More mumblings

 A warning about the eyeglass cleaner I talked about in my previous post - please heed the warnings from Becki in the comments on that post regarding glasses with an anti-glare coating.

I would love to be able to show you progress on the landscape and rest assured there HAS been some, however it's at a point where I really can't show you without revealing the whole thing.  I want to prolong the suspense (or something).  The embroidery is happening but it's taken several days already and is likely to take several more before I'm calling it done.  Hopefully I can show you something on Friday.

Today, instead of a quote....

Car progress and a question for you

I've mostly completed the work on the VW 'Beetle' as you can see from this photo....

I'm currently working on the embroidery in the foreground and I'll save that to show you later on (mainly because right now it doesn't look like much! 

Now, for the question....do any of you use 'Square' for online transactions?  I'm searching for a better alternative to Paypal who seem to be causing nothing but grief.  I 'did a google' and it's suggesting 'Square' as a good alternative but I want to know from those who are users if you are happy with it before I attempt to sign on.  What say you?

- Just to prove (hah!) that you just never know what you might find on this blog, how about a 'recipe' for eyeglass cleaner you can make yourself?  I was getting tired of buying little teeny containers of it in the drug store so did some research and made my own.  3 parts rubbing alcohol, 1 part water and 2 or 3 drops of liquid dish soap (Blue Dawn, preferably).  Shake before using.  And you're welcome.  PLEASE NOTE:  SEE BECKI's COMMENTS BELOW RE GLASSES WITH ANTI-REFLECTIVE COATING

More progression

 The eagle-eyed among you might notice that I changed the roofline of the building in the foreground somewhat and that there's more stitching been added to the boards.  I also added the border.

Today's quote..."Remember as you slide down the great bannister of life, there are gonna be people who are splinters in your butt.  Pick 'em out and slide on!"

A little progress - that takes hours

Over the weekend I worked on the latest landscape and thought I'd show you a closeup of part of it.  

I think you can see from the photo the area that I've worked on.  I use fabric that's preprinted with the barnboard design but then I machine stitch on top of it to add dimension.  It's a slow process but I think it brings it to life.  At least I hope so!

Today the quote is from Harvey MacKay..."Time is free but it's priceless.  You can't own it, but you can use it.  You can't keep it, but you can spend it.  Once you've lost it you can never get it back"

Evening doings

 Over the past few nights I've created an outfit for our wee little lady.  I made them in the next size up so they won't fit her until fall.  

Hat is THIS one and the sweater is THIS one (only I chose to make it sleeveless).  Yarn is SO cushy - Bernat Baby Velvet.

Today's quote is from Lori Deschene..."No one changes unless they want to.  Not if you beg them.  Not if you shame them.  Not if you use reason, emotion or tough love.  There's only one thing that makes someone change:  their own realization that they need to do it.  And there's only one time it will happen:  when they decide they're ready"

Under seige!

 Squirrels are attacking - on more than one front!  Wish I could get a photo of the attack squirrel who has managed to figure out how to climb four stories up a painted brick wall and then poise himself above us and then leap from there onto my poor suffering fuschia hanging pot and from there to industriously dig up our lettuce.  Opening the door leads to him making a flying leap to the ground (three stories below) and take off running.  Resident Chef is NOT happy about having to keep replanting his lettuce!

And, on the sewing front, it seems there's been yet another squirrel at work because I bailed (momentarily) on the latest landscape and instead turned to making sleep pants for #1 son out of this fabric...

Pattern is this one...

McCall's # 4244

Both of our sons are quite tall (6'4" and 6'8") so getting lounge pants long enough is practically impossible.  So....Mom, to the rescue.  

- If you're interested in eco-printing, perhaps you might find THIS of value. And if you'd like to explore further, go HERE.

- There's another method HERE you might like to try.  I really like the idea of adding dye to the water.

- Have a peek through the galleries of THIS fibre artist.

- THIS falls under the fact (or fallacy?) that this blog is full-service (and you never know what you're going to find!)

Today's quote is from F. Scott Fitzgerald..."It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living"

Two things

 Two things to show you today!  First of all, I finished knitting this little hat for our granddaughter...

Pattern is 'Pineapple Hat' by Little Red Window Design
and can be found HERE

and...work has begun on the new landscape.  It's at the state that these things always go through when I wonder why I'm even bothering to do what I do.  I know it will likely get better but for now I do have my doubts.  

- THIS artist does great work and it's well worth checking it out.

- THIS CAL might intrigue some of you.

- THIS you tube video show you how to add strength and stability when you're making  handles for bags.

- Have a look at the pretties found in the gallery of THIS artist.

This quote made me smile..."Have you ever just looked at someone and knew the wheel was turning but the hamster was dead?"

 Sorry I was missing in action on Wednesday but we had a couple of appointments and when we got home doing my blog post was completely out of my mind.  There's another appointment today but it's not until this afternoon.

Yesterday was yet another learning curve because I had to buy and install a new printer.  These things don't come easy to me so I'm sure I end up taking way longer than necessary.  So far so good.  I invested in a Brother printer/scanner/photocopier that uses ink tanks rather than cartridges.  According to the 'blurb' the ink tanks will supposedly (!) work for upwards of a year under normal printing conditions.  Of course the tanks that come with the printer aren't full-sized so it's going to be awhile before I know how economical it might turn out to be.  

Now that I have finished that landscape that was being hard to get along with, I'm hankering to start a new one.  So, thanks to Michael Truman's photography efforts, I have fodder for a new creation...

Image courtesy of Michael Truman

This one is going to be fun!

- Have a look through the galleries of THIS amazing artist!

- and THIS artist too!!

- And how about the galleries HERE?

- I found THIS to be quite interesting.

- Some of you might find some ideas HERE to spark your creativity.

Today's quote..."Life's biggest tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late"

KISS-ing (another 'duh' moment)

 I have been struggling with the latest landscape and not knowing how I wanted to finish it.  For some reason my brain kept insisting that I should add a border and for the life of me I couldn't come up with anything that I liked.  Finally it hit me (you know....the KISS syndrome!) that it didn't NEED a border.   Why ever didn't that bit of brilliance hit me sooner?  Once I came to that realization it came together quickly and now I have a finish to show you....

"Browers Homestead"

measures approx. 19x28"

FOR SALE!

The inspiration came from this photograph, originally taken by Glen Bowe and used with his kind permission...

- I received an email from Val pointing me towards THIS wonderful article about the healing power of stitch.  It's something we all could benefit from reading I think, whether or not we struggle with any sort of mental health issues.

- THIS is a really pretty shawl pattern

- If you're one of those people who happen to be a fan of Starbucks, perhaps some of THESE knock-off recipes might catch your fancy.

Today's quote..."Learn to trust the journey even if you do not understand it.  Sometimes what you never wanted or expected turns out to be what you need"

Stuck in the mud (or a treatise on the spinning of wheels)

 Well, let me see - what could I possibly find to mumble about today?  How about this?

A box of inspiration arrived.  There's yarn in there for a number of projects so I will be working my way through it over the next while.

Yesterday I spent the morning helping my friend with clearing out her dad's house after he has moved to assisted living and I came home with a new-to-me thread holder.  You can see it in the photo - it's the wire one on the right.

My son made the one on the left many years ago.  I have more thread than fits on these two holders but at least my blues, browns and greens are somewhat organized.

I've started another cross stitch ornament - the Nutcracker this time.  I plan to make two Nutcrackers and two of the chef ornaments so I'll be working on these for awhile.

- You might enjoy looking through some of the galleries of THESE artists.

- THIS is an interesting interview that addresses recycling textiles into art pieces.

- Because this is a full-service blog (see blog post title above), I know you need to know how to do THIS!  And another just because thing is HERE.  

Here's the quote for today...

A finish - sort of, but not quite

 I finished the cross stitching and the details on the 4th (and last!) house ornament.  Now I only (!) have one more chef and two nutcracker ornies left to do and then the dreaded putting them together.  Definitely not looking forward to that part of the process.

- If you are an artist (or perhaps a gardener?) you might like to make yourself one of THESE.

- Because we're going into summer here and the temperatures are going up, maybe some of you might like to make yourself some of THESE.  

- I like THIS too, but not sure my sewing abilities would translate to making it fit.

- For those of you experiencing issues with leaving comments on Blog-grrrrr, perhaps trying the solution Barb posted about HERE (scroll down to the bottom of her post)  will work for you.  And there's another post HERE that addresses the same issue.

Today's quote..."Nothing should go back to normal.  Normal wasn't working.  If we go back to the way things were, we will have lost the lesson.  May we rise up and do better"

A whole lot of cross

 And no, I'm not upset!  I've been having fun with cross stitches and have completed the base for the latest house ornament.  This one is the book shop and next 'up' will be to add the topstitching to bring it to life.  

- For those who are missing in-person quilt shows, perhaps a peek through THESE will help!

- The creations of THIS artist are fun to see.  And have a click through the embroideries of THIS artist too.

- Scroll down through the gallery of THESE amazing artists!

- Experimenting with some of THESE techniques would be fun.

Today's quote..."Time passes so quickly.  You literally do not even notice it until it begins to show.  So, don't wait to use the good china, go on the trip, eat the cake, watch the late movie, read your favourite book, and take a chance in life...the time is now.  Live passionately while there is still time.  Remember, tomorrow is promised to no one.

Yet another does of mumblings

 I really don't understand how days can go by and I have absolutely nothing to show for it.  It seems I'm busy all the time but doing what?  Certainly nothing worth showing to you!!  Spending altogether too many hours trying to research birthday gift ideas for our soon-to-be-8-year old grandie and hours trying to tell my computer printer that yes, I really DO want to print pictures and that I'm not happy with it gobbling up nearly $80 worth of ink and only printing 27 pictures.  What's up with that?  It's had yet another influx of ink and still not printing correctly despite having had a good cleaning and alignment.  Argh.  Oh, and I won't mention the fact that we had to haul in all our balcony furniture and plants so they could paint the balcony railing which in turn led to us getting  a floor mat to cover the unsightly cement floor out there.  How does one show pictures of any of that?  

Knitting?  Well, I'm making dish scrubbies which are simply 4" squares out of nylon yarn.  B-o-r-i-n-g.  

Crocheting?  Nada.

Cross Stitching?  Some done on one of the little houses but nothing worth showing you.

Landscape?  Stuck in place on the latest one and don't know what I need to do next.  Maybe I should call it done??
Watching grass grow?  Yep, lots of that.....

- The creations of THIS artist are rather fun to see.

- And THIS one too!

- If you happen to have any interest in needle felting (or felting of any form) have a scroll through the inspiration found HERE.

Today's quote..."What is strength?  Strength is forgiving people that don't even feel sorry for their actions.  Strength is putting a smile on your face when you want to cry a river.  Strength is not hurting those who hurt you.  Strength is forgiving others"

Mumblings and a project

 First of all, I must tell you that we had a wonderful time away but, as is true of all trips, we are glad to be home.  Time spent with our #2 son, daughter-in-love and three grandies was precious and went by far too fast.  The flight to BC was relatively uneventful but we had listened to the news reports of massive lineups and arrived at the airport four hours before we needed to.  Luckily we made it through the check in/security areas in good time and had lots of time to people watch.  Coming home, due to circumstances beyond our control, we arrived at the airport just 2 hours before our flight was due and we barely made it through the check points in time...they were calling boarding for our flight just leaving barely enough time for a quick piddle break and run for the plane.  That's cutting it a little too fine!  Word to the wise - if you're flying anywhere make sure you allow at least two hours more than what the recommendation is.  And make sure you have some food in your carry on because you're going to need it.

We enjoyed family time with our kids and got to see where their school/daycare is.  5 year old goes to kindergarten and the 2 year old goes to daycare so when they were there we had lots of time to indulge ourselves with baby cuddles.  There might, or might not, have been several ice cream cones and there certainly were lots of stories to be read.  Grandpa baked cookies (twice), muffins and made our favourite oatmeal with two eager little helpers, and his scalloped potatoes were such a success that there were two 'makings' of those.  Grandma was happy to celebrate Mother's Day with family, something that hasn't happened in recent years.

One day we traveled to a wonderful orchid growers and this is just one of the beautiful flowers we saw there.  Must say that the plants they had for sale were a whole lot cheaper than what we have to pay here.  Wish we could have packed a few into our suitcases!

It's taken a few days (particularly with all the excitement of the big storm in the middle) to get back into the groove of things here.  I finally busted out the crochet hook, tackled a commission, and made these...

Pattern is the Snowman Gnome
by Jen Hayes Creations
and can be found HERE

This photo shows just some of the damage from the storm.  This tree is just a few feet north of our building...

The storm spread a swath of destruction and power outages spreading across a lot of southern Ontario.  Many areas are still without power and doubtful it will be back for several more days.  We are very fortunate that we were only dark for 25 hours.  Oddly, I had a friend who lives about 2 blocks away here for coffee yesterday and their power didn't go out at all.  When Resident Chef and I got married he thought it was highly amusing to see me rush around filling the bathtub and every available receptacle with water but coming from a farming background it's just what we did because we knew if the power went out we had no means to pump water.  Well I think I'm going to go back to doing that, just to be on the safe side.

- Some of you may enjoy scrolling through THIS blog.  

- And have a look at the amazing creations from THIS artist!

- And THIS one too!  Or how about THIS one?

- THIS takes you to a PDF showing  a different take on a knitted log cabin design that would be great for using up stash.

Today's quote is from Brene Brown...."Many of us will spend our entire lives trying to slog through the shame swampland to get to a place where we can give ourselves permission to both be imperfect and to believe we are enough"

The best of plans

 I know I promised you a post this morning but Mother Nature put somewhat of a damper on my plans.  A massive summer storm blew (!!!) through and knocked our power out for over 25 hours.  It just came back on mid-afternoon yesterday so I haven't had enough time to prepare a post for you.  There was a lot of local damage from the storm (yet to be determined if a tornado touched down but all indications point in that direction).  I've never heard a sound quite like it - continuous thunder that didn't stop.  We count ourselves most fortunate though because not too far from here a town is under a state of emergency with massive damage and power outage that is reported might be lasting for days before it can be repaired.  At last count 8 lives have been lost.  The winds uprooted a big tree just a few feet north of our building so it was pretty scary.  

So, I'm sorry, but there's not much else to share for you today.  I have been working on a crochet project which hopefully I'll be able to show you in my next post.  

and........we're back.........

 This is just a quick note to tell you that we're back. I know you ALL were just waiting to hear that particular news item.  You weren't?  Well then....

Since I'm still suffering from jet lag and nothing is getting done beyond ever-so-thrilling things like restocking the groceries and buying plants for the balcony and doing laundry, I will make this short and will hopefully return to the regularly-scheduled drivel postings on Monday.

Hope all has been well in your world!

Flying away!

 This will be my last blog post for a couple of weeks because tomorrow we're heading out to visit our #2 son and his family.  I don't know how much time I'll have to visit you all but I will try to keep up, but don't be surprised if I'm not commenting.  Not sure how well my aging tablet will cooperate for such things.  

Neither of us is relishing the angst of dealing with airports and flights but how else will we get to see our kids - there's three little grandies out there that are most deserving of grandparent-ly cuddling and story reading.  Having to be masked for what will probably end up being more than ten hours for a person (me) who is highly claustrophobic is going to be SUCH a delight, but it is what it is.  We're hearing on the news that there are currently large delays in the check in process at airports due to lack of staffing (they have the same issues as are happening everywhere else) so that means we'll have to get to the airport at least two hours earlier than we'd planned - which means 4 hours ahead of time - and no guarantees even then of making the flight in time.  

So....we might be going - and we might miss the flight through no fault of our own.  Not the LEAST bit stressful!!!  

Image by Steve Kelley 
(Washington Post)

We, all going well, should be home again on the 17th.  So, in the meantime, play amongst yourselves and remember to be nice.

Cross - but not in a bad way

 Yes, I've been continuing with the cross stitch projects and now can mark four done....four more to go.  I not only finished the stitching of the Santa House, but also added the garland and beading to the rest of the houses.  Don't know if the sparkle from the garland shows in the photos though.  It's a Kreinik Micro Ice Chenille.  

On another note, this one falls under a great mystery.  I had ordered a container of a sealant by Jacquard from Amazon and it seemed to take slightly longer than usual to arrive.  It finally appeared and tucked inside was a package of really nice paintbrushes which were labeled as being a 'gift'.  Not sure what precipitated that because I've never known Amazon to be that generous.  Who am I, however, to look a gift horse  paintbrush in the mouth!  If you could see the sorry state of my brushes you'd understand how happy I was.

And....because I haven't shared a recipe here for awhile, how about the one Resident Chef uses for oatmeal?  I don't much care for regular oatmeal so he's come up with this version that he does in the rice cooker (it can be made on the stove top too, but it takes longer).

RESIDENT CHEF'S OATMEAL

1  1/2 c. steel cut oats
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3 1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

2 T. maple syrup

1/2 c. raisins, dried cranberries and/or coconut
1/3 c. sunflower seeds

Cook in rice cooker.

NOTES:  You can use regular rolled oats, but we prefer steel cut.  You don't need to use maple syrup if you don't have any - brown sugar will do (if you have a bit of maple flavouring you can throw that in with the brown sugar).  This makes enough to eat over several days, so just refrigerate and warm up as needed.  Good cold too!

Sorry to say, I haven't had a chance to search out any links for you today...will try to do better next time!

Today's quote:  "A lie doesn't become truth, wrong doesn't become right, and evil doesn't become good, just because it's accepted by a majority"

A discourse on the spinning of wheels

 I know, I know, everything happening here at Chez Magpie is just about as inspiring as watching grass grow and I get it, truly I do.  However, how do I show you that I spent umpteen hours trying to wrestle my printer into printing correctly (I lost) and THEN I switched my attention to trying to figure out why Resident Chef's camera was refusing to talk to the new computer.  They didn't want to play nicely at all and kicked sand at each other just like kids in a playground.  They pouted and they hurled insults (oh wait - the insults were being hurled by yours truly).  Finally, after much bumbling and most unladylike utterances of words, I managed to get them to talk to each other.  I think.  

As for the printer issue I've finally narrowed that one down to it being a faulty ink cartridge.  My printer is an Epson and uses 4 cartridges, all of which need to be spitting ink at the same time in order to perform correctly.  The blue is refusing to cooperate (the other colours are working fine) so it leads me to believe that it's faulty.  

I can show you a tiny bit of progress on the latest cross stitch - the background on this one is done now and I'm currently adding the top stitching and little details.  

Oh, and I can also show you a photo of my Resident Chef...

- THIS is well worth seeing and reading about.  

- There's an article/how to HERE for making a jacket from a quilt.

- Some of you might find THIS site of interest.

- Have a peek at the amazing creations by THIS artist!

- If you're searching for a natural homemade weed killer (have I mentioned that this is a full-service blog???) go HERE.  

Instead of your quote today....