Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Back At It






It would appear that I have been on strike from the blogging. When I signed up for Blog 365, I thought it would encourage me to post more regularly (doh: everyday is as regular as it gets!), and practice more creative writing. That's not how it worked out. The pressure to post as the midnight hour approached was wearing me down. I posted more and more pictures instead of taking time to skillfully combine words into thought provoking sentences. So that's when I had a little chat with my self and self and I came to the conclusion that free will gives us the right to post crap everyday at the last moment, or not. I/we chose not to. Hence the strike. I am back now. I am not promising that I will post everyday, but I will make an effort to post a bit more quality for those of you wasting your time reading this blog. About three weeks ago, I had an interesting project present itself to me at work. A woman brought in a sheepskin jacket (men's) and wanted it altered to fit her. This jacket was the real thing. Take the guts and head off the sheep, and voila, that was the jacket. Turns out the real thing is much heavier than the fakes. (And much more beautiful.) I took the sleeves off and apart, and separated other parts of the main body needing alteration. It was so thick to sew, I actually sheared the edges that needed stitching so the presser foot would not catch on the fleece. The above photo shows me wrestling with the lifeless sheep as I attempt to sew the sleeves back on. It made me realize that I should definitely work out more, at least to build up some upper body strength. I was totally exhausted after only one sleeve! And see how close my fingers got to that needle? The jacket was so heavy and awkward I had to practically push with one hand and pull with the other to move the part I was stitching. At one point as I felt I was making a bit of progress, I suddenly felt the needle snag the finger nail of my middle finger and when I yanked my hand back, I saw that the needle had gone right through my nail and just barely nick the tip of the finger under it, enough to leave a mark but not to draw blood. I took a moment to thank my luck and finished sewing the second sleeve on. Later, I contemplated my good luck for not drawing blood, because how on earth would I manage to get that off the jacket!


This is what Sunday looked like a week ago. We got over a foot of snow. It was wet packing snow, and heavy. The kids took advantage and the photo below showcases their handiwork.

While they put the finishing touches on it Sunday evening, hubby had a genius idea for removing the snow of our very long drive way. So we got bundled up (it was still snowing heavily!) and we started rolling snowballs down the driveway. When the snowballs got so big we needed both of us to move them, we rolled them off the driveway and admired the cleared path. It was exhausting work but a lot more fun than shovelling. We had a blast. When we could roll no more and were too soaked from the snow and sweat, we finally went inside. The next day it turned extremely cold and windy and more snow had falled overnight, and I regretted not making just one more snowball to remove more of that snow. The remaining snow froze, not only making it difficult to shovel but made it impossible to drive up the driveway. (My next truck will definitely have four-wheel drive!)


What a week that was! School was cancelled on Monday, Tuesday was beautifully sunny but cold and extremely windy, and school was cancelled again on Wednesday because of the morning snow storm, followed in the afternoon by torrential rain and a flooded basement. I stayed home from work. Thank goodness there wasn't any significant power outage in our area, unlike PEI.


Well. Enough for now. Time to get ready for work.

Friday, February 08, 2008

And Another

We're on a roll now. Another showing tomorrow at noon.

I'll post a more worthy update after the showing. I am so tired tonight. Another work week is over. That in itself is reason to celebrate. And of course the effects of the early morning have caught up with me. I can barely keep my eyes open.

Toodles.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Two In a Tree

Extremely grey day. For some reason, this brought everything into sharper focus somehow.

Lots of snow here this evening. Lousy and slow drive home from work tonight.


We have a showing tomorrow, first thing in the morning. I shall be up super early to make this house super presentable and sellable.
Yes, that super early thing will probably near finish me off as I DON'T do morning. "I will survive...."

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Really Pissed Off

Finally heard back from the lawyer in the valley with regard to the purchase of the "dream house". I am ready to give up on the whole damned thing. Every ounce of positive attitude has taken a hike the moment I came home tonight. I just wanted to scream and throw stuff and generally act like a three-year old. Give me credit for not screaming or throwing things, although I was a bit short with the husband for delivering the craptastic news.

What it amounts to is that the seller of the dream house only wants to give us a two month extension, plans on keeping the original deposit, wants another deposit and the right to continue to try to sell the house. @*%&%^!!!

I'm going to sleep on it. I will try not to dream horrible bitter dreams involving timely accidents for my enemies (no, I don't think I would be able to name them because I really don't believe I have enemies per se, just people that I don't particularly like...). Tomorrow, I will try to rise above. After all: I have my health, a fabulous family and purrrry kitties. What more could a woman want, besides the dream house that is?


Hey Dorothy! I'm up to SIX finger puppets! I never figured that I'd have so much fun making them. That's what today's efforts look like, plus two that don't have faces sewn on yet. LMOL

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

In Support of Dorothy's Efforts

Dorothy is generosity and caring in the flesh. If you can spare the time, please join in to overwhelm the IWK with finger puppets to brighten some child's day. Together we can make a difference.
These are my first two, made from leftover sock yarn. What I did: knit in the round on 4dpns, I cast on 6,6,4 on each respective needle, k1p1 first round and stockingette stitch the rest, approx 2" long, then k1, k2tog on second to last round, then k2tog on last round and bound off. Get creative with the face to make kids smile.

Pasta Factory

Combined effort in the kitchen this afternoon. We were creating lasagna from scratch. Hubby concocted a delicious sauce and made himself scarce while we women took over with the home-made noodle creating.

Darling daughter was such a graceful little helper:



Admiring our handiwork. I made a huge batch, knowing there would be leftovers.
After cutting the long sheets to length of our pan, the remains were processed for tomorrow's lunches.
Yummy. Nothing better than fresh pasta.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Messing With Sam

This is what I did on Saturday when cleaning the house just didn't seem all that appealing.
No, we didn't have the showing. Cancelled do to miserable weather. If the people coming to look hadn't cancelled, I surely would have.



Friday, February 01, 2008

Are You a Fruit?




You Are an Orange



You have a zest for life, especially for anything colorful, wild, or dramatic.

You have a unique take on the world, and you're not afraid to be a little funky.



You are a bit reserved toward people who don't know you well.

You have a thick skin, which can protect you from anything that goes wrong in your life.



Once someone does get to know you, they totally get and appreciate you.

Your friends see you as a bright person with a refreshing take on life.



Hi. I've been bad. Wait, wait.... It's not as bad as it sounds. See, I may have accidentally bought some yarn on that place that lets you bid on stuff. And perhaps a knitting book, too. One package arrived today. Oops, but in a good way. More Noro Silk Garden for me. Yeah!

Tonight just before I pulled into the driveway the rain started that is supposed to usher in another winter storm. Isn't that lovely. Especially since we have a showing scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

After all the cleaning is done tomorrow, I plan on knitting. What's on your agenda?