday.  Perfect day to sew.  I set up my make shift sewing centre on the kitchen table:

I didn't make anything too exciting.  I brought a few packs of mini charms and put one together in a couple of things....I think a mug rug and a small table topper.  I haven't quilted them because I forgot black thread (which I will pick up tomorrow) so the mug rug is just sitting on the batting and backing.

I'm ready to watch Long Island Medium and will probably sew again tomorrow!

More visiting!!

Had another great day with friends.  Brunch, my favorite store, a tea party then supper and a great gab session!!!!

Darlene and museum gals did such a fantastic job with the tea.  Look at some of the "treats"!!  The buttons on the bite sized cupcakes were made with fondant....by them!!!  Soooo cute!!!

The cucumber things and the ham/cheese roll ups were delicious too!!!!!!!!!  It was nice to visit with everyone there too and the setting was perfect surrounded by quilts made by my friend Colleen.  

I think tomorrow I will stay here and sew.  It's suppose to rain (actually they are calling for thunderstorms).   Perfect sewing weather right????

A great day!

I had a great first day of my "holidays"!!  Did a little clothes shopping, washed my vehicle, got some groceries and spent some time with some great friends!!!!  First supper with some wonderful pals then the guild meeting at the museum!!!  Tomorrow I have more fun planned and I must remember to take pics!!!!  I forget about the blog!  hahaha. I think tomorrow afternoon I will set up my sewing machine and maybe do some sewing....after my busy day of course!!  Or maybe sewing will wait until Sunday!!  Being surrounded by wonderful quilts and quilty people today inspired me!  And I do still have to get to my very favorite store here soon!!!!!!!!!  ;-). I have a feeling my "holiday"time will fly by!

My "vacation"

I have arrived in my home town for a two week "vacation".  I use the term loosely although I do plan on having fun while I'm here!!  LOL. It's not a tropical locale (but the sun IS shining here and I left pouring rain!!!!!) or exotic.....nothing like that.  But there are friends and family to spend time with and a quilt guild meeting and quilt retreat to attend!!!!  There will also be some shopping at a favorite store or two.  :)

While driving here I saw this:

It reminded me of I believe it was a you tube video where the wife was sleeping and the husband drove up behind something like this and woke her up by screaming.....nasty!!!!!  Of course it was this:

A truck being towed!  LOL. I had a chuckle.  Anyway, when I got to Edmonton I missed my turn off of the Anthony Hendey (sp??) to take hwy 16 and ended up in St Albert.  I hadn't been to Quilt Essentials at their new location so I made a pit stop and came out with this:

Sigh!!!!!  Oh well, I have more projects to work on at retreat...right????  I might set up my machine here and sew when I have a spare moment......oh it's all fun, fun, fun!!!!!

Everyone loves a parade!

This morning was a parade in our town.  There was a Little Britches Rodeo on this afternoon....I guess the parade kicks off the rodeo season around the area.  And it was GREAT!!!  Lots and lots of marching bands, a bagpipe band, horses, floats and the Shriners....well, they could of had their own parade!!!!!  I thoroughly enjoyed it and the weather was nice...and turned even better!!!!  Here's a pic of the pre-parade entertainment.  A group of line dancers!  So cool!!!!

Silly me didn't take any other pictures!!!!!  A band would go by and I'd think "I should of taken a picture!" Then the next one...but I was enjoying them so much!!!!  Love marching bands!!

Then we had lunch with a family from up north...the service was soooo slow at Boston Pizza that we had a nice long visit!!!!!!  A very, very nice day!!!!!!!!!!!  :-D

A Little Stitching

It was a gloomy day here.....until now....the sun has shown itself!!  Hope it stays!  There's a parade uptown tomorrow.  Nice weather would be very nice!!!!

I did a little sewing today.  The POF group I am a part of, gave another free pattern for a small quilt.  I will use mine as a wall hanging in my sewing room.

I had a heck of a time with this one.  I changed the sizes of some of the pieces to make them work.  I think I did more unsewing than sewing!!!!!  I have to decide how to quilt it and I'll use black for the binding.  

I'm going on week two of Curves tomorrow and meet with my coach on Tuesday.  I haven't followed it to a tee.  😳 I haven't been too bad though.  I'll see how I did on Tuesday I guess.  Then up north on Thursday for two weeks.  Not sure how well I will do there......I certainly will try.  I feel better with the exercise for sure.  😊

Kananaskis country and a pot of gold

Hubby and I took a drive this afternoon to find an area we were told was good for atvs which took us to Kananaskis country.

A little crooked but it was even more beautiful in person.

Then we had supper and walked the dogs and there was a half rainbow.  Here's my pot of gold. :-)

A funny day with the weather.  Started out beautiful, then some clouds and spits of rain, nice again, clouds, sunny.....weird.  I hope it picks something (sun would be nice!) and sticks with it tomorrow!

I also met a fellow quilter in person today when I went to the campground she was at, to pick up fabric I had bought from her online.  She's from Calgary and I'm sure we will be chatting again one day.  She seems full of information!!!! We could have chatted for hours!!!  One day Patti, we will have a nice long visit.

Chilling

Today was cleaning day.  After my workout I came home to clean, do some laundry and had supper in the crockpot.  Now I'm watching the season finale of Grey's Anatomy......sitting with the feet up.

I always think "whew, what a busy day!" But then I remember the days I had to do all of this (housework, cooking, laundry), work full time and haul 4 kids all over the place.  I truly don't know how I did it....or how anyone does it!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm thankful I have the time and I admire those who are doing it "all" now.

Yeah for the spray!!!!

The "lake" we live on has a spray that is shut off for the winter.  This afternoon it's back on!!!  I love the spray!!!!

Tornado

I'm still working on purging and rearranging stuff in my sewing room. Here's how I left it last night:

Tornado!!!!!  Here's what it looks like now:

Much better!!!  Not perfect but definitely a workable space!  The other room is still a mess.  I can close the door for now!  ;-)

Walking

So with Curves Complete they give you a pedometer to wear....when you get up until you go to bed.  This week I'm to get 5000 steps in a day.....well, yesterday I walked to and from Curves which is quite a hike from here.....over 3000 steps one way..... did my circiut, walked the dogs later on and basically didn't sit down much all day......over 15,000 steps later!!!!!!!!!!!  Whew!!!!!!  Feels good and I'm not even stiff this morning!  Hahahaha!  For some reason when I set my program up, I put Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday as my workout days but I think I've changed it for next week to Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri.  So today there may not be as many steps but I do have a parcel to pick up so will think about walking up town to get it.

I bought an old wardrobe cupboard from my friend Pam for my sewing room and when it was hauled down here the shelves were left behind.  Yesterday morning I was telling my son that I'd really like shelves because I'm at a stand still in my reorganization without being able to put stuff in the cupboard.  He was quite anxious to do that for me......I think that was his Mothers Day gift!!!!!!  I LOVE those kinds of gifts!!!!  I do not need flowers or anything.  Nice gestures are what make my heart happy!!!!!  Thank you Jare Bear!!!  Now I have a job to do today!!!  Yippee!!!!!  Reorganizing, purging and cleaning up my sewing rooms!!!!!!  Happy day!

Way up North

No, not Alaska.  We went up to my home town this weekend to my nephews grad and what would have been our daughters grad class had we still been living there.  It was a quick trip...there Friday, home yesterday.  Got some visiting in and had fun.  I forgot how rough the highways were though....wowzers!  As my daughter said, they need to give their roads some lovin'!

Mothers Day yesterday is always bitter sweet.  Grad has been on that weekend for all of my kids years and so Mothers Day is kind of forgotten and this was the second year without my Mom which is still so sad.  I miss her.........it was hard being in her house on that day without her there....it's always hard being in her house.  I know it will get easier.

What a difference a week makes....look at those leaves!!!!  Actually it seems they popped out just while we were gone!

I start Curves Complete today so I'd best get going.  I do the circuit 4 times a week and start the meal planning today so need groceries.  :-)

Weekend

This weekend we spent some time in the yard and flower beds.  We bought, hauled and spread 60 bags of mulch.

The one flower bed with the lake in the background was taken just now.  Not a great shot.  But it shows one of our flower beds in the back. There is some green coming through.....and the fluffy mulch will settle. The dogs are loving laying in it!!!  We get to water tomorrow so the sprinkler is set up ready to go and so is the one in the front!

The second picture is of three stepping stones a very talented friend made years ago.  They made the trip with me from up north.  The two small ones are between my tiny lilac bushes.  Maybe they will bring them luck and will help them grow and flourish!!

I go and do another circuit at Curves tomorrow and I might walk there from here.  There and back with a circuit in between will be a great workout....we'll see.  It's not to be as hot tomorrow.

Gardening

What a beautiful day for working in the flowerbeds!!!  I'm beat now though!  We still need more mulch (50 bags wasn't quite enough...we'll get 10 more tomorrow) but things look much better.  I can't wait for the plants to get higher, the mulch to settle a bit so I can do some filling in the spaces I'm sure are there.  I bought  a peony plant today.....I had two at our old house, and will miss those ant filled feminine flowers!  :-). This one won't flower this year.  I'd like to see what grows down here that is different from what I had up north.  I saw lemon and orange trees today.....hmmmm....maybe.  That would be neat!!  So more mulching tomorrow and then some relaxing?  It's supposed to be another beautiful day.  Tomorrow would have been my mother in laws 72nd birthday.  I'd like to find a yellow rose bush to plant in her memory.  She loved yellow roses.  I will look for one tomorrow.  <3

A good friend...and painting

I have a very dear friend who now lives 2000+ miles away.  We do keep in contact via the Internet and I have been to her and her husbands home as its not far from where my relatives live in Ontario, although that visit has been a long time ago.  We both share a love of quilting.  I sent her a little package...kind of a late birthday gift (my excuse) and today in the mail I received this:

Pegs lives in an amazing town with a lovely candy/chocolate store (actually they make the chocolate in the town!) that is located across from the quilt shop, which is for sale and will close the end of June if its not sold. :-(    Mint smoothies are my favorite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The gift was totally unnecessary but I will think of my dear friend with every bite!!!!  <3. What a sweetie!!!!!!

I also put some paint samples on the wall today......any thoughts??

There are two I am leaning towards and will see what the hubby thinks, not that he has much say in the decorating department!!!  LOL

It was a gorgeous day here.....25C in the back yard!  Tomorrow I join Curves......I'll have to pace myself with those chocolates because I'm NOT sharing!  They came from too far away!  :-)

Go Habs Go!  I'm a Flames fan but they are golfing right now (boo) and we have two diehard Montreal fans in the house so I'll pay along!  

Paint

I am wanting to paint one of our spare bedrooms.  Currently there is a very bright lime-ish green in there which is lovely but not my color.  I went to our Benjamin Moore store and brought home some sample pots.

Pretty boring eh????  And yes, they are all different.  I'll make sample squares on the wall and see if any call to me!  If I chose one of the light colors I may think about doing a feature wall in a darker color.  Or I could just decorate with color which is likely what I will end up doing.  But the room isn't painted yet!!!!!!  There's a shelf to remove and some holes to fill first....the prep work is not my favorite.  But I love the results of a fresh coat of paint!!!!!  Soon......and I'll remember to take before and after pictures.