First day of Spring.....

Spring, you image warm days daffodils flowering, lambs frolicking in the fields........

Meanwhile in Southern Ontario, the sun is shining, the skies are blue, the winds are bitter cold and snow is on the ground🙄

I went for my first walk of 2023 on Monday and thoroughly enjoyed it, despite the back of my thighs and the back of my knees saying otherwise.  It was nice to walk around the subdivision to see what was going on.  To the east of our subdivision they are building another 600 houses.  I see they have made a start:

It doesn't bother me, and although there will be a road through at the end of our street, we shouldn't see much of a difference in the traffic by our house, as there are quicker ways of getting out of the subdivision than via our house.  Plus there will be other ways of getting out of the new subdivision.

The temperatures are supposed to be getting warmer for us throughout the week.  I hope that results in getting rid of this snow.  I am over winter now........just saying!!!

My first Lego build in years.......

I put together the flower bouquet I got for my birthday.  I was stumped for a few seconds when I opened the box and out poured numerous numbered bags.  Then when I saw the instruction book had 82 pages I was a tad concerned this wasn't going to be a five minute job!!

However, I quickly figured out what was going on and the instructions were idiot proof......well more or less!!  I still managed to mess up a piece by putting it in back to front!!  Still I managed to catch that mistake very quickly and got on with it.

The only negative thing I have to say is that some of the pieces are tiny and a little fiddly to put together.  So if you have stiff fingers it may be a little difficult for you.  I found it very relaxing though doing this.

All in all I would say it took less than 2 hours to put everything all together.  I did it over two evenings.  

They are quite heavy.  The photo below was taken at night.

I have popped them into a tall glass, as I want to make up the other bouquet and place them all in the same vase.

I have the girls overnight on the weekend and Nora wants to help me make the wildflower bouquet, as she enjoys putting together Lego.

I have seen these set's online and may get them if I see them when I am out and about.

(image credit)

(image credit)

and the birthday keeps on giving..........

I don't know about you but I have signed up for things over the year's and some sites ask for your birth date so they can send you a treat/code/discount on your birthday.

I have taken advantage of a couple of them.  I was driving past Panera bread, boy is that place expensive.  Anyhow I had a code for a free birthday treat up to $5.  So I picked up this cookie.  It's a Kitchen Sink Cookie and costs $4.19 CDN.  It is huge and really good, but I would not buy one for that price.

The Body Shop gave me $10 in points to spend in store.  So I went in to buy some soap at the outlet.  However it is now $7 a bar; granted there is a buy one, get the second item for 50% off.  I still think it's a bit steep for a bar of soap.  They had this three pack of body butter's on clearance for $11.

I use the body butter all the time and really like the Shea one, so this will come in very handy.

I ended up paying $1.13 for this and had had to go to the outlet mall to pick up something for dd, so killed two birds in one.

I do have some  more discount codes I could use and a $10 of my purchase coupon for a store I could use.  If I am passing any of these before they expire I may use them, however I will not go out of my way to use them.

Do you get freebies on your birthday?

It finally arrived!!!!

Had a great mail day on Friday as my order from Bothy Threads in the UK finally arrived😁

It came in fully recyable packaging.

Here is what was in my package.

I LOVE Wrendale Designs, they are so pretty and just loved this cow's expression.  This is a kit so everything is included.

I love British robins, they are different to the robins we get in Canada.  I am going to stitch this minus the mistletoe I think.  Again a full kit, with everything included.

This is a needle minder.  I have been wanting one of these to attach to my current project

This fabric is used in all Wrendale designs and I have a calendar with more Wrendale cross stitch patterns on it I want to sew up.

I metre of black Aida cloth.  I have a project in mind for this.

I bought this all in Bothy Threads January sale.  I also managed to get free shipping.  I priced all these items out over here and in the States and it was cheaper to have them all shipped in.  Now to get on with my vines and ladders project!!

Cross stitch update and another birthday gift....

this is my weekly update on my vines and ladders cross stitch.  Not sure how much I got done this week?

Dd asked me what I wanted for my birthday so I suggested a cross stitch subscription.  She looked into it and the postage was super expensive  to get to Canada, so she came up with the idea of making up six separate packages and I can open them one per month for the next six months.  What a super idea, right?

This is what was in month 1:

A floss organizer and a Happy Camper cross stitch kit.

Here is what the other packages look like (there are 3 packages in the box):

It's the gift that keeps on giving.  So on the 15th of the month I will open another package.

Spoiled rotten.....

Yesterday was my birthday.  I had Liam overnight and so we had a quiet day.  I was thoroughly spoiled though by all my family.  Hubby got me a new Fitbit watch.  Dd and family made up a six month "subscription" for cross stitch stuff.  So I have a present to open on the 15th of the month for the next six months. Son and family got me these:

Have you seen these Lego sets?  I fell in love with them the first time I saw them.

I figured I couldn't "kill" these flowers😁

Lego has brought out some really neat adult sets.  Are you a fan of Lego?  Can't wait to start making these.

Yea or Nay?

I don't know about you, but I hate it when the time Spring's forward an hour in the Spring and Fall's back an hour in the Fall.  It throws my whole body clock out.  I know I sound like a whining 3 year old, but it does me in for a week or two, as that is how long it takes me to adjust to the time change.

This past weekend our clocks changed, and since then I have been out of sorts.  There is talk by various governments to stop Daylight Savings Time, but in Ontario's case, we will only stop the bi-annual changing of the clocks if the province of Quebec and the state of New York agrees to as well.  I wish they would just get on with it.

The whole idea of Daylight Savings Time is saving money on energy/fuel.  I read the Wikipedia article and found it very interesting.

(image credit)

(image credit)

Regardless though, I am over it, I vote for no more Daylight Savings!!  How about you?

Nothing Happening Here...........

I mean really nothing happening.  Which is the way I like it.  I spent Monday doing some cleaning and laundry.  Then spent a while doing my cross stitch.  I am finding a number of mistakes in this pattern the more I get into it!!

Daughter is away on vacation...lucky duck!!  Facetimed me and asked me what we had been up too........which I replied.....nothing.  

I have been binge watching Our Girl.  LOVED the first series.........

Then Michelle Keegan took over as lead actress in series 2.  Series 2 was alright.  Then started series 3 and I can see this getting more and more unbelievable and unrealistic as each episode is aired.

Such a shame Lacey Turner left after the first series as I thought she did a good job.  I like Michelle Keegan as an actress, but not loving her in this.

We are watching it on BritBox got a promo for $1.99 per month for the first two months.  Figured we would see if we liked it before committing to it.

Right, now back to my "nothing!!"

Need your input.........

We are buying a new mattress this year.  Our old one is only 9 years old.  I wrote about buying our present one on this blog post.  Now instead of having a valley in the middle like our old one, our present one has a hill dividing us.  This one was not a good buy, as I had hoped to get more than 9 years out of it....though saying that how long does a mattress normally last?

So this is where you guys come in.  I am thinking of buying one of those mattresses in a box.  That way they are delivered to your door and you deal with it.  On the up and down side though, one I don't have to lie down on mattresses in a store, and risk getting head lice (read the old blog post) but the down side is I can't lay on one to get the feel of it.

I have narrowed down a couple of choices.  This one by Endy.

Or this one by Simba:

Yes they are both expensive and will cost $2,000 but the older we get the more we crave a decent night's sleep.  Hubby especially is a bad sleeper.

I am open to other brands.  We don't need a box spring, just a mattress.

So please let me know your experiences with the mattresses in a box.  If we had Sears still here in Canada, I would go with one of theirs, but we don't.  Love and miss Sears.

Odd?

I was out at our major chain bookstore last weekend minding my own business 😉 when I saw a guy with a red wagon like this one:

Inside of the red wagon were three cats covered in blankets; you could see their heads.  Walking along side of this guy was a woman walking another cat on a leash.  The three in the wagon were female cats, as I heard to woman saying to the cat she was walking that they had to keep up with her sisters!

Now the reason I found this odd, and believe me there are multiple reasons!!!

1. Who takes four cats out shopping with them?
2. The cats were so well behaved, so this wasn't their first outing.
3. Again they were so well behaved, I am no expert when it comes to cats, but generally they have a mind of their own and NEVER listen😉😉
4. Again, who takes four cats out shopping with them???

Hubby banned me from taking a photo...BOOO!!  The one on a leash was stunning, a grey short haired cat with lighter spots, just like a leopard.  There is a pet store a few doors up from the bookstore, so maybe they had been there first?

Lots of questions went through my head! 

Zoomer Radio

This is the radio station I listen too daily.  It features songs, from the 50's to the 80's and is aimed at the over 50 age group.  There is a top 20 featured from a specific year at 10 am to 12 noon Monday through Friday that I like.

Do you listen to the radio?

I listen to it via my Google Home Device.

Weekly cross stitch update..

Haven't done as much this week on my cross stitch as I have an "injury."  I have one of those cuts on the end of my thumb and it's sore.  Plus it catches on everything.  Add into the fact that cross stitch aggravates my carpal tunnel on both hands, I have had to take things a little slower.  I have been bracing both hands when sleeping overnight so that's helping.

However things are coming along nicely and I am still thoroughly enjoying doing it.

What crafts if any are you doing at the moment?

That time of the month again......

Picked up my monthly produce bag.  I pay $20 for it.  I did leave the 10lb bag of potatoes with them, and they will donate them to the food bank, as I still have half a bag of potatoes left over from last month.

There was quite a nice selection in the bag.  Everything that we will use.  Again the I will stew the apples and have apple sauce with yogurt for a pudding for supper.  Last month's bag was red delicious apples and they were nasty stewed.  This month's they are Fuji, fingers crossed they are better.

I will pay for another 3 months I think and go from there.  The price of of produce is still high in our neck of the woods.  Are things getting any cheaper where you live?

Two yeses and one no.

Got a couple of things recently and two things get a big thumbs up, the other one a big thumbs down; but does have a positive spin on it.

I saw these online and thought I'd order some and give them a go:

I got mine at Amazon here, and have to say they work a treat.  If you wear glasses, these are so handy to cart around with you.  Also as my fingers get stiff I find this easier to use.

Dd was telling me about these paint by number kits in Dollarama. Left one is a lion, right one is a peacock.

Now as you all know I don't have an artistic bone in my body when it comes to painting, but even I figured I could manage these paint by number ones, and at $4.25 each I didn't think they were badly priced.  In fact there seemed to be a lot of different crafts that has appeared at Dollarama.  I will post the finished article when I get around to doing them.  By the way they come with all the paints and brush.

Now for the thumbs down.  Hubby uses a CPAP machine to breath on a night.  He has a full face mask and saw these mask liners on Amazon, so we bought some here is the link.

Hubby did not like them at all.  They fit as promised and were comfortable, but they caused so many leaks, that it just wasn't worthwhile using them.  The upside to all of this, is the company offers a 100% money back guarantee, and refunded me right away.  So if you wear a mask and suffer from redness on the face where your mask touches your face it may be worthwhile trying them.

So two yeses and one no.........and I had to look up what the plural of yes was!!

(The plural of ‘yes’ is either ‘yeses’ or ‘yesses’. While there are some dictionaries that suggest that the word ‘yes’s’ could also be used as the plural of ‘yes’, this is generally considered not to be best practice, and thus you are better sticking with one of the other two.  As per grammarhow.com)

In a mood...........

I swear I was in a mood all day on Monday.  I went and got my hair cut and told the hairdresser how she should be cutting my hair!!  Luckily she knows me and took no notice 😏I had told her I was in a mood. I was lucky she didn't cut all my hair off 🙄

It was one of those days I couldn't be bothered with anything or anyone!!  Hopefully when I wake up on Tuesday morning, I am in a better mood.  I hate those types of days.

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Tuesday morning: I'm in a better mood!!

So true...........

feeling quite down after watching the news, gosh it's depressing!! I swear 99% of the news is depressing.

I made you look!!!

This is such a catchy song, and I love watching folk dance to them.........

Happy Sunday!

Potato Kugel

I first posted this recipe back in 2008 here.  It has been a long while since I have made it, but thought I'd make it with some salad we were having the other night.  It was super tasty and there was enough for us for two nights.

I decided though that I didn't want it the second night, so popped the other half left over into a pan with a carton (approx 1 litre) of chicken stock and heated it up for 20 minutes.

I then blended it with my stick bender and it made three big bowls of soup for hubby's lunch for one day and mine for two days.  It was really good and tasty.

The book it's from is The Shirley Goode Kitchen.  She had a tv show on BBC back in the 80's. Sadly Shirley Goode passed away in 2015, although her blog is still online and you can see it here.

I was pleasantly surprised that you can still purchase her book on Amazon.  Her book is all about saving money when buying food and making the most of all food purchased.  It's a back to the basics recipe book and although I rarely use it, it is a good reference book to have.  So it's very appropriate for nowadays with the rising cost of food.

One week on.....

and this is where I am with my cross stitch work.

I am thoroughly enjoying doing it, other than the number 36 square had to be all pulled out as I made a mistake 😟  This is a straight forward simple pattern, and as I have being doing cross stitch for nearly 40 years you'd think I would know better!!

Each square us complete above, other than the back stitch on the vines.

Everyone has different way's of starting a new project.  For me I fold the Aida fabric into quarter to get the centre line.  Then I stitch along both lines (orange thread) to get my starting point, like below.

I also stitch a T on the top of my fabric to indicate which is the top of my project, as quite often it is difficult at the start of the project to know which way is the top and bottom.  In this case, it was simple as the squares have numbers.

Still waiting patiently for my order from Bothy Threads (((SIGH)))

Your thoughts?

What is your favourite dishwashing liquid?

I am looking for a new favourite washing up liquid.  I was given a bottle of the Method Pink Grapefruit Dishwashing liquid before Christmas and had high hopes for it.

Although the scent was spot on, I wasn't overly impressed with how it worked; lack of bubbles.

I am currently using the PC brand of dishwashing liquid in the Lavender scent.  Again smells fine, though I prefer a fruity smell, but not finding it the best.

So I figured I'd ask you, which one you prefer/swear by?  We rarely use our dishwasher, only when there is a house full of folk.  As I said I prefer the fruity scents.  

A couple of goals I am setting for myself.......

So I have just checked on my calendar and it seems I have put on 10 lbs since last September.  It's funny how those pounds just creep on; though I was pleasantly surprised it was only 10lbs.  Mind you I have known about those extra pounds for a while now, as I could feel it in my clothes.  So I am in a frame of mind again to do something about it, and have set myself a couple of goals.

• Lose 30 lbs by the beginning of September.  Now that will translate to losing 5 lbs per month, which I think is doable....well I hope so.  If I lost 20lbs I would be happy.
• One of my weaknesses is eating on a night, so another goal is to not eat anything after I have had my supper.  We at 5pm on the dot and are finished by 5:30pm.  I normally eat breakfast around 7am.  I have been doing this for four nights and so far so good.  I drink either water or herbal tea, on a night but no food.
• Then my exercise of choice is walking.  I will admit to being terrified of slipping on the ice and snow, so that may be another couple of weeks until I pick that up again, as we still have a lot of snow around here.

One thing I am doing to stop myself eating on a night is keeping busy with my cross stitch.  

Do you tend to snack on a night?  Or do you have another time of day which is bad for you?

Should have listened to you all!

Yep, did way too much on Monday.  I was pooped and coughing up a storm.  Figured I could get a lot done.  Baby steps right?

In answer to your questions about this cross stitch project.  Once I have finished stitching it, I will back it with interfacing and fabric.  It will then roll up and be tied with a ribbon.  The markers will also be cross stitched.  All should be washable, albeit by hand.

I actually think February has gone by quite fast for a change.  What do you think?

We had a storm arrive on Monday night, and with that my poor head was just thumping.  I got a tea subscription for my birthday last year and among the last package was this Headache Halo tea from David's tea. Not sure if it does much good but thought it was better than taking a pill.

I am making a couple more goals for myself, starting tomorrow, so will post about them, then.

What a week.........

 Last week started out yucky, but by the end of the week, it was looking a bit better.  

By the end of the week the antibiotics had kicked in and I felt a whole lot better.  Still got a runny nose, still coughing and still tired, but a whole lot better.  Didn't take Liam swimming as I figured the chlorine in the pool would set me off coughing.  However he has started jumping in the pool without help and he even dunked his head under water, so he is improving in leaps and bounds.

Winter is far from over and on Wednesday/Thursday we ended up with over a foot of snow.  The good news is, we are close to the end of February, so the worst is over with (I hope!)  We are not having to put on the lights in the house now until 6 pm-ish, as it is still light out.  Add in, we have seen a bit of sun this week, Spring feels as though it is heading our way........well after the latest Winter storm tonight, maybe!!

By the end of the week I was back to cooking meals.  Even got some grocery shopping done.  Maybe things are starting to get back to normal.  

I started a new project and here is where I am at with it as of Sunday afternoon:

I am starting to get the feel of this project and have discovered that doing the background work needs to be done when the light is good.

As promised a little peek at my next project

As my order from Bothy Threads won't be here for a few more weeks, I thought I'd start another cross stitch project.  I was going through some of my old cross stitch magazines and found a project I would like to try in this one.

It's a snakes and ladders set; except this one is vines and ladders.  Also as I can sew, I can make this up quite easily after I have done the cross stitch.

I looked up Debbie Harding whose pattern this is, and she has a website here.

It's going to be quite a large piece, my piece of Aida, is 20 inches square.  I bought Michaels own brand "Loops and Thread," Aida cloth and will say it's quite rough, but will work perfectly fine for this project.

This was taken after working on it on Friday.

The # 55 & 66 squares are totally finished, back stitch and all.  This is also my first time doing blackwork, which is the background stitching (orange and yellow stitching)

I keep all my threads I am using in that metal tin.

It's an old Crabtree and Evelyn tin.

This is the back of my work (later on Saturday).  It's not perfect but it's reasonably tidy.  I was always taught the back was as important as the front.  You won't see the back of it when finished as it will be covered in fabric.

I am hoping to have this project finished by mid April, as my goal is to sew a couple of squares per day.  Realistically though doing one a day is something I can achieve.