Odds and Ends

What It's Thursday Already?

I can't believe how quickly this week is going by, it seems it was just Monday.   I have got things done though (including Project Life for week 3) which should have been a good clue the week was moving on.   :)  Funny how it seems that since I retired (years ago) if it wasn't for John going to work and the newspaper I'd be lost as to what day it was.  :)

And now to share a picture from today.

I did a double-take this morning when I spotted my red shoes looking like the straps were standing straight up and look like they were standing at attention.  Maybe it's my nutty sense of humour but it did give me a chuckle.

It's Been One of Those Weeks

You know the kind - when everything gets away from you and before you know it it's gone right on by. In my case without even 1 blog entry since a week ago Friday. I'm behind on blog and e-mail reading too but at least I'm caught up on replying to comments made on here. I won't even talk about the courses I'm supposed to be taking this month but there is always this coming week. I at least have started one of them and now even have my own font.

So what do I have to show for the week - absolutely nothing. :) Well I did do a lot of cooking - the nice comforting food we love to have in winter. Made a few soups too. I did manage to pop out 3 times during the week for some much needed tea/chai and crossword time with my friend Jean (the most we've done that in months I think as usually it's just once or twice a week because of other things going on. I did manage to get my Project Life Week 2 done (I'll share that in a wee bit) but I don't know what I'm going to do about week 3 as there were hardly any pictures taken that are worth putting in there. :)

Now as for those who wished me well while coping with shingles, thanks so very much for your thoughts and I'm happy to say that the pain seems to have gone (knock on wood). Guess getting right on to those meds as quickly as I did was definitely a good thing.

We've had about 4 inches of snow since Thursday morning and I'm hoping to get out there today and get some pictures - course it would have been better to do it while it was still fresh and white but that just didn't happen for some reason.

Ok, Project Life. I finally finished week 2 on Thursday when we had the 3 inches of snow and just got around to getting decent pictures of it today. :)

As you can see, a lot of week 2 had to do with getting all the Christmas decorations down and put away till 2013 (we're supposed to be on a cruise Christmas of 2012, keeping fingers crossed about that).  A note of explanation - all those liquor boxes piled up at the front door - we make our own wine and had just bottled 4 batches.   My cross-stitch lady is one of my on going projects - I'm working away at finishing off the bead work on her.

Project Life 2012 - Week 1

Edited the picture/layout sharing from original post.

Well here it is almost the end of week 2 and I've just finished week 1 of Project Life.   :)   Don't know what I'm going to do about week 2 as not many pictures have been taken what with hardly going out at all - guess I could go down & take a picture of the Walk In Clinic.   :) 

I found it hard getting pictures of my week 1 side by side.  I'd be interested in knowing how others that aren't doing the digital version managed to share theirs.  Maybe the meds are frying my brain but I just can't think how to do it today.  :)

NB:  After a good night's sleep it came to me - PSE.

 

 

It got super cold one day that week and I just had to take a picture of our indoor/outdoor thermometer that we've got set for Fahrenheit to remind us just how cold it got.  (Hmmm, might be an idea to occasionally put some weather stuff in there).

The top right picture in the last layout is some of the tree decorations being sorted out for packing away for another year.

I'm trying to use up all the Creative Memories number stickers I've got from eons ago so that's what I'm using for the week numbers.

I can just see myself tomorrow changing these pictures of the 2 pages after I've thought about them. 

Yep - changed them!  :)

 

What a Year It's Been So Far

It's been a very busy start to the year here, one which I think I'd like a chance to have a re-do on. For some reason I went nuts signing up for on-line courses although I must say some of them are for the entire year while I've got 3 that are basically just the month of January. The ones I've signed up for that are basically just January (and it's already the 13th) are "Get Great Photos with Any Camera" with Elisha Snow at Big Picture Classes, "Digital Art Journaling" with Jessica Sprague and "Just One Sketch" with Kirsty from the Curiouser and Curiouser blog. I started out with the best of intentions to be pretty close to up to date on these 3 but life has thrown a clinker in there.

Last Thursday night I came down with a pain and we thought it might be my gall bladder so off to Emerg I went on Friday morning - 5 1/2 hours later, after blood tests, numerous x-rays and an ultrasound there was no diagnosis other than it was not my gall bladder (or heart related for that matter). The Dr. in Emerg said it could possibly be muscle related or shingles but there was no other symptom other than the pain.

Saturday we spent un-decorating (is that really a word?) the tree. But before we did that we took some pictures. John had fun (not) trying to figure out how to use the tripod with his new camera (well it's not really new anymore but he hadn't used the tripod with it yet). Finally he got it figured out and we were able to get some pictures.

The next morning we were off to the Walk-In Clinic as a rash had appeared - which meant the pain was being caused by shingles.  Wonderful.  Two & a half hours later I had my confirmed diagnosis and a prescription for an anti-viral and another medication that I just wasn't sure about.   I decided that I'd try & see my own Dr in the morning and not take the the other med in the meantime.   Sure enough as soon as she saw it she told me not to take it and instead gave me one for Tylenol 3. 

The rest of the week has been taken up with working on my Project Life Week 1 (will share in another post shortly) and taking meds which tend to make me pretty drowsy - hence no course stuff getting done.   I'm hoping today I manage to get somethings actually done on them.

Project Life 2012 - Title Page

I'd been hearing for ages it seems about something called Project Life by Becky Higgins.  I looked into it and discovered that it was pretty difficult to get the supplies up here in Canada but then late last fall I heard/read that there was now a Canadian distributor.  Back in November, I think it was, I debated and debated on whether or not to do it.   Finally I decided to.    I thought it would be a good way to document our life (not in a daily fashion but weekly) in this year of changes.  So I ordered the kit (the turquoise version seeing as I'm a nut for blue) with the "A" Photo Pocket Pages along with the Big Variety Pack Photo Pocket Pages, dividers and the Big Envelope Pages. They arrived in no time from British Columbia and I put them aside until I was ready to use them.

Fast forward to this week when I put the basics of my album together and decided what I wanted to do with my title page. I'm ever so slightly changing it from what they have suggested as a possibility. I'm using all the cards they suggested and where they suggested them but I've put the year on the top left one (old, very old leftover Creative Memories number stickers) and then I'm going to put a new picture of the 2 of us on part of the top right card. The picture has to be taken yet so that's why it's not there. :)

So here's what it's looking like without the picture.

I've now discovered that I have to find someplace different to take these pictures - somehow the ironing board just doesn't work but it was handy and available.  :)

 

Little Miss K at Her First Christmas

I thought this was the cutest picture when my nephew's wife shared it on Facebook. Remember my tiny little Great Niece that was born in April at 3 pounds 3 ounces that a lot of you were including in your thoughts and prayers? Well here she is Miss K happily playing in a box this past Christmas. With my niece-in-law's permission I'm sharing it with you so you can see how great she is doing.

 

I'm waiting for my niece to share pictures of my Great Nephew and other Great Niece so I can share a couple of the 2 of them too.

Our Christmas Angel

For years our Christmas tree has been topless without a topper. We used to use the one my parents used - I don't even know how to describe it - a sort of round thing with coloured mini lights behind it with filaments sticking out all around. I think it was supposed to be someones idea of the star of Bethlehem. But it sure wasn't my idea of it.

It's not a great picture but I think it shows what I mean.

Finally it bit the dust and for years now I've been searching for the perfect tree topper that would go on an artificial tree - couldn't be too heavy.

Finally though I found it - this past summer we were down in Halifax (the Canadian one) visiting my sister Jone and her husband Ted and I saw it. Many years ago, when the kids were young, they started giving us Amos Pewter Christmas ornaments (we've got quite the collection now as you might imagine seeing as both the kids are now married and parents). I wondered if Amos Pewter had any toppers and discovered they had 2 - a star and an angel. We both really liked it but wondered would it be too heavy. The clerk assured us it would be fine on an artificial tree and that was all I needed to know.

About 4 weeks ago the time came to actually put it on our tree. Well that was quite the laughable experience. Thankfully we decided to put her up before doing the rest of the tree. John got up on the step ladder and managed to put the top branches through her 2 loops on the back. All seemed good for about 1 minute when she slowly started bowing towards the front door. Well that wouldn't do. What to do next? John thought and thought and then remembered we had some sturdy green (so that would blend in) plant sticks - the kind you tie plants up to. Off to the basement to get one. He cut off a piece of one of them and this time he stuck that through the loops. Poor little angel with all that stuck up the back side of her.

It's a good thing the back of our tree is only visible from our staircase is all I can say. :) But it looked fine from the front and sides of the tree. Next Christmas I'll have to look for a tie that doesn't quite stand out so much from the green of the tree.

This has been my contribution to Storytelling Sunday that started over at Sian's blog. She's changed it a tiny bit this year which she tells you about here. The stories for January can be found here. So why don't you grab a nice beverage and enjoy the stories?

29 Years

In one sense it's gone by in a flash and in another it feels like we've always been together.  Happy Anniversary John.

Here's a couple of pictures from then & now.

Taken by friends of ours that came over on Tuesday (actually he was John's Best Man).

We've definitely changed a bit haven't we?  I've given up on the contacts and there's a lot more white/gray hair now - and we won't talk about weight.  :)

Boxing Day - Why?

No - the reason for it is not post Christmas sales. I was astounded to read that the majority of people seem to think that the reason for the Boxing Day holiday was for retailers to hold sales or for returning boxes of gifts (by the way - what store allows that now during the sales) or boxing up the Christmas decorations.  Now all of those things do seem to happen on Boxing Day but that is not the reason for it.  I thought I'd share with you what I know about it - it's pretty short but here it is.

Boxing Day was a day for the landowners, (etc) to deliver boxes of food and gifts to their servants/workers and it was also a day for giving alms to the poor.    

 

 

Merry Christmas Everyone

I've been very remiss at blogging this month and have a lot of catching up to do but I wanted to make sure I got on here today to wish you all a very Merry Christmas or Happy Hannukah (I know I'm late on that but think it's still going on).  

We're having a very relaxing morning and haven't even done the tree yet - guess you can tell there are no kids in this house.  :)    Just finished breakfast and will soon be having our Mimosas while we do the tree and stockings.   It's just the 2 of us this year and I'm really missing my family but hoping the phone lines aren't jammed later today and we get to talk with them.