My first swap

Me: “I’ve signed up for a swap”
Hubby: “Not for me I hope”
Me: “Don’t be silly, it’s for fabric”
Hubby: ” I thought you weren’t buying any more fabric”
Me: “I’m not.  They’re buying it for me”

Each day I anxiously check the mailbox hoping that a parcel from any of the other four swap partners have arrived.  My parcel to each of them included a fat quarter of fabric, a quilt theme package of post it notes, and a handmade potholder from the local Christmas bazaar. The fabric is from the Northcott Hip Hop Heart collection.   Though I was very tempted, I left the selvage intact.

Remember Monday’s blizzard, well today is it 10 degrees and sunny, quite a change in one week.   It feels like spring might just arrive this year.

The Reader

I finished ”The Reader” in two nights, now I want another one just like this one.  The writing is clean, quick, poignant, incredible.   It brings a lump to your throat with just a few words………..the type of book I love.  

 

Don’t just take my word for it, here’s a preview.  Let me know what you think.  

What are you reading this week?

A blast from the past

Andrea started it when she posted this picture of her and I from Christmas 1970.   For those of you who have always known me as a blonde or white hair femme fatale, this shows the true colour of my hair.   I love this picture and had to find a picture or two of Andrea that captures a moment in time.

What’s better than passport photos

Andrea’s passport photo  (age 7) for her first trip to England with Little Nanny.   In those days, you did not call overseas unless someone died and of course there was no such thing as the internet, I waited patiently to receive a letter from her.   One arrived two days before Andrea’s return, it read, “Dear Mom, too busy to write” ………love Andrea.   I still have it tucked away in my strong box.

Andrea’s second passport photo from 1985 was even better.  The hair, the glasses, she certainly was a 80′s lady!

My great grandfather Private John Daly

The Book of Remembrance of the First World War is on display in the Memorial Chamber of the Parliament of Canada, in Ottawa. 

Each year on this date, the book is opened to page 74.  Inscribed on this page is the name of my great grandfather, Private John Daly, 14th Battalion.  

 He died in battle on November 28, 1916 and is buried in Villers Station Cemetery, France.   He was 36 years old.   We have no pictures of him, so this is as close as I have to a memorial.

Nearly 100 years ago he fought in the “war to end all wars”…..sadly it didn’t.

Weather update

They are calling this the worst storm of the decade.   The blizzard caused white outs, the police were asking people to stay off the roads, the buses were canceled, the ambulances were grounded.

I spent the day baking bread, hamburg buns and pumpkin pies.   I invited our friends over for supper, until they realized they could not get out of their driveway nor could they get into ours.   It is 8:30 p.m., it has been snowing for the past 14 hours.   The winds have died down a bit, so my dear husband and snow blower buddy are attempting to clear our yard.  Note the snow drifts, they are 5 feet over my husband’s head.  He clocks in at just under 6 feet.

But spring is less than a month away………………..

We’re getting cleaner

Take the following ingredients – a bar of laundry soap from the dollar store($.50), a box of borax($5.29) and a box of washing soda($5.79).

Make  recipe #3 on this site. 

 I was amazed at how little (1 and 1/3 cups) of actual product the recipe called for, the main ingredient was water.  When you buy the commerically produced laundry detergent, the first ingredient listed is water.  So that is what you’re paying for.

 

 In place of a plastic bucket to mix the recipe, I used this handy water carrier which I bought at a yard sale for 25 cents. The only difficult part was grating the soap.   I found that running it through my small food processor worked the best.  The food processor was also purchased at a yard sale  for  $5.00.

From start to finish this took 20 minutes to make 7.5 litres (1.98 gallons) of liquid laundry detergent.   I spilled a bit when filling the bottles but a quick wipe with a terry cloth towel left my counter very clean. 

 Note the labels from the recycled laundry detergent bottles have been removed to protect the expensive. The three bottles pictured here totalled more than $23.00 when originally purchased on sale.  The water bottle is one I no longer use.  Even with calculating in the cost of the water carrier and the food processor, making my own laundry detergent is considerably cheaper.

We keep getting greener

I’ve been reading “Green Clean”  eco-friendly cleaning for the home , a perfect little book given to me by my friend Win.  From these simple household items, I made dishwasher detergent at an estimated cost of 47 cents.

  Mix 1/2 cup Castile soap, 1/2 cup water, 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice, 3 drops tea tree oil, 1/4 cup white vinegar.  Store in a  bottle.   Place 1 tablespoon of the mix in each of the dispensers.  Sprinkle a handful of baking soda over the dirty dishes and in the bottom of the dishwasher.  This will absorb odours and boost the cleaning power.

A squeeze bottle would be convenient but I used what I had on hand.

I’ll use it this evening and will keep you posted on the results.

 

The book has recipes for everything from wooden furniture polish to gel fragrance in a jar.

Another storm

The morning sky was beautiful, with the promise of snow hanging heavy.

With 9 feet high snow banks in our yard, snow is a four letter word we don’t want to hear.

But Mother Nature doesn’t pay us any mind……………………

The sound track of your life

For the first two weeks of February I ended each post with a lnk to a song with “heart” in the title.   Some songs were old stand bys that I love while others were new ones I discovered on You Tube.  I’d spend an hour each evening song jumping around You Tube.

My taste in music is eclectic, depending on my mood.  On You tube  I  listen to anything ranging from Discovery Channel I love the world, to Dusty Springfield I Just Don’t Know What to Do with myself to Willie Nelson’s My Own Peculiar Way.   During my morning drive to work, I often play a CD, belting out the songs. 

If someone made a movie of my life, I would pick the following songs for the sound track:
The Flower Duet – Lakme
You Can’t always get what you want – Rolling Stones
Someone exactly like you – Van Morrison
Pie Jesu -Sarah Brightman
The Dance – Garth Brook
Those were the days of our lives -Queen
Amazing Grace

What would your sound track be?

Finds

Isn’t this fabric incredible!  Row upon row of beautiful silky cats. I found it in “the fabric of unknown origin” bin at the local fabric shop.  At $1.99 a metre I could not resist buying the rest of the bolt, a total of 2.5 metres.  

 I’m hoping my wonderfully talented daughter will use her serger to make it into scarves.

At couple of weeks ago I came across this beautiful quilt at the local thrift shop, at a cost of $5.00.    It is a perfect fit for the wooden quilt hanger my husband made me a few years back.  The stitching is perfect, especially the accent stitching on the cats’ tail.  A lot of work and love went into the making of this quilt.   I still find it difficult to believe someone could give up such a sweet quilt.  I’m certainly glad they did.