Monday, September 12, 2016

A wasted day? I think not.

Yesterday was all about The Song Circle. I had a lazy morning and when I was almost running out of time I went out for concession treats. Everything at the song circle is by donation so we really don’t make any money. I was going to bake cookies but decided on Saturday I really didn’t feel like it. When I checked the cookie prices in the bakery at Safeway though I was re-thinking that option – $6 for a few peanut butter cookies! I left the bakery behind and headed to the cookie aisle where I found a few different cookies on sale. There was no way I could pull them off as my own and I didn’t even try. Next month I’ll bake!

I like to take a bit of hand work to the song circle; I don’t participate but I like to listen. I didn’t have anything that was easy to transport so I found a new knitting pattern and took that along.

I did some cleaning this morning. I keep reworking my cleaning schedule and I’ll keep reworking it until I find a way that I don’t have to do it. Our house concert isn’t until the end of the month but I’m trying to keep up with things so I won’t feel so much pressure in those days before a show. It was almost lunch before I had all those tasks finished.

I didn’t have a lot of prep work to do for the week. Tomorrow is a hand stitching day so I put together enough English paper pieces to complete two blocks for I’m a Farmer’s Daughter. It took all week during the summer to get one block done but the two I’ve picked out will be the ones that go to Stacia and Deloise. I hope to have them finished by the time we head to Houston. I made a couple of calls regarding Cranberry Hall but all my other projects were well prepped and didn’t need anything added.

Ukulele club starts up again tonight and, until last week, I hadn’t done any practicing since we finished last May. I’ve brushed up on the chords for a few songs – I’m hoping everyone will be as rusty as I am. When I finished my practicing it was only 1:30 so I called Carola to see if we could get together for birthday cake. She was supposed to be going away today but her plans changed and I didn’t want her to spend the day alone. We had a nice visit and sat out on her deck; it won’t be long until that isn’t an option.

When I got home from Carola’s there was a message from the Cranberry Hall accountants so I quickly drove to their office and picked up some papers for our meeting this week.

So, although I didn’t accomplish a whole lot, it was quite a relaxing day so not a waste.

Saturday, September 10, 2014

I received word yesterday that the flight I was booked on from Houston to Calgary had been changed and the new flight they booked me on didn’t work for the two other flights I had that day. I spent a lot of time trying for figure out options that would cost me the least amount of money in cancellation fees. When I called Air Canada to make my changes it was a 40 minute wait – with no Call Back option. Finally, after much to and fro, I got flights settled. As much as I like to discredit Air Canada they did their very best to sort out my problem at the least cost. I’m now booked with United Airlines and Air Canada into Vancouver, via Calgary, and I can still make my late afternoon flight to Powell River. WestJet were very accommodating as well on the cancellation and I have nearly $200 to spend on a flight within the next year.

The rest of my day was spent working on my Farmer’s Wife Sampler. All day, and I have only one block to show for it! I knew this particular block was going to be a tough one and it didn’t disappoint. I pieced the centre and then started paper-piecing the corners – and I ripped them out, and I paper-pieced some more, and I ripped out some more. Finally I got the right colours in the right spots and then added the diagonals. Putting the pieces together was also a challenge because it involved four Y-seams – not my favourite or my best.

Imagine me dancing down that Garden Path at the end of the day when the block came out to the right size.

Oh crap! I see that one of those triangles is going the wrong way. I take back that happy dance and I’ll figure it out another day. It isn’t the first block that I’ve got marked for a redo.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

I’ve spent all day at my computer and for the first time in a long time I feel like I’m getting somewhere with the Cranberry Hall accounts.

I started by making a new set of files – ones that I know what the titles mean and where everything is stored in the right place. I won’t bother sorting through the box of files I received when I took over this job because I can’t make any sense of how things were sorted or filed. I have a nice set of eight file folders that will fit in a portable file box and I’ll have everything at hand that I might need for meetings.

I had to make quite a few phone calls to regular renters to see if they wanted an invoice or if they had money for me. Several were saying they had money but didn’t know who to give it to. I’ve made arrangements with most of them to accept their money and, in most cases, pick it up. This will eliminate some of the problems I’ve had with money being deposited and no one remembering who paid or what it was for. In the past I think it was left up to the renters to pay whatever they thought they should whenever they wanted; I’m not quite as lenient!

The files I took the accountant were very messy (and frankly embarrassing) so I’ve put all the Cranberry Hall records into my accounting program. End of the month reconciliations will be much easier and I can make the entries as I receive money or write cheques. This has worked well to eliminate “crunch” issues with Pat’s accounting and I think it will work well for this group.

It took most of the day, but I’m quite pleased with myself. I like the accounting work; I just don’t like the mess I feel like I’ve been in since I started this job.

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Today was card day and to start things off I got two cards ready for the mail and another one wrapped, along with a present, for personal delivery. One card didn’t actually need to be mail until tomorrow but the other one was late so they both went out today. I need a better system for getting cards made and then sent out on time. I thought what I was doing was working but I’ve been late with quite a few this month. Since I’m only doing cards once a week I think I’m going to have to complete each card as I make it rather than wait until I have a bunch. I have another three cards quilted, bound and waiting for some hand stitching; that leaves me with just one September card to get ready.

Since I was so close to being done cards, and my reminder for October cards is a week away, I searched for and found a couple of patterns I’ll use for Guild projects. As part of our community program we have provided banners and wall coverings for our residential care facility. They moved into a new building last year and apparently the residents are divided into various houses – sounds like my high school days! A request has been made for birthday banners for each housing unit. No patterns were supplied but I found a picture online and I think I can design something similar. We also supply quilts to the Oncology ward at the hospital and, although they need more quilts (I have two in my bin that need to be quilted), they have asked for some chemo caps. I found a pattern online for that as well – it was harder to find than you might think.

It started to sprinkle rain just as I was walking to the mailbox with my cards but this afternoon we had some serious rain. As I was at my cutting board I looked out the window and saw these two deer in the neighbour’s yard. We often see deer over there and she says the bear wanders through her yard most nights; the bear is much more elusive than the deer though. Once the rain stopped the deer moved on.

Our cinematheque series starts tonight. It has been so long since we’ve been to a movie!