Foto Friday For the First Time in Forever!

Before I check my photos to see what was happening one year ago today I'm going to predict there will be snow. And cats. And maybe a creative project. Yes, I am pretty predictable! Okay, drum roll please..........................

.......I called it! Luna and Lily are curled up together on the futon in the TV room. Sadly, they no longer curl up together; instead they fight over my lap!

Awwwwwww.....!

Not a lot of snow... I thought there'd be more. On another sad note we are getting next to NO birds this winter at our feeders as they are able to feed themselves. So CAT TV is a bust so far this (non)winter.

Carvings from the workshop:
-a couple pieces that haven't been hand sanded to a glossy polish yet...

Should I put them together as a pair? That was my original plan...

Polished!

Which way to display it?

Instead I decided to use a shadow box to display this piece because it was a very thin slice of soapstone and I carved it in relief; ie it has a flat side. You can see my hands taking the photo :)

My life needs an injection of excitement! What should I do to spice things up a little?

Ups and Downs

I should have mentioned when I posted on January 5th that so far in 2017 I hadn't spent any money! Five No Spend days in a row! I wondered how long I could go this month without spending anything at all and well it was Jan. 5th :)
My friend Julie was back from LA and had an empty fridge so I picked up food from Hong Ping and we had a feast! Definitely a money-worthy event.

And it was all downhill from there...as I checked in my local thrift shop for a warm brown hat. There were tons of hats but nothing that suited me or went with its intended brown coat. Oh well, might as well have a wander...

I love metal decor of all sorts and I like watching pieces get weathered.

This will go out on my patio to keep DREAM company.

Now I won't just be dreaming I'll be hoping and dreaming:)

I seem to be lucky lately finding silver filagree work. These 3 flowers are displayed in a shadow box.

Remember this one? Same store. 

And also for my patio - 2 cast iron birds/candle holders - extremely heavy. 

Okay, I'm ready for summer! Too bad it's about a hundred below zero today!

Speaking of the cold... 

I managed to finish a crocheted headband for Kazi.

It looks amazing on her, me not so much.

I'm making one for Hannah too; it's almost done except for 

sizing and sewing on the buttons.

I'm also back in the workshop and have 4 carvings under way - they still look like blobs at the moment so I'll wait til I get to the polishing stage before taking any photos.

Over all I'm happy with how the week went - played volleyball 3 days and rode my stationary bike a couple of times while watching "Trapped" on Netflix. I really love Scandinavian crime shows! This one takes place in Iceland.  And I did my stretches every day (for my sad knee) and my sun salutations as soon as I get up, even though it's still dark out! The result - less pain. Who knew? Well, I guess my physiotherapist...

This, That and the Other Thing

Today was a day of getting things done around the house. It's cold and gloomy outside and I just didn't feel like walking/running in the woods. Brrrrrrrrr! Yes, I'm doing some trail running. I've only fallen once! And it didn't hurt too bad! Damn tree root!

Among my other trail injuries is a Harry Potter lightning bolt shaped scratch on my forehead from pushing into a thicket to get some a--hole's empty water bottle. I HATE litterers! As soon as Kazi saw it she asked (sensitively-HAH!) "how'd ya get the Harry Potter forehead?" I also have another scrape and bruise on my forehead from bending over to clean out the kittys' litter boxes and I whacked my head on the laundry tub!

So I have to stay home til I get healed up - I'm not allowed out in public!

So here's what I accomplished today (so far...):

• made oat scones
• made granola

I think I should be called Oaty McOatface!! Hahahahahaha! Click HERE if you're not sure of my reference :)

I think I hit my head too hard!

Carrying on...

• I finished my first infinity scarf - now that summer's on its way..... 

•  the cats got into a hissy fit over the cat beds so I had to separate them. For some reason they both prefer the FIRST bed I bought and neither wants to use the other two for Pete's sake! So Lily "volunteered" to use one of the newer beds and of course I had to take cute pet photos :)

Lilypad

Luna- the big fat balloona!

Maybe it's because Luna needs two!!

• a piece of paint got chipped off my LOVE decor item so I mixed up some green and blue acrylic paints and touched it up!  

• I worked on  couple other things in the workshop - the piece below fell and got chipped so I had to smooth that out plus I'm flattening the top (it was rounded) so that it can hold a beautiful rock once it's polished. 

•  I worked on another small piece and have the final shape figured out - it's going to be a shadow box carving. (I didn't feel like polishing today.

•  I went around the entire house to find the perfect spot for this little art piece below - it's one of my Talize $1.99 finds when my seester and I went thrifting - I haven't shown you ANY of the great stuff I got - that's another post I guess. I hope I can remember what I bought! I fell in love with this - the frame is great and the silver/silver-plated/steel??? work is so intricate and far eastern-ish. 

 Here's a closer look:

Isn't it great?
The photo below shows its new home.

So that's my day - it was pretty productive. Oh, and I also read for awhile. See, I get a lot done when I don't go outside!

Did you have a productive day? Any new injuries lately? 

Now for a beer!

Cheers!

Work in Progress Wednesday

Yes, it is indeed time for a workshop update. Over the past few weeks I haven't been in the workshop nearly as much as I'd like to so this Wednesday Workshop update post (WIP - work in progress) will hopefully spur me on to become more productive.

I just find that time gets away from me and before I know it it's time to make dinner. This is another busy week, though all of my activities are in the evening. Which is good because then at least I have my mornings and afternoons to be productive.

Last night I went to my book club and I got a FREE book! The leader of the book club is a librarian and gets advance copies of books before they are published - yippeeeeee! I chose a book about England's "flower sellers" at the turn of the 20th century - it looks really good :)!! Tonight I am learning about proportional representation at our monthly Council of Canadians meeting. (sounds a little dry but there are SNACKS!) Tomorrow night is yoga and group meditation, Friday is volleyball, Saturday I'm hopefully getting together with 2 friends for dinner and a movie and Sunday night I'm going to the "Blue Rodeo" concert.

None of that explains why I'm not getting into the workshop more often. Last week I did spend 3 afternoons in the workshop as the weather was horrendous. Which reminds me that the week before last the weather was up above 10c (setting record highs around here) and so I was outside hiking a lot. OK, that explains things somewhat.

There are just so many choices of things to do around here - recently I've been doing the weekly Los Angeles crossword puzzle which can really take up a LOT of time. And I'm reading a huge trilogy blah blah blah...OK, enough excuses - here's what I've been working on...
...oh, but first a photo of a junco on my fence! Isn't it sweet?

Ok, getting back on track again...I completed the soapstone carving below - it was a thin scrap of soapstone so the back of it is flat. I was trying to figure out how to display it - it could just sit flat on a table or shelf but then I had the idea of putting it into a shadow box...

...so that's what I did! Though I have to say it's extremely hard to get a decent photo once it's in the box! You'll just have to take my word for it that it looks freaking AWESOME!! (hee hee!)

The piece below was also a thin slab of soapstone - I used the stone to the best advantage that I could
the front...

...the back...

...and the cross section...you can see how thin it is - if it juts out on one side it indents on the other!

This is my current piece and I am not happy with its shape at all so will get back to it after I eat some lunch.

Does it look phallic to you because it does to me!!!

Back to the workshop I go!! Unless anyone is interested in a phallic shaped piece of soapstone?!?

Are you getting creative these cold winter days?

Juicing

I don't think I've done any juicing for at least a year, perhaps longer. But talking about it with friends has piqued my interest again. So yesterday I switched the coffee maker with the juicer on my kitchen counter.

Then I went to my local United Store (Chinese produce/products) and filled my cart with lots of lovely kale, spinach, ginger, oranges, cucumbers and so on for the modest total of $37. I love my United store - so much more choice than the usual grocery store, not too far away and CHEAP. The plan is to drink juice for breakfast and lunch and have a regular supper and by regular I mean fish/chicken/turkey plus lots and lots of veggies. I need to budge some fat, anyone need some?

My juice today doesn't follow a recipe - I had some "older" produce that I needed to get rid of (another handy feature of juicing - no waste!!) so my juice contains a withering grapefruit, a soft apple, some soft green grapes, spinach and kale, half a cucumber, pomegranate arils, and a big chunk of ginger. And yes it was very tasty - a bit too sweet - too many grapes I think but they needed to be used up.

The big news today is I got my Union Gas bill. I set aside $75; but because it was quite mild in November the bill was only $46!! However, today the temperature was -17c at 8am! Next month's bill won't be quite so low! Phooey!

You know you're are a boring financial nerd when you get excited by a low monthly bill!

Today's chores includes: making a couple of new toilet paper bird feeders, doing a bit more grocery shopping at No Frills (need toothpaste), NO housework, got it done yesterday, ride bike for an hour, tidy workshop and continue soapstone carving currently in progress. Supper is looked after - taking my neighbour to Swiss Chalet - YUM!

Off I go! This retirement business is so much fun!!

Almost Forgot to Put a Title!!

Everyone ready for the big day? Nope, me either, but I'm getting closer to being done than I was in my last post. I've got four dish/hand cloths made and have given two away; I was lucky to find a big ball of cotton yarn in Christmas colours at Walmart; I use a variety of stitches with the main pattern being single crochet alternating with double crochet. I still struggle with turns and sometimes it looks like I've lost a stitch or three!

I've been baking, sort of - most of what I'm making doesn't require the oven like this yummy cashew brittle. This batch turned out great but two other batches are more like fudge than toffee. Still tastes good though! I also made haystacks (chow mein noodles, peanuts and melted semi-sweet chocolate with a sprinkle of sea salt for added interest!) for the first time and they turned out well. My sister, Lannie, always made haystacks but now she's living in PEI so I have to make my own!

I found a spool knitter at Michael's and am using the leftover yarn I find at Talize (thrift store) - I'm amazed at how quickly it works up - I should have a good sized rug by the end of the winter!

I gave one piece of carved soapstone as a gift (sorry, no photo) and am finishing up the piece below for another gift; this piece is made of an opaque harder type of soapstone that I've never used before and is testing my skills - I love how it lets the light shine through it:

Here's my friend, Robyn, with me at the Village Pub. She's a fabric artist and gave me the SPIRAL pin below! The spiral shape continues to follow me - Annie and I encountered many spirals as we travelled along Hadrian's wall. I've done a wee bit of research and the spiral can represent the journey from the external to the internal which also explains the journey of meditation (outer world to inner world). 

We shared a veggie pizza and a bottle of chianti and had many great and creative ideas while talking - like forming an art collective for women in the Wortley Village area of London...stay tuned...that could just be the wine talking.....

And here's beautiful Luna sitting in the cupboard beside my chair where I work. I cleaned out the cupboard which is REALLY OLD (it belonged to my gramma and was black when I got it back in the 1980's - I have since refinished it); to make room for my yarn etc but Luna decided it was a good spot to keep her eye on me - you never know when a treat might come along!

And that's it for now. There have been several get togethers with friends and I'm heading to a friend's house this afternoon. There was a wee bit of snow in the air yesterday with the Toronto area getting a couple of centimetres. But the temps are going back up again next week bringing rain and highs in the teens!! Yikes!

Just a few more days and then Christmas come and go once again. Months of preparation for a few hours of chaos!

Extreme Cold Warning....still in effect!

Extreme Cold Warning

Issued at 10:48 a.m. EST Thursday 19 February 2015

Summary

Bitterly cold arctic air has once again returned to Southern Ontario. Strong and gusty northwest winds will combine with the frigid temperatures to produce extremely cold wind chill values of minus 30 to minus 35 today through Friday morning. People outdoors should

...More details

Yesterday was a stay inside day and today isn't any warmer! We are amusing ourselves by throwing seeds out onto the snow in the patio area and watching the squirrels fight over them. Luna and Lily are absolutely glued to the patio doors! Do I know how to have fun or what!?!

This morning I had to take out the recycling and it was a struggle just to breathe let me tell you! I'll have to find another DIY project to keep myself busy like I did yesterday. I'm so happy with my fix-it job!! I had this kitchen cabinet door that squeaked/groaned horrendously every time we opened it, which was frequently as it's the door that has the garbage bin behind it. A week ago I thought that if I squirted some WD40 on the hinges I could make the squeak/groan go away. No such luck, in fact, I made matters worse because then the hinges were so slippery the door wouldn't stay open. I'd open the door, grab a plate to scrape and the door would be closed!!

So yesterday I took the door off and took off the hinges - turns out one of them was broken. At least that's what my carpenter's helpers told me...

..and they did a very good inspection! 

Off I went to the local Home Hardware store and bought new hinges...so far so good...

...but there was a slight problem - the new screws were a lot smaller than the old screws...they're not going to work very well in the old holes made by the much fatter screws!! Nope, door fell right off again!

I started digging through my large supply of differently sized screws but most were too long as I had less than an inch of depth to work with...

So I wondered about anchors...but again they were too long for the depth I had to work with and stuck out...

So...I flexed my muscles and tried forcing the old fat screws through the slightly smaller openings in the new hinges and it worked!! I didn't think they'd line up properly with the old holes but they did!!  Once in a while things go right!!

Ta da!! The door is back on and nary a sound does it make...

and it stays open!! Amazing how such a little thing can improve the quality of my life - no more groaning, no more closing when my back is turned!!

After that I carved for awhile and then did my first bit of sanding - it's looking good! I

also made a big pot of leek and potato soup which I'm going to have RIGHT NOW!!

A productive day:)