What is happening in the knitting/craft print world?

Last time I checked, the next issue of knit.1 was due in early November, so when I hadn't received my issue I thought it was because my subscription ran out. This shocked me a bit as in the past magazines were notorious for bugging their subscribes to renew. Martha Stewart Living would start asking up to 8 months before the subscription ran out. When I went to the knit.1 site, I saw this: Knit.1 is no longer taking new subscriptions or renewing current ones. If you are a subscriber, you will continue to receive your magazines until your current subscription expires.(http://www.knit1mag.com/subscribe.php)

But it turns out that instead of 4 issues per year, they are only doing 2 - Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter - which is unfortunate as I really liked this magazine.

And I have another magazine that didn't send me a renewal reminder. Maybe they don't like doing business with Canadians? I'd be curious to hear their explanation - we are willing to pay more for the shipping, so why can't they send us issues. Adorn was like that - they wouldn't accept Canadians - and where are they now? Defunct!

Am I out of touch? What's going on? Should I be asking questions about more important things? .... yes. Yes I should.

Okay. But first I'm off to dinner with JP and The Kid because it's his 10th Birthday today and he's picked Milestones! And then some of these delish chocolate cupcakes with coffee icing. Yum!

(yeah, I made them.)

Oh, and Jazz says "hai"

For my crafty friends

Cool. Look Twist Collective's winter line of knit wear patterns is out.

And have you seen this online magazine, Craftier ? There's already 3 volumes out - how did I miss this? Craft Friends, you are letting me down!!!

So many fun things to do, but just not enough time! I wonder if I didn't have to work full time, how much I'd get done. Or would I just fill each day with 'busy work' and still not get all the crafting I want done?

The Nose - part II

Yesterday's inspirational quote is a fun one... read it out loud - go on, try it. Now doesn't that feel good?

Yesterday I went to the doctor to find out the results of my x-ray and confirmed that my nose was indeed fractured. My SIL who's a doctor said that was one amazing fall since she's seen many nose injuries where the person's been hit pretty hard, like in a fight or in a car accident, and haven't broken it. (Although this isn't my first time for cracking it).

My doctor asked if I'd like to see a specialist but I figure that I should wait since I've had many nose injuries I'd hate to go through plastic surgery and then wreck it again! I know - negative thinking isn't it?

I'm so glad that I didn't ruin it (too badly) - AND - I'm so glad that I don't have a cold! I would not want to be blowing my sore nose all day! Wouldn't that be awful? Phew! I am counting my blessings! (99)

I'm already feeling the pressure of Christmas - especially because many of my gifts need to be in the mail soon. I've written up the list and think I'll have to scrap some ideas as I don't think I'll get them done in time. And may pick up what I need this weekend as I like to get it in the mail around the first week of December - although in the past, Canada Post had performed very well for me around this time of year and I've had many parcels arriving within 2 days! Yes, 2 days! It's been good.

I guess I've been lucky with my timing because even yesterday when I went to the walk in clinic, I only had to wait 1/2 hour and even saw my own family doctor! And this is the same clinic that others have waited up to 3 hours to see someone!

Do you know where you're going?

oh Poppytalk!

I like supporting local business and/or people not just for the obvious reasons but because I'm tired of everything Toronto - have you stopped watching HGTV Canada because everything is about Toronto - plus the decorating styles are all pretty much the same, don't you think? And so many Canadian decorating magazines are about Toronto, too.

So, I am happy to share with you, just in time for Christmas, Poppytalk - curated by Vancouver blogger, Jan. Their website describes themselves as this, "Poppytalk Handmade is a monthly online street market curated by Poppytalk to showcase, buy and sell handmade goods of emerging design talent from around the world". Although, take note - artists are from around the world - Toronto artists and creators are included (we just can't seem to get away from the Toronto influence- there are just too darn many of them! )

I'm really sorry I missed the One of a Kind show this past weekend, so perhaps a visit to Poppytalk will help me find those unique, hand made items I'm looking for to complete my Christmas shopping. Especially when I don't think I'll be able to make/finish all that I wanted to do - come on people, there are only 29 days before Christmas!

And finally, today's inspirational card:

1. My dreams are vivid and rapid each night but I gave up long ago trying to interpret them when I realized they were an amalgamation of things I watch on TV and some of the day's events - you know like when Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and I go shopping, or when I have coffee with Phoebe and Rachel. So if you're like me - do not, I repeat, DO NOT watch Trainspotting before going to bed! Man I had some crazy dreams last night. I think I even had a baby on the ceiling! Does this happen to you?

I also watched Tommy Boy but thankfully that wasn't part of anything - maybe because I was knitting while it was on and it was earlier in the day.

2. My nose is almost healed, although the cartilage was hurting all day yesterday and it was itchy, it's looking much better.

3. For the last 2 nights, Jazz is now sleeping until 4:30 am - this is good news because prior to this weekend she'd wake me up at 2:30am, 3:30, 4:30 and 5:30. Still still wakes me up at 5:30 but that's not so bad because my alarm goes off at 6:00am anyway. I did sleep in (sort of) on Saturday but I was up at 6:00am on Sunday - am I the only one who gets up this early on the weekend (for no reason other than habit)?

4. Although we didn't go anywhere this weekend, I did finish 1 sock and the last towel of the embroidery tour on Craftster, this one is for a lady in Saskatchewan and the theme was 'bright and happy'. The owner of the towel put the word "Friendship" on it as well, so I tried to combine all of the elements, here's what I stitched:

5. Sunday's inspiration card:

6. Today's inspiration card:

Now team, let's get out there and have a fabulous week! boo-ya!

I have been absent for 2 reasons:

1. I had a tea towel due for my swap on Craftster and just couldn't settle on an image, so I ended up embroidering it on the last 2 nights. The owner of the towel posted her theme as "vintage travel and places named after women". I was going to choose a pin-up styled girl for Victoria, but JP just didn't like it. This is what I finished with:

The flash was a bit too bright for this close up so the colors in the photo are a bit washed out. I had to mail it on Thursday.

2. Every year my SIL comes to Vancouver for a conference and one night I pick her up from her hotel downtown and take her to a store for her annual Christmas shop - the store brings in products just for her and stays open just for her, she picks what she needs and they ship it home to her. Then we go out for dinner. So my Thursday was spent trying to get as much work done as I could, looking after Jazz, picking up a rental car and then heading to the big city. Dinner was at O'Doul's on Robson and it was scrumptious.

Then on Friday, I slept in a bit to recover from my late night on Thursday, then I had to take Jazz to and from the vet for her Chemo and get some work done there in the middle. Oh, and I also did the laundry, the ironing and made a pot roast for dinner. Posting on my blog just didn't get done - it was on my To-Do list but I couldn't do it all. Oh well - what are you to do?

Oh and if you were following along on the daily inspirational 'pop-up cards", then here's the one's you've missed. Thursday:

Friday:

and today:

Today we watched "Working Girl" and "The Usual Suspects" simultaneously (good thing we've seen both movies), I made to loaves of banana bread and did some personal accounting. Now I think it's time for a cup of tea and do some reading before I get back to my stitching projects.

I hope you're having a good weekend. Did you get hit by the big winds last night? Wow! Thankfully no problems because of it. And did you see the meteor on Thursday night? I totally missed it in person but saw it on the news -that was quite spectacular! If you saw it, tell me all about it!

Arithmetic

Here's more cool arithmetic , brought to you by the Plain White T's:

Do you have any cool arithmetic you'd like to share?

Glad I Did vs Wish I Would Have

When I was a kid, I was pretty shy and so when it came to new things, I wouldn't want to try them in front of everyone. I would much prefer if I could go home and attempt it on my own first. Some were stupid - like after seeing all sorts of kids "accidentally" staple their finger, I went home and in the privacy of my own bedroom, I stapled my finger. I learned that not only did it hurt, but I was pretty sure that they didn't really accidentally do that - but it was intentional for attention. Sometimes I would have my brother teach me (like tennis) which didn't always work as he would lose patience with me and also had a playful/joker side which sometimes led me to being tricked into being his little puppet for his amusement... but that's what older siblings do right?

But there are many things that I wish I would have tried when I was a kid - one, because you learn faster; two, because it's not so bad if you mess up as a kid; and three, you heal faster. The last one comes to mind as I'm still dealing with a large nasty jagged scar on my nose from last Thursday's fall (you know? from when I head butted the jerk who was rude to me, yeah that's it, that's what happened).

And I watch The Kid not wanting to try things and I really wish he'd jump in now at 10 years old because I'm afraid he'll look back at his youth and wish he had done more 'stuff'. I know, I shouldn't worry about things that haven't happened and he's not my kid to worry about - but I realize that when you get older you really do know what you're talking about and the younger ones can learn from you - I love that irony in life - and recall the old saying "hire a 19 year-old while they still know everything". It's so true.

What would I have tried? Oh I should've jumped into more games of baseball, or tried water skiing or riding a skateboard or tasting certain foods. That kind of stuff. I'm glad I did the sports that I did, and that I bungee jumped and that I overcame my fear of water and learned how to swim. And I'm glad I started conversations with some people too.

What things are you "glad you did" or "wish you would have"?

'Tis the Season

I noticed several American Thanksgiving advertisements on TV yesterday - and even JP had the same thought as me - wouldn't it be nice to have an American Thanksgiving ? Canadians don't seem to bother to make is such a commercial event and advertising campaigns are minimal. And we had ours 6 weeks ago. We don't have big family celebrations so being invited to an American family's Thanksgiving dinner sounds really cool to us.

In the US, Thanksgiving seems to be the kick-off to the season - don't you think? Huge sales and bargain prices and I've even heard people say that they put up their Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving! Since we live in a small house, the Christmas tree takes up a fair bit of space and although we put it up a couple weeks before Christmas, 4 or 5 weeks early would just be too much for us.

But this week I will start writing down ideas for people on my list, and will place a few online orders so they can arrive in time for me to ship them. And this Saturday Carol and Cynthia and I are going to a craft fair - I'm not sure if it's this one or another - two would be a bonus wouldn't it? I've never been a last minute shopper, instead I shop for people throughout the year buying the perfect (I hope) items when I see them. And I'll also need to prioritize the craft projects I will be able to finish in time. Are you a planner or a last minute shopper?

Sunday's quote:

Today's quote:

SUV = Saturday Update/Variety

Friday was a busy day - drop the dog at the vet (for chemo), return to work, pick the dog up at the vet, let the stove repairman in, get my nose x-rayed, pick out clothes, shower, dress, drive to destination - The Giggle Dam for a Thanksmas Party all while still feeling 'out of sorts' due to Thursday's knock on the head. If you like interactive theater and don't mind the possibility of being pulled on stage, or made fun of in front of 260 people then you'd probably really like it - that food was pretty dang good too.

I endured the many double takes and downright stares at the jagged wound down my nose and toyed with great explanations like, "Oh this? I took a hockey puck to the face", or "I headbutted some jerk that asked me a rude question..." or "...I was taking down a perp..." you know things like that. What snappy answers would you come up with?

I was just exhausted by the time we got back home last night. The right side of me was still sore from my fall, and it wasn't so comfortable laying on my left side either since that's where I had my tetanus shot. I did sleep very well and solidly for about 6 hours though - which felt very good.

~~~~~

Good news - Jazz's tumour has shrunk. One month ago it was the same size as her heart, and now the vet says she can barely see it -I'll see the x-rays next week. She seems to be back to her normal self, in fact we just came back from a 40 minute walk. She's having more issues with confidence on the street due to her noise phobia than he breathing issue. I think today's walk was the first one without any firecrackers going off. A couple more walks like that and she'll regain her confidence on the street and start looking forward to her walks instead of 'running scared'.

~~~~~

In the Craft Department - I'm crocheting a baby blanket. This is from a cone of yarn I inherited from my mom- I've been tossing ideas and projects around for a couple of weeks and just couldn't come up with the right project for it. Now I'm working on this pattern and I must say I really like it - my fear with all the projects I make with left over yarns is if I'll run out before the project is done. It's supposed to be about 27 inches long, so far we're at 4 inches. The colour is fairly accurate in the photo, but the flash cancelled the little flecks of shine that makes it quite pretty(you can see the flecks a bit in the last photo).The nice thing is that I have this pattern memorized and the nice thing about crochet is that I can leave it in the middle of the row and pick up or stop frequently so it's getting done fairly quickly.

~~~~~

And now, what you've been looking for.... today's inspirational card:

My nose knows pain

Thursday's post took on a special meaning in the afternoon when I slipped on some wet leaves in a puddle and landed on my face on concrete. No stitches required just one smooshed nose and a fat lip for me. It went knee, hip, face then hands - it happened so quick I didn't get to stop my face or even turn it sideways. Yup, I definitely needed tomorrow (now today) to do over - you know, like in the movie Groundhog Day - except not over and over and over again. Just one time would be nice thank you.

When I was a kid, I used to joke that there was an invisible magnet on my face because if something was flying through the air, it would hit my nose - one brother attempted to throw a roll of paper towel to the other brother and it would hit my nose, someone tried to throw their keys to someone else and it would hit my nose, it got whacked during volleyball and pretty much every other sport that I did. One time I was helping my dad to vacuum - he would vacuum and I would move furniture and things so he could keep moving. I bent down to pick up something off the floor when a picture frame fell from a table and sliced the side of my nose. When I was about 20, my girlfriend was driving a mobile corner store and she wasn't used to the brakes so when she hit them too hard the display at the cash register behind the driver's seat had fallen. I got the great idea to fix it before the next stop so I undid my seat belt and was putting things back together when she slammed on the brakes again and a heavy wooden drawer under the cash register came rocketing forward pinning me between it and the back of the driver's seat. My nose took the brunt of it and because we had a route to do, I just took a can of Coke from the cooler and we kept working. It's probably the most damaged body part I have. I think yesterday's accident was the worst yet and I sure hope it's the last one!

And tonight we have to go to a customer of JP's Christmas Party - and we can't not go - they paid money for our tickets and it just wouldn't be good for business. So I'll just pile as much makeup on as I can and be prepared to repeat the story over and over again, assuring everyone that JP didn't do this to me.


Today's pop-up card is also a fitting one:

Yes, I am going to start right now and start right I will.

I hope your Friday and weekend is a good one and watch out for slippery leaves and concrete people!

Today's Pop Up Card

~~~~

After days of rain, this sunrise is even more gorgeous! (Too bad all the stupid powerlines and cables have to get in the way! And I couldn't walk too far out on the street as I was in my PJs)

More Shopping for me - I know, bad right?

I was only going into the store for 1 magazine, really!

There really needs to be a 12-step program for magazine addiction - it's true, I'm really a magazineaholic - I can't have just one, I don't know when to stop, I should not go into places that offer my weakness and I shouldn't be with people who enable my addiction. Going into to Chapter's was the first mistake - this is what followed me to the cashier:
And I couldn't resist these adorable little notebooks since I'm always jotting down blog post ideas or things I want to check out or craft ideas and need a little book in my purse, on my nighttable, at the ready - I really should just stick one in my back pocket all day. But aren't they darling?
Inside the covers is this story:

The designs featured on these pocket pads are from a collection of vintage textile paintings that were discovered - undated and signed by an unknown "Betty Anderson" - in a beat-up box in an antique store.

We learned that Betty was born in 1919 and lived in New York City for almost 30 years, where she worked as a commerical artist, textile designger, and children's book illustrator. Her versatility and success afforded her an uncommonly independent lifestyle. She never married, and in 1971 moved to Brattleboro, Vermont to preserve her family's estate, an eighteenth-century farmhouse known as the Poet's House on the Goodenough Farmstead.

When Betty passed away in 2006, some of her designs were inadvertently sold at auction and made their way into the antique shop. This same work now appears on our unique line of gift products, faithfully reproduced for those who appreciated the enduring freshness of Betty's designs.


I think Betty was way ahead of her time and either she'd be tickled that her artwork was enjoying a new found fame, or she'd be ticked off that she didn't enjoy this type of recognition in her lifetime. What do you think?

~~~~~

My brother sent me this cute package of "pop-open" greeting cards, there are 30 different messages and they open like pull tabs. The idea is to put one a day in your kid's lunch or backpack. What a great idea, I look forward to opening a new one each day.
My first message was: If you really believe, you can really achieve it!
My second message was: Every winner was once a beginner!
My third message was written backwards so you have to hold it in mirror, it says" Discover new ways to look at things. See what you discover about yourself. "

Stay tuned for more!

Remembrance Day

I have a lot of things I'd like to say today, but I know this blog is not the place for it. Still, I will touch briefly on my feelings. I greatly respect all those soldiers who've voluntarily given up so much to help with the current war situation. I couldn't do it - no sir, I do not have that kind of strength.

War is an outdated, archaic way of the world and I hope that in my lifetime 'the powers to be' figure out a way to settle issues without bombs and lives lost. Not only is it monetarily expensive, it's also costing lives (both human and animal) and hurting our world environmentally (and if you believe in Global Warming then surely you realize that multiple, massive explosions have more effect than you not recycling one plastic water bottle, right? )

My mother was a young child caught in the middle of Nazi invaded territory and tells stories that are horrific - no child should ever have to live through those things or witness death and destruction like she did. Her young life was forever changed.

Today I remember.... longer than just 2 minutes of silence. I will think all day as much as I can about those who gave their lives so I can live freely today.

Thank you.

A-booty-toot-toot

Guess what I did this weekend?

I went shopping!

And my sweet husband didn't make me pick, so I got 4 new pairs of boots (I know, bad right?). I'd say 'knee high' but since I have long legs, they're about 2 inches below the knee - but still tall enough for tights and skirts this winter! Yay!

My favourites are the flat ones with the laces (second from the left and far right). But there is one heeled pair (second from the right) with only a 2 inch heel as I'm so out of practice since I don't work in an office any more, anything more just kills my feet - and kills the day as JP doesn't like me whining or hobbling and so we abruptly return to the car and return home (well it's not like that, but sometimes it feels like that).

I also found these two pair of gloves, the shorter pair with the orange trim has a fur type band, I'm hoping it's not real fur (it's really bristly):

Oh trust me, if my budget was unlimited I would have bought about 4 more (I had to choose on the gloves). There was a gorgeous long pair, brown with a carmel stripe along the length which maybe I can go back on payday for them.

And for funsies, this is what's written on the tag of one of the gloves, they are made in Napoli, Italia:

The our production follows traditional's product and canons, it ever run the fashion's trend, the our productions is carring out with the best first subject and with final touches the most through.

And that concludes the tour of my shopping trip....

Hot (diggity) Dog!

Look at what we found at the thrift store - isn't this cool?
I have the cover off just to show you how good it looks inside and the instructions are included - to us, this is a SCORE! The warranty paperwork with mine says "1975 Federal Warranty Law" but I found this, and they're saying 50's or 60's although it looks a bit different. If you had one or have any stories about it - please share, I would love to hear.

You put 1 - 6 hot dogs in the machine piercing each end of the hot dog on those nasty looking prongs and then plug it in - et voila - hot dogs in a minute. It's a little frankfurter electric chair, a meat torture chamber! I guess I should have posted this for Halloween. If you'd like to learn about hot dog electrocution, check out this site: Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. And, I even found a place where it has been converted to a piece of art - see these appliance paintings, rather nice - I think.

And then there was light.....

We had a power outage this morning for just about an hour. When it first when out, I walked to the end of my driveway to confirm every one's power on the street was out as well. From the street I can look into a classroom at the elementary school and saw nothing but dark. I don't know if the kids were sitting in the classroom or if they were moved to the gym where there is emergency lighting. I'm sure the power went out when I was in school but I can't remember, so I'm assuming that things were handled so well that it was uneventful. In twelve years of school, the power had to have gone out while I was there. I guess they sent us all home, but I really don't recall.

I actually like power outages - for a short time anyway - because the house is quiet and you can hear the wind rustling and the rain falling and whoever is home is more open to conversation because all their distractions don't have any power to them. I remember one last year, when the power was out for almost the whole day but what made it good was that we had an extra container of chicken chow mein in our fridge and JP took the portable stove and cooked the chow mein (with extra butter) in a cast iron outside for lunch - it was the best chow mein I think I've ever had and not a bad memory either.

When the kid was about 3 the power went out one night when he was at our house and he just couldn't understand why we just couldn't flick the switch and have light. It was comical, and thankfully just when we were running out of ways to keep him entertained the power came back on.

In my teens I worked at a fast food restaurant and they had a rule that if the power was out for more than 2 hours we could go home. I tried this at other places of employment but many told us we had to stay anyway - surely there was some cleaning or sorting or filing we could do without our computers? And at one place, it was a little hard to complain about darkness when we were in the business of designing and importing candles, but mostly the staff sat around and talked.

I have to say that I am lucky here because we haven't had to endure long outages. When I lived in Maple Ridge we were frequently without power and sometimes for an extended period - some people would be out of power for 4 to 6 days! In fact when I bought this house I thought about the gas fireplace thinking I could stay warm during the outages, but thankfully I just haven't had as many out here as I had in Maple Ridge.

Do you have good or bad power outage memories?

The Princess and the Pee

Jazz usually lays in the doorway of my workroom throughout the day, although she'll sometimes leave for a drink or maybe lay in the hallway. This morning she left my room so I went to see where she was and I found her in her kennel - on top of TWO pillows! What a lucky dog. Yup, Princess Jazz and the Pee.

Speaking of which, last night the show "Long Way Down" was on the National Geographic channel - I wait all week to watch it. So I finished dinner (I made latkes - yum) and left the kitchen clean up for later so I could see my new crush Ewan McGregor, when JP walks in the room and notices Jazz had peed - I ended up missing most of the show because I had to clean the carpet. Dang medication, it's saving her life but having to let her out every 2 hours (including throughout the night) isn't fun.

Wow - November already ?

I can't help having flashbacks after continuosly being asked which AC/DC songs I like and then listening to them on someone's Nintendo DS (which is very portable and can be quite loud) .... so it stands to reason that I also can't help thinking of GnR's November Rain because it's both November and rainy!

November also reminds me that if I'm going to be making presents for anyone for Christmas, I'd better start saving money and stitching - which is why I don't mind the rain because being indoors helps me complete my to do list.

I also like November rain because it often means it's a bit warmer outside. On Halloween night I took the kid out to trick-or-treat and it was 13 degrees! Yes, I like that! And I didn't mind it was slightly damp because it was warm. One of my biggest peeves about winter is being cold. I hate being cold - and I started the first 6 years of my life in the north of this great province - but I was born in the summer and I think that has something to do with my love of heat.

Today I'll put away the Halloween decorations and work on some crafts but I don't think I'll rake leaves today - this is only about 1/3 of the tree: