What happened this week?

I haven't been around for a few days. So, what's been happening? you ask.

Well... it's been raining,

Picture from the Edmonton Journal.

which is good, because we needed rain. It will probably continue for the next few days.

I went to Home Depot on Monday and picked up a piece of dowel, but it took me until this afternoon to actually hang A Tisket a Tasket. I can't find the little bag of buttons and other embellishments I was collecting for it, so I had to hang it up without them. I'll add them when I find them, I guess.

I'm not ecstatic about the quilting job on this one. There's a reason I don't like straight-line quilting. I think it's because my lines are never straight.

But it fills the space nicely and matches my yo-yo tree. Ha! There was a method to my madness when I made that little accessory.

I started a yoga class (no pictures of me there because I can't bend and stretch and take a photo of myself).

Yoga is hard. Am I the only one who finds it really really difficult? It feels good, though. Especially at the end when we lie quietly, listening to soothing music, and the teacher covers us with blankets and puts lavender eye pillows on our eyes. Ahhhh...

I got a pedicure...

I received three spa gift certificates for my birthday so it's about time I used one of them.

And I met a "celebrity"...

...Member of Parliament and Opposition Critic for Youth and Multiculturalism Justin Trudeau. He's also the eldest son of the late former prime minister Pierre Trudeau. He came to speak at my school yesterday afternoon.

Yes, he's as charming as he is good looking. Plus he's wealthy, educated, intelligent, articulate... sigh... and married with two children. He had the girls (and women on staff) in a tizzy. It was fun.

And tonight, I'm off to dance class.

Go ahead and laugh

I wanted to title this post "La Bonne Fleur" or something else pretty, and have it look all ladylike and sweet (and in the process give you a totally false impression of who I am...), but when you see the photo below, you will laugh.

And that's okay.

This is my Bonne Fleur dress. Nice, right? I like it.

What I'm not quite so fond of is the fact that my bra is showing in this picture... and in all the other dress photos taken by the OnlyChild yesterday.

I can't believe she didn't notice that when she was snapping pictures.

Oh well, in addition to the bra showing, my smile is "smooshy" and goofy, I have no make-up on (hey, it was Sunday afternoon), my hair had just been pulled out of a ponytail for the photo, and my legs needed to be shaved and probably my armpits too (but you can't see them so...).

I just really wanted you to see the dress.

And now you have.

Small finishes

Last weekend, Mr. P and I went to Home Depot. He bought two new garbage cans (because someone actually stole ours from the back alley - can you imagine?) and I needed a length of dowel for the Black and White in Paris wallhanging I made for my friend Sandi. At the dowel display, Mr. P said to me, "Do you need more than one?" and I replied, "Why would I need more than one?" I took one piece and we went to the checkout to pay.

Duh.

Do I need more than one piece of dowel? OF COURSE I needed more than one piece. I had totally forgotten about A Tisket a Tasket which... Ta Da!... I finished last night.

Can't hang it up yet though. No dowel. I guess another trip to Home Depot is in order before I can hang it up and take some photos.

I do, however, have a couple of smaller finishes to show you. I was in a creative mood this weekend, but didn't want to make a commitment to anything big (and time-consuming). Plus, before I start something new, I really must get the Checkerboard quilt basted, quilted and bound.

So, this is what I did to satisfy my creative urges and my desire to finish something:

I made a little zipper bag - not quite big enough to be a make-up bag, but a bit too big for a change purse. It is the perfect size for keeping some lip gloss and powder, or maybe jewellery when travelling. I used Sharon's A Tutorial like no other (she had 13 exclamation marks after the title), which I find easy to follow and easy to adapt to any size.

 

This afternoon, after my marking was done, I put together a notebook cover for the OnlyChild using a fat quarter of fabric we bought last year and didn't know what we would make with it. I love this fabric; I wish I'd bought a couple of metres of it because it would have made a cute skirt.

There are lots of good tutorials on making notebook covers, like this one or this one. I didn't actually follow any instructions, though. I just winged it and it turned out quite well. The only thing I would do differently, I think, is to make the cover a bit bigger, quilt it, and then cut it down to the correct size - rather than cutting it to the finished size right from the start.

I think I'll go and iron my Bonne Fleur dress and get the OnlyChild to take some photos of me so I can post them tomorrow. You'll have to wait a day or two for A Tisket a Tasket, though. I need to get a piece of dowel... Sigh.

CRASH!

Sometime last night (or perhaps today), this happened:

The wind was blowing quite hard. It knocked over the umbrella, which came smashing down on the table. The only reason the umbrella was open in the first place was because it was broken and wouldn't wind down so we could shut it. So, now we have a broken umbrella and a broken table.

Wow - hasn't it been a fun week?

After work today, I cleaned the laundry room where Rex lives. It was disgusting, and the smell is still not completely gone. It doesn't matter anyway; in a couple of days it will be just as bad again.

Oh Rex... I don't know how much more of this I can take.

The "T" key on my laptop isn't working properly. I have to press it very hard to get it to work. I don't know what's wrong with it. Have you ever noticed how many times you use the letter T? Lots! Maybe I could jus ype wihou using he leer . Would you undersand wha I was rying o say?

Ha! I didn't think so.

I finished quilting A Tisket a Tasket last night. Now just the binding to do and a few more ends to sew in. I know... it's about time! As soon as I finish those last bits, I'll show pics. And, I will get the OnlyChild to take some photos of me in my Bonne Fleur dress this weekend too.

Finishes are GOOD!

Happy Friday!

(p.s. I didn't end up going to Banff with Mr. P after all. But that's okay, really, because he sent me a text this morning saying they got 6" of snow last night. Ugh.)

Home Alone with Stinkaroo

Mr. P has gone on a business trip.

The OnlyChild went to a grad retreat.

I'm home alone.

Well, not quite alone. I have the company of AbbyDog:

and DerbyDog:

and RexCat, who should henceforth be renamed Stinkaroo.

My whole house smells like cat pee, thanks to Stinkaroo. He has totally lost control of his faculties (and, ahem, some other parts too). He wanders around meowling at high pitch and volume, dropping his little lumps, piles and rivers of stinkiness all over the laundry room. Yes, the laundry room is now his kingdom. We can't have him loose in the house when we're not home during the day.

We try to stay on top of cleaning up after him, but I think we're losing the battle. The. Whole. House stinks. It's all I could smell when I walked in the door after work today. I lit my Lampe Berger, which is supposed to clean the air, as well as my oil burner from the Body Shop. Maybe the stench is in my nostrils now, but I can still smell cat piss.

I spoke to the vet about him a month or so ago. She says this is very common in older cats (he's almost 19) and it's up to us whether we want to endure it any longer. However, she also asked me a slew of questions about his health and happiness and concluded that his quality of life is probably still quite high - he's eating, drinking, still affectionate, etc.

So... we decided that maybe now is not the right time to say goodbye to our old kitty; maybe it's not his "time" yet.

But maybe I've had enough of poo and pee and the god-awful, nausea-inducing, gut-wrenching, nostril-searing stench. Maybe.

I don't know what to do. Sigh.

*****

On another, not quite so ear-splitting, note, I finished my Bonne Fleur dress last night. I hand-stitched the hem while (sort of) watching a very disappointing episode of Law and Order with Mr. P. See, I'm trying to combine my love of sewing with his love of the television, so we can do things together.

I'd show you a picture of the dress but, as I was saying to Jen, the results of my attempts to photograph myself it in were hilarious. I got one picture in which both the dress and I were obliterated by the flash in the mirror (duh), another couple of the door frame when I tried to use the self-timer, and another of mainly my feet when I attempted to take the photo from the top down. I'll get the OnlyChild to take some pictures when she gets home from her retreat. I will not, however, get her to take them on her camera. I might never get them. Remember the birthday party photos? Of course you don't - you've never seen them and neither have I, because they're still on her computer. Boo-ha!

Well, the wind is whistling, my tummy is burning (dyspepsia? I've had it for a couple of days now), and I might have a mess to clean up in the basement... if I dare to look. I could live without going down there...

For Today...

Outside my window... The leaves are finally blooming on the trees. It's the first sign of green this spring!

I am thinking... I really enjoyed the yoga class I went to last night.

I am thankful for... a strong body and no health problems.

I am wearing... Lululemon pants and a New York t-shirt stolen from the OnlyChild. I just got home from the gym.

I am remembering... planting my garden last year and riding my bike to water every night.

I am going... to Banff with Mr. P this weekend. Maybe.

From the kitchen... nothing. Someone will have to make the first move and get supper started. I hope that someone doesn't have to be me.

I am creating... a dress to wear to commencement. Only the zipper and hem left to do.

I am wondering... why I am always so reluctant to do something different, to step out of the routine.

I am noticing... that DerbyDog whines a lot and it's annoying.

Pondering these words... "The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself." - Alan Alda (who, coincidentally, shares my birthday)

Around the house... I put away all my Winter clothes today and brought out the Spring and Summer wear. I hope it doesn't snow.

One of my favorite songs... "Parting Gift" by Fiona Apple

From my picture journal...

My front porch, where I spent a lot of time in the Summer. It's time to clean it up and get it ready for lazy Sunday afternoons spent reading.

(This picture was taken last year in May)

Yo-yos grow on trees!