Thursday, July 20, 2017

I started cleaning up in my stitching areas today. But as I put things away I’m also sorting things because we intend to have a garage sale in September. I think I’ve gone through patterns and pattern books ten times but today, as I made my final pass before setting them aside, I still managed to retrieve a few that I decided I wanted to keep. I offered some of my Stoney Creek magazines for sale on one of my cross stitch sites and I’ve actually managed to sell a few. Hopefully more will go but if not they will all go back into the garage sale pile.

I debated about doing some re-arranging in my hand stitching area but decided it was going to be too much work. I have managed to empty out most of the bags I took with me to the Island last week. I still haven’t come across the one that has my cards in it and I know that time is slipping away and a couple of those cards should have already been in the mail.

I had a bit of running around to do (again) today so that ate up most of the afternoon. I had a couple of things to drop off at Cranberry Hall, I had a prescription to pick up, I needed to go to the bank, and I was in search of Rice Krispies that advertised a personalized spoon. I looked in two of the four possible stores but no luck so far; Gavin was hoping to get his own spoon. I still haven’t made it into the new library but as soon as I finish the book I’m currently reading I’ll get up there.

It’s a much cooler day today with a few rain showers – clear of course until I stepped out of the car at my first stop! Pat says there will be clouds and showers for another couple of days and then I can get back to my laundry.

I picked up some buttons today for a knitting project that was finished (except for buttons) a long time ago. I’ll hopefully get them done tonight and then I’ll have lots of packages to take to the mail tomorrow. I think my “nearly finished” basket has a couple of donation sweaters that just need the ends stitched in so maybe I should tackle them as well.

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

We had a wonderful three weeks and it was a break from almost everything in my routine. I’m now trying to catch up on everything and it isn’t going as quickly as I would like.

We spent our first week “away” in Calgary. We were happy to be there to help celebrate Elizabeth’s birthday and, of course, we had to do a bit of shopping for the occasion. I also made an appearance at one of the quilt shops – I was able to pick up their Row by Row kit to add to my collection. We visited a few of our usual spots – the Rock Park, Elliston Lake Park and the “big” playground. We were unable to find any fireworks or Canada Day celebrations close by but we spent the morning at a trampoline park which the kids really liked (and it looked like a lot of fun). We were well-fed and entertained the entire week.

We brought Madison, Emma and Gavin back to Powell River with us. They’ve not been away from home often and they were a bit homesick a few times but I think they enjoyed the visit. I remember a time when I was homesick and there is no way I participated and “got on with it” the way my grandchildren did. We visited a different beach every day and the tide tables were cooperative so we had lots of beach sand. We did a few hikes, played a few rounds of mini-golf and enjoyed ice cream treats afterwards. Emma learned to knit and stitch with plastic canvas; she was a natural at it but I don’t think she believed me when I told her that her Mum could show her how to cross stitch (she went home with lots of threads and aida cloth to practice on). The time went all too quickly though and I flew them home to Calgary exactly one week after they left.

This past week we were enjoying some quiet time on Vancouver Island at the Applewood Cottage. We’ve stayed there before and it was just a nice this time as it always has been. We shopped at Costco (twice), I picked up a Row by Row kit at one of the quilt shops, and we found a couple of new-to-us restaurants. While Pat attended the music festival on Friday, Saturday and Sunday I enjoyed some sewing, some cross stitching, some knitting, and a few afternoon naps.

It is nice to be home but it is also sad to be putting away all the fun things we had out for the kids. I washed the bedding yesterday and the towels were today’s load – I hang them on the line so one load a day is about all I accomplish. I swept and vacuumed up a lot of sand, but the saddest of all was cleaning up the sticks Gavin had collected and made fishing rods from. There are still Mr. Freezie’s in the freezer so I’ll be reminded of our week every time I have one (Madison and I agree they are better if they’ve had a chance to thaw just a bit before sucking them up).

My hope was that today I would be able to get caught up on paperwork and do a bit of cleaning upstairs. So far I’ve done my paperwork and got the minutes for the last Cranberry Hall distributed but I haven’t even started on my e-mail yet. I’ll keep plugging away at it – we went out for lunch (on our way to do some errands) so dinner (if it exists) will be late.

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

No doubt by the time you read this we’ll be settled in and having fun at Elizabeth’s. When we travel we usually take either the first ferry or plane out but today we had a leisurely morning and caught the noon ferry. It gave time for Pat to do a bit more business on behalf of Cranberry Hall and I had time to clean out the fridge, water the plants and even add a few stitches to my project.

Thanks to our very reliable taxi drivers (Peggy and Bill) we were at the airport in lots of time and even managed a coffee and doughnut along the way. We seldom stop at Tim Horton’s but when we were there I noticed they were selling a Nanaimo Bar Doughnut – I might just have to try that at some point.

I’m traveling without any stitching this trip – no knitting, no embroidery, no stitching at all! I have plans to stop at a quilt shop and needlework store while in Calgary so the trip home may be quite different. I’m about to check out the book shelf at the Comox Airport – I’ve picked up more than a few books from here in the past.

Sunday, June 25, 2017

I started my morning with a bit of embroidery while I had my coffee. After breakfast I went out to the yard and pulled the weeds that I’d given the vinegar treatment to. The small weeds came up easily but there are some tough dandelion roots that didn’t come out. I’ve sprayed them again so hopefully the vinegar on the roots will finish them off. I pulled a few weeds in the back that hadn’t been sprayed and swept the carport.

After my shower I came up to my studio(s) and finished cleaning things up. My sewing room is more or less tidy but a lot of things from the playroom moved across the hall so the kids would have room to spread out. Everything is vacuumed (and a few things are dusted) so this level is pretty much ready for guests.

I did a bit more stitching before lunch and then after lunch I went back outside and spray-treated the cracks in the driveway. I won’t be here to pull out the weeds but, if the spray works, dead weeds will be more attractive than green ones don’t you think?

I finished the afternoon with stitching. I’m off now to write some Bingo clues so we can play at the beach when the kids are here.