Goodbye 2019 Hello 2020

Happy New Years Eve!  

The plan for today is to have coffee with a friend and do some stitching....all things I hope to do more of in 2020.  We are invited to a neighbours for celebration tonight but Hubby isn't into that stuff and we usually spend a quiet evening at home....rarely staying up until midnight anyway!!  😂  I doubt tonight will be any different!  

The end of a year is sad....but the thoughts of the fresh start of a new one is exciting!  What will it hold???  I know for sure it will mean meeting a new grandson!  That's super exciting!!!  Will it mean a wedding?  Who knows.  Will we stay healthy?  New work opportunities? A move? (I doubt it yet)  No resolutions to be made here....I've given up on those a long time ago!  hahaha!!!!  It's a fresh start mentally and I think it will bring GREAT things....for mind, body and soul!!  I can't wait!!  

Yesterday while in the grocery store I had a call from a former neighbour and friend Deb.  It was great hearing from her!  She is a busy, busy lady....her new job as VP at a much larger school keeps her hopping.  Her family keeps her busy too, as her daughter, husband and grand daughter live next door.  We are planning on reconnecting soon.....and I appreciate her wanting to.  I know life can get away from us and when time is at a premium it can be hard to make time to plan a visit with someone not just next door.  I miss her impromptu visits when she would pop in after seeing my sewing room light on.  Or when she "made" me go for walks.  😃  It will be a wonderful visit when we do get together.

Here's hoping everyone is doing what they love to usher out 2019 and bring in the new 2020...new year AND new decade!!  🎉🎆🥂

Eek...Only Two Days Left In This Year/Decade!

How crazy is that?  December 30th today........I have been writing faithfully in a journal my friend Kim had bought me for Christmas last year.  It's a 4 (or 5?) year journal so I will continue on with it....I think there are only four days all year I haven't written anything.  For 2020 I plan to only write one thing I was grateful for that day, making me stop and truly appreciate what is so great in my life!  I truly am blessed and this is a way to keep this journal positive and reflective.  I'm looking forward to it!

Daughter1 took a picture of her quilt on their bed for me.  The fabric is called Bliss and it has some rose gold in it..hard to tell from this picture. I kept the pattern simple because they have FOUR dogs who like to sleep with them so I'm sure somewhere down the road I will need to make a replacement quilt and if they have less dogs I can put more time into the pattern.  😜  Kim did a beautiful job quilting it as usual!!!!!  💓

Other big news in the family......Son1 and Jenna have been dating for about 13 years.  They are the parents of our grandson and for a long time I've called her my daughter-in-law.  For years I have been waiting for our son to pop the question.....and so has Jenna!  He would always say no....not necessary; why; etc...even saying he didn't want to pay for a marriage license!!  😂  Jenna's birthday is December 27th and she turned 35 this year........and Son1 FINALLY asked her to marry him!!!  We knew about it but she was shocked and surprised....and VERY happy!!!!!

Who knows when the wedding will be but we are hoping it will be sooner than 13 years from now!

My plan today is to take down the Christmas tree, do some tidying up and then go for groceries.  The fridge is bare!!  I have started to big stitch hand quilt a wallhanging (pretty crudely I might add! 😳).....I'd like to finish that today, get the binding and hanging sleeve on.  I'm also thinking of making short term plans for what quilt projects I would like to work on and finish in the new year.  I am hoping to try and use what I have and get some of my old UFOs done....but alot are BOMs and require alot of sewing/stitching to finish!!!!!!!  I need to either get rid of them or do them.....again, I sound like a broken record!

Enjoy these final two days of 2019!!!! I know I plan on it!

Christmas 2019

The craziness of Christmas has passed.  The family left this morning, all before noon.  The quiet was almost too much 😂 (not!).  Tomorrow is going to be a busy day getting the house back in order (bedding and towels were done today) but it will get there!

My Dad came down and enjoyed the chaos...I think!  He was in charge of the turkey and stuffing and it was delicious!!!  Here he is with his great grandchildren:

Dad made me a farmhouse table I have wanted but now I have to get it home from up north.  The top is made with old coral boards from his place. 💓  It's not completely done but here it is in his workshop: 

Ends down 👆

Ends up 👆

It will work perfectly!!!!!!  EEK I can't wait to get it!!  (he also has a supply of odd ball chairs which will be perfect to go around it....and I might need a bench.....

Our hillbilly family picture!  My Dad gave me the Flames jersey. 

I made each of the girls a quilt and here Daughter2 is enjoying hers....which she did all day!!!!  I love it and am glad she loves it too.  I haven't got a pic of the one I made Daughter1 yet. Hers will fit on her bed.

I am exhausted from the last few days....as I am sure a lot of other people are!  Once the house is back to normal I would love to spend some time in my sewing room.  

Past my bedtime!!!  Here's to enjoying the last few days of 2019 before we head into a new decade!!

He's Baaaaaaack!!

 He's baaaaack!  😂😂  Jude is back...for SIX days...right before Christmas.....keeping me busy!  😜Because I knew this was going to happen I made sure I was pretty much ready....just some baking left to do, which will happen tomorrow and Friday.  All gifts are bought/made and wrapped!  When they leave (either Sunday 🙏 or early Monday) I will clean like a mad woman and get bedding washed and replaced.  I also have a few groceries to get.....hoping to get that done on Sunday.  (fingers crossed Hubby isn't working that day!!!!!)  Then the troops all arrive on the 24th...early in the day because that is the day we have our big meal.  My Dad is coming down so he will take over turkey duty....woot woot!

Yesterday we popped to town, where I had a nail appointment.  Here Jude is watching a movie on my old lap top!  Unfortunately he didn't stay that relaxed or still but he wasn't too bad.  I was stressed so it certainly wasn't a nice relaxing appointment!  😆 Next time!

My nails! 💅💓

Once home we went for a walk to burn off some pent up energy!!  It was beautiful yesterday.....+6C!

Yesterday was also an AWESOME mail day as I received a wonderful package from a wonderful friend!  Boy oh boy did she spoil me!!!!!!!!  Cushion she made (AND did hand embroidery.....Kim does not like doing handwork so I feel very honoured!!!!), a sign she painted and a cool mug! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it all!!!!  Mostly LOVE our friendship....she's a GREAT friend (gifts unnecessary!)

Some recent finished projects:

This is actually a nice purple wool.....👆

Hard to get a good pic of this snowman👆!  Colors are never right!!

This last one 👆

is an OLD UFO!!  I did hand appliqué on all the cotton fabrics and then wool appliqué of the snowmen.  I even quilted it myself and feel proud of my stones on the walkway! 😄

I am in awe of how many buds my lipstick plant has!  It will look amazing when it blooms...the only problem with these is they drip a sticky clear liquid when they are in bloom.  But worth it!

The sun is setting (it's 4 pm in the afternoon!!) and it looks beautiful out there.  I can see it through the trees.  It's by this time of the day that I am pooped.....and with this little man here I am super pooped!  😐  I just need enough energy to make supper and clean up, then my job is done!!!!!  👍

Grand-babies!

This weekend was a busy one!  It started Thursday night when the grandson came.  His Mommy had an exam to take in Calgary on Friday so we hung out all day.  We played, watched tv, went shopping.  He keeps me hopping!!  LOL

They went home Friday afternoon and then our grand daughter arrived.  I didn't get any pictures of her!!  Saturday we hung out at home and then we took her to Calgary on Sunday.  Hubby wanted to do some Christmas shopping....he bought himself some shoes!  HAHAHA!  He will have to go again another time.  

This weekend was a busy one for Daughter2.  She is crazy into CrossFit and won her first individual competition!  Look at the belt!  Reminds me of a WWF one!  LOLOL!  She's a tough little whipper snapper but is very dedicated to this sport...and stubborn!  All great qualities of a competitive athlete!  (and she NEVER mentions hockey anymore!)

I have decided, once again, to distance myself from a very one sided friendship.  It always makes me sad.....I guess distance, in some cases, is too hard for people to deal with.  Thankfully I have a couple of "long distance" friendships which are still going strong!  LOL!  Anyway, I kind of like this quote.....I'm tired of chasing:

It is snowing this morning and looks sooooo pretty!  Monday means cleaning day for me so I'd best get at it!  Alot more things on the to-do list for this week....it's my last full week alone before Christmas.  Next week the grandson and Jenna arrive from the 17th to the 22nd!  Eeeeeek!  Gotta check the list....twice!

Update on Pixie

Our poor sweet Pixie......she has been recovering for a bit which makes me wonder how long that needle and thread were in her mouth.  😢  Do you see her abscess in this picture?  The swelling was worse...even under her eye which closed her eye even more so I took her back on Thursday as her face was getting more and more swollen.  She got antibiotics then and an anti-inflammatory. Thankfully Monday morning it started to drain.  We had already had a vet appointment for Monday at noon (before all of this happened!) so once we were there, they shaved her hair on that spot and rinsed it all out.  She had a bit more leaking last night but her face is back to normal.....and so is she!!!!!  She is back to being feisty and she even played with me yesterday!!

The vet appointment was to check out her heart and sure enough it is a bit enlarged but certainly not late stages at this point.  So now she is on a heart medication....very low dose.  

Then Phoebe had an ultrasound to check her kidneys (all clear!) and a urine sample (she's been "leaking" when she sleeps 😳  She IS 12 years old I suppose) and there were some crystals that showed up.  She is on medication now too.  Both are on new foods....Phoebe for her urinary issues and Pixie for weight loss!  Both love their new foods so that makes things easy....what makes it hard is making sure they only eat their own food....and keeping the cats from eating it!  LOL

Friday night I was invited to a friends place for a painting party.  What FUN!!!!!  Here is the sign I did there:

I have another to do here at home that says "But first....Coffee".  It was great seeing friends and meeting some new people.  

I am pretty much done with my Christmas shopping so have plans on doing some wrapping today!!  All the stuff is in the spare room upstairs here and Jenna and Jude are coming Thursday night and they use that room when they come on their own.  

I love my dogs but I think they love Hubby even more then they love me. 😩 This pics describes the pet situation in our house!  😂😅😆

Best get a move on......clouds have rolled in.  Not sure what weather we are to get today but I will be inside all cozy, wrapping gifts and playing Christmas music!  

Let There Be Light...and a Scare!

Good Morning.  Wow November 28th....another month almost gone and there is so much to do to get ready for Christmas!  I have made a bit of a dent in my Christmas shopping but I'm not finished yet!   I hope next week I can get more or the rest done......fingers crossed!

We use our sunroom as a dining room and have never had a light out there.  My dream is to have a long and narrow chippy farmhouse table and mismatched chairs but for now I have my round table and chairs.....not enough to seat all of us but I have another old table whose sides fold out that I can use out there too.  Anyway........I looked online for a fixture from Home Depot and Hubby picked it up.  Here he is trying to find the wire he had fished in a long time ago....it wasn't that easy of a project. (please ignore that ugly ceiling...what we thought was a bad drywall taping/mudding job turns out to be plywood....how do you mud that?????  Again, my vision is shiplap ceilings and the two narrow walls but that will happen another time  😜)

Here's the fixture....I hate it!  Never, ever pick out something like this from online!  It likely won't last....once I can get to the store and pick out a different one this one will come down and if I can sell it, someone will get a great deal.  It was supposed to be rubbed bronze like the rest of our fixtures but it's black and it's not big enough.  But there is light in there now and that's a good thing! 

I've done a bit of sewing and stitching most of it I can't show because they involve Christmas gifts for friends who read this blog.  😃  But here is a baby quilt that Kim quilted for me....isn't it AWESOME???????  I got the binding on and it's ready to gift.  The baby is due any time now (Dec 4th I believe) so I'd best get it wrapped up and delivered!

A super simple runner for our dresser....it was supposed to be a Zig Zag one but I cut the points off so it would fit!  😆  I had it laid out on my design board, and should have taken a picture, because when I sewed it together it was not in the right order....but I was frustrated and finished it anyway!)

Then I decided to throw caution to the wind and wash and dry this denim rug at home.....I cleaned the lint trap every 5 minutes!!!  This is an OLD project!!!!!!  A course we had in High Prairie years and years ago!  I had finally sewn the strips on one day and it sat waiting to be taken to the laundromat......well it's done now!  

Picked this little monkey up from her daycare one day and brought her home for a sleepover.

Nap time:

Goof ready for bed:

After her time here she got sick....strep throat again!  She wasn't herself while here so I wondered if she was coming down with something.

This past Monday she went to her very first movie at the theatre with her Mommy and Auntie Amy (Frozen II of course!!!)

Stitchers.....I'm offering this warning especially if you have pets.  Our small (well she's very overweight but 'small') chihuahua has had an awful cough....like she's choking on something but she never throws it up.  I have an appointment on Monday for both chihuahua's (Phoebe for a different issue).  We were watching a vet tv show and she had a chihuahua on there with a cough and after having an X-ray, showed an enlarged heart which chihuahua's are prone to get....so we are getting Pixie checked for that.....because of this cough.  The dogs get a small treat every night.....around 8:30....and when Pixie had hers all of a sudden she was scratching at her face and was very agitated.  She has had some teeth removed so I thought the treat had got caught in between some teeth.  I couldn't feel anything and her mouth started bleeding and she was acting super weird and I felt something kind of pokey by her jaw up towards her eye/ear.  I called the vets office and although he didn't sound concerned, asked if we wanted to come in that night or wait until morning.  It has started to blizzard (and I mean you couldn't see far in front of you!) and Hubby wanted her in that night so off we went.....crawling along at 50 kms/hr.  The vet is out in the country about 20 minutes from us....I don't know how long it took us to get there.  Once we were there, the vet was looking, couldn't see anything (Pixie's tongue was blue!!!!) and was almost going to send us home until he felt the poky thing.  He said that definitely is something that shouldn't be there and upon looking in her mouth one more time saw what it was......a needle!!!!!!!!!  He ran to get a needle with sedation, told us not to let her move much and we waited for her to fall asleep. But she didn't so had to be put right out......and he removed the needle with thread attached.  To say I felt HORRIBLE is an understatement!!!!!!!!  The vet said it was a good thing we brought her in.  When I stitch, if anything drops I pick it up right away.  What I am thinking is the cats pulled it out of my pincushion and Pixie proceeded to gobble it up.  A pincushion will no longer sit on the table beside me!  Back to the cough.....Pixie has had this cough for a long time.....months and months.  Since she's had this removed, she hasn't coughed so who knows how long ago this happened.  We are still going on Monday to have her heart checked out but if you are a stitcher, do NOT leave needles around.  Here are the two of them yesterday.....I knew she felt better when I was eating my lunch and she came to see if I would share:

Pixie is the black one.  Her face on the affected side is a bit swollen and her bark was a bizarre sound yesterday but I heard her barking at the cats this morning so she is on the mend there too! 

And here is crazy Archie and the way he was laying the other day:

Goofball!

 

A Pie for Dad

Well.......once again (for the one millionth time) it's been awhile....so this may be a picture heavy post!  Grab a coffee or tea!  (joking!!!!!!!)

My dad came down for a visit.  He had meetings in Calgary the Monday and Tuesday so came down for a few days before heading there.  This I made for him:

Apple pie and it was yummy!!!!  (can you tell I have totally fallen off the WW wagon and am dragging underneath??????  😩)

I had some time to recover and then this little dude and his Mommy came down.  Jenna is taking an online course and had her practicum at SAIT for two days so Jude and I hung out.  Man oh man he poops me out!!!!  LOLOLOL  Busy is an understatement but he can play with his action figures and it's so cute to hear him "act out".  

She has an exam for one day the beginning of December and then practicum from the 17th to the 22nd of December so I have to be organized and ready for Christmas by then!!!!  Whew!

Halloween 2019:

Miss Lyla....with the hook for going to daycare and the sword for treat or treating!

Master Jude as Captain America! 

I challenged my sewing ladies to make something out of a mini charm square pack I gave each of them.  There were some GREAT projects and I think they all had fun doing it!!! 😊 I whipped this little pincushion up for a prize....I drew a name from a hat.  

We were supposed to meet yesterday for sewing but the church is renovating their bathrooms and apparently found mold!!  Too bad....it's a fun group and nice to get out and visit but we will have another one someday soon I'm sure!!

I was putting some stuff away and came across this OLD project!  I have hauled this, my very first hexie project, from north to south and now here and it was never finished......still attached to freezer paper templates (I don't do them that way anymore).  As I was going to tuck it away with other table mats I thought  "Just finish it!"  So I did.  Found a piece of wool from a jacket or something I had found at a thrift shop and stitched a backing on.  There are some VERY old fabrics and BAD stitching but I like it!  

Winter has arrived here in Central Alberta.  I'm not sure it's going to go away although yesterday we had rain.....and it knocked alot of the snow down.  Here was the view out my back door:

And here is Mr Plow.....he came home from work early on Thursday so he could have daylight to clear the driveway.  He LOVES doing this!!!!!!!!!

Then yesterday morning (and last night) it rained and I have never seen a morning rainbow and to the west:

It was pretty!!!!!!  The snow is all gone off the trees now.....but it will be back!  

So this weather made me pack up and put away my fall decor.  I rearranged the livingroom (again!) and am enjoying the clean uncluttered space.....and I think I will keep it that way.  When it's time, I will only put up my skinny Christmas tree (that's all there is room for!!!) and keep decorations very minimal.  My kids will complain but they can decorate their homes as much or any way they wish!!!  😁

We are to get snow today/tonight.  I do not have to go anywhere!!!!!  I have Christmas music playing (and have listened to it for a week now!!) and might just go get another coffee.  But wait, my post wouldn't be complete without a picture of my kitties.....here they are, all snuggled.  They were spayed/neutered on Halloween and came out of it perfectly!!  

Enjoy your day doing something you love!