Sylvia's Simple Shots

Another terrific sunrise this week.

Dramatic, overcast with some sun.

We have had a lot of dreary overcast days since snow arrived which makes winter a little harder to take.

Sunny Alberta is missing so I just had to take a hint of sunshine when it arrived.

It was the first Sunday of Advent on Nov 30th.

The first candle of Advent is HOPE.  It symbolizes hope and the promises made by God especially the coming Messiah.

I need to read my Ann Voskamp book which provides information for preparing for Christmas during this Advent Season.

I had a chance to visit with a couple of my sisters, a brother in law and niece when my sister's grandson was playing in a minor hockey game in a town about an hour away.

I dressed up to sit in a cold arena and watched the last period of the game and his team won!

There were a couple of  options for lunch so we headed to the pub for lunch.

The food was very good and I shared Butter Chicken with a sister.

I was able to get home before the sun went down which I was very happy about.

We had a good visit - Christmas, trips planned, next Christmas which will be a large one, my niece's new job and much more.

I had a few gift cards to wrap this week so I checked out my sister's post and loosely based mine on hers. I did have to ask her about it.

It's a long piece of fabric where you fold in both ends of the fabric. Then press the ends even which folds the remaining fabric in half with a fold at the bottom.

Top stitch both sides closed and your are done. She put ribbon on hers I did not.

I did add some accent fabric on the front piece after I folded but before I sewed the side seams. Needs refinement I would say but I was able to fill mine and have them ready which was the goal.

We had a pot luck meal hosted in the social room of our building.

Everyone brought a dish and we shared a meal with our neighbors.

As always the food was very good and there was plenty. I had one helping leftover of my scalloped potatoes.  I brought home a piece of chicken and chocolate cheesecake.

It was a very good time.

Looking forward to next year when I am sure I will know more people.

Sylvia's Simple Posts

I was out to visit my sister this weekend.  A lot of memories associated - Mother's Day its been over a year since we lost her so I brought tulips for my sister since Mom is gone.

It was there wedding anniversary - they would have celebrated their 70th year anniversary. The got really close.

We laid them both to rest at the cemetery 1 year ago.

Found these Redhead ducks when I my sister and I headed for a walk around the lake.

We had a family get together this week with a cousin who lost her Dad (my uncle) recently.  My aunt hosted about 15 of us and provided the meat. The rest of us brought salads, bread, and dessert.

It was good to see everyone!

The washing machine is still out of commission due to the fact that the drain hose is still leaking.

The plumber did what he could be it would not stop.

It could not be returned to the painted laundry room so it sat in the hall way for another while.

It needs a look by an appliance repair person and that has been arranged but it will be another 2 weeks.

Under the Visible Life by Kim Echlin was the book I finished this week.

The 2 main characters are young women who have had a bit of a hard life and meet in New York and discover their mutual love of Jazz music.

We get to know Katherine Goodnow - a half Chinese and half Canadian who struggles through a 1950's childhood.  As a teenager she discovers jazz and it transforms her life.  She is talented as a player and composer. It opens many adventures and helps her survive the unreliability of her children's father.

Mahsa Weaver is half American and half Afghani and when she is twelve her parents die and she is sent to live with strict uncle in Karachi. She escapes to Montreal for her education but then finds herself forced into an arranged marriage.  

They meet in New York and are kindred spirits.  The become each others support, creative partners in music, and life long friends as they navigate life's challenges which continue to appear.  Great read.

I picked up this small enameled cast iron pot a Trash to Treasure last week.  It is a Descoware pot made in Belgium. It is an $85 dollar pot and a replacement wood handle would cost $36.

It was dirty and needed a good clean and it need a handle.  I tested to see if a regular broom handle would fit and indeed it would.  My wooden broom handle original to the broom had split many years ago and I had just duct taped it back together.  I headed to the dollar store to buy another handle for the broom so I could use the broken end of the old one for the pot.

I used the Dremel tool to smooth out the end once I had cut it square with the hand saw.  I applied 2 coats of Tung Oil and there it is ready to be used for many years to come.  I should get rid of the small stainless steel one so there is enough space to store it.

Sewing Project - Bespoke Casserole Carrier

I brought my sister some fabric that came my way both at the ReUse Ctr and from the quilting group.  She offered to make me a casserole carrier.  She was planning a zippered one but had not worked out the details. I thought a less bulky zippered one is what I would like so we set out together to design one.  She had this nice navy embroidered fabric and we found some yellow fabric that matched the stitching quite well.

I had brought one of my casseroles to ensure that it fit nicely. 

This photo is of the carrier closed the the handles folded on top.

She paired the navy embroidery fabric with some navy cotton fabric for the inside.  We cut the navy layers based on the casserole and rounded the corners. Then we sandwiched fiberfill in between these 2 layers, sewed all the way around and turned it right side out.

We checked again to see if it was going to be big enough.  We had planned for a band of yellow for the height of the carrier. 

We used the same method I used for my bespoke tote for the adding the zippers to the side band.  You can find this tutorial here. We found 2 yellow zippers in her stash. We decided to make the zippers go around the carrier to the left and to the right. We planned to have the side band be 4" tall but it ended up being a bit taller than that at almost 5 inches.

The carrier features tabs to open the carrier, to close the zippers, handles.

The blue tabs are at the back of the carrier and help when one is closing the carrier.  They had to be sewn directly to the zipper.

The yellow tabs are in the front where the zippers meet and there is one for the left zipper and one for the left zipper to help with the opening of the carrier.

The handles are long enough to accommodate several containers and are centrally located to allow the container to be balanced in the carrier.

I thought it would be a good idea to have something stiff in the bottom of the carrier so I searched my stash of wood and found a piece of plywood 8 inches square.  That will do nicely.

My sister donated from Mom's stash a piece of blue anti slip material in Mom's favorite color.  I wrapped it around the wood board and voila it works out perfectly.

Now, the dish will stay in the center of the carrier and will not slide around.

Really happy to have reused materials.

The carrier with my beautiful yellow casserole by Kitchen Aid.  It was a gift from a friend for my birthday years ago.

That seems to be a good fit.

This casserole measures 11 inches handle to handle and does have a lid with a knob which means the height needs to be accommodated but we measured for that.

And here it is ready to take a dish to a potluck, picnic, a family get together and party with friends.

It works so well.  

And because I had my casserole it is just the right size.  I really like the zippers which will keep all the stuff inside.  The handles will go a long way to keeping the dish level and help to avoid spills.

Of course, being navy it should handle any spills well.  It is easy to wash with all the fabric cotton.

I have 3 other containers that this carrier will handle. 

This is my non stick blue casserole dish which measures 12 inches across the handles.  It does not have a lid so parchment will ensure that the top of the carrier does not touch the food in the dish. 

Here's the carrier with Mom's bean pot which I use for soup.  Not sure I would carry it with soup in it but it could be cabbage rolls or some dish like that.

It has a lid with a bit of a knob on the top but it is taller that the other dishes but only measures 10 inches handle to handle so that helps to accommodate the additional height.

And not to be out done with hot dishes it can also carry my Tupperware mixing bowl.

It could hold fruit, salad, dessert, and very much more.

This carrier will come in very handy when taking food on the road.

Thanks so much sister for the joint project.

It turned out wonderfully.

Share Your Cup 190

We got some more snow this week.  Quite a bit of the white stuff actually.  Monday was a bit of a sloppy day and driving home from Card Club in the evening after it has frozen was a bit hairy.  It's been cool all week with the afternoons being somewhat warmer.
 





I found this tea pot tray with three tea bag holders in white ceramic at the thrift store today.  I knew I had another similar tea bag holder at home so I would have a full set.  They have Joshua Maxwell Studio on the bottom.  Not able to find a link.  The front one is not ceramic and was a gift from a friend's trip to England 20 years ago.  I'm glad they all fit in the tray and keeps things tidy.







Mom and her girls day out.  We are spending Saturday with our Mom crafting, talking, eating, visiting and making memories.  Us girls all have crafting in our blood in one way or another.  Some quilt, others paper craft, one is into needlework and my niece is into wool accessories.  Some will just come to spend time with family. We will have a great time.  It's potluck for lunch and dinner so I made Quinoa Salad with Asian dressing, a veggie tray and Raspberry Bavarian just like my Mom made when we were kids.

I'm sharing with Share Your Cup hosted by Carol at Art and Sand.

Halloween Potluck Mosaic

We traditionally have a pot luck at work for Halloween.  It was great as always.  We had a wonderful table set with candles and other tablescaping items.  We had deviled egg eyeballs, spider web chocolate cake, and an arm made from bread and proscuitto.  It was all delicious and the fellowship was great!

I'm submitting this photo the challenge on Judith's blog for Monday Mosaic.