BC's First Family Day

Today is a statutory holiday in BC - for many years workers in this province asked for a day off between New Years and Easter, especially when other provinces in Canada had a holiday. This year is our first one. Somewhere along the way there was a vote on when it should be (no one I know knew anything about this vote) and it was decided that since we are unique people we should have it the week before the rest of the country. For many this probably doesn't make much difference, but if you're a national business you have potentially lost two business days in the shortest month of the year   - one for our holiday and one the rest of the country. As well, my family is in another province. Perhaps if we had the holiday on the same weekend one of us would have travelled to see family? Nope, not gonna happen. 

Today is also a special day here at Way Out Wear headquarters because it's the 7th Blogaversary. Yes, I have been writing to you for seven years. Reflecting on that time  one of the biggest things that has changed is my readers - not one person who was with me in the beginning is here with me now - except family. That's just part of being a grown-up isn't it? As the saying goes "people come into your life for reason, a season or a lifetime". I hope you are with me for a long time as I really do enjoy your comments and your company. 

Other things that have changed over the past seven years, just to name a few: 

1) Both my dogs, Maxx and Jazz are no longer with me but now I share my life with my wonderful chocolate lab, Eco. There were lots of stories about Maxx's epilepsy and lots of stories about Jazz's noise phobia, and lots of puppy raising stories

2) I got married

3) I started a business

4) I've changed my page layout and background at least 20 times

5) We replaced our old cars with new ones

6) countless knitting, crochet and embroidery projects

7) multiple thrift store adventures

8) too many stories about the weather

9) lots of cooking/baking stories 

10) and funny things about the family. 

So thank you readers for sharing my journey with me, I'm glad you're part of my family. 

Thrifting Finds - Pucca

Recent thrift store find, this Pucca mug:

I already had the earrings and necklace (not from a thrift store).

If you like Japanese style art, you might like Pucca, she's Korean, and so adorable

Thrifting Finds - Totoro

Oh how I love the art of Hiyao Miyazaki and his wonderful creatures, and his most amazing detail in his watercolours. One worldwide favourite is Totoro. I even have him as a background on my Firefox!

On two separate thrifting trips, but never posted before,  here are two Totoro. One is a cup with a handle, and the other is a backpack. Both could not be passed up!

Sewing Goodies

I found a bag of sewing goodies at the thrift store this past weekend, that I could not resist. $2.99 for all these notions and $0.99 for the knitting needles. I've dipped into my Craft Challenge purse, but I'm not worried. Knitting needle gauges/rules, stitch holders and punch needle embroidery sets were all worth it.

Thrifty Treasures

Yesterday was a fun day of thrifting with Carol, Cynthia and Cynthia's mom. We all picked up a little something from each of the store, but mainly we had fun making fun of some of the things we found. First place - the record collection. Not only were many album covers posters for the awkward family photo website but there were also some very creepy puppets (check out Carol's blog, she's posted a photo of that horrid creature) and some interesting songs devoted to the Lord. The second "department" we had fun in was the craft section. You know I always thought the 70's was full of love and peace, but I think there were just too many people trippin' because some of the crafts are down right scary, and some are plain weird. Take this embroidery pattern book I picked up for example:

- why would I want to embroider "my belly button" (top right) on anything?

- or why would anyone want to walk around with "bumper sticker" (bottom) embroidered on their shirt?

- any I have no idea what that crazy creature is with the word "help". Where would that be used?

I did however, find some cool items in the housewares department, like this cocktail glass from the King of Tiny Bubbles, Mr. Don Ho himself:

complete with portrait:

And this ashtray was fun for Jp and I as we had fun cracking jokes the first time we drove through Vernon together and saw the restaurant "Waddy's" complete with a 20' tall 'Waddy' out front. - and Jp's driven by it about 4 times in the past year and each time he hasn't been able to get a photo of the restaurant. Now we have this ashtray to remember it by!

And finally, I found this sweet little lamb flower vase (the one on the right) to go with the one we already had.

Swim, swam, swum

Remember when you could use the word 'swum'? Yes, I was taught that in school, really I was!

And speaking of swimming, I had such a blast Friday after work taking Eco swimming that I encouraged Jp to go with us again on Saturday morning. She's such a natural and she looks so pretty swimming in the clear water her big little feet elegantly paddling back to me!

Oh and I forgot to show you some of the things I got for my birthday last week. First some thrifty book finds: And some thrifty wall decorations which I will paint:
and then Jp surprised me with a spending spree in the LYS:

and he gave me these books, all knitting - and I didn't have any of them already - that's pretty good for a guy that's not into my knitting! :

There were other birthday goodies, like yummy cupcakes and a lunch and a dinner, and fun time playing mini golf and air hockey... but no pictures to show you - I'm sure you're okay with that, right?

And now I'm heading back into the sun. Hope you're having a great long weekend!

Welcome Spring!

My garden at 6am today - a couple of crocus and some
sad primula that have taken a beating over the winter

And I know, don't say it; there are probably 30 million bloggers who have a title similar to that on their blog today, right?

Maybe this will redeem myself, here's a little spring poem for you:

No more heaters
No more coats
No more eating rolled oats
Time for gardens
Time for sun
Time for having lots of fun!

Did that help?

Okay, since I've been away for a little while, I thought I'd share some recent thrifty finds, first a beautiful spring apron - the lower area is all embroidered and smocked, it's very pretty actually.

And a bag full of old, wooden spools of thread. As I was going through the bag, Jp asked what the little animal was, and I said brightly, "that's the thread bear" Threadbare - get it? Okay, well we laughed anyway. This week I've been a busy girl (just like the everyone else).

After work Monday we went to Vancouver as Jp wanted to pick up a book he had ordered before Christmas-but sadly it wasn't there. I guess he was a little bit too late. As we were walking away, I spotted this awesome Coraline book, which was 20% off, plus we had an $8 credit, so I was very happy with it's price! On Wednesday, we wandered around Costco and then had to pick something up at a co-workers, and then went to the mall - where I got the best dang feather pillow! Oh it's so nice and comfy, but it's just encouraging me to sleep in! Jp has to talk me into buying these things, but I'm so happy with them after.

And yesterday, I did 2 hours of ironing. I know!

--- and that's how time flies!

And do you want to know what I've discovered about myself? I'm not a morning person! For the past 10+ years I'd listen empathetically as others would tell me about having difficulty getting up, or other sleeping in stories, but for me I just hopped out of bed at 6:00am in the winter and at 5:15 in the summer. Easy peasy. Except in the past three weeks. And now I realize that I wasn't the morning person, it was my dog! Without a dog wanting a walk, or food, or attention it's really easy to stay in bed until just before it's time to get ready for work, especially with a new feather pillow! All this time I thought it was me.

However, if you live in my area, then you might just be awakened by the street sweeper at 7:30 this morning! (Which is a good thing because all the gritty sand from the snow will be gone) Or by the numb-nuts next door that always backs up his work truck for 2 minutes with the backup beeper going the whole time. (Which doesn't bother me because I'm already up, but I know some neighbours aren't happy)

Maybe the early spring sun will help me go back to getting up early, what do you think?

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.