Where have I been?

Oh my, it has been awhile!  We had a wonderful summer.  Here are some highlights.
1~Hannah was home for the summer, she worked as Gerry's pilot car driver.  I thot it was an excuse to finally get a pick up truck, boy do we love that thing!
2~We got Air Conditioning after 21 years of sweating in the stinkin heat.  Of course we had already gone thru some pretty hot weather and to top it off having company as well.  They left on Sunday, we got AC on Monday....sorry!
3~Great family reunion at Moose Lake.  Add a little van break down just for fun.  We send the kids ahead, 5 hours waiting for John to pick us up from Tim Hortens in Olds.  Gerry goes home with Dave on the Monday, Tuesday back with the pick up, trailering the van, and home on Thursday.  I won't even mention the trip home...lets just say reminds us of old  times, ha ha.
4~We got an old camper, you know alot~ alot of wood paneling.  Gerry had a few slack days so we, mostly him, dug in and started a reno.  Primed, painted, new covers for the seats and cute curtians.  Fun shopping for stuff for the camper.  It looks wonderful.  Who used it first, Dave and Laura!  They said it was great. 
5~The jeep, my favorite of all Gerry's "toys".  We had a "redneck" date with Tam and John.  Explaination...Tams knee has issues so the back seat is difficult to get into, so she sat in front with Ger, and I sat in back with John, ha ha. 
Gerry and I had gone on a great ride on our anniversary, I only got out and walked once.  The view was spectacular.
There you go, some highlights of our summer.  Hopefully I will blog abit more often now!  Until next time~Terri

New blog

Amanda and I are co-contributers on a new blog called grass-cloth-green.blogspot.ca
  A few quotes from our new blog"....a mother and daughter always dreaming of new projects."  So true.  I always have something on the go and thinking of other projects to do, I must have passed this same mind set on to Amanda.   Another quote  "I just want to make pretty things even if nobody cares".  I love that! 
My biggest challenge on our new blog is not to be too chatty!  So hopefully our new blog will be varied and interesting, trying to show some of our projects, recipes, new books and a whole lot of other things.  I will continue this blog of course, got to be chatty somewhere!  Until next time~Terri

Inspired

Just recently at our church we had a wonderful display of quilts, and of course there are no pictures of it.  Anyway, the quilts are what we call "comfort quilts".  Every few years our quilting group gets together to make these quilts that we give away to those who are in hospital or very ill, or have lost a loved one,  from our church or the community.  There is alot of work before hand, gathering fabric, cutting them into blocks, putting together "kits" to make the day of assembly so much easier.  I have had the fun of putting some of the kits together, but missed out this year on the big day of the 9 to 9 quilt day.  We were in Saskatewan picking up Hannah from Millar.  But seeing our gym walls covered with beautiful quilts that will be so special to someone in their time of need  just totally inspired me.  We have a wonderful group of ladies, full of ideas and fun.  Such a blessing to be part of this special group and to those who work so hard to make things happen.

On the edge of spring

I have finally given in to the thot of snow happening randomly when I think it should be spring. Especially since it snowed on the first day of spring, just out of spite, I believe. I thot that perhaps it was a better way to deal with it rather then wanting to close all the blinds and crawl back into bed.
So here we are...on the edge of spring...and I make an amazing discovery. I have a conversation with my friend Pam about trying snowshoeing. The ladies of the church have been getting together for a few weeks and for whatever reason...fear...I don't go. So Pam calls me up, says they are in town and are going and do I want to come with them. Sigh....ya, come get me.
On a side note, and this will seem random, but I have been using all of Hannah's cast off deodorants, thot I had one more to go, but no. Great, I am going out the door to go and clean and need deodorant. The search is on, oh, I will use Gerry's, lovely. I love smelling like a man! Okay, so the phone call, my claim to non outdoor activities, is that I do not have winter clothes. I did about a week before purchase some EXPENSIVE hiking boots. It seemed more practical then winter boots and as my friend Pam says they will last all my life. So when you see me in the nursing home those will be the shoes of choice. So I had no worries about boots. The hunt begins, Gerry's long underwear, check, Gerry's shirt, oh I have one, should I wear one of his coats? Finally the outfit complete hoping it will work.
The amazing discovery....I love snowshoeing!! I went the next night, in the dark with Amanda, Laura and a whole bunch of ladies...love it. I bought snowshoes...two pairs! Now its spring and I may not go again until next year....but I will be ready! Thanks to Lise for arranging all the snowshoeing events, there are alot of us who now have a new "sport" for winter, rather then closing the blinds.

The Living room is done!

At last the living room is finished. Sometimes I have one idea about a spot and then it comes out so differently then how I expected it to. I love making little interesting places to look at in our home. I saw this frame idea on Pintrest, theirs is way better and bigger, but I still like mine since it fits with this cute bird. Another idea that has been on my mind is the picture ledge. I had wanted to put all of Gerry's Grandpa's and Mom's pictures in one spot rather then all over the place. I also wanted NOT to hang them on the wall so that I could change it up once in a while. Not only is the picture ledge a great way to do this, but also very cheap. For two 8 ft ledges we only spent $30.00. Now all the pictures are showcased and I think that it makes them feel even more special.

Here is the cushion to the couch, it will do for now, but am on the lookout for something spectacular!

I did have fun looking at sofa's. When all was said and done, looking at fabric samples I liked the original. Thinking that it would have to be ordered in, then the sales lady realized that the floor model was to be sold...perfect! The best part...Gerry loves it and actually sits on it! He hated our old couch. I am happy with the look of the living room and surprized at how everything came together. Now we can just sit and enjoy!

Couch shopping seems like a "life choice"

I am not sure why the thought of buying a couch is such a big deal. It seems like a "life choice". I had better choose wisely because I will have to live with it for a very long time. In 33 1/2 years of marriage we have had 3 couches.
1~the used brown couch
2~ wagon wheel patterned couch, later known as the treasure chest as holes developed and things would disappear.
3~the blue couch which did not survive cleaning when there was soot all over it.
Gerry never did like our last couch, rarely sat on it, but then again he doesn't really sit much when he is at home. After all being a truck driver he does spend alot of his day sitting. So this round of couch buying I thought that perhaps I should get his opinion on what we should get. Oh dear...I opened a can of wiggling worms....we have completely opposite taste in furniture. He likes leather, slouchy, reclining things. I like fabric, traditional and tend toward smaller couches.
Then there is color, this time neutral, classic and which color that is...I don't know! I can see that this couch buying is going to take some time and alot of looking around.
I would welcome any feedback from you, perhaps you have had better experience in couch shopping then I have, and have tried more styles then three in 30 some years!

More pictures

This is the spare room upstairs. I have already picked through some of this pile so you can imagine how it was before, hard to even find a path. The best thing about this sorting experience was finding both sets of the long lost Honda keys and also the CD for Hannah's printer. Both in different boxes and there since September!

Now everything has a label and a place. Next to decorate...that's the fun part! The room is white so I can go with any color I want...any suggestions?

I have two more major rooms to do yet. Then on to painting all the doors, closet doors and inside trim. My goal is to be done by February...um yes 2012! ha ha. So happy to show you the progress of my sorting, I will be a professional when I am finished.

A whole bunch of pictures

Here are some pictures of "ground zero" the storage area for my fabric. This is how it was unpacked for me.

I am not sure if you think this looks better or not, but believe me it is sorted by fabric and color and much better then before. It is a storage area after all, not going for the pretty look.

My sewing area...quite the disaster and a tad overwhelming.

After three very long days, I can sew in a very neat place.

Or find the treadmill. The wicker bench is going upstairs.

And the wall unit...destined to be re-painted.

It's BC cold

I think the whole country is in a deep freeze. It's "BC cold" here, which means nothing to those in northern BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba. They have the corner market on cold and we rarely win in the temperature race with them, and therefore have no real reason to complain. Every morning I compare temperatures, here is this mornings findings. Vernon -18 that feels like -28c (for my American family I will translate, 0 and feels like -18f) Pambrun where Hannah is -27 and feels like -36. Bonnyville or LacLaBiche -29 (-20f).
We scurry about like mice, taking a run to the car and from the car and dare not leave without full winter gear. The snow is squeaky and the air is dry. Most of us just want to be at home sipping hot drinks and cuddling up by the fireplace (wish I had one) or under a blanket. It is what January is all about. I have a few friends who have taken holidays to warmer places. They should get a gold star for timing it so perfectly. After all if you are going to warmer places you certainly want to know that you have truly escaped winter. I am thankful that it won't last long and we will get back to the winter we know and have no reason to complain about.

Let the sorting begin

If you look at some of my rooms they are stacked with boxes and barely a path, it is some overwhelming. I could have had the Stutters people put things back where it was. Even tho they have a zillion pictures it doesn't go exactly where it should, they try anyway. I decided to have things left in boxes so I could sort, reorganize and change what I wanted. If I blindfolded you, took you into one of these rooms you might think you are on an episode of Hoarders! Yikes!!
It is quite the process to figure out where to start first. Once started you need alot of breaks from the mess just to clear your head and rethink what you are going to tackle next. You have to be in a brutal mood to cut clear of the emotional ties to objects to figure out if they stay or go.
After much thot I decided to start in my favorite room, the rec/sewing room. Really it is two areas, the place I store all my fabric, and then where I sew. I decided that out of all the rooms this is the most important to do first. I love to sew and will need a place to create and get away from the routine of the day.
After three days of cleaning, it is DONE. I really like the way it turned out. I made a few changes, not as much stuff on the ledge, my Farmers market stuff in bins and in the back room, books on the actual bookshelf and Gerry put in new side lights that make the room much brighter. I would love to show pictures, but my computer is being stubborn, what else is new!
My plan is to do something less time consuming next week, like putting all the Christmas stuff back in the closet. I figure that I can't do a big sorting project every week. I think I will be done by the end of February....oh boy do I have alot to do! Until next time..............Terri