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. 😊

Moilsome Monday

moilsome ~ laborious

Do you craft?

I’ve often said I’ve never met a craft I didn’t like, or at least give a try, hence the big storage closet that’s over-flowing with craft stuff even after cleaning it out a couple of times. And there’s nothing like a snowy day to fill you with the urge to pick up a crochet hook or a pair of knitting needles.

My latest endeavor is a vest I’m knitting while watching TV at night. I don’t remember learning to crochet, but I remember teaching myself to knit from a book. I learned to sew from my mother on an old Singer sewing machine that went forwards and backwards and that was it - but it opened up a whole new world of fashion for my Barbies. And I remember her teaching me to embroider long before that so I could achieve my sewing badge in the church group I belonged to.

I had an uncle who did needlepoint - I have a footstool covered with his work, and the daughter has one of the chairs he did. My sisters like to do counted cross stitch, but I find it hard on the eyes. I do like to embroider though, and I have a couple of unfinished quilts made up of embroidered squares. And I’ve had to stop myself from crocheting afghans - I’ve run out of people to give them to and I have more than I can possibly use. :-D

One of my favorite places to visit when I was a kid was Owen Sound. Not because it’s a beautiful city, which it is, but because that’s where Aunt Florence lived. And Aunt Florence was the Craft Queen. She took craft classes and clipped craft sections from magazines and never failed to have a new craft to share.

Oh, the memories...

We made flowers out of crepe paper - big red poppies with black centers, and yellow daisies, and white tulips. Using fabric and starch we made fabric flowers using the same patterns, and she made the Three Wise Men that sat on her mantle-piece every Christmas after that. Then there were the St. Patrick’s Day pigs, made out of styrofoam egg cartons. Easter egg shaped bird’s nests made out of balloons wrapped in string.

I think of Aunt Florence every time I’m in the craft aisle of a dollar store, as I was on the weekend. And despite having a closet full of craft supplies I couldn’t resist picking up a few more. The granddaughter (hitherto to be known as GD) is at just the right age for crafts.

She already loves painting, and likes putting things together. So I’ve laid in a supply of pom poms and pipe cleaners and googly eyes. I even found a couple of craft kits from Christmas stockings past, which we tried out last week but while the school glue I had on hand is good enough for paper, I needed a proper craft glue to deal with pipe cleaners and pom poms.

Naturally, I subscribe to the belief that the best gifts are the handmade ones. So I was thrilled to receive a dragon GD (with a little help from her dad) made me out of an egg carton. Of course hubby immediately started whining that he wanted a penguin made out of an egg carton for his birthday. Well, they didn’t use an egg carton, but they did make a pretty impressive penguin.

Aunt Florence would be proud!

Molariform Monday

molariform ~ shaped like a molar

Where do I start? *shakes head sadly*

Let's start with the weather, which kind of skipped over spring and went straight to summer. We had a few record-breaking high temperature days towards the end of the week. And with the nicer weather we have the birds returning to serenade us. Like this guy:

This tree is at the very back of our yard. And in this tree is a robin, who apparently has an app on his phone that lets him know when sunrise is, because even on overcast days he starts his damned chirping at sunrise and keeps it up until mid-morning. I swear if I had a sling shot I'd be using him for target practice!

Can't spot him? Let me help:

Chirping should not be allowed in the morning until I've had a coffee!

Last week was pretty unremarkable. Mostly what I did was edit Lucky Dog, which you can read about HERE.

Sunday, of course, was Mother's Day, which was kind of a mixed bag for me. I was all set to have a relaxing morning of painting, only to discover I had everything I needed . . . except the actual paint. So after a family brunch, we stopped at Staples where I picked some up, and for a $5 donation to the Special Olympics, I received a Mother's Day gift bag that had a really nice message pad and a can of cinnamon coated almonds.

My pleasure in the gift lasted until I got home and tried one of the almonds. I think the cinnamon must have been mixed with cement, because I bit into one and broke a tooth to the point where I don't think the dentist will be able to save it. And we were having corn on the cob for supper. *sigh*

Still, it wasn't all bad. I had a visit from my little Ellie-beans and got to read her a story:

And remember my old friend, Blackie the squirrel? He left a Mother's Day present for me in the front garden:

So it looks exactly like the tulips in my next-door-neighbor's garden. It's the thought that counts. Right? ;-)

And I got a bit of a chuckle out of Dante's unique solution to the "Nook War" he and Taz are waging. They both like the book nook and neither are willing to share.

And finally, my orchid has six - count 'em - six blooms open! And there's still more buds on the end of the stalk! So beautiful!

So all in all, I'd say the good out-weighed the bad yesterday. At least that's what I'll keep telling myself until I visit the dentist. ;-)