Let me introduce Aira..........

Aira (pronounced Ira) was born on March 30th in New Zealand.  You can't really see much of her there, but she is snuggled under the quilt I made her, wearing the hat I knit her.

The fabric I used for all her things is Fox Playground for Free Spirit.  It's an older fabric and is harder to find now.  Below is a burp pad, change purse and a pixie basket.

 I also made her a wet bag.

So imagine my surprise when there was a knock on the door on Monday and the mail lady was delivering me a box.  Imagine my delight when I opened it and found all these goodies inside!!

I LOVE, LOVE chocolate, so am delighted with all these goodies.  I may or may not share some of them...LOL  However if I am not about for the rest of the week, you know I ate them all in one shot and now have a horrible migraine!!

Should we try again

I am the worst blogger out there, really.  What is my problem?  It's a new year so like a lot of you out there I guess I'll make a belated New Year's resolution and start blogging again.  I think my problem is that I have a pretty boring mundane life, and who on earth would want to read about it?  I do though have a few things in the works though and over the next few months I will begin to share with you what's going on.

The one thing I will share with you today though, is that we are going to be grandparents again TWICE this year in the space of a week or two.  Our Little Princess and Our Little Man are getting a brother or sister at the end of May and Our Little Munchkin will be getting a brother or sister a week or two later.

So as you can imagine, quilting and knitting are high on my to-do list this year.  However I also have a number of other things on my to-do list for the year.  I wonder of I make a list, it will help me achieve them?  I guess it won't hurt?

1. Prepare for two new grand babies.
2. Knitting a pair of socks - it has been on my to-do list since I started knitting.
3. Prepare "stock" for a table at a Christmas Sale in November/December - I'll talk about that at a later date.
4. Finish the basement, or get as much done as possible to the carpeting stage, so in Spring of 2017 all we have to do is put the carpet down there.  This situation is all down to money.
5. Put plans in motion for dh to retire in the next couple of years - this is something I would like to explore more in depth and will do in many posts over the year.
6. Explore more ways to save money and share with you all, what works and what doesn't.
7. Be more organized.  I know I do have that "A" type personality, but I have been letting things slip recently, so need to be more on top of things.
8. Get the rest of the main floor decorated - another big chunk will be done by the end of the month.
9. Try and go away on vacation later in the year.
10. Menu plan - this is a hard one for me, but if I do it I feel more organized.
11. Come up with ways to save money when grocery shopping, as believe me the price of food is rising by the day.

If there is a subject you would like me to explore please let me know.

And finally, just because, here is my first knitting for one of the new babies to be.  It's one of the baby gnomes, customized by me.  He or she is less than six inches in height.

That is the phone next to it, and I made a matching baby hat.  The books on the side are ones I have to review, so keep an eye out for those reviews.  Fingers crossed I can manage a post for tomorrow!!

Thank you

for all your replies.  Your comments have given me food for thought.

On a more cheerful front I got a lovely parcel in the mail this week:

I am making a baby quilt for a baby due in April 2016 in New Zealand.

I got this lovely lot from Fabric Spot a great Canadian company.  They have a super selection of fabric at great prices.

Mind you I am busy with a knitting project at the moment, so not sure when I will get around to doing this.

All ready for the big day........

Got all the gnomes done for Our Little Man's birthday party.  Here they are all lined up ready to go:

I then made a gnome and baby hat set for a couple who are expecting in January and are going to the party.

I used a different yarn for the set and as they are not going to find out the sex of the baby, I thought the colour was appropriate for both a boy or girl.  I would love to make this is a variegated grey yarn.

So far I have five babies and a wedding in the first four months of 2016.  So more baby gift sets and a baby quilt to make.  Better make a start on them!

Mini Crockpot and Baby Quilt.

Wanted to say thank you and welcome to all my new followers.  I would like to also say thank you to all my followers both old and new for all your comments.  I love reading them all.

Back in February 2013 I picked up a mini Crockpot for my dh.  I posted about it here.  Two years later and it is still in use.  It's one of those good buys that I would recommend.

It's just big enough to hold a can of Chunky Soup (dh's favourite) or leftover's.  He turns it on when he gets to work and it's piping hot when lunch time comes around.  It fits into his lunch box just fine and it makes a big change from sandwiches and salad.  He does not have access to a lunch room.

I finally got the binding sewn on the baby quilt.

 It is 40 inches wide by 44 inches long.

 The fabric is Riley Blake "Little Red Riding Hood."  The pattern is my own. Please ignore the stitching, I couldn't sew a straight line if my life depended on it!

The backing with the bright pink and green binding is so cheerful

Little one is due in May.  I want to also thank my own personal "Vanna White" for holding the quilt up so I can take some photos!

Your own Special Place........

I think we all have our own special place where we go to think and solve all the worlds problems.  Some people have a comfy chair, other people walk a special route; laying in bed are some people's preferred choice,  Me, well this is my special place:

The shower, I can put the world to right and solve any issue in the shower.  Been doing this for years.  When I was working I came up with more ideas and solutions than ever when I was in the shower.  Not sure what it is about the shower, but it relaxes me, and when it does my brain must start working...LOL

What made me think of this post, was I was thinking about the other day when we had our little Munchkin over.  Dh went to the toilet and Munchkin went to find him.  She can reach the door handle but cannot open the door yet, so was banging on the door for him.  I do not miss those days when you could never use the bathroom without having company joining you.

So today's question is: Where is your special place that you go to solve the world's problems?

Finally a pop of colour for Wednesday:

For the non-quilters out there, the photo shows me stitching the binding on the quilt.  For the quilters out there, no I did not lose the plot putting bright green binding on it....LOL  It all makes sense, trust me!

It's been a while..........

I finally hunted out my sewing machine and did a bit of sewing on Wednesday.

Dd good friend is expecting a baby girl in April, and as I made her a baby quilt for her baby boy when he was born, I knew I had better get going with one for the new baby to be.

I bought this Riley Blake Little Red Riding Hood  quilt kit a while back and had never used it.  

It is such a cute selection of fabrics and perfect for a little girl.

The only snag though is the kit didn't come with a pattern, so I had to make my own up.  I will share more photos in the next couple of days.

Health wise, onwards and upwards as they say.  I did pop my head out of the door to go to the mail box, but honestly it was so flipping cold, I did not want to stay outside for anymore time than I had too.

Change of pace.......

You can only unpack boxes for so long until you get totally fed up of it..........I'm at that point.  So as I am going to a baby shower on the 13th, I decided to see if I can get a baby quilt put together before then.  We don't know what the sex of the baby will be so I am hoping this is neutral enough to do either sex.  It is to trim up and I need to buy I am thinking chocolate brown material for a border and backing.

 The main colours are brown, orange, yellow, and green.

As many of you know I enjoy reading, so have decided to join a book club on the subdivision.  The first meeting is on Monday July 14th, so I have ordered and will have to read this book before then.  It's doable, due to there being nothing on the tv except repeats!!!

You can read more about it here

Here is our list of books for the next year:

 July 14 The Chalk Girl - Carol O'Connell 

Aug  11  A Complicated Kindness - Miriam Toews

Sept  8.  No Time to say Goodbye - Linwood Barclay 

Oct  14  The Book Thief - Markus Zusak 

Nov  10  The Storied Life of A.J. Firky - Gabrielle Zevin 

Dec  8   Wild From Lost to Found on the Pacific coast - Cheryl Strayed

Jan  12  Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See

Feb   9  The Invention of Wings - Sue Monk Kidd

Mar.  9  No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency - Alexander McCaul Smith

There seems to be a wide range of genre of books, so should be interesting.  Also I have never read any of these books, so that in itself is a positive thing.

Did I get any cleaning done yesterday..........

Yes I did.  Did I get everything done, well of course not, but I did get a number of other little jobs done that no one will notice, only me.  Are the dust bunnies gone; no but there are not as many of them.  I am sure there are still cobwebs lurking around as well but I did win the battle with a few of them.

I did get the window sill and trim in the kitchen stained, plus some touch ups done to cabinet trim as well.  Today the varnish will be brought out and I will spend the rest of the week putting coats of varnish on everything.  At least with the cooler temps all the windows can be open.

Another sign of Fall is the fact the furnace guy is coming today to do our annual service.  Always do it the beginning of September before we have to turn on the furnace.

At the end of July, I did a post about a new store I found called Wild Birds Unlimited, you can read the full post here.  I wanted to update you about what worked for us and what didn't.  The Stackable Bird Feeder (photo below) has been a huge success and lasts for ages.  I will be buying more of those stacks throughout the winter.  They are well worth the money.

The Safflower seed is a bust, the only thing that loves those are the chipmunks.  Not much success either with the bird feeder that sticks to the window, the odd bird will get food buy they are very few.

The Cardinal Alert didn't really work either; Kristen did suggest a plastic drop sheet, the type you put on the floor when painting.

Loved the look of the sky on Tuesday afternoon.

For the sewers out there, I was ready to pull my hair out on Tuesday afternoon sewing the baby blanket.  I was quilting two layers of minky with a light batting in between.  Thread kept snapping.  Finally got it sorted by changing my needle to a jeans needle.  I had forgotten why I hate sewing with minky!!!  Looks good though.  Ideally the binding should be minky, but I think that would put me in an early grave, so cotton material it is.

I looked a right mess........

I spent an hour and a half whipper snipping/grass trimming/edging on Wednesday morning and barely made a dint in our property.  We have a super duper professional trimmer that you can see here. I can only do a couple hours of trimming at a time as it kills my back and makes my hands vibrate for an hour or so after I finish.  Anyway whenever I do the trimming I end up covered in grass.  It ends up in my bra and my underwear, everywhere.  

As it was hot again on Wednesday I was only outside until just after 10am.  Did get some more grass cut as well.  I then decided to get a bit more done on the baby's quilt and got the quilt top put together.  I am also making a crib skirt and a valence for the window.  Plus a couple of cushions.

I ended up covered from head to foot in bit's from the minky fabric.  It's a messy fabric when cut.  The backing will also be minky and I think I will do the binding with one of the pink fabrics.

Not enough time in the day.....

to do everything I am wanting done at the moment it seems.  I was just talking to my friend Jane about this the other day, about the fact that just because we don't have kids at home doesn't make things easier.  We are still busy bees most of the time and some days we never stop.

I am so behind visiting everyone's blogs I am so surprised anyone visits mine anymore.  Part of blogging etiquette is to visit and comment on other peoples blogs.  Its something I love to do, but I am so behind in doing that, so I do apologise for not visiting your blog.

One of the jobs to do this week was to finish the baby quilt.  I completed it on Wednesday morning and as I had used my blue washable marker on it, I had to wash it. It is meant to be washed and used so no problems there.  The photos I took of it are when it is still wet though.  So it will be lighter in colour when dry.

I don't know the sex of the baby, the mother-to-be is not finding out.  I do think this is more of a boy quilt than a girl quilt though.  The quilting lines are straight in "real life," it just the way the quilt was laying.

I always like to see the back of the quilt.  As you can see it's a diamond pattern.  It was super simple to do and didn't take a long time to do.

Gosh I'm tired amd a photo of our little Princess

Monday was another busy day.  I need to get a lot done this week.  I put the first coat of varnish on the stairs.  Yes it's stinky but it's not as bad as the stain.  My goal is to get three coats on this week.  I did a little bit of tidying up, as the place is still covered in dust (SIGH).  I got the baby quilt all quilted, so now have only the binding to do.  However I remembered I still have to sew together the block for my quilt club on Thursday.

I wanted to show you my newest "toy" 

Its that time of year when the cluster flies all wake up from their hibernation.  I find it hard work hauling my regular vacuum up the stairs every day, so I figured a hand held vacuum would do the trick.  This one is both an upright one and a handheld on and is quite compact.  And best of all cost a whopping $17!!!!

So far so good with it, just wish we didn't have to deal with the cluster flies period.

Our little Princess is two months old today.  I will be seeing her in person on Friday, so looking forward to that.  Doesn't she suit yellow?

Her face is really changing and she is more active as per her mother.

Our Old Basement......

is the total opposite to the new basement.  As I explained yesterday we have two basements due to the fact a family room extension was added to the house in 1974.  Due to the thickness of the original stone walls in the house, they didn't knock through to the extension, so we have two totally separate basements.  

The old basement was an earthen floor, but was concreted over in 1954; they marked the date in the floor.  This is what it looks like when you open the door to the basement.  The stairs are original and its all dusty down there with cobwebs and the odd mouse!!  Dh is wanting to drywall all this area, just to clean it up and make it even brighter.  We however have to do some repair work to the staircase going upstairs as it squeaks like crazy.  So don't want to drywall that yet.

We have done a little bit of work down there as we blocked up two windows and installed two new windows.  We found a little bit of dry rot so that was all torn out and the coal shoots were also blocked up.  We had to get someone in to do all that and that cost us around $5,000.  Which in a way sucks as it's work other than the windows you don't see or honestly appreciate.  It has however made a huge difference, as the old windows were blocked up with insulation as they were that old and drafty.  So now we have daylight in there.  Plus it was mouse central down there and we had the holes blocked up so they can't get it..........mind you they are still getting in somewhere, we now think under the front deck.

I am in the process of cleaning up this side of the basement.  Nearly all those boxes that you can see is Christmas decorations.  Would you believe I had a huge clean out a few years ago and donated a big pile of Christmas stuff.  I need to go through it all and see if I can get rid of more.  That is the water softener in the back of the photo, by the window.  My old washer and dryer is still down there.  I am planning on putting an ad on Kijiji and getting rid of them by advertising them for free.  They are as old as the hills but work fine.

This is the other side of the basement and that is the oil furnace.  To the right of the furnace just outside of the photo is our oil tank.  I hate going on this side as it's icky.  I would love to whitewash all the walls as that would brighten up the whole basement.  One thing though the basement is dry and does not smell musty, partly because we have a dehumidifier going down there most of the time.  It has made a huge difference and well worth the investment.

I made a start on the baby quilt over the weekend and have got a lot of it cut out.  I decided to do make a Double Four Patch pattern.  Don't know why as I will be cursing it up and down trying to get all my corners matched!!!

I have to have this completed by the middle of March, so need to get on with it.

Baby quilt, and my car..........

Finally got the quilt finished other than the label.  Will add that after the baby is born.

Pleased with how it turned out though after looking at the photo, I could have spread out the fabrics a bit more evenly?  Even dh wants a quilt backed with minkie fabric!!

As most of you know I am not car savvy.  I put gas/petrol in my car and occasionally put window washer fluid in when I remember.  That is it.  So imagine my surprise when a light flashed up on my dash board.  Pulled my book out and it was the tire pressure sensor telling me my tire(s) has low pressure.  I had only just had the oil changed last week and thought they had checked the tire pressure.

So I trundle back to the garage and they check out the tires.  Each one was a different pressure ranging from 25 to 29 whatever's (no idea the term).  So they check the one with 25 whatever's to make sure it didn't have a nail in it.  It didn't and he blew up each tire so they have 32 whatever's in them now.

My tires are filled with nitrogen, no idea why, but the garage did say I could top the tires up with regular air if I had to.  They obviously didn't check my tires last time, so I must make an effort to ask them when ever I am in the garage to make sure I have equal "whatever's" in each tire as the bloody sensor will no doubt come on.

I was telling them that having a car with a computer in it and lots of sensors is a pain in the butt, for people like me who know nothing about cars and have a panic attack every time a bloody light comes on.

Oh well onwards and upwards as they say!

Very different.....

I had a few jobs to do on Tuesday and one of those was to advertise the snow tires with rims from my old car.  They are almost new and don't fit my new car.  I advertised them on kijiji as it's free, so fingers crossed I sell them, as it's close to $1,000 for ones for my new car.  

I took the car to get the oil changed, which was free as the sales guy gave us a coupon for a free oil change when we bought the car.  Otherwise it would have cost over $42.  Is that expensive, how much do you pay for an oil change?

Another job I had to do was fill in all the nail holes on the window and door frames in the basement.  I am going to sand them today.  It is a job I absolutely hate doing, but I am determined to get that basement finished!!

I finished machine stitching the baby quilt, so all I had to do is hand stitch the binding on.

I am determined to get all my jobs done on my list regardless this week!!!!


Fab Find has a a little article called Fab Spot every day and this was what it was about on Tuesday:

Adding salt and pepper to your favourite dish is nothing new, but doing it with some magic certainly is. Putting on a sprinkle, a dash, or a pinch just became a lot more interesting with these wand-like shakers. You’ll have your food under a spell in no time. Plus you won’t have those awkward grinders or ugly holders at your table. Your favourite spices will be more charming than that four-eyed fictional wonder boy. Just don’t forget to say abracadabra whenever you shake them. Otherwise all that time spent studying at Hogwarts will just be thrown out the window.

Very cute don't you think?

Managed to get a couple of things crossed off the to-do list on Monday

No idea what was up with me on Monday but by 8:30am, I had two loads of laundry hung out.

Had a pot of ham bone soup simmering on the stove.  The bread maker was all loaded up to make a loaf of bread for supper.

Made wibbly wobbly pudding for supper and washed up all the dishes.

More often than not I am still in my dressing gown at 8:30am.

I had to be in town for 9:30am as I had a hair appointment.  Got there and it was closed due to illness {SIGH}.  Still I had stuff planned to do besides that, so I did my grocery shop, called in at the dollar store, put gas in the car $1.309 a litre {{SIGH}}  Donated last months books to the library and called in at the garage to make an appointment for today to get the oil changed in Betsy, as she has hit the 6,000 km mark in just under 6 months. 

Was home by around 11am.  After lunch I dug up all the potatoes and cut the front grass.  Brought the washing in and did the ironing.  By this time it was 3:30pm.  Went out and cut the field for an hour.  Came back in and sorted out supper and a couple of other things.  Had supper at 5pm.  Dh went to town to get his hair cut, while I went outside for another hour to cut more grass.

Came back in and plopped down on the sofa to spend some time on the computer and watch a bit of tv.

Only thing I didn't get too was my quilt, which is still laying on the kitchen table. 

This is a photo of the sunset on Sunday night:

Is that not stunning?

A Weekend doing odds and ends......

Not sure about you, but this weekend just flew by; however not only the weekend but the month also.  We're now entering the last quarter of 2012, and again have to admit the year is moving along fast as well.

On Saturday we went to dd house as dh had to do some prep work as he's doing some electrical work at her house next Saturday.  Dd made us lunch and we had a M & M's Meats, Supreme Homestyle Lasagna.

Have to say it was really good, and will be buying it in the future. There is a promotion on at the moment, that when you make wine using the Glad Hatter brand of wine you get a $25 gift card to use when you spend $50 in M & M Meats.  I am going to use mine at the end of the month, to stock up the freezer.

We then went to pick up the laminate flooring for the basement.  It was on sale for $1.89; it should have been $3.29 per foot.  It is 12.3 mm and we are hoping to get it installed this month, so I'll show you photos when we have it laid.  I had hoped to keep it under $1.50 per foot, but this one was well worth the extra money.

On Sunday I cleaned out my coupon file, a job well over due; but as I am going grocery shopping today it was a good job done.  We then went to the Orangeville Fall Home Show.  Luckily we didn't have to pay to get in, as we were in and out in less than half an hour.  Came home and had lunch and then I did some more sewing on the baby quilt.  I only have to sew the binding on now and then I'm done.  However the Indian baby shower has be moved to the middle of November now, so no urgency to get it finished, but I want it out of the way as I need to work in the garden and the basement for the next couple of weeks.

Got a busy week ahead of me.  How about you?

First my excuses.......

Which will only interest you if you are a quilter!!

1. I haven't sewn in probably a year.
2. I have never sewn this pattern before.
3. I did read the instructions, honestly, but obviously not well enough!!

So I did post a couple of photos of the baby quilt pieces I cut out on yesterday's post.  It wasn't until I had sewn a lot together and cut them up more, that I discovered I had been too enthusiastic in my cutting and sewing.  As I had bought this as a kit there wasn't any surplus material left over, so I had to improvise.

I first set the squares out in a couple of patterns on the kitchen table to see which way was the best:

When I decided on what I liked best I sewed them all together to make the quilt top.

This is a close up of part of it.

So instead of it being called "The Yellow Brick Road," pattern, it's now called, "Gill's Surprise."

Was watching Jamie Oliver the other day while having lunch, the show where he has Great Britain in the title? 

Doesn't matter, because I was laughing so loud and hard I thought I was going to pee my pants.  He was tasting a sandwich in the street and a little old lady passed by and said hello.  He said hello back and asked if she would like a taste of his sandwich.  She said yes and he said:

"Mind you don't get it stuck under your plate (false teeth)."

Only in England.........by the way he wasn't making fun of her, he genuinely meant her to watch what it, as the roll was a crusty one.

Wanted to thank you all for all your help

yesterday with identifying the William Adams & Son piece.  I sent an email to the Wedgwood Museum in England, as they bought out the William Adams factory in the 60's, to see if they could actually identify the exact age re; the backmark, as I still could not find the exact one.  So fingers crossed they get back to me at some point.

I have joined a monthly quilting club.  It's costing a huge $10 for the year and the material is supplied for the quilt squares for each month.  This is the first month's square:

As you can see it's not perfect and that's because of the way I cut it out, not the way it was sewn.  Though I felt like a brand new quilter when attempting this block as it's been over a year since I last did any quilting.  Couldn't even remember how to use my 1/4 inch foot.......  Mind you I had better remember it soon, as I have a baby quilt to make for Thanksgiving Weekend.

I think I'll make a start on it today!!!