My Rest n Relaxation?

Welcoming Inukshuk and her lovely roses.

Phew it's not even a week and I've got TONNES to blog about but no time to do it!!!

1st off I hitched a ride out to my sister's with my niece Pat and greatniece Amanda and am staying for two weeks with Sylvia and Len - but they only stayed the weekend.

Lupins and daisies in the ditch.
Lovely deck decor!

We helped Sylvia "decorate" the family room with some fishing accessories and then they took all of us out to see the tornado ravaged Fisherman's Cove Resort and then the "blow down" area not far from Lac Seul area. Pat and Amanda went fishing with Len while Sylvia and I sewed some. She had taken a Curves workshop and made a lovely lap quilt top and I decided I wanted to make a "mini" - shoot me already!!! Well I did it and I think it's lovely but talk about work!!! Then Pat and Amanda left.

Family Room

My blocks stitched and after quilting. I ran out of the outer border fabric so have to wait till I get home to finish the wall hanging off.

Desserted train bridge used as a vehicle bridge over the English River.


Blow down enroute to Wenasaga Lake

Tornado damage at Fisherman's Cove Resort at Lac Seul, Ear Falls ON

Cabin destroyed, 3 fishermen dead.

Then jumped the lake and dumped debris from cabin and tore out trees on opposite shore.

Amanda with mom Pat and grandfather Len after fishing outing.

Grandpa doing the dirty work.

Len's decorative lamp posts with Norm's stone/ironworks.

I then worked on the blocks for my Faces DYB RR for CQI and got them finished but not all the gifties I planned on making but Sylvia was going into town Wednesday as the power was to be off most of the day and I was shipping out the package - otherwise it would be late.

We visited around some and now I'm onto my next batch of UFOs that I brought with me. We've been going for coffee mornings and even supper last night up the road at the restaurant along with some invites out. Sylvia has been sewing living room side drapes and Len is puttering around in his garage creating too.

It's been cool, damp, raining, stormy most of the week now with the occasional warm sunny spell! Some pics taken on Wednesday's trip to Dryden shopping.

Uprooted tree roots dressed as a roadworker - someone had awesome imagination!!!

Stormy clouds.

Then rain ahead.
Then the rainbow!

Cedar Lake - awesome!

Hummingbirds at Betty n Dave's camp (used to be Sylvia and Len's - awesome to see someone caring for what used to be their home and livihood).


Okay, that's enough for now! Maybe another post early next week?

PC on the Fritz!

Okay, I'm just not up to fighting with that PC anymore. I keep getting locked up sometimes just 5 minutes into emails and sometimes down the stretch, then I can't reboot at all, have to power down. I wait a bit then power up again and get Reboot error insert disk and enter!!! So then I have to shut off again along with the power bar, wait a while and then try again. I just don't have the patience nor the time to fight with it. Obviously something is wrong with the hard drive and once my PC Techie is back from vacation and has the time he'll check it out again. AT LEAST I did a complete backup a month ago so Thank God for that at least. And who knows how much it'll cost - I may be without a PC for a long while and have to make use of the Library like I did the first two years of my Yahoo Group life! Not a problem just dang inconvenient! LOL!

Some Stitching to View!

Finally I've a post with some CQing to show off!!! This is a private RR and I was the first to work on it as I truly wanted to add my web and spider and so the List Mom sent it to me first - spoiled eh??? Anyways there was a lot of pink and it took me a bit to "get to it"!!!

blue is actually blue/green

The web was easy and I knew the spider would be too so I was not worried about that - it was the rest that had me stumped. THEN I remembered that some "overstitched" the details of some fabrics on other RRs and so I studied the "long and short" stitch and proceeded to use embroidery wool and did that on the tulip, open flower and leaves. Then I used some silk and overstitched with stem, straight and daisy stitches the vines and tiny flowers adding a clear bead for the centres. Okay that's done, now what else - had to ponder on that some. Then I pulled out JO of NZ's just acquired "SEAMS like fun ..." stitching album (JO's an awesome CQer) and picked a seam treatment for the top left pink patch and then added the green ferns from under the upper lily.



And I found my Venice lace trim and anchored that in place with green silk blanket stitch along the edge and Colonial knots in the open areas of the tri petals and then added larger beads in the circles. Okay now what??? Well looking through JOs album again I found the half circle Bullion knot treatment. So pulled out some hand dyed silk I received from Sharron B (great stitch learning site) and did the Bullions, then edged them with the same metallic from the web and I think that looked spiffy overlapping both patches.



Now I truly wanted to add my crocheted heart with beads somewhere too but decided I'd just baste it in place and let the other two gals decide whether it goes with this block or not. Heck they may have their own motifs they'd like to add, which is fine with me. I did mention that the List Mom could keep it or it could go with the block project - their decision. Okay, now to package it up and send it on it's way!!! I'm finished with it. LOL!



I really and truly wanted to do a Bullion knot flower on the hat on the lady in the silkie but was scared in case I ruined it so hopefully someone is braver than MOI!!! I think that would be an awesome touch along with maybe some enhancing of the flowers she is holding - JMHO!

I's finished!

Ain't they CUTE?

Well when I got back from Dauphin I did another stint of house/cat sitting for my niece but this time they took the dog with them - YEAH!!! Ahhhh that's not fair as she is getting older and so slightly more sedate than her "squirrelly" antics earlier on. So yes I had a semi-finished house this time and boy is it ever gonna be a lovely home for them and soon I hope. It's been a long haul but I can finally see the end in sight this year!!! Well it better be!!!

Anyways, what I'm trying to get at is Pat had sent a picture of Belle and Byran from one of their fishing trips - cute eh?

July 4th Storm

Shoot I forgot that I had left Dauphin July 4th with black clouds a forming in the distance north of Dauphin, but as I drove away I realized they were coming at me!!! I truly felt bad for the Dauphin Country Fest crowd as they got poured on and even a hailstorm from start to finish this weekend. Well around Durston Park, not far from the junction, I took these pics and then didn't dare stop from Ste. Rose through to Laurier as it poured and I was glad there was very little traffic on the road. Then the rest of the way was lovely - go figure!!!




Do you see the speeding rabbit?

Weird storms everywhere!!!

Lovely Weekend

Well those heavy downpours and thunderstorms hopefully have left us for a bit - I don't do well through them, especially when busing it and getting caught walking through it!!! LOL! AND talk about a wake up call for my sister Sylvia and DH - the tornado near Ear Falls is just north of where they live but all they saw was heavy rain and black clouds. Apparently there was one also spotted at Dryden ON too (60 miles south of them). Scary, as these places have never had tornados before.

Now my car gave me a scare but I did my best not to worry about it, if it's too broken, it'll just sit till I can get it fixed, that's what I decided. That's life! Well apparently I guess I checked the rad too soon from shutting off the car or whatever as today Randy (Pat's DH) checked it for me again and said it was down and after adding quite a bit and once the car was warmed up the red light shut off and there was pressure in the hose again. Hmmmm! So maybe it's just the rad cap loosing pressure (going to get that checked soon) and if not maybe the thermostat is going. There's no leaking fluid so it's not the rad or the water pump. So I've wheels again!

Anyways, I've done some stitching on my RR block during the PJ party at Kathryn's Stitching Studio Saturday evening and just about ready to ship it off early this week. AND pizza was on the menu for supper along with awesome fruit platters and homemade cookies that I barely touched the chips in front on my nose so to speak. Lucky me didn't have to bus it home at midnight either, Val was there and she offered me a ride home - was so very kind of her!!!

Then today even with some OT at work I still got out to my niece's for a visit (sure is nice seeing the renovations advancing and coming together so nicely) and return her bus pass and keys and naturally got to take my car home - YEAH!!! I've relaxed this evening, reading emails and my book which listening to baseball. Well guess I should do a bit more stitching on the RR before I'm too tired.

Health

Okay, I've had a whopper of a pounding headache for two days and then last night dealt with an upset stomach to the point of discomfort - SHEESH!!! All I can say is I'm glad it's easing up as I have to somehow deal with my car and a "temperature" light on and it's in my niece's driveway!!! Yep I'm bussing it and not sure how it'll affect my niece's family's return this weekend.

Well I had my 3-month blood pressure check today and it was not good again - actually higher than the previous one. We had a "discussion" on the probable cause and solutions. It maybe that my medication has run it's course and he'd like to change it to another type of blocker or it might be just the increased anxiety I'm experiencing from various areas of my life and I'm reluctant to mess with meds! Hmmmm. So he asked about the changes in my life and how it has affected me and he's definitely not happy and decided to check my weight too - YIKES not good at all! BUT he is very happy with some of the help I personally am going through. I'm due back in 3 months again for more checks and tests too and then we'll discuss again the change of meds if needed.

Guess I am going to have to continue with the positive help and shutting out the negative and other non-helpful circumstances. I'm determined to reduce the bad anxiety and look forward to a relaxing retirement sooner than later!

My Follow-up

Well needless to say this was not the weekend for reading emails for me! Definitely not! With all the commercials on TV about "stopping bullying" in the school system I find it totally disgusting that a handful of adults think they have the right to bully others in this day and age! And these happen to be quilters, which I've usually found to be very nice and quite hospitable, even total strangers that I've met. Oh well all I can do is look after myself.

Even a couple of family members tried that this weekend and I just up and walked out and waited awhile before returning and hoping they would have smartened up. Thankfully they did, otherwise I'd have been driving back to Winnipeg that same evening whether Dad was upset or not - I'm not putting up with this anymore! My health and sanity is more important than appeasing these individuals' inflated important egos!

As for my weekend with my Dad, it was wonderful and he was in good spirits and ate whatever I cooked and even asked for help with some chores. It sure is hard to watch your loved ones diminishing before your eyes, especially when they are still fairly coherent and not liking the circumstances. Then one of my sisters from Saskatoon arrived which made his day as he's been wondering when she was going to visit. We had a day together then I left so she could have some time with him and I could relax some before going back to work.

Then my other sister Sylvia and Len were in the city, so I met up with them and chauffeured them around for the afternoon. Lovely visit and we've some changes to my vacation in August - now I hope I can change my work schedule to correspond to their calendar. If not will have to rethink them for later in the fall.

My update

Over the past few months I've been battling some inner demons and high anxiety levels which have played major havoc on my work and personal life to the level of searching for some outside help. One can only "dump" on one's family and friends for minor incidents but something ongoing is not fair. At least I don't think so. But as I've found out shutting them out and trying to deal with this on my own is not acceptable either - where's that happy medium???

Okay, this past week or two I've noticed an easing of the tension etc within me and thought YEAH maybe just maybe things might be getting better? Even my niece mentioned my voice was more like me this week! Well it didn't last long!!! That was early Tuesday and by the time I finished reading some emails that evening I was a mess all over again and it had nothing to do with me! I've been told many a time to leave the groups that do this to me, but I do have many friends in them from all over and it's a shame that a small handful mess it up!

So there I was trying to regroup before driving to Dauphin Canada Day for a short vacation with Dad etc but not successfully. Then I naturally picked the wrong weekend as traffic to the Dauphin Country Fest was outrageous and the highway was covered in campers and trailers and speeders - YIKES!!! I'm hoping to leave before they start their exodus back home, will have to check to see when it's over.

As for my Dad, he's doing as good as he can, being weak and 95 too. He's enjoying having me here to cook for him and run errands etc. My sister is redoing her house siding so they are busy but I'm enjoying their BBQd evening meals that is for sure.