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!  

My Wonderful Adventure!

Wednesday morning I headed north on my adventure.....to my old hometown!  A long drive (6+ hours) but the weather was perfect and there wasn't much traffic.  I arrived at my Dad's who left for a meeting but when he got home my brother Steven came over to watch the Oilers game so I had a visit with him too.

Thursday morning I was up and at 'em to meet my friend Kim at the grocery store. We needed supplies as we were going to spend two glorious days at her cabin to sew!!!!!!!

Here she is ready to go!!!!!

The first night was beautiful.....here's a pic of the sunset view from the cabin:

I completed a queen sized Wicked Easy (that was it....I brought so many more projects to work on!!  😂) so I could give it to her to quilt on her longarm machine.  (I gave her two other quilts as well!)  Here are the blocks laid out to be sewn together.  

We stayed up late (3 am!) and sewed and watched Mrs Browns Boys and a couple of movies.  Oh we laughed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (you have to googled Mrs Browns Boys bikini wax on Youtube....HILARIOUS!!!!)

Saturday morning came and we were off to the quilt show that is put on annually by the guild we both used to be involved in.  I didn't take any pictures because I was so busy visiting!!!!!  Saw a ton of wonderful people there but didn't buy much. (discipline!!!!)  Wish I had more time to visit....but the show closed at 5 pm!  Kim left for home and I was off to visit my friend Pam.  

A very tired me ready for bed Saturday night:

Back home on Sunday......this trip was just what I needed.  I needed a change of scenery but most importantly, I needed time with my friends!!!!  Thank you Kim for the yummy casserole and soup, the use of your beautiful cabin and your company.......we ALWAYS have belly laughs and can talk about ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  💕 Wish we were closer.........

Monday was cleaning day and I spent most of the time rearranging the livingroom.  A little change (which Hubby needs time to adjust to!  LOL) but I like it.  Laundry was washed and dried and my day was done.

Tuesday I decided I needed a walk so did my walk, got ready for town and my nail appointment:

Then to the drugstores for magazines, a few groceries and a car wash.....stopped for an Apple Cinnamon fog at Timmies then home....where it decided to rain!  LOL  Oh well, my vehicle is cleaner then it was.  Laundry was put away and I made a roast chicken for us for supper.  Today is windy but sunny.  I should be walking again today but my neighbour told me she was bit (second time) by a dog in that area.....argh.  She no longer walks which is very sad.  I didn't see any animals on my Tuesday morning walk except deer.  I need to get groceries today and spend some time in my sewing room.  I have bedding to wash as we will have some company this weekend....my Dad is coming down so my daughters and maybe one son will be here.  Unless the weather turns crappy up there (they had snow yesterday!), but he has to be in Calgary for meetings on Monday.

Okay now I am babbling and have likely lost anyone reading this!!!!!  I feel like there was so much more to talk about but that will be it for now!  HAHA😄

Enjoy your day!

Thanksgiving 2019

 Happy Belated Thanksgiving!!!!  🦃  (we didn't have turkey!!  We went Ukrainian and had ham and sausage instead)  I think the meal we had is my favourite!  It was delicious!!!!  The weekend was busy, noisy, messy, exhausting but wonderful all at once!

I met Daughter1 in Calgary Thursday and picked up Miss Lyla.  Friday we made this snowman......(there is only an outline of a snowman left as of today!).  She "helped" me get stuff ready on Saturday morning before the arrival of the rest of the crew!!

Jude and Lyla get along very well now.  Lyla watches Jude to see what he is going to do and follows along but when I hear them playing, it's her that tells him how they are going to play and what they are going to do!  Funny and at a fun age! 

Here they are in Judes Gator which stays here now.  Jude does all the driving...Lyla just hangs on! 

Once everyone left on Sunday (early afternoon) I got the house back in order and cleaned.  I couldn't relax until I did!  Yesterday Hubby and I put the lawn furniture away for the winter and then went to vote.  I putzed in my sewing area when we got home and got things ready for the sewing groups Birthday Block Club.  On October 25th & 26th we are having sewing days and will be exchanging our fabrics.  We will start with blocks for our January Birthday girl.

I am off on an adventure tomorrow and will post all about it once I get home!  I can't wait and only hope the animals survive with Hubby!  😅 

 🐈🐈🐕🐕

Off to pack!

Printing Pictures

For my birthday, 3 of the kids went together to buy me this:

It prints pictures from wherever....phone, etc.  I feel as though we live in an age where all of the memories we capture are on our devices and not in albums like they used to be. (I still have envelopes of pictures yet to be placed in an album!....one of these days I will go through my albums and remove excess and consolidate so there will be less of those around too.....I know, I should scan them and put them on a 'stick' and not have the bulk of albums but.....it's like books....I love looking at the pages....feeling, touching, turning the pages....nothing beats it!)  So maybe with this handy device I can start printing pictures again, being selective of course.  

It was sunny yesterday.....I wouldn't say it was warm though.....but a lot of the snow did melt from the trees and driveway.  Going outside it sounded like rain as the snow was dripping off the trees and plants.  The temperatures are to improve so I am hopeful, by the end of the week (end), all this white stuff will be gone....and for awhile!!

I had the hair-brained idea to repaint all the trim upstairs in our house.  It was all chippy and gross and I'm sure there are 300 layers of paint on them.  To be done right they should have been sanded, etc but I just slapped paint on paint on paint!  It looks better and ideally they should be replaced but that likely won't happen any time soon!  Anywhoooooo what a BIG job!!!!  I tend to overdo it when it comes to this stuff and my body retaliates in pain.  I am trying to take it slowly..........and the bedrooms with big beds won't be done until later....just the door trim and door frames...and eventually the doors.  Once I finish the kids room I will head into the living room.  If I only had the trim along the floor to do, I would be laughing but it's the windows and doors that are a PAIN!!!!!!  I can't even avoid the stuff that isn't chipped as the color now is an off white and I am painting white so it all has to be done!  I have a hair appointment today so I am not sure if I will get into it but I will commence tomorrow!  Maybe some stitching for now.  

Enjoy the day!