KNITTING LOVE

I've started a new book. I was really in the mood for something light and cute, a sweet diversion to my busy week. You know the saying 'never judge a book by its cover', well I do all the time. I'm pretty sure most people do in fact. Either way, I saw this book on the library shelf that looks exactly like the cover layout to a book that I read in the past, and would be the perfect type of book for me this week. Light and cute. So I nabbed it and hoped for the best. It's called: How To Knit a Love Song: A Cypress Hollow Yarn.



Laying in the tub last night, I read the first 50 pages. A woman is going through a change in her life, and each chapter begins with knitting advice she had been given by her mentor. It is cute. I have sort of mentally drawn a parallel between the knitting in this book and my sewing. Except that she is hugely accomplished and I'm just beginning. That sure doesn't mean I can't use her knitting advice and apply it to me. This book also reminds me of auntie. I figured she'd get a chuckle and smile from it.







I decided last night that some of the little advice quotations are fun enough to be shared. I'm going to match them up with some animal photos I took yesterday and you will get today's entry. Hope you enjoy !

Sometimes the hardest part is the first stitch. When you don't know what you're doing, the very thought of starting can be terrifying. Put down my book.  Refer to it only if you must.  Cast on bravely, now. (pg. 1)

 

Knitters don't give away stash easily.  If you are offered something, be it wool, angora or alpaca, take it. That knitter knows you'll need it someday. (This, of course, doesn't apply to acrylic. Run from acrylic). (pg. 7)

When you cast on, don't count your stitches more than twice.  If the numbers don't match, hope for the one you want, and knit across.  If you still have to add or take away a few stitches, do it then.  Don't fuss so much. (pg 13)

Unless you learned to knit in early childhood, it's natural to feel out of your element and clumsy. It's natural to think everyone else makes it look easy. (pg 17)

Knit a sleeve as long as you want, not to the specifications of any silly pattern, even one of mine.  If you always roll your sleeves, knit a sleeve four inches shorter.  Remember, there are no sleeve police. (pg 40)

If you don't like how your knitting is going, change it.  Never be a slave to a pattern, especially one of mine.  Make the pattern conform to your will, or burn it cheerfully in the grate and write a new one,  a better one. (pg 44)

Smile everyone! Hope you all have a fantastic monday.......

xoxo

QUICK HELLO

It has been such a filled few days for me. I hope everyone is well?

You see, my last day off was August 22nd, and my next day off isn't until September 6th, Labour Day. This is our second busiest time of year, and we are short staffed.

I did, however, manage to pick up a rotary cutting tool and a tiny mat for future homemade blanket fabric cutting. Pretty excited..... I just have to look for a straight edge and maybe a slightly longer mat than the one that came free with the cutter. Visions of blankets dancing in my head..... hehe

Bear's haircut is handsome, hopefully mine turned out as well. We are running off now to try and play some quick fetch with them before I have to head back into work. Remy seems to be bursting with energy this  morning and the sun is out.

Have a great sunday!
xoxo

TRIM TRIM TRIM

Hello and good morning everyone!

I'm just getting ready to take both animals to get work done. No, not veterinary work. Bear will have an all over haircut, and his nails chopped. Remy needs her nails chopped. Personally, I feel worse that the poor lady has to do Remy's nails than all of Bear. Bear has been going to her since before we even lived here, and they love him. She pretty much fits him in anywhere, and they all go to mush over him. Now Remy is another story.

She doesn't like getting her hair cut. In fact, she's never really had a haircut. Lucky for her (and unlucky for our furniture and carpet), her hair falls out and doesn't continue to grow. However, she does have white puffy hair that grows quite long on her back haunches. A little while ago we thought we'd bring her down to get it trimmed. The poor lady lost hearing for the rest of the day, I'm quite certain. The high pitched screams coming from the back led me in through the door and down the hall to see her shrieking with no one even touching her. Apparently she's afraid of the sound of the clippers. So I took her face and they gave her a very VERY quick trim. Since then, my hunny has been just doing it himself with scissors. Both the groomers had the same reaction: "Wow, she's no Bear".

So really dog grooming seems to be the only area where Bear gets more love than Remy from people outside the family. Good for him, he's earned it.

Also, does anyone know where you can buy rawhile dog bones in bulk? I remember seeing these somewhere before, maybe Costco? In a nutshell, they keep Remy out of trouble. Gives her something to focus on, and her and Bear something to tussle over. Yesterday morning we were all out, and she was pure trouble. Just bouncing around looking for something to do and instigating out of boredom. We are paying almost $2.50 ea at the bulk barn, and darlin, that's not fitting our budget with the rate she can go through them. But Remy doesn't chew other things in the house either (except for Bear's bandanas...haha).

Have a great day!!

xoxo

OOPS SUNSET FETCH

I have to begin this morning with an apology. If you will recall, I may have made a little dig yesterday about camera batteries being missing. Well, my hunny did remove them,but for a good cause. He wanted to charge them up for me overnight, so I could keep taking pictures. When all this came to light last evening, and I realized he was just being the thoughtful sweetheart he always is... I figured I'd better do him right and set things straight. hehe oops! My bad..... love you!

What did we do after work yesterday? Went to Marble for fetch!

I can only imagine how hyper some puppies must get locked up all day. We are lucky (or I should say our dogs are!) because it doesn't happen often. Usually with the difference in our schedules, they are only kenneled for a few hours per day. However, occasionally there are one or two days where my hunny and I work at the same times and they are stuck alone all day. As you know, these days begin with early morning walkings, but when we get home at suppertime - Remy is good.to.go.!

It was a gorgeous evening, so we decided what better way for her to tire herself out than a little fetch. Life's favorite game! Plus, unlucky for the dogs, they are also alone quite a bit today too. So this way they won't have any residual energy leftover from yesterday's day inside to carry into today. That was my theory. (I know, I think too much...hehe)... Ok and maybe I really just wanted to go play!

Now we always play with two balls, one per animal. Remy is getting goooood. Sometimes we give her a rest by hitting the ball straight up. She follows it like a hawk. Quite often she lets it land, bounce once and then she catches it. No sooner had I said "Soon she will be able to catch them before they hit the ground" and she did it! In fact, if I recall correctly, she did it twice! That girl never ceases to amaze.

Another time, I had both the dogs with me (a ball in each mouth) and Bear dropped his first. So, I picked it up with the intention of giving it a little toss aside, to get him out of the way so that I could take hers and smack it far with the racquet. He doesn't require the distances that she does. Literally, it happened so fast I almost missed it. In the split second it took me to pick his ball up and toss it aside, she dropped her ball, lunged in front of bear and snatched it right out of the air about a foot from from my hand. I just burst out laughing because it all happened so fast! Meanwhile, Bear was looking at me like "where did it go?!". Hunny actually photographed it too, and he still didn't see it - she was that fast!

Haha. It was a wonderful time. When we first started coming to Marble for fetch, it was because we had to give up our usual dog running spot - Prince Edward Park. You see, it's a campground and was opening for the season. I didn't know what we were going to do in substitution. Now we have so much fun playing at Marble on the lawn that I'm pretty sure even when the park closes to campers in the upcoming fall, we will keep coming back here too. Especially once it is too cold for all the flies...!

Hope everyone has a fantastic day! On friday, Bear and I are both getting haircuts. No not at the same place... haha. Excited!

Xoxo

VEGGIE VEGGIE

Good Morning everyone!

Man oh man, the days are getting shorter. It was practically still dark while I was walking Remy this morning (who prompty came home, curled up with her brother on their pillow and passed out cold). If the batteries never managed to mysteriously disappear out of the camera, I'd probably take a picture for you.. (hehe....*dig*) Love you!

My hunny and I were out at the garden last night, and I decided it was high time you had an update. We were also bouncing some questions back and forth and I figured it would be a perfect opportunity to ask you all for your thoughts and knowledge on the subject. Or perhaps you are like us, and learning as we go. Either way, I figured you were due photos of SOMETHING and so you're getting vegetables. Speaking of days getting shorter, these were taken last evening, around 8:30pm.

So as you may recall from previous posts, this is our little garden box.

On to the questions...

These are our carrots. Are they too close together or will they be fine like this? Is it too late to thin them out further, will doing so possibly damage the carrots we are leaving behind?

Our sweet green onions are growing bulbs (and our yellow dutch cooking onions aren't showing any signs of bulb growth at all... haha). Will we be able to eat these like regular onions? I'm sure going to give it a try...

I just wanted to show off the brocoli. It's finally growing after the plants have taken over half the garden box. We are thinking that these plants may also be the reason the celery growth isn't getting anywhere. They are just a vegetable garden bully.

We planted our peas too late this year. We already know that. Next year we realize we have to plant much earlier. Now that we are, in fact, getting peas I'm not sure what to do with them. These are the kind that you do not eat the pod, so pick them... pod them and then boil them? Throw them in a stir fry?  If you're wondering why we went with the non-eating pods, it's because the nice nursery man said they would produce sweeter tasting peas. I guess soon we will find out.

Our lettuce is beginning to look more like trees than one would expect. We are wondering if we had done more trimming off the top would they have stayed little and bushy? The monster on the left is simply the Little Rapids leaf lettuce and the right is Romaine. Not exactly what you find in the grocery store, eh? I figure maybe a few more months of this and we could start a new trend in Christmas trees... yikes...

And that about does it for the veggies. I asked my hunny if next year's project, along with this garden box of course, would be a strawberry plant box or raspberry bushes. He told me both. I think someone is getting a bit hooked! Honestly though, I just love it. We run out almost every evening and pick our salad. What gets better than that?!

I managed to snap a cute couple pictures of little Bear. Since these are a rarity (he usually looks rather stoned and disheveled in photos) I wanted to share with you.

Hope everyone has a fantastic day! Keep smiling...and thanks for dropping by!

Xoxo

WHOLE LOT OF ZIP

Having a bath in the middle of the day is nothing less than decadent. Especially when you have a new library book to bring in with you.

If you haven't done it, I highly suggest you try. Just watch and see if you don't feel like a queen.

Off work today, I know you are just waiting to hear about my adventure. I try to go and do something when I have a day off. Make a plan, a project or a destination. Today...... ZIP.

Relaxation.  Boring but occasionally necessary. I have a very busy two weeks coming up and today with my hunny (he's on call and can't go anywhere), being in the house and watching the two dogs sleep after a fetching morning..... it's nice for us all to spend some time together.

Peggy came by for tea this morning, and she fixed my sewing machine! Bobbin tension issues. We discussed blanket making techniques, and I got to give her a bag full of freshly picked lettuce. Trying to trim off that garden. I'm not sure when I will get to sew again, but it's ready when I am.

Remy and Bear sat with us this afternoon and watched a little of the Dog Whisperer. I'm not sure they learned anything, but it's always a nice way to remind ourselves to remain calm and assertive with the animals. Easier said than done some times, but we have wonderful dogs..... I swear they are! haha

Plus the weather has turned fall, it's quite gray and cool out. I love it! We picked a carrot from the garden, just to see how exactly they are doing underneath the soil. It was about an inch long. So we brought it in, washed it off and each had a munch. Mmm, I can't wait for them to grow a bit bigger.

Finally, the towels are white! And they small like a pool. Makes me chuckle every time I use one. I have some distant memory of a hotel somewhere having towels that smell exactly like that.... so I don't know where my brain travels to, but it's so fun. We are going to have to try this again in the future....

The world is awesome.

Xoxo.

BLEACH BUGGER

Remy walked. Check.

Dogs fed. Check.

CTV news channel on. Check.

Green tea steeped and sitting in a mug next to me for the very necessary cooling off period. Check.

Perfect morning.

I had a brilliant idea the other day (as I so often do.... hehe) that I was going to give our towels some much needed love. I believe I filled you in once before on their very sad state of existence. So I made a point of stopping for a small bottle of bleach on my way home from dog walking. On a side note here, bleach doesn't come in small bottles. Even the tiniest one I could purchase was most definitely a jug. Anyways....

As Peggy could tell you, I really don't handle the smell of bleach well. It has always bothered me. So I was being a tough cookie on a mission. Taking auntie's idea in mind of the brilliance of bleach, I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Fill up my bathtub, pour in some bleach and then add towels. This way the towels could soak and whiten, and the tub could sparkle. Sounds genius right?

A little while later the towels looked the exact same. So I added some more bleach.

After a few hours, the towels looked the exact same. Fine, I figured, I'll just wash them like normal. Maybe they'll be whiter after that. So I drained out the water. What did that leave me? A tubful of soaking wet towels. If you've never been in my house, you wouldn't know that the laundry is down over some not-so-wide stairs in the basement. Water-logged towels are HEAVY. I had to try to wring them out and then bring them down about 2 or 3 at a time in a laundry basket.

Set the washing machine going and wait.

When it had stopped I went back down, flung back the lid in anticipation and was disapointed yet again. Brown towels. So I didn't even put them in the dryer, just walked away from that mess.

(There's probably a reason that my hunny does the laundry in our house! hehe....)

After visiting mom to watch the news (it was my day off, the only day I get to see it), she gave me a brilliant idea. You can leave them in the washer and let them soak by not closing the lid. Not only that, but she said if they're badly soiled I should use warm water. Brilliant!

So, good thing I never put them in the dryer yet eh? That's what I thought!

I filled up the washer with warm water, poured in the bleach and went and made supper. Then later allowed them to wash.

When it stopped I ran back down, flew back the lid in anticipation and was happy! Whiter towels!! Needless to say I did put those in the dryer. There wasn't a whole lot of oooing and awwwing but I know one thing - I have cleaner towels! And I learned something new about bleach..... thanks ma!

HEAT MADNESS

Have you ever stopped and wondered why they are called Corn Flakes? I did, until today. Now I will know forever that the first ingredient is in fact, corn. The second ingredient is sugar, but that is entirely beside the point. Although considering they aren't Frosted Flakes, that hardly seems fair. And in only 1 1/4 cups there is 240mg of sodium. You'd think you were eating something yummy with those bad stats. That's almost as bad as the idea of salt in milk. Yikes.

Anyway, my day off didn't start out entirely as planned.  Instead of beginning the wonder of quilting seminar at my kitchen table, I was faced with this:

I wasn't deterred. I persevered. You should be proud of me, especially if you know how little patience I have (in general) and how well I operate without my first green tea of the day (it was steeping and cooling...). 45 minutes, 3 reads of the manual and multiple trials later, I was faced with this:

My plans for the day were going to have to change. Luckily, Peggy is going to come rescue me in the near future. She thinks she knows a way to prolong the life of my sewing machine, without me smashing it first.

Meanwhile, today was hot. I ran around, got some errands finished and work taken care of first thing. I like to be a keener on my days off so then I have the afternoon for more leisurely activities. This afternoon, though, it happened to be scorching hot. Did I mention it was unbearably warm? I tried taking the animals for some fetch and swimming but nothing was going right, they were distracted and I was still feeling some irritating side effects from my uncooperative sewing adventure.

So home we came. I went down and pulled out the kiddie pool (that at the time seemed a great idea, but I've since worried was a waste of investment) and threw it up on the deck. Next came the hose. It might be hot enough to cook ya but at least we could cool off in style. First thing, convince a little girl it's worth getting in. What better way? Healthy treats of course!

Even I thought that the water felt awfully good, so I knew it was worth a try. Bear was gungho from the beginning. What a fella!

and eventually the little girl came around and saw the light. Or I should say, the water...

 

It was a warm day. Finally, I got my butt in gear, went inside and did some cooking. Never a pleasant task when the heat is on, but alas I'm working all the rest of this week and my hunny needs something to eat. Everyone loves leftovers in the fridge don't they? If it is cooked, it will get eaten. That's what matters. When I asked the dogs what they wanted to do for the rest of the day, I got the same answer from both of them:

 

And as for the cruise ship that was in town today, thanks for dropping by! See you again next year. Hopefully no one got left behind.... (I don't know how they do a roll call on those things?)

SEW DAY TOMORROW

One day to go and I get to sit at my sewing machine again.

On monday, after beaching with the animals, we had to run by wal-mart to pick up a few things. I'm not a huge fan of supporting big box stores, but they do have more convenient hours of operation. Plus sometimes, the price gap is just too big to ignore.

On this particular visit, my hunny brought me back to the crafty section and said he wanted to buy me some fabric. (Have I mentioned before that I have the best man in the world?!) Our wal-mart is phasing out bulk fabric sales, and so the small selection they do have is all on clearance. First thing I found was a cute mauve color with a stripe and it was only $1.00/meter. I got 3! So exciting! I also stocked up on some fusible interfacing. Technically I already had some, because I've been planning on getting to my latest pattern purchase which requires it. I hadn't realized it was on so cheap at wal-mart, also at $1.00/meter, and was feeling a bit ripped off for paying $3.99/meter earlier in the week. So I stocked up on a few meters of the interfacing too, in 2 different thicknesses. I figure it won't go bad, plus if I get to start making some bags down the road (like I plan) I will want it.

Meanwhile, hunny and I were discussing how great it would be to make some of our family homemade blankets for Christmas. When I mentioned something about the quality, he assured me they wouldn't have to be perfect. I don't expect they would be a cheap gift, but they would be unique and special. Wal-mart didn't have any clearance batting, but I priced it down at the craft store. Now, batting isn't my number one choice for stuffing, I like heavier blankets. I'm wondering if for the batting price they are charging, I might be able to find some sort of heavy campfire blanket or something that I could put in the middle of the quilting sandwich instead. Will have to investigate.

So tomorrow, I will sew something. I need to clean my machine needle as it got gunky sewing the velcro on animal bandanas. If it doesn't come back from the stickiness, I have some spare needles that came with the machine. I just have to learn how to change it, and then I'm good to go!

Hope that everyone has a lovely day today.
Xoxo


p.s. Toronto has become infested with bed bugs and the images on ctv are nasty. gag.

BEACH LOVE

Today was the best day EVER.

I am quite certain it would beat any vacation down to Cuba or the Dominican.

It was hot, sunny, and my hunny and I were both off work. That's an equation for perfection, if I've ever seen one.

What to do .....? Why, go to the beach of course!

And what better beach for us to choose than Bottle Cove!

It's about an hour away, and we had the entire place to ourselves. What better opportunity to teach Remy a few things, have the dogs tire themselves out, and let the adults (us!) play in the water and the sun. It was amazing!

First Remy Lesson: It's Called a Stick.

Up until today, Remy was uninterested in fetching anything other than the blue racquetball balls we play with. I'd tried her with a stick before, and had zero success. Until today, when I had the opportunity to change all that. She wasn't seeing it at first. Her eyes didn't pick it up, until I threw it into shallow water. There the contrast was enough for her to see the stick and go after it. With proper positive reinforcement, and a few trials, she was soon bringing it back to us. Wizard!

Second Remy Lesson: Swimming is ok.

As you may recall, Remy gave herself a bad water fright when she was a young pup. Although humorous to us, it has left its mark on her. Since then, we have been patiently supporting getting her feet wet. None the less, it has been a work in progress. We don't live close enough to water (or have enough free time / nice weather) that it is easy for us to get alot of access to these exercises. Today was perfect. Armed with a bathing suit and flip flops, we began. I picked my little girl up and carried her out into deeper water. When her heart calmed down. I placed her into the water and she swam into her dad on the shore. Lots of positivity and praise, this was repeated. And repeated. Her heart beat began to calm, and her strokes became less frantic. Our little girl was finally swimming on her own.

Third and Final Remy Lesson: Sticks Float in Water

I cannot express how proud we are of our girl today. The best part was when we could put together all her progress, and play. Throwing the stick out into the water, so she would swim out on her own, fetch it and bring it back. We started close, with one of us out there with her to offer comfort and support. Every step that she took bringing her out over her head, each swimming stroke, my hunny and I just looked at each other and beamed with pride. It finally was happening and she was loving it! Our little girl was swimming on her own, fetching a stick in the water and bringing it back to us on shore. BLISS!

It was a perfect day. We didn't spend all of it at the beach, we decided to pull out just as people began to show up. That's what I call excellent timing. This beach is close enough that we can get to it without jeopardizing our entire day, but far enough that no one really goes there. I love the ocean, the smell, the way it feels on my skin and the texture it gives my hair. I love how excited it makes the animals, how much fun they have playing in their freedom. I love watching my hunny smile.

My hunny and I have already decided that if we get even a nice afternoon off together, we will try to head out and play this way again. As a puppy, sometimes she learns things and then forgets without practice. Although it takes alot less time to relearn the second time, I would like her to get the chance sooner rather than later. Fall is coming, and with that weather too cool for mom to get wet. The other night it went down to 4 degrees! and yet, I still needed sunblock today. Go figure.

I hope you are all as excited for our girl as we are. I cannot forget Bear though. He was a great little boy today. Bear has no fear of running in and out of the water, and although not a great swimmer he does have fun getting wet! Digging or rolling in the sand, he played until passing out. Which is where he still is right now...

I'm the happiest girl in the world.