Saturday Roundup

 

My week has been spent cleaning, trying to get Christmas treats made (this last has fallen by the wayside the last couple of days), decorating, and setting up the budget for the next year. 

With the economically inclined folks saying prices will be rising next year on groceries, I am trying to plan for those increases. Loads of fun.

I have also been working on those projects that I started at the end of last month and hopefully I will get those done by the end of next week. I really want to get some of the new projects started and finished. Mind you one of the goals for this month was to get the house decorated, plan Christmas Eve dinner, plan Christmas Day dinner, and bake those Christmas goodies. All of which are well underway or actually finished (in the case of the dinners). 

I am so looking forward to actually perhaps managing to get all the projects (plus a few I have added, but not written down) done this month. 

The tree we put in the back alley has disappeared. Harvey hopes the family a couple of doors to the west of us managed to snag it. They have three children and I know money is tight for them. Keeping my fingers crossed that is what happened. 

Once again no pictures happening as nothing has really been completed. Most of my baking has been pictured on my blog in previous years. Simplifying has meant that really nothing new has been done in that area. 

Kris sent me a text today asking if I had heard anything about my sewing machine. I told him I planned on phoning either Monday or Tuesday to see if there is an update on the repair. I certainly hope that I will get it back by the time Kris comes home for the holiday.

I am enjoying the time leading up to the holiday this year, life is finally slowing down and allowing me the time to take in all that this season of Advent means. I manage a study in the mornings while having a coffee, and I get to enjoy the lights and the joy of working on those things I really like to do. I have seen people that I have not seen in many years and enjoyed a conversation with them, even if it means my shopping time is a bit extended. 

Life is moving in exactly the way it is supposed to as I age, and that is absolutely wonderful.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

 

Here it is the end of the month and heading into the last month of this year. Surprisingly it seems the older I get the faster the years slip by. 

Tomorrow I head in for my CT scan to check on the growth in my lungs or perhaps it is on my lungs. I will probably hear from my doctor within a few days of the scan. 

Today we went to Mass in the bitter cold. It was -20C, but with the windchill it felt like -32C. It hasn't warmed up that much either throughout the day. The SUV is now plugged in so as to make sure it starts tomorrow morning. Would hate not to get to my test on time. 

It is the first Sunday of Advent and the start of the Liturgical year. We are in Year A in the Catholic church. Today we also lit the first candle of Advent. 

This candle represents Hope. During this week we hope for the coming of Christ. 

Got the cinnamon buns baked after Mass, but of course I got them into the freezer before I got a picture. This was done because Harvey was eying them constantly and I was sure he would have eaten more than the one I told him he could consume.

I also got the tree decorated. It needs a few more small red balls which I will see if I can get when I go shopping.

I did find a few more after this picture was taken, but it definitely needs a few more.

Off to visit with you all and then crawl into a nice hot tub to relieve the back ache from all the bending and climbing of a ladder. I hope that over the next week I can get the remaining decor done.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Finished (Well Mostly)

The last big piece of furniture is now in place in the living room.

This 30 year old entertainment was removed....

The new one put together and in use. I do miss my shelves for pictures however so we may mount the television on the wall and have the top cleared for my bits.

Now comes the accent colours which hopefully I can either find or make (cushion covers, and such).

Supper tonight was a wonderful Lentil Soup. I even have enough leftover for another two meals for Harvey and I.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

The First Sunday in Advent, one of my favourite seasons in the Catholic Churches liturgical year. 

I don't know if you have noticed the same thing as I have over the past few years. People rush, from place to place, stressing over the perfect Christmas and not taking the time to enjoy the build up to Christmas. The anticipation of waiting, expecting the most wonderful present of all. The gift of our Saviour. 

Usually the first Sunday of Advent is when I put the decorations on the tree. Harvey usually brings it up on Saturday, gets the lights on and leaves me to it. This year was no different. 

It takes me awhile to decorate the tree as many of the ornaments have a story. I always have to relive that unique story each ornament imparts. Some are decorations the boys made growing up, some are gifts from them as they grew older. Still others are ornaments I have picked up on our travels, and yet others are ones that graced our tree as I grew up. 

Taking the time to cherish each and every memory, makes me slow down and realize that the greatest gift we were ever given is promised to us each and every year.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Finally

Today our furniture arrived, and it was set up in no time at all!!

The sectional has a bit darker fleck in in that isn't showing up well in the picture. I should be able to sleep nicely on this when I have those sleepless nights (seem to be happening more often lately).

My comfy chair (with the messy table beside it, I am working my way through the various projects that are located around here). It is perfect for snuggling into to do my knitting or reading. 

Still have some straightening up to do, but will continue that and the decluttering of the room over the next few days.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Cold And Colder Yet

I really do think we are in the throws of winter. This morning when I got up the temperature was -18C. It did warm up to -10C, but with the wind...it really was not nice out.

I went this morning and paid for the accent chair. Had a lovely visit with the lady while doing so.

This is kind of what my new chair will look like.

Instead of this white however. The chair is an almond brown colour. Going perfectly with the walls in the living room and the darker flecks in the carpet.

Our new sectional is this one.

This is also in a browner colour, and is in the opposite configuration from this one.

Delivery will be Tuesday afternoon and then that means I can hopefully start on some accents to bring another colour into the rather overwhelmingly brown room. I am thinking teal or red with some darker brown throws. I am not the best decorator, but will give it my best shot. 

I will be sure to post a picture once the furniture arrives and is set up. Then perhaps you can all help me with accent colours.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

A Bit of This and That

Days are getting colder, the garden is slowly being harvested and processed (more about that another day).

Trees are changing colour. Here in Saskatchewan the predominate colour is yellow or gold. Much like the colour of a fully ripened field of grain.

This photo was taken a few days ago. I have to grin as some trees are half green and half yellow. Then of course there are those trees that changed colour and lost their leaves overnight.

Fall is one of my favourite times of year. Crisp, cool mornings and warmish afternoons. This year however fall might not last too long. The forecast is calling for perhaps snow this weekend. Hence the rush to get the garden harvested and plant pots emptied.

This is what I am living in right now.

A pretty much empty front room. We thought our carpeting would at least be down by now, but I guess we will have to wait awhile longer. At least I have my chair to sit in, H arvey is making do with the wicker rocker and footstool from downstairs.

The grey patch in the center is where he leveled the floor out. There was a beam that was sunken in between what used to be two very small rooms.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

I spent a bit of time decorating the house for Christmas. Not much as we are going away for the holiday and I am leaving it up to Kurt to put up a tree. I do feel slightly guilty about it, but we really won't have much time to enjoy our tree here at home.

So this is just a few pictures of what my house looks like right now.

Can you tell I love candles?

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

The Last Day of the Month

Tonight I am going to share my thrift store find.

Since spring is so far away up here in the plains of Canada, I needed to bring some spring into my home. Searching one of the thrift stores in Regina I found a lovely glass container and looking further I came upon a package of fake limes that had never been opened. Bingo. Now this is sitting on my diningroom table.

All for a total cost of ....are you ready..... $3.50. It brightens up the room, and now all I need is just the right candles.

Off to visit everyone.

Everyone have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Last Day Of The Month

The days seem to be passing in a blur. I never seem to have enough hours in a day to complete my tasks.

I have managed to get my tree decorated. There are a few bare spots on it, guess that is what happens when you decorate at night!

I have also managed to start decorating my house for the Christmas season. Still have more to do, like putting out the candles and adding some finishing touches as the weeks go by. But I will share what I have gotten done. Please don't mind the mess on the floor, I had boxes and ornaments all over the front room.

This jolly fellow was given to Harvey by one of his bosses many, many years ago. Harvey decided he should be standing on the woofer to the Surround Sound System this year. I also managed to get one of my wooden creches in the photo.

This is the start of the decorating on my coffee table. We had to move it to find room for the tree. Have I ever said that I have way too much "stuff". One of these days I will have to do a serious downsizing. Just not yet please!

This fellow was gift to me from my sister. She found him at a craft sale here in town. I had looked at him and decided the price was just a bit too high for me. She knows my tastes so very well.

The last picture I am going to share with you today is the wreath I finished making just about an hour ago. I managed to burn a few fingers with the hot glue gun this time. Sure hope the blisters do not get too big.

Everybody have a wonderful afternoon and evening. I am off to visit as many of you as possible before I have to make supper.

God bless

Finished

This week has seen me doing a bit of sewing. I managed to get a table runner made for our Canadian Thanksgiving and liked it so much that I had to make another one.

This is the first one I made and placed on our dining room table.

Here it is with the remainder of my holiday decorations. I enjoyed making this so very much and I had a small piece of the fabric left so.....

I just had to make a shorter one for the coffee table in our living room.

Harvey likes these so much he wants me to make some for every holiday! I have already found the perfect material in my fabric stash to make some for Christmas. Heck, I may even make a few for gifts!!!

Now that my decorating for fall is done....It is time to start my pies for our Thanksgiving suppper this weekend.

Off to visit you all now.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

October Already

I can't believe that a new month is already four days old. Where did all the time go?

The last few days have been rainy and cold. Our poor tomatoes are covered up every night with warm sheets, hopefully this will keep the frost at bay. I need a few more (well a lot more) to make salsa next week.

I did a bit more decorating for fall this past week. I found some gourds at the Farmer's Market for very little and bought 6. Added some candles (my favorite thing) and some sparkly leaves and presto another decoration, with very little work. Think it needs a few mini pumpkins and it is totally done.

Then in searching my fabric stash I found some lovely plaid flannel that just cried out to be made into big fluffy pillows for the living room. The great thing is that I can move them downstairs to the library when the fall season is over, the colours will go wonderfully down there. Aren't they the cutest things? I had some old pillows that had seen better days so I removed the stuffing after washing and drying them and used that to stuff them.

I found some lovely material to make a table runner and I think that will be my craft work for tomorrow night.

I have been craving Chocolate for awhile now, and everyone knows that chocolate is good for you. Today was the perfect day to bake.....so I decided to make a layer cake while the beef roast was cooking for dinner.

The icing is a bit runny and not as chocolate as I would like....but that's okay. Where it is going to end up, no one else will care.

Well off to visit you all.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. God bless.

Decorating For Fall.

I am a bit behind the rest of my blogging family in getting my house ready for this special time of year.

Well, today I decided it was time to do some fall decorating.

I went into my closet and started to pull out items that have been put away since last fall.

First was this Hurricane Lamp. I placed it on my table. It makes a lovely center piece.

Then I put the artifical flowers into one of the vases I received from the School Board. This arrangement will go on top of the TV cabinet eventually. Right now I have it sitting on the floor beside the TV. Hmmm, looks pretty good right there. Might have to do something else on the cabinet top this year.

Lastly I filled my mothers green glass bowl with colourful leaves, the remainder of the fake mini pumpkins and placed it on our coffee table. I put two orange tapers ( I don't remember where on earth I got them from) beside the bowl and a burnt orange toffee smelling candle in front.

Slowly but surely I am bringing fall into my house.

Off to visit you all.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Starting to Decorate

This past weekend I decided that it was time to get my house dressed for fall. So I spent some time hunting up supplies to make a fall wreath for my entry way.

This is what I came up with. It is absolutely amazing what a person can find in the hidden corners of a craft room. All I ended up buying was the grapevine wreath base. I took apart some old artificial flowers, some stems of coloured leaves and found the pumpkins nesting in the bottom of a closet. The ribbon was part of a swap I took part in last year.

I still have a ways to go in my decorating scheme, but at least I have started. Now just to head over to the neighbours to collect pinecones for my winter project.

The weekend went a bit downhill after this. Seems that we need a new alternator for our Trailblazer. We went to church and when I came out after putting the lectionary away (I was a proclaimer at Mass) found Harvey sitting in the SUV without it running.....strange. When I asked him why it hadn't been started he turned the key. Nothing....not a sound. Good thing we only live a few blocks from the church.

We had the car towed this morning (turns out it was closer to this afternoon) and we will be waiting for at least another 12 hours before it has been fixed. I ended up taking a cab to work and walking to the shop after work. I did get a courtesy car to use tomorrow until ours is ready.

So my Sunday afternoon was spent making Eggplant Parmigian for the freezer. I ended up making 10 containers for use during the winter. My freezer is getting pretty darn full, perhaps it is time to invest in a bigger freezer.

Well it is off to visit you all.

Everyone have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Bits and Pieces of My Library

I thought that today I would post some pictures of my new library. Turns out Harvey liked the idea so much he moved in his computer desk and laptop computer. He took over a corner of the room cause he says it is starting to look very cosy! These are the book cases that Harvey made for me. I had a lot of fun filling the shelves. Fact is I probably could have used another two or three cases as I did double rows of books according to author on quite a few of the shelves. I finally have all my Nancy Drew books out on display and can see which ones are missing.

This is the corner that Harvey choose for himself. I have a feeling that it is going to be a fight to see who gets to use the laptop more.

And what is a library without a phone. It will come in handy when I am sitting nose buried in a book.

I have some gardening books, and a few others to move into their new home yet. Hopefully I will get them down there later today.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. Off to visit you all now. God bless.