I love a bargain

During the summer months, I spend Saturday mornings going to yard sales.  Best selling books from 2 years ago I buy at the Great Canadian Dollars store for $3.00.  When I finish reading these, I trade them at Reads in Fredericton towards other books.   Most of my clothing comes from Value Village or other type of reassigned clothing stores.  I shop for the best price and rarely buy anything that has not been discounted.  Groceries shopping is no exception.    Today was an exceptionally  good discount day at the local Sobeys, including 10x the Air mile points on orders over $50.00.

I am a big fan of the Europe`s Best Frozen Fruit and vegetables line, especially the frozen raspberries.   This past summer I found coupons for $2.00 off a bag of frozen fruit.   This morning I came across a coupon for a free bag of vegetables with every purchase of two bags of frozen fruit.   Not only did I get a bag of vegetables free, I also received $2.00 off each bag of fruit I purchased.  For a total of $12.00, I purchased $27.00 in frozen fruits and vegetables.   I prefer fresh fruit and vegetables, but during the cold months of winter frozen taste better than  produce trucked in from California.  Besides deep dish berry pie or Pavlova will help warm these dark winter days.

My china collection

Remember the blue and white china dish fabric I showed a few weeks back?  Here is the same dish pattern in a brand new style.  The dress is entitled `Memories of Beijing`.  Talk about recycling.

I`ve been saving my broken dishes to make a collage, never thought of a dress.

To see more of the artist`s work, go here

Another good blue day

The nurse visited to change Sarah`s dressing and will do so every day until she is well again.  Andrea sees a huge improvement  in Sarah since yesterday so my granddaughter  is on the mend.   Sarah was on Facebook and twitter today, which is a sure sign life is getting back to normal.

Keeping with the blue theme of my blog this week, my lovely daughter gave me these blue vintage treasures  as a Christmas gift.

Mind you only after I emailed her and begged her to put these lovely on her PayPal account as I could not remember by password.

I had been searching for turquoise beads for awhile so when I found these glass beads  in Whitebird Design Esty shop, I was very happy.  The lot consisted of a35″ continuous strand of small faux pearls in a pretty light blue.
a vintage 16″ strand of turquoise blue round glass beads.
a dainty 15″ sterling and blue bead necklace with a small 5/8″ matching pendant.
a little 1″ long scotty dog pin; goldtone with light blue enamel and a tiny blue rhinestone eye,
and an assortment of buttons and bead.

Having such lovely blues makes me happy!

Sarah

My grand-daughter visited the doctor today to have the staples removed from her incision.  Unfortunately the doctor discovered an infection so Sarah will continue to recuperate at her mom`s for awhile longer.   Starting tomorrow a nurse will visit to dress her incision.

With a round of antibiotics and Andrea`s care, Sarah should be right in no time.  Other than the occasional cold, Sarah has not been sick before.  So this is quite concerning for our family.  Good wishes and prayers sent her way would certainly be appreciated.

Blue moon

I could not wait to get home today to work on the blue quilt.  Digging through my stash I found even more blue fabric.  I also found a blue quilted wall hanging I bought before Christmas at a church bazaar.

Can you believe that I purchased this beauty (brand new) for $3.00?   Does any one know the name of this method?

Got the blues, but I am happy

As I am still recuperating from the 7 hour road trip on Friday, I spent most of  the weekend indoors, sewing.   On the home front, my grand-daughter Sarah was discharged from the hospital on Friday and will be recuperating at her parents.  Sarah needs to stay off school for at least two weeks, and off work for a few weeks more.

When I first took up quilting my friend J told me to always have a least four projects on the go.  One should be a `wanted to do` project, one should be `a have to do ` project, and the other two should be of various skill levels.   That way, when one project was causing problems, or if I just wanted to sew for the sheer pleasure, I would have an easy project to work on.   Now that I have a room dedicated once more to sewing, I can have two or three projects on the go.  Most of the weekend I spent sewing my cottage block swaps, being extra careful.   With five weeks left,  I have more than half the blocks completed.

By late yesterday evening I wanted to do mindless sewing.  Nothing fancy. Nothing that required extra attention or care.  Digging through the numerous bins of not quite finished projects I came across the blue quilt.  This quilt I started last year, but put away when the house was went on the market.   This straight seam project was the best mindless sewing I could fine.   The blocks were already cut and simply required being sewn together.   Rather than a design wall, I used the design door to hang the completed rows.  The plan is to use a 4×7 block of every blue fabric I have in my stash with few repeats.  So far so good.

Little things

Enjoy the little things, for one day, you may look back and realize that they were the big things.”    - Robert Brault

Yesterday morning I left the house at 6:00 a.m. to be driven to Fredericton.   Shortly after 8:00 I met my husband and we drove another hour and a half to Saint John to attend the funeral of my aunt`s long time companion.   My aunt Gina and her boyfriend Al dated  for 17 years.   They met at a Christmas party that neither one wanted to attend.  A year before each  had lost their spouse.  With the Christmas season approaching their respective children thought a night out might cheer them up.

For the next 17 years they dated.   Each kept their own apartment.  They would meet at Gina`s in the morning, go out for lunch, bowling  or a walk at the mall returning to her place for supper.  Their evenings were spent watching television, talking on the telephone to their children (15 children between the two of them). At 10:00 o`clock Al would kiss her good night and return home.

As Father Doug said in the eulogy, they were always together.  Sunday morning they went to church, always sat on the parking lot side pew, last row, first and second seat.  Saturdays were filled with yard sales, country drives or camping.  Last summer they spent a weekend camping  outdoors in sleeping bags under the stars.  No small event considering Gina is 72 and Al was 80.  On a whim they would drive from Saint John to Calais to visit Al`s sister and of course do a bit of cross border shopping.  Occasionally they would visit for a weekend on the Miramichi, bringing my parents along for the drive.   Shopping, yard sales, card games. laughs  and a lot of good cooking marked their visits.

Al was a tall, big, quiet man.  Gina is a firecracker at 5 feet. She loves to talk, he was a man of few words.

From the moment he was diagnosed with terminal cancer in November, Gina did not leave his side.  Six weeks ago he was brought back to his apartment, and there she stayed.

Al`s funeral was largely attended.  We sat with my aunt Gina at the luncheon afterwards and remembered a lot of good little things from the past 17 years.   We shared a few tears.   Gina said she would wait until she was home alone this weekend before she allowed the grief to consume her.    Gina said  she would have enough to keep her busy during the days, but 10:00 o`clock at night would be the worst.

They lead a life of little things and that was no small feat.

Sarah

Sarah was operated on late last night and is doing fine.    She will be hospitalized for a few days yet.

Proud and worried Mam

• The past 24 hours have been a roller coaster of emotions.   Yesterday I was one proud Mam.  My very talented daughter Andrea was interviewed by Costas Halavrezos on the CBC radio program Maritime Noon.   If you would like to hear the interview go here, and click on Why did you decide to live in the Maritimes ?.   You will need to listen to the first half of the program, the segment including Andrea is about 12 minutes into the pod cast.

Today I am a very worried Mam.   My grand-daughter Sarah was admitted to the hospital with a ruptured appendicitis.   This is her first hospitalization ever.   Please keep her in your prayers.   Luckily, my DH is in Fredericton so he was able to visit and get the details first hand from Andrea.

Meaghan, Andrea, Addison and Kaytlyn are all keeping watch over her at the hospital.    Sarah  is in good hands.

Easy Sunday Dinner – Orzo with chicken

As I spent most of Sunday sewing, this recipe was the perfect dinner to make on a busy day. What I enjoy about this recipe, besides the taste  is the versatility.   Instead of fresh,  I used Europe`s Best Chef`s Spinach.

In place of canned tomatoes, I added whole tomatoes from the freezer which I froze this fall.  After a quick blanching in hot water, the tomato skin slipped off easily.   All I had to do was roughly chop the tomatoes.    I omitted the chicken altogether.

Marinated pork tenderloin, along with a pepper mushroom stir fry completed the meal.  It took me longer to cut the veggies for the stir fry, then it took for the main dish to cook.

If you want a vegan dish, omit the chicken.  Shrimp would be a good substitute.  This would also be a great pot luck dish.   Enjoy!