Crazy Cat Lady Quilt????

Good Evening Internet Friends!

As you likely know my Grandmother suffered a stroke in September of this year.  She has battled acute kidney failure and aspiration pneumonia and is still with us and getting better every day.  When faced with making decisions about her care I could only make medical decisions as those are what I know best.  TREAT at all cost until you know there is no hope.  That is what we did with her and slowly but surely her kidney function improved as did the pneumonia and today she renal function is that of an 89 year old women with a stroke. ☺

Now she faces the the reality of being placed in a long term care facility as she has not regained strength or function to the left side of her body which is very sad is she is a southpaw (sad face).  She is in true Grammy fashion facing this head on and is learning to eat with her right hand and even tells new staff that she is regaining strength in that hand and shows them that she is trying to eat.  Of course someone always falls for this and she laughs about it.

With her going to long term care I wanted her to have her own quilt.  She left the other one I made for her in Alberta and as such does not have it with her.  "Sew" I made her a new one.

I had a jelly roll that I had been hoarding for a long time and with some help of my friend and neighbor Sharon of Four Paws Quilting who let me raid her stash I was able to make what I am going to call the Crazy Cat Lady Quilt.  My Grammy was kind of this person as if there was a stray or lonely cat within 100 miles she was feeding it and caring for it.  Even ones that came to her house to sleep for the afternoon and then returned home in the evening!

After getting the quilt pieced my friend and neighbor Sharon agreed to run this quilt through her wonderful long arm machine and she quilted cats all over this quilt.  This evening after getting my son to bed after his Geocaching expedition with Boy Scouts that tired him out, I trimmed the edges of the quilt in preparation for binding:

 The entire quilt top spread out on the family room floor.

Detail of the Kitty Face.

Detail of the big fat Kitty.

Backing for the quilt as the cat always gets the canary!!!! ☺

Tomorrow evening I will cut the binding strips for this and then get working on that so that I can send this in the care package later this week that I will be posting her.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

The Five Year.......

Good Evening Internet Friends.

Some people have plans, goals, and accomplishments for Five Year.

I however, might just about be finished a quilt that I started about five years ago (not really exaggerating).  Almost a year ago I got the pieces cut out and adhered to the fabric backing but did not get very far on the applique.  Recently I placed a large order to Connecting Threads as they had a 35% off sale and Free Shipping to Canada.  With the Canadian Dollar being low right now this sale off set some of that spending pinch.  One of the items I ordered was the Country Garden thread set.  When the package arrived I knew that I had some applique to do! All of the colors in the set were perfect for my Five Year Quilt Project.

As of a few minutes ago here is what I have accomplished this weekend:

TAH DAH!!!!

I am not feeling particularly crafty this evening due to an impending asthma attack so this was the perfect occupation of my time after my son went to bed this evening.

Earlier in the day I took my son to a different ski venue than he usually skis at simply because they do three week lessons which will no conflict with Christmas Vacation.  Sadly, this place needs some serious help.  I knit for about a half hour inside the building that smelled worse than your grandmother's old damp basement and there was likely some kind of mold in there as well.  The furniture and carpet were original from when the building opened at the same time as the explores arrived (I don't think I am exaggerating here either) and in general the place just looks SAD.  Eventually I went outside for a walk but it was cold.  A sign on the building told me that the parking lot was an idle free zone so after freezing in my car I went and parked on the street and warmed up myself and the car.

My son seemed to enjoy it because although he was in a group lesson there were no other kids that could ski the same as him so he got his own instructor! ☺

 They worked on some of his techniques so by the time we get to the mountains at Christmas he will have his ski legs back☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

My Grandma Sadie used this expression about her life all the time.  The older I get though I am not truly sure she understood the concept of it in the manner that I do.

This morning my son and I started the day off by getting up and getting to Santa's Breakfast for 0900 hours.  We made it, although we had to eat at the preschoolers table by the time we got our food!  My son thought it was hilarious that his mom could fit at the preschoolers table ☺

Then we waited in line to meet Santa.  Santa was awesome.  My son has not got a list this year as to what he wants for Christmas so when asked by Santa what he wants he replied "stuff".  Santa was awesome and let him know that Santa has "stuff".  ☺

After that we headed off to try and get my son a hair cut.  Thankfully we were out and about early enough in the morning that his favorite hair stylist was able to squeeze him in.

Afterwards we stopped at Bulk Barn and picked up some random goodies which included these sprinkles that I put on our hot chocolate this evening after walking the dog:

Then it was back to Millennium Place for skating lessons:

After skating  headed off to his Christmas piano recital of which he played his own composition of Deck the Halls.  He was very proud of himself for accomplishing this as was I.

Then it was finally time for lunch.  We used a Groupon for poutine at My Fries.  Yummy as always.

Next up we stopped by Sweet Convenience to buy candy with (you guessed it) another Groupon I had!!!

Lastly we stopped by River City Yarns and picked up some wonderful woolly goodies.

Coming home I decided that maybe I should do something with all of the craft chaos that I have going on right now.  "Sew" here is what I accomplished:

I sewed the buttons onto my Fingerless Mittens (still a silly concept I think) that was one set of mittens from my October box of Yarn Crush.  I did have to make these mittens a little smaller than the pattern not because my hands are small but because although I knit to gauge there was not enough yarn to complete both of them as long as they were supposed to be.  Now I have 4 left over buttons for another project I guess.

Now it's off to bed as skiing starts tomorrow, and there is laundry and baking for lunches this week and groceries and house cleaning and ......................................

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Still Going....

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Today is one of those days that is just not seeming to end.

I awoke this morning to get myself and kiddo ready for the day and discovered 8" of snow outside.  Since the school bus was running 20+ minutes late I decided that we could use that time and shovel the walk (we live on a corner lot).  By 0825 we had the entire walk shoveled, kiddo on the bus and me en route to work:

YAY Us!

Most of my patient's arrived late for their appointments today so that kept me working through lunch and I ended up leaving clinic late too.

A quick stop to pick up kiddo and then off to battle the highway to get to swimming lessons.

After a warm bowl of soup for dinner it was time to get the garbage out since tomorrow is trash day and then I decided that the patio really should be cleaned off from the snow so I did that too!

Kiddo showered and off to bed after stories.  Household tasks completed I opened up my November package of Paper Pumpkin and made one set of the cards:

 TAH DAH!!!'

Love these cards.  

Some months I wonder about the kits, but this month I love both sets of cards!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

And Snowmageddon Arrives!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Not sure where the time has gone, but somehow I have not blogged recently and even over the weekend.  It was not that I didn't do anything...I just had too many things on the go.

Thursday was music lessons, Friday was Thank Goodness I am Fun (my son's slogan) night with my son.  We went for dinner to Soda Jerks (not sure if I will go there again anytime soon).  

Saturday was Home Depot Kids Workshop, skating lessons, recycling day, pick up new Boy Scouts shirt and then we went to see the Peanuts movie.

This is the Snowman Napkin holder that my son built at the Home Depot Kids Class:

Sunday was stay home in pajamas day except for taking the puppy for a walk, and dropping off my a quilt top, batting and backing for my friend Sharon to quilt for me.  I call this quilt the Crazy Cat Lady Quilt because there is cat fabric on it, and later this week I will be posting it to the hospital back home for my Grammy as I have to send her a care package as she is out of essentials and has no clothes other than what she was wearing the day she went to hospital via ambulance!

I did bake cookies for lunches yesterday:

 Earlier in the week I found these swirl chocolate chips at Superstore and so yesterday was the day to try them out.  

Packaged a dozen up for my friend when we dropped off the quilt to her.

A few weeks ago now I posted about getting snow here in Edmonton we had snow.  Well, that snow was very short lived because by morning it had disappeared and since then we have had temperatures in the +4 C (39 Fahrenheit) range since then.  Today however I believe our luck has run out:

This is my street this evening!!!!  On my way back from Sherwood Park this evening I was actually plowing snow in the Go Go Go Toyota!!!

Well, off to bed now as I will likely have to shovel the walk way tomorrow morning...☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Life From a Box???

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Okay, it has been a long time since I blog posted, but don't worry I have still been crafting, just too busy to blog post about it.

I realized this weekend how much of my life revolves around boxes these days.

Each month I get a box in the mail from Sweet Georgia Yarns with my sock of the month yarn.

This month's yarn is called Frozen Grapes:

It is so beautiful to touch, and I really need to get a project started with it!

I also receive in the mail a monthly subscription to the Frivols Club offered by the Quilt Patch because even with shipping it is cheaper to order it than pick up locally (seriously):

"Sew" much fun!!!

Then there is my subscription to Paper Pumpkin.  This month's kit is one that will be completed ASAP:

I have also started receiving a box of monthly yarns from Yarn Crush.  This month there were two skeins of yarn to make 2 pairs of finger-less gloves.  Not sure that these are in any way suited for the climate here in Western Canada, but I made them anyways just because I loved the feel of the yarn, the color and also the pattern.  I have finished knitting them now and just need to sew them together.  Thankfully as of yet there is still no snow on the ground in Edmonton (the snow we received the other evening melted by morning) and there is still greenish grass in the river valley.  Here is the river valley this evening:

These are the mittens waiting to be sewn together:

Tomorrow maybe???

Now, if that is not enough boxes to arrive on my door step I also ordered a 6 month subscription to Bark Box for the puppy.  He loves all of his toys and snacks that he got this month and interestingly enough the Shih Tzu fits in the box:

"Sew" there we have my life from boxes.  

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Buzzing Around All Week....

Good Evening Internet Friends!

By now most of you know that I am a Registered Nurse and that I hold a couple of specialty certifications that keep me in demand daily as well as for a little thing known as overtime.  Over the past few years I have worked way too many hours of this and yes it has taken a toll on my family, but we have rolled with it.  I have done it to make sure that I hold up not only my professional obligations, but I also do it to try and match hubby's income contributions.  I realize that I am very fortunate to have a husband who has allowed me to work part time to raise our son at the cost of him often working away from home.  

Why is this of importance to a crafting blog???  Well, it has come to my attention of late that both the provincial and federal government for whom I did not vote for are planning to tax further individual's in certain income brackets of which not only hubby will fall, but all of my overtime puts me there as well.  So, I have made the decision to work my current part time FTE which means I suddenly have a lot more ME time!!!

Today I finished the cards for my swap at the Stampin' Up Onstage Event that I will be attending tomorrow:

I had fun making these and enjoyed spending time in my craft room.

After I finished these I took the puppy for a walk and then met my son at the bus stop.

On the radio this morning I heard that Johnny Reid was doing an acoustic performance at West Edmonton Mall this evening.   My son loves singing along to Johnny Reid in the car and so off we went to see the performance (he's not the only one to sing along, I had to download the new song today and listened to it probably a hundred times today).  The performance was pretty cool and a really neat experience as the only instrument present was the piano.  As someone with a Grade 8 Royal Conservatory of Music certificate this was just beautiful ☺ ♫

Leaving the mall we stopped at Williams-Sonoma as there was a sale that included the Gold Touch Half Sheet Pan set which I just HAD to have (remember it was on sale). 

We also stopped at Rocky Mountain Soap and picked up Vanilla Candy Cane soap, shower gel, lip butter, body butter (for me) and a couple of the gift packs for Christmas presents.  Every year I am scrambling to get this product, so this year I am stocked up before Christmas.

Now, off to bed for the big day tomorrow!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

"Sew" Much FUN!!!!!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I hope that everyone had a peaceful Remembrance Day today.

 After lunch I spent some time in my craft room getting re-acquainted with the wonderful treasures I have stashed in there.  I actually accomplished a few things as well! ☺

One of the projects that I managed to complete today was:

This is a tote bag kit that I picked up at the Creative Stitches Craft Show this fall from The Quilt Patch.  

The tote turned out lovely I think, and it was a nice feeling to accomplish something in one day! ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Awful Waffle Sunday!!!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Today is Sunday and as usual that means I got up a little earlier than everyone else and made WAFFLES!!!

I even tempered some Bernard Callebaut chocolate to drizzle over the waffles!  They were very tasty.

Mid afternoon I decided that we needed cheesecake for dessert.  Why?  Not sure, but I thought we did so I made a cheesecake and strawberry sauce for it:

OMG it is delicious.....I have been back to the fridge a couple of times for "just a bite" since dinner ☺

For dinner I poached Atlantic Salmon with a creamy dill sauce and served with mashed potatoes, broccoli and salad:

While waiting for laundry loads this afternoon I did manage to finish my Thrumb Mittens:

Apparently it is a good thing I finished these today because when we took puppy for his walk this evening this is what I discovered:

Somehow, this is the first snow that we have had this fall.  I should not complain because I cannot remember a time when by November there had at not been at least one snow fall.  My petunias only froze on Wednesday!!!  ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Friday Feature Card...

Good Very Late Evening Internet Friends!

This is has somehow been a very long and eventful week and I just now realized that I have not blog posted all week!

Well, I do have something to show you this evening.  A very dear friend of mine who works with STARS set up a table with some of her quilting projects for the Fall Gift & Craft Show in support of STARS this weekend.  

My contribution of creativity to this event was:

I think that they turned out lovely.  Of course there is some expired/retired Stampin' Up product in there so I can't just use there for my swaps next weekend (drat....).

Hubby is home this weekend, and is going to take kiddo to all his Saturday activities which means I get the day to myself!  OMG.,,,,, the plans I have for myself ☺ (we will see how much I get accomplished).

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

I HATE Time Change Day...

Good Evening Internet Friends.

Okay, seriously....I HATE time change day.  I do not see the purpose of it other to annoy and confuse the already confused masses.

Other than a getting a couple of loads of laundry done, making three meals (none of which were spectacular), a bit of house cleaning, a few rows of knitting on various projects and walking the dog some 10,000 steps the only thing of any significance that I accomplished today was:

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits!

The dogs LOVE these.  I cannot provide you a recipe to go with these as I had about 1 1/2 cups of cooked pumpkin in the refrigerator so I added flour and oatmeal and peanut butter and some cinnamon along with 2 eggs to make a dough that could be shaped. ☺

I put some into a jar I had decorated a few years ago and took some over to my neighbor and friend for her dogs while we were out on our walk:

Her three dogs have reportedly given these a "12 paws up" rating! ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy