It's about time

Can you believe it? Finally there are shoes that can be transformed? I would really like to see this in action. Check out CAMiLEON HEELS and see for yourself.


This is from their site:

Our revolutionary heel technology makes it possible for a shoe to adjust from a high-heeled position of 3¼" down to a 1½" low-heeled, walking-friendly shoe. Our heel contains mechanisms that hold it into place for both the high heel and low heel positions and a stainless steel rod, which runs through the entire length of the heel. The portion of our heel that is stowed underneath the arch region of the shoe, when in the low heel position, is actually made out of aluminum. Additionally, every heel is coated with 6 coats of paint, resulting in a beautiful high-gloss finish. While essentially every other brand of high heel shoe attaches its heel to the shoe with nails, or nails and glue, we attach every heel with four screws.

And here's one example of a style:

So, what took them so long?

Little Flowers for Me

When we were in Abbotsford on Saturday (see previous post), there was a 'farmer's market' in a parking lot and inside of a church. Inside was a booth with some lovely celedon pottery. I was intrigued by a little flower holder (as often there are small blooms in my garden that I would like to enjoy but never seem to have the right container). Carol bought a blue one almost right away, but Cynthia and I passed up the booth and continued to look at the other items in the room and then left. One of us mentioned that we'd think about it and then come back later, but soon, we had all turned around and Cynthia and I each purchased one as well. Well at least we spent about 8 minutes thinking about it.

Each holder had a symbolic pattern in the ceramic, I chose fish which meant "wealth, realization of wishes". You can see more here in their gallery.

I just came back from my garden with some fern tips, osteospermum, and a tip from a silver dollar plant. It's nice having some flowers on my desk again.

And finally the rain has stopped and may stay away for a few days which will give my garden a chance to germinate and grow. Is spring finally here?

You know you're a gardener when....

you become excited about your compost. Yes, that's right folks. I opened the bottom door of the barrel and shoveled the most glorious, most beautiful looking compost into my wheel barrow. No rotting food/plant smell indicated it was all ready to go. Exciting! Unfortunately, I don't know too many people to share this joy with. Do you love your own compost? Yah. Didn't think so.

I mixed it up with some other soil and peat moss and put together some containers with bedding plants I had squirreled away in my little greenhouse. I also planted a bunch of seeds. It was supposed to rain yesterday so I thought that was perfect - I'd plant and God would water. So now every thing's nicely wet and we just need some warmth and some sun for all these little seeds. I planted: Texas Bluebonnet, Indian Paintbrush, California Poppy, Flanders Poppy, Celosia, Sunflower, Dahlia, Gladiola, Mealy Blue Sage, Purple Coneflower and more.

And then after about 5 hours of gardening and lots of shoveling I came in for the day. Oh boy. Shoveling really does a number on my lower back! Ouch. I spent the next 2 hours resting and stretching my back waiting for the pain to disappear. Then I did some crochet from the Kyuuto Japanese Lacy Crochet book -I'll post photos when I'm done.

Saturday was spent with Cynthia and Carol poking through the quilt shops and bead shop in Historic Downtown Abbotsford - you can read all about it on Carol's blog (lazy typist aren't I?). When I got home I mowed the lawn and did some gardening.

Oh boy, looking back I didn't realize I had done so much work! I thought I didn't do much this weekend, but I guess I did. Definitely a lot better than the other way around.

What did you do this weekend?

Pokey Little Puppy

Now remember folks, I am not an artist. I haven't sculpted or shaped too many things in my life, so this little needle felted puppy is a creative/artistic stretch for me. As you've seen, I've gone from making Easter eggs to pumpkins to a 3 dimensional 'sculpture'. So this puppy - maybe a chocolate lab - isn't so bad for an early attempt - right?

I'll tell you one thing though, as a lover of dogs, it felt a little strange in the beginning to continuously stab an effigy of a dog - but as you can see, I got over it.

For the person who doesn't have everything....

There are just so many things needed for so many things.... take this item for example:

It's a sleeve to protect your hands from freezing while holding your pint of ice cream as you eat directly out of the cardboard container.

I was perfectly fine using a tea towel or napkin, but I guess I was wrong. More details, if you'd like to be enlightened too: http://www.prepara.com/pint_sleeve.php

And some people wonder why the fastest growing business in Canada and the US is storage locker companies?

Little Felted Things

Yesterday I was talking to my mum and she asked if I had made anything since the weekend, I told her I had made a little felted pumpkin. She reminded me that I was a little out of season, to which I agreed but said the orange wool inspired me to make the pumpkin - now. We don't always have to make holiday or seasonal items just prior to the event do we?

Good - because the other item I made was a technique of felting inside a shaped form. I used a cookie cutter in the shape of a rabbit. I know Easter's over and I don't know what I'll do with it now, but it was more of the experiment to try out a new technique more than anything. Perhaps I'll sew it to something, or felt it into some wool fabric and create a scene with flowers and grass, etc

I'm also working on a felted dog, but he's not ready to be shown yet.

The Weekend Update

First, some Finished Objects:

1. My contribution to the Tea Towel Swap on Crafter: I added the mermaid in the middle of the right side. It turned out to be a joint effort: I decided I wanted to do a mermaid. Cynthia suggested the concept - she is reaching to steal the fish from the cat when the robot pinches her tail-hence her surprised expression, and JP drew her face.

I'd like to add more to her, but I just can't see where I should add it, or what. Maybe a starfish? But I think it's done. Do you think I should add anything, and where?

2. Back in the day when I smoked, and when public smoking was not forbidden, there was a joke/comment that whenever you were in a restaurant and you were waiting a long time for your food, you just needed to light a cigarette and that's when the waiter would appear with your food. Well twice now, I've been waiting for the next towel to arrive in the swap and just when I decide I'll start something else, that'll be the day the towel arrives! I will start a project now sSo the next towel that's MIA will arrive this week.

I started this inspirational tea towel, with the words " know thyself" which I thought would be a good thing to ponder while doing the dishes, etc:

It's red satin stitch with 2-strands of black back stitch for outlining. This was the best gothic font I had on my computer, and I didn't like it one bit, although I like it better now that I'm all done and I can see it from a distance. I think some embellishments are still to come, I just haven't found anything yet.

3. Last week I started a top down/raglan sleeved shrug, using the pattern from the book, One Skein Wonders. However, I had more than one skein and so I decided to keep knitting and created this short sleeved cardigan. Brown has always been one of my favorite colours so I am sure I'll be wearing it plenty. After I block it I may add some decorative closures.

I adjusted the gauge and did lots of measuring along the way but it was a very quick knit, easy project and I love the fact that it is all one piece and no sewing is involved. I may just make this one again. A cardi in a week? That's awesome.

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Yesterday we went to Costco and I picked up these solar lights. By day they are decorative globes, but at night they are a red or green or blue colour changing orb. There are four in the package : blue, green, yellow and this goldie/orange one: I just love how they glow at night but I can't show you with my camera (sorry, no night photos)

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After Costco, we went to Birchwood Dairy for some ice cream (tiger for the boy, coffee for JP, and cherry cheesecake for me) which is made on site and then visited a barn area where there are some calves, cows, donkeys and a horse. The calves entertained us as they were busy sucking the milk off their neighbour's chin - oh it was funny, and dang I wish I had my camera with me.

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This morning was chilly (2 degrees C) so Jazz and I did a fast 6km walk. As we were returning home I passed a house where could smell someone cooking eggs and thought I'd make the boys Eggs Lorraine for breakfast. By the time I got to the house, I was pretty excited to get started, however once inside I found the kid had crawled into bed with his dad and they were both snoring away. Letdown! So I had to wait until they were up and about and made it anyway. Yum-my. No one's looking for lunch yet!

I couldn't believe it. I'd been out walking for an hour and a half (Jazz played off leash in the park for a while too) and felt I had done stuff with my day, and they were still asleep!

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It's still chilly, so I'm entertaining myself inside today. I'm so glad we don't have the dump of snow that many parts of the country received this weekend. It looks like spring, we just need some warmth please.

After cleaning up from breakfast, I cleaned the fish tank, will do some ironing and then start my next project which I think will be some flat needle felting. I'd also like to continue with some embroidery - in particular for some curtains over the kitchen sink. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

How have you spent your weekend?

The Friday Mix

1. It's snowing. Yes, it's April and it's snowing. I have a little greenhouse with some bedding plants and we are all waiting for spring. When is spring really going to arrive?

2. I received the next tea towel as part of the swap on Craftster. I'm almost done but I won't show a photo until it is. I really don't like showing in progress embroidery and once it's done, it must be ironed. I know. I'm picky that way. Mine needs to get to one more person and then it will be back to me. I'm very excited to see all the stitching up close and personal.

3. I had started a top-down raglan shrug last week, however, I decided to keep knitting since I had the wool and I'm making a short sleeved cardigan of it. I do like this one piece/no sewing knitting though. He's a work in progress photo, too bad it's a gloomy day and the wool is dark brown - I am just not set up to take these kinds of photos:

4. No plans for the weekend, other than some spring cleaning. Soon I will pull all the doors from the kitchen cabinets so I can sand and repaint them. I'm not sure what other projects I will get to.

5. Yesterday when I was walking Jazz a blue heron flew by. Wow! So amazing. It almost took my breath away. They are such interesting creatures , so quiet and still. How many times have we driven by them when they are standing in the fields along the high-way and we don't notice them because of their colour and their stillness?

So here are I am, hugging a cup of tea, my dog laying in the doorway of my workroom snoring away. I'm wearing a turtle neck and a v-neck sweater - they don't really match because I sort of put away my winter clothes so I grabbed what I could. I'm listening to Sirius Pure Jazz as I take a break from work. Another gloomy rainy day in April. Last year around this time I was on my way to San Antonio, Texas. This year, as of yet, I do not have any vacation plans so I am really looking forward to enjoying the sun in my back yard - JP even gave me a zero gravity lawn chair with speakers in the head rest so I could plug in my iPod and enjoy some music outside. I'm already for it. Bring it on!

LOL-husband

By now, I'm sure many of you have heard of LOL cats on the i can has cheezburger site. Actually, some of them can be pretty funny.

Here's a example of today's image:

And now, here's a note my dear husband passed to me on the weekend when I was on the phone:

The Friday Mix

Sometimes I think things do balance out. Wednesday I encountered one of the city's worst dog owners, but yesterday I met the nicest man in the grocery store parking lot. He sold formula for young farm animals and we got to talking about it. He explained that cow's milk, for example, would cost the farmer $0.70 per ___ to feed to the calves, but the formula would only cost him $0.40 per ___ , so it was cheaper for the farmer to use this formula with nutrients and vitamins to help grow a strong healthy animals (cows, pigs, sheep, goats, etc). From that we talked about dogs, and he invited me to an unofficial local dog park which he assured me had only the nicest people and very good dogs.

We also talked a bit about gardening, as I was loading some plants into my car and about being a parachutist in the days of conscription. Lovely chap he was. I think we talked about 45 minutes. It was very nice to meet such a pleasant person. And a good reminder that there are still nice people out there.

Thanks to everyone for the wonderfully supportive comments yesterday. I really appreciate it. I will be able to walk Jazz in the mornings before work until late September, so things should go well and we shall check out the dog park as well. I think she could use some canine company now that Maxx is gone. Her whole life, she was with other dogs.

Although, I don't think she's doing too badly - yesterday I took her in the car with me for some errands and gave her a chewie while I ran into the last store - the longest stop. When I returned, she wasn't in the front seat looking for me. No, she was laying down in the back seat happily chewing. And when we got home, she picked up her chewie hopped out of the car and carried it into the house so she could finish it in her bed. She sure looked happy.

~~~~

Wow, I can't believe it's Friday already. Tomorrow I plan to get some yard work done - prune some trees, trim and mow the lawns, and get some beds ready. It's a bit early for some plants as it's still very wet and a bit cool. But I can certainly mix up the compost and soil and get things ready. Earlier this week the weatherman said it would be 21 degrees on Saturday, however, now the forecast is only showing 15 degrees for tomorrow. No worries, that's still good enough for what I'd like to do.

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I started knitting with the brown wool I bought from the fibrefest. I thought three hanks would give me a shrug, but when I went looking, either I didn't like the pattern, or it called for too much yarn. I am trying a shrug from the One Skein Wonders book and I'll let you know how it goes. It's knitted from the top down, so I may just extend it - if I interpreted the pattern correctly. I'll post a photo when I've got a little more to show you.

I can't believe I only have one project going. Usually I had three. The ongoing stole project, some socks and either a crochet or knitted item. But I still have the Angel cross-stitch which I must finish asap and I'm waiting for the next tea towel for the Craftster swap.

What are you doing this weekend?

Bad Dog Owners!

So Jazz and I are walking down the sidewalk yesterday afternoon and we are quickly coming up on a man and a kid and a giant white spotted Pit Bull. Earlier I had noticed that the dog was not very good on her leash, but she wasn't out of control.

About 50' away the kid notices Jazz and I about to over take them when the man puts out his hand like a stop sign and yells "stay back, she'll f---in' kill her"

What?

He crosses the street with his dog and leaves the teenager on my side of the road, as I pass the kid I say "If your dog is that dangerous, you shouldn't walk it in public"

I mean really! If your dog is going to kill my dog, then why isn't it muzzled and perhaps wearing some sort of caution flag or something? What kind of people are they? What if his dog did get out of control (as he was rather clueless) and did attack my dog? What could I do about it standing on the street with an injured dog?

I walk my dog daily and almost every day some loose dog comes running out and ambushes us which is very frustrating as my poor dog is like a sitting duck restrained by her leash. (It was worse when I had two dogs)

After we had passed, the man crossed the street again and I guess the kid repeated what I said. He then yelled obscenities at me for as long as I was in ear shot. I was really shaken by this and had to work really hard to get this experience out of my head, and to get as far away from these people as I could.

So as of this morning, now that the sunrise is around 6:20, we're back to walking in the mornings. Any one we do encounter now is on their way to work and usually can say " good morning" All the jerky Pit Bull owners don't get up before 11. As well there are no loose dogs on the street or even in peoples yards (most people tie their dogs up in the front yards - why I don't know, they all have back yards).

And the funniest part about walking in the morning is you are guaranteed to see at least 8 cat heads sitting on the back of living room couches or in window sills finishing their night watch of the streets. Just sitting there. Watching. And blinking. And watching. Nice and quiet.

The dynamics of JP and Jazz

Since I lost my dog Maxx 6 weeks ago, Jazz (the other one) has been given more freedom. She is allowed to roam the house because she is able to learn where she can go and when, better than Maxx could and she barely sheds. Maxx often seemed to drop bits of other things whenever he laid down somewhere - perhaps because his hair was longer, or perhaps because he didn't care where he laid down, he just wanted to be near me. She'll be near me, but she doesn't need to be right next to me (or on me) like Maxx did. Jazz seems very picky on where she'll lay down (especially in the grass) and even where she walks. She picks her way through the yard as if it was a mine field. Which I suppose it was when Maxx was around because he'd go to the bathroom anywhere and she prefers to keep it to the perimeters. As well, being white and very short haired she is very clean, and maybe because she's a girl?

So, during the day while I work at my desk, Jazz now joins me and lays in the doorway and sleeps. However, Jazz and JP have no relationship and she avoids him as much as she can. He has never been mean to her but he just has absolutely nothing to do with her.

If he needs to see me at my desk and enters the room, she quickly slips out and disappears while he is in the room. When he leaves, she reappears and lays back down in the doorway. Sometimes, he's come in 2 or 3 times, and each time, she quietly and quickly leaves when he approaches my room and returns when he leaves.

It's not how I'd like things to be, but it's just the way it is - the dynamics of JP and Jazz.

Schnauzer Cupcakes

Look at what my amazing brother made for my mum's dog's birthday..... Schnauzer Cupcakes!

Aren't they adorable?

The blue bird of pincushions

I had hoped to get to the Sewing and Crafts Show at the Tradex on Friday, however, crazy crap was happening at work that day and it wasn't a good time to go, so I went on Saturday.

Like a good little housewife, first I made a loaf of chocolate banana bread and made some whip cream so the boys had some snacks while I was gone. Then I went to the show. I had timed it so I could walk around for a while and then take a needle felting class. The title of this show should really be the "Sewing and Quilting" show as very few other crafts were represented. A couple of scrapbooking booths and 2 (maybe three) yarn booths. One ribbon embroidery booth. I was really hoping to see more crafty things as the title implied.

However, the class I took was quite interesting. It was needlefelting around a Styrofoam base. Apparently some people (wool purists) told the instructor that using Styrofoam was not true needle felting and one person even mentioned she had " issues with Styrofoam" (she didn't feel it was environmentally friendly). The class was only an hour, so we had to finish the projects at home. The instructor (Debra Quatermain) was so nice she gave supplies for two other projects - a bunny and a fairy tale cottage. I have not yet made the bunny.

I did learn about all the different fibres you can add to your needle felting, such as glittery pieces and learned about the felting templates you can buy.

Here is the completed bird pincushion. I will have to retake and re post these photos as my camera battery was dying and I had to rush (the colours are off and the photo is not clear):

And the fairy tale cottage:

And now you know where I was on Sunday - stabbing little bits of wool.

And now for my last thought of the day - I spent about 5 years working on trade show floors in the US, selling at Christmas and gift shows. I frequently visited other trade shows operating at the same time and the one thing I noticed is the number of show specials and freebies and information that would be handed out. In the last couple of trade shows I have attended in Vancouver, the last two at Tradex - I have not received any promotional material. I would even have to ask for a business card and prices in the booths were the same as the prices in the store, so there was no incentive to buy while on site. Perhaps I am not comparing apples to oranges, but I think Americans do a much better job at trade shows and Canadians could make our trade shows a whole lot better. Hmm, maybe I need to become a trade show consultant.....

Side Sleeper, Stole & Sewing Expo

Today's subject is brought to you by the letter: S

Sleeping. Stole. Sewing, S

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I sleep on my side, but sometimes I don't know what to do with my arms. I put them straight out, or I cross them with my hands on opposite shoulders or around my waist, and sometimes I manage to put an arm asleep and then have to move it around to get rid of the pins and needles.

At my age, I have spend approximately 118, 930 hours or 4,955 days or 13.6 years asleep. How come I don't know what to do with my arms when I sleep on my side? Does anyone else have that problem?

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In Knitting news - I finished my Fern Leaf Stole last night, here's progress from early June 2007 and details when I started it last February. At first I thought I had been working on it for a year and a half, but JP said it wasn't that long, so I went through my old blog posts - that's another great thing about craft blogs isn't it? Archiving all your work. I actually feels good to see all that I have done in the past year.

During the first half of the stole, I'd sometimes get lost in the lace pattern, but by the last half, I don't think I made any mistakes, it came so easy. I almost had the whole 12 row pattern memorized, just a little reminder was all that was needed. It is 75" long, 24" wide and made up of approximately 45, 000 stitches. (7 sixteen stitch pattern repeats = 112 stitches in a row, 33 twelve row pattern repeats= 396)

I went from having one very large ball of yarn, which JP called the "space ball" because it was the size of a medium watermelon, and I am left with a small ball, around the size of a medium naval orange (maybe even a bit smaller than that).

And I actually have no knitting UFOs (un-finished objects). Can you believe that? What kind of knitter am I?

Oh I have projects to get started, but nothing unfinished on my needles.

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In Crafting news - I'm going to the Sewing and Craft Expo at the Tradex in Abbotsford this afternoon. Most of the courses are for sewing, but there is one on needle felting which I will take at 2:15. Otherwise, in the past, most of my fun is in the booths - that's were all the knitting and crafting goodness can be found. As well, my mind gets blown by the most amazing sewing machines - so incredible, I often lose interest in hand embroidery for a few days. What's the point? These machines can do such incredible work! One CD/DVD and voila! incredible creations. Now if I only had a spare two or three thousand dollars lying around.

Tech support?

Big Girl Feet's post about the issues of moving and dealing with tech departments reminds me of my recent computer repair experience. I just set up a new computer which is under IBM's warranty. My employer sent the computer to my remote office, but when I set it up I couldn't get the diskette drive to work. Yes, diskette - our field technicians don't all have computers and use old Sony Mavica cameras that you stick a 3 1/2" disk into,they then fax in their paperwork and courier the diskettes to me so I can complete our reports.

So I have to tell my tech department. That takes a day or two. Then I ask for a local phone number because I was told someone would call me - no one did. I phone,and they guy says 'something's wrong with your DVD drive?" and I say "no 3 1/2" diskette drive" He tells me my call is super hot priority and someone will call me within an hour. A technician calls within 2 minues (that's a first!) and says "something's wrong with your DVD drive? " and I say "no 3 1/2" diskette drive" and he says a new part will be flown out and another technician will call me the next morning to install it. I question him about a new part, without even checking, but he says that's the way it's done.

Nothing happens the next morning so I phone the 1-800 number around noon and the call centre guy says "something's wrong with your DVD drive?" and I say "no 3 1/2" diskette drive" . I've got a bad feeling about this. The call centre guy tells me someone will arrive before 5:00pm and there is nothing I can do but sit and wait. This is when I get a hankering to leave the house for some errand.

Each day I wait, I am getting more behind in my work. I hook up my old dinosaur computer, put in the diskette, burn a DVD and then put the DVD in my new computer. This process takes at least 15 minutes instead of the 1 or 2 minutes it would take me to process the photos on the diskette.

No one showed or called by 5:00pm, so the next morning I phone again, and AGAIN I get 'something's wrong with your DVD drive?" and I say "no 3 1/2" diskette drive" and the call centre guy tells me there is nothing he can do, I should just keep calling the local tech (thank goodness for call display). I phone the tech guy's cell several times throughout the morning leaving urgent messages.... about 2:30 another guy phones and says 'something's wrong with your DVD drive?" and I say "no 3 1/2" diskette drive". Oh boy. He tells me he'll call me right back. He says he'll be here in 15 minutes.
He arrives in 5 minutes. He has a parts box under his arm.
He says he needs me to turn off my computer.
I ask if he wants to check the configuration first.
He agrees that would be a good idea.
He checks it and sure enough there is a toggle in a set up screen (which I didn't know how to get to but knew existed) and toggles the diskette drive from 'disabled' to 'enabled' and it works. He says 'usually they trouble shoot these types of things over the phone'. T -h-a-n-k-s buddy.

Time on site: 8 minutes
Start to finish:8 days