Au revoir, chocolat...

Farewell, cookies...

Adios, all kinds of sweets...

I'm giving you up for Lent. Yes, 'tis the season, and although I'm not a particularly religious person, I do try each year to give up something for Lent. This year it's sweets and ~ gasp! ~ Facebook. Forty days without chocolate, cookies, cake, granola bars, pudding, candy, suckers, ice cream... and Facebook. Can I do it? Just watch me.

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Here's my reasoning: I think I indulge far too often in sweets, sometimes eating them instead of regular food at mealtime, when I'm home alone. Isn't that terrible? I will eat a bowl of ice cream (fat free, of course) for dinner. Bad bad bad. Plus, some of the students at school bring me chocolate quite regularly and, because it's a gift, I feel compelled to EAT IT! It would be rude of me to refuse. I think this will not only be a good exercise in self-control and moderation, but also will help with the Diet Challenge. (Fingers crossed.) Apparently, if you replace sweets with healthy food, your body will eventually start to crave the healthy food instead of the sweets. (Fingers crossed again.)

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As for Facebook, well, it was simply taking up too much of my time and I found myself getting altogether too interested in what other people are doing. Through Facebook, I've reconnected with people I haven't seen for 20-plus years. To be honest, I hadn't even thought about most of them until they found me (or I found them) on FB. I think it's time for a break from worrying about the same stupid things I worried about in high school. Oh, who cares if so-and-so talks to her more than me, or if my grade 9 boyfriend hasn't returned my poke. Gawd! It's all so dumb! A self-imposed moratorium on Facebook will be good for me, refreshing even. (And if I really need to know what's going on, the OnlyChild will tell me.)

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I will not, however, be giving up any blog time. The jury is in, folks, and it is felt unanimously that we bloggers are most definitely NOT a bunch of self-centred narcissists; rather, we are a community of people who enjoy each other's cyber-company and love to talk about our shared passions. So there! That's a relief, considering this whole post has been about ME (again).

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I'm off to Teachers' Convention today and tomorrow. Two days of professional development sessions about topics such as Youth and Drugs, Human Slavery, Math and Puppets (?), Classroom Management, No-Marks Assessment (is that even possible?). My friend Sandi and I are going to a writing session this morning. Hopefully it will be worthwhile. This afternoon, I have a "Smart Board" workshop. Yeah, tons of laughs! But, we get to spend a couple of days downtown and eat real lunches in restaurants with other adults and take public transit (because parking downtown is a nightmare), so it will be a novelty. After years of these conventions, I'm becoming a bit jaded, but I'm professionally obligated to attend so I shall.

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Have a great day... it's almost the weekend!

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I just wanted to add this: Right now, it's -32 degrees celsius. I found a converter online so for all you American gals, that's MINUS 25.6 degrees fahrenheit. As we say up here in the Great White North, Cold enough for ya?

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I'm such a loser...

...and that's a good thing to be on Loser Monday!

I'm down 1.5 lbs since last Monday, so that leaves me with 13 lbs to go. Hip hip hooray! I think I may have unravelled the secret to losing weight and I'm gonna share it with all of you. It's this crazy fad diet:

Wow - imagine that!

I have a question for you. I've read a few articles in the newspaper lately that describe online communities such as Facebook and MySpace as "narcissistic". I think blogs were lumped in there too. So, I was wondering if YOU think blogging is a narcissistic, self-absorbed activity. When we blog, we write about ourselves and share information about what we've done. I've looked back at my posts and, yes indeed, mine are very self-centred. They're all about ME (even this one). Most blogs I read are similar, except many of them also share patterns and sewing tips, which is very nice and generous. I'm not at the point yet where I feel I have anything of value to share in that realm. I'm working on it. In the meantime, I use blogging to kind of chat with people and I really enjoy it.

So, if blogging is a self-absorbed activity, are novel-writing, script-writing, painting, photography, quilting (gasp!), etc? In all of these 'arts', the artists plants a bit of him/herself. Right? Hmmm... maybe it's too early in the morning to be so thoughtful.

I hope you have a wonderful Monday, despite the fact that it is Monday. I have a busy week ahead of me (see, there I go again, talking about myself) but I'll always have time for the lovely inhabitants of blogland.
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Vignettes

I want to show you some of the things I love in my house. Let's start in the kitchen. This is a plate made by the OnlyChild after our little dog, Bosun, died. He was hit by a car. It was so sad; we still miss him almost 4 years later.


Wonky-house pictures from New Orleans. Sorry about the awful picture - the wall behind these pictures is the same colour as in the picture above, but I had to turn off the flash because it was reflecting in the glass. (You can kind of see me taking the picture in the lower one.)


Now into the dining room. This is a Valentine made for me by the OnlyChild. We were not really on good terms around VDay and she was quite mad at me (can't remember why - teenagers!), but she still cared enough to create something crazy and sweet. She signed it "From your belly-button connection".

A wax/paint picture I made when I was four years old. My mum had it framed and sent it to me for Christmas one year. On the back it says "To Mum, Love Rachel" and she added a little sticker that said, "To Rachel, Love Mum".

Japanese Washi eggs in a bowl. I made tons of these years ago with a couple of friends. The bowl was overflowing. One day I came home from work to find that Abby Dog had eaten half of them. If it wasn't so funny, she would have been in the doghouse. Oh, the little egg in the bottom right-hand corner is a Ukrainian Easter egg, made by a man who is quite high up in the school district that I work for. I guess that's his relaxation.

Into the living room... Dear little Abby Dog, dozing on the couch.

Derby Dog, anticipating a treat as usual.

Family picture circa 1971. That's me sitting on my dad's lap.

I love these mouth-blown glass pears. They were made by a local artist and I purchased them at a fundraising auction. I momentarily considered giving them to my friend Sandi for Christmas (she would love them!) but I found I couldn't part with them after I put them on the mantle in the living room.

We're in the front entry way now. I have an antique mahogany table that I bought at an auction on Prince Edward Island about 3 years ago. We brought it home in the back of the truck, carefully wrapped in blankets. Yes, we drove 4500 km with that table in the truck, along with our luggage, the OnlyChild and the dogs. The old jar came out of the basement in my mum's house in New Brunswick, and I purchased the black sheep in St. Peter's, Nova Scotia when I was there visiting friends.


On the way up the stairs, you'll see this big birdcage. I don't own a bird and never plan to (well, I had a canary called Sunshine when I was a little girl living in the Canary Islands), but I love the birdcage. To the left is a huge window that lights up the whole staircase.

A portrait of my older sister, Sarah, painted by the OnlyChild as a Christmas gift for me. My sister died in 1990 and this picture was painted from a photograph taken when she was in grade 11. Needless to say, the gift brought tears to my eyes.

Upstairs in the bedroom - a stack of books, recently read and currently being read, found on the bedside table. I am really interested in history and current events, but I also read a lot of fiction. I don't like romance novels, though, or fantasy/sci fi. I am a realist.

The shelves in my sewing room. This is a tiny little room, but it's kind of neat. We think it may have been the "maid's" room in the house. It has built-in shelves, a built-in ironing board but no closet. Or maybe it was the sewing room originally. My house is 100 years old this year! These shelves may not look tidy to you, but you should have seen them yesterday. Yikes! I should have taken a before pic. I'm slowly trying to clean up this room because it feels like the walls are closing in on me. Too much stuff!

Coloured pencils make me happy. I had to move them from the shelf in the sewing room so they would have a nice backdrop. The red walls are in the spare bedroom (formerly the OnlyChild's room). I love that room - red walls (and one green, sounds weird but looks great!), white woodwork, white furniture, off-white comforter with bright red poppies and green leaves on it.


So, that's a little tour of some of the items in my house that I love. It's a good thing Mr. P isn't home this morning - he'd think I was strange taking pictures of all those things!

Have a lovely and relaxing Sunday. I'm off to do my tiny bit of marking and planning, and then edit some yearbook pages. Later I have a date with a treadmill at the gym, and (groan) need to stop at Wal-mart for some necessities. I tried to boycott Sprawl-mart a couple of years ago, but after about three months was forced to go back. No other store has such a good variety of products at such great prices. The Wal-mart by my house is also open 24 hours. And it's always busy. Ahhhh... the Americanization of the world.

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I've been a naughty girl

Shhh... don't tell anyone. While Mr. P was away this week, I was naughty. No, not that kind of naughty.

No, no. I was Etsy-naughty! I went shopping at Lara Lewis's Etsy Shop. Here are the goodies I bought:

The Cherry Charming set. Yummy!

The Damask Blush earrings.

And for the OnlyChild (I couldn't forget her - she was hovering at my shoulder):

A Poppy Ring and

an Estate Necklace.

We only planned to buy one item each, honestly. But I couldn't say no to the other items. Really, though, I think I exercised amazing restraint. You'll understand when you see what she has for sale in her store. She emailed me to say that my goodies are on their way already! I can't wait... I just hope I'm the first one home to get the mail the day that parcel arrives... hehehe.

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golden bird and lola

I work (play?) on my laptop in my sewing room. The "computer room" is across the hall and my daughter usually plays (works? no!) in there. Quite often, a conversation such as this can be heard:

"Hey Mum!"

"Yes?"

"Come here and look at this."

steps across the hall

"What?"

"Look!" - pointing to computer

"Oh, cool!"

steps back across the hall

Such was the conversation a couple of nights ago as the OnlyChild gave up on Wordpress and discovered Blogger. She kept hitting the "Next Blog" button and discovered all kinds of neat things out there in blogland.

And she pointed me in the direction of golden bird knits. Stacy is brand new on the blog block but I think I already love her because she posted the most wonderful knitting pattern for her Blue Bamboo Scarf.

Now, I'm not a knitter. I have made a few sweaters in my life and not much more. There was the baby outfit for Cheryl's first child, a navy blue sweater for my nephew Mathew, the snowflake sweater for the OnlyChild, and that wonderful turquoise cable-knit and chevron pattern chunky sweater I made for myself that my husband convinced me to give to Goodwill because I rarely wore it. Boy, do I regret giving that away. I mean, I made it! Plus, one day on the bus going to the university (this was wayyyy back), an elderly lady complimented me on it.

I tend not to knit unless my mother is around. She can hear a dropped stitch from the next room and is always willing to fix my mistakes, but she lives all the way across the country. This scarf from golden bird is so easy! And beautiful! Here's my version (made out of some leftover wool from another sweater I started to knit about a decade ago), but please go and visit her blog to see what it should look like!

And Lola. L-O-L-A. Lola. Sorry, I couldn't resist. Lola of ...And Sew On is having a giveaway. She makes adorable potholders and even posted a tutorial on how to make them. How nice is she! But she's made a couple to give away too. I think they would look very nice in my kitchen, but I'd have to keep them away from Mr. P, who is the real cook of the family, because he'd get them all dirty or something. Sheesh, he might actually use them.

Not much news from the homefront. Oh, except that I received a parcel in the mail. Remember I won a gift certificate from Above All Fabric? My Moda Soiree Jelly Roll and Charm Pack arrived today! So beautiful... I'm drooling... Melanie wrote me a little note on the invoice: "LOL ☺ Guess you knew what you wanted!" Hmmm... could she be referring to the fact that I ordered this fabric immediately after I found out I'd won the gift certificate? She's right, though, I knew exactly what I wanted! Now I need to find a pattern that will do them justice. Any suggestions?


Today was what I like to call Monday-equivalent. When you have a holiday Monday, the next day back at work always feels like Monday, so it might as well be. It was a pretty good day. My student teacher started today. She seems like a nice girl and a smart one (thank goodness!). I think we'll get along just fine - especially when she takes over my marking and I can sit with my feet up. Haha. It doesn't quite work that way, in case you actually believed me. Having a student teacher can be a lot of work if he or she is needy/scared/easily intimidated by the kids. Yikes! I've never had a bad one; I've been lucky in that regard. The school where I work has a unique program so any student teacher coming to us has to be open-minded and flexible. I'll tell you more about the school another time, if you're interested.

It's still winter; it's still cold; I'm still sick of it. I'm counting down the days until Spring Break when I jet off to Italy and France for 12 days. That's what's keeping me going for now!

Hope your week is humming along nicely.
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Monday is for losers... me, I'm going back to bed!

Good morning, friends. Here we are again, on another Loser Monday morning and heading into another week. I sure hope you have some good things planned for the days between now and the weekend, and that those plans include sewing! I do my fair share of exercise every week. I go to the gym 2-3 times a week - cardio for 40 minutes and weights for about 30 minutes. I also take a belly dance class every Thursday night for an hour and a half. One would think that the pounds would be melting off me, but no. No. Nope. I used to be a WW leader so I know how the game is played, but somehow I can't seem to wrap my head around eating well. I have cookbooks. I have half a dozen "points finders". I have a food journal. I have no willpower. Every day I wake up with fresh new resolve. This will be the day, I tell myself. No more fooling around, I say. No more chocolate, I admonish my psyche. You saw my post last week. Did you believe me? I did - I really believed I was going to turn over a new leaf. It lasted... until about Tuesday. During the day I do well. I eat a decent breakfast, pack a healthy lunch, and try to drink water at work. But when I get home in the evening... well, let's just say that my will is weak and good sense is thrown out the window. It's not like I'm lacking a reason to lose weight. I have a lovely red dress that I wore to a wedding just over a year ago and I plan to wear it again to an event in May. At this rate, though, I won't fit into it. My goal is to lose 15 lbs. That's it - 15! I'm not horribly overweight, just a little spongy around the middle. Sigh. Maybe hypnosis will work on me...?

That said, I did just step on the scale and find that, despite my awful food week, I'm down 0.5 lbs. So, now I have 14.5 lbs to lose. For some reason, I am really happy about that.

Anyhooo... I did a little sewing this weekend. I'm supposed to be making costumes for the school's Open House on March 2, but nobody else has got their job done and I have to wait to find out the cast of characters and meet with the drama teacher before I can proceed. At the rate they're going, I'll be sewing from Friday night to Monday morning the weekend before the event. I hate doing things at the last minute (when it's not my choice to do so). This is what spent my time on the last couple of days:

Block 2 of the Bunny Hill Designs BOM. I was planning to make the top bird yellow and now I wish I had. Oh well, it's still a pretty block. I can't wait to see what Anne has planned for March!

Plus, I made both the January and February blocks from Sandi Anderson's Seasons of the Heart BOM. Usually I pick reds to go in my quilts (lots of red in the Bunny Hill blocks I made) but this one begged for pink, just to be different.

I've never done a block of the month before and I am really enjoying it. It's not so overwhelming to have just one block to do each month. And by the end of the year, I'll have a whole quilt done and ready to put together (or, in this case, I'll have 2 done).

I'm still working on the Let it Snow quilt. Thanks to some nice comments in response to my questions about the applique, I have a good idea of how to deal with all those picky little pieces. I'm making that quilt as a Christmas present for my friend Cheryl (don't worry - she doesn't read my blog), so I don't have to rush to finish it... yet.

Today is Family Day in Alberta. For me, it's a day to catch up on marking that I didn't do on the weekend. Lots of that piling up. I'd rather be sewing, but as I keep reminding myself, the job pays me a salary that helps me buy fabric. It's all about balance.

Have a great Monday!

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Are you feeling loved?

Happy Valentine's Day! ♥ Are you feeling loved today? I hope you feel loved every day. As you know, Mr. P and I aren't big believers in V Day (it is very close to both our birthdays), so no gifts were exchanged between us today. He did, however, take me out to dinner last night, which was very nice. No roses or diamonds for me, but he takes care of me all year long so I know he loves me without the fancy schmancy presents. I do make/buy a gift for the OnlyChild; this year, I made her the Pink Penguin basket and stuffed it with undies, a couple of chocolates, a sucker and a handmade card. Plus, I bought her a cute pair of pajamas. She was thrilled and is wearing the pjs now, at 4:30 in the afternoon.

So, today is not a bad day at all. But yesterday. Oh yesterday. Horrible. Friday the thirteenth. I'm certainly not superstitious, but it was an awful day. Let me recount:

7:23 am - I pull out of the driveway in my husband's truck. I have in the back the waffle iron, waffle mix, fruit and whipped cream to make a V Day breakfast for my colleagues. I am dressed up in a nice burgundy silk top and dressy pants, feeling good. I pull out from the side road onto the main road and BAM! I get hit by a pickup truck that decided to change lanes at the same time I pulled out. No damage to Mr. P's sturdy SUV, very little to the pick-up (just a light broken) but, boy, is he MAD. And he yells at me that it's my fault. And he won't talk to me to exchange info, preferring to talk to someone who pulled over as a witness (I am suspicious of this because I was not allowed to hear their conversation). And he won't back up his truck so I can assess damage. In fact, I actually had to call my husband to come to the corner to "rescue" me. The guy obviously has issues with women. Anyway....

8:10 am - finally arrive at school. Don't tell anyone what happened ('cause I feel like an idiot) and just make waffles for my five department colleagues. One of the guys brought bacon and eggs, so it was quite a feast! Yummm.

9:30-ish am - kid lips me off. I'm not very tolerant. She complains to the department head. He backs me (thank goodness).

10:00-ish am - another kid with an attitude. What is with these young people? Have they no respect. Okay, I sound like an old woman now.

1:00 pm - have to attend a meeting in place of the department head. Booorrrring. Listen to principal yak yak yak for over 2 hours.

3:15 pm - go back to my office and mark (and talk to colleague about rude kids and boring meeting).

4:17 pm - Mr. P calls. Where am I? I'm still at work. He thought we had made arrangements to meet at home and then attend a going-away party (for one of his colleagues who I don't know). I don't think we ever decided on that. I was going to meet him downtown. I decide not to go to the party. He's a bit annoyed, but we're meeting for supper with another couple at 6:30 anyway.

5:00 pm - Mr. P calls again. Reminding me to meet at 6:30 pm. Duh.

6:15 pm - I arrive at the restaurant. Early. Think about ordering a drink at the bar, but I don't.

6:35 pm - Mr. P and the other couple arrive. We have a very nice supper together.

9:00 pm - home. Waiting for me is a parcel from Regena from Quilt n Quilt Things. What a sweetheart! She sent me gifts for my birthday... just because she is a lovely person. Lookie...

There's an adorable apron, a project bag (I know just what I'm storing in there!), a hat pincushion (which has already been put to use), and that little pouch. Do you see that? It's the neatest thing - and it has chocolate in it (yes, it still does). I just about cried when I opened that box. I cannot believe how nice some people are (so I reverse any miserable thoughts I had about humanity at 7:30-ish in the morning). Thank you, Regena!

After reading what I just wrote, I guess it wasn't such a bad day after all. I have a husband who will rescue me when I need him (and won't make a big deal about a little fender-bender), colleagues who support me and listen to me whine (and enjoy breakfast with me), a daughter who actually asked me to help her sew her dress, two dogs who are happy to see me when I get home after a rough day, and a lovely blog friend who sent me beautiful gifts, even though she's never met me.

I'm feeling loved ♥ I hope you had a nice Valentine's Day and keep the love going all year long!
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