Tuesday, May 23, 2017

As I always do on bee days, I set my alarm for 7 AM. During the night I realized that I should have sent out a couple of Cranberry Hall e-mails so, after the coffee was started, it was straight upstairs to my computer to take care of that. I had a problem with my mail program and it took awhile to get it sorted out but eventually the postings went out to everyone that needed them.

One side of the backseat in my car was loaded with the bottles and cans that I wasn’t able to return to the bottle depot on the weekend, and the trunk is full of books from the Guild Library. I wouldn’t have had room to pack both mine and Carola’s sewing necessities so my plan was to make a run to the bottle depot, come back home, pack my sewing stuff, pick up Carola and head out to the bee. But Carola decided not to go to the bee so my plans changed.

I helped Pat move the various parts for his Rubbermaid desk downstairs and then I loaded the car up with my sewing supplies. I earned just over $5 at the bottle return shop and then headed out to the Post Office. I had a couple of cards to get in the mail, as well as a cross stitch pattern I sold through one of my Facebook groups. From there it was straight to the bee – all that done and I was at the bee by 9 AM!

I worked in the Guild Library for the first hour or so of the morning. After all our book removals I wanted to make sure the list I had of the remaining books was right. There were a few inconsistencies but I assumed anything that wasn’t in the library or already on loan must have been culled. Although the library is supposed to be closed until the move there were a couple of ladies who wanted books so I let them sign them out; it will be fewer books to move!

I had a card top finished before we broke for lunch. I’m more aware of precision piecing since my class and, although I didn’t use glue, I did restitch a couple of seams because I had lost the points. In the past I would often not bother redoing something like that. After lunch I stitched one of the borders on my Vacation Time quilt – the Block of the Month from last year. I have the remaining two borders ready to go so I should be able to finish the project in my next sewing session.

I’ve started to look for recipes for the concession I’m doing on Friday night. Someone brought a bundt cake to the Guild today that used a cake mix so I’ve asked for the recipe. The website also had an interesting looking cookie so I may try those as well. I’ll look through Mum’s book for a third item; hopefully I can find a square that is dense enough that it can be served on a napkin.

Monday, May 22, 2017

It never ends – the shifting, the moving, the reconfiguring! Yesterday afternoon Pat saw a posting on Facebook from one of his friends; he had a Rubbermaid desk that he was giving away. Who knew Rubbermaid even made desks? It took two trips to get all the pieces home. Pat asked if I wanted to use some of the pieces in my sewing room and I took him up on one of the smaller pieces.

I washed the piece down while it was still on the back deck; it had been stored in a basement and it had collected a few webs. Pat helped me move it upstairs this morning and I started to rearrange my room.

The “old” desk is now a printer stand and the shelves hold most of the things I use at my computer desk. The new piece became my new computer desk; it is a little lower but I can use the same chair and just get rid of the pillows I’ve been sitting on. The desktop is much more spacious so, when I get back to doing some paperwork, I will appreciate that.

My paper shredder is right beside my desk (although it doesn’t show it in the photo) so I can shred the new stuff as it collects rather than waiting until I have a bunch and doing it together.

The printer table is now the table my new pressing board sits on.

All in all I’m very pleased!

Sunday, May 21, 2017

Summer must be here! We had supper on the back deck last night, and today I had breakfast and lunch on the front deck.

I was itching to get back to some sewing this weekend and I started (and finished) a new project. For years I’ve wanted to turn Mum’s bread board into a pressing board. At the workshop last weekend the instructor had a small table set up right beside her machine and she was able to press each seam as it was sewn. I often stitch a whole bunch of seams and then go to the ironing board and press them all at the same time. There are two disadvantages to my method – I often forget where each of the pieces belong in my project and it really bothers my back to stand for too long. I watched a couple of videos, picked the easiest one and in an afternoon I transformed an old board into a new one!

And speaking of new uses for old things I did another remodel yesterday afternoon. When Mum’s mixer broke I couldn’t bear to throw it out; I kept the two bowls and have used them often but Barb Elliott (Gorst) suggested I somehow use the mixer as a planter. I thought that was a great idea so yesterday afternoon I planted my alyssum in a pot and set it on the stand. I wish I hadn’t pitched the beaters as they would have been a cute add but I’m happy with it the way it is.

And I earned that iced tea this afternoon after mowing and raking the lawn, and then mowing and raking the lawn on a lower setting!

Saturday, May 20, 2017

Before I was even dressed this morning Pat asked if I would help him load up some junk into the back of his truck so we could take it out to the dump. He had already cleaned up quite a bit of stuff from around the yard but needed help with an old exercise bike (not Dad’s). Since I was happy to be getting rid of things I decided to get the recycling to the depot and the bottles to the bottle recyclers. Our trip to the dump was delayed because Pat had a friend who wanted to stop by at about the time we’d be leaving.

I headed out myself but was only able to get rid of the recycling; the bottle depot was closed for the long weekend. I’ve left all the cans and bottles on the back seat of the car (the trunk is full of Guild library books). When I got home I went through the boxes in the trunk, removing the library cards and getting them ready for sale. I set aside two boxes of books to bring into the house to have a closer look at.

After we made our trip to the dump we stopped for a late lunch. Since I’ve been home I’ve done more work on the Guild library books. When we were sorting the books Nina mentioned a couple of them that she thought were worth some money. I checked, and she was right. So as I went through the boxes of really old books (that had been archived even earlier from our shelves) I checked to see if anything could be sold. I’ve set aside half a dozen books that are selling on eBay for more than $10; after the sale to our members I may list some of the remaining books to see if we can get a bit of extra money for them. I know our members will be generous but I also know there will be a lot of books that no one will want.

I’m not certain whether I can’t stop working or I just don’t want to start sewing because my project isn’t an easy one!