Friday, December 10, 2021

I got four more packages into the mail today so I’m almost done. I have a couple of birthday presents that need to be sent before Christmas but one is waiting for a card. I also have one more Christmas gift that hasn’t arrived on my doorstep yet. If necessary they will go into Express Post envelopes to ensure they arrive on time.

It wasn’t pretty (or civil) getting those packages wrapped. I used up the last bit on my roll of packing tape and had to resort to the tape gun. We do not get along well and the wrapping (and language) showed it. Somehow when I try to tear it off the gun I end up unwinding a lot more of it than I wanted and then it gets all stuck together. And to make it worse at some point in the process the tape slipped out of the roller and then all bets were off as to how much tape was coming off and where it was going to end up. I stopped at the dollar store when I was out this afternoon and picked up a couple more rolls – one for the gun and one for me upstairs. We need a trip to Costco as the rolls were way, way more than a dollar!

I expected a line-up at the post office and I wasn’t disappointed. I think I waited outside almost half an hour before I was able to get into the lobby to wait. I couldn’t understand why it was so slow but from the time I arrived until after I left the same person was standing at one of the tills sending out her packages so, in reality, only one till was operational. I would probably have been annoyed but Dee is a friend and I know she was sending out commercial packages. The people behind me probably were annoyed at my four mailings.

When I went out it was cool but no rain or wind; even after the wait at the post office there was just a bit of rain coming down. I had a few stops to make and by the time I made the last one there was a storm brewing. I see that the ferries (both Comox and Texada) have been cancelled so I guess it is going to get worse.

It will be a good night to catch up on some episodes of The Vikings and do more crocheting on my latest afghan.

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

I’ve almost finished the last of my hardanger (that isn’t really hardanger) projects. I purchased the series of lessons a few years ago when we spent Christmas in Victoria. There is a beautiful needlework shop in Trounce Alley; I have purchased several projects from there but I think these are the first that I’ve finished.

The first lesson in the series went very well and I loved the process. The second lesson involved cutting some threads and it didn’t go as well as I hoped and I ended up “fixing” it. The next three lessons (I had two sets of one of the lessons) introduced some new stitches and involved more cutting. I put them away until I could figure out a method to finish the stitching without doing the cutting. In some cases I was able to do the special stitches but in some other cases not so much.

I looked forward to finishing it all and passing the patterns on to theThrift Store but …

Lessons four and five turned out quite well and now I want to start all over again and do them right. I’ll dig out Mum’s instructions books and do some practicing on some of her sampler pieces. And if that works out well I’ll start all over with lesson one. I’ll need to buy more fabric and a few charms; I wonder if I can persuade anyone to go to Victoria?

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

I had just a few more hardanger stitches to add to one of my cards and then I thought I’d be home free with just some cross stitching to do. Don’t get me wrong, I can make mistakes in cross stitch but it is less likely and usually easier to fix or fudge. However, the stitching around the hardanger blocks contain some stitches that I haven’t done before and it is slow going. My cards this year may read Happy New Year rather than Merry Christmas.

I didn’t go sewing today so that I could zoom ahead (or so I thought) on my cards. I popped in at the Legion just before lunch to take some photos and see what everyone was working on. It was a small crowd. I took along some options for my paper piecing class and the ones I thought were too small were too small. I have one though that was a unanimous hit so that’s what I’ll be doing. I’ll need to sort out some fabric for it but the class isn’t until the end of January so I have lots of time – in case I need to buy something.

Back to work!

Monday, December 6, 2021

We had snow last night. In any other province in Canada we’d likely say we had a skiff of snow but not here! There was about an inch of snow covering the top of the table on the deck. The plows and sanders were out early and had the road cleared by mid-morning.

Another way to know there wasn’t much snow is that I actually ventured out into it. I had a parcel I wanted to get into the mail, as well as a couple of letters. No problem on the roads but the parking lot at the post office was a mess so I decided once the parcels were mailed that I’d skip the trip to the library. I hate the area around the library at the best of times and I didn’t want to be anywhere near it in case it hadn’t been cleared. My book isn’t due yet so I will wait for a better day.

I spent most of the day working on cards. I ended up with two hardanger patterns that were the same so I started the second one this morning. I managed to get the numbers to work out properly for the stitches on this one; they both need some cross stitching done on them but I wanted to get the hardanger stuff out of the way. I’m sorry for the person who is going to get my first attempt. The cross stitching is relaxing even if it doesn’t go as fast as I think it will.

I’m off to the Hall tonight for a Board meeting so I’d better get my papers together and packed up.