Cards - Charity Set 2

I chose a SU Cherry Cobbler card base in A2 size.  I trimmed a piece of designer paper in kraft with white polka dots and adhered to the card front.

I added a couple pieces of SU designer paper in chevron pattern in red to the the card front.  

I stuck the wood butterfly to the SU Artisan Label Punchie with a Zot and then it to the card front with 3D foam tape. 

I adhered the SU Small Oval punchie greeting to the horizontal piece of designer paper.

The chevron paper is from a Stampin Up designer paper pack.

I wrapped a piece of red and copper metallic ribbon around the top and then taped the layer to the A2 card front.

I created an accent with a red SU Decorative Label punchie topped with a SU Small Oval greeting punchie and the wood butterfly.

A Zot holds the butterfly and double sided tape for the rest.

Each card has a quarter sheet white insert.

The dark brown card base is topped with a gold polka dot on kraft card stock.

I added a kraft and gold ribbon along the left hand side. The brown SU Artisan Label punchie is topped with a wood butterfly held in place with a Zot.

The SU Small oval punche greeting is placed in the bottom right hand corner.

This brown card base again topped with the gold polka dot card stock.

This time I used the SU Decorative Label punch and topped it with the SU Small Oval punchie greeting.

The wood butterfly in the top left hand corner stuck with a Zot.

These will get to my sister who has the contact for this card donation.

Cards - Charity

I set out this morning to make cards for IWin which is a charity which helps vulnerable women.  When they finish their program they get a card in their backpack to remind them that someone is thinking of them.

Each card needs a Thinking of you greeting and a butterfly.

I found a bag of wooden butterflies at the thrift shop the other day and brought them home.

I have been at a disadvantage to making cards for this project because of my home situation.  Back home and feeling like crafting again.  Not all is unpacked but I move forward.

I chose this designer paper with flowers printed in green. I trimmed it to leave a small border and adhered it to the front of a A2 card in SU Summer Sun.

I punched a Stampin Up Artisan punchie in Always Artichoke and adhered the butterfly with a Zot. I placed the short length of SU chevron ribbon under it and followed the pattern to trim it.  I added the greeting in the bottom right hand with a shadow of a green oval punchie.

For this yellow card base I trimmed a piece of floral designer paper to leave a small border. Wrapped the red ribbon along the bottom edge and taped the ends to the back.  It was adhered to the card front with DS tape. 

I added the yellow SU Decorative Label punchie, topped with the SU Small Oval greeting then topped with the wood butterfly accent held in place with a Zot.

Love the bright colors in this card.

Carrying on with the green floral designer paper I added it to an SU Always Artichoke card base.

I added a card stock strip on the left hand side and adhered with double sided tape.

I made the wood butterfly and the SU Small Oval greeting punchie touch and attached with a Zot and tape.

This card features a water colored piece of the green floral designer paper.  It was not very thick so I had to be really careful with the amount of water. I adhered it to the card front.

I combined the wood butterfly and the greeting in the bottom right hand corner.  

A Zot for the butterfly and DS tape for the SU Small Oval greeting punchie.

Slow Stitching 2025 - Feb - Week 3

Slow stitching with K3N Cloth Tales Comfort Coverlet 2025.  February week 3. 

I continued my composition of subjects that I photograph.  

The top curlicue got some spring blossoms with tiny leaves, a song bird in blue ( I don't often see blue birds but the color made me happy) and a woodland mushroom.  Again, the ones I photograph are generally in the brown tones.

The shapes I just mostly hand draw to get them into the spaces that they need to occupy.

I am happy with my progress. 

Slow Stitching 2025 - Feb - Week 2

 K3N Cloth Tales - Slow Stitching 2025 - Comfort Coverlet. February 2025 - Week 2

I added curlicues around the edge in several colors. 

Then, I added the flowers and insects - bee, butterfly and ladybug to the left hand side.

I created a flower with long stitches then added some weaving at the center of the petals.  Several yellow French Knots for the center of the flower.  I used the end of the curliecue for the flower stem and added a large leaf at the top for the ladybug to sit on. 

There will be 3 more compositions to come to fill in the space on this square.

Puzzle Board - A good thing

This is the way my dining room table looks like most of the time.

I always have a tablecloth.

Here I have yellow placemats and the flowers my friend gave me 2 weeks ago is still looking good.  The lilies faded in a week but the mums are still bright.

There lurks a secret under there.

I bought a piece of hardboard which I had cut to the size of the top of the table.

I sanded the edges smooth.

Now it sits on top of a the secret lying under there.

Of course, when the table cloth is on one is the wiser.

There's a puzzle under the hardboard!

I just don't have enough space to dedicate a horizontal surface to just puzzle making.

I started puzzle making while I was away from home in temporary accommodation with little of my other crafting things at hand.

I understand it is good activity for my brain so I had to find a solution.

The hardboard was less than $20 so a project that did not break the bank.

The hardboard sits near the table while it is off the puzzle. This works great.

The box of extra pieces will be stored under the end table near my chair when the puzzle is covered.

I am really happy with this idea. 

Thank You Cards and Gifts - Renovation

I managed to get my small gifts and thank you cards for folks who were involved with the renovation project at my house that started back in September and finished up a couple of weeks ago.

I am still unpacking and will be for the next few weeks.  

I had some great people working and helping during this stressful time of my life and I wanted to let them know how much I appreciated it.

I was up early this morning in my kitchen and I made some caramel popcorn.  I did not get the opportunity to do that this Christmas as I was living in temporary accommodations.  

I check off the things I needed.

1. Recipe
2. Margarine
3. Nuts
4. Popcorn
5. Corn Syrup
6. Brown Sugar
7. Stainless Steel sauce pan
8. Large yellow bowls
9. Popcorn maker and Ultra21
10. Measuring Cups
11. Stirring spoon
12. Brown Sugar

Where's the brown sugar.  After checking my packing list most of my food Tupperware had not been unpacked.  After unloading 3 boxes I found the brown sugar.  I am good to go.

I made 3 bags of caramel popcorn and 6 cards.

It was great to be back in my kitchen doing what I have done for years at Christmas time.  Well, this year there was a 6 week delay but I enjoyed do it.  I expect the recipients will enjoy the popcorn.

Next the thank you cards. 

I decided to use watercolor paper I made a long while ago with a clear embossed black greetings.

The greeting is printed on vellum then heat embossed with clear powder.

I downloaded some free graphics from online.

The card stock is coordinated with the piece of watercolor paper then the vellum is trimmed and held in place with brads

The card stock is Pear Pizzaz in the A2 size.

The card stock is Brilliant Blue with the watercolor paper trimmed to leave a small border.

The greeting is cut to 3.5 inches square and aligned along the right hand side.  Held in place with pink mini brads.

The cards are for the tradesmen that worked on the project, the managers that were involved, the staff at the temporary accommodation, and my insurance agent.

The gifts were delivered and were graciously received.

The card stock is Stampin Up Island Indigo.

The greeting is placed along the bottom edge to soften the pink in the watercolor paper.

Held in place with silver tiny brads.

The card stock is SU Soft Suede.

The greeting was just designed with fonts on my computer.

Ripped the top and bottom edge of the vellum.

Held in place with brown mini brads.

The card stock is SU True Thyme.

The greeting was aligned with the bottom edge and held in place with tiny black brads.

The card stock is SU Elegant Eggplant.

The greeting was aligned with the top edge and held in place with deep purple mini brads. 

Slow Stitching 2025 - Feb - Week 1

This is my February piece for K3N Cloth Tales - Slow Stitching Comfort Coverlet 2025.

I chose my photography as the subject for this piece.

I have 2 layers - a top layer of light grey 100% cotton on a foundation of 50-50 cotton poly.

I placed a frame of running stitch about 1 inch from the edge. Using light grey 2 strands of floss. 

I drew a top down view of a camera in the top right hand corner stitched in black with accents of grey and champagne.

I will be adding subjects I photograph throughout the year.

I am Home! - Renovation

I am finally home to stay after being away and living in temporary accommodation for nearly 2 months. Big Smile!

I moved out November 28th and I am back on January 25th. That is 58 days. Of course, I have been back often managing the decisions, roadblocks, and challenges that come with this size of restoration.  But with no bathroom the visits were interesting. Thank goodness there was one working toilet in the exercise room downstairs which made it manageable. 

This is the bathroom with the new vanity. Turns out I needed a new faucet which I found out when the plumbers were in to restore the water to my place on Thursday. With a bit of research, I made a decision, purchased it, and had it installed Friday morning. It did leak which required the plumber to return in the afternoon and tighten the drain just enough.  It was good to go.

Here's the updated kitchen with the new floor.  More details will be coming.

I brought home my dry goods box, 2 coolers, my winter clothes bag and my plants from the temporary  accommodations.  I also had an overnight bag and a larger suitcase. A few craft supplies.

All the clothes which were washed while I was away needed to be rewashed as the detergent they provided was heavily perfumed.That took 4 loads of laundry to get the task done.

Needed to have a cup of tea!

First meal home.  Frozen pasta dinner with added veggies. Lit with diecutting corner light, eating on camping dishes but on a table in it's place with placemats and table cloth.

A good book.

I met a friend for breakfast today as we missed her birthday in December as well as our Christmas get together.

She gave me flowers as a welcome home gift.

I have a great book to read.

The TV is still buried behind boxes so that will be still a few days.

There a few jobs of fixing to do.

Some updating to kitchen cupboards.

Rethinking the color scheme now that the cupboards are grey. Removing the RAM board from the living room floor but it is fine! And a deep clean of  everything to remove construction dust. It has been quite a renovation.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

 My plants are doing well in temporary accommodations.  They still have an east window like they did at home. 

The African Violets bloomed so it was happy.

There was a good dining room light which kept them company.

It was bitterly cold this Sunday so I stayed in and watched TV.

I had access to Youtube so I was able to watch my regular Sunday posters.

The scope of work for the kitchen did not include anything other than the front of the cupboards.  

Of course, the bottom edges were brown to match the previous color.  Once the restoration project was finished I used the leftover paint to do the those edges to match the fronts.

Really helped the look of the kitchen.

The plumbers were in on Thursday to reconnect all the water related items.  Kitchen sink, dishwasher, bathroom sink, toilet, and the laundry center.

This was the message left by the plumbers.

Would I still be able to move home when I planned?  

This experience has taught me to roll with the punches and keep moving.  

I talked to the carpenter for his opinion, then my brother in law and then headed out to buy a new faucet. I then called our building plumbing company and I was able to get the faucet installed on Friday.  Yes. 

Bright and early the plumber was there to install the faucet.

At the same time the company hired by my insurance was there to put in place the fridge, stove, the freezer and the pine cabinets on either side.  Busy time!

I thought I would get the bathroom set up first and then at 11:30 am or so I opened the vanity in the bathroom to this!  A leak!

I called the was given a site visit in the next few hours.

What to do now?

I chose to be productive and painted the bottom of the cabinet under the sink.

It is just particle board and over the years it had lost it's finish.

I used semi gloss in the same color as the walls in the place.  

It really brighten up the space to match the rest of the kitchen.

The plumber returned about 1:30pm and gave the drain just a bit of a turn.   Then tested the drain with 3 full sinks of water and all was dry!

So at 2 pm it was confirmed that I could move home.  I brought most of my stuff back home but stayed one more night because check out time was 11 am and at that time I still did not know if everything was going to be okay to move back.

I was checked out by 8 am and headed home with my overnight bag and my back pack.

I started cleaning.

I headed out for brunch with my friend which I have not seen since the fall.

We had a great visit, great food, and a relaxing time.

Slow Stitching 2025 - Week 4

This is week 4 of the 2025 Slow Stitching Comfort Coverlet hosted by K3N Cloth Tales.

This week I couched a circle of white tiny rick rack all the way around the outer circle of my design.

I really enjoyed the couching and I think it solidified the outside circle.

I have gone ahead with my stitching because I may be moving back home this week. Yeah!

Slow Stitching 2025 - Week 3

This is week 3 of the Comfort Coverlet Slow Stitching 2025 project hosted by K3N Cloth Tales. 

I continued to work on this January piece by adding the frame.  I used 2 strands of green embroidery floss with a running stitch.

I stayed 1 inch away from the outside edge to allow for assembly later on.

I added the seed stitching in the four corners with ecru pearl cotton. 

Slow Stitching 2025 - Week 2

I have added symbols on my loose family tree circles.

Dad is the closest circle in blue with a green dot.

Mom is the next circle with the blue dot then I added a heart between them.

I have several aunts on Mom's side that I am close to.

Next are my siblings and I am close to all my sisters.

Next are the grandkids of which I am close to a couple of the girls.

Next is the great grandkids of which I am close to one of them.

So nice to have strong women in my family circle. 

Slow Stitching 2025 - Week 1

Here's my first piece for the Comfort Coverlet.

I made the fabric 12x12 inches and tea dyed it.

I have made several circles on it and stitched them with the stem stitch in several colors.

I am planning on adding elements on the circles to loosely represent women in my family that are important to me.

Not sure what to use for the elements.  If it turns out to be a comfort cloth they should be soft.

Options:

Buttons, beads, sequins, felt shapes, and probably many more.

See what this week brings.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I finished this book this week.  It was a quick read and I could not put it down.

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods.  

There are 2 story lines. The first is Opaline Carlisle/Grey who runs away to Ireland to avoid an arranged marriage in the 1920's and becomes a book seller in Dublin. It was very interesting to have Sylvia Beach who owned Shakespeare and Company in Paris in that time period appear in this story.  I read a book about her in this post.

The other is Martha and Henry in modern times with cell phones.  Martha is also running away from an abusive husband.  Henry is doing research for his thesis. Some of the abuse Martha suffered was quite uncomfortable to read about.

Henry starts in one direction but changes the focus of his thesis by the end of the book.

There is a fantastical aspect to the story where the premise is that books find the people who need to read them in the 1920 story.  In the house in Dublin, things are not all as they appear. 

Great read

A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead.

I started this book a couple of times but could not finish it.  I generally love World War II stories but this book had too much historical information in it.

A lot of detail about the players in WWII in France and the resistance movement.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

 
I was treated to seeing the kitchen cupboards painted on Dec 31st!   I am very happy with the color.

I picked up the 30 hinges I needed to replace the bronze ones that were on the brown cupboards.

These are chrome and will go much better with the grey color of the cabinets.

I managed to get a better price of $2.00 each at another supplier than the big box store.

Another great read from Patrick Taylor.  An Irish Doctor in Love and at Sea.

This was a great book.  The story alternated with Dr. Fingal O'Reilly's earlier medical career and a more modern time where new doctors are joining the practice and Dr. Barry Laverty is a partner in the practice.

We finally find out what happened to his first wife. How they met, their love affair, their married life and how he loses her.  There have been vague mentions of her in past books and here we find out a lot more about Deirdre.

Donal is up to his antics as usual.

Loved the book!

New Year's Eve was a quiet night with the TV running the fireplace video.

My last glass of egg nog.

It was an early night as things have been hectic between the renovations and family celebrations.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

Finally, the restoration of the kitchen is moving forward. 

The bottom cupboards are back in the kitchen.

They are being reinforced where damage occurred during the removal process. 

There will be plastering, sanding, painting happening here for a little a little bit.

The carpenter is very generous to spend an hour with me going over ideas about paint, finishes, and much more.  

I left feeling that we were on the same page about the renovation.

I watched this Christmas movie this week.

An angel tree topper comes to life to return a Christmas spirit to this town.

One of the residents of this small town has a very poor attitude and she brings woe to those around her.

The angel and the girls vow to bring a brighter spirit to those around them.  They bake cookies, give away gifts, paint rocks with encouraging sayings andhelp out neighbours including Mrs. Grouchy. 

Turns out she used to be Mrs. Christmas in this town till her daughter eloped against her wishes then her attitude soured.

A Christmas spirit is returned at the of the movie and Mrs. Grouchy gets to meet her grandchildren for the first time.

I spend a lot of time with my sister on Christmas day trying to decide which color scheme to paint the cupboards after they were damaged during the asbestos abatement process. 

The white is the walls, the yellows are the frame on the cupboard doors and the grey is for the face of the cabinets. The second yellow represents the butcher block counter top.

I am happy to report that painting was the solution chosen and that project is moving forward

I went to my sister's for Christmas day and we attended this church's Christmas morning service.  It was very good.  I am so grateful that roads were so good for driving.  I returned to the hotel on Boxing Day.  We were joined by their neighbors.

We attended a community turkey lunch with a few hundred people.  I understand 214 plates were served.

We sat with a gentlemen who had recently loss his wife and this was the first time he attended on his own.

The turkey with all the trimmings was excellent though it took a while to serve that many people.

Another visit with Kinsey Milhone in Sue Grafton's X book.

Kinsey helps a widow with investigating the death of her husband which was someone Kinsey worked with.

I have read this book before but I did not have it blogged so I am including it here.

Wool Felt Ornaments

I always like to make something for my brothers and sisters when we get together for Christmas.

I managed to get these wool felt ornaments cut before I had to pack the craft room one more time this year.

It was cut with the Sizzix Ornament #2 die.  It cuts the big shape and the circle to match.

I cut 10 sets of these with 2 circle fro the front and back and one ornament in the middle.

The circles were cut from craft felt.

I put some warm taupe floss and some grey floss in the bag along with these die cuts.

I did not have a specific plan.  With more craft stuff packed it became a challenge to decide how I would decorate these. I had several ideas but eventually it came together.

I knew I had small heart buttons in my stash and eventually I found them in the sewing space which was less put away.  The bling box was still available so I pulled out the metallic fabric snowflakes.  I pulled twill tape and a black marker.

These were stitched by the middle of November with RamBoard on the living room floor and the living room continuing to be filled with items from the other areas.