Sticker shock..............

When we went to the garden centre the other day we passed by a number of patio furniture sets.

I took photo's of the set's first followed by the price.  I was stunned at the price of this one below.....this set was the sectional and the coffee table.

Yep, you read that right over Eleven Thousand Dollars!!!

This set consists of two chairs, two footstools and a side table.

Yep, over Seven Thousand Dollars............

One chaise lounge, floral cushion not included!

Nearly 800 dollars, would be closer to 900 dollars with the 13% taxes added!

This sectional with table was a "steal" compared to the rest, coming in at under Four Thousand dollars!!

All these prices were typical and I have no idea what so ever, how folk can afford these, you can buy a used car for these prices?  None can be left outside, so you need storage as well for the winter where we live.

Garden Centre

Had a run out to the garden centre on Saturday.  Have to say I was thrilled to see some greenery.  I wasn't so thrilled about the price of things though 😟  I guess like everything else things have shot up in price.  I took some photos.

I loved the contrasting colours on these branches.

Then I looked at the price........$649.99 🤯

I also loved the contrasting colours with the yellow and green.  Bumble bees and lady bugs seem to be a "thing" with this garden centre this year.

Loved the different colours of the Hibiscus.  Of course we wouldn't be able to put these outside here in Southern Ontario until June.  We have a chance of frost until at least May 24th.

This bougainvillea is also so pretty but again needs warmer weather than what we have at the moment.

People were buying hanging baskets and other annual plants, all which would die if we put them outside at this time of year.  I am just pleased to see a bit of colour after such a long winter.

Tim Hortons........

 As per this article, Tim Hortons is releasing some new products to celebrate the World Cup being held in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Including four new flavours of Timbits.

• The Canadian Fireworks Timbit is a celebration in every bite, featuring Tims popular Birthday Cake Timbit and a coating of popping candy clusters.
• The Chocolate Crème Brûlée Filled Timbit is a chocolate Timbit filled with Venetian cream and finished with burnt sugar, inspired by the classic French dessert.
• The Lime Cheesecake Filled Timbit has a lime cheesecake filling and is topped with lime sugar to bring a zesty taste of Brazil to every bite.
• The Cappuccino Timbit features a coffee-flavoured Timbit topped with coffee-flavoured donut sugar, reimagining Italy's iconic espresso beverage into the perfect bite-sized treat.

I can't say I am opposed to any of the flavours, but am looking forward to trying the Chocolate Creme Brulee one, and the Cappuccino one.

I did not know about this promotion either:

From May 4 to July 17, Tims fans can also kick up the celebration by earning a free 10-pack of Timbits® in restaurant with a $20 purchase of eligible Tims at Home products at participating grocery retailers after submitting a valid receipt through timsathomepromotion.ca

Trying a different way...

I have been sewing cushion covers for the seating set on the front porch.  When doing the upper/back cushions I wanted to try something a little different as I ran into this problem:

As you can see the elastic on the back stretched out over time.

So this time I bought thicker/wider elastic and triple stitched it to the beige fabric and then when joining everything together I triple stitched it again.

I slip it over the back of the chair and it holds it nice and secure.

I only hope it holds up better this time.

Now everything is all done it looks a bit better.

I ended up with over 3 yards of fabric leftover, so have listed it on Facebook Marketplace for $30.  If I can manage to sell it, this project will have cost around $80, including all supplies, which is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying new cushions.  If I can get three years out of this set, that's less than $30 a year.

Collective nouns....

I was listening to Radio Cumbria the other day and they were talking about collective nouns.  It was really interesting especially the names for groups of animals.

I wonder who came up with these names?

More or less 3 years to the day.......

 I finally picked up the fabric to recover the cushions that go on the chairs on the front porch last weekend.  I managed to get the chair cushions and the scatter cushions sewn on Thursday and here is the result:

I did the edges in the beige colour, so that I didn't have to pattern match.  I'm all for making things as easy as possible.  I did put zippers in the seat cushions this time, so I can take them off to wash.

I wasn't 100% sure about this fabric pattern, but it's not too bad.  It is outdoor fabric, and that beige fabric was super thick.  Put a jeans needle on the machine to make it sew better and a longer stitch.

I still have to make cushions for the back; they fabric is all cut out for them, but was too tired on Thursday to finish them.

As for the title of the post, I made the last set of cushions almost three years to the day and you can see the post here.

New Rug........

 Last month I sold the rug from our living room, this one:

I had bought the dark green chairs and they clashed miserably with the teal coloured rug.  I could never keep that rug clean either, it showed every little bit of fluff on it.

So I decided to get a new one and got the one below (not our living room).

It's perfect for the living room and it brightens up the room also.

It's this one from Wayfair.  It comes in various colours.  I also put this underpad under it.  

Super happy with it, and having that underpad under it, makes it very soft to walk on.