Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Ukulele Club worked out fine last night. We played songs that were familiar from last year and they were the ones I practiced (for the bit of time I did any practicing). It has made me want to get back into it and we are going to start working on some Christmas songs soon (because apparently they are harder than you would expect). We had three new people join last night and our leader says she has a class that will be graduating to the Club at the end of the month.

Since we are at the smaller clubhouse on the second Tuesday of the month I usually leave my sewing machine behind and work on some hand stitching. I got a good way into one of my I’m A Farmer’s Daughter blocks. I accomplished more than I expected; must be because, unlike this summer when Stacia and I were working on our blocks, I wasn’t stopping for a refresher on drinks all day!

I had two parcels waiting for me when I got home from sewing. My birthday gift from Saskatoon also included some cross stitch thread that I needed for a project. I found fabric for the backing to my second project from France from “my shop” in Calgary and it arrived today. I wasn’t sure what my Finish It Up Friday might be but I think I know now!

With what I have left of the afternoon I’ll do a bit of practicing and get some papers gathered together for our Cranberry Hall board meeting tomorrow.

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.