Christmas and Birthday and Gifts, Oh My!

Feeling a little nostalgic today. We finally got some significant snow, but as this seems to be the pattern our weather has been following lately, it immediately warmed up and started to rain. While I appreciate I don’t have to clean off my car or shovel the sidewalk, it would have been nice to keep the white stuff around for a day or two.

I miss the Christmases I used to have when I was a kid. Mostly, I miss the snow. The snow would start coming down in November, and by Christmas we’d be up to our eyeballs in it. Thanks to global warming, it’s rare we have a white Christmas anymore. In fact, the weather was so mild I was still wearing my fall coat until the end of December. And really, I only put it away because I refused to wear it for New Year’s, even if I could have got away with it.

My birthday comes about 2 ½ weeks after Christmas, and I was hoping for snow for it but all I got was rain. And as anyone who has a birthday near Christmas will tell you, it really sucks. People think that just because Christmas is barely over, your birthday is no big deal. But let me tell you, nothing could be further from the truth.

Birthdays have always been a big deal to me. Not just my own birthday, but anyone’s birthday. Sometimes my big deals don’t always work out the way I envisioned, but at least I try. Take the daughter’s 16th birthday. I worked like a dog planning a surprise party for her. I’m not sure the party was a total surprise, but I know the fact that her boyfriend showed up without a present was. Seriously boyfriend? And here I thought I’d planned for everything. LOL

This year I had a milestone birthday, and while the one or two people who still thought of birthdays as no big deal made me sad, the number of Facebook happy birthday wishes helped make up for it. And my stitchery guild sisters sang happy birthday to me at our meeting, two of them contacted me privately for more birthday wishes, and I talked to one of my sisters for an hour and a half – and while I was talking to her, my other sister tried to call and had to settle for leaving me a voice mail. The hubby got me a generous slice of the healthiest cake he could find – carrot cake – that was still pretty decadent but hey, it was my birthday. 😊

On to the presents . . . the hubby and I usually get each other one big present for Christmas and a couple of little ones. This year we made the decision to get our own big present. So the hubby got himself a new colour printer, and I got myself this:

It’s a Singer Quantum Stylist computerized sewing machine. It took me a while to settle on which machine I wanted. For a while the leader was a Brother machine that did embroidery, but I figured if I was going to embroider something other than an edging, I’d probably do it by hand. Still, the Quantum did come with its fair share of decorative stitches:

Have you seen pictures of those stitching calendars? The idea being to do a stitch a day for an entire year? I always love looking at them and I always intended to start one of my own, but by the time I remember I was going to do it, we’re usually well into the new year. But this year, my daughter gave me this:

Not only does it tell you how to get started, it has iron-on templates for the base to work on, and pages and pages of ideas and inspiration. We went away for the new year, but I took my stitching bag, and the book, with me so I could make my start. I don’t know which is harder, coming up with a new little image for each day, or actually stitching the little image. It’s going to be a challenge to keep it up, but so far I’m having a lot of fun.

And apparently, great minds think alike. I don’t remember every mentioning the stitch-a-day calendar to my sister in New Brunswick, but she must know me better than I realized because she sent me this for my birthday:

This is a whole stitch-a-day kit, that includes thread, material, and a tutorial. Looks like I’ll be set for next year too. LOL

I can see this is going to be the Year of Sewing. I’ve yet to figure out my sewing machine, but I’m keeping up with my calendar and I still want to finish my zentangle. In the next guild meeting I’ll be learning sashiko (Japanese embroidery) and I’ve just started a 12-week stitch-along course in Blackwork.

But that’ll be a post for another day. 😊

Malariology Monday

malariology ~ study of malaria

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, I tell you what! Summer is well under way with the weather alternating sunny and hot with damp and hotter. I think the hubby has only missed one day of swimming in the pool so far. But for me the best part of summer is road trips.

Last week we took the grandbaby to Reptile World, which is about an hour north of us. This zoo is famous not only for the variety of snakes, turtles and lizards (not to mention the crocodiles and alligators) but for the fact they’re all rescues. One enclosure had 10 -15 alligators, all rescued from some guy’s basement. Seriously! Who in their right mind would keep a congregation of alligators (and yes, that’s the name for a group of them – I looked it up) in their basement?

It’s not a large zoo, but there was a lot to see. The reptile house had the snakes, lizards, and turtles, there was a separate building for the crocodiles and alligators, and scattered throughout the property were enclosures for various tortoises.

While Ellie loved all the creatures she saw and was particularly fascinated by the crocodiles and alligators, her favourites were the turtles.

My favourite, however, were the green snakes. I think there were only two of them in the enclosure, but they were super long and were constantly in motion so it was a little hard to tell.

The other big attraction for kids at this zoo are the dinosaurs:

These dinosaurs are all animated, complete with sound. You can’t really tell from the picture, but in this one the grandbaby is roaring back at the dinosaur. LOL

We also went for a hike on a nature trail inside the park and I do mean hike! The path started on a gentle slope into the woods, then got steeper, and steeper, and steeper. Just when we were starting to wonder if it was going to be uphill both ways, it levelled out for a few yards before coming to a very sketchy looking pile of rocks masquerading as a staircase leading downwards.

According to the map, the trail went down, along the edge of a pond, and then looped back up again. We couldn’t really see very far down, and we were in sandals, so discretion being the better part of valour we turned back.

All in all, it was a fun day. It’s no wonder both the hubby and the grandbaby dozed on the drive home. I would have too if I hadn’t been driving. ;-)

Wreck This Journal - Week One

As I mentioned in my post on Monday, I bought my daughter and I copies of Wreck This Journal for Valentine's Day. And then I decided to share the fun I have with mine on my Wednesday posts. So first, we'll start with a picture of the journal, just so we have a record of what it looks like as I start:

There's a lot of fun instructions inside this thing and one of the first things it tells you is that you don't have to follow the instructions in order.

I have to admit, since I only got this journal on the weekend, I haven't got very far in it. So far I've done this page:

and these pages:

And let me tell you, cracking the spine on this thing was not an easy task for me. First of all, it was the principle of the thing. I do not crack the spines of my books. Ever. I have books I've read that look like they're still brand new because their spines are intact.

The second reason this was not an easy task for me was . . . it was not an easy task. I don't know what they used to glue this book together, but it's pretty darned solid. But I did manage one good crack right down the middle. I may have shed a little tear when I did so. ;-)

I can't wait to see what the journal has in store for me this week!

Of Lack of Ideas and Having Fun . . .

So here I sit, trying to come up with a topic for today's Wildcard post . . .

I had a great idea last night as I was falling asleep, but of course I didn't wake up enough to write it down and all I remember about it was it was something to do with time. Something really witty, I'm sure. :-)

And then I was thinking of posting something witty - you know, give everyone a much needed hump day laugh. But honestly? I'm not feeling in a very witty mood these days. So then I thought maybe I should post about that - being clinically depressed or suffering from SAD (season affective disorder) is bad enough, but having both at the same time is . . . difficult.

But while I'm sure I could write a nice long blog about the signs of depression and what you can do to combat them, that would be . . . well, depressing. So where does that leave us? With a quiz! LOL

Oh, c'mon. It's been a long time since I've posted a quiz or two.

Hey! It's either that or the long whiny post about being depressed. Your choice.

That's what I thought. ;-)


First we have a quiz that asks Deep Down, Who Are You?

You Are a Poet

You are sensitive and expressive. You feel very deeply, and the smallest things in this world can move you. You may feel misunderstood by the world at times, so you make sure to understand yourself well at least. You are very reflective. You are a wordsmith, and you know how to get your thoughts out on paper. You are very eloquent and even witty. For you, the written word is very cathartic. You always feel better after writing or even just reading a bit.

Deep Down, Who Are You?

Blogthings: 100's of Fun, Free Quizzes!

Next we have one that asks What Kind of Healthy Are You?

You Are Physically Healthy

You treat your body well, and you do your best to make sure you are a top performance. You take your physical health seriously. It's likely that you know as much about exercise as a personal trainer and as much about eating well as a nutritionist. You always feel better when you know you're taking care of yourself. You like to be empowered and proactive. You know that you can't control your health completely, but you do what you can to make sure you're as healthy as possible.

What Kind of Healthy Are You?

Blogthings: 100's of Fun, Free Quizzes!

And finally ('cause as much fun as I'm having doing this, I still have a pile of writing to do today) we have What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convincing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Blogthings: 100's of Fun, Free Quizzes!

Now admit it, didn't you have fun? If you want to share the fun, you can always tell us your results from any or all of the quizzes in the comments. Go ahead, it won't hurt a bit. :-D