Feast

Appetizer

Name a funny habit you have.

I correct other peoples spelling, although my isn't always right.

Soup

If you could instantly know how to play a musical instrument, which one would you pick?

Violin

Salad

How long is your hair?

Short at the moment

Main Course

When was the last time you forgave someone, and who was it?

It's a secret..lol

Dessert

What is your favorite kitchen appliance?

Mixer!

Renovations!

Hello all! It's been forever since I've posted anything worthwhile. So........ here's the latest. This afternoon, I decided to clean my sewing room. A much needed cleaning I might add! Check out the before and after pics.

Before...

And After....

As you can see, LOTS of progress! My fabric stash alone, thus far is taking up 2 cardboard bankers boxes, and still lots to put away! Still need to do the other side of the room though. But most of it, is just clothes that need to be put away, and I'm not showing pics of it, because I don't believe in airing my dirty laundry online! LOL

Nothing much

Hey!

Over 2 months(almost 3 months)have passed, and I haven't posted a thing! Been busy with work, and haven't had much time to post, or basically do anything other than relax when I get home at night. Christmas and New Year's were alright. I've settled into the new job at the post office quite nicely. I'll write a better post later this weekend.

Holiday Getting to Know You

Since practically everyone in my email address book will probably send this to me, I decided to post it on my blog, and answer the questions there.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?

Hot Chocolate, year round, the creamier the better. Hey, did you know that you can use chocolate milk, and just throw it in the microwave?

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?

Usually wraps the presents under the tree, only the big ones get sat under the tree, and then they'll be wrapped still.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?

Colored lights on the tree, and on the balcony.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?

Nope.

5. When do you put your decorations up?

You mean we have to take them down from year to year? haha Kidding.. I usually put them up about a month before, or the weekend of the Santa Claus Parade. Yesterday, I put a few up, maybe this week, I'll put up the rest. Of course growing up, if certain scrooges had their way, we'd put the tree up on December 24th, and take it down the 26th.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?

Stuffing, and I don't care if it has nuts in it or not.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?

hmmmm...have to think about that one. Christmas was always the same pretty much, toboggan, winter clothes, and hockey sticks, more hockey sticks than you could shake a stick at!(and then when I took my powerskating clinic, could I find one? nooooooo!!!) I guess I don't really have a "favorite" holiday memory, or if I do, it's probably so far repressed, I'll reveal it to my therapist 15 years from now.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?

When Christmas presents started appearing under the tree 2 weeks before Christmas, from Santa. That's usually a good give away.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?

I've been known to. I remember one Christmas, we opened all our gifts on Christmas eve, had to prop Grandma up on the couch, just so she could watch. Remember that Stray Cat Lady?

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?

I try for traditional. But I redecorate it a thousand different ways before Christmas day. That's going to be the title of my first book, "Christmas Trees, 1000 different looks!"

Not too much new happening around here. In the sewing/knitting department, I haven't knit a stitch in so long, I think I forget how. On the sewing front, I've discovered how to make my own jeans. Soon, I'll be able to launch my own line of clothing, between shirts, pants, socks, and underwear. Project Runway, here I come!

New Job for me

Finally! A new job! Well, a new part time job anyway. I managed to weasel my way into Canada Post as a Term employee, which means I have no set schedule, but it's a foot in the door at least. That's about all that's new and exciting with me. I added, and updated a couple of links today. Thanksgiving was uneventful for us, went and did the Thanksgiving dinner with the inlaws, and I went to Sandy's for turkey on the Saturday. Both were fun. Glad the holiday is over now. It just means that Christmas is that much closer.. I can hardly wait..not really! I used to love Christmas, the last few years, I've grown to hate it, and I don't know why.

Skating is in full swing now, 2 nights per week. As disappointed as I was with it, I knew I had to go back, and put in another year, just to show that I didn't let it lick me. I haven't looked any further into redoing my Level 2 coaching yet. Maybe in the spring, I'll re-evaluate it.


Not sure if Fred has a hangover, or just fixing something. Anyway, the pic is a few months old, but I didn't have anything new to post. So enjoy!

Some Pics

The title says it all.. Recently the dog has discovered, he likes waffles. I was making waffles one night for a snack, and Charlie decided he'd like to try one. Here's a few pics of him, look how protective he is of his waffle.






Also, found this pic on my phone from another shopping trip with Sandy. This one comes to us, from the good people of Giant Tiger. I really think, that if food is being imported to Canada, from Europe, or the middle east, they should think twice about their labelling practices. This could be just a bit risky! Imagine some little old lady buying groceries, and grabbing a package of this...



mmmmm...sounds tasty! Just thinking out loud on this one, but maybe, just maybe, a better name would have been Chicken soup?

Don't forget the basics

So, this morning, I'm trying to bind a baby quilt for Sandy's son's girlfriend, I get the bias tape, all pinned onto it, and go to find some white thread, to sew it with. In the 50 zillion spools of thread I have in my collection, can you believe I have NO white? Like WTF is up with that? Has my thread obsession made me neglect buying the basic colors? I searched high and low, but to no avail. Finally, I had a thought. Serger thread!! I must have white serger thread. Go to the box where I keep my serger threads, I see black, I see pink, I see red, I see navy blue, but do I see white? Nope! So, I retrace my steps, back to the drawers of colors, and find something that I think might work, white rayon embroidery thread. I thread the machine up with it, take some practice stitches, and the thread keeps breaking. Of course! Duh! Not using an embroidery needle. As I look for a different needle, in the accessory box for my machine, I spot my prize.. 4 practically full bobbins of white thread! Yay!! So what if I have to stop and change bobbins a couple of times.. this is great. I jump up, do a little happy dance, and get to the task at hand. Start binding, not my favorite thing in the world to do, but who cares at this point. I carefully bind the quilt from hell, only to screw up the last corner. Corners are not my strong point it seems. I clip the threads, rip the quilt from under the machine, and hold it up.. guess what I see sitting on the window ledge directly in front of me. A brand new 1000m spool of white Gutermann thread. Apparently in my search, I neglected to look at the window. Who would have guessed it would be there? Certainly not me!

New Shirt

As the title suggests, I made another new shirt last week. This one was a breeze. Except for one small problem. I put the interfacing for the under collar, on the outside of the shirt, instead of on the inside. I noticed this, after finishing sewing on the buttons. So, rather than rip the whole thing apart again, I just cut the interfacing off. I don't think it's going to make a huge difference. The collar will just be a little droopy, that's all. I was amazed at how easy this fabric was to work with. It's very lightweight. It reminded me of kleenex when I was cutting it out. But, very easy. I love the colors in it too. It's particularly hard to photograph though, especially against a white background. So, I'm posting a swatch of the fabric up close, hopefully, you'll get the full effect.



This shirt also took me exactly 3 hours to complete. That's cutting, and sewing time combined. I should be able to crank out a few more, to add to my fall wardrobe at this rate.

Back to work tomorrow for me. Also a busy week this week. I had an interview for a coaching job tonight, then tomorrow is work, then registration for skating, thursday, work, then registration again, work friday, then off saturday, but registration at night again. Hopefully something good will come from all these registration dates. Maybe I'll be swamped with skaters this fall, and won't have time to make shirts!