Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Ten on Tuesday



I was so excited about being finished with NaBloPoMo that I almost forgot about 10 on Tuesday

Today's topic is 10 Favorite Places for Online Shopping

1.  eBay
2.  Amazon
3.  eBay
4.  Toys R Us
5.  eBay
6.  Eddie Bauer
7.  eBay
8.  Sears
9.  eBay
10.Victoria's Secret

eBay is my favorite!  Did I make it obvious?  There is no way that I could have found the John Deere Fleece, the Olivia Fabric or the Crayola Crayon Maker that I got last year without eBay!!

Wanna play along?  Sign up here!
Thanks to Carole Knits for getting this organized every week!

NaBloPoMo Day 30 I did it!!!!

I managed to do NaBloPoMo and only once did I write a post ahead of time to publish while I was away shopping!! I'm still working on my Project 365.  I just need to find time to look at my pictures and post them!
I've been a little busy with my preparations for home made Christmas.  Last night I managed to get 2 gifts done for my niece Olivia.  She is getting a pillow case and a purse made from "Olivia Fabric".  I'm very pleased with the pillow case but the purse didn't turn out quite the way I pictured, but close.  I think today will be another Quillow!














Monday, November 29, 2010

NaBloPoMo Day 29 Random Things Today

First off I need to shout out to my sister!
Happy Birthday to my much younger and prettier sister!!! 
I love you!!


Now for the fun stuff.  I have been out shopping a few times in the last week or so and I cannot believe the way people behave in public.  I'm not referring to all, just some.  I had a lady yesterday call me some very nasty names and I had done nothing wrong.  We have a strip mall in our town and there are 3 rows of parking.  One where you pull up to the store fronts and then 2 rows in the actual parking lot.  I was going into the grocery store and pulled into an open spot.  The spot in front of me was also empty and another vehicle was pulling into it.  I lined up my car with the cars along side to be sure that I wasn't taking up too much space so the other car could pull in.  I parked and was about to get out when I see this lady calling me all kinds of names and pulling into another spot.  I can only assume that she intended to pull through both spaces and I foiled her plan.  When I was leaving the store she was also leaving and continued to call me the same names.  I came home upset and I wish I was the type of person that could have gotten out of my truck to ask her what her problem was.

What it is about this time of year?  Do people forget that other people have feelings and are out and about doing the same thing as everyone else?  Yes there are going to be line ups and parking might be further away from the store as you would like it to be, but 'tis the season.

With my depression this is a very hard time of year.  I can remember being a child and not feeling well Christmas Day.  I can remember all the years before becoming a mom that I wanted to hide the entire month of December.  It's a hard time of year for so many people.  I still have a hard time with Christmas.  I know that I will make it through and I also think that some common courtesy and manners will make it easier for everyone.
  • Hold the Door for someone
  • Let the person behind you with one item go ahead of you
  • It's only a parking space, there will be another
  • Smile
  • Offer to help someone any small effort helps
  • Bump into me, apologize
  • Excuse me is a nice gesture too
I'm sure there are more....add if you like!!

I think we all need to remember that everyone is stressing about something or having a hard time finding the perfect gift, but we all need to keep in mind that we are all human and we all have feelings.......Let's respect that.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Christmas Sewing

I started on my Christmas Sewing on Thursday and them my sewing machine started giving me grief.  Hubby took a look at it, there was nothing he could do.  I borrowed one from a friend and hers would only sew in reverse.  What else is a woman to do when there is sewing to be done and Christmas is less than a  month away?

You take your butt to Sears and get yourself one of these it was on sale!!!
I am now a happy camper again!

I did manage one quillow and 2 neckwarmers before the other one decided to break on me....I will be sewing again tomorrow!!!


Layers ready to Sew

Quality Control

Done!

Ready to fold

Part of the fold

In the Pillow

All Done!!!

Saturday, November 27, 2010

NaBloPoMo Day 27 Hiring a Tutor

This week at school we had interviews with the child's teacher.  It was a student led conference and the child showed me her favorite work and told me about her days at school.  Her teacher pulled me aside and expressed her concern about her reading and some of her math.  I have been concerned about her reading since last year and did try to express my concerns to her teacher, but was assured each time that all was well.

It appears that I did have cause for concern.  I have tried to help her as much as I can, but being her mom, she and I both get very frustrated and I think that I am more hindrance than help.  Her teacher has been sending resources home and we are trying, but I just don't have what it takes to teach her.  So I hired a tutor this morning.  We will start on December 1st and I am looking forward to it.  The tutor that I have hired is a retired teacher and seems very eager to get started.  She has a limited knowledge of french, but I think that she will be okay with the all of the dictionaries and such that I will be taking along.  I have had so many people tell me to pull her out of the French Immersion program and to put her into the English program, but I am hesitant to do that.  I want her to have the french knowledge.  Her verbal is excellent and at supper time here at home we try to make it a rule that we only speak french so that I can learn as well.

Let's hope that the tutor can help and we can get the child caught up!  I never in a million years thought that we would have to deal with this kind of thing.  At 15 months old she had a broad vocabulary of more than 30 words and could point to some shapes and tell us what they were.  I know my smart little girl can do it!!!!


****Edited to Add..the Tutor just called again and she found a great french web site to help her brush up on her french and sounds very excited!  Let's hope this a good fit!

Friday, November 26, 2010

Childhood Memories


This clock was part of my childhood.  It chimed every hour and every half hour.  It got so that we didn't hear the chimes at all.  This past week my mom brought me the clock for safe keeping.  I made room for it and wound it up, set the time and it is now ticking away in my dining room.  It doesn't chime on the hour anymore, but does one chime on the half hour.  Hubby isn't very happy about that, but I figure he'll get used to it!  It is a comforting sound to me.  Reminds me of happy times!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

November 25th 2010

I was told this morning that the weather 68 years ago was warm and sunny.  November 25th, 1942 was the day that my grandparents were wed.  I called Nana this morning to let her know I was thinking about her.  This will be the first anniversary since Grampa died.  Last year at the hospital they put on a little celebration for them and someone played piano and sang songs for them.  Nana told me one of the songs that Grampa requested, but I can't remember what it was. 

Celebrating 65 years of Marriage!  We celebrated in the summer a few months early!
Happy Anniversary to two of the most important people in my life!  I hope that Grampa is watching over Nana and that Nana will be Ok today.....

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

What I've been making

I picked up a Coiling Gizmo last week and I've been having way too much fun with it!!! So just for fun here is what I've been doing with my beads and wire and all my other findings!  I'm hoping to start putting some into an Etsy Store one of these days!!!

Let me know what you think!!





















NaBloPoMo Day 24

And I'm still going!!!

On the agenda today
  • 30% off coupon at Micheals!!
  • Lunch with a friend
  • Hope to start turning the some of the fabric pictured below into Quillows
  • Homework with the child.  She is very behind her peers in reading and math
  • Supper
  • Survivor while sitting on the couch playing with the purchases from Michaeals!
Soon to be Quillows for Christmas Gifts!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Ten on Tuesday






Today's Ten on Tuesday is 10 Things You Love About Thanksgiving
We celebrated Thanksgiving in Canada back in October so I'll do my best!!

1.  Family Time
2.  Turkey and all the trimmings
3.  It's a long weekend
4.  All of our leaves are in full color
5.  Spending the weekend with friends

I'll do 5 about my favorites of American Thanksgiving!!

6.  The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
7.  The Christmas Commercials really start on Television (we get a lot of US feeds)
8.  Hearing about the Black Friday Deals!
9.  Christmas is only about a month away now!
10.Knowing that my American Friends are Celebrating with family and friends!

Wanna play along?  Sign up here!
Thanks to Carole Knits for getting this organized every week!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Magic Santa

Want to have some fun with kids and adults?
Try the Magic Santa Video Maker! If the link doesn't want to work....
Here is the address to Copy and Paste

http://magicsanta.ca/

You can personalize it with names and places too and then email it so your chidl will think they really got a video from Santa himself!!


You can see my video here!

These are way too much fun!


Let the season begin!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Sunday Night Bullets

  • Road Trip Weekend
  • Relaxing night on Friday
  • American Border Guard Inquisition Saturday morning
  • Great shopping
  • Nice Motel
  • $20.00 got me $150.00 on a Kenny Rogers 5 cent slot machine
  • Didn't cash out and played it right down to nothing
  • Great Buffet at the casino
  • More shopping this morning
  • Duty paid in the way back into the country
  • Worst part of the weekend..the last 2 hours coming home in freezing rain
  • Had a wonderful time!!!!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Post Number 75! 25 More Things About Me

51.  I am lazy by nature
52.  My computer is driving me nuts
53.  I sometimes don't have enough patience
54.  My favorite TV channel is A&E
55.  I like to read True Crime
56.  I like driving
57.  As long as hubby is not in the car
58.  I've only had one serious car accident
59.  Nobody was hurt
60.  It was on a snowy road
61.  I am still afraid of snowy corners
62.  It happened 18 years ago
63.  I hate paying retail prices
64.  I love thrift shopping
65.  Some of my favorite clothes are second hand
66.  Hubby hasn't bought his own clothes since we met
67.  I have to be careful buying clothes for the child now
68.  She has her own sense of style
69.  I still have to set her clothes out for school
70.  I'm not a big movie buff
71.  Hubby will start watching a movie halfway through
72.  It drives me insane
73.  I like to give gifts
74.  It makes me happy to see someone smile
75.  I tend to give things away instead of selling them

Friday, November 19, 2010

NaBloPoMo Day 19..The Peace and Quiet

There is no school today so it was nice to get up this morning and not have to rush and worry about making a lunch and getting to the school bus on time.  But having the child home this morning makes for a crazier morning in a different way.  I'm used to having my mornings to myself to blog, read my email and just get a start to the day.  She is a busy bee!  I don't think she ever stops.

She has just left to spend the day with her grandparents so now I have my peace back!!  I'm looking forward to a quiet day!!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Meal Planning....and a link to a Give Away!

Dani from over at Postcards from the Mothership has a great giveaway happening.  Up for grabs is $100.00 worth of goodies from Loblaws!

She has some great ways to enter the contest.  I'm going to cut and paste from her blog and then you can head over and enter too!


The contest is open from now through noon EST on Friday 19 November 2010. There are three ways you can earn a ballot to enter this giveaway:
  1. Leave a comment below and share an idea for a favourite family meal. We all need some inspiration this time of year when it comes to meal planning, and sometimes all we need is a new idea. Your comment can be as simple as a suggested menu plan (and by menu I mean everything from “peanut butter sandwiches, apple slices and milk all around” to “baby greens with aged chevre, followed by braised chicken with scallions and a balsamic reduction”) or, if you’re really keen, share an entire recipe for a tried and true family favourite.
  2. For another chance to win, write about the giveaway on your blog, linking to this post, and come back and leave me a comment with the URL to let me know about it. In fact, share your meal planning or recipe idea on your blog too and alleviate the meal-time planning burden of even MORE people! ;)
  3. For another chance to win, tweet the giveaway on Twitter using hashtag #PCHoliday and linking to this blog post, and leave me a comment with a link to your status update. (You can create a direct link to your Twitter update by clicking on the time of the update and saving that link.) You can use this tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/2g6egnx
Edited to add: Sorry, I should have specified. Maximum number of entries is one per channel — one for commenting, one for blogging, one for tweeting. Multiple tweets are greatly appreciated, but will still only get you one entry into the giveaway! ;)
The fine print: this contest is open to Canadian residents only. One winner will be chosen by using the random number generator at random.org, selected from all eligible entries. The winner will be selected the afternoon or evening of November 20, 2010. You must be willing to share your mailing address with me, and I will share it with Hill and Knowlton Canada, who will ship the prize directly to the winner.

So I will take option number 2 and give you a hint or ten two about meal planning and alleviating the stress!!

I normally leave meal planning until about the time the school bus is pulling up in front of the house.  By then it's far too late to get meat out of the freezer or even make a nice meal.  One thing I have learned is that preparation ahead of time is the key.  If only I would do that.  The one thing that I do is when I am making something that freezes well, I will double or triple the amount that I am making.  Last week I made cabbage rolls and if I am going to go through the mess to use one head of cabbage, it doesn't take that long to do 2 or 3 heads and we now have a few meals of cabbage rolls in the freezer.  I also have a meatloaf in the freezer as well that I made from the left over filling from the cabbage rolls too!  The same can be done with chili, spaghetti sauce, soup and baking too!  Something else that helps to save time is to freeze your meat individually.  We tend to buy our meat in larger packages to save some money and we really don't need 8 pork chops for our family of 3.  Divide it into portions.  Not only does it save you from tossing away whatever hasn't been eaten, but it is quicker to defrost 2 chops at a time than the entire package.  Something else to consider is to cook all 8 of them and then freeze half.  That way if you need a quick meal you already have cooked meat in the freezer that can be warmed in the microwave and add a salad and a side and you have a great meal in a fraction of the time that it would have taken if cooking it from raw.

I need to be more organized and right about now I should be going to the freezer to take something out for tonight.....

What kind of meal planning helps you...and in turn might help me???

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Ten on Tuesday



Today's Ten on Tuesday is 10 Movies You'd Like to See in the Theater

I'm not a huge movie buff, but I'll try!

1.  Top Gun
2.  Titanic
3.  The Sound of Music
4.  The Green Mile
5.  Grease
6.  Dirty Dancing
7.  Any of the Chevy Chase Vacation Movies
8.  Forrest Gump
9.  Dumb and Dumber
10. The Twilight Series

It appears I need to get out more!  Believe it or not I worked at Blockbuster Video for years and was entitled to free rentals.  I hardly used them at all....

Wanna play along?  Sign up here!
Thanks to Carole Knits for getting this organized every week!

Monday, November 15, 2010

NaBloPoMo Day 15

Does a song ever take you back into time.  Something you hadn't thought about in years...decades even?  Today while running errands a song came on the radio and I was instantly taken back to my childhood, in our basement playroom with the old 33 1/3 rpm record player and this song....


My brother and I played it so much that eventually the record skipped and if I remember rightly it was ok, because it kept going back to the motorcycle revving.

All I could think when I heard this today was WOW!!!  I'll have to try and remember some of the other songs we used to listen to....

Sunday, November 14, 2010

NaBloPoMo Day 14

It's a wet, cold and dreary day...
Hubby and child are gone to get some parts for the hubby's work truck, my nephew is still sound asleep in the basement and all is quiet for me.  I think today will be the kind of day to sit on the couch with beads and findings and catch up on some television....
Happy Sunday!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Auntie's Beads

Auntie's Beads & Jewelry Supplies


I got an email yesterday morning from a gentleman at Auntie's Beads.  He noticed in my profile that I am a fan of making jewelery.  This is true.  I'm not really good at some parts of it, but others I do pretty well.  I replied to his email and started looking around on the website.  There is everything you need to construct whatever kind of jewelry that you might ever want to make.  I browsed for most part of the day and then ordered a few things and added a few more to my wish list so I can get them another time (Christmas is really not that far away...)

So far my favorite part of the website is the video section. I know now why my bracelets have been falling apart, how to make proper loops, open jump rings and a hoard of other tips and pointers.  Amazing!!!

My sister in law has made jewelry for years and I was always envious of the things that she designed and made.  I thought it was difficult.  I got started accidentally when my child was given a bead kit for her birthday one year and we started making simple things.  I was always on the lookout for kits with detailed instructions so that I could learn.  I bought Jewelry Making & Beading For Dummies and read it and followed along.  It's a great book, but after watching the Videos on Auntie's Beads I have a much better understanding of what the book was trying to tell me.

I am really looking forward to getting my package in the mail and will post pictures of what I ordered and received and I hope it isn't too long before The Coiling Gizmo is in stock!  I really, really want it!!

I'll leave you with a few pictures of what I made last week!!!
My sister loves jewelry with messages.  These were almost too easy.  Put a clasp on some chain, add better jump rings and voila...done

Just for fun

These didn't turn out like the picture in the book.  Better luck next time.

I bought these beads and had no idea what to do with them.  I am learning!!

These were wrapped around the stems of wine glasses and given as a wedding gift to a dear friend who was proposed to at the top of the Eiffel Tower

Again...just for fun!