NEW YEAR = NEW GOALS

  Hello, it’s me!  It’s been a while. ( Goodness! That opener took a couple minutes; pondering whether I was correct in using “a while as opposed to awhile”.) Yes I did double check with Mr.O. and Dr. Google to make sure I was using the correct verbiage. It is encouraging to know that I have not lost all my grammar skills. By the way, I want you to know that not all the mistakes you read in this and other posts will be my mistakes. Auto correct and Siri’s hearing will account for much of it and I will take a little blame for some, but just a little bit…

January 5, 2024 and the temperature is plus 6.  Not a bit of snow to be seen anywhere and there has not been any since we crossed the U.S. border this morning. What a mild winter we are having and it has been a long time since we have experienced a green Christmas. 

Last winter we had to cancel Christmas until later in the day Dec.26 because of record breaking snowfall and road closures. This year was 12 degrees Celsius and I was kicking myself that I hadn’t just planned a bbq instead of a big Christmas dinner. I decided to stir things up a bit and forego the turkey dinner. Instead I opted for homemade Chinese food. I made egg rolls, homemade chicken balls, dry garlic ribs, bacon wrapped water chestnuts, a huge wok full of vegetable fried rice. My daughter in law contributed a delicious huge Asian salad and her mom made a huge platter of all kinds of home baked goodies, and I also baked a homemade New York Style Cheesecake with preserved strawberries for desert. Not traditional but a nice change. 

We crossed the border into West Virginia about 45 minutes ago and it was 8 degrees and beautiful sunshine here as well.

I have written a few words and inserted 4 photos and I lost the first draft of my entry, rewrote everything I could remember and inserted a few pictures and here I am at least 90 minutes later and still struggling with this post. I remember now why I lost interest in blogging. I would spend hours on a post only to lose it while I was publishing it, or it would show up horribly formatted. None of this is your problem but if I am to continue I need to figure out what the problem is with way I am doing things. It shouldn’t be this painful to journal. I may just post this and see how things go and try to work on things once I get to the hotel for the night. If all goes well I will post again shortly. 

I wanted to chat about setting some goals for the new year but I am concerned that I will do all that only to lose it… stay tuned.

WRITING IS AN ACT OF FAITH, NOT A TRICK OF GRAMMAR.

E.B.WHITE

Edit: I published my blog post and font sizes were all mixed up and all photos were missing. Several more hours of trial and error and updating programs and apps I am hoping those pesky photos will show up this time.

TRAVEL TUESDAY

It has been a long time since I have had a major travel post.

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This is pretty much the scenery along the way when you travel in North Western Ontario…Trees, trees a bit of water more trees and 
Sparse population. The towns are small and few and far between once you pass Parry Sound and Sudbury. It is not uncommon to me though because although I lived 40 plus years in New Brunswick and the last 2 in South Western Ontario, I was born and raised in Northern Ontario. 

Destination this time is Sault Ste Marie. It has been awhile since I have been to see my brother and because the nursing homes have lowered restrictions I am finally able to see him after 19 months. My sister, Barb and her husband are also on the highway travelling from the West and we will meet up and spend 5 full days with Gary. 

We have been reminding him we are coming to visit, but because of his health and dementia issues it is a surprise to him each time. One thing for sure, he will be ecstatically happy to see all of us. Unfortunately Pam, our “baby sister” is not able to travel from BC to be with us. 

Fortunately we are able to do a group Facetime video once a week thaks to the Activities department of the nursing home Gary lives in, but it isn’t the same as face to face and getting an old fashioned hug.

 Guaranteed Gary will be getting a big hug all around and he will be up on wobbly legs giving us the biggest smile and even bigger hugs.

Covid restrictions have kept us apart for a long time and 5 days will fly by, but in these times of change we will grab what moments we can.

Even more special, is that it is Gary’s 64th  birthday tomorrow! And yes I baked a cake last night so it would be fresh and my sister has candles…I brought along a mixer, bowl and spatula, so we will pick up ingredients tonight to make frosting in our hotel suite and between us we will have a cake to present to him. A few balloons and gifts and it will be a real honest to goodness birthday party! Watch for pictures later…

I  brought a few hand projects along for the ride…so far the only thing that has gotten any attention is a bit of sock knitting. I am well set up.headphones, knitting, and a movie on my ipad which is precariously perched on the open glove box. What more could a girl ask for?

P.s. I have taken a quick glance to make editorial corrections but forgive me for any errors…it is a bit bumpy typing in transit.

“I HAVE COME TO ACCEPT THE BUMPY ROADS OF LIFE; THEY SEEM TO LEAD TO THE BEST PLACES.”

Steve Maraboli

Here we go again!

We are taking a road trip! I know, know…if you have read any of my blog posts you know that travel is not a big deal with us, but just in case you have been stuck under a rock somewhere and haven’t heard, we here in Ontario, Canada have been in lockdown almost constantly since last fall. 

The last trip that was over an hour away and not for a medical/dental, optical appointment was last October. I have not checked,  but I am pretty sure that must be a record for us!

Because I was typing I missed out on a photo op…we just drove through the little hamlet of Dublin. We are coming up to the Thames Road on our way to London!

Now don’t get to excited for me…sadly, I am not in Britain…just on my way to Costco, in London, ONTARIO…It is 2 hours from home which seems like a major road trip these days!

Not in Britain, but in I am in a lovely rural area of our beautiful country. Lovely little hamlets with quaint British and German names, lovely farmland, lots of roadside markets, and my favourite…sheep! The countryside is very popular for sheep. I never tire of seeing them.

I am slowly settling in to our new location but in all fairness, we really didn’t have much time to enjoy our surroundings the way I had planned. We were here 7 months, went to AZ for almost 2 months and when we returned back home the PLANET pretty much locked down! 

Thankfully I have had a generous stash of fabrics, batting, wools and sock yarns to keep me occupied.

Over the last 2 years I have gradually started back with cross stitching after a very long hiatus. If you think quilting is a pricey hobby, you will be alarmed at how expensive xstitching has become. It is like a new hobby all over again with all the designers and charts, and fabrics and overdyed flosses and project bags and notions and even a complete YouTube community for xstitchers called Flosstube. I have fallen down a rabbit hole and although I haven’t bumped into the Mad Hatter or Alice yet…I am pretty sure I will!

I made a stop for some new threads/floss…what an eye opener! Years ago when i was stitching, DMC and Anchor were our choices and if you watched for sales you could get 3 skeins for 99 cents. Now you get 1 for that price and there is a myriad of thread choices and companies to choose from..hand dyes, solids, silks, wools . 

I stopped in London to pick up threads for 4 projects in my line up and I spent $125.96 and came out of the shop with all my purchases in a baggie!

There are ingenious ways to organize threads and while watching a Flosstuber a week or so ago I commented on her post and I won a package she was very generously giving away! Yay! I was skeptical it was actually me but sure enough…I was the winner! Cant wait for my squishy mail to arrive. This gal has the most organized floss collection I have ever seen! She is giving me a little taste of some of her organizing tools! …another rabbit hole! …sigh I am falling deeper and deeper…

Lest you think I have given up on my quilting, I am here to assure you I have not! But after not blogging for such a long time, I don’t want you to have to read a novel of my activities; just a chapter will do. I will leave you with a couple pics of pin cushions I have cross stitched. I am slowly filling a wooden dough bowl with little stitched pin cushions. Some I have stitched, some are gifts from a dear friend and a couple that I stitched will be donated to my local quilt guild for an upcoming quilt show. 

So there you have it! A little peek at what I have been up to. Trust me this is just the tip of a very large iceberg!…or should I say the rabbit hole?

(Temporary Backup) (Temporary Backup) THE COMEBACK KID!

I recently saw a quilting video where the hostess referred to herself as the Comeback Kid and as soon as I saw the title I instantly knew that was what I wanted to title my next blog post. Call it word theft 

 or simply copying and I plead guilty, but I know a good subject line when I see it.

Well Susan H., I did promise to blog when I got settled and had my quilt room back in production, but seems to be taking a lot longer than I anticipated. 

The move itself went pretty smoothly. Several scratches seem to have appeared where there were none before, a couple chips on my sewing studio furniture and a temporary loss of my beloved red Kitchen Aid mixer. I say temporary because she found her way home yesterday via Canada Post. She travelled to From Bathurst to Ottawa, then to Kitchener, on to Mildmay, (she seemed to be hiding while here); then to Mississauga, back to Kitchener and a few points inbetween and landed back in Nova Scotia. From there she was given a stern talking to and sent back home to Mildmay with a warning to behave and go straight home! Here she sits sulking because of her reprimand and timeout. I may have even heard her grumble because she had to take a backseat to a distant ancestor yesterday when I had to stir up a cake for a church function. 

Yup! You heard me right. I was making my well loved Iny’s Prune Cake https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/make-this-cake-today-trust-me/  and used my old hand beater instead of plugging in my Kitchen Aid mixer. The recipe says not to over beat so it really did not require much beating at all but she doesn’t know that and she did to be taught a lesson for her tricks she played gallivanting all over the country!

I have an appointment tomorrow morning to have my eyes checked for a follow up to my cataract surgery. I will be so happy to get new glasses. It feels like this what life has been like for the last 6 weeks!

I have not been able to drive because my license is restricted to me wearing glasses, not to mention the tiny fact that I can’t see! I’m sure you can understand my excitement for this eye appointment.

We have been very blessed to know someone who works in an Vision Centre so I was able to get an appointment quite easily. We also have found a family Dr. which is a very difficult thing to do these days. Her office is just a ten minute walk from our house and we have already had an introductory visit, so that is another concern looked after. Life has been very busy with all the appointments for license changes, health card changes, vehicle registrations, etc etc. Several trips to Kitchener for appointments and shopping. One of those trips resulted in me visiting a Mennonite family. As some of you may know we live in the heart of farm country many of which are Mennonite. It is not uncommon to see different things for sale at the end of a long laneway. No one is around, you just pick your product and leave the money in a locked box. We stopped to purchase rhubarb but. Wanted more than what they had at the road so we ventured down the lane in search of more rhubarb. It was like a little step back in time. Lovely farmland, out buildings, complete with several resident cats and multiple children ,several were working at chores and the younger ones out playing ball in the side yard. I purchased 10 pounds of rhubarb and a lovely bunch of fresh asparagus. The lilacs were some of the prettiest I have ever seen.

I am quite happy with our new home, but I have to say I think I had the ugliest dining room light fixture ever! I have been looking for a new one, and we did but one while in Kitchener, but when Mr.O installed it, I reluctantly commented that it was hanging crooked...

Me: I love it, but it is crooked.

Mr. O: what do you mean it’s crooked? It is hanging from a chain, it has to hang straight down.

Me: Well it looks crooked to me.

Mr O: (getting down off the stepstool) It can’t be crooked. Oh it’s just the base I can adjust that.

Me: For $300 you shouldn’t have to adjust it, it should be straight!

Fast forward 1 hour or more...

Mr O: It doesn’t matter what I do it is crooked! That’s it! I am disconnecting it and taking it down and that’s it, the old one is going back!

Me: yes for sure...(until we can find another one)

Fast forward...I found one on Facebook marketplace for $40 but bargained down to $30 and now I have a light fixture I love! There was a bit of a hitch though...we didn’t realize til we got home that we hadn’t gotten the base that fits on the ceiling and we were not driving over an hour back for a part that we could easily buy at a local hardware store...Hah!

We could find every colour but! 

Mr O: Will this do. It isn’t quite the colour we need

Me: Yes no problem, I can make it work. I will just paint it. 

Mr. O: Ok we are done.

Me: Well not quite..we need to make a quick stop at the dollar store for a small bottle of craft paint.

Long story short Mr.O completely rewired the fixture while I  “adjusted “ the colour. He installed it and I love my $30 light way better than the $300 one! I do love my electrician!

As you can see it was not the best match but a bit of this and that and I am happy with the results.

There are countless boxes yet to unpack and pictures to hang and jobs to be done, but we are getting there. 

WHERE’S WENDY NOW?

I received a text from my neice tonight asking me where I was so that she could send me my annual Christmas card. It got me to thinking about the children’s book, Where’s Waldo. 

Here’s a little trivia for you...did you know that it has been just over 31 years since the Where’s Waldo books made their appearance? I have several friends that ask where I have been..they keep checking out my blog for something new and it is just the same old news. I know it is not 31 years since my last appearance but it has been awhile.

If I show you a couple pictures I know you will guess right away...

Yup! You guessed it! Back in Arizona for the winter!

By the way you will need to look close at the first picture to see,  but one of these palm trees is not like the other.

“One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?” 

Courtesy of Sesame Street

Before I give you the answer, how many of you just sang that song? I wonder how many of you will be humming it for the next three hours..lol

Did you notice the palm tree that looks like it grew straight up into the street light pole? Well it is not really a palm tree, it is a cell phone tower!

Here is a closer look.

Some are even harder to recognize.

I think it is so cool that they try to blend them into the surroundings, Lord knows there are tons of them around and it’s hard enough trying to get a decent photo without power lines and telephone poles in them. 

Ok...see what happens when I stay away so long! I just go on and on and on!

I missed you guy(s)

I miss reading some of my favourites when I don't blog too.

So what’s new?

Me? Oh not much with me... in the midst of packing up the cottage for the season, we sold our home, and have a buyer for our beautiful place at the beach. (That all happened in 5 days) Because we had already committed to spending the winter in Phoenix, we had just 6 weeks to pack up a house we had lived in for 39 years, and let me tell you our house was not big but it was full! And before you say it, no I am not a hoarder! After all the packing, we had over 5000 km to drive besides house hunting and all the business that entails and stopping to see my brother in Northern Ontario. We stopped in to see our son and family and we were successful in finding a house we liked so we bought a new home in Ontario. 

I told Mr. O I felt like I had been thrown into the tv show Amazing Race!

What a whirlwind! 

Our new home is a couple hours north of Toronto so I am still going to be a country gal, which suits me to a “T”. It brings us closer to family although I will be leaving part of my heart behind, because I have been blessed with the most precious friends a girl could ever hope to meet. I hope they miss me so much they all come to see me! A couple at a time though because we didn't  buy a hotel! <grin>

It is a lovely brick bungalow, just 8 years old, open concept, and my knee will be very appreciative of having a laundry room on the main floor, and yes I will have space for a new quilting studio, and it too will be on the main level. 

AKA. My quilt studio!

Here is a little peek. I will enjoy the front and back deck and although it will be lots of changes ( and if you know me well, you know I am not fond of change!), but I am sure we will be comfortable and happy there. After all home is where you make it. 

I have been in our rental here in Phoenix about 10 days and I still cant remember where things are in the kitchen, and my sewing area...don’t even ask! 

I have managed to do a little cross stitching on a project that is long overdue to be finished

It is a portion taken from a painting (below)by German artist, Heinrich 

Hoffmann

I also started (barely) a lap quilt from a kit I purchased last winter from 

   www.fatquartershop.com

It will be quite pretty when finished although the pattern photo does not do it justice. My friend Denise made it last year and sent me a photo of it and I instantly knew I wanted to make it.

Isn’t it pretty? I asked her if I could use it as a screen saver/wallpaper on my phone and it has been there ever since. I decided it was time to get at it. The other thing I have to finish up is my 7 Letters quilt. If I don’t lallygag too much I should be able to finish it by the end of the week.  I really have no idea how it should be quilted, so if you have any ideas I would love to hear them. 

Well I will leave you with a few more pics I snapped while on my walk this afternoon. I walked 5 km, and Mr O biked 50 miles....what a slacker!

“DON,T FEAR CHANGE. You may lose something good, but you may also gain something great.”

Author unknown.