Shirt, Sleepover, Shot and Slippers

Like my new shirt?  It's a bit big but soooooo comfy!!  I LOVE anything Lori Holt...fabric, patterns, trims, notions and this is one of her shirts!!!  Farm Girl Vintage!!  Love the quilt block on the back too.💖

Hubby came home for the weekend and he hadn't seen this little girl for awhile, so her and her Mommy came out for a sleepover on Saturday.

 She found the letters for her name (from a bag of letter stickers I bought from Value Village for $1!) and put them in order and told me what they were and what they spelled.  I think she's so smart.👓

We all went for a walk...the snow is melting quickly on the paths and it feels like spring might really be here.  👍

And our kids always manage a nap when they come for a visit!!

I have been waiting almost two months for another injection for my thumb/wrist.  It was really starting to hurt when I had to do any lifting of the girl I work with at school.  Had it done today......in a bit different place then last time.....and no freezing this time!  (just the numbing cream)  Just as painful so I guess it doesn't really matter if they give me freezing or not. I hope it works! How I will avoid any heavy lifting for two weeks is beyond me.......I'll have to ask for help I guess.  Last year I had it done at the end of the school year so I was good to go....and I didn't work with students that needed lifting.

 Last June:                                                             Today:

I popped in to Walmart to get some laundry detergent.....I had/have a bit of a rash on my upper arms and a bit on my chest....I had changed to Gain fabric softener and dryer sheets.....and I think that caused the break outs......soooooo I bought some Tide free and Bounce free and I hope that helps! I have never had a sensitivity to detergent before.  While at Walmart....I found these cutie patootie slippers I just had to have!!!!!!!!!!!

So I am sitting with my feet up trying to keep from using my left hand!  LOL  Hubby had a meeting in Red Deer today so popped to Sylvan Lake and met me for lunch before I came home and he went back to work. 💕  Best part of my day.  

Floss, Friends and Fire

Last weekend I started getting these skeins onto their little spools.......I had almost 70 of them to do and I was tired of them being in a bin and having to go through them every time I needed a color that wasn't in one of my other boxes.  I discovered I had several duplicates 😳 so I still have a bunch back in the bin!  What a job!  I finally finished on Tuesday night I think.  All organized!!!

It's been very nice as far as weather goes and I was sitting in the sunroom watching these friends pop by while I was organizing:

I think there were five of them altogether.  😊

Last week was beauty week...nails on Tuesday and hair on Wednesday.  Good for another month!  

(this looks like a "claw" picture....like I am also roaring!  HAHAHA)

Hubby is home this weekend and we've been getting a ton of little things done around the house.  Two more light fixtures changed in a couple of bedrooms; trim done on the stairs to the basement; changed door knobs; new rod for the closet in our room; I finally dug out the bin of jewellery I packed here from High River and sorted it (some went to the garage for the sale this spring) and these are the necklaces hung up:

I figure if I can see them I might wear them!  I also found my earrings and painfully got a pair of hoops in.....the backs of my holes grow over!  Had my ears pierced at 12 years old and this still happens!!! They are feeling pretty okay now!

Last night our neighbours, Ed and Marg, had their annual bonfire (they finally met Blair...he had already met Ed and Marg....so the rest believe that I actually have a husband now!  😂) Ed stacks wood all summer and then in February (usually) he has the neighbours over for a weiner roast and lights his pile of stacked wood.  February was waaaaaaay too cold so they postponed it (a couple of times) and last night was perfect!  It didn't take long to burn this pile down though!

What is it about fire roasted hot dogs that make them taste sooooooooo good?????  (I had two!)

This weekend I also tackled the closet door in the kids room......first, three coats of magnetic paint and then two of chalkboard.  I finished the last coat this morning....even before coffee!!!!!  I have to wait three days before I can cure it (rub chalk all over it and then wipe it off).  I hope the magnet part of it works....that paint isn't cheap!

Hung a couple of pictures in there too......I hope Hubby picks up my shelves today and can get those up as well.  

I made a (huge) list of all the things we would love to do at this house.  Some are cheap and just time consuming but some require an investment.  I hope it can happen and in time for us to enjoy it for a year or so before we decide where our next home might be.  Maybe this place will grow on us...........

Blizzard, Beaner and Just Be

We have been getting such cold, frigid weather that when I saw in the forecast milder temperatures were coming I was so happy.  Maybe Spring would be here soon.  Well, Thursday/Friday had warmer temps but we were in the middle of a crazy-dump-of-snow zone!  We got so much snow Thursday night that the schools in our area closed!!!!  Apparently that was only the second time in the history of the school I work in!  WHY couldn't that happen on a day I was scheduled to work?????  😩

Anyway, Daughter1 reminded me that I had agreed to watch Lyla (we call her Beaner or Lyla Bean) Friday night so Daughter1 could go to her friends birthday party.  She suggested I pick her up from daycare on Friday but the thoughts of driving in Calgary on a Friday didn't thrill me so I offered to meet her Thursday after work......I came home and let the dogs out then headed off to Cross Iron Mills mall.  Met them there and we had supper and left....well, the weather was horrible!!!  Whiteout conditions in quite a few places....but Lyla was chatting away and was a great distraction for this terrified-to-drive-in-winter-conditions Gammy!!  We made it home safe and sound and after playing a bit, Miss Lyla went to bed.....for a bit.  She ended up sleeping with me and the dogs! 💤😁  She didn't hog the bed this much all night long thank goodness!  She woke up and was reading to Pixie. (Calgary did not get any snow...if I had of waited until Friday I wouldn't have gone!)

The temperature was quite mild (-9) so we bundled up to do some shovelling (by morning we likely had a good 6" if not more and it continued to snow throughout the day! I know it was killing Hubby not to drive home - 2 1/2 hr drive one way - to plow!!!  It will be here Wednesday when he gets home) and a sleigh ride through the bush.  

    

Lyla had a pj day.......she kept busy (or I kept her busy!!!!???).  I wanted to tidy up my sewing area a bit so out came some buttons and she played with those.

 

Supper was pancakes...I suggested making an "L" for Lyla but she wanted her whole name!!  Then bath time where she had to wash my hand.

   

No nap that day so after about 5 books she was pretty tired and it wasn't long before I heard her snoring!!!!!  (but she came in to sleep with me again some time through the night!)

Kept her busy again the next morning cutting and gluing and then I made the skirt from my Halloween costume smaller so it would fit her.  

After a quick visit with her Mommy and seeing them off, I went to Olds shopping...for groceries and a few clothes.  Came home, put stuff away and cleaned the house so I could have today all to myself!!!! (I am doing a bit of laundry)  I plan on tackling this!........

I had these all in a bin so I bought some more little holders and will wrap these on and get them organized!  I have so much all over......with projects.....so will try hard to get them all in one place.  I have a few boxes that the wrapped skeins will go into once they are done but think I might need one or two more! 

I LOVE being organized!!!!  I certainly am not 100% organized in this house that's for sure but if I can keep working at it then I am happy and maybe, little by little, I can get there!!!!!  I don't do well with/in clutter and I think that is another reason I have such a hard time in the classroom I am working in.  I need to tell my brain that it's not my "zoo" and to take a deep breath and keep on keeping on!!  😎📝

I hope to get some stitching in today as well.  I found a couple of my Lori Holt 'Bloom' blocks that are ready to be stitched down.  🌼  I will take count of how many are done and maybe make something out of what I have finished and then move on.  I don't need to make them all when there are so many other projects that need attention.....done, to some degree, is better then another UFO sitting around, right??  

Time change happened through the night and I really wish they would keep things where they are now.  I was up waaaaaaay too early (my only morning to sleep in!!!  ARGH!) but hope this sunshine will motivate me to get these few things done, relax and just enjoy the day.........👍🙏

More Flooring Going In!!

On Hubby's last days off, he did some trim work down our basement stairs.  They have never been finished with flooring...well I think at one time they may have had something as there was remnants of glue.  They had been painted (likely underneath the glued flooring) but that was all.  Also, our three upstairs bedrooms still have the carpet from when we bought the place....it's old, and just yucky.  So Hubby, who knows a floor layer (Norm), was talking about doing the stairs and Norm said he wasn't busy at the moment....soooooooo we decided that we could also do the tiny bedroom which the grandkids use.  Friday I hauled everything out of there and Hubby and I took out the old carpet (wish I had of taken a pic with the carpet in there!) and pulled staples 😳 and prepped it for Norms arrival this morning!!  

Bedroom is done:

                                 

Before:

                                             

After:

      

Pictures sure don't do it justice.  To us, in real life, it looks so much cleaner!  Lots to do yet....mostly painting but......in time.  It will be so nice to have this done.  Then to think of railing......we need to figure out some that is removable because the old narrow stairway is not conducive to moving furniture up and down (the cracks and dents in the wall is proof!)  One day that will get done!  We bought the place without it so I'm sure someone else will too.

We left this morning to let Norm work and went to get paint for that bedroom and then a new light fixture.  I'd like some sort of shelving up and stuff so it will be a work in progress for awhile yet.

It was a VERY cold morning.  -35C!!  Warmed up a bit throughout the day.....but deceiving with the sun....there was a cool, biting light wind.  I sure hope this is our last cold snap (polar vortex)!!  It is now March!!  Daylight savings next weekend...what a pain!  Spring forward!

Snow, Sewing, Squirt, Straightening Up, and Susan Branch

Woke up to snow Saturday morning.....this is the spot on the deck where the dogs were soaking up the sun and heat the day before ( there was more snow then it looks in this pic)......it snowed on and off through out the day and the wind was whipping around too.

So I sewed.....I hauled my small machine up to the sunroom, turned the heater on and got to work on those blocks I had cut out last weekend.

Got them done!!!!  I love Kim Diehl and all of her fabric lines!

Two more sets of blocks to go and then the crazy border and finishing!  I'd like to keep plugging away on this project and "git 'er done!!!

Then this squirt came out for a sleepover!!!!   As per usual, she kept me busy!!

While she was playing, I cleared out my candle cupboard.  Got rid of most of my Scentsy wax things.....some were OLD and I've hauled them from High Prairie to High River to here.  I LOVE 1803 Candles....Erica got me hooked and now I have room for more!  (top two shelves)

Friday night I finished Susan Branch's "diary" of her trip to England via ship 🚢. Her books print is all her own handwriting and it's so easy to read!  Does it make me want to go to England?  Not sure....an awful lot of rain 🌧 and crazy roads 🚗 to drive on!  LOL!!  But a ton of history...and VERY old buildings.

She loved it....she visited the home of Beatrix Potter, among others.  If she couldn't take pictures inside of a home she would sketch and then paint the pictures for her book. (in watercolours of course.) A pleasure to read about her adventures.

After that little girl left for home, I cleaned and went and got a few groceries.  Supper was made and my lunch packed for tomorrow...oh, I'd better set my alarms again.  😞  

It's to get to -30C again tonight....the car is plugged in.  It would be lovely if it was a non-school day tomorrow...a water main break or maybe no heat!  I'm dreaming of course!!!!!! 

Onward and upward!  ☝️ 

Bye Bye Snowmen!!

I have been putzing around really not doing anything ALL week!!!  Today, the sun was shining, the realization that is was already FRIDAY hit and I felt motivated to do SOMETHING!! The snowmen I have are pretty primitive, nothing bright and colorful!!  Do you ever find yourself, at this time of the year, feeling blah??  I sure do!  We've had gloriously warm weather the past couple of days......but I know winter isn't over.  But I wanted it over IN my house!!!!!!!  Voila!

It honestly feels so much lighter and brighter in here!!!  I can BREATHE!!!!!  Ahhhhhh!  I have never hung multiple wallhangings in the same area.....thank goodness for Command Strips!  Because of the "clutter" on the wall, I wanted my shelf to be very simple.....I won't tell you how long it took and how many trials and errors it took to get it to where it ended up!  HAHAHA!  😄

The girls were enjoying the sunshine and warmth on the deck today.  It's been awhile!!!!

There is snow in the forecast for tonight....I hope it's wrong but oh well....I don't have to go anywhere and I WILL sew those blocks tomorrow!!!!!! Sunday will be groceries so I have stuff for my lunches next week.....ugh.  😞  Back to waking up to the alarm........

Comfort in Food and Drink

Today was a stay-at-home-day.  I did get dressed (eventually), brushed my teeth and washed my face but that was the extent of getting ready.  😄 I had plans to sew the blocks I had cut out the other day but I putzed around and did anything but.  Laundry got done and I baked a banana bread loaf....why??????  Oh because it was a snowy/sunny/snowy/sunny/snowy/sunny kind of day and I had over ripe bananas!  I had these two pieces of the loaf and I should put the rest in the freezer now because banana bread is NOT what I should be eating!  I even pulled out the percolator and made some coffee after grinding the beans!  I should have had company!  

I LOVE being at home!  I sat and read today...something I rarely do....and dreamed of staying home all the time.  I could get some painting done that needs doing and not feel as though any time off should not be wasted doing chores!  😝  That's how I feel when I work.  I am thankful for the school schedule where we do get time off...like this week....but I still don't feel as though I can jump into any big projects so nothing gets done. 😳  IF I was home full-time I would feel as those those chores were my job.  😁  But what else would I be contributing?  I keep the house clean and the laundry done already.  I would be home doing the things I love while Hubby is out working.   My fear is that if I stayed home, I wouldn't stop the buying of stuff (fabric, etc mostly!)  How could I contribute financially if I wasn't working??  (not that I make much right now.....I certainly don't do my job for the pay!!)  And would I go crazy being home all the time while Hubby is working?  I would get to know the neighbours better!  Oh well....I can dream and wish and maybe one day....

I may have to go and get a new printer tomorrow.  Mine is acting silly and not printing a picture if it is included on a page.  Other colour will print on the page, but it won't print the picture, just everything else.  It had done it to me a couple of weeks ago and again today so I spent a long time this morning trying to figure it out....which never happened.  All I did was waste ink!  After I get the printer all set up I could sew! Tomorrow is Thursday already......ugh! 😒

We are to get more snow Friday and Saturday....nice stay-at-home-and-sew days! Yippee!  I have a sign that says "Do one thing every day that makes you happy!"  I plan on it!