Welcome to the world of Winterpeg restorations

I think I have worn out the babes after only 2 days of construction
Good thing home depot is close by.
We started off with the deconstruction of the " secret " room and soon to be train room. The tear down went surprisingly fast. Infact the whole construction has been going well, a few tight corners but those were resolved. Kevin worked on the electrical installing 6 potlights , switches and receptacles. Jen and I insulated the walls with the pink styrofoam, taped each one with tuck tape to seal around each piece. Last night half of the gyprock was up and we are on a break day. Tomorrow the walls should be done and plastered and the grid for the suspended ceiling up,. We are aiming to have the room ready to paint by Sunday and that is where I come in, I will scoot the kids off and painting I will do.............

Winnipeg bound

After a four hour rocky flight I was ready to get off this roller coaster
I was lucky enough to have a row of seats on the plane all to myself
Interrupted by a passenger who noticed I was having a comfortable ride and he was jammed in between a wife and 2 screaming kids. He came to sit down on my row!

It was now time to disembark and the weather was a might nippy compared to florida
Once I landed the kids met me with coats and I quickly put on some nice warm pants trading in my capris for the warmer version.

I have been in Winnipeg for 24 hours, I shopped till we dropped and soon getting ready to help with some basement renvations- that is once everyone is up for breakfast!

up up and away

Here I am all packed and ready to go
Fleece pants, sweaters, warm sock - Yes I do look like I am headed for the North Pole.
I will be dressed to the hilt. Due to lack of space I have some slim pickings for clothes. My case is full of kiddies gifts. Boy am I going to melt in that Orlando airport. Then once I hit mere civilization I will get the babes to take me out shopping for something to wear back to the land of pure warmth. HAHA

I hope that my travels are uneventful as long as I can get from point A to B without being arrested... Stay tuned

My little charge

 

I am babysitting for two days, I have walked till we dropped ... While doing laundry I managed to keep the dog at my side, then I found that she had a long lead over at her house and brought it here. She is an easy keeper.. She is now able to watch me while I work!

It is a long story but......

 

My neighbor gave me this pot and I had a gorgeous mum in it. WELL the mum got crucified when the wind picked up and you know where it hit! Right into the MUM and whack half of it was amputated. SO I stuck it back into the soil and hoping for more devine intervention. I then put my sad 99 cent poinsetta in the middle so during frost it can come out and in the RV. I was over at the hardware store and found another 3 little plants and now my pot was full but lacking something. I ran around the other side of the rv, wacked off some eucalyptus branches, dipped them into rooting powder and then stuck them in the planter. What a site as you can see!

Of great warmth

 

I hope - I knit these to take out west. Now I have two pairs and with these the kids won't misplace me!!
When I head back to FL I think I will donate the mitts to the daughter..........

One man's trash....................

 

The old BBQ from last year lives on........................ Then our picnic table from the park was looking oh so old. My neighbor gave me some paint and I spiffed it up. He was going to throw out the paint and my table needed a spiff job. Well that paint soaked in and low and behold the table looks great only 1/2 gallon later............

Now for the butler service!

Hot stuff!

You now when the odds are against you when................. you are finishing making those oh so delicious squares ............... you are washing your spatula and realize the hot baking " melted" your spatula in half!! Oh well the licking part was good!

Minutes later maybe not so good, your tough starts to get tingling, your speech has slurred and you realize it too is burned...............water water............

He can have his nuts and eat them tooo....

But stay away from my marshmellows!!
I was all gung hoe to make my PB marshmellow squares
I had all the ingredients lined up
I could not find the marshmellows that we had the night before.
I wrote Marshmellows on a large piece of paper and showed it to HIM
HE pointed to HIS TUMMY..............

Death sentence...

Off on another tangent I made raison bread.... Some compromise!

Remember when

You told your kids that life was not fair. Only to console them after a rotten day at school with an obnoxious bully!!!!

Well we were right!! Not all is fair in love and war and DIETS
Here we are cutting down our portions, walking till our feet are numb.
Dancing to line dancing DVD's. shaking the bacon to ZUMBA on you tube....
DID I mention biking a few kilometers daily on top of it???
And do you think that it makes a difference? NADDA!! Those weigh scales lie, our shoes must have lead weights inserted by elves when we were sleeping

You never can trust those free designs

 

 

Yesterday on my birthday I thought I would sit quietly! I knit up the fat mitt per instruction and did not like how fat it was, would be ok if I had 3 other pairs under it. SO today I rewrote the instructions and knit the skinny mitt. Now I know what I am doing this evening- another skinny!! All in preparation for leaving the sunny south for the bleak north winds in latter December!!

More sewing today

 

One more Xmas gift in the bag, a set of pot holders and oven mit

New towels ............

I bought some plain hand towels and then I had some material and look what happened!

Quilt #3

 

 

 

Mainly scraps from other quilts

New bathroom border

Thank you EBAY

WILD CANADIAN WOMEN HIT SHOPS

My neighbor came and forced me to go shopping ( not) with her. We started off by picking up something that Ben had ordered. Yep it is all his fault, then it happened. On the way home we managed to snoop and I bought over $100 of clothes. My husband may never let me on the loose again.. The good news is that we spent a lot less then we could have and with our spending spree saved 15% on top of what we would have normally . That justifies everything, correct?

Talk about a tight squeeze!

Ben had a brain storm- as we had left over flooring from doing the living area in the rv he decided to redo the bathroom flooring. I had just pulled off the old bathroom border that was looking a little drab when he decided to go for it. The floor is only about 2 X 2 but a tight squeeze and especially around that toilet. Well in he went and after a lot of finickity cutting it looks great, now for the trim............... Just one more excuse to go to Home Depot and you know what is across the street> My favorite fabric store. Need I say more......................

Fire Bug Low

In as little as two weeks we have had another " hot " experience
Sometime between 5-8 am our power went out in the trailer. I thought I would walk down and flip the breaker. But Ben decided to check our power box first. Yep the RV cord was hot and had melted on contact with the box. Our plug was spiffed and oiled before we plugged it into the park 30+ yr old receptacle. However the contact point was too much for the old power supply and it snuggled against our cord and " there were sparks" literally. We turned off the power supply, cut off the RV cord and then let the park rewire the box. Now off to Ace Hardware to get a new plug- a foreign animal they have revised the shape. Then to top it off with Ben's teasing about Black Friday sales the sales clerk gave us a coupon for 50% off. God Bless America and their coupons.

Ben vaselined the plug so to keep the contact clean and rust free. It works .. now we have power and better yet internet! The only unfortunate thing is that the old electrical box won't close as the fancy new plug head is large and rectangular not the little round knob as before. Oh well that is what plastic bags are for- to keep the rain out of the electrical box when one has too big a plug to close the door!!!

What next!

Grow baby Grow

Three tomatoes and counting. Here is hoping one day they will be a lot larger and even red!

One mans garbage is my find!

Some ones gazebo bit the dust, I recreated it for my mandevilla and now they are a climbing and a blooming. The bambo like spikes I got from the bush and planted are really reproducing well and they look great the roses are snuggling up to them.

These are a few images from my garden

The yellow BBQ is doing well again this year. The flowers are yellow pansies, not as nice as the pink petunias. A shot of fertilizer and daily watering and my BBQ is sprouting. The little plant looks as if it has sets of red lips hidden in white follage., However I am told it is a bleeding heart- certainly not like the ones we have at home!! A neighbor gave me a free pot with soil, I just had to go to home depot and buy a MUM for $2.75 I was set!! Bloom babies bloom

New Wheels

Now one would think that the title would predict that we are getting a new vehicle. Not so!! Why give up a perfectly affordable 28 year old, hotwired to the hilt, built like a tank with a shinny coat??

We are off to PEP BOY for new tires this am. Yes folks after 15 years it is time to say bye bye Michellin's . Soon we will be entering the year of the Futura( actually the only reason is because they were on sale and appropriate for what we need). The good news is that they are not white walls so I don't have to spit and shine the tires!

I will pay a slight fee for tire disposal and say good bye to the foursome. It doesn't seem right not to have a going away party for those old tires.....
Oh well Shopping at my favorite fabric shop should count right??

zumba you , zumba me , zumba 1,2,3

check it out!






Thursday is the day! Day one of zumba class for me, hope I can keep up to those twirling seniors! Stayed tuned, it may be a good laugh. Here is hoping I don't trip anyone and I can feel the beat. Better yet let's burn a few hundred calories!

One more bites the dust

Here is another quilt it is a generous double and can probably be used on a queen sized bed. I managed to mitre the corners. The quilt is a mixture of gold and soft green hues. Hard to believe it is the same pattern as the previous red and gold quilt that I had posted previously further down on the page

Hello Miss Molly

 

Finally Miss Molly has arrived to visit with her old friend I used an 18 gauge wire, wrapped it in roving ( sheeps wool that has been combed)Then applied layers of colored roving to fashion in hues of purple a top, long skirt, a fushia scarf and
a braided belt. I think I should have thought more about her features but she is ancient! She has a mass of curly hair and a beret with a bright gold tuft on it.

Why oh why do you ask? Hmm well it all started when......... I tried to enter a competition of sorts a display of one's work. Apparently I was not talented for the finale and turned away. Little do they know what will appear this year when I smartly label my wares as soft sculptures. And if I am turned away for year two? You don't want to know!!!!


There will be Jane with her crafts and a table boycotting the show while laid out in the parking lot to attract attention of those attending the real show!! Yep I got it nailed this year!

Organized mania

Ben cut a hole into his benchfront. Then added the 2 drawer unit ( a third drawer was taken off and used elsewhere for storage) . Notice that there is a ventilation screen above to aerate the bench!! Now his TV that sits on top of the bench doesn't have to be disturbed. Still the other half of the 5' bench is intact and the top is removable , luckily there are no electronics on that piece to sort through to get into the storage on that side of the bench

Ben must be on a storage detail work project. He has started project #2 now in progress stay tuned

Now all I have to do is iron it !!

I will take this home to assemble on my quilting machine

Purple people eater??

Cheap tricks!

I just remodeled my RV bedroom, new border, quilt and I tore off the valances. I replaced them with plastic valances I bought in homedepot and made a sleeve in appropriate color that slips onto the valance. Perfect!! The quilt is a star pattern purple on white background with purple stitching on the 1/4".

Besides that I have been busy..

I made a quilt top this weekend that I will put together on my frame once I get home. It is a star pattern with golds, and reds, it looks very rich. It is for a contract so not mine. I have so many I wouldn't be able to use it. But they are fun to make. I will post pics once I get it pressed up.I have 6 to do while I am here!!

Hmm what should I do tomorrow!

Find of the day

We found a beaten up gazebo and took the sides there were 2 curved ones that called out to me from the junk yard!

I brought them back and Ben sawed them off by about a foot, allowing us to push them into the soil. We then used the left over 16" inverted it and pushed it into the soil at the door of the shed. If you double click the photo's you can see.

The silvery bushy plants on the side of the shed are actually dusty miller that are a year old, I have never seen them soo big. I cut them to try to shape them up. They get a tall spike with a yellow flower in the spring.

It is a real learning curve to see what I can and can't plant to survive
The tall green spikes I dug up from the bush

It has been one of those days!

Here I am all organized or so I thought. I must have had one too many distractions
I put together some squares to see how they would look as a quilt top. HANG ON!!
I guess I have some computation challenges. I am two squares short. Back to the drawing board at least I know what I am doing tomorrow and the next day!!
The good news is that I have still loads of fabric left to create my extra squares.
I guess it is a good thing I did not buy a lottery ticket!

It was a scortcher!

This used to be my scooter till the fire

Fire onboard!

We are all settled in our winter home
Plants planted, lawn mowed and watered
New trellis up and vined
New railing on stairs

Then just when we thought all was done and fine
FIRE!!



WE had a fire last night
Vic noticed a fire under the trailer.
Well it turns out that the fire was a scooter, it;s electrical system caught fire, toast, melted and lots of stink
We had 2 fire extinguishers luckily
That was a 10:30 and I had just gone to be when Vic was banging on the door, Ben of course could not hear
AND IT WAS MY SCOOTER

Leaving SC

snoozing in Manning, SC leaving for FL and should be in the Park by high noon.. stay tuned

We took a leisurely trip to Fl, and stopped and had a nice lunch at Denny's. Now Flying J has changed it restaurants to Denny's and they are quite efficient. We had the waitress from St.Augustine , FL, Boy she was way too energetic and eager to please. I don't know how many coffee refills I had and Ben's pop seemed to reappear every few minutes.Service with a smile. As we exited the restuarant you could here her holler" You'll have a nice day now". Yep it is official we are in FL!!

Once in the park the office was closed but we were waved in by the gate keeper. Ben was so excited that they recongnized him, truthfully it was the noisey deisel car. It took us about 2 hours to pris, shine and put up the most important part of the time here. THE TV, Ben wouldn't want to miss Ms. Marples mystery..

This am it was only about 79 at 8 am. We were already up and planning our day,
Once outside Ben washed and erected and anchored the awning. I weeded my garden surprised to find last year stock. I had never seen dusty miller flower let alone see it 2 1/2 foot high! My variegate bougainvallia, cactus and mandeville had all kept in good shape during the summer.


I organized my shed a little to get at what I wanted to see, got all the weeding done, my welcome sign, washed the rv inside- the outside will have to wait until cooler days.

Tomorrow we will put up the gazebo- to shade the car and us if it is buggy we can sit under it! Then where to put our picnic table and where did we hide our BBQ. All of those little details one never knows about!

Tomorrow is another day of advetures

Yep it is tru!

The one on the right is my little girl, really she is..
This was taken at a most recent wedding where she was a bridemaid
See the curls, blue eyes, lilly white skin? No well that is because she looks like DADDY

Here we go again

Yesterday we had an interesting day. Our trees that we had waited months to defrocked were finally put out of their misery. A large crane appeared, the tree fellar hoisted to the top of the tree, the crane secured. The the fellar ropelled to the ground. He cut off a section of tree and the crane held onto the top of the tree. The crane gently lifted the tree to a secondary spot where another length was taken off and the tree was swung by the crane to an empty spot on the lawn. This was repeated three times. Now I don't have a particularly tiny lot but these three 50yr old trees took up the whole yard. The man left us with clean up. It took us a little over 5 hours to saw the branches off, I was on the detail of sorting and carting them away, Ben then chopped the trees in 4 foot lengths and managed to use the fridge dolly to put them in the laneway for another neighbors wood stock.

This morning we ran out of the house at 5:45 and about 4pm landed in Carisle, PA. On our way to Florida- now 1/3 closer to our home away from home. The driving was good, we had a lot of traffic but no hold ups, We spent 2 hours of driving through dense fog in the lower part of PA. Here we are for the night until tomorrow am!

$$$$

Shop Shop Shop, we spent the day at Vaughn Mills Shopping Mall. A delight for some, overwhelming for others. With people planted in every square inch there was lots to see and the crowds were not stifling .. until you hit the food court at high noon. I looked at a few price tags, only to be reminded why I purchase my clothing in Florida.
A pair of shoes would send the average working Joe 2 days of their salary. A new shirt, pants and dress would take a full work week to pay for and that is without the taxes.

I do declare there is some advantage to : 1) being retired 2) Lack of fashion sense 3) Living in the boondocks where fashion is only in the wikepdia as dressing down is a way of life for the mundane chores

On the road again

Here we are in Aurora north of Toronto. We made it car fixed and all. Everything is coming up Roses - literally.. We met the kids at the florist to confirm bouquets, corsages and centerpieces.

Try not to laugh but.............

Saga continues
SO the car wont be ready to go until after lunch and we have a 6 hr drive through holiday traffic, to the big TO. Ben was feeling sorry for himself until heard from his pa Gerry.

Now Gerry loves to tinker. He picked up a motor - outboard 9hp evinrude that was seized. He spent 2 weeks tearing it apart cleaning every single part and getting it in order for use. It worked and he was elated. Lashing it to the transom of his old outboard,full of excitement he revved the motor, One, Two Three it was set to go........ When all of a sudden the motor at full throttle, hop skipped and jumped. Head first into the drink, GLOG GLUG GLUG went the motor hundreds of feet to the depths of the river. SOB SOB SOB went Gerry a motor found free, fixed free and released free. BOOO HOOO-
Ben doesn't have the heart to tell Gerry the car troubles he had yesterday and today...........

Dead in the water

Here we are Thanksgiving is approaching and we are to be on the road on Fri
The oil changed in Ben's little car when clunk, he could not move it. The starter made a little click sound. OHOH. Can you picture it, I pushed and Ben put the car in gear, the car managed to cough so the battery and engine are fine, just not the starter. I call the CAA and happily they came to tow me. Problem?? Well first the little fellow swore it was the battery and although we knew it wasn't we let him play. Then the neighbor wanted a hammer to bash on the top of the motor to get the starter to jump. Not on his life was he going to do that to our precious car. Besides the starter is under the motor so it would not have helped. After the backyard mechanics had their fill and we knew what was wrong and that we needed it up on a hoist to have the work performed. the car was towed.

We pulled into our favorite fixit shop and it was closed. However Ben spotted his favorite mechanic BBQing supper next to the shop.He took one look our way and ran right back into the house. I am sure he did not trust his steaks anywhere near Ben.

SO the saga continues........... will we or won't we be on time for our Toronto and FL trips? Stay tuned!

It looks a little drab

 

I cut out hundreds of tiger lillies and then I put in lavender,hostas, mums, coral bells, periwinkle, eunanymous, chicken and hens, 3 roses, daisies and four oclocks.. Now lets all see if it survives the winter. Most of these plants I had potted on my deck slips of plants that I had repotted in May. AS they thrived I did not want to dump them out so I relocated them once again in my new sunny garden, I have two honeysuckle bushes and three apple trees in this garden. Hopefully it will color up next summer, if not donations are gladfully accepted

The leaves are turning!