Applique

I have discovered the world of applique! I am making a book for my granddaughter...she is visiting this christmas from out west. This book I discovered is full of applique so I channeled the help of my friend, Rachel, who is expert at these types of things, and set out to make this book.

First you trace your pattern onto fusible web, but trace it backwards! I learned that lesson the hard way! I used paper for tracing patterns onto fabric with a stylus and it seemed to work fine.

















Then cut out your pattern and iron it onto the wrong side of the fabric you are using. This is not a very good picture but you can see the letters on the fabric near the bottom.

















Then you cut them out again! This time they have the fabric attached. Peel the paper off the fusible web and place the pattern on your layout where you want them and then iron down.
















Once they are ironed down in place you need to sew around the pattern pieces. I used a zig zag stitch but a blanket stitch is very nice too and is what my friend Rachel uses.

















Once you have the sewing done voila! you have your applique. Here is the front and back cover of my book. I still have to embroider on the eyes of the teddy bear and the mouth.

Back to Blog

Greetings my friends!

I am back to the land of blog! I figure this was the opportune time to reinstate my blog with the recent setup of my new 'studio' area in the house for my creativity! So, its actually a creativity center.

My husband and I have decided to do some update work on our house lately. About 15 years ago we purchased a small cottage and have been putting most of our extra resources and work into that but now its time to focus on the house again. Recently (3 days ago) we bit the bullet and put a new roof on. We added a new over-the-oven microwave which includes the vent and light for the stove...very nice...and in the process of installing it we damaged the ceramic top on our stove so had to replace the stove (not planned but nice for me, ha ha). We also installed a little flat screen tv in the kitchen (a luxury) and now I love cooking in my kitchen again! There are other rooms on our list also but back to the studio....

I don't have an entire room in the house for my use but we have a family room in our basement that had some extra space so I took over one side of the room to organize my things like sewing supplies, painting supplies, scrapbooking stuff, card making, knitting, etc. I figure if the guys can have a garage or workshop for their stuff then why not have my own work area? The area is actually in a corner because it is located at the bottom of the stairs. I am happy that I can actually have a full size table there to work on now; I like to spread out! This was my birthday present for 2010. Here are a few photos of my endeavour:
















The lower pic is an overview of the whole thing...my sewing machine is out in this photo but I store it in the background on the smaller shelve (you can see the case for it there). Also, this is the one room in our basement that does not have a window so I put up the mirrors to reflect light and dress it up a little. I thought about putting curtains on them to mimic windows put have not gone that far yet! I do intend to cover my chair in a navy color to match some of my fabric boxes in the cubicles. The coat tree is holding a couple of my current sewing projects, other sewing projects I have cut out but not sewn yet I keep in freezer bags with everything together in it in one of the fabric boxes.



While scanning other sewing/crafting room ideas on the internet I discovered an article about folding your fabrics in order to store them more easily so here are my fabrics....I don't store them by color, I store them by size or the amount of fabric but they look pretty tidy I think!


My cats are very intrigued by these cubicles...they love baskets! Everytime I went to fill a new basket I would find one cat or the other! It was cute.

So, what do you think? Any suggestions out there? I would love to hear them....

Mid Winter Goings On!

Ok, Ok, I know. I don't update my blog enough! So here is this months update, haha.

Survivor starts this week and it is shaping up to be a super super show. I'm in the pool again and my character is Danielle so if you happen to watch you can root for me to win. We have Survivor night every Thursday night with the neighbors and lots of good food and of course beer or wine. We make wine with the neighbors too so it tends to flow on Thursday evenings. This is a lot of fun and something to look forward to every week.

My son is graduating this year and now that it is February and first semester is officially over we have been slogging through university applications and scholarship applications. That in itself is a lot of work let alone all the essays and work to do for scholarships too. But if he gets even one it will be completely worth the work.

I belong to an Artist Trading Card Club and have been working on the monthly card. For March we were sent a little bag of goodies to make the card with which should be a lot of fun. February was a vintage valentine theme and the cards coming in are absolutely beautiful.

Its also time to do some mid winter swamping out! I get the itch to do this every winter. I started with my night stand....yeah it was getting pretty piled but now looks very presentable and is much more usable! Today I started on our home office. Got a lot of filing done and tons of recycling done. Got my income tax files all sorted out ready to combat the upcoming tax season. Thats a first for me as I am usually very late doing my taxes.

I am also getting set to catch up on some scrapbooking over the March Break. I hope to get some photos printed by then and am ready to work on some of those projects. Hopefully that will get my 'hobby' desk cleaned up a little! I will let you know how it goes.....

Hope your winter in going well too.

Back to Internetland

Home from the camp now and back into the land of internet. We don't have internet service there, its supposed to be the place to get away from such things and spend time together. We decided to stay an extra week so we were there for 3 weeks total (since before xmas). I thought I would really miss being online but I really didn't. It was actually quite peaceful being away from the hussel-bussel or busyness of technology! Life used to be so much more simple.

The holidays were nice, family and friends and good food. I didn't spend as much time with my book as I planned but I did catch up on some scrapbooking! I had some Canada Games pictures from 2003 that needed an album and I have them almost all finished and looking good I might say! Our daughter competed that year in freestyle skiing so it was about time I got those pictures done! Just a few more odds and ends to find like newspaper clippings and its all done. This week I will have to work on my ATC Club project for January. That will be my art for the week. Its a harder theme this month for me so I will have to think hard about it.

Also it was a great time to be 'snowed in' at the camp considering I have been weaning off morphine over the last few weeks. So not having to travel anywhere or have plans was perfect timing. I am almost completely off the morphine now and should be done in around another week. That will be so great.

My boys are both teaching skiing this winter which leaves Saturdays to myself. It is weird not to be at the hill teaching with them but I decided to enjoy my day too being lazy, doing some art projects or something along those lines in the quietness. Sometimes I put an old movie on just for company in the background that I can watch or ignore, something like Gone With The Wind or Meet Me In St. Louis or another musical. Its fun.

Well, thats all for tonight, catch up some more later.

Time for updates

I guess it has been a while since I updated this blog. Shame on me! My friend, Rachel, puts a bug in my ear every now and then to get moving on it. It is certainly a white Christmas here and lately it has been in the minus twenties with the windchill (celcius) which is pretty cold especially considering it has been fairly mild all Fall. The kids are off school now as of today and the holiday shopping is all done, at least on my part but hubby is another story. He tends to be a last minute shopper. He is working tonight and the boy is out overnight with friends which means I had the house to myself and could wrap. We are heading to the cottage for most of the holidays which will be peaceful and fun because there is no tv which means we will play lots of games together, visit together and relax. Gotta love that. Plus I will get some quality time with my latest book recently published by Diana Gabaldon, a sequel to the Outlander series. I just love the story and the history in it. We don't have internet access at the cottage so it will be another while before I can update again but I'll try to write again before we go. There will be lots to report on after the weekend.

For all you Survivor fans, the finale is coming up this weekend. We expect a living room full of fans and lots of goodies to finish off what has been a really good season. Yes, I am still in the pool but barely!! Hoping to win the mulah!

Happy Holidays to all.

Birthdays

Its what I call my birthday week, which means my birthday falls on a day this week. Lets just say its a significant birthday this year which is why I'm glad to be a November baby, haha.

So along with a significant birthday come lots of different thoughts; one being, "do I have wrinkles yet??????" ahhhhh wrinkles? so I checked....ok so here are the eyes :

Here are the eyes when I grin:

So I guess we can call them laughing lines and yes, I still have freckles. So did my grandma.

My very very close friend Rachel sent me a beautiful quilt with a matching pillow cover for my significant birthday. Here is a picture of it:

Having been involved in skiing professionally for many years, the theme is really appropriate! Really really nice and a lot of work went into that. Its awesome. Not only that but she did the most beautiful write up on her blog about the long friendship that we have had. I had many tears in my eyes when I read that, it was sooo thoughtful and very real.

What else is new? hmmm, Levi is getting big now and looking more like a cat even though he is only 5 months. He is still very beautiful though. Loulou has now become the 'grown up' of the cats in our family. Pretending to not want so much loving but secretly loving every second of attention! She loves Levi too, except when he steals her chairs. She gets quite annoyed at him but still sleeps with her arm around him!

Medically is another story. I have not updated that part of my life story in a while. Lets just say that I have actually been doing better in the last few weeks and I'll update that this coming week in more detail.

Well, that is all for now. Hope you all enjoy your significant birthdays and celebrate all the ones that follow just because you get to have them, good reason to celebrate eh?

Growing Kids

My baby is graduating from high school this year. He and his first cousin whom he is very close to. So graduation stuff has already started, year book orders, ring orders, pictures,etc. all that good stuff. While we have had professional photos done of him, my sister and I decided to take some pics of the kids together for our family. So we got the camera out at the camp one day and did a few candid shots, which have not been touched up yet but here are a few:


Are they good looking kids or what? Of course, I am biased! While I am happy for him and his achievements, I must admit it is a bit sad to think of him almost through with school. I had to tease him a few days ago, he actually had his first cavity filled at the dentist, his dad thought it would be great to put in his baby book!!! Of course, he has not completely decided his next course of action, I think he is considering several options. When the time comes I will really miss my little buddy who chats with me when we are alone, rubs my back when I feel really sick and still kisses mom goodnight. (but don't tell anyone). Tell me again, why do they grow up?

Aromatherapy

Lately I have taken a real interest in aromatherapy. I have invested in several essential oils and have been making household, health and bath products. Its wonderful and healthy and natural and fun! I recently adventured to make my own lip balm. Not knowing if it would be a success or a total bomb that wasted a bunch of ingredients! Mr. Hubby and I were pleasantly surprised at how nice it is, it is soft but not greasy and feels really good, smells good, moisturizes and protects. If I get enough replies I might even share the recipe!!! Here is what they look like.
Of course, it made more than 5. I had 10 of these and the recipe could have filled 20 or so. So as a result I have one MEGA size lip balm because I had to find a container to put the rest of the recipe in! haha. Next time I will have actual lip balm tubes. I ordered them already, they were reallly cheap. I don't know why I didn't do that the first time! Live and learn I guess. These ones have a slight mint scent/taste but you can make it any scent/flavor you like really.

I really like some of the health remedies you can find recipes for too. I started this by looking up an illness in a health guide that we keep at home and it was recommending essential oils for certain remedies and also some home remedy teas. This perked my interest and I thought it was a great idea to know what things there are out there besides another bottle of 'crap' from the pharmacy. At least thats what it feels like at times. So, I am having fun experimenting and looking up information (there is still safety to consider).

The Spirit List

A friend of mine challenged me to make a Spirit List. A list of items you want to do in the short term or accomplish in life. I loved reading hers and so here is mine:

• Someday have a lead role in my Gilbert and Sullivan group, I had a solo once but I got really sick before our live performance and wasn't able to sing :(
• Travel to Europe, and especially Scotland
• Learn to play the piano really well
• Get well enough to be very active again and feel attractive again
• Vacation in Hawaii at least once
• Have a house cleaner!
• Be able to go out with Rachel on those times when you want to do something with your friends
• Go across the Rockies on a motorbike with Dana and have adventures.
  
• Have a lovely daughter-in-law that I can be close to
• Have grandchildren that are close that I can love and spoil and then send home.
  
• Have great-grandchildren
• Have a better relationship with my daughter
• Ski again and better than I did before.
• Own a resort or adventure park.
• When I die I want people to remember only a lot of good things about me.
  

Well thats good for now. Ha ha. There can always be more.

Oh Buddy Oh Pal

So Levi has discovered himself a new pal. Yep, Loulou finally caved and decided that he is not so bad after all! Here are the best pals here:


Not only did Loulou decide that it was ok to be buddies but that she was going to take on the role of the new mommy too. AND its bath time:



Once bath time is over its time for a nap with your new favorite teddy bear:

Guess that new baby wasn't so bad after all! It only took a little over a week for her to come around. We are all one big happy family once again! Oh, and if you are wondering, yes Loulou has pink nail caps. They keep her from scratching the furniture not to mention they make her look fabulous!

Ooh Baby Baby

So we have a new family member.

His name is Levi. Yes, he is adorable but what a handful! Levi is 7 weeks old but eats well, uses the litter box, and bathes(good signs) but I think he still misses mamma a little bit, and has attached that missing to me! See those big eyes, they make you melt and pick him up every time he looks up at you and cries! He has two tiny little gray spots on top of his head like an extra set of eyes and a very pink nose. He scratches at my legs to get picked up and won't fall asleep anywhere except on my chest or curled into my neck where he licks with that rough little tongue that tickles to death. Spoiled already. I have to close my bedroom door at night to keep him off the bed (hubby is allergic to the long hair). If the door isn't closed he is relentless at climbing on the bed to get to me.

How is Loulou managing you ask? Well the previously only baby in the house had her nose out of joint for sure. She hissed and growled at him AND ME for the first day. She refused to use the litter box for a day and used my son's bed instead, and she wouldn't sleep with me which she usually does! Now that it is day 4 she has started using the litter box again, stopped hissing at me and lets me pick her up again, AND she is actually trying to play with the kitten, that is as long as she doesn't think I'm watching. When I'm there she pretends to slink about like a cougar and be all ticked off! It is actually really funny. Levi doesn't know what to think of her! One minute she's a bitch and the next minute she is fun and games. I look forward to next week when she loves him and keeps him busy more. I'll let you know how it goes. We are spending the week at the cottage with the two of them so the next kitty update will be after Labor Day Weekend.

Roommate Go Round

Getting back to the Ail-Ements story, we are now at the start of a roommate merry-go-round. Roommate no. 1, let’s call her Ms. Fraudster. Apparently she was having some heart trouble which is not good but every time the nurse or doctor came in the room everything was worse and she would outright even lie to them. She would be doing or saying one thing in the room and then as soon as she was checked on it would be the exact opposite or three times worse. Don’t get me wrong, she wasn’t faking her heart trouble, pretty hard to do that I think but this just seemed to be a lady who thrived on the attention I guess. Hubby and I would outright laugh at times, you could not help it. After a while I just had to tell the nurses what was going on because I was actually worried she might be getting stuff she didn’t really need and would hurt her. I felt bad for the nurses, they needed to give her medication once by IV as a fairly urgent matter and they needed to put the IV in her hand because of her vein situation and that was just not going to happen. Three separate nurses had to make the attempt to get this IV in her hand, it was outrageous the fuss this grown woman made over this needle. The screaming, the crying, the number of people needed in the room to accomplish the task, all over one needle. You think she would have been more worried about the fact that she needed the medication urgently for her heart but no way, it was the stupid needle. Jeesh, I was getting different IVs and needles every 2 – 4 hours to the point where they had to install what they call a butterfly which is a needle they just leave in under the skin for up to 3 days at a time and continue to use that to insert the medication needles. She left after a few days, the ending up transferring her to another city. The nurses' gossip station talked about that episode for a few days afterward for sure! That was roommate no. 1.

Creativity

So I decided to try some new creative outlets. I bought some chalk pastels a couple of weeks ago and have been playing with them. I promised my friend I would post some of my beginner work so here goes....I'm being brave here so no laughing aloud!!! The colors are not that good in the photos for some reason but the chalks are brilliant in color.

I like the idea of dragons or mythical creatures. Here is my dragon.





Trees on a winter night.

















lily.





Sailing.













I did a few cartoonish fishy ones for my son! Here is a whale, mermaid and underwater mishmash

Loon Story Update

I received several comments on the Loon story I posted a while ago so I thought I would give an update. Since our baby loon 'save' story a new predator has moved into the area, namely an eagle. Mrs. Eagle (I am assuming the females hunt) has seen fit to not only swoop up our baby but one of its parents also. This is very sad because we have had this loon couple, the only loon couple on the lake, for several years. The other loon parent has gone into hiding, we can still hear it sing early in the dawn but have not seen it in the open and its song is forlorn. I understand they mate for life so I don't know what we will have in store next year for loons on the lake. The Eagle however has found prime hunting ground and must have a nest nearby as it swooped into our beach and scooped up a huge frog, only feet away from us. Amazing to watch life at work. Yesterday I watched as Mrs. Eagle seemed to be simply playing on the wind, simply soaring and hardly flapping a wing but soaring higher and higher until she was barely visible she was so high. Sorry no pictures, I missed the Kodak moment. Anyway, this is my tribute to the loon family. We'll miss your beauty.

Hi Friends,

Hubby is wanting to spend time at the camp so I will be off-line for a week or two. Sorry. I promise to have lots of blog info ready to post as soon as I have an internet connection. There is so much more to the story, I'm going to have blog withdrawl by the time I get back!!!!!

Hello Fellow Scrapbook Enthusiasts. Here is another enthusiast with a giveaway and a great blog. Check it out. http://rebeccasrainydaykisses.blogspot.com

On the Move

Dr. Ann came back and said that she could do no further testing for me… WHAT?? Hubby gave her the ‘look’ and said, “what do you mean you can’t do anymore tests for her????” Here I was sick as a dog and they can’t do anymore tests? Huh? Oh boy. We had not even seen the obgyn again nor the internal specialist. So we quoted the ER doctor’s instructions about why I was here. She left and sent the obgyn back that afternoon.

After some consideration over brochures and some q & a with the obgyn, we opted for an endometrial uterine ablation. This procedure involves inserting a wire or mesh into the uterus where it opens to touch the entire lining and then an electric current is passed through which burns out the lining. Of course you must be sure there will be no more babies in order to do this which did not pose a problem for us as I already had my tubes tied and my youngest baby is getting ready to graduate this year! I informed my obgyn of our decision.

Dr. Ann came back and said that she was cancelling my surgery because it was too much for me to take right now. WHAT AGAIN?? Part of the reason I was in the hospital was for anaemia and the surgery would correct that and still no Internal Specialist. If we delayed the surgery and I was discharged it would take up to 6 months to reschedule. I don’t think I saw Dr. Ann again after that.

She did not discharge me (and I don’t think she intended to) but they found me new accommodations upstairs on the 3^rd floor in ‘family medicine’, which is the name for the ward where all the stroke patients and long term care patients wait until they can get into homes. Great, more bed alarms!!!

I am now on my fourth accommodation and it is day 5. I didn’t mention earlier that I actually had two rooms in palliative care on day two. The nurses decided to take me to the new room in the bed so I wouldn’t have to move that much. They also decided to drive the bed themselves instead of calling for the orderlies. They must have bumped every wall between the three floors. You know what they say about women drivers?! Ha Ha. Trailing alongside is hubby and my youngest with all my gear as they had now brought me some night gowns of my own and a kit bag of personal things plus all the flowers to be moved, etc. Some of it came on the bed with me. Into my new room which was no longer a private but a semi-private where you have one roommate and share a bathroom with another semi-private room. So, no privacy and 4 to a bath. Ok, not so bad I guess, at least I had the window side of the room with extra room for chairs and my choice of a locker since no one was using them. The tv is no longer free either. Bummer. I guess that is a perk if you are dying, free tv.

A Little Miracle

I have the most amazing Father's Day story. I am a little slow in telling due to waiting for the arrival of photos.

Hubby and I have a cottage on a little lake that we very much enjoy. Even though it is very hard for me to travel, we try to get away at the cottage for reprieve.

This little lake has a loon couple that come back every year. This year they have one baby. Loon families are fantastic to watch. Both loons take turns carrying the baby and hunting for fish. The little baby can swim like the devil. It will even come up on the shore a little bit for a break. They nest on the water you know. Seeing one on shore is something~

Our little lake also has a small dam to maintain water levels. Right now the water is running over the dam due to the many days of rain that is accumulating water in the lake.

I am guessing that the loons tend to take their baby to the more shallow part of the lake to teach it to fish or whatever but this time they came too close to the dam and the little baby went 'plooop' right over. We realized this because the loons were screaming like crazy and trying to go over the dam only to swim back splashing crazy like with wings flapping and there was no baby in sight.

Last year this couple had two little babies and lost them both so with a little panic in my voice I prodded Hubby to go save the baby. The lake leads to a small but swift little stream which ends up in a pond in the woods. That baby could have been anywhere. After Hubby went to look for a fish net and search the stream I called in some recruits staying at the lake also, Hubby's cousin and his girlfriend who we spend a lot of time with when we are there.

While walking along the shore of the stream she heard the little peeps of the baby. When she looked down, there it was huddled by a rock on the shore. That little loon managed to swim that fast current long enough to get to the shoreline just after the dam.

Here is a picture of the baby next to the rock where it was found.

Not wanting to touch it but not having another choice since the fishing net was gone, cousin picked up the little loon, who was downy soft, walked to the other side of the dam on shore and put it in the water as mom and dad swiftly came to meet them.

Here is a picture of our cousin holding the baby to save it....

The parents did not reject it, as we feared by touching it, but greeted it happily. THE FAMILY REUNITED. Hopefully we gave that little loon another chance at making it in the world!

Here is a picture of the baby swimming to it's parents. It is hard to see and looks like a shadow but he is there.



Here is a picture of the family reunited and swimming off together.

Let the Testing Begin...

Time for some more tests. The gynaecologist came to visit me regarding the anaemia and determined that there is a gynaecological reason for this. I had no idea that women are not supposed to have a period that last 7 to 11 days!!!! This gynaecologist is a woman. Cool, eh? I have had two babies, both caesarean section, and all obgyn’s have been men. This was a very pleasant change. So, we talked about some surgical procedures that I could opt for to solve this problem. These surgeries are usually elective but I didn’t have to pay for them because I had a medical reason for doing it. Kind of like boob reductions!!!!! Before any option could be further looked at I needed to have a biopsy to be sure there were no cancerous or odd problems inside the uterus.

At this point in my journey I am unable to get around without assistance due to the enormous pain it causes, not to mention drowsiness, dizziness, weakness, nausea, etc. So along comes the orderly with a wheel chair to take me downstairs for my test. There was some discussion with Hubby as to whether or not I could stand the ride but I bucked up and said it was fine just to get going and get it over with. I regretted that decision. Before the test even begun I was in tears with pain from sitting upright in that wheelchair.

I have had friends and family members who have undergone this biopsy before but I never knew….. pap test - shmap test. Biopsy – DIEopsy!!!! Holy sh** that hurts. She has to put an instrument up inside the uterus to remove a tissue sample. I thought that perhaps that harsh pain was super sensitivity due to the other pain but after talking with other experienced women they agree, it hurts! I must have squeezed that nurse’s hand off! By the time I got back to my room I was throwing up with pain and in tears again. I have a new appreciation for women with positive pap results

The Infamous Yarn

Well, Loulou discovered yarn! Yes, she is 2 1/2 and just discovered a ball of yarn can be a load of fun. With two front paws and a mouthful too, she gracefully ripped the entire ball to shreds and then trailed it all over the room! Who needs the expensive store-bought cat toys!!!

Thank goodness it wasn't my knitting project.