Tidbits And Stuff

 

Just a quick post. I know I have been absent for awhile, but this post should show you why.

Yet more beans picked. This is the third batch this week, so lots of freezing, eating and packaging to take to Kris's place.

Green pepper, jalapeno peppers, and an eggplant. Made another Parma, chopped the jalapeno and green peppers and got them into the dehydrator.

Made some salsa.

Made Sweet Cucumber Relish.

Finished weaving, and hemming the rug.

Started the wedding gift quilt.

And of course knit more mittens, dehydrated more herbs, and have the Black Hungarian Peppers in the dehydrator right now. 

I made packing lists, worked on getting things put back where they need to be, and of course did the regular household tasks. 

Still to do.... Bake some cookies and some muffins for our trip and do regular tasks around the house. 

I really believe that I will crash and spend much of our get away sound asleep. Probably will need that desperately by that time.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

 

It has rained off and on most of the day. Not deluges, but at times it has been fairly steady. Now the temperature is dropping and what will be falling will no longer be rain, but snow instead.

Yesterday I got my vaccine injection. Number one down, and now I just have to wait a bit in order to get my second injection. I got the Moderna vaccine so when I book for my second dose I will need to make sure that is the one I get.

Yesterday my arm was a tiny bit sore, but as today has progressed the soreness has increased, I have a slight headache and a slightly high temperature. It may be that I will have to rebook my dental appointment tomorrow. We shall see what the thermometer reads in the morning.

I have also lost one of those absorbable stitches. Only 12 more to go in various positions on my mid section. 

I haven't really felt like sewing clothing this past week, so today I went into my four inch squares and pulled some to make another quilt. This one hopefully just for me to snuggle under.

This is what I pulled.

Notice that most are flowery type fabrics with a few solids and a blotchy print thrown in. Doubt very much if Harvey or the sons will want this one.

Off to set the table and then back to visit you all.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Ooops

I actually forgot to post my monthly goals, so today I will post and give you an update all at the same time.

My list is a bit smaller this month, so hopefully it will all be completed.

1.  Unfinished goals from last month. Almost done the sewing part of those goals.

2.  Finish two quilts.  Done.

3.  Continue knitting the sport and finer weight leftover bits and bobs into squares.  Working on these still, but I am seeing the end of this yarn weight coming closer and closer.

4.  Knit on temperature blanket.  Doing so every day.

5.  Cut out 2 more patterns.  I have picked out some fabrics, but no cutting as of yet.

6.  Prepare rhubarb for winter usage.  Think I might just have another couple of picks and then I will be done.

7.  Continue decluttering. Just a few items this month will be leaving my house. Hopefully there will be a few more.

8.  Finish the presentation boards for the Ministry Fair.  Done.

I hope to get at least the sewing goals, the cutting out of the patterns, and the rhubarb done this week as next week we will be getting ready for our trip to the family reunion.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

This week has whizzed on by. I am sure that as I age the days fly by on wings of very speedy birds. It has not been a week with lots going on, but enough has occurred to make each day seem like there are not enough hours.

I did another weeding of the perennial bed and the long planters. I even pulled mini tree seedlings out of the pots, especially the tomato pot. Today we put the cage around it to hold it up.

At the beginning of the week we got some hail. 

Forgive the blurry picture, I was dodging hail stones at the time. Thank heavens nothing too big as I got hit on the head. I should also say thank goodness I have a fairly hard head as I just had some tenderness and a bit of a bump.

This one was taken from the safety of the doorway. While there were a very few larger ones, no damage was caused to my plants.

We got the thermostat working properly which is a very good thing. In this area one needs to be able to control the temperature for those 35C and above days, as well as those -40C days in the winter. Having a thermostat that jumped from 17C to 29C was not a good thing.

Harvey managed to take apart my vacuum which broke down (second item this month and it is only just over a year old). He plans on phoning the company on Monday to see if they will send him the part he needs. Until it is fixed I will use the ear jarring shop vac.

My new TV arrived and we managed to get it set up. I also managed to get the android box set up and working with the help of some wonderfully instructive texts from Kris.

I even managed some sewing (also knitting in the evenings).

This quilt is the replacement for Harvey's morning snuggle quilt. The old one was even beyond mending.

This quilt will be used for our family reunion silent auction. Hope it raises a few dollars as what is raised is used to pay for our big family supper the next year. We didn't do very well last year so I am thinking we might have to pay a bit this year.

I even managed to get another long awaited project completed.

These knit wide legged pants have been waiting in the sewing room for awhile. Just need to wash and press them now. Super comfortable!!

Rhubarb has been picked and frozen. With the cool weather I am hoping to get a few more harvests before my plants go to seed.

Harvey got some tickets for one of his beloved Saskatchewan Roughrider games. I kind of want to pick up another two tickets for him for Father's Day tomorrow and will do so early. Must go to see the game between the Riders and Blue Bombers on Labour Day. It is a tradition. He did give up his season tickets as the drive home from late night games was a problem.

So there you have the last week in pretty much a nutshell.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thursday Tidbits

I managed to finally finish the two quilts that were on my project list for this month. No more quilting for a bit. One of them will be put in the family reunion silent auction to raise a bit of cash so we don't have to pay for our meal in two years time.

I have also rolled the coin that we managed to save over the past two years. This will be used to bid on items in the silent auction. We don't have as much as other years (just goes to show that prices have indeed risen). Still $400.00 is nothing to sneeze at. Taking it to the bank in bits as all that rolled coin is heavy.

No real rain fall as of yet, in fact we are now in the midst of a thunderstorm with hopefully lots of rain coming our way. It is dark and the solar lights in the garden have twinkled on.

My new television arrived yesterday and I have managed to get it all set up, even with my android box!! I am one happy person right now, after two weeks of trying to watch TV on my tablet (difficult to do anything else) it is nice to have a big screen and a picture one does not have to squint at to watch.

The rest of this week I am locking myself in the sewing/craft room and getting my sewing completed during the mornings, and then in the afternoons I will work on the knitted squares and some cleaning. The fridge, stove and oven need cleaning again badly.

Decluttering is continuing at a slower pace. I hope to remove a few more item, or at least use up a few bits of my stash. Thus clearing out more space in those pesky plastic storage drawers.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thursday Tidbits

My cold is getting better. Still stuffed up and have a slight cough, but the temperature and headache have now disappeared. 

Managed to get outside and plant two more pots up. All I now have left is the items that will be put into the perennial bed and I need to replant my coleus and find that missing sage. 

I did not go shopping today, figured another day of sticking close to home would be best. So I tidied my curio cabinet (holds my angel collection), did some decluttering, worked on one of the quilts (hopefully will finish it tomorrow so I can work on the second one), and have been knitting. All between bouts of sitting in my recliner drinking hot tea and lemon. All in all a perfectly wonderful day. 

Harvey did get some more of our solar lights out and we have placed them in the garden. I sure hope they all work, it gets pretty black out there at night.

I did some phoning today and the pre-op paperwork is at the specialists so I can expect a phone call re my operation in a short time. At least I hope in a short time, but after I have gotten rid of this silly cold. 

Shopping will be done tomorrow with my list in hand. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Busy Wednesday Leading to a Busy Tomorrow

This morning I had the appointment with my doctor to start the paperwork for my surgery in Regina. Everything flowed along nicely until a fire alarm went off. We had to wait 15 minutes before we could go back into the office. The doctor filled out the forms for a chest x-ray, blood work, urine, and of course an ECG.

Well, the ECG showed that I had an extremely slow resting heart beat...sinus bradycardia. Now I will be travelling to the next city over to get a halter monitor. Which I will have to wear for 3 or 4 weeks (puts my surgery back a bit further). Sure hope there are no more surprises in store for me.

Thought I would share the remaining quilt tops with you all as well as the squares I am knitting.

Boy was I surprised when I began the green one. Some of the strips that I thought were whole turned out to be partial strips. This just meant a change in the layout. But I like it!!

To use up all the strips in the next quilt top I did a lengthwise set up. It is a bit narrower, but will still do it's job.

Next month I will be hopefully finishing them all off.

Here are the 4" squares that I am using some of the leftover yarn making. It is going to take awhile before I have enough to even think of making a blanket. Another continuing project. It seems like I am gathering a few of these.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thursday Tidbits

While the days have been for the most part nice and sunny, temperatures most days have started off below freezing and haven't really risen much. I am glad however that this corner of the Canadian prairies is not getting the snow and storms that our neighbours directly south of us are getting.

I managed to get the third quilt top completed and pulled out the strips to start the next one. I have a different idea for this one, but I am not sure that it would work out. Guess all I can do is give it a try. The idea I have could make it much quicker to set up and complete. Now I just hope that next month I can complete the sandwich, and the quilting on all of them (going to be very simple quilting).

All this means is that I only have one drawer left to clean out. Those 4" square fabric pieces. I just don't know if I could face making another two or three quilt tops this month in order to use them up. So I may just make some fabric out of them and construct a few shopping bags. I am going to wait on that project for a week or so. Perhaps even after Easter.

Shopping today was a breeze. This was the first week of not heading across town to pick items up at Walmart. Instead I made sure to pick up enough pet food, over the counter medications and various other items to last two weeks. So far this seems to have worked out okay. It does take some planning to make sure I have everything on my list. If this works, I will be driving a bit less saving gas, wear/tear on the vehicle, and time every second week. I think I will try this for a few months and then try a monthly shop, though that could be pushing it a little bit.

It was weigh in today and at first I thought I had only lost 1/2 lb, but in checking my numbers I actually lost 1.1 pounds. I don't know if it will be possible to meet my goal before the family reunion, but I am going to try my best. Right now this means I have lost close to 18.5 lbs. Not much more to go to reach 20 lbs and my goal is 25 lbs by the end of June. I will set the next goal after that probably another 10 or so and I will be almost at my pre third child weight. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

A Couple of Goals Almost Completed

I promised you all some pictures tonight of my completed quilt tops. I had thought I might be able to have the third quilt top done, but I still have a bit of work to do on it.

So here are the two that are finished. I have some threads to clip, but that will be done once all the tops are finished. The way things are moving along, I may just get 4 tops done this month and use up all those 2" strips. That will clean out another drawer in that set of three. Two drawers cleaned out and one left to go.

Then there were those finished cross stitch pictures that have been laying around for a number of years. 

Still have four to get mounted and framed. Hopefully sometime this weekend I will have those all finished as well.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

A few long awaited goals and projects were finally completed today. So nice to be able to cross these off the goal list. Still there will be a few things carried over next month as I just can't seem to get everything completed.

This quilt has been in the making for well, almost 4 years.

It was way too large to fit my machine so I hand quilted it. This is something I have not done for a number of years. Mistakes were made, but all things considered I am happy with the result.

The above cross stitch has been featured here before. It languished in a drawer for about 3 years. I finally figured out that foam board bought in the school supplies section along with some spray adhesive could take the place of regular mounting boards. It is now hanging in our bedroom and I am ready to start another. I just hope it does not take as long as this one to be up and hanging.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

Yesterday I had my appointment in Regina with the specialist for my cervical biopsy. 

This was not a pleasant experience, as I told Harvey I would much rather break a bone or give birth to 12 babies in a row than go through that again. It hurt (I have a very high pain tolerance)!! I could feel every snip of tissue being removed and there was lots of snipping.

I am not sure if I want the biopsied tissue to be cancer free or not...… It seems that if it is cancerous removal would be preferable to having to go through this every six months or every year (that is if it is one of the diseases that could turn to cancer and they need to keep an eye on it).

Left the room very much in a haze of pain. When I got out to the waiting room Harvey took one look at me and asked what was wrong. I told him I wanted to go home, which meant no visit with Kris. The remainder of yesterday I had major cramps, today they seem to have gone. However the bleeding has not really lessened, and I am busy watching for signs of infection. Hopefully that will not happen and tomorrow everything will be back to normal or at least as normal as it can possibly be.

I need to phone the specialists office on Monday and set up an appointment for 4 weeks. I should know what if anything will be done (or if anything needs to be done) at that point. Four weeks of waiting this time around will be a breeze.

In other news I have almost finished hand quilting the blocks I only have two left and then I can start on the slashing. I may just be able to mark this project off the to do list this month. This means I could almost start another quilt or two to use snuggling into in the living room. Could also mean lots of other sewing getting accomplished as well.

The cleaning and using up of the chest freezer is moving right along. Amazing what a person can do when they put their minds to a task.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Sharing

After promising so long to share some pictures of my various projects I thought that tonight would be the time to do so.

All of these projects are Christmas gifts. I still have a few more to make but the list is getting shorter and shorter.

These are the mittens I made for my twin nieces. One loves purple and the other loves pink. I will add a warm headband to these and call the gifts done.

This is one of the three rice bag sets I made for Kurt, Kris and Harvey. The longer one is for around the neck and the two smaller ones are to tuck into their mitts when they perhaps have to shovel.

The quilt I made from leftover fabrics and clothing for Kurt. I do hope he likes it.

Harvey's robe. It looks almost a pale yellow here when in reality it is a camel colour. 

More projects coming very soon. My fingers are flying trying to get everything finished. I have three pairs of mittens, and a rug to knit. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Saturday Round up

It has been a busy week here on the old homestead.

I had three meetings this week, two at the Anglican church and one at my own. Prayer Shawl Ministry has started at my church and our first knit meeting was yesterday. I really need to improve on a couple of things before the next one as the Anglican church has been invited to attend.

The first meeting was to take a blurb to the Anglican church for their bulletin inviting them to attend our next meeting in two weeks. The second meeting was to introduce myself to the Anglican priest, I figured it was past time I did so. And the third meeting was the Prayer Shawl meeting. Managed to get them all in by Thursday.

Yesterday I bought some large pots for my planting this year. Today after Harvey and Kris got the deck cleared off I set them out. I think I have them all in their final resting places, but I have been known to change my mind.

I managed to get my quilt sandwiched, pinned and trimmed yesterday. Now the fun part begins. This is going to take awhile as the quilt could be considered King sized (I wanted it big enough to hang nicely on the bed). This means pulling out a different machine to do my regular sewing. Thank goodness Kurt bought me another machine for Christmas, though I could have used my mothers old one.

Harvey worked up the garden and then today both of them (Kris is home thank heavens) planted my pear tree, brought in the treadmill, and put in the window air conditioner. 

Slowly but surely things are being completed.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

This week has seen a few finishes on projects.

I finally finished my knitted wrap (still need to take a picture of it), and the extra yarn is being used to knit myself a pair of socks. I may even get two pairs out of what is leftover.

I started sewing the quilt blocks together to form the top of my quilt.

The strips were then sewn together to form this top. I managed to get the borders put on this morning. Now comes the fun part. I just need to find a space big enough to lay everything out to sandwich. And of course figure out how I am going to quilt it.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

Mass was not quite as full as it usually is, wonder if it is because hockey season has started again?

Today the homily Father Brian gave was on how we need to open our eyes and see love (Christ) in everyone around us, the sick, the poor, the homeless and the persecuted. I don't know if I really do. I do know that I try, but sometimes fail dreadfully at this.

I also got the borders sewn on the two quilts and even managed to get one sandwiched. I need to do a bit of work on the backing (sew a piece across the bottom) and I will be able to get the second quilt sandwiched as well. Only using one flannel sheet to do so, but that is one less item in the craft/sewing room and every little bit helps.

This is Kurt's afghan. It will go wonderfully with his basement decor......I may even have enough of the strips left to make a pillow to go along with it. I do know I have enough stuffing to do so. This is also the quilt I managed to get sandwiched today.

 This is the quilt top for Kris. The pink stripe is actually a very light purple. Purple is his favorite colour. Don't ask me why. Hopefully this will be sandwiched by the afternoon. Pretty sure I have enough to make him a pillow as well.

I do want to get the borders done by Monday as well. Then comes the quilting, which should be fun.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

And A New Year Begins

Shhh, don't say anything, but Harvey and I did not stay up to see the new year in. In fact it has been many years since we have. I did get up 6 hours after the beginning of the year so I really did not miss that much.

I have kept busy today doing various large and small tasks. While the temperature is beautiful it is dark and cloudy so counted cross stitch was put aside for the day and I started to finish another project that has been on the to do list, cut out even for the last three years (I will more than likely be working on this when it is too dismal to cross stitch). This is in keeping with my goals for the year and even my monthly goals so I don't feel too bad about leaving one project to work on another.

I embroidered some butterflies a couple of years ago, and then gathered together and cut out squares of matching colours. This was going to be a new quilt for our bed which is needed. I then gathered everything together and put it away nicely in the sewing room. That is as far as the project got.

Until today. I pulled everything out and started pinning.

Here are the first two simple block patterns.

The quilt will use variations of these colours in each block but the basic block will stay the same. Nothing too overwhelming really I just needed a boot in the pants to get started. The best thing. Harvey loves the colours!!!

A new month means new monthly goals, and I did promise you yesterday I would share them with you all. There are 5 this month.

1.     Organize kitchen. I have to move things around to have room to store my new appliances.

2.     Work on unfinished projects (this seems to be a reoccurring theme).

3.     Copy and organize more recipes. Slowly but surely all those binders of recipes is disappearing and a nicely organized recipe shelf or two is evolving.

4.     Work on scanning all those loose pictures in containers and files.

5.     Work on at least one quilt. (notice the "at least one", gives you a hint that there could be a few more that need working on.... More of those unfinished projects).

This should keep me busy this month, but really the list is not that undoable.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Ahhh, The End Of The School Year

Today marks the end of the school year for me. As a sub you do not often get called in to work the final week of school. Though that was proven wrong for me this year. I worked on Monday as one of the regular aides was attending a funeral for a family member. It was interesting to be involved in the final year tear down of class rooms and set up for the Grade 8 Farewell.

Today was a busy day. I got caught up on a few things around the house that did not get done on Monday and completed most of today's to do list. Makes me happy to cross items off a list, a bit anal of me I know, but hey at least I know what I have done in a day.

After helping Harvey with some of the deck work, I came in and began (well really continued) my work indoors.

I had decided a few weeks ago to go through my scrap material and cut out useable quilting blocks. I did some last week and this week managed to find more that needed to be prepared.

I got these cut out a few days ago. Nice little pile of squares.

I have this stack of material still to cut.

I am hoping to get it done before Harvey gets up tomorrow morning and we start to do more work on the deck.

Since I started a challenge on a forum I visit I have been using up as much as I possibly can. This not only includes leftover food, but fabric, yarn, cleaning supplies and anything else a person can think of. I have a feeling this has saved us a great deal over the past few years. It also gives me a great deal of satisfaction that I am not putting as much in our city's landfill any longer. One bag of garbage a week, unless we are doing a spring or fall clean up of the yard. Even Harvey is getting in on it and recycling some of the lumber from the dismantled deck into shelving for the second garden shed he wants to build (or buy if he can find one at the right price). Got to love it when the whole family gets involved!!!

I also want to clean and prepare the rhubarb I picked. Perhaps make a cake or some more pies. Seems as if as fast as I use up items from the big chest freezer, I am putting more in. Hopefully I will have most of the veggies gone and can do a good defrost before the next harvest comes.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thursday Tidbits

It has been a busy day here in the Phillips household.

Even though it stormed last night Harvey decided to finish picking the peas. He managed to get a 5 gallon pail full. So this evening after supper I managed to get an addition to the 4 bags I blanched and froze last night.

We should get another picking from the peas and hopefully another 5 or 6 bags for the freezer. I do have 2 meals of peas in the fridge and perhaps another 1 or 2 with the next picking.

Harvey figures he will be picking beans tomorrow. That might be the last pick of the season as the plants have stopped blooming.

I worked on the lap quilt for my friends father. Since the materials are all a bit different, and some seem to stretch a little when cutting the corners did not match up exactly.

I am not totally happy with it, but I am sure her father will be. I am using buttons that I took off the clothing to sandwich the layers together. Got a few more to sew on but tomorrow is another day. I am hoping to finish it very soon.....

The reason I want it finished is that I am suffering from knitting withdrawals. This has probably been the longest in years that I do not have something on my knitting needles. I can hardly wait to start another project for my evenings.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Unfinished Projects

I thought that today I would share with all of you some of my unfinished projects. Hopefully they will join the ranks of finished projects very soon.

First some cross stitch projects.

This is a very small dragon and castle. The picture really does not do it justice. I started this on a silent retreat and was going to give it as a gift to Kris for Christmas one year..... Perhaps it will make an extra gift for this coming Christmas.

This is a large angel. I believe it is called Angel of Winter. I started this many years ago and put it away to finish when I had more time. I have a whole series of these to do, so I think I better get started very soon on completing them.

I have one top cut out to sew. Bad me it has been sitting in my sewing room for at least 2 months.

This will make a perfect summer top. A lovely addition to my wardrobe. If I want to wear it while the weather is still nice I better get to it.

These, with the addition of some cream coloured fabric, embroidered with burgundy butterflies will be made into a new quilt for our bed. I really want to get started on this and I am using it as a bribe. You know if I get "X" amount done I can start the embroidery...... I need to get 3 more small unfinished projects done first. Slowly but surely reaching that milestone.

I also have a red tablecloth, white tablecloth and a number of cotton dishcloths to get through. Plus I have some more clothing sewing I would love to complete.

Looks like I have a busy summer ahead of me.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Getting Caught up Around the House... Frugal Past Times

I spent today getting caught up on a few of the chores that I have put off for awhile.

This morning I spent some time cutting out quilting squares from old jeans and scrap material from all the costume making I have been doing lately.

First I got out all the necessary tools.

Then I started cutting 4" squares. Here is a pile I ended up with from part of today's session.

I put these in the container I have specially marked for quilt squares. Do you think I have enough to make a quilt or two?

Hmm, I think it is time I started to piece out one or two.

Next I finished sewing up the second sweater that I want to give as an Easter gift. Actually these are sweaters that I had wanted to give for Christmas, but ran out of time to make them. Hence they have become Easter presents for Kurt and Kris.

One more item marked off my white board of projects that I want to complete.

Kept my day full and purposefully frugal as everything I did and will be doing saves money and gets rid of clutter in my house..... Well not really clutter, but things I use to create gifts and clothing for my family.

I am now working on mittens from some of the yarn that was leftover from other projects. Like I said my mantra this year is use it up, wear it out, make it do.... Or if all else fails recycle and find new uses for items I already own.

We are heading into Regina tomorrow and I need to pick up some embroidery thread for my machine and a couple of meters of material to make the quilt for our bed. Other then that Harvey wants to pick up a few fishing items, and some popcorn for his popcorn machine. We will be looking at home improvement items and pricing them out. Best of all we will be spending time with Kris.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. God bless.