Before we moved away from Ottawa, Barry and I bought a treadmill. It is quite a nice one, and once I got to the point where I could balance on it, I quite liked it.
I don't mind walking... but here's the thing. It is boring. And it takes some time. When we first got the treadmill iPods hadn't been invented yet. (What medieval times did we come from!!! Wowsers!)
In any event. I discovered that I couldn't hear, over the sound of the treadmill, ANYTHING - so listening to an audio book wasn't going to work. Music had to be turned up so loud that the roof tiles were dancing (and the treadmill was in the basement) and I was busy. I wanted to get this walk over with!
At the same time, I had a friend who was taking the Running Room's running course (come to find out, I had another future friend taking it with her.) I couldn't IMAGINE how a running course could possibly work. I couldn't have worked another class or activity into my schedule anyway, but I spoke with my friend about how a running class worked and decided to give it a try on my own.
I liked the idea of doing it on the treadmill because it meant that there was no time getting TO the class. I didn't have to be ON TIME for a class. AND if I had a heart attack jogging, I could toddle (I hoped) over to the phone and call 911 before I collapsed. Same if I twisted my ankle...
Anyway. I was pretty good about going on the treadmill and eventually I got to the point where I could run for 5 km without stopping (I think I did that twice). Then we got ready to move, and the treadmill became a feeble voice in the basement, occasionally calling, but easily ignored.
We moved, finished the basement of the house ourselves, stored the treadmill in the exercise room down there, and I became busy in our new community. Barry used the treadmill and his bowflex religiously for a year or so. And then they began to sit. I joined Tai Chi, which I love. I think it is good for me - it is the only exercise that makes me work my brain as well as my body.
In December, Barry came out of the den and spoke to me, while I had my left hand on the top cupboard door handle. And, without letting go of the cupboard, I twisted around to look at him. And something in my left shoulder made a funny noise. Then I made a funny noise. Mine sounded sort of like 'ouch'.
I took a week off of Tai Chi. And then I went, only to discover that my left arm did NOT want to be held up at shoulder height AT ANY TIME. I stayed for the first hour of the class and then came home. The following week, I stayed home too. And then there was a two week break over Christmas. The first Thursday after that (Yes, there is a point to this!) we had had snow on top of warm ground and then the air temperature had dropped. Barry had gone out to polish off the driveway, and when he came in, he announced that it was VERY slippery.
Our house has a sort of longish driveway, with a ditch on either side of the end of it, (or the beginning, I suppose, depending on which direction you are going!) and a ditch on the other side of the road. We have a full size pickup... which I was not eager to test for ditch-worthiness. (This is the point where the story starts to gain some relevance, by the way!) So, I got dressed in my Tai Chi outfit and I went downstairs to the treadmill and I walked for 55 minutes. I probably should have started with a shorter time, but I would have been at Tai Chi for 2 hours, so I wanted to actually use up some of that time. I went 5 km. (When I came upstairs Barry asked how far I had gone. So for a lark, I told him 1 1/2 km... Before he could get a full on rant going {what were you doing down there for so long if you only went 1 1/2 km} I managed to get him stopped, told him I was pulling his leg and that I had gone 5 km. I was soaking with sweat - I may be out of shape, but it wasn't quite THAT badly out of shape!)
I had been thinking about a facebook friend of mine who has been walking this year past. So I marked on the calendar, the distance that I had walked. I walked on the Friday as well; 3 km. Saturday we went shopping. I have no idea how far we walked, but we were out of the house for hours, and we had cat litter, cat food, $400+ of groceries, had returned two things, visited 7 stores, and I was absolutely exhausted. Sunday I walked. In fact, except for Thursday, I walked every day this week. Thursday I went to Tai Chi. And there is only one jong I can't do. Today my left arm feels better than ever, so I seem to be on the road to recovery!!
Unbeknownst to me, my friend achieved a personal goal TODAY - she walked more than 1000 km over the course of the last year; this was her one year anniversary. She did some incredible number of laps in a domed walking oval in her hometown in Ontario and she has been reporting on her walks, off and on, all year. She had set some goal for her birthday and more than met it.
I do not aspire to walking 1000 km - that goal seems too high for me at this point. But I am proud of my friend and was inspired by her to get going!! I'll let you know how it goes... Tomorrow, if I find time to walk 3 km, I will have completed my first 25 km! :-)
Friday 18 January 2013
Monday 14 January 2013
Just fun...
Okay, I have been thinking about "FUN" all day. I have to take a photo of 'fun', and I'm having trouble.
This is how Dictionary dot com defines fun:
This is an awfully dark picture of it, and it hasn't been sewn together yet - it is just on the design wall... When it is done it will be roughly 24 inches square... see why it is called the Big Star Block? And the quilt will have 4 of them!
This is how Dictionary dot com defines fun:
1. something that provides mirth or amusement: A picnic would be fun.
It has been a busy grey day - the temperature was above freezing by 7 C degrees or about 14 F degrees (making it around 46 F for those of you who are math challenged... [I had written 52 at first, so I was poking fun at myself more than at anyone reading this who is not accustomed to performing routine metric conversions - or who can not add 32 and 14 - which, evidently, includes me...]). I went out of the house for half an hour and then came home and did my three kilometers on the treadmill, and then carefully cut out twice as much fabric as I needed for my current project. And then I couldn't figure out why I had so many units... Better too many than too few! :-)
So, here's the question, What would fun be? Fun for me would be a day in which I had no unpleasant responsibilities. It would be fun to get together with my friends! It would be fun to go to the beach with my camera. It would be fun to go to a fabric store with an unlimited budget!! (Oooo, that would be SO FUN! I would invite my friends to go with me and when we were done FILLING my pickup with fabric, we could go for coffee!!!)
Doing the laundry is not fun. (It isn't a terrible chore either, because I don't actually have to take the clothes down to the river and bang them on rocks - which is good, as the water is likely quite chilly!)
It was fun to put together my third Big Star Block. After I am finished writing this, I will head downstairs, trim another one and then play with the layout of the quilt. THAT is FUN!!
It was fun to play Candy Crush (a terrible time waster, but I like it anyway) and actually complete a level!! I actually took a picture of that! :-)
It was fun to watch an episode of Big Bang Theory (we got a season for Christmas, and we are really enjoying them!) We have been invited out to play Euchre (a card game) tomorrow evening, and that will be fun - unfortunately, it is not today! LOL
Writing this is fun. I'm not sure why. But it is satisfying to get something down that is in my head!!!
There are lots of things that I enjoy. I'm not sure that enjoyment is the same thing as fun. Is it fun to drink my coffee in the morning? It is FUN to share my enjoyment of coffee with my facebook friends - and to hunt up cool coffee memes to share! THAT is fun!
I hope you had fun reading this. This completes my week of daily blog posts and I've had fun writing them. I don't know whether I will write one a day, but I have fun writing them so I'm sure there will be more!!
Enjoy!!
Sunday 13 January 2013
Just another low carb recipe...
Varm Milch, perhaps?
I eat low carb. And once in awhile I take a high carb (ie, normal) recipe and redo it.
I wanted something warm to drink that was not caffeinated and non-alcoholic... So I looked up warm milk.
And I found grandma's recipe... which has rather alot of honey in it. I didn't care much for honey when I was not low carb, and I can't have it now... so this is what I did to modify it...
Oh, and the name of it is an homage to Young Frankenstein.
Varm Milch, perhaps?
(No, thank you, Frau Brucker! Neeeeiiiiigggghhhh!)
1 1/2 c. half and half (in the Maritimes that is called Blend, don't know why. In any event, 10% fat cream)
2 T Splenda
1 t. vanilla
pinch of cinnamon
Add Splenda to the cream, give it a stir and heat it in the microwave on 70% for 2 minutes.
Remove from microwave and pour into a mug. Stir in vanilla. Sprinkle on cinnamon. Enjoy!
It is really nice.
This is a short note tonight, but a note nonetheless!
I eat low carb. And once in awhile I take a high carb (ie, normal) recipe and redo it.
I wanted something warm to drink that was not caffeinated and non-alcoholic... So I looked up warm milk.
And I found grandma's recipe... which has rather alot of honey in it. I didn't care much for honey when I was not low carb, and I can't have it now... so this is what I did to modify it...
Oh, and the name of it is an homage to Young Frankenstein.
Varm Milch, perhaps?
(No, thank you, Frau Brucker! Neeeeiiiiigggghhhh!)
1 1/2 c. half and half (in the Maritimes that is called Blend, don't know why. In any event, 10% fat cream)
2 T Splenda
1 t. vanilla
pinch of cinnamon
Add Splenda to the cream, give it a stir and heat it in the microwave on 70% for 2 minutes.
Remove from microwave and pour into a mug. Stir in vanilla. Sprinkle on cinnamon. Enjoy!
It is really nice.
This is a short note tonight, but a note nonetheless!
Saturday 12 January 2013
Just some neat things I have found on the internet...
Okay. Neat things I have found in the internet.
Pinterest. Now that's a kind of neat thing that you have to have a look at to figure out what, exactly, its purpose is. And I've decided in my own mind that it is a visual book mark system. You may have a passion - say Chocolate recipes. So you look recipes up on the internet. And you find one that is wonderful.... but later you can't find the darned thing! So using Pinterest, you Pin an image from that webpage onto a Board that you have named - maybe Chocolate fondues... (if you have several chocolate fondue recipes, or you think you might like to collect Chocolate fondue recipes). Later when you are feeling a bit bored with life, you might be looking at your Boards - and oh my, the chocolate fondue looks SO good - so you click on the link (and if it hasn't been removed or moved!!) you will go right to that recipe again. Heaven!!!
How about a search engine? This doesn't sound too exciting until you need to find something on the internet. I have to tell you my favourite one is Google - but not the simple page. I like Google's advance search page. In that portion of the search engine, you can put an exact phrase in. Remember the lyrics of a song (or part of them) but have no idea of the artists or the title? In the exact phrase window type the portion you remember - and click search. I have an iPod, which I love, and I love to buy music from iTunes - but I can NEVER remember who sang it or what it was called!!
Facebook. I love facebook. It has its weird moments - but I love keeping in contact with my friends, and sharing pictures and ideas. I frequently play a game (only one at a time, is my new rule) on facebook - that's enough time wasting for me. But I love to look at other quilter's work - and many of us share on facebook.
Craftsy. I LOVE craftsy's classes. I don't buy much fabric off of the internet - I like to touch it, as well as look at the colour, but I have bought two of Craftsy's classes on the topic of quilting and I have been MOST impressed with them!!
Have you looked at the free tutorials that Jenny Doan does on YouTube from the Missouri Star Quilting Co.? What fun! Very professionally done, and so fun and informative! YouTube itself is pretty neat. You can even share videos with your family privately on YouTube.
Blogspot is pretty cool too. If you want to start a simple Blog (web log, in case you wonder where that word came from) this is a pretty nice spot to be.
Urban Dictionary is a good place to look up slang terms and all those initials that are so baffling the first time you see them. By the same token, it is definitely an 'adult' site - the slang is often a bit rude. WTF does not mean, Well That's Fantastic!
Canada411. My mom and dad frequently ask me to confirm an address or phone number or find someone in Canada. I have even, although not using Canada411, found relatives in the States for them. Canada Post has all the postal codes in Canada too - if you have the snail mail addy, they have the postal code. And if snail mail means nothing to you, I refer you to the Urban Dictionary above.
Are you looking for quilt blocks? Have you looked at Quilters Cache? Oh my heavens!!! It is wonderful, I have had such a lovely time scrolling through blocks.
Another wonderful quilting site is About Quilting. Terrific - patterns, how tos, blocks, basic stuff, intermediate and advanced. It is wonderful too, well written and a huge resource!!
Quiltville is pretty neat! Bonnie Hunter writes an entertaining blog (not always about quilting) and does a mystery quilt each year. I haven't taken the time to get ready to do it - but I have two 'flesh' friends who are and at least one of my facebook friends is making this year's. I would LOVE to do it... when I have time! :-)
I like podcasts - and several of the ones that I like (mostly on Science or Social Science and Humanities) have webpages where you can listen to their podcasts. Quirks and Quarks, the Vinyl Cafe, Naked Astronomy, Naked Scientist, RadioLab, 99% Invisible, Stuff You Should Know, all come to mind. I listen to these on my iPod, while I quilt, frequently!!
Have you ever watched a Ted Conference? They have a webpage, and two podcasts - one is audio only and one is video - and the video one is better... they are on a range of topics. And I haven't watched any that weren't amazing! (There must be some that aren't amazing, there are more than 1000 of them available!)
Oh, the Nova Scotia Webcams are worth looking up and taking a boo at!! I especially like the Peggy's Cove Lighthouse webcam - when the weather is not so good, the waves are amazing!!
Other things that I have looked for on the internet lately; hiking or snowshoeing trails near where I live (they are there!), and beaches I should see in Nova Scotia (they are there too), rules for Mah-jongg (found them and they saved my bacon!), maps for various places - downtown Halifax, Westville, NS, Dartmouth NS. The hours of operation and the directions to find various stores. I have bought movie tickets on the internet and done Christmas Shopping on same. Lee Valley has its catalogues on the internet - wonderful!! And Amazon can save your life!!
I love my eReaders and I like looking at Project Gutenberg - if you go on there, make sure you spell Gutenberg with only one U and two Es. Lots of ebooks all in the public domain!
I think I could go on and on - there are lots and lots of great things out there. There is also a lot of junk, so you have to be somewhat discerning. It is frustrating if you have found something in the past and you can't find it again... but sometimes you find such neat things.
This is another reason why I like facebook. I have a facebook friend who is the BEST at finding neat stuff on the internet and then she SHARES her links on facebook.
Well, excuse me, I have a class on Craftsy that I ought to be listening to or a Big Star Block that I ought to be making. Jenny Doan at Missouri Star Quilting Co, showed me how!!!
Have fun!
Pinterest. Now that's a kind of neat thing that you have to have a look at to figure out what, exactly, its purpose is. And I've decided in my own mind that it is a visual book mark system. You may have a passion - say Chocolate recipes. So you look recipes up on the internet. And you find one that is wonderful.... but later you can't find the darned thing! So using Pinterest, you Pin an image from that webpage onto a Board that you have named - maybe Chocolate fondues... (if you have several chocolate fondue recipes, or you think you might like to collect Chocolate fondue recipes). Later when you are feeling a bit bored with life, you might be looking at your Boards - and oh my, the chocolate fondue looks SO good - so you click on the link (and if it hasn't been removed or moved!!) you will go right to that recipe again. Heaven!!!
How about a search engine? This doesn't sound too exciting until you need to find something on the internet. I have to tell you my favourite one is Google - but not the simple page. I like Google's advance search page. In that portion of the search engine, you can put an exact phrase in. Remember the lyrics of a song (or part of them) but have no idea of the artists or the title? In the exact phrase window type the portion you remember - and click search. I have an iPod, which I love, and I love to buy music from iTunes - but I can NEVER remember who sang it or what it was called!!
Facebook. I love facebook. It has its weird moments - but I love keeping in contact with my friends, and sharing pictures and ideas. I frequently play a game (only one at a time, is my new rule) on facebook - that's enough time wasting for me. But I love to look at other quilter's work - and many of us share on facebook.
Craftsy. I LOVE craftsy's classes. I don't buy much fabric off of the internet - I like to touch it, as well as look at the colour, but I have bought two of Craftsy's classes on the topic of quilting and I have been MOST impressed with them!!
Have you looked at the free tutorials that Jenny Doan does on YouTube from the Missouri Star Quilting Co.? What fun! Very professionally done, and so fun and informative! YouTube itself is pretty neat. You can even share videos with your family privately on YouTube.
Blogspot is pretty cool too. If you want to start a simple Blog (web log, in case you wonder where that word came from) this is a pretty nice spot to be.
Urban Dictionary is a good place to look up slang terms and all those initials that are so baffling the first time you see them. By the same token, it is definitely an 'adult' site - the slang is often a bit rude. WTF does not mean, Well That's Fantastic!
Canada411. My mom and dad frequently ask me to confirm an address or phone number or find someone in Canada. I have even, although not using Canada411, found relatives in the States for them. Canada Post has all the postal codes in Canada too - if you have the snail mail addy, they have the postal code. And if snail mail means nothing to you, I refer you to the Urban Dictionary above.
Are you looking for quilt blocks? Have you looked at Quilters Cache? Oh my heavens!!! It is wonderful, I have had such a lovely time scrolling through blocks.
Another wonderful quilting site is About Quilting. Terrific - patterns, how tos, blocks, basic stuff, intermediate and advanced. It is wonderful too, well written and a huge resource!!
Quiltville is pretty neat! Bonnie Hunter writes an entertaining blog (not always about quilting) and does a mystery quilt each year. I haven't taken the time to get ready to do it - but I have two 'flesh' friends who are and at least one of my facebook friends is making this year's. I would LOVE to do it... when I have time! :-)
I like podcasts - and several of the ones that I like (mostly on Science or Social Science and Humanities) have webpages where you can listen to their podcasts. Quirks and Quarks, the Vinyl Cafe, Naked Astronomy, Naked Scientist, RadioLab, 99% Invisible, Stuff You Should Know, all come to mind. I listen to these on my iPod, while I quilt, frequently!!
Have you ever watched a Ted Conference? They have a webpage, and two podcasts - one is audio only and one is video - and the video one is better... they are on a range of topics. And I haven't watched any that weren't amazing! (There must be some that aren't amazing, there are more than 1000 of them available!)
Oh, the Nova Scotia Webcams are worth looking up and taking a boo at!! I especially like the Peggy's Cove Lighthouse webcam - when the weather is not so good, the waves are amazing!!
Other things that I have looked for on the internet lately; hiking or snowshoeing trails near where I live (they are there!), and beaches I should see in Nova Scotia (they are there too), rules for Mah-jongg (found them and they saved my bacon!), maps for various places - downtown Halifax, Westville, NS, Dartmouth NS. The hours of operation and the directions to find various stores. I have bought movie tickets on the internet and done Christmas Shopping on same. Lee Valley has its catalogues on the internet - wonderful!! And Amazon can save your life!!
I love my eReaders and I like looking at Project Gutenberg - if you go on there, make sure you spell Gutenberg with only one U and two Es. Lots of ebooks all in the public domain!
I think I could go on and on - there are lots and lots of great things out there. There is also a lot of junk, so you have to be somewhat discerning. It is frustrating if you have found something in the past and you can't find it again... but sometimes you find such neat things.
This is another reason why I like facebook. I have a facebook friend who is the BEST at finding neat stuff on the internet and then she SHARES her links on facebook.
Well, excuse me, I have a class on Craftsy that I ought to be listening to or a Big Star Block that I ought to be making. Jenny Doan at Missouri Star Quilting Co, showed me how!!!
Have fun!
Friday 11 January 2013
Just moving to Nova Scotia...
I thought you might be interested in our final move.
Beloved Dearly and I have been retired (really retired) since July 11th (I think that was the date), 2009.
Our retirement posting took us to the small town of Truro, NS. Truro, proper, has about 1140 inhabitants, but Truro and Surrounding area have about 35,000. So Truro has just about everything anyone could need.
In actual fact, Beloved and I bought a lot ONE block out of town, as luck would have it ON THE RIGHT side of Fir Avenue (the other side has lots of springs and so they have problems with drainage off their lots.)
We bought the lot in 2008, so we owned it for almost a year before our house went on it.
I think it needed to be cleared before the house went on it... :-)
We made the arrangements with a 'manufactured' home company to have a house put on the lot and we headed back to Ontario to work on plans.
After emailing back and forth, we began to get paperwork from the manufacturer... and we firmed everything up by email. I suspect we were their first email sale.
As I look at the plans now, I can see some differences between this view and what actually happened, but it was pretty close!
The house in Ontario was on the market for 2 1/2 weeks. We were pleased when it sold. Okay, that is a MILD understatement - we were ecstatic when it sold! I wanted to tell my Mom and Dad, but they were enroute home from Florida and I was going to be away for the weekend, so I went out with my camera.
And I took THIS picture. Unfortunately, we had NO idea whether the camera had taken the picture or not (now I know that the camera takes 12 seconds on this setting to take the picture, MOREOVER it has an orange light that flashes three times before it goes off AND it beeps three times. We missed all that - and we just stood there, waiting...) And because we were busy, I didn't take a second one - so this is NOT the most flattering picture in the world, but we were over the moon!!! I printed the photo off on normal paper (probably in black and white) wrote a two sentence note on the back, and popped it into the mail. Mom and Dad got it when they got home, and looked at us standing there by our sign and said, what a great picture of Beloved and Jane. Dad said that Mom had actually filed it away before he suddenly thought, WAIT A MINUTE!!! And he got it out to look at the sign again. Yes indeedy - it says SOLD!
We had an elderly cat, named Ichabod. Icky had gone through all the
renovations in Ontario, getting the house ready to go on the market -
and then the 2 1/2 weeks of open houses and strangers walking through.
He was good boy and he put up with all of that with grace. We bought a
trailer so that we could move Ichabod with us. And two weeks before he
turned 17 and about 5 weeks before we moved into the trailer, Ichabod
had a stroke and died.
In June, I flew down to watch the house 'land'. I have to tell you it was fascinating to see two big trucks drive up the street with our house in two pieces on the back of it. Beloved was away for work, so I took a few pictures and a movie...
Here is the front half of the house... I don't think I got a picture of the other half (I did take movies of it!) I was so excited!!!
They used this big crane to pick up the front of the house and very slowly and carefully place it, ever so gently, on the foundation. And after a short rainstorm, they did the same thing with the back half of the house. They allowed me to go inside the two halves and look around before they went on the foundation (while they were still on the flatbeds of the trucks). I was not allowed to go in AFTER they got it on the foundation until the next day when they had all the supports in underneath.
And the afternoon of that day, I flew back to Ontario to finish work (two more weeks), greet the movers and then prepare to get ourselves to Nova Scotia!
So Beloved and I packed our new ceiling fans, our house plants except for the Norfolk Pine that a friend put in the backseat of her car to deliver, got ourselves organized in the trailer and we moved to Hilden to the Scotia Pines Campground...
Beloved Dearly is sitting on the picnic table reading. The house plants are in the green bin that is just beyond him!
We spent the summer at Scotia Pines. Nearly daily we visited the work site, until finally the foreman called in August and told me that we couldn't spend each afternoon there. We were in the way of the carpenter and he was busy. (Really it was me who was in the way. Beloved was not, but I was so INTERESTED. Honestly, if they had given me a hammer, I would have pounded in nails, or mudded the basement, or painted something.) Scotia Pines was lovely. But I was bored and finding living in one room a bit confining. And I missed my OWN bathroom. I did not want to share my shower with spiders any more...
We did have some excitement in August. At that time we owned a timeshare week in Ontario, and we left the trailer in NS and headed off for a week's vacation. We had a nice week and we discussed spending the night in New Brunswick, instead of driving the whole way (about 16 hours give or take half an hour) back in one day. Two drivers, good roads, summer time, reasonable weather, that drive was certainly do-able in one day, but we were feeling a bit tired. So on Saturday morning we got up, packed everything into the Jeep, checked out of the timeshare and set off, intending to stop in a hotel in Florenceville that Beloved had stayed in in the past.
Except that, as we got closer to Nova Scotia, the weather forecast became more and more ominous. This was Saturday. Because we had intended to stop for the night we had not left the timeshare at our usual early (oh dark hundred) travelling time. We passed Florenceville without seeing the hotel.
(I'm going to do the aside thing here... the thing about the Maritimes is that the governments are STILL working on the highways. So there are still spots where they are 'putting' the new highway in. They have not quite finished the new road in northern New Brunswick and they are doing MAJOR roadwork between Riviere du Loup in Quebec and Edmundston in New Brunswick that will probably not be finished for another 20 years... Back to the continuing saga....)
When Beloved had stayed at this nice hotel in Florenceville, it had been right on the highway. However between that time and us moving here (maybe three or four years) the highway had moved and the hotel was off the highway. We had roared right by it without realizing that we had missed it.
By this time, however, I was no longer interested in staying in New Brunswick for the night.
A hurricane was forecast to make landfall in Nova Scotia the next morning. And all my worldly goods, were in a trailer that had the windows on one side open just a titch! The table cloth was on the picnic table with those little weights in the shape of strawberries to hold it down - just perfect to be picked up in the wind and thrown THROUGH someone else's trailer window. AND the houseplants were outside.
We arrived in Fredericton at 8 pm - three hours from Truro. And I asked Beloved if he thought he was okay to drive to Truro. We had discussed staying in Oromocto somewhere for the night, but I was no longer comfortable with the thought of not being with the trailer...
We arrived in Truro (about 15 minutes from Hilden) at 11 pm. Beloved suggested we stop for gas, just in case the power was out... So we did that.
We got to the campground, opened the gate (the gate is closed between 10 pm and 7 am, but you just use the rope to open it up, drive in, and then lower the gate again behind you.) and in we went. I needn't have worried too much about the table cloth and the weights - there were only three trailers in the whole park. Needless to say, anyone who could take their trailer and go somewhere out of harm's way, had done so!
We took the stuff out of the Jeep and put it in the trailer. We took the houseplants and put them IN the Jeep's trunk. The tablecloth and weights were put away.
Beloved watched as I very grumpily emptied the cooler and filled the fridge. The thing about the trailer was that there wasn't enough room for two people to do much at the same time. After he listened to me grump and mutter for a few seconds, he announced that he was going to go and take his shower now, since he couldn't put his clothes away until I was done at the fridge and he was only in the way. He took the change dish (the showers were 25 cents for quite a reasonable amount of time and hot water), his towel, and clothes and headed off.
I finished putting the food away, and all of a sudden, I took stock of the situation. Yes, it was midnight, but who cared? We were there, everything was taken care of. If the hurricane woke us up we could sleep again later. The houseplants were okay, the trailer was as secure as we could make it, we were in a sheltered spot, safe and sound. I poured myself a drink, put away my clothes and found my book.
When Beloved came back from his shower, he found me there, happily reading my book, all set for whatever the morning brought.
The Hurricane - and sadly I can't remember his name - was kind of a dud. I think we slept until 11 am. It rained, but I had been in Hilden in heavier rain without a hurricane that summer - it was not a driving rain, it was just rain. And there was not much wind. We had no problem. The power did not even flicker!
By the end of the third week in August it was getting cold at night. The temperature was dropping to 5 C (about 42F) and we had to turn the furnace on in the trailer. We were supposed to get the key to the house on August 31st. We were getting anxious. I told Dad we were tired of being in the trailer and he told me he would have gone crazy long before this.
(Another digression - when I was 11 or so, we lived in a small city that had a CN rail yard. And our house was about 3 blocks from tracks that had an uncontrolled crossing - the city by-law called for no train whistles in town limits. However, this track crossed four lanes of traffic, and in the middle of the night, as they shunted cars back and forth, they would sound the train whistle before it crossed this fairly major street. I guess it just about drove the grownups crazy - but to me, it sounded safe and like home.)
In Hilden, we could, quite frequently hear a train. Since then I have discovered that there are several freight trains and a passenger train that goes from points West to Halifax and from Halifax out west. When the trains pass the uncontrolled crossings they whistle; one long, one short, two long. When the wind was right we could hear the train cross at (we assumed) Brookfield, a siding just before the campground, one a ways past the campground and another where it crossed Truro Road. We would generally hear it about 1 in the morning. Dad thought the trains would have driven us nuts by then... but in fact, the trains made me feel like I had come home.
Another short train story and then I will finish this and head to bed. We frequently heard the freight train go by in the daytime. It was obviously moving right along and it would make quite a lot of noise. I finally decided that if it was making THAT much noise, I ought to be able to see the silly thing. So I put my book down, exited the trailer and went out on the street of the campground to look for the train. Nothing but trees. Beloved had followed me out, and was watching me with some puzzlement. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"Looking for the train," I replied, leaning right and left and trying to see around the trees. "It MUST be just beyond those trees."
"Turn around," he suggested.
"What?" I asked, still striving to see the train.
"Turn around," he said again. "It's behind you."
"No way...." I said as I turned. Sure enough, on the otherside of the main road from the campground, there was a rumbling freight train. The sound was echoing off of the hill behind the campground... I actually turned around to look again at the trees - I could hardly believe that all that noise from behind me was actually in front of me!
Anyway, as time does, the days ticked by and the 31st of August came. Dave phoned to make an appointment for the 'hand over'. He made it for 1 pm. We would do an inspection of the house, sign papers and collect our keys. I was so excited!! All of a sudden, I could not wait to get into the house!! We could SLEEP there tonight!!
Holy smokes that meant we needed blinds for the bedroom!! And to get blinds we needed measurements. Before we got to the house to measure though, Dave called back. The carpenter is going to be done at 1 pm and we need 3 hours to clean the house, so here's the deal. We'll meet there at 5 pm to do the hand over.
Great! Did he mind if we went in to measure the bedroom window? No, not at all.
We arrived at the house at 12:45, rather expecting Rod to be nearly done, as he was going to be out of there at 1 pm... He was NOT done, but was happily working away at various little details (he was an excellent carpenter and I have not heard anyone say anything negative about him at the time or since!) We got our measurements and headed over to the hardware store to buy the custom blinds. I can't remember what else we did for the afternoon, but we went to an early dinner and while we were there, Dave called again. The carpenters were gone (at 4:30) finally, and his wife and mother-in-law were cleaning the house. Could we meet at 7:30? Of course.
We arrived at the house at 7 pm. Dave wasn't there yet, but by this time I needed to use the washroom - so I risked interrupting the cleaners to see if they would mind if I went in.
We had put toilet paper, a hand towel and soap in the bathroom so that Rod and John had facilities to use. The cleaners were not at the floor cleaning stage (they had done the bedrooms and bathrooms earlier in the afternoon while Rod was finishing up in the main part of the house) so they were perfectly happy to have me tiptoe through and use the washroom. (Heaven - not a single spider!!)
We started in the basement. Dave gave us the keys and then lead us on a tour of our house. We had already spent lots of time there, looking at every nook and cranny, but he took us around and showed us everything! It was really funny! I was so excited, I felt like I was floating.
After we had our tour and they left, Beloved and I headed back to Hilden, where I packed the Jeep with so much stuff that Beloved told me I was going to break it. (I didn't for one second believe him.) I packed the dirty dishes, dish pan, tea towels, dishclothes, and dishsoap. I packed the food from the fridge into the cooler. I packed up our clothes from the cupboards, scooped up the mattress off of the bed, STUFFED it into the back of the Jeep, along with the blankets and pillows, the food out of the cupboards, the lawn chairs and the two wooden tv trays that I had bought to use because the trailer's table was inconvenient. I packed the towels and facecloths and the bathroom bag (soap, shampoo, etc.) and the two computers, books and movies. I bullied Beloved into the Jeep, and we headed to Truro to spend the first night in our new house.
Because we sold our fridge and stove with the house in Ottawa, we had had to buy a new fridge and stove here. There was a sale early in August, and because of that, we had had them delivered as soon as the flooring was in. So we had a fridge and stove, and we had put some water and pop in the fridge for Rod and John.
We got to the house, fussing and fuming (the Jeep, I'm happy to report did NOT break down because I loaded it up so much) by about 10 pm and brought everything in the house. Good thing I had brought the dirty dishes, because I had not brought any clean ones!!!
We put the mattress on the floor in the master bedroom. We put the soap and shampoo into the shower that had NO SPIDERS! We put the food in the fridge, hung our new blind in the bedroom window, opened our lawn chairs and sat in our new dining room (we didn't want to put the lawn chairs on the hard wood floor in the living room.) All of the light fixtures had bulbs - that was the kind of attention to detail that the builder had put in!! It was a bit echo-y with no furniture, but we put the two tv trays face to face to make a table and we were HOME!
August 31st, 2009.
Beloved Dearly and I have been retired (really retired) since July 11th (I think that was the date), 2009.
Our retirement posting took us to the small town of Truro, NS. Truro, proper, has about 1140 inhabitants, but Truro and Surrounding area have about 35,000. So Truro has just about everything anyone could need.
In actual fact, Beloved and I bought a lot ONE block out of town, as luck would have it ON THE RIGHT side of Fir Avenue (the other side has lots of springs and so they have problems with drainage off their lots.)
We bought the lot in 2008, so we owned it for almost a year before our house went on it.
We made the arrangements with a 'manufactured' home company to have a house put on the lot and we headed back to Ontario to work on plans.
After emailing back and forth, we began to get paperwork from the manufacturer... and we firmed everything up by email. I suspect we were their first email sale.
As I look at the plans now, I can see some differences between this view and what actually happened, but it was pretty close!
The house in Ontario was on the market for 2 1/2 weeks. We were pleased when it sold. Okay, that is a MILD understatement - we were ecstatic when it sold! I wanted to tell my Mom and Dad, but they were enroute home from Florida and I was going to be away for the weekend, so I went out with my camera.
In June, I flew down to watch the house 'land'. I have to tell you it was fascinating to see two big trucks drive up the street with our house in two pieces on the back of it. Beloved was away for work, so I took a few pictures and a movie...
Here is the front half of the house... I don't think I got a picture of the other half (I did take movies of it!) I was so excited!!!
And the afternoon of that day, I flew back to Ontario to finish work (two more weeks), greet the movers and then prepare to get ourselves to Nova Scotia!
So Beloved and I packed our new ceiling fans, our house plants except for the Norfolk Pine that a friend put in the backseat of her car to deliver, got ourselves organized in the trailer and we moved to Hilden to the Scotia Pines Campground...
We spent the summer at Scotia Pines. Nearly daily we visited the work site, until finally the foreman called in August and told me that we couldn't spend each afternoon there. We were in the way of the carpenter and he was busy. (Really it was me who was in the way. Beloved was not, but I was so INTERESTED. Honestly, if they had given me a hammer, I would have pounded in nails, or mudded the basement, or painted something.) Scotia Pines was lovely. But I was bored and finding living in one room a bit confining. And I missed my OWN bathroom. I did not want to share my shower with spiders any more...
We did have some excitement in August. At that time we owned a timeshare week in Ontario, and we left the trailer in NS and headed off for a week's vacation. We had a nice week and we discussed spending the night in New Brunswick, instead of driving the whole way (about 16 hours give or take half an hour) back in one day. Two drivers, good roads, summer time, reasonable weather, that drive was certainly do-able in one day, but we were feeling a bit tired. So on Saturday morning we got up, packed everything into the Jeep, checked out of the timeshare and set off, intending to stop in a hotel in Florenceville that Beloved had stayed in in the past.
Except that, as we got closer to Nova Scotia, the weather forecast became more and more ominous. This was Saturday. Because we had intended to stop for the night we had not left the timeshare at our usual early (oh dark hundred) travelling time. We passed Florenceville without seeing the hotel.
(I'm going to do the aside thing here... the thing about the Maritimes is that the governments are STILL working on the highways. So there are still spots where they are 'putting' the new highway in. They have not quite finished the new road in northern New Brunswick and they are doing MAJOR roadwork between Riviere du Loup in Quebec and Edmundston in New Brunswick that will probably not be finished for another 20 years... Back to the continuing saga....)
When Beloved had stayed at this nice hotel in Florenceville, it had been right on the highway. However between that time and us moving here (maybe three or four years) the highway had moved and the hotel was off the highway. We had roared right by it without realizing that we had missed it.
By this time, however, I was no longer interested in staying in New Brunswick for the night.
A hurricane was forecast to make landfall in Nova Scotia the next morning. And all my worldly goods, were in a trailer that had the windows on one side open just a titch! The table cloth was on the picnic table with those little weights in the shape of strawberries to hold it down - just perfect to be picked up in the wind and thrown THROUGH someone else's trailer window. AND the houseplants were outside.
We arrived in Fredericton at 8 pm - three hours from Truro. And I asked Beloved if he thought he was okay to drive to Truro. We had discussed staying in Oromocto somewhere for the night, but I was no longer comfortable with the thought of not being with the trailer...
We arrived in Truro (about 15 minutes from Hilden) at 11 pm. Beloved suggested we stop for gas, just in case the power was out... So we did that.
We got to the campground, opened the gate (the gate is closed between 10 pm and 7 am, but you just use the rope to open it up, drive in, and then lower the gate again behind you.) and in we went. I needn't have worried too much about the table cloth and the weights - there were only three trailers in the whole park. Needless to say, anyone who could take their trailer and go somewhere out of harm's way, had done so!
We took the stuff out of the Jeep and put it in the trailer. We took the houseplants and put them IN the Jeep's trunk. The tablecloth and weights were put away.
Beloved watched as I very grumpily emptied the cooler and filled the fridge. The thing about the trailer was that there wasn't enough room for two people to do much at the same time. After he listened to me grump and mutter for a few seconds, he announced that he was going to go and take his shower now, since he couldn't put his clothes away until I was done at the fridge and he was only in the way. He took the change dish (the showers were 25 cents for quite a reasonable amount of time and hot water), his towel, and clothes and headed off.
I finished putting the food away, and all of a sudden, I took stock of the situation. Yes, it was midnight, but who cared? We were there, everything was taken care of. If the hurricane woke us up we could sleep again later. The houseplants were okay, the trailer was as secure as we could make it, we were in a sheltered spot, safe and sound. I poured myself a drink, put away my clothes and found my book.
When Beloved came back from his shower, he found me there, happily reading my book, all set for whatever the morning brought.
The Hurricane - and sadly I can't remember his name - was kind of a dud. I think we slept until 11 am. It rained, but I had been in Hilden in heavier rain without a hurricane that summer - it was not a driving rain, it was just rain. And there was not much wind. We had no problem. The power did not even flicker!
By the end of the third week in August it was getting cold at night. The temperature was dropping to 5 C (about 42F) and we had to turn the furnace on in the trailer. We were supposed to get the key to the house on August 31st. We were getting anxious. I told Dad we were tired of being in the trailer and he told me he would have gone crazy long before this.
(Another digression - when I was 11 or so, we lived in a small city that had a CN rail yard. And our house was about 3 blocks from tracks that had an uncontrolled crossing - the city by-law called for no train whistles in town limits. However, this track crossed four lanes of traffic, and in the middle of the night, as they shunted cars back and forth, they would sound the train whistle before it crossed this fairly major street. I guess it just about drove the grownups crazy - but to me, it sounded safe and like home.)
In Hilden, we could, quite frequently hear a train. Since then I have discovered that there are several freight trains and a passenger train that goes from points West to Halifax and from Halifax out west. When the trains pass the uncontrolled crossings they whistle; one long, one short, two long. When the wind was right we could hear the train cross at (we assumed) Brookfield, a siding just before the campground, one a ways past the campground and another where it crossed Truro Road. We would generally hear it about 1 in the morning. Dad thought the trains would have driven us nuts by then... but in fact, the trains made me feel like I had come home.
Another short train story and then I will finish this and head to bed. We frequently heard the freight train go by in the daytime. It was obviously moving right along and it would make quite a lot of noise. I finally decided that if it was making THAT much noise, I ought to be able to see the silly thing. So I put my book down, exited the trailer and went out on the street of the campground to look for the train. Nothing but trees. Beloved had followed me out, and was watching me with some puzzlement. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"Looking for the train," I replied, leaning right and left and trying to see around the trees. "It MUST be just beyond those trees."
"Turn around," he suggested.
"What?" I asked, still striving to see the train.
"Turn around," he said again. "It's behind you."
"No way...." I said as I turned. Sure enough, on the otherside of the main road from the campground, there was a rumbling freight train. The sound was echoing off of the hill behind the campground... I actually turned around to look again at the trees - I could hardly believe that all that noise from behind me was actually in front of me!
Anyway, as time does, the days ticked by and the 31st of August came. Dave phoned to make an appointment for the 'hand over'. He made it for 1 pm. We would do an inspection of the house, sign papers and collect our keys. I was so excited!! All of a sudden, I could not wait to get into the house!! We could SLEEP there tonight!!
Holy smokes that meant we needed blinds for the bedroom!! And to get blinds we needed measurements. Before we got to the house to measure though, Dave called back. The carpenter is going to be done at 1 pm and we need 3 hours to clean the house, so here's the deal. We'll meet there at 5 pm to do the hand over.
Great! Did he mind if we went in to measure the bedroom window? No, not at all.
We arrived at the house at 12:45, rather expecting Rod to be nearly done, as he was going to be out of there at 1 pm... He was NOT done, but was happily working away at various little details (he was an excellent carpenter and I have not heard anyone say anything negative about him at the time or since!) We got our measurements and headed over to the hardware store to buy the custom blinds. I can't remember what else we did for the afternoon, but we went to an early dinner and while we were there, Dave called again. The carpenters were gone (at 4:30) finally, and his wife and mother-in-law were cleaning the house. Could we meet at 7:30? Of course.
We arrived at the house at 7 pm. Dave wasn't there yet, but by this time I needed to use the washroom - so I risked interrupting the cleaners to see if they would mind if I went in.
We had put toilet paper, a hand towel and soap in the bathroom so that Rod and John had facilities to use. The cleaners were not at the floor cleaning stage (they had done the bedrooms and bathrooms earlier in the afternoon while Rod was finishing up in the main part of the house) so they were perfectly happy to have me tiptoe through and use the washroom. (Heaven - not a single spider!!)
We started in the basement. Dave gave us the keys and then lead us on a tour of our house. We had already spent lots of time there, looking at every nook and cranny, but he took us around and showed us everything! It was really funny! I was so excited, I felt like I was floating.
After we had our tour and they left, Beloved and I headed back to Hilden, where I packed the Jeep with so much stuff that Beloved told me I was going to break it. (I didn't for one second believe him.) I packed the dirty dishes, dish pan, tea towels, dishclothes, and dishsoap. I packed the food from the fridge into the cooler. I packed up our clothes from the cupboards, scooped up the mattress off of the bed, STUFFED it into the back of the Jeep, along with the blankets and pillows, the food out of the cupboards, the lawn chairs and the two wooden tv trays that I had bought to use because the trailer's table was inconvenient. I packed the towels and facecloths and the bathroom bag (soap, shampoo, etc.) and the two computers, books and movies. I bullied Beloved into the Jeep, and we headed to Truro to spend the first night in our new house.
Because we sold our fridge and stove with the house in Ottawa, we had had to buy a new fridge and stove here. There was a sale early in August, and because of that, we had had them delivered as soon as the flooring was in. So we had a fridge and stove, and we had put some water and pop in the fridge for Rod and John.
We got to the house, fussing and fuming (the Jeep, I'm happy to report did NOT break down because I loaded it up so much) by about 10 pm and brought everything in the house. Good thing I had brought the dirty dishes, because I had not brought any clean ones!!!
We put the mattress on the floor in the master bedroom. We put the soap and shampoo into the shower that had NO SPIDERS! We put the food in the fridge, hung our new blind in the bedroom window, opened our lawn chairs and sat in our new dining room (we didn't want to put the lawn chairs on the hard wood floor in the living room.) All of the light fixtures had bulbs - that was the kind of attention to detail that the builder had put in!! It was a bit echo-y with no furniture, but we put the two tv trays face to face to make a table and we were HOME!
August 31st, 2009.
Thursday 10 January 2013
Just thinking... about creative inspiration!
I think I'm starting to turn into my computer's filing system. I have been thinking, sort of mulling over in my mind, off and on all day, what I was going to write about tonight. I have lots of options, as you may imagine.
I could write about the weather. (Odd, the weather I mean. I missed Tai Chi this morning because the driveway was so slippery, I decided to stay home and walk on the treadmill - I feel guilty when I miss Tai Chi, but walking 5 km on the treadmill was a help... I felt like I got some exercise - which I did, AND I spent an hour downstairs doing it instead of 2 hours downtown - assuming of course that I didn't just slide in my BIG green sled - otherwise known as a full size pickup truck - right into the ditch.) It started snowing just as I was ready to make up my mind about leaving or not... That was the clincher...
I thought I was going to write about my next Quilt Musing, and I actually put that in the name of the blog - but I usually have some bolt out of the blue for that. I have one started which I might just continue, or I might start a new one. Sometimes when I get a couple of paragraphs in to a Quilt Musing it sparks a 'better' idea. Then I will save the original idea and restart with the new one. When I continue one that I have previously started, I have usually forgotten the original point (or I may not have HAD an original point, which may be why it didn't go anywhere in the first place) and so it sparks another thought and I either end it or restart yet again. Anyway, I started by writing "Just thinking about my next quilt musing", realized I had no idea what to write about that and changed it to "Just thinking..."
And I swear my brain went up a couple of directories and more topics opened.... It was exhilarating and frightening at the same time...
I will tell you something that I have been thinking about lately though. I have been thinking of inspiration.
I was particularly thinking about getting inspired to quilt, or write or create something... maybe I've been thinking of creative inspiration...
I don't generally have trouble with inspiration. And I have a theory about that!
Yeehaw, I can hear you think - she has a theory, and now she is going to share it with us.
And I am, of course, but in my own round about way...
I think that there are several components to creative inspiration. And I don't necessarily mean creative, as in "I designed this, I thought it up, it is entirely my own, original, never done before... " (For one thing, I have a theory that a lot of things that are original are not completely original -- as in, they are a result of other things that went before them.... things that SPARKED a new idea, sort of like my Quilt Musings.)
But if you are creating something, even if you are following a pattern, YOU are doing it. You picked the colours or the kit, you are making the stitches, you are guiding the sewing machine or the rotary cutter, or the needle. Or the pen or pecking away on the keys; writing the story, the letter, the email, the status. That's YOU doing the creating.
Okay, back to my theory... I have the self-confidence to know what I like. I have no problem going into a Quilt Shop and coming out with fabric. (I might drive the lady or gentleman who is helping me nuts.) I may have a BIG pile of bolts stacked up, it may take me awhile, but I am confident that I will find a fabric (or a bundle of 'em) that works for me. I don't need someone else's opinion (although I welcome them) and I have the sense that my colour choice will work out (if only for me...) So that's the first thing.
And I have an awareness of my own abilities... You ever look at things at a Quilt Show or on Pinterest or someone's blog and you think, "Man, oh man! I will NEVER be able to do THAT!"? I will admit that there are things that I look at, and I think, WOW! It'll be awhile (if ever) before I will ever be able to do THAT. But I don't leave a quilt show feeling overwhelmed or depressed because someone's work is so awesome that I know I will never be able to do it. It gives me, rather, something to aspire to! It makes me feel that I haven't reached my upper limit yet. So I think that ability to see that you can improve, even if it is only by small increments, is a help to inspiration...
I think that a sense of perfectionism is a hinderance to creative inspiration. I think that people are often afraid to try because they think they will ruin whatever it is that they want to do. And I have to tell you, that when you are starting out you need to take classes and practice whatever it is you want to get good at. I'm pretty pleased with the quilts that I am making now. I will be pretty pleased with quilts that I make in the future assuming my skill sets continue to improve and heavens knows I have lots of room for improvement. But if I compared my very first quilt (a baby panel that someones' mother bought for me in Canada when we were living in Lahr, W. Germany, that I hand quilted on a frame in my living room in 4 days because the frame was at my 3 year old son's eye level!) with something I aspire to - say, a New York Beauty, I would never have made another thing... I made that quilt 30 years ago in November... I still haven't attempted a New York Beauty, although it is only a matter of time! But I have no doubt of improvement through practice! And I also have no doubt that I will never make anything that is perfect... Just good enough.
Okay. Back to inspiration. I think a lively and inquiring mind is an aid to creative inspiration. I do think that that can be a hindrance to completing things! There are SO many things that I like, so many things that I want to do... So many projects, so little time!
When I was working full time and had two part time jobs (how, you ask, did that come to be? A topic for another day, I'm afraid!) I went into the Lewis Craft store in the mall. And I looked at all the wonderful things - cross stitch, tatting, knitting, clay stuff, kits to make small things that would be done quickly, and in despair, I looked at the lady behind the counter and said, "I don't want a project, I want some uninterrupted time to WORK on the projects that I already have!"
When I was working, I found I got more done in less time, because I was motivated to get things done when I could. Now that I am retired, I have discovered that it is really, really easy to think that I have all the time in the world! So a bit of discipline is a help too. A deadline, even if it is self-imposed helps the creative process. Oh, and sometimes a time limit for working on something too.
Sometimes creating something is overwhelming simply because it doesn't look like it is ever going to end. I find a list helps with this. A list can break a long creative process down into steps that are small enough to seem 'possible'.I also find that a reward works. Posting pictures on here or on facebook makes me feel wonderful. Crossing things off of a list keeps me focused, reduces anxiety about forgetting parts, AND I use pretty coloured highlighters to cross things off - so even the list is a reward. (And then I take a picture of it and post it on facebook.... ) LOL
So here's the thing. (Now I'm going to try to sum this up... this should be good...) (I'm not great at summaries - so here goes.)
I think the things that help creative inspiration...
Oh darn, I forgot one!
I find that having access to encouragement is a BIG thing. THAT's why I like to post pictures on facebook - not because I think I should fill their servers, but because my facebook friends tell me what I great job I'm doing. I often ask for opinions, or suggestions or outright help - and I always get them. I have the best facebook friends!
Okay. The summary.
I think the things that help creative inspiration is a lack of fear, an awareness of your capabilities (or your future capabilities), the ability to do something that is good enough, a lively interest in lots of things, motivation, self-discipline, rewards and encouragement. Phew!
I also think that a source of ideas is a good thing! And, maybe a good search engine! LOL
In any event. That's today's. I hope it makes sense and that it gives you some inspiration!
I could write about the weather. (Odd, the weather I mean. I missed Tai Chi this morning because the driveway was so slippery, I decided to stay home and walk on the treadmill - I feel guilty when I miss Tai Chi, but walking 5 km on the treadmill was a help... I felt like I got some exercise - which I did, AND I spent an hour downstairs doing it instead of 2 hours downtown - assuming of course that I didn't just slide in my BIG green sled - otherwise known as a full size pickup truck - right into the ditch.) It started snowing just as I was ready to make up my mind about leaving or not... That was the clincher...
I thought I was going to write about my next Quilt Musing, and I actually put that in the name of the blog - but I usually have some bolt out of the blue for that. I have one started which I might just continue, or I might start a new one. Sometimes when I get a couple of paragraphs in to a Quilt Musing it sparks a 'better' idea. Then I will save the original idea and restart with the new one. When I continue one that I have previously started, I have usually forgotten the original point (or I may not have HAD an original point, which may be why it didn't go anywhere in the first place) and so it sparks another thought and I either end it or restart yet again. Anyway, I started by writing "Just thinking about my next quilt musing", realized I had no idea what to write about that and changed it to "Just thinking..."
And I swear my brain went up a couple of directories and more topics opened.... It was exhilarating and frightening at the same time...
I will tell you something that I have been thinking about lately though. I have been thinking of inspiration.
I was particularly thinking about getting inspired to quilt, or write or create something... maybe I've been thinking of creative inspiration...
I don't generally have trouble with inspiration. And I have a theory about that!
Yeehaw, I can hear you think - she has a theory, and now she is going to share it with us.
And I am, of course, but in my own round about way...
I think that there are several components to creative inspiration. And I don't necessarily mean creative, as in "I designed this, I thought it up, it is entirely my own, original, never done before... " (For one thing, I have a theory that a lot of things that are original are not completely original -- as in, they are a result of other things that went before them.... things that SPARKED a new idea, sort of like my Quilt Musings.)
But if you are creating something, even if you are following a pattern, YOU are doing it. You picked the colours or the kit, you are making the stitches, you are guiding the sewing machine or the rotary cutter, or the needle. Or the pen or pecking away on the keys; writing the story, the letter, the email, the status. That's YOU doing the creating.
Okay, back to my theory... I have the self-confidence to know what I like. I have no problem going into a Quilt Shop and coming out with fabric. (I might drive the lady or gentleman who is helping me nuts.) I may have a BIG pile of bolts stacked up, it may take me awhile, but I am confident that I will find a fabric (or a bundle of 'em) that works for me. I don't need someone else's opinion (although I welcome them) and I have the sense that my colour choice will work out (if only for me...) So that's the first thing.
And I have an awareness of my own abilities... You ever look at things at a Quilt Show or on Pinterest or someone's blog and you think, "Man, oh man! I will NEVER be able to do THAT!"? I will admit that there are things that I look at, and I think, WOW! It'll be awhile (if ever) before I will ever be able to do THAT. But I don't leave a quilt show feeling overwhelmed or depressed because someone's work is so awesome that I know I will never be able to do it. It gives me, rather, something to aspire to! It makes me feel that I haven't reached my upper limit yet. So I think that ability to see that you can improve, even if it is only by small increments, is a help to inspiration...
I think that a sense of perfectionism is a hinderance to creative inspiration. I think that people are often afraid to try because they think they will ruin whatever it is that they want to do. And I have to tell you, that when you are starting out you need to take classes and practice whatever it is you want to get good at. I'm pretty pleased with the quilts that I am making now. I will be pretty pleased with quilts that I make in the future assuming my skill sets continue to improve and heavens knows I have lots of room for improvement. But if I compared my very first quilt (a baby panel that someones' mother bought for me in Canada when we were living in Lahr, W. Germany, that I hand quilted on a frame in my living room in 4 days because the frame was at my 3 year old son's eye level!) with something I aspire to - say, a New York Beauty, I would never have made another thing... I made that quilt 30 years ago in November... I still haven't attempted a New York Beauty, although it is only a matter of time! But I have no doubt of improvement through practice! And I also have no doubt that I will never make anything that is perfect... Just good enough.
Okay. Back to inspiration. I think a lively and inquiring mind is an aid to creative inspiration. I do think that that can be a hindrance to completing things! There are SO many things that I like, so many things that I want to do... So many projects, so little time!
When I was working full time and had two part time jobs (how, you ask, did that come to be? A topic for another day, I'm afraid!) I went into the Lewis Craft store in the mall. And I looked at all the wonderful things - cross stitch, tatting, knitting, clay stuff, kits to make small things that would be done quickly, and in despair, I looked at the lady behind the counter and said, "I don't want a project, I want some uninterrupted time to WORK on the projects that I already have!"
When I was working, I found I got more done in less time, because I was motivated to get things done when I could. Now that I am retired, I have discovered that it is really, really easy to think that I have all the time in the world! So a bit of discipline is a help too. A deadline, even if it is self-imposed helps the creative process. Oh, and sometimes a time limit for working on something too.
Sometimes creating something is overwhelming simply because it doesn't look like it is ever going to end. I find a list helps with this. A list can break a long creative process down into steps that are small enough to seem 'possible'.I also find that a reward works. Posting pictures on here or on facebook makes me feel wonderful. Crossing things off of a list keeps me focused, reduces anxiety about forgetting parts, AND I use pretty coloured highlighters to cross things off - so even the list is a reward. (And then I take a picture of it and post it on facebook.... ) LOL
So here's the thing. (Now I'm going to try to sum this up... this should be good...) (I'm not great at summaries - so here goes.)
I think the things that help creative inspiration...
Oh darn, I forgot one!
I find that having access to encouragement is a BIG thing. THAT's why I like to post pictures on facebook - not because I think I should fill their servers, but because my facebook friends tell me what I great job I'm doing. I often ask for opinions, or suggestions or outright help - and I always get them. I have the best facebook friends!
Okay. The summary.
I think the things that help creative inspiration is a lack of fear, an awareness of your capabilities (or your future capabilities), the ability to do something that is good enough, a lively interest in lots of things, motivation, self-discipline, rewards and encouragement. Phew!
I also think that a source of ideas is a good thing! And, maybe a good search engine! LOL
In any event. That's today's. I hope it makes sense and that it gives you some inspiration!
Wednesday 9 January 2013
Just a simple pattern... (Ha!)
I have a friend (well, I have lots of friends...) I have a specific friend - she spent Christmas in Honduras and she took a picture while she was there, of bags. Beach bags.
And she sent me a copy of her pictures. Unfortunately, she had the head of a diesel engine and an autopilot in her luggage, and she was hot and tired and she only took one picture. And she didn't buy a bag... She reasoned that she would be able to figure out the pattern and she would be able to make a similar bag herself.
I'm not sure how she is coming along with her bag, but I can tell you what is happening with mine...
I made a pattern to start off with. I had trouble with the paper - it kept curling up on me, which made this even more difficult. The other issue is that I was working from a picture... A facebook friend said she had used a pattern to make a reversible bag, and she found the name and author for me, and I found the author, by, alas, my email went unanswered...
I soldiered on...
I made a second pattern, since I seemed to have the basic idea down. What you are seeing here is the third pattern, which encloses the second pattern. Take the left hand half of the flask shape above. See the horizontal line about half way down that side? That was the whole pattern. I put it on the fold of the fabric and I cut out a bag! It was cute... NOT the beach bag I was looking for, but cute none the less.
This is that bag. It has a little pocket in the front, and the straps are long enough but the bottom part of the bag would hold your sunglasses and your novel when you went to the beach, but certainly it is NOT a beach bag.
I doubled the length of the bag, added the handle right onto the pattern (it was a separate piece in the first bag) and copied it opened out so I could lay it out on the fabric more easily. I wrote Helen's name on it, so I wouldn't forget whose bag the pattern was to be named after, I guess. And I found some more beach-y fabric...
After I started this blog entry, I went downstairs repinned the bottom, (ONLY PRICKING MYSELF ONCE THIS TIME TOO - a different finger, for variety!) trimmed it (without actually trying to cut through any of the pins.) (I have ruined one pair of scissors and, at least one rotary cutter blade trying to cut straight pins in half!) Then I sewed the sucker together. and turned it right side out.
Well, this is more like it!! I marked the area for a pocket, and got that sewed in there, and I put a button loop and a button on there! (The pocket is just a blob sewn in where the fabric overlaps... I should put another picture here... Just a sec! Okay, there is my hand in the pocket. I'm not sure I would put my wallet in there, but your keys and your sunglasses would work!) :-)
I gathered the top of the strap together, and Voila! One bag.
Candidly, I have a high opinion of my own abilities. I'm good in math, I can type, and, usually, spell. I like computers and technology and I have enough artistic talent that I can draw. I can follow directions, knit, crochet, tat, sew, read music and quilt.
I am NOT good at creating patterns. This bag will never be reversible. I believe I will have to do some handsewing on the inside to hold the flaps down. I can't figure out another way to do the bottom with all those layers of fabric (8 for the most part.) although I could put a flat bottom on there, if I wanted to... (Except, of course, that that would mean taking this bottom of this apart again - and I'm not going to... Maybe I should have sewn the crisscrossed layers together before I sewed the bottom together... maybe there is someway to sew the outside layers together and then the inside layers?? If there is, I can't picture it in my head! Alas!!)
I am happy with my beach bag, but I don't believe I will make a big pile of them. It isn't that it is hard to make, I'm just not sure that I haven't just cobbled it together... this bag is a Kludge. (I can't believe I said that...)
Ah well. Hope you enjoyed the unending saga of Helen's Bag! This is number 2 (and if that doesn't make any sense, read yesterday's blog post - Just another Jar of Inspiration!)
And she sent me a copy of her pictures. Unfortunately, she had the head of a diesel engine and an autopilot in her luggage, and she was hot and tired and she only took one picture. And she didn't buy a bag... She reasoned that she would be able to figure out the pattern and she would be able to make a similar bag herself.
I'm not sure how she is coming along with her bag, but I can tell you what is happening with mine...
I soldiered on...
And I cut the whole thing out again.
When I went to put it together, though, it was so skinny, you would have had to roll your novel up inside the beach towel to make it a tube to go in there. Hmmmmm. I took it and my seam ripper to my Mom and Dad's this afternoon for my visit. And I reverse sewed the bottom of the bag. Then I borrowed safety pins and straight pins, and (ONLY PRICKING MY FINGER ONCE) I pinned the bag back together. This meant that the bottom was zany, but the front and back of the bag criss-crossed where I wanted it to.
I brought it home with me.
Candidly, I have a high opinion of my own abilities. I'm good in math, I can type, and, usually, spell. I like computers and technology and I have enough artistic talent that I can draw. I can follow directions, knit, crochet, tat, sew, read music and quilt.
I am NOT good at creating patterns. This bag will never be reversible. I believe I will have to do some handsewing on the inside to hold the flaps down. I can't figure out another way to do the bottom with all those layers of fabric (8 for the most part.) although I could put a flat bottom on there, if I wanted to... (Except, of course, that that would mean taking this bottom of this apart again - and I'm not going to... Maybe I should have sewn the crisscrossed layers together before I sewed the bottom together... maybe there is someway to sew the outside layers together and then the inside layers?? If there is, I can't picture it in my head! Alas!!)
I am happy with my beach bag, but I don't believe I will make a big pile of them. It isn't that it is hard to make, I'm just not sure that I haven't just cobbled it together... this bag is a Kludge. (I can't believe I said that...)
Ah well. Hope you enjoyed the unending saga of Helen's Bag! This is number 2 (and if that doesn't make any sense, read yesterday's blog post - Just another Jar of Inspiration!)
Tuesday 8 January 2013
Just my Jar of Inspiration!
This all started in October 2012 when I shared a list of photo topics on my wall. Since it isn't mine to post here, I'll share December's List, which, at least I helped create!
The list in November was similar to this; November 2012 in Photos across the top and the numbers 1 through 30 on a sort of postcard looking picture. I thought it looked kind of neat, but I mostly forwarded it because it said to do so on the bottom.
Two of my friends posted pictures on November 1st and tagged me on them. I found the pictures on the second of November and thought I'd better get on with it. November first was something that begins with "C" and all three of us took a picture of one of our cats...
By mid November several mutual friends were admiring the pictures and another friend suggested that it would be neat to set up a facebook page to group all the pictures. So I set it up. (Along about that time I discovered that the Albums were not working properly on the group pages and that only a few of us could get pictures to post in the albums...) The page grew a bit, and, after a bit of a struggle, I figured a work around so I could move the member's pictures into the albums if they couldn't do it themselves, and by the end of the month, facebook fixed the albums - at least, they suddenly started working properly for me.
I am enjoying the project immensely. By the end of November we had about 12 of us in the group and it was decided that we would make a list for December. A pile of topics were sent to me by private message, I wrote them on pieces of paper, put them in a bowl and pulled them (mostly) at random, and wrote them on a calendar. Eventually I found a photo I liked, and using MS Paint, I created the list above.
By the end of December we had about 30 people in the group with roughly 12 photos going into each album daily.
People post when they want - I try to remember to get the next day's album ready in the morning, as we are in quite different time zones, and I LOVE to see the photos and the interpretations of the topics. Between Christmas and New Years Eve I started talking about January, and people were enthused. I had changed the name of the page from November in Photos to December in Photos and I decided that changing it each month would be cumbersome - so I changed it one last time to its 'permanent' (for now, anyway) name of This Month in Photos.
I put together the January list in much the same way as I did the December list - and I managed to accidentally repeat one of the topics. Darn! However, there are lots of ways to interpret the topics and we definitely encourage people to think outside the box.
Oh, I have to mention something else. This is absolutely for fun! So there are NO rules. You interpret the topic the way you wish. If this means you use a photo you took in 1996 - so be it. If you share a photo from facebook, I don't care. (If you put something on facebook that you didn't want to have shared, what were you thinking? There is a share button under it all!) Personally, I like to use a picture that I have taken today - but that is only me. (It REALLY makes me think!)
Here's January's list:
(The photo is of my electric fireplace and I am as pleased as punch with how it came out!)
I think the writing might be too small to see, but January 1st is Resolutions.
And that's where the topic of this blog begins. One of my friends shared an idea that some nameless person had - I thought it was brilliant - get a jar, write positive things that happen to you on slips of paper and put those slips of paper of wonderful things in the jar (daily, weekly, monthly - none of that was specified). Open it on December 31, 2013, take them out and read them. Enjoy a fun and positive evening. I thought that was brilliant... but one of the other ladies already had her photo up - and, alas, she had her bottle with a tag that read, "Open on December 31st!" Hmmm. I had to come up with something else.
Between Christmas and New Years, my daughter and I were talking about Resolutions. She had heard an idea regarding a bottle and notes. Hers worked in a slightly different way. The person that she read about had decided that he would do 52 tasks. One per week in 2013. The one that she cited was, "I will teach my grandmother to receive and send an email, because I said I would." So we discussed that. Each item would have to be a task that was short enough to be accomplished in a week. "I will get my masters in Nuclear Physics, because I said I would." just wouldn't work. (Same with, "I will become fluent in Romanian, because I said I would.")
I said I thought it was a neat idea, and that I would think about the 52 things that I could put in a bottle. Okay, here is where the perfectionism kicks in. She and I finished our conversation and I spent the next 3 hours working on this!
I opened Open Office, and I created a landscape oriented page with a table - two columns. The first column I numbered. (Well, it wouldn't do to NOT have 52 of them, would it!?)
Then I hunted through the fonts to find my FAVOURITE. (Fortunately, I had done this before, so I had narrowed it down.) Segoe script would do fine.
I decided I didn't need it say, "because I said I would." I felt that was a given...
So I created a document with 52 THINGS on it. Some of them are chores. Some are treats. Some of them will be fun. Some of them are habits that I'd like to start, and I figure I could do them for a week. Some of them require an action every day of a week and some are just once sometime in that week.
I needed to add things to the Sheltered Cove Quilt Co. website, so I wrote that one down and I kept it out... It seemed like a good idea to simply start with that one.
Now, where to put them. Hmmmm. It had to be the PERFECT jar - right?
I knew exactly which jar I wanted, unfortunately I don't own THAT jar... so the next best was a bottle I bought at a Bulk Barn in Ottawa for tea. I never drank the tea, but the bottle was in the cupboard. I emptied it, washed it out and dried it.
I carefully cut my document up into strips. If I had realized that I had had coloured paper in the guest room, I would have used that to print it, but I found that afterwards; so, too bad. I folded each strip twice and put them all in the jar, except for the one numbered "21. Add one finished item to the webpage every day this week." That one I left out.
I had to take a picture of my bottle to add it to "This Month in Photos" - but it needed something... I found a piece of leftover binding in the drawer of the sewing machine table, brought it upstairs and made a bow. Voila! My bottle of resolutions. Here's the picture:
("21. Add one finished item to the webpage every day this week." is what is on the paper on top of it.)
I have added about 20 items to the webpage - 12 things on the Quilts for Sale page and several on my gallery, and my Quilts in Progress. When Alison was over today, I took 7 pictures of things she is making to add them to her Quilts in Progress page, and I have thought of some of Mandy's quilts to add.... So I successfully completed the first week's mission.
Today is the first day of the second week. Guess what today's strip of paper said.
"10. Make a blog entry every day this week."
This is the first one. I hope you enjoyed it!
The list in November was similar to this; November 2012 in Photos across the top and the numbers 1 through 30 on a sort of postcard looking picture. I thought it looked kind of neat, but I mostly forwarded it because it said to do so on the bottom.
Two of my friends posted pictures on November 1st and tagged me on them. I found the pictures on the second of November and thought I'd better get on with it. November first was something that begins with "C" and all three of us took a picture of one of our cats...
By mid November several mutual friends were admiring the pictures and another friend suggested that it would be neat to set up a facebook page to group all the pictures. So I set it up. (Along about that time I discovered that the Albums were not working properly on the group pages and that only a few of us could get pictures to post in the albums...) The page grew a bit, and, after a bit of a struggle, I figured a work around so I could move the member's pictures into the albums if they couldn't do it themselves, and by the end of the month, facebook fixed the albums - at least, they suddenly started working properly for me.
I am enjoying the project immensely. By the end of November we had about 12 of us in the group and it was decided that we would make a list for December. A pile of topics were sent to me by private message, I wrote them on pieces of paper, put them in a bowl and pulled them (mostly) at random, and wrote them on a calendar. Eventually I found a photo I liked, and using MS Paint, I created the list above.
By the end of December we had about 30 people in the group with roughly 12 photos going into each album daily.
People post when they want - I try to remember to get the next day's album ready in the morning, as we are in quite different time zones, and I LOVE to see the photos and the interpretations of the topics. Between Christmas and New Years Eve I started talking about January, and people were enthused. I had changed the name of the page from November in Photos to December in Photos and I decided that changing it each month would be cumbersome - so I changed it one last time to its 'permanent' (for now, anyway) name of This Month in Photos.
I put together the January list in much the same way as I did the December list - and I managed to accidentally repeat one of the topics. Darn! However, there are lots of ways to interpret the topics and we definitely encourage people to think outside the box.
Oh, I have to mention something else. This is absolutely for fun! So there are NO rules. You interpret the topic the way you wish. If this means you use a photo you took in 1996 - so be it. If you share a photo from facebook, I don't care. (If you put something on facebook that you didn't want to have shared, what were you thinking? There is a share button under it all!) Personally, I like to use a picture that I have taken today - but that is only me. (It REALLY makes me think!)
Here's January's list:
I think the writing might be too small to see, but January 1st is Resolutions.
And that's where the topic of this blog begins. One of my friends shared an idea that some nameless person had - I thought it was brilliant - get a jar, write positive things that happen to you on slips of paper and put those slips of paper of wonderful things in the jar (daily, weekly, monthly - none of that was specified). Open it on December 31, 2013, take them out and read them. Enjoy a fun and positive evening. I thought that was brilliant... but one of the other ladies already had her photo up - and, alas, she had her bottle with a tag that read, "Open on December 31st!" Hmmm. I had to come up with something else.
Between Christmas and New Years, my daughter and I were talking about Resolutions. She had heard an idea regarding a bottle and notes. Hers worked in a slightly different way. The person that she read about had decided that he would do 52 tasks. One per week in 2013. The one that she cited was, "I will teach my grandmother to receive and send an email, because I said I would." So we discussed that. Each item would have to be a task that was short enough to be accomplished in a week. "I will get my masters in Nuclear Physics, because I said I would." just wouldn't work. (Same with, "I will become fluent in Romanian, because I said I would.")
I said I thought it was a neat idea, and that I would think about the 52 things that I could put in a bottle. Okay, here is where the perfectionism kicks in. She and I finished our conversation and I spent the next 3 hours working on this!
I opened Open Office, and I created a landscape oriented page with a table - two columns. The first column I numbered. (Well, it wouldn't do to NOT have 52 of them, would it!?)
Then I hunted through the fonts to find my FAVOURITE. (Fortunately, I had done this before, so I had narrowed it down.) Segoe script would do fine.
I decided I didn't need it say, "because I said I would." I felt that was a given...
So I created a document with 52 THINGS on it. Some of them are chores. Some are treats. Some of them will be fun. Some of them are habits that I'd like to start, and I figure I could do them for a week. Some of them require an action every day of a week and some are just once sometime in that week.
I needed to add things to the Sheltered Cove Quilt Co. website, so I wrote that one down and I kept it out... It seemed like a good idea to simply start with that one.
Now, where to put them. Hmmmm. It had to be the PERFECT jar - right?
I knew exactly which jar I wanted, unfortunately I don't own THAT jar... so the next best was a bottle I bought at a Bulk Barn in Ottawa for tea. I never drank the tea, but the bottle was in the cupboard. I emptied it, washed it out and dried it.
I carefully cut my document up into strips. If I had realized that I had had coloured paper in the guest room, I would have used that to print it, but I found that afterwards; so, too bad. I folded each strip twice and put them all in the jar, except for the one numbered "21. Add one finished item to the webpage every day this week." That one I left out.
I had to take a picture of my bottle to add it to "This Month in Photos" - but it needed something... I found a piece of leftover binding in the drawer of the sewing machine table, brought it upstairs and made a bow. Voila! My bottle of resolutions. Here's the picture:
("21. Add one finished item to the webpage every day this week." is what is on the paper on top of it.)
I have added about 20 items to the webpage - 12 things on the Quilts for Sale page and several on my gallery, and my Quilts in Progress. When Alison was over today, I took 7 pictures of things she is making to add them to her Quilts in Progress page, and I have thought of some of Mandy's quilts to add.... So I successfully completed the first week's mission.
Today is the first day of the second week. Guess what today's strip of paper said.
"10. Make a blog entry every day this week."
This is the first one. I hope you enjoyed it!
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