I shoulda said before -- I am on a bit of a holiday -- well, sort of my dream holiday. I am in search of big things! Maybe you have seen or heard of them -- towns in Canada tend to build a 'symbol' for the town, usually something odd... A giant hockey stick in Duncan BC, a giant perogy in Glenmore, AB, a giant goose, and others that I can't think of right now. I am off to discover them -- except the giant hockey stick, because I did see it years ago when I lived on Vancouver Island, so I don't need to do that again, but going east from Abbotsford, there are alot more of them!
And quilt shops, I must make a list of them -- along the towns on the Yellowhead Highway as that is the east bound route I plan -- and thrift shops, with no particular items in mind, I will hopefully not find too many treasures as the car is only a bitty one...
So, when I return, sometime in September I will get back to regular posts and perhaps have some pictures of giant things to show you...
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Those Pesky Zippers
So, Here's the problem... The zippers on pouches, lined or unlined just don't sit straight -- at least for me. The pink one (the first picture) the end or is it the beginning of the zipper sort of scrunches into the seam -- this is an unlined bag and the inside seams of the zipper flip up sorta, and look very unfinished when open. I think perhaps, that top stitching along the zipper might help with that, though I have not taken that step as yet, so cannot be quite sure....
Now this second picture is lined bag and the zipper is hidden between the layers, it looks somewhat better, but I am still not really satisfied with this method because as you can see, the beginning of the zipper, still sort of flops open and has a bulge on the lining fabric. Maybe it is just me being fussy, but really, is there a trick to putting zippers into this type of small bag??? HELP if you can!
A Drive in the Country
To be able to get in the car in the middle of the "working" week and go for a drive is an amazing luxury. For only the cost of the gas and the time, one has a wonderful summer memory!
The Fraser Valley, just about 70 kms east of Vancouver, BC is a wonderment of farmland, both animals and plants. On a little side road in what is called Glen Valley we stopped the car to "talk" to these horses -- the cows were not at all interested in any sort of conversation -- they were busy munching bits of whatever it is that cows munch on. The Pinto there was quite happy to stop his foraging and listen to every word we said -- he did not talk back or even ask for a 'present' -- he just stood and made every effort to appear interested. One hates to leave anyone who listens so attentively! Too many times I have had the experience of someone wandering away while I am in mid-sentence! How humiliating!
Now, today, I am going back to a struggle in my sewing room. I am trying to get a zipper on the top of a small bag -- but I am not happy with the zipper sort of bulges at beginning and end. Is there a secret to installing a zipper on a bag so that the 'seams' don't bulge and look not quite finished properly? I have looked through some tutorials on-line but they all are the same -- do we have to settle for that raggedy finish? Help! if you can give me an answer!
What I have learned today: I'll let you know later if I ever figure out the zipper thing....
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Insurance
This past week, I have been reading about and making some comments on Myrna Giesbrect's Blog ( http://blog.myrnagiesbrecht.com/ ) about insurance coverage on one's possessions, from the sewing room stash, to life and health insurance. Myrna and I have widely different view points on insurance, and at this point I do suspect that the main difference is somewhat in the way we were raised and the views that our parents gave to us...
Sometimes I feel so very old fashioned, more like my parents generation than even my own generation. The idea of possessions having any importance in my life beyond helping to support my life in its basic requirements is and has always been a guilty feeling...
If there are four people in my family, what is the purpose of having 12 place setting set of dishes, or even less understandable to me, why would a family of four need 2 or 3 or even four sets of dishes? As my sons grew up and out, over the years between the two of them they probably had 6 bikes of varying sizes -- every one, well except one, were bought second hand -- in all their growing up years they never "lost" or had stolen a bike -- why? cause no other kid really wanted second-hand junk! But, if they did not get second hand junk they would have had NO Junk at all.
Now this is where the idea of insurance enters in the picture. Insurance is a very nice idea, that is if it is affordable to you. To me and my family it was not. I and my hubby both come from parents who pretty much discouraged education. The hue and cry in my house was, as soon as it is legal for you to work, GET A JOB! I like many others started working part time when I was 13 years old. I started as a babysitter at 25 cents and hour: when I was 15, i got a job at a independant shop that was situated on the banks of the Red River near Lockport, Manitoba. The shop's main business was selling bait to fishermen. The shop also sold tackle for that same thing, fishing and snack goodies -- It was open 24 hours a day from the Victoria Day weekend until Thanksgiving weekend (about May 24 to Oct 10) I worked every week from 7pm on Friday afternoon until 7pm on Sunday -- I slept in the store -- rather dozed and jumped up at 2am to answer the door and sell some scruffy guy a bag of potato chips, a coke and a box of live crayfish or a can of worms or a container of frozen salted minnows... I got paid $25 every two weeks! Anyway, suffice to say, that because of WORK, I did not get to college and business courses until I was 35 years old. That is a whole nother subject -- education -- but I wanted to touch on it because it has a huge bearing on insurance simply because family income is tremendously affected with lack of income and lack of income means that all life is affected by what is needed NOW. The future is not much considered other than to save up for a few weeks just to buy a new pair of shoes! The loss of a bus pass is/was disaster! A small garden in summer was absolutely necessary! It was not a garden to make you feel good about eating locally to help with the enviromental crisis...
So, I was raised to view insurance as an unnecessary expense. Why pay for something that may never happen? Why spend money that was more needed to use on food or sneakers for school or even to give my family a treat to a movie now and then. No insurance other than that required by law (auto insurance) was never considered to be something that we could 'invest' in.
Now, I do understand that basically that is what insurance is, an investment. But it was an investment that was not affordable. And, luckily I never had to wish I had insurance. Well, except for auto insurance but that was a losing investment -- having spent say an average of 800 dollars every year for 40 years, that investment covered the cost of a side swipe on my car -- 3000 dollars to repair 10 times over -- the auto insurance company is making a huge profit on my driving record!
I do not want to think about what the actual or even the replacement value of my possessions are -- today I do have house and auto insurance but not life insurance -- no company will give me insurance because of my health history and chronic conditions anyway...
When it comes right down to it, possessions are the least important things in my life. Many years ago, my son at age three, chipped an ceramic ornament at his fraternal grandmother's house. She railed and ranted and yelled and cried -- AT A THREE YEAR OLD -- it frightened him ever after being at her home -- even when he became an adult he never went to see his grandmother unless it was with his own parents... Since that day -- I made up in my mind that NOTHING, NOT A Thing, NOT anything at all, could ever have more importance that the people around me -- why do I need insurance on JUST A NOTHER THING...
When I want or need something, I will purchase it, but as soon as it is mine, I consider it valueless except for the need that it fills. To me, it really doesn't have any monetary value. When I am finished with an item, it goes to the second hand store or is recycled or repurposed. It is rare that I re-sell anything, but on occasion it happens.
What I learned today: I am getting so picky and fussy about things, even the angle that my chair sits in relation to where the TV is, or where my yarn box is, or even where the side table drawer pulls out! Age is becoming the age of critisism...
Sometimes I feel so very old fashioned, more like my parents generation than even my own generation. The idea of possessions having any importance in my life beyond helping to support my life in its basic requirements is and has always been a guilty feeling...
If there are four people in my family, what is the purpose of having 12 place setting set of dishes, or even less understandable to me, why would a family of four need 2 or 3 or even four sets of dishes? As my sons grew up and out, over the years between the two of them they probably had 6 bikes of varying sizes -- every one, well except one, were bought second hand -- in all their growing up years they never "lost" or had stolen a bike -- why? cause no other kid really wanted second-hand junk! But, if they did not get second hand junk they would have had NO Junk at all.
Now this is where the idea of insurance enters in the picture. Insurance is a very nice idea, that is if it is affordable to you. To me and my family it was not. I and my hubby both come from parents who pretty much discouraged education. The hue and cry in my house was, as soon as it is legal for you to work, GET A JOB! I like many others started working part time when I was 13 years old. I started as a babysitter at 25 cents and hour: when I was 15, i got a job at a independant shop that was situated on the banks of the Red River near Lockport, Manitoba. The shop's main business was selling bait to fishermen. The shop also sold tackle for that same thing, fishing and snack goodies -- It was open 24 hours a day from the Victoria Day weekend until Thanksgiving weekend (about May 24 to Oct 10) I worked every week from 7pm on Friday afternoon until 7pm on Sunday -- I slept in the store -- rather dozed and jumped up at 2am to answer the door and sell some scruffy guy a bag of potato chips, a coke and a box of live crayfish or a can of worms or a container of frozen salted minnows... I got paid $25 every two weeks! Anyway, suffice to say, that because of WORK, I did not get to college and business courses until I was 35 years old. That is a whole nother subject -- education -- but I wanted to touch on it because it has a huge bearing on insurance simply because family income is tremendously affected with lack of income and lack of income means that all life is affected by what is needed NOW. The future is not much considered other than to save up for a few weeks just to buy a new pair of shoes! The loss of a bus pass is/was disaster! A small garden in summer was absolutely necessary! It was not a garden to make you feel good about eating locally to help with the enviromental crisis...
So, I was raised to view insurance as an unnecessary expense. Why pay for something that may never happen? Why spend money that was more needed to use on food or sneakers for school or even to give my family a treat to a movie now and then. No insurance other than that required by law (auto insurance) was never considered to be something that we could 'invest' in.
Now, I do understand that basically that is what insurance is, an investment. But it was an investment that was not affordable. And, luckily I never had to wish I had insurance. Well, except for auto insurance but that was a losing investment -- having spent say an average of 800 dollars every year for 40 years, that investment covered the cost of a side swipe on my car -- 3000 dollars to repair 10 times over -- the auto insurance company is making a huge profit on my driving record!
I do not want to think about what the actual or even the replacement value of my possessions are -- today I do have house and auto insurance but not life insurance -- no company will give me insurance because of my health history and chronic conditions anyway...
When it comes right down to it, possessions are the least important things in my life. Many years ago, my son at age three, chipped an ceramic ornament at his fraternal grandmother's house. She railed and ranted and yelled and cried -- AT A THREE YEAR OLD -- it frightened him ever after being at her home -- even when he became an adult he never went to see his grandmother unless it was with his own parents... Since that day -- I made up in my mind that NOTHING, NOT A Thing, NOT anything at all, could ever have more importance that the people around me -- why do I need insurance on JUST A NOTHER THING...
When I want or need something, I will purchase it, but as soon as it is mine, I consider it valueless except for the need that it fills. To me, it really doesn't have any monetary value. When I am finished with an item, it goes to the second hand store or is recycled or repurposed. It is rare that I re-sell anything, but on occasion it happens.
What I learned today: I am getting so picky and fussy about things, even the angle that my chair sits in relation to where the TV is, or where my yarn box is, or even where the side table drawer pulls out! Age is becoming the age of critisism...
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Gratuitous Cat Photo and what I made today...
May as well start off with a picture of my cats -- we recently bought a couple of new recliners and it seems now we bought them for the cats. Fossie on the left is our old lady, approaching 12 in October and Archie on the right is an inbred (his mother is his sister) (not my doing!) siamese who is just turned 3 years old on July 1. The only time they lay together is to share the new recliner -- Archie sleeps on top of me all night and Fossie prowls about the house chasing the ghosts...
Now to a more serious subject -- ORGANIZATION. We have too much stuff, we keep getting more stuff -- I really try, believe me, I really try hard not to bring useless stuff into the house, but in todays world, even having the basics means you have too much stuff...
I made an organizer basket for all the bathroom stuff, that seems to always be falling off the shelf by the sink (the room is one of those half bath type set ups where it is just a toilet and sink -- but it is the room that most gets used for washing up and doing the teethes things, so it has alot of those small odd bits in that room. The organizer is a plastic tub that deli potato salad came it, about the same size as a 907 gr margarine tub except a bit deeper, so things stand up just a bit better...
What I Learned today: there is actually a punctuation mark that combines the "?" and the "!" -- except I forgot what it is called...
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Famous Fashion Designer -- only in my head...
Many years ago, many more that the book cover below might suggest, I made doll clothes for everyone under the age of 15 in my neighbourhood. Seems I was the only kid within miles who could sew -- sort of... I thought I was pretty good at making clothes for dolls, I made my own patterns and had a booklet that I kept of favourites -- my friend Sharon down the road loved barbie dolls in wedding dresses and I probably made 10 of them for her! Another little girl, her name was Adele, a grown up name I thought, liked her baby doll dressed in fluffy dresses and pinafores, like Alice in Wonderland, a bit like the doll on the cover of the book, below. I don't know what happened to my own homemade book of patterns and when I "grew up" like about 16 years old, I stopped making clothes for the girls in the area. It began to seem like alot of work for 25 cents, even when the "customer" provided the fabrics (often one of their dad's old shirts!)
I discovered this book, Dolls' Clothes Pattern Book at one of the local second hand stores for $3.00 and snapped it up. Not that I want to start making all sorts of doll clothes, or even that I am particularly interested in creating doll clothes as a hobby, BUT, I have four neices, Kaydee, Lucy, Greta and Scarlette, aged 7 to 3. You know the kind of little girls in that perfect age where dolls are a big part of their lives. So being the great aunt that I am, I have started to make a collection of clothes for their dolls -- starting with the many barbies...
I discovered this book, Dolls' Clothes Pattern Book at one of the local second hand stores for $3.00 and snapped it up. Not that I want to start making all sorts of doll clothes, or even that I am particularly interested in creating doll clothes as a hobby, BUT, I have four neices, Kaydee, Lucy, Greta and Scarlette, aged 7 to 3. You know the kind of little girls in that perfect age where dolls are a big part of their lives. So being the great aunt that I am, I have started to make a collection of clothes for their dolls -- starting with the many barbies...
What I learned today: Even if something works well, sometimes it makes life and creativeness more interesting to explore "options"...
Sunday, August 2, 2009
computer glitches and a funny thing happened while walking in the mall...
I woulda posted a few things in the past week or so, but the new computer -- with Windows Vista, encountered a glitch -- so it was with the techie guy -- now supposedly it is cured and I am back online writing about odd things...
So today, hubby and myself went to the food court at the mall for a bite to eat -- yes we eat at junk food joints -- not too often, but often enough so that when we go, the lady at Thaiway remembers me! so obviously we go too often -- which may actually be only once each month, but maybe she has a good memory!
So after having our bite to eat we took a walk around the Mall, not to shop but to get me a bit of exercise. We noticed a new kiosk in the centre courtyard area that had sunglasses for $15 any pair and since hubby had recently managed to break his and was using mine, I stopped and picked out a pair for him -- he liked them. Then I asked the girl if she had the night low glare type shades and she did, so I got hubby a pair of those too. With tax, $35 bucks.... Then I told my hubby to pay for them and he said "I thought you were buying them for me?" and I answered, "No cause he was the one with the paycheck, not me. And besides if his wife saw the new sunglasses she might wonder how he got them." Then the poor clerk stepped right into the trap!
She said "Oh, you two look like a long married couple!" And I answered "Ha, I am just the girlfriend" ahahahaha,
I sure am funny some days!
What I learned today: I sure do like talking to people I don't know -- you can say anything about anybody at anytime and they will believe you!
So today, hubby and myself went to the food court at the mall for a bite to eat -- yes we eat at junk food joints -- not too often, but often enough so that when we go, the lady at Thaiway remembers me! so obviously we go too often -- which may actually be only once each month, but maybe she has a good memory!
So after having our bite to eat we took a walk around the Mall, not to shop but to get me a bit of exercise. We noticed a new kiosk in the centre courtyard area that had sunglasses for $15 any pair and since hubby had recently managed to break his and was using mine, I stopped and picked out a pair for him -- he liked them. Then I asked the girl if she had the night low glare type shades and she did, so I got hubby a pair of those too. With tax, $35 bucks.... Then I told my hubby to pay for them and he said "I thought you were buying them for me?" and I answered, "No cause he was the one with the paycheck, not me. And besides if his wife saw the new sunglasses she might wonder how he got them." Then the poor clerk stepped right into the trap!
She said "Oh, you two look like a long married couple!" And I answered "Ha, I am just the girlfriend" ahahahaha,
I sure am funny some days!
What I learned today: I sure do like talking to people I don't know -- you can say anything about anybody at anytime and they will believe you!
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