Progress

Now back to the sewing machine...

I ♥ Red

Finally, I have chosen the fabrics to finish my A Tisket A Tasket 2009 BOM from Bunny Hill. I did all my baskets in various red fabrics and have been searching for the perfect accessories for ages. I went to every quilt shop in the area, scoured the online stores, and stopped in a dozen times at Fabricland to see if they had anything new and good.

I have to say, you US quilters have it easy. There is no LQS in my area that sells Moda fabrics, although things are starting to look up in that respect. Fabrics at quilt shops are also very very expensive, as much as $30.00/metre. I am not kidding! Even at the plain ol' fabric store, they charge up to $22.00/metre. Crazy!

So, I went online and ordered from the Fat Quarter Shop. $8.55 and $9.00/yard for these fabrics. Even with shipping at over $11.00, it was still cheaper.

Sad, when you think about it. I would expect to have to do this if I were still living in the boonies way up north with the nearest city a 5-hour drive away. But I live in the city now. I should have access to all the good things in life.

Oh well... enough complaining. Time for show and tell!

This is Gallery Red Small Paisley and will be used for the outer border and the posts (next to the sashing).

This one is Gallery Red Red Checks - for the sashing and the binding.

And this is Love Notes Red Scroll, which will be the inner border.

Of course, I ordered just a tiny bit extra of each... gotta have some scraps for the stash!

I do hope they work with my red baskets.

It will take a while for this order to arrive, I'm sure. The mail seems to be incredibly slow lately... right, Pat? (Pat has been waiting for a couple of weeks to receive my fabrics for the Green and White no-sew swap.)

I have plenty to keep me busy in the meantime... not to worry. I hope to work on the Checkerboard quilt this weekend. Haven't touched it since before the exam marking spree.

And guess what... only a couple of little things to mark this weekend. I'd better take advantage of the down time because it won't last!

Have a good one, folks!

Things that make me want to smack someone upside the head

Let's get real. While there are lots of things that make me feel lucky to be alive, there are probably twice as many that make me want to get violent. And since I'm feeling rather violent (but not dangerously so; you don't need to duck) right now, I'll share:

1. Children (well, one in particular) who doesn't go to school on time, doesn't call when she's coming home late and seems to do nothing but sleep and play on the computer. Oh, and ask for money. Get a job!

Gee... do I really need to continue...?

Let's start again.

1. A knapsack left in the middle of the front foyer.
2. Dirty dishes in the sink (when the dishwasher is empty).
3. People who hurt animals (but not people who hurt children 'cause, you know - see above ... just kidding).
4. Baaaad drivers.
5. People who don't play by the rules.
6. People who don't return important emails and/or phone calls.
7. Too much marking.
8. Realizing that, even though this semester will be much easier than last, I still have more students/classes than any of my colleagues in the department (which will, inevitably, lead to #7 above).
9. Students who skip my seminars and then give me a lame excuse. I was not born yesterday (obviously, duh).
10. People who say teachers only work from 8:30-3:30 and get all those vacations. Ha! You all know better.
11. Childish name-calling and swearing. I swear like a sailor, but Time And Place, people. Time And Place. (If you don't already know, that means sometimes it's just not appropriate - like in school, or in a restaurant, or at the hockey game, or in public generally. The right time and place for swearing like a sailor, in my opinion, is in the car on the way to/from work. See #4 above.)
12. Not having time to visit and/or comment on my favourite blogs. I'm here, friends. Honest.
13. An unfinished project with no guarantee I'll get to it in the near future.
14. Slow mail.
15. No mail.
16. People who stink up the bathroom and then pretend it wasn't them.
17. Thinking it's Friday when it's only Wednesday.
18. Not enough sleep.

And on that note... I'm off to bed.

But I'll leave you with a happy picture thought to try and erase (or balance) the nonsense above.

Taken at Orwell Historic Village, Orwell Corner, Prince Edward Island

Summer 2008

Still waiting...

I'm pretty sure it will be a while before I can convince the OnlyChild that I really do need those party pictures. She certainly has other priorities right now. You know, sleeping, facebooking, protesting the choice of theme song for grad, dumping all her dirty clothes on the floor of the laundry room. Teenager stuff.

Life may be getting back to normal after all the craziness of the past week or so. I even made it to the gym this afternoon. I also have been fulfilling some creative obligations... well, not obligations - that's such a negative word. I made my February ATCs last night and some Valentine cards today. I can't show you those because they haven't reached their recipients yet (I just mailed them today), but I can show you the January ATCs because they must have been received by now.

The theme for January was "You". We had to make cards that revealed something about ourselves. Tough decision to pick what I wanted people to know so I decided to not make a decision and went random. You'll see what I mean...

The outside of each card is like a little house, the bricks all made from words cut out of the newspaper. Each word is something that either describes me or appealed to me in some way.

Then the red door is opened to reveal Me!

They were fun to make - a bit fiddly and messy, but I enjoyed the process and it made me think about how other people would view me. Would their perceptions of me match the words I chose?

Sorry about the fuzzy pictures. My camera does not take good close-ups (but it was no use asking the OnlyChild to take the photos for me; I'd still be waiting for them).

February's theme is "Vintage Valentine" and was fun to make. I went with something a little simpler this time around. I hope my little ATC group likes them!

No progress on the quilt this week. I'm hoping to spend many hours on it this weekend... provided I have no marking to do. Tomorrow is the beginning of the second semester at school. New classes, new students. New marking.

Until next time...

Out of the loop

I feel so out of the loop, like I've been gone for weeks. I have been lurking around in the background, visiting all of you, but rarely leaving comments (as they require both thought and time to compose - two things of which I've had little lately). The past few days went by in a blur of activity, but now I have some time (at least an evening) to breathe, relax and create.

As you know, I was hired to mark provincial diploma exams - grade 12 social studies essays. There were 22,000 students in the province who wrote the exam and each student wrote two essays, so we had 44,000 essays to mark. Each essay had to be marked by two people (a third if there were discrepancies in the marks). That's a minimum of 88,000 reads by approximately 180 markers over 5 days. Yeah, that's lots of marking.

I am exhausted. Brain dead. Well, at least I was last night, but I'm okay now. I'm so ready to get back to sewing and making ATCs and maybe some knitting. Anything that doesn't relate to economics, the Patriot Act, democracy and dictatorship, or civil and political rights. Anything.

On my way to work this morning, I heard an old '80s song on the radio and I remembered how much fun it was as a teenager to walk down the halls at school belting out favourite songs with my friends. Our teachers must have thought we were nuts... or maybe they also remembered what it was like to be young.

This made me think about the things that remind me how great it is to be alive... so I started a list, first in my head and now I'm sharing it with you.

Things that make me glad to be alive:

1. Hearing my daughter giggling with a friend downstairs. It's nice to hear her having fun.
2. My nephew coming to visit for the weekend. Even though I didn't get to spend a lot of time with him, it was the BEST birthday present!
3. Coming home from work early and putting on my pajamas right away.
4. Knowing Spring is right around the corner (okay, I'm pushing it, but I'm optimistic).
5. Seeing "Happy Birthday! 29 Forever" on my birthday cake (hehe - how well my family knows me).
6. Visiting blogs and knowing that everything is business as usual with all of you.
7. Being the guest of honour at my birthday party and playing the social butterfly.
8. That tired but good feeling after working out at the gym.
9. Learning a new choreography at dance class and believing that I will be ready to perform it in March.
10. Having a husband who understands my wanderlust even if he doesn't share it.
11. Great conversations with new friends over a pile of essays (I met some really wonderful teachers from other parts of the province while marking).
12. Coffee already brewed for me by 6:30 am (courtesy of Marie-Claude, my new coffeemaker, which was a Christmas present from Mr. P. I didn't know I needed it until I had it.)
13. Clean sheets on the bed.
14. Finishing a quilting or sewing project.
15. Warm dogs on my lap.
16. A well-written book.
17. Parcels in the mail, especially from my mother who sends me the neatest presents - vintage necklaces and brooches, paintings and photographs, fabric...
18. My little ATC swap group.
19. Coming home at the end of the day to my 100-year old house.
20. And, of course, singing along loudly to a song when I know all the words (or most of them and can make up the rest).

What's on your list?

I'm trying to access photos from the big shindig Saturday night. It was such a good time! The OnlyChild took a few pictures, not many, but convincing her to upload them to my computer (when she has a friend visiting) is not an easy task. I want to show you my party dress ☺ I hope she will recognize the urgency in this task and get to it right away!

Ciao for now...

Crazy week

Oh what a crazy week it's been. I've barely had time to breathe. Between the marking (yes, that again) and all the other commitments, I feel like my head is spinning.

First the marking... I was hired to mark provincial diploma exams for grade 12 social studies. The money is pretty good, but it's hard work, and they're long days. It's much better than marking by myself though. We sit at tables of six and I am working with a great group of people. Still, my brain is numb at the end of the day. I have to keep reminding myself that this is helping me pay for my trip to Paris.

Which it is... I have the plane ticket already!!! Mr. P booked it for me and, although it's not really a birthday present, he put the e-ticket in my birthday card yesterday.

It hardly feels real. But I AM GOING TO PARIS!

I also started Italian lessons on Wednesday night with the students who are going on that trip. And last night I had dance class. So, I've been running, running, running.

Tonight I will be picking up my nephew at the bus station. He is coming to town for the big shin-dig tomorrow night. I haven't seen him for a long time so this is exciting!

Yesterday, I woke up to a disastrous sight in the bathroom. The OnlyChild had decided (at some ungodly hour in the night) that she needed to dye her hair black. Her hair, the shower curtain, the wall, the ceiling, the towels, the sink, the bathtub, the showerhead. All are black. What a mess! She tried to clean it; unfortunately, cleaning is not her forté.

She redeemed herself by doing some other cleaning and by buying me this beautiful bouquet of flowers:

As you can see, she also decorated the dining room with reminders of how old I am - 40s hanging from the chandelier and a long Happy 40th Birthday banner, which fell down this morning so I couldn't photograph it. These decorations came from Cheryl and were used at her 40th birthday party back in November.

Being 40 is weird. That's all I have to say about that!

Right now I'm going to go and read the newspapers from yesterday and today. Then maybe I'll take a short catnap (with a dog or two on my lap). Then a quick trip to Walmart is in order. Finally, I'll head to the bus station to pick up the Boy. I have to back marking tomorrow by 8:00 am and work until 4:30 pm. My friend Sandi is picking me up for the party at 6:15.

I'm tired just thinking about it! I'll be pretty worn out by the time Sunday rolls around... more marking starting at 8:00 am.

Yikes. Can I have a vacation after this?

If you don't hear from me for a couple of days, I'm probably sleeping.

In England...

...it is already after 2:00 in the morning on January 28.

I just did the math.

I was born at 1:30 am on January 28 in Portsmouth, England.

What does that mean?

It means I am, technically, already 40.

Ouch.

I'm having a bit of trouble with this. Ever since I turned 39 a year ago, I haven't been able to stop thinking about turning 40. I thought I had made my peace with it in the past couple of months, but apparently not. I feel like I am at the top of a giant water slide and someone is about to push me from behind.

How's the ride?