Saturday, December 23, 2017

This was my day in the kitchen; I baked a Cranberry Bundt cake to take to our neighbours on Texada and I got the filling prepared for our Tortiere. We are taking a lot of food with us in anticipation of the market being closed but I guess it is a good thing not to be short of food!

While the cake was baking I finished off three loads of laundry. I’ll be spending at week at the studio – my longest continual visit yet – and I don’t want to be doing laundry until at least past Boxing Day.

I couldn’t believe I was back at the store today. We are going out for New Year’s Eve dinner and then going back to Geoff and Brenda’s for pot-luck dessert. I want to make Deloise’s Expresso Mousse but I needed to be sure I could get the expresso powder the recipe called for. By the time I was out the door a few more things had been added to the list, but fortunately it was only one stop.

Pat has packed into the truck everything that won’t freeze. He has a ride to the party tonight so by packing the truck now we gain a bit of time in the morning. The ferry service isn’t as good on the weekend so we’ll be taking the early ferry across; we’ll want to be in the line-up early though as it could be crowded.

I’ll be out the door early this evening as well. The concert I go to is always packed and parking can be a problem. The doors don’t open until 7:00 PM but in order to get a parking spot I’ll leave home shortly after six. I don’t mind sitting in my car for a short period just to know that I’ll have an easy spot to get in and out of.

I have a few last-minute things to take care of (what would we do without those last minutes?) and then I’m going to do some knitting – one mitt done and the second one started.

Friday, December 22, 2017

I was able to cross a couple more things off my list today. I finished Taylor’s birthday card and I got my Block of the Month done for the Guild. I also reworked the card that was returned. I’m sure it could now go as a “regular” letter and for sure $1.20 postage would be fine but I’ve upped it to $1.80 to be sure it gets through this time.

I went out to the shed after lunch and I think I’m set for our Christmas “tree” on Texada. We are going to have quite a truck load before we head out. I keep a tote bag “on the go” and keep adding things to it that I remember I need/want to have over there. We’ll have more groceries than usual because we’ll be staying longer and the market is closed for most of the holidays. We’re also taking quite a few prepared meals as well – Pat is making some cabbage rolls and I’ll make a tortiere tomorrow. We have lots of lovely parcels to take along too and Pat suggested this afternoon that maybe his keyboard and stand could move to the studio.

I didn’t have much luck with my mitts last night so I’m going to get started on them earlier today. The first time I tried the mitt was too small; I found a different pattern but the second start was too big. I’ll use the same pattern but change my needle size and hopefully the third try will be lucky!

Thursday, December 21, 2017

I just finished the last project that needed to be done before Christmas. I know, you thought I was done a few days ago. I had forgotten that Pat’s accounting had to be sent to the accountant before the end of the month. Since I didn’t get his year-end files back until earlier this month it was a bit of a scramble getting the past three months sorted out and entered into my software. It’s all done now and I even had time to clear out a few of last year’s files.

We had an appointment this afternoon and when it was done we went looking for “something Christmassy” that would serve as a Christmas tree on Texada. We have lovely outdoor trees but I wanted something we could put our gifts under or around. We went to both of our garden centres and came up empty. Although I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, I knew I hadn’t found it yet. I have another idea that I’m going to go with; it will involve some digging out in the shed but I think it will work just fine. No, it won’t be anything like that umbrella tree I had a few years ago, although I still think that arrangement was quite festive.

I’m going to start a new knitting project tonight – mitts for myself! When I was in Mark’s yesterday I looked at their mitts and gloves – $20-$30 seemed too much to pay for the few times I need them. So I’ll dig out one of Mum’s patterns and make myself a pair for much less.