Sylvia's Simple Shots

The fruit trees are all in bloom.  The crab apples, choke cherry, apple and cherry trees are sporting great colors this week.  Deep pink, light pink, white and some shades in between.

It is feeling like summer.  I was out for my 1.5 hour walk this morning and visiting my favorite park and garden for the first time this year.

Can't beat those Alberta blue skies.

I heard then saw red winged black birds at Paul Kane park this morning.  I have not seen these birds so far into the city.  The pool was filled with water so that may have made the difference.  Generally, the city is later in filling the pool.

There was a male and female so I expect there was a nest in the dry bullrushes. This is so exciting!

There were Canada Geese, Mallards, House Finches, and magpies all making an appearance.

I received a bouquet of flowers yesterday.   It was really nice to get flowers on the remembrance of my Dad's passing on May 12th.  We celebrated his life on May 24th.  He was 92 and passed quietly in his sleep which is exactly what he wanted.

It was a couple of weeks of funeral arrangements, visits with Mom, and the first in person funeral in 2 years for the funeral home.  I pray that everyone remains well following that get together.

Mom and Dad celebrated 68 years of marriage the day Dad passed.  He had tested positive for COVID so it was in full PPE no less.  At least they were together as Mom had been in isolation earlier, had brain surgery and had not be able to see him regularly.

I brought Mom some purple pansies this week.  She has been given a raised flower bed at the lodge so she will have pansies, tomatoes and  Osteospermum - African Daisies in her bed.

Unfortunately, she will not be able to see them from her room so she will see them when she goes into the dining room 3 times a day.

It will be good for her to have something to tend to now that Dad has passed.

She is gaining strength every day following her surgery.   She was thinking about sewing again when I saw her on Monday.  That is a very good sign.

I found these at the community garden.

I found an Aquarium BluRay DVD the other day at the thrift store.

I am enjoying the sights and sounds on the TV when there is not too much else that is very good on.

There are about 6 different scenes and well as quite a few fish swimming around.

It's like putting on the fireplace at Christmas time.

I finished this book this week.  P is for Peril - Sue Grafton.

Kinsey Millhone is hired by Fiona, the first wife of Dr. Dowan Purcell, to move along the stalled investigation by police of his disappearance. He disappeared nine weeks earlier. The first wife is more concerned than present wife Crystal. Fiona, embittered by the breakdown of her marriage, is convinced that Dow has engineered his own disappearance, as she alleges Crystal is having an affair and admits that Dow has gone missing a couple of times before. In support of this, his passport and thirty thousand dollars seem to be missing. In contrast, Crystal, a former stripper Dow met on a trip to Las Vegas, is convinced he is dead. Not impressed either with Fiona's haughty personality or the chances of turning up something on a cold trail, Kinsey accepts the case with misgivings.  Kinsey ends up finding the Dr., having a brush with some really bad characters and is trying to find new office space.

I found this book a little slow but it may have been the distractions in my life the last couple of weeks more than the book itself.

Check this duck out on the small pool at Paul Kane.  It is a Greater Scaup - a diving duck.  The male and female where casually swimming the water.   

It was so great to see them there.  There were about 10 mallard males just sitting in the sun.   I have seen this before so I am not sure where they have left Momma and the ducklings.   There is not a lot of water nearby.

Wishing you a great week!

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I spent several hours on Sunday taking pictures at the local lakes.  

These geese in flight was taken at Lois Hole Centennial Park.  My first time there this spring.  The water levels are decent but not a lot of ducks.

The black birds were in good numbers and the geese were making their presence known with much honking.

There were a few skirmishes among them and furious protection of nests.  Goslings should be around very soon.

It was a great morning with beautiful weather.

On Monday, I took a trip north to visit Mom and take her to medical appointments.  

I stayed overnight at my sister's place and we went Tuesday morning to final the details for Dad's funeral next week.   He passed away May 12th in his sleep as he had wished.

I stopped at the honey farmers and picked up a pail of honey.  I have purchased my honey from these folks for years.  We had a bit of a visit and caught up on life.  I guess the winter has been hard on the beehives and some have been lost to temperatures.  Very distressing for the farmers.

I use mostly only honey for sweetening.  In my tea always.

Another book finished this week.  The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley.  This is my third book by this author and I just loved it.

It is set in Scotland.  In the spring of 1708, an invading Jacobite fleet of French and Scottish soldiers nearly succeeded in landing the exiled James Stewart in Scotland to reclaim his crown.

Now, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn that story into her next bestselling novel. Settling herself in a small cottage in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors Sophie and starts to write.

She seems to be very connected to Sophia. She writes then when researching discovered that what she has written is true.  How can that be?  Ancestral memory from Sophia maybe. 

The owner of the cottage she is renting has 2 sons who take an interest in the woman writer who moved into the cottage in winter.  One is a history professor in Aberdeen who visited his Dad most weekends.  These two connect over their common interest in the past.  This was a very good book and I would recommend it.

On Thursday, I dropped off another 10 blankets for Project Linus.  

These blankets were all made by my sister as I have not sewn a blanket since my health issues in 2020.  

Now with trying to sell my place I cannot have the place uprooted with a big project as it must be tidy most of the time.

I send these off with blessings to those who receive them in their time of need and distress.  May they be comforted by a warm blanket.

With a bit of rain the flowers have just opened up.

This was taken in my neighborhood.  They have a beautiful front lawn filled with red and yellow tulips.

It is a blessing to have such neighbors.

It is so uplifting to see flowers blooming, blue Alberta skies, and the temperatures rise.

We had a full day of rain yesterday which I am sure bring more green and spring flowers.

Have a great week.

Summer Jacket Make Over

I needed a new summer jacket.  The one I had was way too big - I don't know why I bought it.  I prefer to have a two zipper, at least one zippered pocket and a hood.

This time I managed to find a navy jacket that had some of what I wanted.  It is a Cleo Petites so it fit well and the sleeves are the right length. It had some buttons for the hood but it was missing.  No zippered pockets and no 2 way zipper.  But it fit well and I decided I could remedy some of the other short comings.  I believe I paid $15.00 for this jacket at the thrift store which was quite high I thought.

I purchased a piece of cotton navy and white fabric and I had a piece of white microfiber from a previous project that would work well for the inside of the hood.

It got a good wash along with the other fabric I was going to use.

I watched a few You Tube videos on making attachable hoods for jackets then set out on the process.   I had a rain jacket that had a hood so I traced that one onto a piece of paper.  I reduced the height of the hood and increased the collar measurement to fit the new jacket.

I added seam allowances and marked the slot for the hood string.

I cut the outside of the hood from the navy striped fabric.  I adjusted the lining pattern as suggested in the video so that the outside fabric would wrap to the inside of the hood.

I found some navy grosgrain ribbon that matched well.  I found 3 buttons that would work with the jacket and removed the 2 and replaced them with the ones I selected.

I used the button hole maker on  my machine to make the 3 button holes at the bottom of the hood.

I am really happy with the white microfiber fabric on the inside.  Slides nicely on my head.

I also selected a decorative stitch to sew the ribbon on which adds a bit of a decorative touch.

I used the grosgrain ribbon as an accent on the hood for the seam to create the channel for the hood string.

The hood sits very nicely on the jacket.   

I wanted to add some of the striped fabric to the rest of the jacket to help the integration of the hood to the jacket.

I created some narrow lengths that I top stitched to the front pocket flaps.

I added a patch pocket on the sleeve which gave me the zippered pocket I wanted.   I created it with the same technique I used the bag I made a while back.

Again, the grosgrain ribbon was used to finish the edges of the patch pocket. 

The hood string is a long shoe lace that I found in my junk drawer.   It was long enough and white works for me.  

I would like a bead on the ends to keep if from going into the channel.  I will be on the lookout for those.

I am really happy with how the jacket makeover went.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

The spring flowers are starting to show up.

This is the Siberian Squill.  It is a beautiful blue color, quite small, close to the ground and perennial.  I have several places in my neighbourhood where it grows.

I was very happy to see it because yesterday morning again I woke to snowflakes in the air. Really!

These will open up into bell shaped blooms.

One of the first projects I took on when the sewing machine came back working well was the mending of my wheat bag.

I have owned this wheat bag forever.  I paid a lot of money when I bought it but it has paid off.  

The cotton outside cover has been sewn back together several times.  The inside sack that holds the wheat has had several repairs.  

As you can see the kernels of wheat were falling out and I was finding them all over the place.

Next time I will have to make a completely new bag and inside sack.   I will put fabric on the list for that project.   I am amazed this cotton is still hanging in.

This is the book I finished this week.  A Grace Disguised - how the soul grows through loss by Jerry Sittser.

It describes a very tragic event in this man's life and how he chose to live is life after losing 3 members of his family.

The good, the bad and the ugly are covered in this book.  How God works in our lives to help us survive the very difficult challenges we face.  How we can grow through them and how life can have bright spots again but never be the same.

This book provided encouragement to me to be patient in this time, be consistent, and hang in there.  

Stay positive and wait.

I am collecting some new Big Sky photos again.

We can have some wonderful blue skies here with amazing cloud formations.

It's a matter of not taking them for granted and looking up every time I am outside.

And taking the pics that are worthy of capture.

Flickr Macro Mondays challenge this week was Battery.   Of course, they come in every size, color and description.

Here I have placed 2 D batteries aligned in front of each other.  I like that they had this blue plastic layer around the edges.

I lit them with a flashlight from above.

My highlights are not blown out and the shape repetition works well along with the black background.

You can check out my Photostream by follwoing this link (SMDPics).

Have a great week!

Mom's Day Card

I painted a blue daisy flower for my Mom's mother's day card.

Her favorite color is blue.

I used a piece of 140lb rough water color paper measuring approximately 4.25 x 5.5 inches.  I sketched it lightly with a pencil and then painted it with my Stampin Up Wonder Watercolor  Crayons.  Using Marina Mist as the main color with some Night of Navy and some Not Quite Navy.   The leaf colors were Always Artichoke and More Mustard.  The center is More Mustard.

Once completely dry I traced around the flower and leaves with a black permanent marker. 

I mounted the flower onto a half sheet card of Marina Mist card stock.   I added white and medium blue seam binding below the flower by punching a slit in the fold then wrapping them around the card front and knotting in the front.

A white insert was added to the inside.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I found this little chipmunk on my walk the other day.   

Spring green is slow to come so I hope they have enough to eat.

I have not seen many yet this year so I don't know if the population is down.  I generally see quite a few.

It may been that some have decided to stay in their little warm homes for a little longer sensing that things have not warmed up a lot.

I finished this book this week.  Fireside by Susan Wiggs.  The title does not seem to match the story to me.

Bo Crutcher is a baseball player hitting his stride a bit later in life and has achieved a place on a pro ball team.  Just as things are turning around a call sends his life into a spin.  Heading to Texas to pick up a boy he has never met.  He knew he had a son but the mother had not allowed him to be involved.   Now she is in trouble and turns to Bo to help out.

Being a father is a huge learning curve.   He does his best and makes slow progress in gaining AJ's trust.

In the meantime he met a girl quite by chance as her life was spinning out of control.  Later, they meet again and she is able to help prepare him for his professional career and still be a Dad.

All works out in the end but the ups and downs are challenging.  A good book.

The hiccups with the sewing machine have been sorted out.  I can say the servicing as restored all the functions and it purrs!

These machines are real workhorses.  So despite being 50 years old it just keeps on sewing like a dream.   I will make sure that I oil it more regularly.

It was out of commission for a month with the back and forth visits.  I guess I needed time to design my tote and purchase the fabric so it all worked out.

You will see that I have already put it to good use on a Tote project.

Here's the bespoke tote I designed and sewed over the weekend.

I needed a bag to carry my camera, my purse and my everyday bag.

You can read about all the details in this post.

I have used a couple of times already and I am very happy with the result.

Of course, the color combo is perfect.

This is a small books as far as the size of books I normally have been reading.  True Believers by Linda Dorrell.

It was a quick read and very compelling story.  Set in the mid 1050's in the southern states it deals with racism, ignorance, and social expectations.  She is a single white woman of privilege who bucks the tradition when purchases a church with her inheritance.

She is led to ask a black man ,Otha Lee which she has known most of her life to work on the restoration project. He is a handyman, a bit of a farmer and a preacher.   He has no building to worship in so his congregation has been meeting under a large tree.  He agrees to take on the project and as luck would have it a younger man, Joseph has recently come to town looking for work. Perfect!  

They make a great team but the very hot summer makes progress slow.  The project is a success once Peggy, Otha Lee and Joseph address their pasts to reveal that this was the perfect project for them.  Excellent read.

Sewing Project - A Bespoke Tote

I decided that I needed a bag to carry my purse, my small everyday bag and my camera which I pretty much carry every time I leave the house.  It needed to be much shallower than the one I currently use.  Just big enough to put these things in with a bit of extra.  The items would stay in place and be easy to access. In the bag I use now the purse and camera bag straps get all tangled, its deep so I can't see everything which does not work well. The inside is also black which does not help.

Despite wanting to keep the sewing area tidy I decided to tackle this project.   Originally, I thought I would create a lining which was sectioned to add more definition but I have decided not to go that route for now.  It took 2 days.

This is the bag at the front door filled and ready to go.

The fabric is light denim and a beautiful yellow and white pattern piece of 100% cotton fabric.  

The bag as a boxed bottom with large pockets on both ends.

The fabric cost me $5.00 at the thrift store.  The denim was a large pillow sham and the yellow has a baby dream tag but was flat and was about a yard of fabric.  

I did fill the bobbin a couple of times.  

It's quite floppy when not full but that is okay.

I wanted the straps to run the full length of the height of the bag to distribute the weight.  I see that I twisted the front strap but it will stay that way as it is very well attached.

The buttons indicate the front and is helpful for using the zipper.

I put 2 large patch pockets on the bag - both ends of the bag.

These are about 8" square and provide a quick place to put something I need to take with me.  They hold my travel mug of tea for sure.  

A nice hem at the top and the edges ironed over and then just sewn on to the denim.  They are quite flat.

They are large enough for a book, or cards that need to be mailed. 

I used white thread through out the project.  It is quite unnoticeable on the yellow and more so on the blue denim.

The bottom has the box ends sewn down on the inside of the bag.  This provides a bit of stiffness to the bottom but it may need a piece of corrugated cardboard or plastic to help it out. 

I brought the ends of the straps to the underside but not really enough to work well.  I just did not have enough denim to make them longer.  On hindsight I should have just brought them down to the bottom edge.

Live and learn they say.

This recessed zipper was a very good idea that my sister shared with me.  It allows you to add a zipper to any bag. You can check out the video tutorial by Crafty Gemini here.

I chose the yellow to be very visible.  Upon checking my stash of second hand zippers there was blue one that was long enough.   The zipper insert measures 23" tab to tab. 

The buttons are the same sunflower yellow which you find in the fabric.  

I chose 3 different ones and sewed them on with yellow thread.

They help to make sure I am coming from the right direction to open or close the zipper.

Yes, my decorative stitches are back now that the sewing machine has been serviced.

This is just a curvy stitch that is adjusted by the stitch length and the zigzag measurement.  This is quite tight and I like it a lot.

I used this to attached the recessed zipper insert to the bag.  It goes right around the bag so provides a decorative element at the same time.

Here's the inside of the bag filled with its purposed contents.

The purse, the every day bag and the camera bag.  You can check this post for the details on the small every day bag I made.  It is still perfect, a couple years on.

There is nothing like a bespoke item that fits the exact purpose you need.

I encourage you to get a perfect rather than settling for "it is just okay".

Exchange Card - May

These cards are for my card exchange partners. 

I started with the aqua handmade paper flowers then chose the Stampin Up Fresh Prints designer paper then the pink card base.  

This card has a Stampin Up Pretty in Pink card base with a designer paper layer featuring the color of Coastal Cabana which matches super well.

I layered a white flower sequin, a yellow handmade paper flower by Prima, then a white silk flower, the large handmade paper flower and lastly a large white card stock daisy punchie onto a white tiny brad.  Once aligned I pressed it into the DSP and press the prongs apart on the back.

The card base was scored at 1.5 inches then 5.75 inches and folded to the front to create an offset fold.  

The flower accent layer was adhered to the card front with double sided tape just on the left hand side so the Coastal Cabana DSP would overlap the small flap.

The card on the right has the same accent layer of die cut flowers and DSP in Coastal Cabana as the one above.

The card base for this one is Pink Passion which is a deeper version of the one above.

These are headed off to my card exchange buddies.

I added a white quarter sheet insert and a white envelope.

Christmas Card Challenge - Watercolor - Bethlehem

I was going to use salt to create the stars in the sky but when I looked for the coarse salt it was no where to be found.  I had to settle for Pearl White Acrylic paint.

This is the first one which I used Silver Sharpie for the star which did not do what I wanted.  I did the others in a fine tip Black Sharpie.

I added a tiny silver star brad in the center of the star to adhere to the card stock and repeat the star shape.

I used several colors of watercolor - a deep blue and a blue red so I achieved some purple backgrounds as well. I taped down the watercolor paper to the board to ensure they would dry flat.

Once dry, I placed them on the light table and traced my Bethlehem drawing in black marker.   They were spattered with the white paint and allowed to dry overnight.

I had cut the water color paper with extra so I could  could trim them to the 4.00 x 5.25 inches I needed. 

I chose card stock color to coordinate with the background.  I adhered them to the card front with double sided tape and the brad and pressed them over night.  I then added a seasonal insert and white envelopes.

I used 

Brilliant Blue,

Night of Navy,

Rich Razzleberry and 

another purple which was not Stampin Up for the card bases.

I still would like to try the salt technique so I will pursue the supplies for that.

Happy with cards.