Best Day Ever Saturday!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I have not really done much of anything today.  I could have worked overtime, but instead I chose to take the weekend off. ☺

I slept in which was great.  Watched a couple of kid movies with my son.  Had lunch and then headed out with the only intention of going to the book store to get a book, a quilt magazine and a cross stitch magazine.  As of now, I have successfully located the Pure Prairie Eating Plan a book which has been published from some of the work that I was privy to with the PANDA Research Project.

As for the quilt magazine and the cross stitch magazine; three book stores later and some driving around the greater Edmonton area, I still do not have them.  I am beginning to think that a monthly subscription might just be the way to go...

As for my quilting today; I started work on another quilting project that I decided I would do.  A quick look in my "stash (fabric not cookie) revealed that I had all the fabric necessary for the quilt, so it seemed to be a good idea.  This quilt is still by the same author as the mystery quilts I get so frustrated with, the exception being that this time she has posted the picture of the completed quilt, so that should cut down on the "Surprise" you are short two blocks from six steps!  ☺

Here is the first part that I completed today:

Now, off to see what trouble I can get into this evening....

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Back to Normal???

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I had to smile this morning as I drove to work with overhead the threat of snow.  It may sound silly, but last week here in Edmonton we had day time temperatures of 8 degrees Celsius (46 Fahrenheit), that is ridiculously warm for this part of the world!  Today we warmed to about -10 C and with the windchill it felt more like - 18 C (14 Fahrenheit, with windchill 0 Fahrenheit). 

 The temperature felt more like normal and as I drove past the Petro Can I noticed that the price of gas was back up as well.  That may sound funny to you as well, but this area is known as Oil Country not just because of our hockey team.  Last week  I was purchasing gasoline for $ 0.689/L ($2.61 US gallon/$3.13 Imperial Gallon).  Today, gas was back to $ 0.829/L.  Last summer gas was about $ 1.25/L.   Maybe, we're heading back to normal???

Took a picture of my juniper this evening when I got home, because last week most of my lawn was grass:

 Yes, that is snow falling in the picture!  It's quite pretty actually.  

This evening I worked on my Raise the Roof Quilt:

Completed another two blocks. I should be getting close to done on this soon, I think....

Since this morning I have had Something to Sing About stuck in my head, so I shall leave that for you all to get out of your heads too!  

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Monkey Cake Day

Good Evening Internet Friends!

It has been a super busy week and although I have done a bit of crafting I did not have time to blog about it.  The week is now almost done and extracurricular activities are complete for this week!

A couple of year ago one of my colleagues at one of the sites where I work casual came up with an idea to celebrate the end of January with two things that everyone likes; monkeys and cake.  It's true, I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't like monkeys or cake, and really, both make you smile.  So, Monkey Cake Day became a thing.  Since, I was not there this year to celebrate with everyone, I decided to take it to my current work.  My son also decided that his school should celebrate with Monkey Cake as well.

Here is what we made last night:

A colleague today decided that these two were brother and sister monkey!

Monkey Cake Day turned out to be a SUCCESS!  I had several people come and thank me for lightening up the mood at work and making everyone just more pleasant and agreeable for the day!  Monkey Cake is apparently being looked forward to for next year.  

Now, to think of something creative next month to cheer people up!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Lost....

Good Evening Internet Friends!  

Yesterday since I was feeling quite ill I spent most of the day on my Galaxy Tablet looking at all the great blogs that were featured on Grow Your Blog.  I saw so many fantastic projects, and I am even going to try to crochet again....someday.

Back to work of course today, still not feeling great so this evening all I managed to do was sew the top border onto my flying geese units for the next step of my mystery quilt:

Now for the lost part.  The instructions have changed yet again for how to assemble these and so I will likely have to make one more star block and assemble they flying geese alternately.

On another note; I chose the title "Lost"  for today's post as well to pay tribute to how my community of Edmonton/St. Albert is dealing with the loss of an RCMP officer.  Makes my quilting problems insignificant...

Now for some cough and cold medication, a hot cup of lemon tea with honey and I will cozy up with a quilt in the recliner with my knitting and hopefully fall asleep. (zzzzzzzzzzz)

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Grow Your Blog Day

Good Day All!

Welcome to all my new Internet Friends who are also participating in Grow Your Blog Day!

First off, my name really is Kathy.  I have the privilege of having lived my entire life in Western Canada.  Currently I live in Edmonton with my husband, son, rescue dog, and rescue cat.  I have lived in Alberta for nearly 22 years but still consider myself as being from Saskatchewan.  GO RIDERS GO, and quite frequently break into singing Green is the Colour.  

I also have the privilege of being employed in my childhood dream job; a Registered Nurse!  Since the age of two I wanted to be an Emergency Room Nurse (long before the show about this).  However, at a very young age I was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes and over the years seem to have knack (I've been told) of being able to educate others on how to live with diabetes.

In  my career I have been a PICU RN, a Home Care RN, a Certified Diabetes Educator, and an Urgent Care RN.  At present I get to do two of my passions; Diabetes and Urgent Care.  As such you will never find direct pictures of myself or my family on my blog.  

I started my blog a few year back to be able to show my friends near and far all the stuff that I make.  I love to be able to create things; whether it is food, yarn, fabric, cross stitch or paper crafted.  I  pretty much love all crafts except for Crochet \: {  (I have a HATE relationship with that craft).  

Originally I had planned to have a super awesome project to share with you all today, but since I have lost the battle to a head cold all I was able to accomplish was 2 more blocks on my Raise the Roof quilt:

 Here is the context of what I have completed so far on this project:

Now, I am off to snuggle under a quilt with some tea, cold medication and my Tablet to read all the blogs participating in this event!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

p.s.

Questions I often get asked about Edmonton and the answers:

1.  Is Edmonton cold?

- Yes.  You will often see my winter posts referring to Snowpocalypse.  Except for today, it is + 5 Celsius (41 Fahrenheit).

2.  Are the drivers bad?

- Yes.  You will see several accidents and near misses daily, and learn rules of the road you never new existed.

3.  Are the roads bad?

- Yes.  You will need at least yearly wheel alignments on your car, and a new windshield as loose rocks are placed on the road surface in winter and in the potholes during the summer.

4.  Are the people friendly?

- Yes.  All the benefits of a big city, but also a small town feel. I always run into people that I have to stop and chat with and not just in my own neighborhood,

5.  Do I know your cousin Henry from Toronto?

No.  

☺

Quilt Shop Day!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Today was as many of you will know Visit Your Local Quilt Shop Day.  ☺

Should have been fantastic, top drawer kind of day, but unfortunately today has turned out to be one of those days I should have just stayed in bed (seriously).  A pity party day for me.  

First off, I worked a 16 hour day yesterday.  No biggie I have done that before.  But, everyone who came through had some form of cough, sore throat and fever or all of the above and once in their room/gurney felt there was no need to continue to wear their mask despite my reminding them.

So, I woke up very early this morning with my head feeling like it was full of wool (literally), sore throat and ear aches.  I had been battling bravely against these symptoms for a few days prior, but it appears I LOST!

Since I was off to the W*#$%&t (I dislike that place) to get a new Swiffer, since I wrecked mine (it was 10+ years old anyway) and no other store seemed to have any I decided I would get some cold medication as well.  While going through the check out the most unhelpful cashier would not pass my case of soda pop and while trying to lift it over the counter I broke the case (no refund on damaged goods I was told, and or an offer of a replacement case) and got a blood blister on my finger (no offer of a bandage either).  

Tally:  Head cold, blood blister, 2 broken leaking cans of soda, 22 cans with various dents.

Then off to the quilt store to hopefully make myself feel better.  Only able to make it to one store though as really feeling ill again by that time as medication wearing off.

Got a few things, only after getting into an argument with the fabric cutter that yards and meters are not the same, and that fabric here is sold by meter.

Re-cap:  Head cold, blood blister, 2 broken cans of soda, 22 cans with various dents, and not the amounts of fabric I wanted (had to up-size)!  

Here is what I did purchase before heading home to take more medication and a nap:

Some pretty cute things I think!

Will post more about these as I do them, but for now I am still feeling ill and the cold medication only seems to work for about a one hour window, an hour after you take it : (

Hope your day was better than mine!

Kathy

Sick Day and Quilting Breakthrough

Good Afternoon Internet Friends!

My son has been battling a sinus infection now for close to a week, and of course when your mom is a Registered Nurse and PICU RN for the first ten years of her career, you can probably imagine how often you see the pediatrician and or how often you get medicated.

Well, finally I broke down today and took him to see his pediatrician.  He is now on antibiotics (drat) and has been asleep most of the afternoon after a nice lemon tea with honey.

While he was is sleeping in the spare bed with cat and extra quilts I worked on my mystery quilt.

Here are 25 completed blocks for Step 9 (sounds like I am recovering from some kind of addiction, but sadly the addiction only grows......):

Now to try and wrap my head around Step 10 and the several corrections to make there as the pattern has changed a few times since we started this mystery....\ : {

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Last of the Christmas Presents

Good Evening Internet Friends!

The last of the Christmas presents that I have to show you is the scarf that I knit for my Grammy:

This scarf is knitted using the cable pattern from the Fisherman's Wife Cowl, but knowing my Grammy, who has never had any fine motor coordination and is now 89 years old, I decided against making the cowl.  She would never be able to get it together and probably have a stroke trying to do it up!  So, a nice warm woolen scarf seemed to be the way to go!

Hopefully she will like it!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Presents!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Yesterday evening my mom and sister dropped by to drop off Christmas presents (yes, this is correct).  I was finally able to give my mom one of the presents that I had made for her (she may have actually LIKED it) and so now I will post a copy of the scarf:

It's a Ruffle Scarf!

This one I knit over 8 stitches and used one entire ball of yarn, no left overs!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Best Day Ever Monday!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I decided to start Monday off today on a happy/festive note.  Rather than hearing about how awful Monday is, I decided to get up early (amazing what happens when you have 2 consecutive days off) and make pancakes!

Whole Wheat/Flax Pancakes:

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 egg

2 tbsp canola oil

1 tsp vanilla

- whisk ingredients together and add:

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp soda

1 heaping tbsp ground flax seed

Mix wet and dry ingredients together and let sit for 5 minutes then fry in hot skillet.

I served mine with strawberries I had in the refrigerator and whipped cream!

A delicious way to start the day and week!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Carry On....

Hello Internet Friends.

Today I decided that in between loads of laundry, baking and dinner preparations I would work on my mystery quilt.  I am taking it one step at a time at present as there were so many errors in the project that to get it completed I will have to just fix one step at a time to get it done.  I have come too far to just abort this project!  ☺ 

Here is what I completed today:

Now to finish dinner, and maybe start the next part later this evening.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

It's Saturday!

Good Evening World!

Okay, it's Saturday and I finally have a day off!!!  Yay me!

It was supposed to be a more productive day as my intent was to have tomorrow to just do what I wanted, but my brother called that he would be coming back into the Edmonton area, and could I pick him up because he has spent so many days in the truck working????  So many so, that one might question his sanity.....

He has a plush Tuxedo Cat sitting on the dashboard!  This is super funny because my brother is not really in favor of cats and I "borrowed" him this one a while ago as a joke since I always seem to have a Tuxedo cat.  I told him today he could keep the cat since it seems to have made a home there with him ☺

Off we went to Costco for groceries and lunch and by that time he was called to head back to Grande Prairie before heading out to Fort Mac. 

Then it was time for a quick fish dinner before heading off to see The Imitation Game.  I am  fascinated by the history of World War II.  It has been a life long learning for me and I love anything in the media about it, and watching to see how accurately the events unfold!  

When we got home, I worked on Week 2 of my A Needle Pulling Thread block of the week:

Now, there are two!  All caught up ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Block of the Week

Good Evening Internet Friends, and Good Morning to my friends across the pond!

It is Finally Friday and seriously this week it could not come soon enough!  Too many long days in a row with overtime and shift changes I think!  ☺

Not too crafty tonight so I decided I should probably get started on a little 52 week project I decided to participate in since I did not have enough planned to do this year (ROFL)!!! 

 Darlene over at A Needle Pulling Thread Quilt Shop came up with this idea and as of tonight I have managed to get Week One completed:

TAH DAH!!!

Good night, and 

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Return from the time out???

Good Evening Internet Friends!

After a day off, and some time to contemplate life or things, I have decided to persevere on with my poorly written, miscounted mystery quilt!  I really did need a time out from it ☺ 

Here is what I managed to do this evening:

All 63(?) 47 (?) or 741(?) whatever the number is set of the centers for these blocks completed.  Now to finish the top and bottom row that surrounds these!  Patience.....

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

What's For Dinner?

Good Evening Internet Friends!  Today is my turn around day; night shift finished back to day shift tomorrow.

My friend Helen picked me up today and took me out for lunch.  She decided that I needed to learn to eat Sushi!  I argued with her that I was not about to eat raw fish to which she set me straight.  Off I went with my Japanese master (we laughed at this she grew up in Edmonton and has never been to the "homeland" much as I have never been to central Europe) to learn to eat Sushi.  One of the rolls that I tried was super delicious and I will be going back for more at a later time.  

Since I was at home today (and did not accomplish anything...seriously...nothing other than going out for lunch) I inevitably got the question "What's for dinner?".  The answer; Refrigerator Pizza!  Now, this is no ordinary pizza.  This is pizza that contains what ever you find in the refrigerator!  I did make the dough, opened one of my jars of homemade tomato sauce, put some Pizza Spice over it and proceeded to add mushrooms, yellow and green pepper, and all the bits of cheese left over in the cheese drawer!

TAH DAH!  Dinner is served along with a green salad!  Somewhat nutritious, and super delicious!

Now off to do a bit of knitting in my jammies in case I fall asleep...

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Focus...

Good Morning Internet Friends!

I know it is the wrong time of day for me to be posting on my blog, but I am.  

As you may know I became very frustrated over the Christmas vacation when one of the mystery quilt projects I was working on was found to have calculation errors regarding piecing (these particular mystery quilts always do).  I had been about 4 steps behind the entire project due to work and life commitments so I worked really hard over vacation to get caught up and find out I need to make a few more of each of three different steps!  I was livid!  I had to take a break...

Thankfully, this morning after coming off of night shift I managed to have the clarity, or maybe just being in robot mode helped me focus, but I managed to get 2 of the steps done:

TAH DAH!

Now off to make pancakes and wake the family to eat these and off to bed for me!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Another pair of Socks!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

This evening I finished grafting the toe of the second sock that I finished knitting while on Christmas Vacation.  It is super cold outside this evening, about -25 C (- 13 F) and I am not feeling well at the moment.  Finishing the sock seemed like the perfect thing to do:

I love these socks.  This yarn is another Biscotte & Cie yarn named Knit me with your best shot.  I absolutely love the colors in this sock.  Over vacation I cam to appreciate how awesome my socks really are.  Over top of a pair of cotton socks these wool socks make skating, hiking, and down hill skiing bearable for the feet.  They are really warm and cozy.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Elfing Mission Complete

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Today I am quite tired after having worked a double shift yesterday.  Darn flu, it's getting the staff too, not just the patient's that we serve, so I agreed to stay and help out in the Emergency for the evening shift.  Looooooooong day and then I was back to work this morning for my regular day shift.  

This is the final of the wallets that I made for my son's friends for Christmas:

These were such fun to make, and as far as I know they were appreciated by the boys!

Now off to get ready for bed as I am tired, maybe a little knitting before I fall asleep......

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Elfing Around...

Good Evening Internet Friends.

I showed you all earlier some of the the little wallets that I made for my son's friends for Christmas.  This evening I will share another one of these as a couple of these wallets were not handed out on the final day of school before vacation.  They were handed out today so now I can blog about them:

A turtle wallet with a $5 Tim Horton's card!

Hope this one is appreciated at well.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Vacation Finale. Day 16...

Good Evening Internet Friends.  Today is my final day of Christmas Vacation. 

Now back to work and likely some overtime as there's bound to be a few sick calls this week.  Back to all the extra curricular activities, packing nutritionally balanced lunches and making sure that school uniforms are washed and ready.

On that note, I did some lunch box baking today!  I made Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins:

Here's how I made them:

1/2 cup canola oil

2 room temperature eggs

2/3 cup granulated sugar - beat together and then add:

1 cup mashed banana

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cream of tartar - mix together and then add:

1/4 cup cocoa

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

2 heaping tbsp ground flax

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips - mix together and pour into 12 muffin cups

Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes.

Delicious!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Vacation Day 15! Home...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

We arrived home yesterday evening and although it was a FANTASTIC vacation, it was good to be home again too.

Hello Kitty was sure glad to see us:

We left Canmore yesterday morning to temperatures just below freezing and a bright sunny day.  By the time we reached Cochrane the weather had changed to overcast with some freezing rain and by the time we were north of Airdrie it was full on blizzard.  At times I was unable to see the road!  My son from the back seat very wisely noted that since I was driving that is why the weather was so stormy.  It's true!  Whenever I plan a road trip of any distance there will always be a tornado, a gigantic rain storm that only Noah might think of as insignificant, or like yesterday, blinding snow! 

I managed to forge ahead of the bumper to bumper traffic on the QE II as the last thing I wanted was to be stuck in a row of traffic when one cannot see.  Eventually I caught up to an oil patch trucker who had his beacons on and I was able to follow him at a safe distance through the storm.  The radio reports were that there were lots of accidents and we saw several emergency vehicles out on mission.    

My husband stayed behind in the congested traffic as the Super Duty is not as good in the ice and snow as the AWD Highlander with Michelin X-ice.  I love that car...

I was too tired to do any crafting after getting home and unpacking yesterday, but I think I outdid myself today!

You know how there are people who will spend time trying to figure out how to do something the easy way and likely spend more time figuring than if they had just done it?  Well, sometimes that is me!

As you know I joined the Cross Stitch Collection Stitch Along.  There are like 3000 different thread colors in this, okay maybe I exaggerate a little, but not much.  I HATE unwrapping the threads and winding them around the pathetic little card board holders and trying to keep colors organized.  So, today I went to the dollar store and this is what I have come up with:

Each color in it's own little bag, with all of it's own pieces FOREVER!!!  Seriously genius I think!

Now off to do some cross stitch...

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Vacation Day 13! Happy New Year's ☺

Last day of vacation!  Tomorrow we head home.

We decided to make it the best day ever though and went skiing to Lake Louise.  The weather and the snow were perfect today and it was simply beautiful out there:

View from one of the trails.

Last run of the day!

Since we are packing up this evening we stopped for dinner in Canmore at a place called The Wood Restaurant.  

I started to some car packing, but got bored so started on my Cross Stitch Collection Stitch Along.  Here is as far as I got this evening, should probably go pack a little more:

Wishing everyone a healthy, creative and happy 2015!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy