Another finish.........

 A couple of months ago I was in Chapters and I came across a display of Book Nook Model Kit's.  I fell in love with them and decided to pick up the Leisure Time Tea Room.

I made a start on assembling it on Christmas Eve.  I did a little bit on Christmas Day and then completed it on the 27th of December.  There were over 60 pages of instructions!!  It is very fiddly and there are a lot of tiny pieces.  So if you have arthritis in your hands (as I do), you will find it difficult!!  The instructions are pretty straight forward, as long as you follow them, step by step.

There is no glue used, just double sided sticky strips.

It does have a light in it, which works with batteries.  You do have to wire it up yourself, but again, if you follow the instructions, it's pretty simple.

Those little packages were fiddly to put together, but very worthwhile.

There is so much detail everywhere in it.

It's going to sit on my plant stand for the time being.

I thoroughly enjoyed putting it together, but it was hard on my hands. I probably wouldn't do another.  After I had opened the box, I discovered they sell these at Michael's, so you could get them cheaper there using one of their coupons.

Books I have read

Here are some of the books I have read in the past month.  I have not reviewed any of them though.

The Paris Showroom: Set in World War II based on true facts, and very interesting.

The True Love Bookshop: Perfect "chick-lit" great quick read.

The Beach Quilt: Teenage Pregnancy and how it affects all the people around her.  Well worth the read.

The Cornish Midwife: Perfect summer read.

The Oysterville Sewing Circle: Set of the west coast of the States.  Shows how resilient a woman can be when challenged.  Good read.

I got this one from the auction site for just under $4.  Again it was a feel good book.  It does feature a bit of religion in it, but it's not overwhelming.  Easy book to read.

I have just started this one by Jennifer Ryan.  This book includes recipes from World War II so very interesting.  I borrowed this book from the library.

What are you reading at the moment?

Mugs

Dh and I were in Chapters/Indigo the other day and we were looking at a shelf of mugs and discussing what was written on them.

The first one we saw was the father one.  We decided number 2 isn't his thing and number 3 is definitely not dh's thing, as it's always me getting rid of the dead mice in the shed and all the spiders!!

 

We then moved onto the mother mug and I decided it fit me perfectly😜

Of course I thought the grand mother one was written just for me 😁

Then I saw this one and thought, they have spelled this wrong, Nana only has one "N."

I have enough mugs to start a shop, but I think I could possibly make room for some of those.  You can see more of what they carry here.

Blogging.......

 I have started reading a book by Maxine Morrey called "#No Filter."

"Popular lifestyle blogger, Libby Cartwright, is being boggled by business when help shows up in the shape of gorgeous but shy, Charlie Richmond. Libby’s determined to keep it at ‘just good friends’ – she’s dated someone from ‘Corporate Land’ before and it didn’t end well. As she and Charlie begin spending more time together, Libby is starting to waver – until she discovers something which makes her question if she’s ready for love.

Still reeling, she suffers another blow as her blog is attacked in a national newspaper, for promoting unachievable perfection. Libby knows it’s not true – but the only way to prove that is to strip off the armour she’s been wearing for years.

Is she brave enough to show the world she’s far from perfect? And will Charlie be by her side if she does…"

Our local Indigo sells three paperback books for $10, and this was one of them I picked up last time I was in.

As you can see it's about a blogger.  It got me to thinking about my blog and one thing that niggles me about my blog is that I can not reply directly to peoples comments.  I can only reply by doing a regular comment that isn't attached to the persons comment; if that makes sense?

So again I was trying again to see if I could make any progress on that problem, but got no where again.  Other people's blogs can do that, but not me?

As blogs go mine is very basic.  I will never be like a lifestyle blogger.  I don't understand Instagram.  Tik tok is beyond me!!  I am on Facebook and do like that.  Twitter is something I don't understand also.  Maybe I am getting too old for all of this technical stuff.

Are you happy with the way your blog looks?

Christmas shopping..........

(image credit)

yes I know I mentioned the "C" word, but you know me I like to be organized. I am nearly done with all the grandkids.  When there is six to buy for it can get expensive, so shopping for deals is a must.

I picked up their Christmas pj's from Hatley's sale the other month.  Love their quality, well worth paying that little bit extra for, and when I can get all six a pair of pj's for under $90 for all of them, I can say I did well.

I also made out like a bandit at Chapters Indigo as well.  They have a summer reading programme on at the moment.  When you buy a child's book, you get a stamp.  Five stamps = $10 off a child's book or toy.  Combine that with the buy 4 items for $10 in the children's department and there was a bonus points thing going on one weekend, I swear I cleaned up there!!!  On the 4 items for $10 table, there were also games, puzzles, boxed crafts as well as sticker books, reading books and packages of books.  I see they also have free shipping on books all summer, so even if you don't live near a Chapter's store, you can take advantage of the deals they have.

I still put $20 a week away in my Christmas jar.  Been doing that for years and will continue to do that.

How is you Christmas shopping going?  Do you buy months in advance or are you a last minute shopper?

Ooh and aah.......

Got this in the mail........wonder what it is?

Liking the look of this...

Love this colour...

 Thankfully there are instructions....

I got a number of Chapters Indigo gift cards for my birthday and saw this online on sale, so thought I'd treat myself.

(Insert rolling eyes emoji here!)

After doing more painting I popped out to run a couple of errands.

I went to Michael's, arts and crafts store to pick up some items for the little ones for Easter.  Went to pay for everything and I gave the cashier a 50% off coupon, which she used and then she applied a 10% discount.  Now being the honest person I am I asked her why she did that. 

Her reply," it's a discount when you are 55 or older."

My face much have been a picture, as she then said:

"You are 55 or close to it aren't you?"

I said yes, and paid for everything and walked out of the store rolling my eyes.........I have just dyed my hair for heavens sake.........I will be 53 next week, so I guess I am close.

Went to Chapters the book store after that and there was a guy in his low 30's in the store with a little fluff ball of a dog.  Got a little  closer to them and the dog had a harness on and it said service dog and in red words "IN TRAINING."

He was in front of me at the check out, so I said to him, "he's a cute little guy (the dog) what is he training to be?"

His response was that it's his service dog and the dog's training will be done when they have some certain test done.  Wasn't sure what to say after that, I just assumed that as the dog was "in training," it wouldn't have been assigned it's final owner, but I guess not.

The harness on the dog also had PTSD on it, so I guess the owner has been diagnosed with PTSD.

As my dh said the poor guy was probably curled up in a corner now having a relapse after dealing with me!!  Again I just rolled my eyes.........

Busy day for me, with all that eye rolling!!!😉

Our Little Princess......

well she was 3 in January and so grown up for her age.  She loves her little brother and is a great help to her mum.  Her favourite colour is pink and then says Our Little Munchkin's favourite colour is purple.........whether Our Little Munchkin has said that is another thing...LOL  She should be a lawyer when she grows up, as she can argue the hind legs off a horse!!  Love her to bits though........just try not to argue with her...LOL  Again don't have a current photo, but will take one next week when I see her.  Like her brother I made her an apron, love this fabric and you will see more of it over the coming days.

Actually this is Our Little Munchkins apron, but Our Little Princess' is the same, I just made the binding to match on hers though.  The link for the pattern is on yesterday's post.

I also decided to make her a bunny bag, from the March issue of Pretty Patches magazine.  The fabric I used was leftovers from Our Little Munchkin's original nursery things.

 I personally found this bag a bit long, and if I made it again I would change up a few things.

 I followed the pattern to the letter.

I made a matching pink change purse to go with it for her.

See Archie The Alien, you will see my version of it, in another post  I am really enjoying Pretty Patches magazine.  I buy it in Chapters and it is a British magazine and quite expensive though at $13.99, but lots of neat things in it.  I am still using my gift cards I got for my birthday to buy them.

Is there a magazine you buy every month?

Is it summer yet?

We have had some glorious weather these past few days and what have I been doing, staying inside and sewing........I know I should have been out enjoying the weather, but other than going to the mail box haven't left the house.

I am determined to have as many no spend days as I can; and one way of achieving that by not going out.  I was tempted to go out on Wednesday as I have a $10 gift card for Chapter's that has an expiry date on it.  However I decided that doing more sewing on my quilt was more important.

 

The online shopping diet is also going well. And so far so good with sticking with the menu plan I did at the beginning of the week.  I will be going out today as it's my knitting day.  It costs a whole $2 for the sitting fee, which in turn gets donated to our local humane society.  Angie is very generous that way in donating to the community.  So along with that $2 and $2 for a coffee and muffin at McDonalds, it's a cheap day out for me.

I am not taking knitting though this week, as I want to get the binding hand sewn on the quilt I have been doing.  Here are some photos from it:

This uses a total of nine fabrics, seven for the main body, one for the border and one for the binding.  I bought it as a kit and then did my own thing.  It measures approx, 40" x 44" which is a decent size for a baby quilt.  To my mind it is more of a boy quilt than a girl one.  I have some pale mint green, grey and white fabric that I am going to make the next one in.  That is more girl like than boy like and when we see what "R" has she can take which one she wants or both, it's up to her.

Bits and bobs from the weekend.......

 I bid on this at the charity shop and won:

This is a close up of the centre:

Now to be fair it looks old; however is it real, I do not know.  I paid $30 for it because I love it regardless of whether it is real or not.  It certainly looks real.  It's now hanging in my sewing room.

I found a lovely little Fabric and Yarn store called Bee Quilt in Niagara on the Lake.  They stock Liberty Fabric from London which is gorgeous, however at $35 a yard it's pricey.  They also stock Kaffe Fassett fabric which is a little cheaper.  I picked up a baby quilt set from the Riley Blake collection called Little Red Riding Hood.

I have been coveting these glasses for a while in Chapters, but at $8 each thought they were too expensive.

So imagine my delight when I was in Chapters on the weekend and they were 50% off.  They are glass and as I was saying to the cashier I think we can put the plastic Tupperware beakers away for a little while!!  They look as good close up:

Can't believe we are half way through July, the month is flying by.