Wednesday, April 18, 2018

When Pat was checking out the new-to-us bed and frame he also spotted a juicer that was for sale. I’ve always wanted a juicer and was happy that it came home with him.

Yesterday, after sewing, Pat juiced up some melons, pineapples and a lemon that were left from his birthday event. Although it isn’t labour intensive to make the juice, cleaning up afterwards is. But we enjoyed our small glass of juice before dinner.

Pat could hardly wait this morning to try a veggie drink – I was a bit skeptical. He juiced some apples, celery, carrots, ginger and a lime and we each had a big glass for breakfast. Much to my surprise it was very good and he ran through another batch with tomatoes, carrots, celery and lime. We had a bit of an explosion because we used some grape tomatoes that popped out of the juicer but I think we have them all cleaned up.  I’ve saved the pulp from the juicer and I’m going to make some soup; I would have done it today but we had to have our gas meter changed so we were without the stove for an hour just at lunchtime.

I spent all morning and the first part of the afternoon on Cranberry Hall stuff. I’m pretty much caught up on what came about as of the last meeting but with the AGM in two weeks I’ll have more on my plate next week. My room is in such a disarray I had to do something with it today. I’ve been shredding paper since the beginning of the year (part of a 31-day clean up plan that will likely take me 30 years); paperwork was the task for January 1st and it has taken me until now to get it done. With our taxes due at the end of the month it will start another cycle of cleaning out the file cabinet but I don’t expect to get back to the paperwork task until January 1st next year. I don’t remember the next thing on the list but I’m hopeful it won’t take me quite as long!

I will be sewing tomorrow with my Thursday group and I didn’t have a project sorted out. I will add borders to my Supernova quilt but white fabric didn’t really work with Gail’s inquisitive and shedding cats so I’ll leave that for the retreat. I settled on a miniature for our next meeting in May. Today we have a friend replacing the roof of the back deck and I recalled that they were expecting a baby and Pat and I talked about making a quilt for them. I found a pattern and I’ve spent the afternoon cutting. Clearly I’m tired though; my 8.5″ squares were all cut to 12.5″ and my 1.5″ x 10.5″ were all cut to 1.5″ x 12.5″ before  I realized my mistake. Thankfully everything was cut larger than required so I still had enough fabric. This will be my Thursday project while the other ladies catch up on their Supernova quilts.

I’ll finish the cutting for the baby quilt and then get packed up for tomorrow. Pat is out tonight so I’ll continue with more tidying up, unless I cave and relax with my knitting.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

I finished most of the things on the list I made yesterday afternoon. Two cards and a parcel went into the mail before I headed out to the bee. The minutes are almost ready for distribution, the cheques have been signed and the deposit is safely in the bank. The back deck and the bedroom are cleared out. Not bad – but I was more than ready for bed by 9:30 last night.

It still seems impossible to get at my Tuesday project (because I need to do that cleaning on the SUV) so I’ve fixed that by making my April Challenge my Tuesday project. I’ve been slowly working my way through the appliqué work on 20 snowflakes and I’m down to only four left as of today. I hadn’t really intended to take this project to the Retreat but since I’m close to being done the appliqué I think I will pack it with me. Theoretically after the snowflakes are done the rest should be pretty easy to put together since it is a panel; at least that’s what I’ve kept telling myself all the way through these snowflakes.

The fabric I ordered for the sashing on my Magic 9-Patch arrived but I’ve decided it isn’t quite right for the project. So I stopped at the fabric store today and found some that I hope will work – too bad if it doesn’t because I’m not buying more! I also picked up border fabric for my Supernova; I wanted the shapes to float and fortunately Deb still had the fabric I used on the body of the quilt. And finally I had to pick up a zipper for the Retreat project; since I’m going to have to deal with putting a zipper in “something” I decided to treat myself to new fabric for the project (but I got it from the 50% off bin).

I didn’t get my cutting table cleared yesterday but it is imperative that I get it done soon. My Retreat projects will all require some cutting and I don’t do well cutting in a group – I pay too much attention to the conversations going on around me and not enough focus on what I’m doing.

Now, I’d best get back to those minutes or I’ll be up here all night.

Monday, April 16, 2018

After my sewing session on Thursday I did a quick swap (sewing stuff out of the car, Texada stuff into the car) and headed out on the 6 PM ferry. I like being able to take that later ferry and still be at the studio before dark.

In spite of (or maybe because of) being on my own I didn’t get a lot of stitching done. I hoped to have a PJ day on Friday but ended up having to get dressed and go down the hill to the neighbour’s. I knew Pat had invited her to his party at a group meeting but I wanted to be sure she got a personal invitation. We had a nice chat and, since I was dressed, I didn’t bother getting back into my PJs. I did get my PJ day on Saturday though – I had already talked to the neighbour two houses over twice so I didn’t thing they’d be stopping in; Pat had just had a visit from the neighbour across the road, and I had just seen Bev.

Sunday was all about the birthday party. I had my cleaning all finished by Sunday morning. While the first group were on their way over on the ferry I got the coffee made, muffins and fruit set out. We had about ten guys show up in the first wave. Pat enjoyed showing them around the studio and the shop and since it was quite a nice day they wandered around outside. Bev came up to the studio for a visit so I was a bit later leaving for the Kitchen Party than I had planned but I arrived with the cakes about 15 minutes into the event. People came and went throughout the afternoon. There were about fourteen from Powell River and probably a dozen more from Texada. There was lots of music from both the Powell River contingent and the Texada group and I think everyone had a good time. There was talk of doing another one but I won’t be quite so involved if it does happen.

We had a few more of the guys come back to the studio after the party but it was kind of nice knowing they had a limited amount of time to spend. They all headed out to catch the five o’clock ferry. At the end of the day I had just enough energy to run my iPad battery down playing MahJong and finish reading my book.

We loaded up my car for the trip back on the noon ferry. I got all of the dishes and left-over food unloaded and put away, except for the dishes that we’ll need out for the House Concert next weekend. The left-over cake has been wrapped and is in the freezer and all my unpacking is done. Sadly most of that unpacking made its way upstairs and my sewing room is a disaster. I’m trying to work my way through a long list of things that need done in the next couple of day.

• One of the cards I sent out at the end of last month came back because I had the wrong address. I’ve sent a message to see if I can get the new address and get it back on its way again.
• I started the Cranberry Hall minutes from the last meeting but I need to finalize them and get them sent out. I’ve made arrangements to have cheques signed tomorrow after the bee but I still need to get a deposit ready.
• We’re having the roof of the back deck replaced next week and I’ve got most of the stuff from the deck somewhere in the house (rugs are drying in the kitchen, extra chairs in the living room, recycle bins in the laundry room). I still need to take a few things out to the shed.
• We are replacing the bed in the spare room and, although I have stripped the bed, I still need to clear out a bedside table and a book case. The new-to-us bed will have a frame so we’re not sure where it will best fit in the room so that we can still get into the closet. It seemed like it would be easier to pull everything else out, get the bed in and then re-arrange as necessary.
• I’ve got a parcel that needs to go in the mail and, if I can squeeze it in, I have a birthday card that I need to finish and get in the mail as well.
• I need to find something to work on at the bee tomorrow and get it packed up. My Tuesday project has been neglected because I need to clean and oil one of my lesser-used machines and I just don’t seem to have had time to get that done.
• And, of course, my cutting table, sewing cabinet and table are completely cluttered with things that need to be dealt with.

It’s going to be a long night!

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

I made the first of three bundt cakes last night – I can’t even remember how many of these I’ve made since last summer. Several for our Cranberry Day celebration and several more for various Cranberry Hall Presents events. I still have one package of cranberries left so I’ll make another one for the Member Appreciation event at the Hall and then, I think, I’ll never want to see that recipe again.

I was up early and had my next cake in the oven before eight. This time it was a Chocolate Fudge; I’ve never made it before but who wouldn’t want to try a chocolate cake that uses cocoa powder and brewed coffee. My worry with these cakes is that they won’t come out of the pan properly but so far, so good.

Next up was a Lemon Bundt cake, also a new recipe. I miscalculated when I was making my list; somehow I didn’t see the final two ingredients on the sheet and although I had enough eggs I didn’t have enough sour cream. I had some vanilla yogurt so I substituted some of that and, judging from the crumbs I had, it worked out fine. Again it came out of the pan without any problem.

Next up was a “regular” cake that will get iced and stay at the studio for Pat’s birthday. It uses a cake mix and instant pudding mixes so it was easy to put together. Before getting started though I had to run out to Safeway to purchase another dozen eggs due to my earlier mis-count. This cake will stay in the 9″x13″ pan so I didn’t have to worry about getting it out of the pan.

And finally I was on to muffins. I found a recipe for Apple Cinnamon Muffins but I don’t like fruit in my muffins so decided to substitute raisins for the apples. When I was ready to put them into muffin tins I realized my muffin tins (well Mum’s actually) didn’t look so hot so I put them into the recycle bin and decided to make loaves instead. These I’m not so sure turned out well; fortunately there are two of them so I’ll be able to have a taste before deciding whether they are “good enough” or whether I’ll pick some up from the store tomorrow.

And the bonus for all this baking is that as I waited on the timer again and again and again I made good progress on one of my cross-stitched quilt blocks!