Block 39!!!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Well the weekend is over.  Today was actually a relaxing day.  By getting all the errands done yesterday I was able to just spend time doing things that make me happy today.

We made pancakes for breakfast:

After lunch we headed out with the dog for a walk in the River Valley.  We walked just over seven miles this afternoon.  Unfortunately there was lots of really slippery ice.  I did fall twice but thanks to a diet based on milk and cheese I only have some big bruises and full use of all of my limbs ☺

 Crossing the Capilano Park Bridge.

Looking out across the North Saskatchewan.

Chilling with what is left of Frosty???

Happy dog and happy boy.  Both were exhausted and in bed and asleep no arguments tonight!

After bedtime for everyone I spent a wee bit of time in my craft room and completed Block 39 of my Churn Dash Challenge:

Tomorrow I will follow up on exactly how many of these I have to make because I HAVE to be getting close by now...

Now off to knit for a bit before falling asleep.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Block 38

Good Late Evening Internet Friends!

Today we were up bright and early to get to swimming.  Then it was off to Costco for groceries and then to the library to return and pick up new books and finally to the line up at the car wash.

Took most of the day, but the errands are done and tomorrow is a free day!

This evening we watched the Paddington movie.  It was cute.

Afterwards I made block 38 of my Churn Dash Challenge:

Now off to do a bit of knitting and I'm not setting the alarm tomorrow!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Block 37!!!

Good Very Late Evening Internet Friends!

It's finally Friday!  It seemed like a long week ahead when I started this week as although my FTE is 0.84 I worked M - F this week.  I am truly a fortunate person as I think I have the best job in the world as I always go home knowing that I have made a difference in someone's life.  I'm feeling a little sad at the present as due to the economic climate I have had to say good bye to two of my patient's this week.  One has had to take a job in Australia and the other was informed this morning just hours prior to heading home to Arizona as he does monthly to spend time with the family that he has been laid off with no expected return date.  We packed him up with all the extra pen needles and insulin that he could feasibly go with as his health benefits expire end of this month not only here in Alberta but he will not have benefits for the family at home in Arizona either as he has been laid off from an international oil company.  : (

Since I was feeling a little sad hubby decided that he would take us out for dinner.  Often when daddy is not home kiddo and I hit up burger joints on Friday evening.  This evening kiddo decided that we would try 5 Guys Burgers & Fries.  Not sure this will become a favorite hang out.  The burgers were HUGE and really meaty.  

Finally, I went down to my craft room and made one more Churn Dash Challenge block:

TAH DAH!  Block 37.  Only 11 more I think to go then 4 big ones, and I can start the assembly process ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

A Socky Kind of Day

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Today has been what I am going to call a Socky kind of day.  My whole day has somehow revolved around SOCKS!

First off, check out these:

These are my new pair of ACHI compression socks!  Now, you may wonder why I would have a pair of these.  Well, Fit Essentials stopped by work today and measured all of us.  Just about all the staff that I work with MD, NP, RN, LPN, NA, SW and even a few of clerical staff picked up at least a pair.  Only the RD decided not to get a pair.  I decided to get a pair as although I do not have leg swelling, I realized that with nearly 4 decades of Juvenile Diabetes I should probably start being proactive with regards to my legs.  I believe in applying moisturizer twice a day to prevent wrinkles, so why not prevent leg swelling, weeping and ulcers ☺

So, there are my brand new socks.  They are surprisingly quite comfortable, but of course I don't really have leg swelling.  Might be different if I did.

After dinner this evening since my son has no school tomorrow there was not the usual rush of homework and bedtime so I took some time to knit.  I did another 18 rows on the socks I showed yesterday, but more importantly I finished the "Cursed" Socks:

I refer to these socks as the "Cursed" socks because not too long after I cast these on last September THREE (yes, I am superstitious) bad things occurred in my world.  These socks have been the longest socks on my knitting needles EVER.  As of tonight though they are cast off.  I only have to weave in an end on the cast on edge and then I can put these away, or maybe get rid of them...not sure yet.  They are done though and I can only hope that this year does not throw curve balls at me like September 2015.  ☺

Now off to bed as there is lots of fun to be had tomorrow!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Knitting Along...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I have been super busy this week and sadly crafting gets put to the side.  Wednesday evening is our catch up/re-group evening during the week.  There are no extracurricular activities, and no impending chores!

After dinner, and load of laundry and getting kiddo to bed I took out my September 2015 box of Yarn Crush.  This pattern has been a hard one for me to start because although it is socks, the socks are toe up socks.  I am not a fan of these.  I did cast on with a circular needle, however after the toe increase stitches I did switch to double pointed needles which I feel more comfortable with.

Here is the toe and the first set of pattern repeat for these socks:

I love the cables up the side!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Block 36

Good Late Evening Internet Friends!

Tonight was Boy Scouts so it was hurry up and rush home from work, eat dinner, get on uniform, so that we could sit in traffic to arrive on time.  We did.

Since the weather was nice and warm I took a nice long hour walk, then came back to finish watching the last of the Nerf gun fights.  It was cute to watch these 11 - 12 year old boys hiding behind cases of Boy Scout Popcorn.

Home in time to walk the dog and get ready for bed.

I went down to my craft room for a bit and made Block 36 of the Churn Dash Challenge:

Now I should probably get ready for bed as I still have 4 more busy days of work this week! ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Block 35 ☺

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Today kiddo and I awoke bright and early for some reason. After breakfast and what was supposed to be a little vacuuming we were going to have a pajama day.  Well, for some reason I could not stop cleaning.  My hardwood floors are all completely vacuumed, washed and then rubbed down with Orange Oil as was all the wood furniture including kitchen cabinets.  All sofas were vacuumed and the leather treated.  Light fixtures were washed and re-attached.  Basically, if it could have been cleaned it was.  That also included the dog and his kennel.  The entire kennel was cleaned.  He was vacuumed (yes I vacuum the dog, he seems to be okay with it and even rolls over for his tummy to be vacuumed), bathed and then brushed when dry.  All tiles were washed as well and all of the grout washed with the toothbrush ☺

As of dinner time this evening the whole house basically shines!  It makes me happy.

Tomorrow is a school day so after kiddo had his bath and story I went to my craft room to relax for a bit.  My intent today was to get caught up on some of my projects but 9 hours of housework sort of got in the way.

As of just a few minutes ago I finished Block 35 of the Churn Dash Challenge:

TAH DAH!  Now off to bed as I work all of this week.  No bonus days off for me!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Pizza Night!

Good Late Evening Internet Friends!

Yesterday was my day off and I was supposed to get lots done.  NOT!!!

I had an 0830 appointment for an oil change for the Go Go Go Toyota.  I got there on time and was to be there for an hour.  The service manager pulled me aside when I arrived and let me know that since I an American Toyota brought into Canada that he had gone and looked through the American recall data base and there was a recall issued in the US that of course was not issued in Canada and that they would need the car for the day.  So, I got shuttled home.  Thank goodness hubby left me the Focus and parked the F-350 at the airport.  

Went to the doctor to get my allergic reaction rash from the multi vitamin I took looked at.  Still need another week of steroid cream.  YAY (maybe).

Stopped at Costco for groceries (fun with the Focus).  

Then it was time to go pick up the Go Go Go Toyota and my son.  Since I was off for the day he wanted me to pick him up at school rather than take the bus home ☺

Then we headed out to my friend Julie and her husband's ranch for dinner and a Tupperware party among other things!  It was neat to be a part of one of these again.  The sales rep was not very good.  I would know because growing up in rural Saskatchewan if your mom is not a teacher or a nurse, she is a Tupperware dealer.  It was so nice to see how these rural women and their spouses interact, it was like being at home.  The husbands all sat in the living room and talked about cows, the price of grain and diesel pick up trucks and the women shopped.  What was also refreshing to see if how these women all support one another because since Julie was the hostess of this event because she had agreed to host a party for one of the other ladies present, the women around the table discussed who would host two parties for her so that she could get the most benefit.  It was so awesome to see these women come together for the benefit of another.  I agreed to be one of the people to host a party for Julie later this spring. ☺

The drive out and back was beautiful.  

Today we got up early to get my son to swimming.  Then we stopped at GlassMasters to get the chip in the windshield fixed.  Stopped for lunch at Press'd and got my son in to a cancellation hair cut appointment at Chatters.  

Had an afternoon nap and then got up to make Pizza for dinner.  I used the Homemade Pizza Dough recipe and it turned out FANTASTIC:

There was enough dough that I divided this into three balls and froze two balls for future pizza crusts.  The other one became dinner:

Yummy!

Did a bit of knitting on my Oroya Shawl tonight.  I did 2 rows, but because of the yarn and the intricate nature of this it takes forever and forever to actually look like something has been accomplished.

Hope this inspires own creativity...

Kathy

I Made It....

Good Late Evening Internet Friends!

I know the title seems exactly like what I do here in this corner of the blog world, but it is actually in reference to the fact that I made it through this week.  For some reason this week has been incredibly long and I only had to work 4 days this week!  Not sure if I am coming down with something or what, but just felt sluggish and tired all week.  This of course coming from the person who never sleeps more than 4 hours and never more than 2 hours at a time as at 0300 hours I always wake up to check my blood sugar.  Too many years of doing that.  I used to to be able to work 69.75 hours in a week for weeks on end and not feel tired, yet this week a mere 31 hours and I am exhausted.

Oh well, tomorrow is a day of rest...sort of.

After walking the dog, getting kiddo ready for bed and talking with hubby on the phone  I went down to my craft room thinking maybe that would perk me up.  Nope.  I did manage to make Block 34 of the Churn Dash Challenge:

TAH DAH!!!

Okay, now off to do a bit of knitting and then head to bed.  Tomorrow is a day full of errands : (

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Has Anyone Seen Monday???

Good Late Evening Internet Friends.  

In case anyone see's Monday please let me know where it is.  I know where Sunday went, but as of this evening not sure where I lost Monday...

I know for sure there was no crafting there.  This evening after dinner my son had skating.  We hurried dinner and getting the skates etc in the car and got to Millennium Place, skates on and on the ice only to realize that there was only 2 other children from his group there.  After asking a million staff we found out that the class had been cancelled as the instructor could not make it this evening!

So, he free skated for a bit.  We came home and got garbage ready for pick up tomorrow and then kiddo was off to bed.

Since I had a few minutes to myself I went down to the craft room and made:

Block 33 of my Churn Dash Challenge.  I have some vacation in February coming up for which I will be at home and might get caught up on these.....

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Sunday Funday...

Good Late Evening Internet Friends.

Today my son and I are referring to as Sunday Funday.  We accomplished almost nothing except for some laundry being washed.

I did a bit of knitting, still not anything that I can really showcase.  

After lunch we headed out with the dog for a walk to my friend Sharon's just to see how my quilt is coming along.  I will say it looks AMAZING!!!  Probably the nicest quilted quilt that I have ☺

Since it was Sharon's birthday recently I finished up the last pair of my fingerless mittens from Yarn Crush and along with blog friend Jane's idea of putting the cheapy dollar store gloves under these I gifted these to Sharon for her birthday because they are pretty and RED.

Of course I made a gift box:

Used one sheet of my brand new It's My Party Designer Series Paper from Stampin' Up and I even made the box using my Gift Box Punch Board!  OMG.  Only the ribbon is contraband ☺

Inside the box went these beauties:

I have been loving these monthly yarn and pattern and small gifty packages from Yarn Crush but unfortunately although they are a Canadian company the kits are priced in US dollars meaning that the next time I go to pre-purchase my subscription the cost will be significantly more and not sure that it is worth it (sad face).

The walk was great although cold it was - 26 degress Celsius (-15 Fahrenheit).  We all including puppy walked quickly:

Arriving home we made hot chocolate and then watched some tele under quilts ☺

Back to work tomorrow, so off to bed I go.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Rest....

Good Late Evening Internet Friends!

Today my son and I were privileged enough to be included in my friend Sharon and her husband's road trip.  YAY.  

Our destination; Quilt Shops!  We went to The Quilt Rack in Vegreville and got a whole bunch of treasures.  Then it was on to L A Sewing in Lamont.  The road trip was awesome and Sharon and her hubby were such gracious hosts. ☺  Thanks guys...

Here is my "score" for the day:

We arrived home late afternoon after leaving early this morning.  Kiddo and I curled up on the couch and he watched a little television while I knit.  

After dinner and walking the dog, I decided that maybe I should use up a wee bit of my new acquisitions, "sew" I made a pillow case for my son:

It was a very relaxing day in all and I even decided to treat myself to a nice hot bath in the jet tub that I have not used in probably a couple of years (no time).  Now for a warm cup of tea and off to bed.  No alarm is being set for tomorrow and whether or not we leave the house is a gamble for tomorrow!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Where oh Where Has This Week Gone???

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Seriously, I think I lost this week!  Six weeks ago I agreed to help out a Nurse Practitioner friend of mine who teaches in the Nurse Practitioner program.  She wanted for me to come teach her students all about diabetes.  So, for the past week, I have been reviewing her presentation, offering feedback and preparing for this class.  These are all post graduate students and I have a 20+ year old Bachelor of Nursing.  The class went well and now I have time to decompress and return to normal. ☺

This evening after all of kiddo's activities and a trip to the grocery store for milk I spent a wee bit of time in my craft room.  I made another Churn Dash Block for the Churn Dash Challenge.  Meet Block # 32:

Now off to put on my jammies and maybe pick up one of the many knitting projects that I have on the go at present ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Block 31!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Last night kiddo and hubby were on a Boy Scouts camp out.  It was the first time in nearly 12 years that I was home alone.  I have to admit, it was kind of weird.  As such, I did not sleep much and or well.  At 0630 when they called me to come pick them up I had just fallen asleep.  By the time we got back to the house it was a little too late to go back to bed, so we all snuggled up on the couch and watched Return of the Jedi.  I was officially caught up on Star Wars as of 1000 hours this morning (having never seen any of them before).  Since I was now caught up hubby decided that we should go see The Force Awakens this afternoon which is what we did.  It made for a nice family afternoon.  On the way home kiddo fell asleep in the car!

Dinner and showers were done and he was off to bed and asleep before 2015 hours which means I will be off to sleep here shortly.

While waiting for the last load of laundry I did make Block 31 of the Churn Dash Challenge:

TAH DAH!

Now off to bed as tomorrow is a work and school day ☺

Kathy

Block 30

Good Late Evening Internet Friends.

I really have no idea where my day went as I really accomplished nothing today.  My son is at a Boy Scouts camp out this evening and it is just me and the pets at home.  Should have been able to get something done, yet the most accomplished thing I did was make a Churn Dash Block for the Churn Dash Challenge I am participating in:

This is block 30 of 52!  Other participants already have their's quilted!

I did walk the dog this evening and now I think I will do a bit of knitting as I have to pick up kiddo at 0800 hours and I am guessing there will not be a lot of sleeping tonight.....

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Work In Progress Wednesday

Good Very late Evening Internet Friends!

I should probably be in bed by now, but since I do not work tomorrow I thought I would try and get one of my Work In Progress Projects done tonight.  Since I am doing this I also thought that maybe it was time again to link up with fellow Crafty Persons over at The Needle and Thread Network.

Progress update is for one mitten completed (threads not tucked in) and one mitten just needs a thumb and threads tucked in.  I LOVE these mittens.  They are from my October subscription to Yarn Crush.  I am loving these boxes (okay, I like yarn).  Each month's project so far has been something that normally I would not have made, but have made anyways and enjoyed it.  October was fingerless mittens...seriously.  I live in Edmonton where no matter how the city may try to spin it, winter here is COLD and HARSH.  The mittens turned out really pretty, but really not sure what purpose they will stand other than being my indoor mittens????

While in Banff over Christmas I was able to score some more of this wonderful yarn from Raventwist and will be knitting mittens appropriate for Western Canada.

As of dinner tonight it is snowing outside.  Here is my front yard...COLD:

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

The Last Christmas Present...

Good Late Evening Internet Friends.

I had planned on getting to bed early this evening, however, remembered it is garbage day.   Getting the garbage out for me includes emptying and washing all trash/rubbish cans, vacuuming all floors and then washing them with the Swiffer so that I can throw out the cleaning pad (no sense in having a used cleaning pad sitting around), getting the recycling organized and finally washing the dog kennel and the dog blankets.

While the dog blankets were drying I finished threading loose ends into my son's teachers Christmas present:

TAH DAH.

Then I very carefully wrapped it in tissue paper and boxed it up and wrapped it.  But, it needed a tag.  Hmmmm, Christmas tags are all used up and at this hour of night even I am not digging out paper crafting supplies.  So, I used one of the trees from my Christmas card silhouettes and attached a bit of trim and twine and:

TAH DAH again!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

And Done....Sort of...

Good Evening Internet Friends.

Today was spent marathon watching the Star Wars movies so that I can accompany kiddo and hubby to the movie later this week.  My husband is a huge Star Wars fan and although our son has been educated in all of this, somehow I have never understood it.  For the longest time I though it was Garth Vader!!!!  Seriously.

For Christmas hubby got us a Blu-ray because kiddo and I seriously took out Blu-ray movies from the library and could not figure out why no player in the house would run them !@#$% Seriously, we were that silly.  Along with the player he also got us the Star Wars Complete Saga so now I am watching my way through these.  

I did get the borders put on my Plum Pudding Quilt and ambulated it over to Sharon for quilting:

Now she will do her magic on this and then all I have to do is the binding and hopefully I can have it done for next Christmas ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Doggie Bag

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Today's blog post is literally...a doggie bag!  I picked up a few quilt and soap treats for my friend and neighbor Sharon who does my long arm quilting at Four Paws Quilting.  These are all treats unique to Canmore so kind of a big deal. 

Looking in the closet today I realized that I was completely out of pre-purchased Christmas gift bags, my supply of basic bags on which I could paper craft was also depleted, so I decided that maybe I should dip into some of the fabric that is currently insulating a room in the north east corner of my house (I think the temperature is actually warmer in that room).  The fire hydrant/paw fabric is actually something that came from Sharon's house originally, but I was able to add a fat quarter for trim and VOILA:

Gift Bag/Doggie Bag!  ☺

Sharon loved it of course, and the puppy loved the walk and all the treats that Auntie Sharon always feeds him.  ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Good Evening Internet Friends.

I hope that you all had a wonderful day and made some wonderful plans for this year!  ☺

Today I worked on some of my several on the go projects and might actually get one completed by tomorrow!

To start the New Year though I completed my December 2015 Paper Pumpkin:

Here is the January section of the calendar!

Wishing everyone a healthy and happy New Year.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy