AND A HAPPY WEEKEND TO YOU ALL

Yesterday, I had the privilege of looking after my two youngest grandsons, which was very a very enjoyable way to spend the day. Little P at four months has learned to put his soother in his mouth albeit upside down. He also is growing so fast, that a bit of cereal came into the mix this past week. Lunch was banana and rice cereal. The first few minutes were filled with odd facial expressions, then it clicked in his little mind and away we went. He is so filled with smiles, chuckles and belly laughs these days. When he goes down for a nap, well he just does it. Not like his siblings who fought sleep to the bitter end. Little Z and I had some fun playing on the IPad and doing some other quiet type things. At three he already knows that most of the games he wants to play on the IPad cost money. Mom and Dad have explained to him that the free ones are fine and they will not be spending any money for any more games. This makes the rest of us fair game in his eyes, so almost the first words out of his mouth was "Grandmom do you have any money today"? I did not cave and am very happy to see that my grandchildren are being brought up to understand that they will not get everything they ask for, that money does not grow on trees, how to break down their allowance into giving, saving, and then using a bit of it for their needs. Thank you Gail Van-Oxlade for your wonderful show that has taught all of us so much.

Today's mission is to find a child size Hawaiian shirt - in the middle of the prairies, in the dead of winter. At the best of times I have not seen any even in the Op. shops. I do have some fabric that will pass for a Hawaiian print, so may end up sewing one. I also need to get her sunglasses and a lei. Mom and Dad are away on their honeymoon - ten years later. It may be dicey trying to claw her from the clutches of her two most favourite care givers -- her aunty and her nanny. We'll see, it may be just grandmom doing all the running around.

This weekend I plan to continue my quest to get all my stitchy, quilty stuff organized. I have been working on this for a couple of years now. Some quilt fabric has been sitting on a table for a few months and I need to figure that out. Some of it, I have bundled it into how I will use it for quilts. The rest I just haven't got that far yet. On the stitching side. At one point I had the patterns, the fabric and the threads all together in project bags. That did not work as then when I needed the thread for some other project, I could never find it. Hence lots of doubles. Last year when Coni at Spinster Stitcher showed pictures of her studio, I kind of liked some of the ideas she had. Well, I high tailed it too Michael's and bought one of those things that has drawers and open cubbies to store items and a twirly round gizmo on top where you use those little clips with the S hook at the top to clip to the thread cards and then the thread hangs down. Nice to look at, not nice when most of the thread I have is too long to hang and thereby the hooks fall off all the time. In the past I used over the door clothing hooks. I put the thread cards on rings and then hung them on the hooks. For me that works the best and I will go back to that for some threads. I will use Coni's system for some of my silk threads that come in hanks instead of on cards. My issue was all that DMC floss. I don't understand why I have so much, especially when I am not a big fan of cross stitch. Can't stand all the thread changes. I am more of a hardanger, canvaswork type person. However, I do like mixed media type work so think that is why the floss collection grows. Anyway, I have gone to the stitchbow system where the thread is put in the bows, then in a plastic sleeve then into a binder. I have some 3" binders that Glenn had used for his hockey that I have re-purposed for the floss. All the perle cotton is safely inside some of those Martha Stewart paper holders that have lids. Works like a charm. I also use those for my Krenicke, Trebizond, etc. I am almost to the point where I feel I can actually allow myself to get back into working on the actual projects.

The day is slipping away so I best finish this post and get on with today's life. 

Blessings

Jean

 

GOODNESS, GRACIOUS ME.......

I certainly did not think it had been so long since I blogged. Sigh! Lets see. Had a great Christmas and New Years. Had loads of family time, met up with old friends and had a blast. Had 18 days off over Christmas and first week of January. So technically now I am well rested and can go through the next few months with flying colours. Did have a visit to my GP just before Christmas, which of course included the yearly blood tests, stool tests etc. Turns out that my iron is way low. Now normally women my age should not have a problem with low iron, but since my iron has never, never, never been even remotely near normal, they don't worry about it. So back on a course or two of iron pills. I think, like most people, that I start feeling way more spunky and then I go off them. Of course I am still not anywhere near normal so then my body adjust to that level, I start feeling blah and tired again and it is time to move it up to the next level. I am not losing iron, I have just never got where I am supposed to be. When I had my first child, it was so low, I was taking eight iron pills a day. Boy did that wreck havouc with my stomach, so after that pregnancy, for the following pregnancies I opted to eat liver 3 times a week. Turns out my family really liked liver so it worked well. In today's world, that may not be an option as doctors are so concerned about cholesterol --- of which that is not a problem for me. The other thing found is that my sodium levels are low. Prescription for that?  Well, a big glass of V8 juice and a glass of warm milk each day. The V8 juice I like, milk I cannot do as I am lactose intolerant. I have never cooked with, nor do I add any salt to my food, so I only get what is naturally occurring in foods. People don't realize that most foods we eat naturally have sodium in them because of the salts in the earth. Then you add what some farmers put in to the mix, then what the processing adds and then you have a mixture that is not good for man nor beast. I tend to eat fairly clean, meaning I eat fresh (or as fresh can be in winter) fruits and vegetables. I don't eat processed meat very often. In fact I am becoming more of a fish person than a meat person. I also tend to use way more dried beans as added protein. So, I thought I was getting enough sodium in my diet - turned out not so. Now I have to be more conscious of what I eat. Enough of this old lady health crud.

January has been January in Manitoba. Meaning we are back to the coldest of the cold. Actually, it hasn't been too bad. Not like last year though when winter was cancelled. We did not have one day of -30C weather. This year it is slightly colder where we had lots of -30C weather before Christmas, then the January thaw that lasted a bit longer this year and now for the past two or three weeks we have been in the cold. They tell us that January 21st is usually the coldest day in Canada. This year it was yesterday for us. I think the mean temperature was -25C but with the windchill if felt as though it was -44C. The fourteen day trend is for it to slowly get warmer - yeah right. From experience, it is generally really cold until Valentines week, then we start having fewer consecutive days of colder weather. Meaning Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be unbearable, then Thursday and Friday will be warmer, then Saturday will be colder then Sunday and Monday will be warmer --- well you get the picture.

Oh, the other news. I ended up putting leetle Roscoe down on December 17th. His kidney function first showed low in some blood work last March. Since that time there would be more pee accidents. In October he had more blood work and same thing. They offered to do a scan or a biopsy of his kidneys - more money in their pockets - I opted not to, because there wouldn't be too much they could do anyway. He was also having periods which only lasted split seconds where you could tell there was nothing there. So his mind was starting to go a bit. He was a Bichon Frise and was 13. When we went on our trip out west, he only had a couple of accidents, however when we came back, it just got worse. Then he started pooping in the house and I knew it was time. The last weekend he was alive I washed my bedding four times, shampooed my mattress four times, shampooed the carpets three times, shampooed the couch a couple of times and washed the floor I don't know how many times. I did not want him to spend 23 hours a day in his kennel and it must have been hard and embarrassing for him. That was a hard day. I am still  grieving Glenn and now add Roscoe to the mix. I thought with him being "just a dog" that I would be sad for a couple of days then would be okay. I have since discovered just how much he meant to me and also how he was linked to Glenn in my mind. Will I get another dog? In my heart I very much want another one, but is it feasible? Time will tell.

With the cold weather, I have had more time to stitch. So I have been working on a cross stitch pattern from mill hill. It is the Cafe O Lait  one from a few years ago. I have it's mate done, but never did this one as originally they were both going to go in my kitchen. Since moving, I do not have walls in my kitchen that are conducive to hanging anything. Only two walls - open area - you get the drift. But now I have my house up for sale. I realized I am not a condo type person and so hopefully will move in the spring. So back to finishing it. I also have had a tree top angel that I have been working on for about five years. I only stitch on it in December and we all know how busy we all are that month, so have decided that it stays out and I am working on it in rotation with a few other things. There will not be pictures of that until it is done as white on white doesn't photograph very well. I also have been knitting a shrug sweater for my granddaughter, and have pulled out some quilts that need to be quilted and bound. I think my creative side is slowly coming back. After Glenn died, it took me about a year and a half to get back to being able to cook. It has taken somewhat longer for the creative side as he was my biggest supporter and he actually had a very good design eye - much to my chagrin at times. Now in hindsight I wonder how I will do without his input. I am hoping that his thoughts and input will come back to me and I will put them to good use.

Along with everyone else in Canada, I am looking forward to gardening again. So now is the time to figure out what to grow and what needs to be started in pots soon. We cannot generally put in too much in the garden before May 24th. Peas, onions, spinach, lettuce yes - tomatoes, and other hot type plants may not even go in till mid June some years. We do have a lot of heat here in Manitoba, but it is usually only from Mid June until mid September, so short hot growing season. Because it gets so dry and hot in the summer and less sun, September isn't too good of a growing month. It is more of a finishing off month and a "hope the tomatoes ripen" month. We do use the cardboard box with newspaper layers to ripen tomatoes though so usually can still have fresh tomatoes till around November. Wonder if my new place will have a garden - not to worry, I can still use my daughters garden.

Happy weekend and Happy stitching to all.

Blessings

Jean