Sylvia's Simple Shots

We had the most wonderful sunset on Sunday night.

I face east so I headed up to the 4th floor window with my aunt to capture the changing colors.

Sunsets move very fast so it was just a few minutes before the intensity was gone and it was quite dark.

I am so glad I saw and captured it in a photograph

The technician was in this week to investigate and restore my home phone service.

He arrived earlier than expected which was wonderful.

He investigated the outside area and did not find the problem.  He then acccess the electrical room in the building and that was where the problem was.

Once located it was a quick fix.

I am so glad to have it back.

My sister passed me this book thinking I would enjoy it.

Chosen by a Horse by Susan Richards.  I read most of the book not understanding it was a true story.  It sure read that way.

Susan offers to help a horse which has been badly treated.  She named the horse Lay Me Down.  It needs good food, plenty of rest, and eventually companions of it's own kind. Despite her mistreatment it has a great disposition.  Kind Patience Tolerant to a good degree.

The horse and the woman have similar backgrounds and Susan learns from the horse forgiveness.

Lay me down develops health issues and then the woman then gives the horse time and love

The flatware is finally in the drawer.

The green flatware organizer may need to be replaced as I have 2 sizes of forks and it would be nice for them to be separated.  The drawer is not big so may not accommodate a larger organizer.

I am very grateful to family and friends for the help to purchase these cool tools.

These Pampered Chef spatulas have sat in a drawer for years because I thought I did not deserve to have new ones because I had a habit of leaving the old ones get crusty from making bran muffins.

I have learned to clean up while the muffins are in the oven so I finally unwrapped them and put them in the kitchen tool organizer. 

The large metal sunflower that my niece gave me several years ago is back on the wall.

It has been packed and in storage for 3 years.  I knew exactly where it would hang in this new place so this week I hung it.

It hangs between the 2 hallways facing the kitchen.

I am so glad to see every day.

I purchased a computer chair this week. I have been using a wooden dining room chair which has not been comfortable.

It came in a box so some assembly was required.

The Allen Wrench provided was not really good enough so I dug out the socket set then things progress at a better pace.  Still took over an hour.  

The arms support the back so they cannot be eliminated. I am happy to report it works well with the desk.

The casters are rolly and work well.

I have a very heavy IKEA lamp base which I dropped on my new vinyl floor a few weeks ago.

Because the install was loose lay and only adhered around the perimeter I was able to lift the vinyl plank and replace it with another.

How cool is that?

I used the toilet plunger to lift the board then just dropped a new board in it's place.

Super happy!

I have installed privacy vinyl in one of the bedroom windows just like I did in the office/craft room.

That allows me to have actual sunlight enter the room with out folks being able to see in at the lower levels.

This piece is a different pattern than the office but it was remnant and cost me a dollar so that was really nice.

Looking forward to the sunshine in all the windows for the winter.

2026 Flower Photo Calendar

The 2026 Photo Calendars are ready!

2026 Flowers - Here is my floral calendar which features flowers from several locations taken this summer. Visits to the community garden, the St. Albert Botanic Garden, the neighborhood front yards and some from Beaumaris Lake. Some shots are from my new town. The Calla Lily, Flora's Paintbrush, Sweet Pea and Clematis are making their first appearance. 


The holidays have been marked in red.

This calendar has 13 4x6 pages which is 12 month pages with an index/title page.

January - Anemone Sylvestris                     July - Purple Calla Lily

February - Bleeding Heart                           August - African Daisy (Osteospermum)

March - Flora's Paintbrush                          September - Yellow Dahlia

April - Pasque Flower                                  October - Purple Clematis

May - Red Tulip                                           November - Sunlit Dahlia

June - Ox Eye Sunflower                             December - Sweet Pea

2026 Nature Photo Calendar

 
The 2026 Photo Calendars are ready! 

2026 Nature - Here is my nature calendar which features flying creatures from several locations taken this summer. Visits to the community garden, the St. Albert Botanic Garden, the neighborhood front yards,some from Beaumaris Lake & Heritage Hills Wetlands and the pond at the new place. Butterflies were very hard to find this summer. The year had several renovations planned and unplanned and a move so it took time away from photography. It has been my one sane place this year.

The holidays have been marked in red.

This calendar has 13 4x6 pages which is 12 month pages with an index/title page.


January - Cedar Waxwing                       July - Question Mark Butterfly

February - Dragonfly                              August - Northern Flicker

March - Black Cap Chickadee                September - Gorgeous Sunrise

April - Orange Jelly Fungus                    October - White Egret

May - Lady Bug                                      November - Great Spangled Fritillary

June - Bumble Bee Hoverfly                     December - Dogwood Berries

Tree Scent Ornaments

 It is that time of year and I am a little bit behind.  Preparations for the Allied Arts Council Christmas Store in Sprice Grove are underway.

I am adding some 1 of a Kind Tree Scent Ornaments created from found items collected over the last year.

This is a metal star with a Noel banner at the top.   It had a dangly which I removed and replaced with a grey felted ball.  I hung the ball from a metal jewelery head pin supported by a metal cutwork disc.  I gave it a loop at the top for hanging. Added a ring to attach it to the existing loop.

The felt ball is the diffuser where the essential oil will be placed to provide your favorite scent.

The scent can be a tree scent like pine, fir, spruce or it can be a seasonal scent like cinnamon, cranberry, or gingerbread or it can be your favorite scent that puts you in a relaxed mood.

I would recommend pure essential oils rather than others oil which may contain funky ingredients.

Spool tree ornaments are always popular.  This is a larger spool that measures 1.75" tall.  

I chose a wool fabric in red, teal and purple, cut it to length and height and frayed the edges.  I added a small teal heart to create a focal point on the ornament. I hand stitched it on. I wanted the one end of the fabric to stick out so I sewed it away from the edge with teal thread.

I chose red bulky yarn in red for the hanger.  I put a knot on the bottom end then a teal wood bead below the spool.  The spool still has its labels so I wanted those to be visible.  I added a knot at the top of the spool and then another at the top for the ornament hanger.

The heart is where the essential oil can be place or on the fabric at the back if you are concerned with staining.  Most pure oils do not stain and completely disappate leaving no residue.

This ornament is a picture frame which I recycled into a oil diffuser.

I cut a 1 1/8 th inch circle of white felt with my SB circle Nestabilities dies. The circle that looks black is really chrome. I hung a small silver pinecone in the middle. The pinecone is hung on white sewing thread and trapped when the chrome circle is inserted.

I used a silver cord for the hanger.  I added a clear bead to have the 2 pieces of cord hang together.  Knots below and above the bead. Another knot at the top to end the hanger.

The white felt is the diffuser and where a few drops of pure essential oil is placed. 

I repurposed a mini light cover into a difuser.  

I removed the hooks near the hanger which would have captured the mini light edges. 

I opened the cover and traced the shape to cut the yellow felt. I placed the felt inside and added a few Bling Zot so keep the points in place. I added 2 small yellow buttons to allow me to add the cotton thread hanger.  One is on the inside and the other on the ouside. 

Once they were in place I could replace the cover.

A few drops of pure essential is placed on the yellow felt allowing the scent to difuse out of the holes in the cover.  

Tree Scent Ornaments - Round 2

Another set of ornaments today.

I bought these jumbo paper clips at a thrift store.  I thought I could turn them into essential oil diffusers.

I thought it could be a sun or a sunflower.

I cut a circle from yellow felt with my SB Nestabilities thin dies. I couched the circle behind the wire following the spiral in the center.

I need to cover the stitching on the back so I cut another circle from yellow felt just a bit bigger that the last one.  I then added satin stitch all around the edge and securing the points when I came to them.  Worked great.

I am a fan of sunflower so this floats my boat.

I found some bells at the ReUse Center a while back.  They are beautiful! Brass, heavy, textured and sound really nice.

I decided to hang them with gold metallic ribbon making them 3 different lengths. I then pulled all the ends of the ribbons through a large wooden bead.  It had black marker but I was able to sand it all off. So glad. 

I added a bow from the same ribbon and secured it to the top of the ribbon ends with stitching in gold thread.

I hand stitched a gold ring to the top so it will hang.

These are Ghungroo bells used on ankles of belly dancers.

This gold ornament came from the ReUse Center.

I decided to pair it with purple felt.  I cut a circle the same sizie and then couched it to the back with stitches where the holes in the front allowed.

Now I had to cover my stitches so I cut another circle the same size from plaid fleece and stitched around the edge in the holes that were large enough for my needle to go through.

I wrapped some floss around the hanger at the top. Used a piece of satin ribbon for a hanger and it was ready.

I stuffed this wire snowman with cotton yarn pom poms.  I had to trim the one for the head so it would fit. 

I then stitched around the edges of the circle with white sewing thread to secure the pom pom.

I gave him a bright red yarn scarf and a silver cord hanger.

I would recommend only pure essential oils to ensure the best ingredients. This oil will dissipate completely and in general does not stain.  The felt/fleece or pom poms or wood bead will serve as the diffuser. A few drops of oil on the material will provide scent for your personal space.  Choose your favorte scent.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I am so enjoying the sunrises from this new place.  I want to take pictures nearly every morning.

There were some very sunless days last week when the snow came that I am appreciating the sun.

There's been a lot of stuff to deal with this week. Problem solving 101.

The black shelf in the craft room was stacked to the ceiling with envelope boxes filled with craft supplies which is not great for air circulation. The iris cases at 15 inches in the closet were difficult to remove with the door open.

Solution: Move the iris cases to the black shelf in the room which provides air circulation. 

Move the envelope boxes to the black shelf in the closet as they are 11 inches deep.  

It is easy to remove the envelope boxes from the closet shelf with the space available with the door open.  I took the time to label all the boxes as well so that things are easier to find. 

I also looked at the contents and emptied 2 of the envelope boxes in hopes that they would all fit in the closet.   As you can see there is still one on the shelf with the iris cases.  Purging is a difficult process and I am grateful I have accepted the limited space in this new place.

That works so much better.

There was room on top of the die cut station to expand so I added a plastic shelf.  Too bad I don't have another wooden shoe shelf. I will work on that. 

The shelf was barely tall enough to have the red baskets under it.  They hold thin dies so they are quite heavy. I needed to extend the height of the shelf a bit.  I immediately thought bottle caps but a trip to the parkade where we collect returnables found all the bins empty!  Plan B.  

I chose Gutterman sewing thread spools that come apart.  I was able to put the one piece from the bottom of the leg and put the small piece in the leg from the top.  I used the dowel to reconnect the pieces inside the leg.

It is good that I did not have to cut the spools so when another shelf comes I can just take this solution apart and return the spools to the sewing desk.

Problem solving every day of the week it seems.

I finished this book this week. Always Dakota by Debbie Macomber.

It takes place in Buffalo Valley, North Dakota. The place is growing, businesses are opening, and people are moving in.  It is becoming a good place to live. 

Stalled lives are moving forward. 

Rancher Margaret Clemens loses her father and marries the man of her dreams, Matt Eilers.  Town folks are not so sure.  Two unplanned pregnancies with Matt in the middle. What to do?

There was a lot of stress in this story which did not help with my super busy week. 

I see that this is the last in a trilogy.  I may look for the first 2 books.

My home phone was out from the 06 to the 10th. It took 75 minutes of my 100 monthly minutes to go through the hoops to diagnose the problem with my provider.  Once customer service did all they could they transferred me to technical support and indicated the wait was 45 minutes but not to hang up.  Luckily it was about 30 minutes when the person answered.  Then there was more checks to take place, more time on hold while that was done.  Then we will try some else and please hold. 

Finally, it was determined that a service call would be necessary.  It was booked for Monday, Nov 10th. I would be getting a text. I received at least 1 text a day for the following 4 days.  I am sure they see  it as customer service but it seemed excessive to me.  I wonder how many appts are cancelled.

Another Patrick Taylor books read this week.  An Irish Country Family by Patrick Taylor.  There are just a few I have not read.  It's like meeting up with family. 

We are back with Doctors Fingal O'Reilly and Barry Laverty in Ballybucklebo in County Down, Ireland. It's was focused on Barry and his years in medical school and internship at the hospital and then his time at medical practice on Main Street. 

He and Sue are frustrated when conceiving a child has proved more difficult than anticipated.  Tests and schedules take over the fun of procreating.   Donal, Julie and the kiddies finally return to their cottage which had a fire a while back.

A story about neighbours helping neighbours. Finlay steps in when a man proves aggressive with Alice a local shop keeper.

Many folks pitched in at the rebuild of the cottage. 

Support comes for Doctor Emer who is temporarily working in the practice. Fingal and Kitty are happily married and looking to slow down.

I found a new to me YouTube channel. Laura Kampf is a DIYer all the way.  She is handy with all the tools - wood and metal.  Her passion is to prevent items hitting the landfill and making something useful with them. She makes useful scultpures - suitcases, lamps, furniture and much more.

I worked on a project this week to solve an issue that has been bothering me.

When I moved in there was a 2x4 piece of wood in the slide of the patio door.   It serves the purpose of making sure that the door can not be opened from the outside.  Great.

It is heavy, stamped with numbers, scuffed up and not pretty at all.

After considering just replacing it I decided that I should use what I have.  I chose to trim it down a bit but with only a hand saw the work was cut out for me.

It took 1.5 hours with 3 breaks to get it cut through.  Again, those clamps proved invaluable.  Once cut let us make it pretty.  I was going to paint it but did not really have too many choices.

In the end I chose Tung Oil was chosen. It fits in with the pine in the room and is good looking.

I had a trip out of town this week where I was away for 2 days to visit my sister, have lunch with her kids and grandkids as we celebrated a grandson's birthday.

I took the opportunity to sort through the rest of the boxes I had stored at her house since 2022.

This was my photo studio stuff mostly which of course needs to be scaled down significantly. I put aside everything that was really easy to decide and we took a large box to the second hand store on Saturday/

I do have boxes in the car that need to come in and the harder decisions will have to be made.  At least, it all here and I can move on.

A zuchinni chocolate cake using the recipe my other sister used for the cake at my house warming.

His cousin decorated the cake and there were candles which were lit and blown out all at once.

He is becoming a tall and a very good teenager.

Lunch was pizza on their new expandable table set up in their dining room.

Busy Busy Busy!

Slow Stitching - Door Decor - Winter Snowman

The snow arrived today so it was timely that I finished my winter piece of door decor. 

I chose a snowman as the theme for this piece.  I chose a true blue piece of cotton fabric cut to 6x8 inches. I added a flannel layer and invisible stitched that to the front.  The blue fabric had thread polka dots on it so I stitched white snowflakes on those which made very regulary pattern. 

I chose white fleece for the snowman and the snowbanks. I had a die which cut a snowman but it was too big so I had to resize it to be smaller and work better in this piece.  The first snowbank was stitched on with running stitch on the left hand side.  The snowman was then stitched on with blanket stitch. The snowbank on the left was then added with running stitch.  I added brown stick arms, 3 small yellow star buttons on his belly, black French knots for the eyes and mouth, a tiny orange felt nose which was stitched with orange floss. I chose a length of yarn from my small stash and stitched a scarf right through the layers and knotted it on the front. I then fluffedout the lengths. 

I added a snowflake accent in the top left corner.  It was diecut from white felt with the Sizziz green die. I then used navy floss to add some dimension.   I added an irridescent fabric snowflake and EBead to the center to add a bit of bling.   

I added navy French knots in between the white snowflakes.

I chose a navy cotton fabric for the backer.  Cut to 8x10 inches to provide a 1/2 inch fold over to the front of the piece. That was machine stitched with folded corners this time. I added a grey twill tape hanger like the fall leaves one.

I plan to make one for the Christmas season.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

There was ice on the pond this morning.  

The birds were flying in their V formations getting the youngsters in shape of the long trip.

There was frost on everything.  The leaves on the ground, the tansy that was still yellow, and the bulrushes at the pond's edge.

Back to exercising indoors with Jules at Improved Health.

Loving the 80's music.

It is taking a while to have things as I want them.  The sound bar was sitting a piece of lumber on Dad's box under the TV. Not pretty and I wanted ventilation there as the registers are there.

I have used these pine wood shoe racks for all manner of organization in my home.  I had one left and it came from the thrift store.  When I came to put it together I understood why.  The slots on the legs were too narrow to accommodate the shelves sliding in.

I dug my Dremel tool with a cutting wheel and removed an 1/8 th inch from the 3 slots on each of the four legs.  

These blue clamps have been a game changer for this time of work.  

It looks good with Dad's train in front.

Pat, Man & Bobbin Quilting was one of the vendors at the quilt show last week.

Pat dyes all the 100% cotton fabric. I spoke to her for a few minutes.  The sell fabric and batting as well as long arm services.

I bought 6 bundles of unique fabric which consists of scraps from the dyeing process. Scraps works for me and the fact that they are all unique is wonderful. Looking forward to using this fabric in my slow stitching.

I bought this bin because it fit under the serger desk and it was right at hand when I am sewing.  But at times it would be pushed too far under the desk and it was hard to get back because it is a tight fit in the space.

This week I added a knob handle to the bin so that I can retrieve it easily. I had to add a spacer because the bolt is designed to go on a drawer front.

I needed a new sweater.  The old one I had been wearing for about 10 years.  With all the renovations it had acquired paint stains, snags and just not looking great.

I went shopping at the thrift store and was surprise at how difficult it was to find the features I wanted.  It had to have a zipper and pockets.  Out of the many I looked at there were 3 that met the criteria.  I chose the navy one.

It is acrylic and cozy so I am very happy with this addition to the wardrobe.

I received a bit of money from family at my house warming party.

I wanted some new flatware because the ones I am using are 50 years old ( I received at graduation) and some pieces have gone missing. I added some from the thrift stores as I found some I liked. It was a mish mash.

I did a lot of research. Again, the options are numerous.  I wanted good quality and decided a set of 8 would do.  I will keep some of my thrifted ones as well to get me to a set of 12.  

I added to the dollars I received and with these being on sale, it worked out really well. I am very grateful for my family.