Sylvia's Simple Shots

It's been busy!  

I had my aunt and her husband over for tea on Sunday.

It's been a long while since she was over so we had a good visit.  I was able to ask a couple of guy questions - about the DeWalt drill I inherited from my Dad. One of the batteries won't charge so he recommended calling DeWalt.  On the ToDo List

I sent peaches from the case home with them.

The car went in for servicing at 7:30 am so I had to spend half a day in the area.  I read my book in a bit of a coffee shop till businesses opened at 9:00 am.  I stopped at Starbuck and did some craft ideas journaling while I drank my $4 chocolate milk! 

I then headed to VV.  I sure can spent a few hours there. Forgot my coupons at home.

I bought myself a light backpack because I did not take my big one from college days because it weighs too much. It has a slot inside to keep the water bottle upright and a waist strap. Yes we will take that.

I had several stops on my list.

I stopped in at Dollarama that day as well.  I was looking for tape but came out with these metallic watercolors for $2.

They are great.  Very impressed.

Easily moistened, sit in full sized pans and provide good coverage.  I will have to find a container/box to keep them in.

I have been using them a lot.

The Call of the Wrens by Jenni L. Walsh was the book a read this week.  A wonderful book with strong female main characters.  We meet Marion Horton in WWI and Evelyn Fairchild in the WWII which served in the WRENs. WREN stands for Women's Royal Naval Service in the United Kingdom.  

Marion Horton is an orphan and at eighteen she ages out of the support system and has to find her way in the world.  The war is on so she joins the WRENs and finds family.  Her boyfriend Eddie Smith,  a fellow orphan lies about his age to join the war effort as well.  They do their basic training and motorcycle dispatch training and are posted close enough to see each other.

Evelyn Fairchild is a teenager and loves to drive fast. She is found at Brooklands regularly.  She has a clubfoot for which she has had many surgeries to correct. It has not kept her down and she has pursued her goals. Her mother is very protective of Evelyn. Evelyn thinks it is too much and she does not want to just get married.

There is a wonderful twist at the end of the book was made a great conclusion to the story.

With needing to embellish my linen coasters I decided that maybe some Sashiko work might be useful.

I looked up where I might find such things where I live.

I discovered a new to me quilt shop - Trapunto ( which means quilt in Italian). 

The ladies were very helpful and I came home with the cheaper needles and some thread as well.  I have heard of this type of stitching through Kathryn and my slow stitching challenge.

We shall see.

I have decided to trade in my great Contigo plastic water bottle for metal ones.  keeping water in plastic contributes to micro plastic in my body so I made the switch.  Of course, metal Contigo bottles on the second hand market are non existant.  Will other brands be water spill proof?

I did buy a few before I found a couple I was happy with. I have the blue one for the car and the white one fits in the new backpack.  MTF had a 50% sale on the whole store. Good to go!

It feels like back to school. 

I have bought myself a couple of jean type pants in the last couple of weeks.  This pair of stretchy jeans are a bit short waisted so they needed a belt.

I bought the belt a couple of days later after I had worn the jeans a couple of times.  I still have to shorten them.  The price was $10 but with the 50% sale I was happy with the final cost.

The belt was $2 at VV later in the week.

Keeping with the feel of back to school I bought a pair of new to me runners as well.  

They fit well,the color was good at teal and black and they were in good condition.  They needed a good cleaning.

The cost was more than I am used to but that is with everything these days.  At $16 but after I looked them up on line I was happy.  The regular price runs between $130 to $150.

I gave them a good wash and let them dry in the sun on the balcony for a couple of days.

Good as new!

I dropped off art at the Spruce Grove Gallery for the Open Art Competition

Then did some shopping at VV.  The Goodwill store has closed. Bummer! 

I connected with my aunt and dropped by for a visit and a game of scrabble.

It has been a very busy week!

Sylvia's Simple Shots

My sister and I were treated to lunch by her children along with celebrating Father's day for each of the 3 families.  My sister's birthday treat is sponge cake with strawberries and whipped cream and mine was ice cream bars.  I used to get ice cream cake but that is just too much sugar these days.

I prepared lunch for my sister and brother-in-law was they were in town for shopping and helping me get the laundry room ready with a dryer vent connector.

I roasted chicken along with veggie salad and T&T Organic Mixed Thai Rice.

There was fresh strawberries and Greek yogurt for dessert.

Then the work began. The connector was installed and the room was ready to paint.

I was up early and put a coat of primer on the wood around the dryer vent connector.

A couple hours later I painted the second half of the laundry room now that the dryer and wood shelving unit had been removed.

The green tape is to make where the shelving unit ends so that laundry center is placed to ensure that the unit can go back into the closet.

I am grateful that there is still paint from when I bought 2 years ago so that went well.

I did paint the other half while the washer was out of the closet.

While shopping for improvements to the laundry closet I found a pair of black jeans to for a great price.

The picture on the left is the mending I did on the left knee to my regular pair of jeans. With my slow stitch experience I was more comfortable just getting it done.

There have been several repairs to these jeans so it was time for a better pair.

And all this preparation and waiting has finally resulted in the arrival of the new laundry center.  Yeah!

The other set was over 20 years old and it had not been happy about being moved in early May for building leak repair work.

It was moved out on May 6th and was finally returned to the laundry closet on a very temporary basis May 31st.

I am a believer in signs so I heeded the one I got and ordered a replacement.  It was 20 day wait for it to arrive and be delivered.

I spent a lot of time measuring, going to appliance stores, researching details on line. Plugs, drain hoses, drain stacks, and more.  Thank goodness for the amount information available on line these days as there was not a physical example in store for me to see, measure to help in the decision making process.

The laundry closet is back together but that will be a separate post.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I have joined a 52 Week Photo Challenge hosted by Kevin.  

This week's challenge was Nature.  I was out yesterday morning for my walk with good temperatures.  Unfortunately, not much sun.

I captured this Scotch Pine Bough which is nature.  I love the soft background of snow but it is beautiful out of focus.  

 

 

 

I finally got myself a new pair of jeans at the thrift store this week.  I was swimming in my old ones because I have lost 22 pounds in 2020.

I could not try them on because of COVID restrictions so they are not as great as I would have liked but much better than what I have been wearing.  I even had a belt in my cupboard that matched.

I did have to hem them.  One pair of pants I can wear out in public that fit well, not that I am going out except for groceries and prescriptions. This was my 2nd thrift store visit since August. 

This book Ruby by Cynthia Bond was very multi layered. Ruby is a young girl of color raised in the 1950s in the state of New York.  It is a story of survival with love, sisterhood among women, and brutality.

I found it hard at times to keep the characters straight because of the interrelationships.  Ruby is the main character and the man who loves her, Ephram.  There is a lot of sadness, pain, growth, and extraction of demons from her past. 

I am glad I read the book despite it being difficult at times.  It was good to know what growing up black is like.

I made some improvements to the photo studio.  Consistent lighting was really necessary.  Now with all daylight LED bulbs it is low energy consumption and good light.

The power bar allows me to shut off all the lights at once.  When I take the camera to review the shots then come back and adjust my composition, etc. Having light from above is also great when trying to eliminate shadows.

Also I am not running cords across my walking space which was a tripping hazard.

When I picked up this book I thought it was about Maud Lewis the artist but it is about Lucy Maud Montgomery the author.  Maud by Harry Bruce.  

A young girl growing up on Prince Edward Island in Canada in the late 1800s when women were not given many opportunities to have independent lives.  She becomes a teacher while constantly writing. She does not let rejection letter dissuade her.   She slowly gets more and more writing published, then getting paid for the stories being published.  She is the author of the well known Anne of Green Gables.

I picked up the 5 DVD set of the TV series Anne of Green Gables at the thrift store the other day. I had just finished the Maud book so the story was fresh on my mind. There are times where there is not much wholesome on TV so this will give me something to watch.

I have decided to install photo shelves in my place so that I can change out the art and photography at will instead of making new holes in the walls. 

I bought 2 last fall sometime but my life took a bit of turn health wise so they were never put up.  This week I had a plan as to where I would put them but it turns out there is cement behind the drywall so I could not sink the anchors far enough in.

Change of plan.  I have put one up in the kitchen which holds the art from my niece and her trip to Italy and the vase of sunflowers.

The Flickr Macro Monday challenge this week is "beverage".  A bit challenging with a 3" limit.  To the right is a small cup which is filled with eggnog and cinnamon. You can check out my Flickr photo stream (SMDPics) to see the image I submitted. 

I am sharing with Angie who hosts Mosaic Monday #113 and Mersad who hosts Through My Lens #274.