Sympathy Card - Watercolor

 

While I had the time I painted this card for my cousins who lost their Mom recently.  We were away at a family reunion for the other side of the family when we heard my Dad's sister had passed away at 90 years of age.  She is the last of the 3 siblings to pass.

We were very close to these cousins when growing up.  They visited us often especially during the summer holidays. There was 8 of us and 7 of them and were very close to the same ages.  Lots of fun.

This card is a half sheet card measuring 5.5 x 8.5 inches.  I chose a SU Summer Sun card base.  I painted on a sheet of mixed media 150lb paper.  A tree with a meadow of flowers.

Funeral took place Aug 10 2024.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I did manage to pick a few handfuls of raspberries this week.  There are several bushes in the neighbourhood which are on my morning walk route.

I sure miss picking raspberries in Mom's garden. 

The Big Dreams Beach Hotel by Michelle Gorman writing as Lilly Bartlett.This was a nice light read.  

Rosie fled New York City after a failed relationship and the resulting loss of her job in the hospitality industry. Betrayed and devastated she headed back to her seaside home town in England.  

She now manages a quaint Victorian hotel owned by the Colonel where there are several permanent senior residents, a eccentric chef and a dog named Barry and just enough rentals to keep it afloat. 

Next, the Colonel has sold the hotel to a couple of brothers from America and a young man named Rory arrives as the transition manager. The changes are significant, renovations to the building, new decor, new menu for chef to learn, and the end to tenant contracts for some of the residents.  Where will they go?

It  has been scorching hot again this week.  

I had to place a sheet over the curtains in the dining room to keep the heat of the morning sun.  It is not cooling down overnight so it's been about 82F to 89F in the place. Soaking my head and shirt to keep cool.

These pine crates elevate my TV so I can place the DVD player and the stereo below it on the console table.

They are rough pine and are not finished.

I decided to give them a good sanding then a couple of coats of Tung Oil since they are not being used right now with everything in the living room packed.

I just did the outside since the inside will not be visible.  They are very rough and an electric sander would have been helpful but I go with what I have.

They do look better so I am happy.  It will be at least another couple of weeks before I can start putting the house back together.

It has been a full 2 weeks of waiting, emailing, researching, emailing some more to get approval to move forward with the installation of the flooring.

There's a trip to Calgary this week I hope to pick up the underlay.

On Mystic Lake by Kristin Hannah was a book I recently finished.  This is my second or third book by this author.

Annie Colwater lives in California with her lawyer husband and daughter.  She has been a housewife for 20 years and a mother for 17.  She is a great manager of the house and her husband depends on her to make him look good.  

He wants a divorce.  What is she to do? Her daughter is off to London before college and her husband has moved out of their house.

She heads north to the small town where she grew up and spends some time with her Dad, Hank. She meets several people she went to school with and one in particular Nick Delacroix is in need of support.  His wife has died and their 6 year old daughter has been expelled from school. She is not handling the death of her mother well.  Annie offers to babysit the girl while Nick is at work.

A love story develops and she finds her purpose. 

I won these picnic place mats at the reunion raffle last weekend.

Great way to not lose your cutlery and have a clean place to eat when you are using public picnic facilities.

Great for the RV or trailer.  Washable, reusable and a great addition to any camping trip.

My sister made these and they will be added to my camping gear.

Pinafore Jumper - Dyed again

A year ago I made this Pinafore Jumper and dyed it with Teal.

I think I have worn it once because despite it having a good lining I just felt it was too light colored.

So this week, I decided to dye it again.  This time I chose a navy color in Tintex which I could dye in hot water but not having to put it on the stove.  I don't have a metal pan large enough.

I am very happy with the result.

There are places it is stitch with polyester thread which is white so that makes in interesting.

I would have been good to have it during the heat wave but that is how it goes.

I boiled 2 cups of water and dissolved the packet of dye in that.

I then put the hottest water I could get from the tap and put it in a 5 gallon pail.   I wet the jumper in clear water and wrung it out so it was not dripping.

I placed the jumper in the pail and added a kettle full of boiling water.

I stirred with a stick for 30 minutes.  I did add my painting shirt in then for a while.  I rinsed the jumper until the water ran clear.  Repeated the process for the Tshirt. Once both garments were wrung out as much as I could I put them in the dryer.

Excellent!

Slow Stitching - No. 030 - Cloth Folding

This week's prompt for K3N Cloth Tale's slow stitching challenge is cloth folding.

I took a much different approach.  I found a rayon garment at the thrift store for a very good price.  It was soft and draped very nicely.  Now to the ReUse center for a piece of cotton.  I found a peachy piece of cotton.  Yes!

All washed up, I kept the hem on the piece of fabric and just cut it down to create a lovely draped piece. Think a curtain, a shirt, a skirt and much more.

I hemmed the piece of cotton first. I then placed my draped fabric and stitched it down.  I used a piece of black felt as a finish for the top raw edge of the drape. I stitched all the way around with black thread, now for decoration I added some daisy stitches in the deep burgundy and seed stitches in the aqua. 

It is a very different piece for me.  I am caught up and look forward to Monday's video.

Slow Stitching - No. 029 - Mandala

Getting caught up on my slow stitching challenge.

K3N Cloth Tales slow stitch challenge - week 29 - Mandala.

With many things packed away due to renovations I chose felt for this challenge. I added a white cotton foundation piece behind a 5" square of white felt.

I cut a turquoise circle then a yellow medium sized one and then a smaller green one. Felt allowed me not to worry about raw edges.

I started with the yellow lines on the green, then the white blanket stitch around its edge. The turquoise points on the yellow followed then the triple bird foot stitches in pink and purple thread on the yellow. The green back stitch outline along the outside edge of the turquoise circle. Followed with the long white stitches on the turquoise then the French Knots in the green wedges. Finally, the purple short and long stitches around the outside edge. 

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I headed to the St. Albert Botanic Park early in the week.

Here's one of the last peonys in bloom.  Beautiful blush pink! 

The roses were in fully bloom.

The sunflowers are headed to great heights.

Not much on the river now that the babies have matured.

The heat wave continued this week.

With the fan running pretty much 24/7, soaking my head and shirt several times a day, managing the fan in windows at night to bring the cooler air in, and just hunkering down for the most part.

It was lucky that we were not laying floor this week because it was a cooker.

The Blue Noon by Robert Ryan based on a true story.

This is a WWII story set in Europe between 1938 and 1945. Harry Cole is a  rogue. Over this time he has had a few personas, worked for several different military organizations, and collaborated with many different regimes.

He has been hurt, shot, beaten and still has managed to fit in, hide in plain sight and serve his own purposed within the opportunities which came his way.

He has known love, settled down for a little bit and tried to become a better person.  

I found that at times I like him and other times did not.  The story was compelling and I read a good part of the book in front of the fan in the heat wave we are experiencing.

I washed my Keens this week.  With the very hot weather they were needing a refreshing.  

They suggest they can be washed in the washing machine but I was not prepared to do that in my new machine so I used Simple Green on them with a old toothbrush and then put them out on the balcony to dry.

They look and smell better.

The walk around Beaumaris Lake this week was wonderful.

The morning was cool comparatively to the rest of the week.  There was heavy cloud which threatens to rain down but it did not.

The sun came out at 10 am and the heat began.

I headed home.

I headed over the Muttart Conversatory this  week as well to see the new display in the feature pavilion.  Where Pyramids Collide.

Being the middle of summer there were many programs going on.  Several sets of small children all in the same colored shirt so adults could keep track of them, running around the narrow paths was no much fun.

Of course, none of the pavilions were cool as in temperature.

I always enjoy the flowers, plants and fish.

The process continues.  I have headed to the flooring store for more information.

Received feedback waiting for more information.

Blueberries

I bought blueberries today thanks to my sister who called me yesterday and let me know where they were on sale.

Yes, I bought 8 containers.

Most of these will be frozen for winter breakfasts.  Berries are better to avoid glucose spikes than my usual bananas.

The price was as good as last year so that was a bonus.

Each bag holds 3lbs of blueberries.

This is the same amount I froze last year.

Here`s hoping that we get to pick saskatoon berries as well.

July 23 2024 I bought 4 more containers and put 2 more bags of blueberries in the freezer.

Slow Stitching - 2 more Zokin

With everything mostly packed in preparation for the installation of the flooring I have no access to my fabric stash.

So I dug into my rag bin again and decided to stitch more Zochin - Japanese Cleaning Cloths.   

Generally, I have a hard time throwing away cloths, especially if they are cotton.

Here I just stitched together a pink face cloth which must have some polyester as the center is very thin and a green dishcloth.  They were the same size and the edges were serged so I just went along in both directions.  I used some green and some pink thread.

A cute cleaning cloth.

This is a corner of a cotton tea towel.  I paired it with a brown terry towel.

I used brown thread and stitch the 3 unfinished sides first and turned it good side out.  Then I stitched all the way around starting with the finished edges at the bottom.

I was careful to not  detract from the owl stitching as I went across the cloth.

Another for the cleaning cloth bin. 

Yes, those are my cement floors which I am now waiting for permission to cover. Yeah!

Sylvia's Simple Shots

Nice to have a cool Christmas story in the middle of a summer heat wave.

A Baxter Family Christmas by Karen Kingsbury.

I am not familiar with the family but there is a very good summary at the beginning of the book.  

John the patriarch of the family has invited the recipient of his precious Erin's heart, Kendra Bryant for Christmas Eve dinner.  Erin, her husband and 3 of their 4 children were killed in a car accident. Some of the siblings don't want to meet her and make different plans.  It will be a different Christmas than the one everybody has celebrated in the past.

Flanigans are friends of the Baxters but due to changes which have taken place in the last few years they have not recently joined the family for the traditional Christmas Eve dessert and Pictionary evening.

Maddie West a granddaugther has been helping with the Christmsas children's play organized by Bailey and Brandon. Connor Flannigan has been asked to judge the auditions for this years show by his sister Bailey.  There is instant chemistry between Maddie and Connor but there will be some trials between Thanksgiving and Christmas that they will need to navigate.

I packed up the bookcases this week in preparation for the removal of the carpet later this week.

The bedroom is getting pretty full of stuff from the living room and dining room.

The heat wave has started and it was HOT all week!

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George is a book I read this week.

Monsieur Perdu runs a book shop on a refurbished barge docked in Paris on the river Seine.  He lives in a house with several other residents.  Catherine Le P. as recently moved after separating from her husband.  She has very little and the owner of the house is asking for donations, in particular a table. Monsieur Perdu has an extra table which has not seen in 20 years as it was closed off in a room when his love left him.

Catherine finds a letter in the drawer of the table which Monsieur Perdu received when Manon his love left.  He has not opened it.  He was afraid and has lived his life hiding for a long time.

After some persuasion, he reads the letter and it was not as he expected.  He has wasted 20 years and now he must find her.  He releases the barge and heads south on the Seine.

Many adventures are had.  It was a very easy read and delightful to travel France.

I was very grateful when my sister and brother-in-law agreed to come help remove the carpet.

The temperatures were soaring and it was hot and sweaty work.

I had most of the dining room done when they arrived.  We worked from 10:30 am to 1:00 pm to get the carpet and tack strips put into rolls.

We washed up, changed clothes and headed to Boston Pizza for lunch in air conditioning.  We had great food, conversation and rested for a couple of hours.

There was a lot of rubber cement and areas of adhesive that needed to scraped down with blades to make sure the surface was smooth.

The underlay was just a mishmash of different colors and remnants all just patchworked together. All the seams had been glued.  Not exactly wonderful.  They took away the 11 rolls of carpet so that was one less job for me.  Thanks so much!

The installation of the new flooring has been put on hold.

Plans to start on Monday are postponed until approval has been granted.

YUCK!

I decided to paint the dining room.

In the top left hand corner of the collage you can see how the place was painted before I moved in.

The electrical plates were not removed and the paint did not even go to the edges.

It was a very hot and sweaty job.  The paint was drying fast so I had to take it a little bit at a time to get it covered well.

It was a full afternoon of up and down the step stool and my arms were tired by the end of the afternoon.

It looks fabulous!  Worth it.

I got my COVID shot this week.

It was not like the old days, I walked into my pharmacy with my updated prescriptions and asked whether I could schedule a shot and was told we can do right away.

Filled out the paper work, got the shot and waited my 15 minutes and it was done!

Slow Stitching - No. 028 - Zokin - Japanese Cleaning Cloth

Week 28 in K3N 's Slow Stitching Challenge on her Youtube channel, K3NClothTales. 

This week we learn about Zokin - Japanese Cleaning Cloths.  A method of making worn cloth useful again by stitching 2 or more layers together.

I easily found several options in my rag bin.  For this piece I combined a piece of plaid flannel that was part of Dad's pajamas and a piece of navy terrycloth.

The stitching is all over the place but with my hectic renovation schedule I was not as relaxed as I should have been.

I am loving this idea and forsee a few more of these in my future.  I have a hard time throwing away cloths - dish cloths, face cloths, tea towels etc. Now I can layer them and make them useful.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I found this bee on a cornflower in a neighbour's front yard.

It is an Orange Belted Bumble Bee.  This is a first for me.

I am grateful for those who have wonderful flowers in their front yards. I am happy to show from the sidewalk on my morning walks.

I found a bag full of empty gold David's Tea tins at ReUse Center this week.  I was not supposed to be bringing anything home with the renovations but I just had to.

I have a David's Tea Advent Calendar which had it's tin's missing so I filled it with solid lid ones.

I needed to clear lid ones to finish.

I am not sure what I am going to do with it yet.  Christmas is a ways away.

The Girl from the Train by Irma Joubert.  What a great story.  Another WWII story which starts out in Poland near the end of the war. Jakob Kowalski is part of the Polish resistance and his group plan to bomb a bridge to destroy a German Troop transport.  Gretl Schmidt is a 6 year old German Jew on a train headed to Auschwitz. 

The bomb destroys the train headed to the death camp and Gretl is the only survivor. Jakob finds her and feels responsible and she comes to live with his Catholic family.  She must hid her German Jew history to live in Poland.  Over the next 3 years they share the secret and develop a close bond.  When the time comes for Grelt to move on she is sent to South Africa as a part of a program to relocate German Jew orphans. It is unlikely they will ever meet again but she will be safe.

Through unseen circumstances Jakob is offered a job with an international company who has position in South Africa.  While there, he makes inquiries to see if he can contact her, hoping she has had a good life.  Wonderful read.

The clearing of the dining room and living room of furniture has begun.  

The black shelving unit filled with those drawers was unpacked then moved to the bedroom and the drawers wer all put back in their place.

Of course, the process will be reversed when the new floor has been put in.

Slow Stitching - No. 027 - Stitching a Leaf

Week 27 of the slow stitching challenge on K3N Cloth Tales.

Prompt: Stitching on a real leaf (pressing and waxing leaves)

It was designed to help us be mixed media artist and have the experience of stitching on material which is not fabric.  

I did not create a hole in mine though I could have but after putting the time I decided against it.

Kelly green felt one layer.  I chose matching thread for the veins, darker for the central rib and blanket stitch in the same kelly green around the edge.  The French Knots the same color.

I stitched my patterned cotton fabric strips onto a navy square with navy thread. The leaf was stitched with leaf green thread so they would be more visible.

K3N had posted on Instagram last week that she would be using a pressed real leaf in her piece this week. She recommended we press one if we did not have one at hand.

I knew that a real leaf was not going to work for my end project so I decided to create myself a felt one. It was designed with no idea what the final challenge would be.

I regret not having a hole in it but I did not want to cut the thread for my knots.

It is supposed to be an Aspen Leaf.