Sunburn Pain

We are having the most lovely weather right now, it's even made it up to 32 degrees. This is pure heaven for me. I love, love, lacey-heart-love the sun/heat. So there I was on Saturday busy refinishing a garden table sawing and sanding and painting under a canopy or so I thought.  Until later when I found out I had burned my back

It didn't hurt. Yay ! I'm usually pretty good with the sun.

But no, it was a delayed hurt. I hurt on Monday afternoon. And oh boy did it hurt. I couldn't have anything touch it. Let me tell you it was a rough night  and you know what made it worse? oh playing with the dog and having her nails scraped my red skin! WOWZA!!

Anyway, here's the table. I hope it was worth it:

Green w/white polka dots

And here's my sad dog, wanting to play, sorry that she hurt me - she didn't mean it: 

(holding her toy, sitting in an empty swimming pool) 

Finished Projects for the week

Well I'm kinda proud of myself - I made and finished three projects this week.

First these Vancouver City Wristers in a lovely soft grey donegal (a yarn with flecks of other material)

These are interesting to me because they have the appearance of being cabled but they are not, the pattern is made by increases and decreases - not by holding stitches on a needle and passing them behind (or in front) as you do when you make cables.

Then these Jade/Teal Green Wristlets  in a Peruvian Highland Wool - too bad the colour is so off in this photo, because it's actually a very rich jewel tone.

I used my little mini digital camera because I have a gorilla pod for it and it has an easy timer, but it's been a while since I used it, maybe I should've turned off the flash because it's a sunny day today and it seems to have really affected the colours - the actual colour of the wristlets is actually the third colour from the left:

See how completely different it is? And I've tried several other times to capture that colour but I neve get close to that lovely jade as it should be.

I had just taken off my nail polish - what was I thinking - so I sorta hid my hands today. I will have to re-shoot these two photos.

And third, I made this little Doggie Baseball Jersey - it'll fit a 20 pounder or so.

Front

Back

I didn't have any one particular dog in mind, I just wanted to make this sweater. I am very pleased with how it turned out. The raglan sleeves have lovely decreases and it all sewed together very nicely. As well, it's a nice loose knit making it easy to get on and off Fido. Now I just need to find a doggie model.

And in other news, we had our soffits redone this weekend  - ripping out the old painted press board and replacing them with proper white aluminum soffits. They are awesome. Now the roof can breath better and it's all finished nicely without any rotting, done professional so everything's finished very well. The guys will come back soon to install a new front and back door and then our next big outdoor project is painting the house, but that's going to have to wait until at least May so everything can dry out. I also need to decide whether I'm going to keep the same colour scheme (blue and white) or change colours - I'm thinking maybe a dark taupe with white and/or black accents.

Oh and you know what else? It was a very beautiful sunny day yesterday - a wee bit cold (-3 celsius) but a glorious sunny day. It was so nice for all of us to be able to work outside and not have to do it in our typical January rain. I am so very grateful for the sun! How glorious. And today too, so soon I'll be off to walk Eco.

Hope you're having a swell Sunday too. Whatcha doin?

Weekend Warrior - part 2

I did it. I painted the bathroom and caulked the tub. You know, painting is the fast part - it's the preparation that takes the longest. Removing everything from the room, removing everything from the walls, washing the walls and ceiling, filling holes, sanding, washing, taping, and cover with drop cloths - that all took about 2 hours before I could start painting. But the first coat is on, and in a little while I'll put on the second coat. I'm hoping it doesn't need a third coat.

I can't believe I finally got started. Now I have to go through all those old shampoo bottles, and other toiletries and clean things up so I don't put all my bathroom crap back in. I'm just glad I'm on the way to nice tidy white room!

Thanks for your support!

Weekend Warrior - home decoration

Okay my friends - here goes - today I am re-painting my bathroom - I'm taking down the cabinet and the wall mounted mirror and painting the towel racks and walls and the ceiling. I'm also taking off the old caulking on the tub and upgrading it as well. It's a small space. I should be able to get it all done in one day.

I'm a little scared to get started, but I'm trying to just take one step at a time. I've painted it before in an evening but that was so long ago and I move slower now  - LOL!

Wish me luck!!!

Progress is Slow

Some family/friends of mine have complained from time to time about the poor service by trades people in their area. Sometimes this lack of service is blamed on the small town they live in - well remember this post? Guess what? I still don't have new gutters on my house. The guy that was supposed to come that day didn't show up. He had some excuse about his helpers not showing up and how he had to work by himself. We rescheduled for the Friday. But he didn't show up that day either. Here we are a week later, and nothing. 

So we had to start all over calling companies again. Now we are supposed to have someone coming out on Friday to take a look and provide us with a quotation. I hope they show up. I hope they get the job done. I had wanted to paint after the gutters were in but I'm afraid I'm running out of dry fall days 

Do you have that in your town? Are most tradespeople these days really bad at responding to potential customers? It's no longer a small town problem anymore is it? 

Some completed projects

Here are some finished pieces which I thought you might like - I took a little break from embroidery and knitting and crocheting and painted these little birdhouses:

I admit I'm no expert painter but I think  I did a pretty good job and I'm happy with the results. They were just the plain wooden ones from Michaels and some Patio Paint so they are waterproof. I'd like to coat them in some outdoor Mod Podge but I will have to buy that first. 


Also, I was just using what I had and my Patio Paint was drying up and the paint brushes were from the dollar store and very crappy - my exercise was to use what I already had in the house.

I had no idea...

... that my innocent desire to paint our bedroom would end up being a month long task (okay it's only been two weeks - but we're not done yet!) I would have liked to show you some photos, but it's still not ready, my side of the room anyway. After painting we decided to reconfigure the room and bought some new dressers  and bookshelves - and with that came the task of dealing with years of items (ok, clutter) that must be either placed in a good spot, or discarded. For me, it's exhausting as some items were made by my late father, a skilled carpenter and woodworker and have memories attached to them.

As well, as I'm going through this task myself I'm thinking about my mother who's downsizing to 1/2 of what she has as she prepares to move to a house a few doors away from my brother. The house is better suited for her financially and locationally since she'll be so close to family. It's very hard for her to think of her mortality and all the memories linked to items as she has to decide to discard of them as well and to do this task on her own. I have the support of my husband who either talks me into getting rid of something, or talks me into keeping something or talks me into taking a break when it gets to me. I try to be there for my mom, but she's a strong willed lady and seems to be very focused on her new task - I am proud of her bravely accepting this task. In some ways I think it bothers me more than it bothers her!

It makes it a little easier to be indoors working on these chores when the weather has been so bad - and EVERYONE is talking about the weather these days - sometimes it's even the top story on the 6 o'clock news!

Well, computer break is over, I'd better get back to the task!

A painting we will go

I spent the first half of yesterday emptying and preparing our bedroom for painting. Then I painted the popcorn ceiling (which I hate but am not able to do anything about it at this time) and then the walls. I had hoped one coat would be enough, but it wasn't so we put our mattress in the kitchen and slept there last night.

Today I put a second coat on the ceiling and a  third coat on the walls. My hands ache! My body aches! I  think I'm falling apart prematurely, ouf.

It will be nice to have a fresh clean bedroom and by the time it needs to be done again, maybe we'll have moved or I'll hire someone to paint it. I'm just so glad paints have come so far -less smells easier on the environment, easier clean up, better coverage etc. but still it's not a fun job.

Do you like painting walls and ceilings? 


Oh and HAPPY CANADA DAY! 

My Lesson for the Week

In yoga philosophy we are to practise "ahimsa" which means nonviolence. Not only physically but in regard to the body, speech and mind. Usually I don't have an issue with this, but earlier this week I had an eye exam where my Optometrist put some drops in my eyes. The drops were painful and I was surprised that my first reaction was anger. I wanted to punch him in the head. Really! I even told him that I no longer liked him and he replied that he would not take that personally.

After my exam was over with the Optometrist I was sent to a technician who was to take a photo of my eyes. This was after the pupil enlarging drops which made me very light sensitive. Kaboom!  A large flash of light in my right eye and instantly I wanted to curse and punch her in the head. Kaboom! Flash of light in my left eye and same reaction. I never noticed before, probably because I'm not frequently in these situations, that when someone else hurts me, how I react. I was a bit surprised with how quickly this emotion came up and what I wanted to do to that person. I can understand how a person can be 'driven' to react when they or a loved one is hurt or being hurt.

So not only do I need to practice nonharming in my own mind, but I will also need to practice refraining from harmful thoughts about others. Thankfully, I don't think I'll have to be in too many situations where others inflict pain on me and for that I am grateful.

And as I ponder this, may I say Happy Thanksgiving my friends. I wish you all a wonderful long weekend.

Kitchen Facelift

We spent the day taking the doors off all the kitchen cabinets, stripping the old paint, sanding and applying new paint. It doesn't sound like much but that was the whole day for 2 of us. Tomorrow we'll paint the backs and on Monday we'll give a second coat to the doors. And then we can put them all back!

My hands are a bit achy from the painting, so I'm not so sure if I'll pick up my knitting needles tonight - I'm just working on a stockinette stitch sock with a variegated winter wool. (photos to come).

In the mean time - hey sock knitters - check out this new book - One Skein Wonders for Sock Yarn! I think that is very awesome!

First I need to paint a few more things in my house before the rain and winter begins to set in, and then I can resume knitting up a storm!