Cross stitch update and painting craft.

I had dd and the girls up for a visit, so I bought these bee houses from Dollar Tree.  I had leftover craft paint from a couple of paint by number projects.  So we painted one each.

From left to right, daughter, me, then the girls.  I have said this before, I have a small amount of talent in some things, but when it comes to painting I have NONE!! 😂  

Here is the latest update with the temperature cross stitch.  We have had a mild week.  January should be all blue colours, not green and blue.  This coming week's forecast is a mixed bag, with no deep freeze in sight.  Which is good and was reflected in our gas bill.  It was $20 cheaper than last year.  I have a spreadsheet set up to track all the bills, so I can make a budget for us; for when hubby retires.

I also finally finished another little cross stitch project.  Well part one of it.  You won't see the finished project until the end of the year.  The photo below was taken before I did the back stitch.

This is the after.  I haven't pressed it or anything yet.  I am looking forward to sharing the finished project at the end of the year.  If you get the World of Cross Stitching magazine, this will be familiar to you.

What has the weather been like in your neck of the woods?  What have you been working on this past week?

I also must thank you all for your lovely comments.  I do try to visit everyone's blogs and answer your questions.  Feel free to remind me though if I forget!!

Daughter's Sling Along Bag and Sunglasses case......

Dd wanted a case to put her sunglasses in when she saw the one I made and loved this Tula Pink fabric I had on hand.   As a reminder there is a link to the pattern on this blog post.  I used a heavier weight fusible fleece as the padding and just used the same material inside and out.  I will be showing you another couple of sunglasses cases I have made from fabric scraps later in the week, as this literally uses to pieces of fabric 9 inches by 9 inches, plus the two pieces of batting and one half of a zipper.

Now finding 25 inch zippers is a pain.  So I have found duvet cover zippers are 60 inches long, so you can get four sunglasses case's with the one zipper; BUT you only have one zipper head, so I buy three cheap zippers (usually 3 for $1) and use the zipper heads from them. 

The one I used for this one was a 22 inch zipper and it was a pain to put in.

Then I made her a Sling Along Bag and it turned out lovely.  Also a lot easier to make the second time around.

Fabric I used was:

Grey Poppy was Sarah Watts Magic Forest for Cotton + Steel (I would not use this fabric for bags in the future, not enough body in it; too soft for a bag)
Coral was Rae Ritchie for Dear Stella #SRR512
Grey was Basic Grey Metropolis for Moda Fabrics #30565

Below is one of the ladies bag who took the class with me, in a gorgeous Tula Pink print. She hadn't quite finished it when I took the photo.

Here are my two beside her bag. Such a lovely selection of fabric there.

A $14.68 fix........

Dd and the girls popped up for a visit on the weekend.  Amongst the things we did we had a trip to Homesense for a look around.  Miss N. felt very grown up carrying Nana's handbag.

 Miss P's hands were full with "Scarf Bear!!"

As soon as we walked through the door we saw this display.  I LOVE those milk boxes, really cute.

The girls took Timmy the Turtle home and here he is in their garden.

I found a new ironing board cover.  This is why the title of the post is $14.68 ($12.99 plus 13 % tax = $14.68)

 So on Monday I too off my old ironing board cover and underneath it I had put tin foil, which had rusted through.

 When I removed the tin foil, it was even more rusty, but very serviceable.

 So covered it with new tin foil.

 Added the new ironing board cover and everything is good too go.

 Remembered to cut off any usable hardware.

 Then bundled it all up and threw out the old cover and tin foil.  It looks nasty doesn't it?

Should be all good for a few more years.

Yummy.........

Our daughter made these for a fundraiser at work.  Wish I worked there!!

Headbands all finished......

Here are all my headbands finished.  The top three are for the children, the bottom two are for me and dd.  I think I will take the pale green/aqua one for myself.

They were so easy to make and a great way of using up odds and ends of yarn.  Also I know that if Nora loses hers at school it won't matter as they were not expensive to make.

When I was at The Knitting Basket on Thursday a lady saw what I was making and she wanted the "pattern" for them, and bought the same striped pink/grey yarn to make some for her grand children.  

Who knew I was a knitting pattern designer😎  I did warn her how complicated the pattern was!!

For those of you who want the "knitting pattern," you can see it here.

My next knitted project a woolly hat to donate to dd for a charity fundraiser she is organizing for the United Way.

2015 Pan Am Games....

They are being held in Toronto this time around and start on July 10th.  Suffice to say a silly amount of money has been spent making sure we look presentable to whomever is interested in this sort of stuff?  

Me personally, can't say I am awfully bothered but there were a couple of things about it worth mentioning I thought.  We are "lucky" to be in close proximity to a couple of event locations, one of them being this:

You see someone in their wisdom decided to designate letter abbreviations to the specific events locations.  Fortunately on the website it decipher's the codes for you and it turns out TTS stands for Pan AM Shooting Centre; why TTS who knows???  We are also close to CCE - Pan Am's Cross Country Centre and CEP - Caledon Pan Am Equestrian Park.  Close to where our daughter lives is PAC - CIBC Pan Am/Parapan Am Aquatic Centre.  You can read more about these locations here.  I feel sorry for most people as the local news asked local people what these abbreviations meant and no one had a clue!!  So goodness knows how the folk visiting from out of town can figure it out, if the locals can't?

Going through the top of Toronto is the 401 Highway.  It is one of the busiest highways in the country.  "They" whomever they are have decided to make one lane in various parts an "HOV" lane. 

"HOV," means a High Occupancy Vehicle Lane.  Normally it means you have to have two or more occupants in your vehicle but from now until the end of the games you have to have three people in your vehicle or accredited Games vehicles used to transport athletes, media and technical officials.

Now obviously the locals are not happy about this, as the ones close to our daughter's means it goes from three lanes in the express to only two lanes and believe me it makes a HUGE difference not having that third lane.  Yes there are the collector lanes, which is another three lanes, but the traffic back ups are bad.  Even on Sunday the road was slow and very busy.

We observed that also a lot of people was using this lane with under the three person occupancy as stated.  Other's were just using it as an over taking lane so all in all they were not taking a blind bit of notice of the rules.  

It explains here in more detail which roads are affected etc.  Locals have been told to take vacation or work from home if they can to avoid the extreme traffic congestion.  Son-in-law luckily doesn't work too far from home, so shouldn't be too inconvenienced.  Daughter though is going to work from home as she went to the office last week and it took forever to get there.

We can take a different route to our daughter's if we want to go down.  Was pleased to see some major roadworks have wrapped up, so that will ease the traffic a little.

I hope for everyone's sake the games are a success so at least we recoup some of the money that has been forked out to host this; as I am quite sure we the tax payers are paying for all of this!

I will be back to regular blog posts tomorrow, as this sort of subject is just not my thing!


Oh and just in case you are wondering, no we won't be attending any of these events, but may watch highlights on the tv.

Quiet day on Wednesday for me.

Other than going to the mail box never left the house all day.  I did get some more trim painted, which is a good job, jobbed, as I say.  Got a load of laundry done, again another good job, jobbed.  Even got a bit more of the baby hat knit. I like those sort of days, when you get things done without any other distractions.

Back on the 16th dd and family came over as the boys, (ds and son-in-law) went golfing with a couple of their friends.  Meanwhile dd and our Little Munchkin stayed at home with me.  Our Little Munchkin went for her usual two hour sleep at lunch time, while her mummy made her a pair of shorts and I did some knitting.  Here she is eating her snack sitting by the kitchen window.  She loves looking out of it waving at everything and everyone going by.

 When Granddad came home from work we all went to McDonald's for an ice cream.  That bib lasted all of two minutes around her neck.  At least she sat still while she shared her mummy's ice cream.

Then while her mummy and Nana were busy looking around the store, Granddad pushed her around in the trolley, both as happy as Larry. Our Little Munchkin, loves her Granddad!!

Got "stuff" to do today, which means leaving the house.  I do enjoy those days when I can stay at home; are you a homebody?

Poor Little Munchkin and I was just so fashionable!!

I was well enough to go down to dd house with dh on Saturday.  Got there and went with dd and Our Little Munchkin to the walk-in clinic as she is not well again.

The doctor she saw had an x-ray fetish, as I am quite sure half his patients ended up going for x-rays and then coming back.  Our Little Munchkin was one of them.  Luckily I was there, as dd held her arms and I held her legs, to keep her still.  The doctor wanted to make sure she had something going on in her chest.

Hello, you could hear her wheezing when she is sat on your knee.  Over three hours later we get her home and straight to bed, where she slept for FOUR hours.  She has a chest infection and is on antibiotics AGAIN.  This is the third time in three months.  Dd takes her for her 18 month check up this month and will have a talk with the doctor to see what on earth is going on.  As every time she gets a cold, it turns into a chest infection and/or an ear infection.

She was breast fed right until she was a year old, so you would think that would help.  Daycare is the issue, as it's one child after another that is sick.   Pink Eye is going around, Our Little Munchkin is fine, just this chest infection.

Poor Little Munchkin, she always looks so sorrowful when she is sick.  As for me, I am getting there, but it's flipping slow going {{{SIGH}}}

Congratulations to Prince William, Kate and Prince George on the birth of their daughter/sister.

Oh, and for the fashionable bit, my feet were cold on the way home from dd, so I put a pair of socks on; I was wearing slip on sandals.  We then called in at Timmie's (coffee shop) and I left my socks on!!  I know socks and sandal's...where were the fashion police!!!  I decided I wouldn't bore you with a photo.  I am so going to get ANOTHER lecture from dd about wearing socks and sandals!

Chalkboard and lost for words for a change.....

Chalkboards are all the decorating rage at the moment.  Dd has had one for a while now, she made it herself and it looks great.  You can see more of hers in this post.

I wanted one, more for the fact I could write things down on it, in the hopes it would help me remember things.  Dd made hers by buying a picture frame from Ikea and painting it with chalkboard paint.  I bought mine ready made at Michael's on sale for under $30.

Underneath it you can see I have hung a bar with a couple of pots on it.  All that is from Ikea  The bar is here, the hooks come separate here.  The two tubs and the plant is also from Ikea.

A close up of the faux plant.  It is quite realistic.

 I got the chalkboard markers from Michael's.  They are around $20 but I got mine on sale.

 Here is a close up of the detail on the frame, it is a weathered look.  Dd was up and wrote on it.

All in all very pleased with it all.  I have one spare hook on the rail, I want to get a small heart sign for there.  I have seen something I like on someone else blog, so just need to source one over here.

Now why was I lost for words.  I am not well; it's all in the head, ears, nose and throat.  I was up for nearly three hours through the night on Monday night.  My right ear is killing me, and I have a silly cough and moisture in my nose.  So I decided to go to the walk in clinic in town.  Believe this was not undertaken lightly, as I personally have better things to do than sit in a room for hours with sick people!!

It is a three hour round trip to go to our doctors office and see him; and as I don't have the energy to do that trip off I went to the walk in.  Will say it's a lovely office, super staff and very clean.  It is in our local Wal-Mart store.  Didn't have to wait too long probably around 1 1/2 hours.

The doctor came in told her what was wrong.  She looked in my ears and said they are nice and clear.  Looked in my throat and said that was fine and told me there was nothing wrong with me.  I said are you sure there is nothing wrong with my ear as it's really sore.  Nope, it was fine and take Sudafed to clear any congestion.  I said I am on blood pressure pills and was told not to take them.  Again, she said they would be fine for a couple of days.  And that was it......

Believe me when I say, my ears feel awful, my throat is on fire and this tickly cough is bloody annoying.  Something is going on.  So Sudafed it is, not sure for how long.  I'll give it three days and if I am no better, I will try and get into see my own doctor.

Two gorgeous girls.........

Finally got dd to give me permission to post a photo of her.  Just love this photo of her and Nora.

Nora's outfit is from The Gap, just love it.

 Here she is talking to Sophie, the must have toy for all babies nowadays!!

 She was all dressed up to go to her future husbands first birthday party!!  If that falls through though there is always Prince George!!!

No whining today I promise!!

I am one of these people who can never figure who a baby looks like.  I never see any resemblance between so and so.  I was no different with Miss Nora, until I got a photo of her the other day.  On the left is a photo of dd when she was probably 4 or 5 months old.  I remember holding her up underneath her dress.  Dd went through three hair colours, she was dark when she was born, then went red, then went and still is blonde.  Miss Nora is at the red stage at the moment.  Do you think mother and daughter look alike?

On Thursday we had to go into the Pandora store as dd had to exchange something.  This was the light fixture in the middle of the store.  It's from Denmark and was bloody awful.  It looked as though it was covered in cobwebs, or packing material.  Even the guys that unpacked it from the box, thought that was a packing cover on it.  Dd got this ring from there.  It is gorgeous, even I like it!

 A friend's son and daughter-in-law are having a little boy this week.  He will be at least five weeks early and isn't 100%.  Now I am not sure what exactly wrong or how ill he may or may not be, but regardless I wanted to get something for the little man.  This is my bill for what I bought.

 This is what I got for just over $10.  Isn't that crazy?  There are three body suits all for babies up to 7 lbs, and three sleeper type outfits.  Plus I got another two sleeper type outfits at Carter's and a pair of shoes for Miss Nora and spent well under $20 there.  So all in all the little man will have five sleepers and 3 bodysuits, all in new born and 0-3 month sizes.  Did find though it's not as much fun shopping for little boys as it is for girls.

So there you go no whining today, hope that keeps everyone happy!!  Thanks for all your comments yesterday.  It was fun reading everyone's comments.

Look who is ten months old already:

She is growing up so fast, and I think she will be walking soon, as she is pretty steady on her feet when walking around furniture and would rather do the bum shuffle than crawl.

It doesn't seem like long since she was looking like this:

Other other little sweetie Nora left hospital last night with a clean bill of health.  Dd levels are still low as she lost a lot of blood, but they are slowly climbing.  Her husband is off until January 4th so he will be taking good care of her while she recovers from her c-section.

I am going down sometime this week to do a batch cook for them so will have more photos then.

Photos of the Baby's Nursery....

With less than five weeks to go now the baby's nursery is all done, and has been done for a few weeks now.  It is looking lovely, although I have yet to see it in person, I am a bad mother/Nana as I haven't had time to go to the house.

 

You've seen the tree on the wall, it does look lovely doesn't it?

 

 That looks like a comfy corner to nurse the baby.  Dd made the mobile herself.  I did tell her to take another photo of the mobile but she hasn't done it.

 The crib turns into a toddler and then an adult bed so is multi purpose.

Now all we have to do is await the arrival of the little one.  Feel sorry for poor dd as she has no ankles now as her feet is terribly swollen, but it's the way the baby is laying.  Her heartburn is still bad and she now has a terrible cough.  So the sooner this is over with the better.  She only has two more weeks at work so that is good, then she can relax a bit before the baby arrives.

A rambling sort of post, there might be something of interest in there for you?

Finally some cooler weather, just glorious and now I can sleep better.  Poor dh though was huddled under the covers; I think his blanket will be appearing on the bed shortly though; no doubt Jane's will too, they're twins.  Roll on the weather being a bit cooler in the day as well.

All over the news for us, part of the famous St. Jacobs market burnt to the ground early Monday morning.

You can read more about the story here thanks also to them for the photo.  Anyone in the south west of Ontario this was a great place to go and if you had visitors visiting you would take them there for a day out.  Such a shame, and a lot of people lost their jobs.

Today I MUST clean the house.  I am going to be trapped and eaten by a spider as the cobwebs are getting that thick!!!  I will report back if I actually do clean the house; if you don't hear anything I failed AGAIN!!

Good news the Red Cardinal has finally given up fighting itself in our window; only taken him a couple of months to realize it was his reflection.

Only 13 more weeks until dd has the baby.  Must make a mental note to myself to stop buying the baby clothes.  Our Little Sweetpea is going to have more clothes than she can wear.  This was the latest onesie I bought.  It was only $3 so I couldn't resist.

Haven't heard from Our Little Princess and her family; hope to hear from them this week.

Finally I have started Christmas Shopping, by picking up some stocking stuffers.  Late getting started this year!!

There you go a post about nothing really.

Do I make a blue baby quilt or a pink baby quilt for dd.........

It's going to be a pink baby quilt.  I of course was one of the ones who thought she was having a boy.  Mind I always say it's going to be a boy; knowing I will be either 50% right or wrong!  As we already have Our Little Princess, this one will be Our Little Sweet Pea for the time being.

I had my monthly quilt club meeting, so called into the grocery store on the way home.  I got this little lot and it was "a little."

That cost me $56.26.  I used $22.33 in coupons, so it would normally have cost $78.59, which is just flipping crazy.  

I got the following:
2 x packages of crackers 2 for $4 - $1 coupon
2 x packages of granola bars 2 for $4 - $1 coupon
1 x box cereal $3 - $1 coupon
1 x package licorice $2.69
2 x Glade air fresheners 2 @ $5.99 each - $5 coupon when you spend $10
1 x Glade car air freshener (had free product coupon)
1 x 4 litre milk  $3.99
8 pack Activia yogurt $2.99
1 x large tub yogurt $1.99
1 x Old El Paso Dinner Kit $4.59 (had free product coupon)
1 x 450 gram Barilla Pasta $1.69 - 75 cent coupon
2 x Ripple Chips  @ $1 each
3 x 500 gram bars of cheese @ $3.66 each
1 x Maple Leaf portion pack bacon $3.99 - $2 coupon
1 x Always pads $3.99
1 x Old Spice deodorant $3.99 - $2 coupon
1 x six pack Old Spice soap $4.79 - $2 coupon

I paid an additional $4.94 in taxes as well.  As you can see there are no fruit or vegetables in there.  Other than the bacon no meat.  I have stocked up on cheese which is good.  You do not get a lot for your money nowadays do you?

Had a day out on Monday.........

DD, Little Princess, her mother and I were invited for lunch at dd best friend's mother's home in Penetang.  Never been there before, took about an hour and a half from our house.  We took the scenic route up there via Wasaga Beach and came back home via Hwy 400.

We were spoiled as this was what we had for lunch; there was homemade turkey burgers, homemade bread rolls, potato salad, pasta salad and in the mason jars (funny after yesterday's post) was dressing with vegetable crudites.  We got to take the little flower arrangements home, as they were made especially for us.  Wasn't that so nice of her?

 Here is our little Princess, who was as good as gold all day.

 Then dessert was placed on the table, this was the box it was in:

I am sorry about the orientation of the photo, dd best friend had made this.  Didn't she do a wonderful job?

 Again sorry about it being upside down, but you do get a good shot of the "boobs!"

We had a super time; wished we had gone sooner, as we had such a good time and I didn't feel as though we stayed very long.