When will that dog learn!

Roscoe ripped his ligaments in his hind knee last Tuesday. I was at work at the time, but from the look of the clothes hamper, I think that is what he had the fight with. Needless to say, he had to have Surgery on Thursday, by Sunday he had broken his stitches and had to go back in for new stitches. He is starting to do better, but I get to do some fun things to help him. I get to feed him his kibble by hand - can't get at his bowl with his cone head, then I get to shove three different meds down his gullet three times a day, and everytime we come to stairs, I have to carry him. He has the habit of sleeping on the bed, so which means that I lift him up, he settles down, decides he needs a drink, whines at me, I lift him down, he gets a drink, then I lift him back up again. This scenario goes on at least three times each night. I have tried to get him to sleep on his own bed, but nothing doing! Because his stitches had to be put back in, he will now be cone head for ten more days. On the plus side, he can now put a little weight on his foot.

I am going to pick up my new vehicle tomorrow and along with that, I will be picking it up in --you guessed it -- the snow. The snow was just nicely starting to go, we can even see a bit of bare spots, but after the next couple of days we will just see snow again. When oh when is this winter ever going to end. The geese are slowly coming back but no Robins as yet. Hopefully soon it will change. I have this "thing" that says once we have +10C (50F) the back of winter is broken. We haven't even been close yet.

On the creative front, I have almost finished a halloween wall hanging I found in the back of the closet and the blue scrap quilt is layered, so hopefully tomorrow or Thursday I will actually finish them. It would be nice to actually get a kink up on Sue's blog. For me that would be a big accomplishment. I have also been working on a cross stitch fairy picture for my granddaughters new room. The knitting also continues, however slowly. Wish I was retired and had a bit more time, though I shouldn't complain, I only work 5 hours a day and only Monday to Thursay.

Well, the dog is calling my name, which I assume has been changed from Jean to Whine. Wonder what he wants this time. LOL

Blessing Whine!

It's been a bad bad week!

My poor old Roscoe ripped his ligaments in his knee. I have no clue how he did it, but the vet figured that in August when I brought him in, he had slightly injured it then and now we figure he did one of three things, jumped off the bed or couch and landed the wrong way, or he was having a "fight" with the clothes hamper. He loves shewing on dirty clothes and I have a mesh clothes hamper that is on a PVC frame. If he tugs at it hard enough, he can usually get it down and away he goes into dirty laundry heaven. Normally I keep the closet door closed, but he managed to get it open or I forgot to close it. So for Tuesday and Wednesday he hobbled around and then off to surgery yesterday. He came home today and so far has only drank water. I guess he doesn't feel like eating just yet. His back is shaved as they gave him the anesthetic or epidural through there and then his leg is shaved right from the top down to his foot. With his licking job on his other foot, I am sure he is embarrassed to be seen outside. Recovery will be long - six months. With lots of therapy, which will be done by me. He looks like one of those poodles that have almost everything shaved except for the feet and a bit on top. He may become cone-head by tomorrow as by then he will start to get itchy.

I did have a bunch of projects out to work on and did get some stuff done on Monday. After that the week went downhill. I am hoping to get back to sewing tomorrow. I think my interest is coming back a bit and I would certainly like to get some things done before all the summer garden work starts.

That is about all for now. Have a blessed weekend. Jean

Sorry....

I wanted the top post to be below the other post - haven't figured out how to do that yet.

Sue's link is http://www.blackberrycreek.typepad.com/ Sue has a wonderful blog about sewing, life, being a widow, her family and the antics of her dogs. If you haven't visited her blog, well it's high time you did! In the picture above is the blue scrap quilt and the little pink scrap quilt the other stuff at the bottom is my granddaughter's. When my Niece Ca. was down last summer, she and DGD took most of my scraps and covered my "design" wall in them. Now every time she comes over she needs some space of her own. She told mama that she is going to make a quilt for her. And, yes my design wall is a picnic tablecloth that has the fuzzy side out. I can take it down when I need to, but so far it has been up for a couple of years - hey it works!

So have a great Thursday, and don't drink too much of that green beer (Yuck)!

Blessing
Jean

What a Week....

That DD won't walk through puddles, and now that it is melting a bit, there is lots of water and ice around. Needless to say, I have had to clean up a couple of messes this week - not a job I especially care for LoL. In the next wee bit, it will start raining so I can just imagine what the next walk will be like! I have tried using my big golf umbrella to cover us both, but he looks at it like it's from outer space and continues to walk wherever that embrella ain't!

I am happy though to see some warm weather. It has been a long winter for us with far too much snow, after a summer that was far too rainy... for the last few years this has been our cycle. Hopefully this year will be a bit dryer - actually a lot drier would be better (less mosquitoes)! The people I feel for are all those that have to move this month. March has to be the sloppiest month of the year. I may be joining the ranks of those moving as I have started scoping out Condos. On the rental market we have a 0.08% vacancy rate and with the first baby boomers turning 65 this year, there is a shortage of both rental and purchase units. I have found a couple that I like, one is right next to my church and has a very nice enclosed balcony, but only has one big bedroom, the other one is about half-way from where I live now to where two of my children live. It is really nice and it is with in a stones throw of the golfer at work. Maybe he would come for lunch sometime - hey a mother can dream can't she. What is with the boys in our families, it is like pulling teeth to get them to come over, however, our daughters gladly come any old time.

My sister, her husband, one of her daughters and one of her granddaughters is coming for Easter. I had bought Glenn tickets for Christmas, to see Wingfield. For those of you who have no clue who he is, well, he is an actor that puts on plays and plays all the characters. They have made a TV series out of his plays and this is his new play. My sister has never seen him live and Glenn offered his ticket to her, which she was very happy to accept. So we will go to the play, have Easter dinner here (along with my kids, and possibly Glenn's sister and her family, and generally have a good visit. Of course her granddaughter C. will go stay with Her Who Must Be Obeyed. They get along famously and it sure would be nice if C. could stay a bit longer.

On the stitiching side of things, I am so slow. Some days are good days and other days the grief is overwhelming. But I did finish the top of a blue quilt using my "leftovers" and I am hoping I will have it quilted and bound by the time Friday rolls around and it is time for our UFO update over at Sue's blog

Snow, Snow Go Away.....

We had a blizzard go through last night. Where I am it was better than north of here, but still -18C is too much to take at this time of year. Our snowbanks have been so high that it is hard to get out of Tim Horton's as you can't see on-coming traffic. However, yesterday for the first time, I noticed that the sun is starting to take a toll on the snow banks and I could actually see over the tops. Maybe we will get spring and summer yet.

She Who Must Be Obeyed and myself went to the local RV show yesterday. The plan is to get a "family" trailer so we can all go camping together or use it individually. Found one or two in particular that we like. Both of them being pull along trailers that sleep 6 to 8. With this option, I will need to get a new truck. It would only need be something like a Ford 150, but when you add the cost up of both it would come to around $50,000. We would probably have good use out of this for 10 to 15 years. The other option that I like better is a small Class C motorhome. It would be easier to get around. It still would sleep 5 - 6, but the cost is $60,000. This option would mean that I would need to keep my 2002 Honda going for a few more years. Something to think about. May go back to the show tomorrow with the Geek and see what his take is on the scenarios.

|Today I am not going out at all except to take that Darn Dog for a walk. Hopefully, next walk, the wind will be less and he will do his business. He is a quirky dog who doesn't like rain and will not go to the bathroom on our property unless he is in dire straits. This means that we walk four to five times a day. I am also going to have grandson 2 here this afternoon while mom and She Who Must Be Obeyed go shopping for their houses. She Who Must Be Obeyed has my dining room table and my DD-in-law is going to take that to their new house along with the china cabinet from my house. So, now She Who Must Be Obeyed is looking for a new smaller dining room table. Her dining room was a former bedroom where they opened up the wall between that and the kitchen and then put in a lovely patio door. However, the seating area is small. They are taking DGD with them so I think this may mean a new bed for her new room. I will be most excited to see what they get. Later in the day the Golfer and the Geek are going to take the sofa and chair from my sitting room to use in the golfer's sun room for staging their house for selling. Not sure, but I think this may mean I'm on tap for supper. Better get my head going on that front - always a challenge, now that I am on my own as to what to make when the troups all come.

On the widow front, it was Dear Hearts birthday this past week as well as the two month mark, so not a good week all around. So many first to go through. The first RV show without him, the first birthday with out him (we did sing happy birthday to him) and the list will go on as this year progresses.

Hope you enjoy the spring like weather, if you have it - if not we're Canadians and will continue to persevere till spring finally rolls in ..... maybe around June 1st. LOL

Blessings to all
Jean

My Mess

Picture of my mess with my bins. I really like the post that Sue did on sewing your scraps together as you go. Maybe I will adopt that.

My Favourite Quilt and that DD



Canvas Work that I finished a while back, but will go to the framers maybe tomorrow.

I promised pictures and so here are a couple. The top one was a mystery class I took a few years back. It is probably one of the few that I actually finished. There always seems to be something more interesting in the next project. LoL. The following picture is of a quilt I made using all the scraps from a log cabin quilt I made using the heart layout. I was very pleased I got a two-fer. All of a sudden that DD decided he had to be in the picture, usually he is quite camera shy.

 

It has been almost two months since my hubby passed away and to boot his birthday would be coming up, so I hit the wall this week and it took an incident at work to finally get me out of the fog. For that I am thankful. So, to end the week, I did/will be doing some "firsts" - went to see his sister in his hometown, tomorrow I will be going with friends for breakfast and next week I will be looking for a new vehicle on my own. Progress is being made and so far, so good. I had a really good time with C. today. We had some awesome salads, awesomer dessert and even better conversation. Tomorrow, She Who Must Be Obeyed aka the daughter will be joining us for breakfast. I am happy she will be able to join us as her and our friend Henry have a lot in common. Later tomorrow we get to finally get a peek at my oldest son and wife's new house. They were given the keys to have a little lookie see. I think there may be a small crowd there. They bought this house a year ago and were supposed to take possession in March, which got moved to April which now is May. We have a huge shortage of trades people in Canada and everytime there is a disaster, the trades people have to do the fix-up for that which puts the new housing behind. Flood season is coming up and for most of Canada there will be some type of flooding, so who knows what the eventual move date will be.

I have been doing a bit of study on missions this week and I think my perspective is changing a bit. I always believed that not everyone goes somewhere on missions and I always believed that each person has a mission field, whether it be family, extended family, work, neighbourhood whatever. But, what I don't think I realized is that if you aren't called to go somewhere, then you are called to give to those going. This is of course in addition to prayers for them. I tended to pick and chose and be not very disciplined in this area, but now the light bulb went on - Thank you Father, and so from now on I will be more generous.

Hope you all have a great sunny, warm, spring-like weekend.

Blessing - Jean

I Must Be In Kansas!

As our English ancestors would say - it's blowing a hoolie out there. When I was walking that DD earlier, I could finally - in spite of the wind and cold - sense the warmth in the sun and boy did it ever feel good. I can hardly wait for the snow to melt and get some green goin'. Unfortunately for those of us in certain parts of Canada - we may be waiting till May. Oh, well, I can dream can't I.

Today I continued to work on my hand quilting and on my knitting project. Tomorrow is going to be show and tell day - if I remember to get batteries for my camera. I am excited about finishing some projects and this morning as I continued to go through my scrap bins, I wondered how long is too long to keep scraps. I have some that are definitely very early 90s, if not before. There aren't many so, should I chuck them or try to do something with them. I don't usually chuck things very easily - no I'm not a hoarder - but if I can get another quilt or whatever out of it, then I figure I get more bang for the buck.  I can't believe how much dark teal green, dark maroon, and dark burgundy was around back then. I for one am glad that color combination has changed or maybe it's the prints that have changed, but I certainly like what is out there better now.

I purchased the 2009 Bali Wedding Star set of foundation papers and directions. It is one of Judy Niemeyer's designs. The Quilter's Cottage had it in and since I also purchased all the Bali Pops and yardage there, they asked if I should try to have it completed for their quilt show in June. Now, I have never entered anything in any show, but you never know with this one. My mindset has changed from thinking that quilt shows are for those who are perfect at the skill, to one of hey I made it, I'm proud of what I accomplished, It's not perfect, and maybe it will encourage someone to either learn how to sew/quilt, or encourage others to put something in a show even if they feel it isn't up to those high standards we set in our own minds.

Tomorrow is hump day - even though it is a short work week here, I look forward to it as it is the day I plan for the second half of the week and what I would like to do. It kind of gets me excited for the weekend. The last few years my hubby did not feel up to going out too much. We took that opportunity to enjoy each other and develop a different relationship than at any other time of our life. It was good, but now it is a challenge to make myself go out and do things. I got too comfortable in my own home. It's like I was having such a great time enjoying our time together that I forgot what awaits in the world outside our house. So, on Wednesdays, I look through the paper and go online to see what's happening in our area and plan what I think I might like to do. So far I've made a trip out of town to my favourite quilt shop, gone over to the town where my daughter lives and did some shopping (do I ever like the Co-op in Beausejour), and gone to visit my grandkids in yet another town. So who knows what I'll find for this weekend. I think I feel another road trip coming on though!

Enjoy the middle of the week and don't forget to take time to stitch!

Blessings - Jean

I Know I Can... I Know I Can....

get through this greiving process. Today is one of those days where something reminds you of your loss. Today it was Toby Keith's song "I'm not crying for you". It sure set me to crying, which I know I needed.  It started with the song and then went on to feeling very overwhelmed. I believe part of the grieving process is being overwhelmed. Ovewhelmed by what we ought to do, what we feel like we should be doing, and feeling like we should be further along this journey than we are and all those darn grief books don't seem to touch too much on being overwhelmed. Well, fellow widow(er)s, it is part of grief and it usually comes because we expect to be further along our journey than we are. No one else expects us to do things we aren't capable of doing right now, so why are we so hard on ourselves. It's because most of us want to please others, or be there for our families who are also grieving. We think we have to be strong for others. We think that others expect us to be "over" it by now. Grieving is a long journey of loss, of memories, of leaving behind, of moving forward and of re-inventing ourselves and we need to allow ourselves time to go through it in a safe, healthy way. And so... I know I can, because God will see me through and re-invent me into what he wants me to be for the next stage of my life. It doesn't mean there will be no more bad days, it just means that I will allow myself time to go through this journey and not feel guilty or bad for not feeling like doing things. I am more peaceful and feeling gentle this evening and am thankful for what I learned today.

On the stitching front, I started to "finish" (operative word here) an afghan I started about a year ago. One which is done in patches, with each block being knit in a different stitch. So far I have two squares done - one of them being done today. The other thing I did was set up the "bones" and continued to hand quilt one of my UFOs. I also took one bin and finished sorting, ironing and generally just enjoying the process of getting ready to get some of my scraps into quilts. I really like Sue's UFO challenge as so far no one has given me the what for, for only finishing two things and not showing pictures of anything else. You never know when the pictures might show up - I'll just surprise you all.

We had a Holdiay here today, so was nice to have a four day weekend. Enjoyed some time with my daughter-in-law. We went shopping for items to stage their present house and then use in the new house. It was fun and found some wonderful items for the next Grandmom, granddaughter tea. Every few months my granddaughter and I have a tea. I send an invitation to her in the mail (sometimes this includes other guests) and I tell her how to dress i.e. we will be wearing hats and gloves this time, or wear your dancing shoes. She is four and gets a hoot out of our teas. She use to like it when granddad would come and bug us for some goodies, so when we have our next one, we will set out an extra place for granddad. Hope he is enjoying his tea and goodies in heaven!

Blessings - Jean

That Darn Dog....

....is depressed and stressed so his Colitis is acting up. After him throwing up and pooping numerous times it was off to the Vet, back with new meds and out $250. Poor boy is missing the man of the house as is little guy a.k.a GS2. Little guy came tearing in after church running all over the place calling "tools - tools", when he wanted to go downstairs, we realized he was looking for granddad. So how do you tell an almost two year old that Granddad isn't here anymore? We have yet to figure that out. We want to do it in a way, so that hopefully he will still have a few memories when he is older. When he and his older sister went up to look for the "bones" (the parts to my quilt frame), they saw Granddad's picture and gave him a big kiss though and it was very sweet to see them do that.

I have not done any thing needle related this weekend, but with tomorrow being a Stat Holiday here and the temperature going to be in the -20C range, I plan on drinking lots of tea and sewing all day....or as long as that DD will let me. I did though, finish off some more of my spring cleaning and so have finished, my bedroom, two bathrooms, my workroom, and the kitchen. I did the living and dining rooms a few weeks back when the new sofa arrived. Now I only have the most dreaded place of all to clean ---- the basement. I despise basements! I grew up with out one and find them dark, dingy and even to a 50 something woman a little scary. Not sure why I find them scary, probably because they are usually dark, and filled with junk. Really it is not in too bad a shape as far as cleaning, as the rec room was just cleaned to accomodate the funeral visitors who stayed with me, so it will only be what we affectionately call "the back 40" that needs to be straightened up. We need to return some baby things we borrowed and vacuum up in the rafters. So all in all until window cleaning season I'm done and can concentrate on more enjoyable things such as sewing, stitiching and maybe getting ready for the garden...which I may or may not put in this year, but always find it fun to dream about the seeds, and all the bounty I will get. I do become somewhat of a hoarder with all the fresh veggies and fruit and usually won't let anyone into the canned goods until we can't get another meal out of what is left in the garden. I do though on occasion, notice a few holes in my neatly sorted hoard and can only assume that some mouse, or child thought they needed it more than me.

Now, I do need to go and give that DD Roscoe his third round of meds for the day. If I get anything worth taking a picture done tomorrow, I am going to try to post my first inserted picture.

Blessings - Jean

It's Back!

Thank you Colorado for the low you are sending our way. We will be endowed with yet more snow, more wind and more cold. I DO NOT LIKE THIS, so please don't send anymore our way. Thank You!

Didn't get a blasted thing done today. Spent the day discussing future wealth or lack thereof, running around getting yet more forms signed - gee can't the powers that be just let it go already! Dear Husband is gone, there is nothing them or I can do about it, so lets get things settled already. I knew that government wheels move slow, but this is ridiculous. Sorry for the rant - I'll try not to do it again.

We are having a long weekend up here, so after 2:00 p.m. tomorrow, I will be leisurely stitching away for four lovely days. Hey maybe this storm coming isn't so bad after all - gives me time to play and we all like to play don't we. Hope to learn a bit more about blogging this weekend i.e. learning how to centre the picture at the top, and inserting pictures. At this point it looks like I'll be brushing up on my HTML a bit. Good luck with that!

Hope you all have a great evening and day tomorrow.
Blessings - Jean

Some Days are Diamonds

What a beautiful day! We are hitting plus 4C about 38F and so took the Darn Dog (herein after known as THAT DD) for a well deserved long walk. Roscoe is getting older - eleven, but for a Bichon that's not too old. He like me, has arthritis and he suffers from colitis, so today was a Diamond Day and we had fun.... sort of. Roscoe never likes walking in water. If you are older and you ever saw those Peppi-La-Pew cartoons where he walks on his tonails, well Roscoe walks just like that in the water. Of course he just has to give me that woe is me look - what a dog! He is good company these days as I adjust to being a widow.

Strange how that word hits you within days of your mates death. I think it was the first thing that hit me, next was "How will I make it on my own," then I just fell apart for awhile. Now I am back to what my oldest son called the New Normal. I thank God every day for the "New" Truths he is giving me. You know the ones... the words we've known for a long time, but only become reality when we hit a tough spot. I can hardly believe what I've missed in his word. Thank God he is patient and understanding and gives us time to "get it".

I had earlier in the year decided I would do the UFO Challenge that Sue from Blackberry Creek Home Arts is sponsoring. The rules are really lax - gotta love that and now that my life is starting to settle down, and I feel like being creative again I am on a roll. I have completed two items (shown on the side bar) and am now working through my scraps.

I had started about a year ago thinking I would diminish my stash somewhat by using up what I had. To get myself organized, I took out all of my material, sorted it and then decided which ones would go to together. I then bundled them up and they are now ready for whatever project I choose to start. Of course like every other quilter, sticher, knitter etc. out there I did not get very far into the year before I started buying, but that is as always another story. Back to the scraps, I have plastic containers that stack on top if one another and slowly I am cutting all the scraps in the bins into various sizes and when they are all done, they will be sewn into quilts. On the other side of the coin (stitching) I have so many little bits, I have decided to make a bunch of book marks and donate them to either one of my teacher neices or to an inner city school. Up here February is Love to Read month, so I figure maybe I can get 30 to 35 done by next February. I hope to get a list up soon,of what I want to finish this year.  THAT DD is calling for dinner dear! So I better go. Enjoy the day!
Jean

A Day for Red

Today being Valentine's day is usually a day for red- roses, clothes, candies wrapped up in cute little red tinfoil, but today let's remember all those ladies in our families that suffer from heart disease. Let's help them get active and not just sitting at their sewing machines!

My husband recently passed away at what to me is a young age. It was semi expected in that we knew that at some point he would either have a massive stroke or a massive heart attack. Most of his heart problems, he was born with. However, it was just an ordinary operation he went in for and God ordained that it was G's time to go home. This morning while I was thinking about Valentine's day and how we would very often celebrate very simply by me cooking his favourite meal, setting the coffee table up with a nice table topper, candles, one flower and then we would sit on the floor with our backs against the sofa, eating, talking, joking and truly enjoying each other, it dawned on me that today I would use this day to remind each person I met to never take their significant other for granted. Do something special or say something special every day and as Mary did in the Bible, keep these things in your heart always so they can become a treasure later.

Enjoy this beautiful day for love in a unique way.

Jean