Take Time to Smell the Roses...

Good Evening Internet Friends!!!

A couple of weeks ago I took my bicycle in for a tune up......the same bicycle that I have had several mishaps with.  Turns out that to fix it and still have a slightly bent frame would cost almost as much as a new bike.  I opted for the new bike option with no frame issues.  A bit of my bike was salvageable for parts to a charity that creates bikes for kids in need.  I LOVE my new bike!!!  Not only is it way more awesome than my old one, but it has hot pink trim on it.  Plus I added a donut bell to it: 🍩

I have been making a lot of trail and off road miles with this bike of late.

Today while I was out I literally Took Time to Smell the roses.  They were beautiful:

And then of course my eyes itched and I started sneezing, but still they were really pretty.  🌹

Recently I also started working seriously on my Lush Block of the Month offered by Sew Devine.  

I have managed to  very slowly get these 4 blocks done:

 I LOVE the colors in these blocks and the points lined up so that made me extra happy.

This weekend I got started on the Dresden plate blocks.  These are going to take more time, but I did get all 84 Dresden blades cut out this weekend so that throughout the week I can sew a bit and maybe actually accomplish something by next weekend.  Here are my first completed 12:

These are tedious to make but I am getting better at them. 🥳

Hope this inspires your own creativity and wishing you a 

BEST Day EVER Monday tomorrow. 

Kathy

HELP!!! I've Fallen....

Good Evening Internet Friends!

This post will be short as both of my wrists are extremely sore.  

Today I decided to try out a different set of riding trails in the River Valley with my son.  The ride was beautiful and it was an area of the city that I had never experienced.  I will go again as we did not get very far into it.  On a corner with some rough terrain I lost control of my bike and took a spill 🚴.  Thankfully I was wearing my helmet and yes I will need a new one as part of my face and the helmet visor contacted the pavement.  

I did make another Knitting Project bag before we went out.

TAH DAH!!!

This might be the extent of my crafting for a bit.  I am in too much pain in my wrists, ribs, shoulders and knee to even knit tonight.  I am dreading the pain tomorrow when I wake up. 😟

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Sun Day Fun Day

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Not a lot of crafting today.  After lunch my son and I headed out on our bikes after getting the tires inflated, chains oiled, brakes and suspension checked, and in my case some how the front tire had comes loose over winter.  😕

It was a very beautiful day out in the River Valley.  We rode over 20 miles including through Strathcona Science Provincial Park.  The natural areas are very pretty but the infrastructure is terrible.  Good thing we check the suspension on the bicycles 🤣:

After dinner this evening I made another of the Knitting Pouches. I was going to make a special one for the yarn I am going to start making a pair of socks with tomorrow in honour of Saskatchewan Day,  but I ran out of the fusible web for another bag so I only have one bag:

Will have to pick up some more tomorrow.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

It's Saturday!!!!

Good Evening Internet Friends.

Today I had BIG plans to do nothing.  It was going to be a relaxing sleep in kind of Saturday.

Unfortunately the workers who are putting in the new gas lines were in my back yard at 0632 hours this morning.  Now I guess they did not start the jack hammers etc til 0805 but the trucks were outside running, they were planning their day, and unloading equipment and in general making a lot of noise at a very early hour.  I tried to go to sleep in another part of the house but that was no help.

After breakfast my son and I did some house work, then cut the grass, weeded the side gardens and tidied up the flower beds.

After lunch I took him for a hair cut.  Beat the back to school rush.

Then it was dinner time and after dinner we went out for a bike ride (sans puppy):

The city looked really pretty this evening:

Arriving home I decided that I would take some time to myself this evening and do some quilting.  Currently I am working on the 2016 Row by Row blocks that I have:

This row is from Piece by Peace Quilts (okay I still LOVE this name) in Fort St. John.  

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Off to do a little knitting before bed and hopefully the pipeline guys take Sunday off!!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Happy Canada Day

Happy Canada Day Internet Friends!

Today my son and I made cookies:

Then we packaged some up and delivered them to my friend and neighbor:

Afterwards we took a bike ride along the river valley:

Later this evening we will head out to the fireworks!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Canada Day!

Kathy

It's a Kathy kind of day..

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Today I had great plans for the day.

I slept in this morning til 0845!  Yes, kid and dog let that happen.

We had English Muffins with poached eggs and Turkey Farmer Sausage (on sale last week at Costco) with strawberries and black berries (also from Costco), actually everything was purchased there! 

After breakfast I thought about cleaning out my craft room.  I started but found too many cool things and eventually gave up.

This afternoon I decided that kid and I would take puppy out for his first bike ride; we will ride our bikes and he will run along side.

Well, let's just say that I have road rash down my entire left side, a broken pair of spectacles, a totaled helmet (yes, I actually wore it), pain everywhere (no broken bones - thank you milk), bandages everywhere and have donated blood to a local sidewalk.  Thankfully my neighbor and friend is a Paramedic so kid, dog and I limped over to her house for her to assess me and check on the damage.  By now I am starting to feel the pain everywhere.  Work should be fun tomorrow.

Prior to this eventful and painful excursion, while I was in my craft room I did make:

Twenty more Rag Quilt blocks.  These "plain" non graphic blocks are the ones on which I will put my son's Boy Scout camp out patches.

Now I will take another dose of Tylenol and be off to bed knowing that when I wake I will hurt worse than I do right now!  Goodie Goodie....

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Awful Waffle Sunday ☺

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Everyday I feel a little better and talking daily with my Grandma and hearing her progress makes me feel better today.

Today I even felt bright enough about the world to get up early and make Cranberry Waffles (I still have lots of fresh cranberries left from the big bag I bought at Costco just before Thanksgiving):

YUMMY!

This afternoon the whole family went for a bike ride through the River Valley Trails:

My son's riding has improved as he is now able to get up some of the hills that earlier in the spring he could not! ☺

When we got home I baked one of the pumpkins from my garden and then made pumpkin pie:

I love the taste of homemade pumpkin pie!

After dinner it was dog walk time and then I got the bright idea that I should give the puppy a bath. OMG I think I need my head examined....

Here is puppy earlier in the day.  He literally grows overnight!

Now off to do a little knitting before bed.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

In the Dark...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Yesterday was one of those days where I tried to pack as much as possible into the day.  I was up by 0730 (even though it was Sunday) to get all my vegetables taken care of.

I pickled all the cucumbers, all the yellow beans, blanched green beans and carrots all before 2 pm.  Laundry and some more general house cleaning were included with the festivities.  Then my son and I headed out into the river valley riding 28 km in the river valley:

The weather was hot and it was a great ride, and the city looked pretty.

We got home had dinner and while my son started his bedtime preparations I thought I would get a batch of blueberry jam made and that could process while I read my son his bed time story.  Two minutes away from the jam being ready to jar the power went out.  U^&*()_)*(&*^%%$^&*!!!!

Seriously.  Worse yet, it did not come back on.  A check on my phone of the city's power web page let me know that a power line was down and it would be at least 2 hours before power was restored.   At 11:38 pm the power came back on.  I had to re-boil my jam, get the canner back up to boiling and process my jam.  Bedtime at 1 am.  Somehow I have dragged through today and am still up....

Here's my first batch of pickles:

The first batch of veggies:

As of this evening all veggies are bagged and the pickles are on the shelves.  Can't wait til the pickles are ready to try...

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

And We're Back....

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Well, this has been a whirlwind of a weekend for certain.  

Saturday was spent bike riding, hiking and swimming in Waskesiu and of course a stop at the ice cream shop for a deliberation over which ice cream to get before heading back to the trailer for dinner and campfire.

By the time dinner was over a massive Saskatchewan storm rolled in; the kind with the black clouds, the wind stops and the air gets heavy and then the rain comes down hard enough to remove paint and hail is the size of tennis balls!  That kind of storm.  For just about two hours it rained super hard, so we spent the evening in the trailer thankful not to be in a tent ☺

Sunday the weather was back to normal so we spent the day at the beach, swimming, laying in the sand and doing some more biking on the trails.

Monday we were up with the crack of dawn to return home.  After a very long drive and lots of mud on the farm (we did not get stuck) we arrived home in time for bed as today was back to work and Summer Camps.

I have done lots of knitting over the past few days, but this evening I spent a bit of time in my sewing room and completed one of my Row by Row blocks.  I picked this one up at Johnson's Sewing Centre.  I have never done a curved pieced block, but I loved this one and found it super easy to do; might just have another new favorite hobby:

I showed it to hubby and asked what he thought of when he saw it and he replied with "waves"! 

Now off to get some laundry done, and lunches prepped for tomorrow.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

The Strawberry Theme Persists....

Good Evening Internet Friends.

I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing Sunday.  

After breakfast my son and I packed a picnic lunch and headed out to the River Valley Trails.  I do have to say the trail system here is very well developed and used.  Our total trip was 32 kilometers up some pretty impressive grades.  We did not successfully pedal up all of the grades, but we did what we could and for an 11 year old and an asthmatic I think that's pretty good! ☺

After returning home we spent the afternoon on the deck eating ice cream in lawn chairs.  

Poached fish for dinner and then this evening I made 8 jars of Strawberry Marmalade.  Here are the first ones:

I really want to start eating these....

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Happy Canada Day

Happy Canada Day Everyone!

I LOVE Canada Day!  It's one of my favorite celebrations.  This is the first year in a long time that we have been at home for Canada Day, but we still had fun.

We had flax seed, blueberry pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast:

Then I gave my son his bag of Canada Day Fun:

Used a store bought brown bag and decorated it with some paper dies from Stampin' Up.  The bag is filled with fun things like a jump rope, a Jumbo Glow Stick, chocolate, assorted candy and a jar of bubbles!

Then we made and decorated Canada Day Cupcakes:

After lunch we biked 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) through the river valley:

Then we went out for dinner, and to a movie, before watching the Sherwood Park Fireworks!

Happy Canada Day everyone!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Someday.....

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Today of course was back to reality; work, breakfast, lunch and dinner preparations, garbage day and house work!!!

  Thankfully I made banana muffins at midnight last night as I found out this morning that we had no bread in the house for sandwiches.  Lunch was banana muffins and cheese along with strawberries and grapes ☺

At lunch today I went for a walk in one of the local parks and the scenery was beautiful with the lilacs and the apple trees in bloom.

After dinner my son and I went for a bike ride over to one of the community gardens where a colleague of mine has planted her garden.

After my son went to bed and all the household chores were completed I made another Churn Dash Block for the Churn Dash Challenge that I am participating in with A Needle Pulling Thread Quilt Shop.  Here is Block 12 (this is week 20):

Here are all 12 that I have completed "sew" far":

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Ready....Set....It's Monday!

Good Evening Internet Friends.

Today was a great day considering it was Monday.  After dinner my son and I went out for an hour bike ride.  We took Ada Blvd most of the way along the river and then returned home via the surrounding neighborhoods

This is one of the things I love about living in an old neighborhood.  We have the river valley close by, our streets are wide  and there are lots of bike and walking trails.

After my son went to bed I decided to work on a tea towel kit that I bought last summer at Prickly Pear Quilts:

TAH DAH!  Makes my kitchen look "Top Drawer" as my son would say! ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

I'm Going to Regret this tomorrow.....

Good Evening Internet Friends!

My son and I had a (?)leisurely day at home.  After a morning of breakfast, cartoons, and then lunch we decided it was finally warm enough to go for a bike ride.

First I had to figure out how to fill the tire, which I did!!!!  Yay me!

After a few blocks around the neighborhood my son seemed to be riding well enough so we headed out to the trails in Capilano Park:

 Crossing the North Saskatchewan River.  Still lots of ice blocks along the edges.

 Through the trees look at the North Saskatchewan River.

Yet another hill to climb!

It was quite a trek, but even I was shocked to find out when we got home according the map app that we had travelled 16 kilometers (10 miles ).  I know that I am going to be very sore tomorrow as my legs already hurt walking the stairs..... ♫ ♫

Then it was time for dinner and I decided to cook the carrot that I found at Save-On Foods (trust me the name is not very accurate):

That carrot is positioned next to my Henckel's Chef's Knife!  The cost of this carrot was $0.82.  I might have to get another one this week, although there are left overs from tonight's dinner ☺

After dinner I did manage to get the side sewn onto my April 2014 Block of the Month:

Feeling rather accomplished at this moment, and debating if I should start eating pain medication now....

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy