Snow (aka the white stuff that should not stick around after March)

What? Snow?

Yep. Remember I said we got snow last weekend? I took some photos with my cell phone as we were driving to Calgary. The pictures are terrible quality, but you get the idea. In some places, the visibility was almost zero.

That was May 29th. Unbelievable!

This is my favourite - Whiteout! (It wasn't my favourite at the time; the drive was pretty hairy in some places.)

And now we just have rain, rain and more rain. We've had only a couple of sunny days and most have been wet and cold. It's actually quite unusual for us to have so many rainy days. Usually if it's going to rain, it will do so overnight. This is like East Coast weather, except without the respite of a good, hot, muggy day after the rain.

Summer will come soon. Please. I want to wear my cute skirts and dresses. What's the use of making nice summery clothes if they stay in the closet for 11 months of the year? Huh.

Friday Night (and Sunday Afternoon) Sew-in

Last month I missed the Friday Night Sew-in because I forgot all about it. I'm bound and determined to be at my sewing machine for the entire evening on June 18. By that point I should not have piles of marking to do, and as of right now I'm not aware of any other commitment. It will be nice to get some projects done (or started) before I take off across the pond for the summer.

Are you going to join me? Make sure you visit Bobbi to sign up!
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I plowed through my marking Friday night and yesterday so that I had today to do what I wanted... well, after cleaning and laundry anyway. Mr. P has been away for a few days, so I spent a little bit of time at my sewing machine (hello, Bernice!) and put together a bag for my yoga mat:

I used the great fabric that my friend Sandi bought for me when she was in Australia last fall. I had been looking for a project to use it, but I only had a metre which isn't enough for a skirt, and it's a bit heavy for quilting. Perfect for a yoga mat bag. Did I tell you I'm loving my yoga class? I still find it incredibly difficult, but I think I'm getting better. I'm going to sign up for the next session and go twice a week until I leave.

And while I was being industrious, cleaning and sewing, the OnlyChild was doing what people really should be doing on a Sunday afternoon - enjoying it!

Maybe she can teach me how to relax.

Teeny Tiny Writing

and messy writing, and answers taken directly from the textbook or copied from a friend.

Ahhh... the joys of marking.

My students are starting to panic now. All their course work is due on Monday, June 7. One of the hazards of a self-directed program is that (and I've said this before) some students lack self-direction and this program allows them to leave the bulk of the work until the last minute.

What that means to me is piles upon piles of marking during the final two weeks of the semester. And it's marking of the worst kind. Hastily-written responses that make absolutely no sense and/or do not even answer the question. Work for the sake of work. The "git 'er dun" stuff.

It feels like I will never finish. I think I might have to become a bit more "hasty" in my marking.

Oh well... never mind... remember my new philosophy? Who Cares?

Really, who cares? I don't - how can I? I'm going to Italy in 31 days. I'm going to France in 50 days. And I bought new shoes. Wanna see?

Strappy Sandals. I've already worn these twice, despite the rain and snow - yes, snow - we've had here.

And my other pair of shoes - good walking shoes for the summer. I haven't worn these yet, but they'll get lots of use.

Well, I wanted to show you pictures of our drive down to Calgary last weekend, and of all the snow - yes, snow - we encountered, but I've emailed them to myself twice from my cellphone and haven't received them.

(I've been having some email issues lately. My hotmail *magically* sent out a spam email to people on my contact list - I don't know if it was everyone or just a few - and I'd like to tell everyone to ignore it but, equally *magically*, my contact list has disappeared so I don't know anyone's email addresses. I think you are all safe, since I don't use hotmail for my blog. But if, by chance, I've ever sent you anything from my hotmail address and you got a suspicious email ostensibly from me about cheap iPhones, ignore it. I did not send it.)

Anyway, back to the snow... it was awful on Saturday: whiteout conditions in places, slush all over the highway. Scary driving. It snowed a bit up here too, according to the OnlyChild, and some of my freshly-planted flowers are a bit wilty now. I hope they survive. But really, Mother Nature... Snow on May the friggin' twenty-ninth? What were you thinking?

The OnlyChild survived her night without us. I think she rather enjoyed herself. Her friend Rachelle picked her up, they went for supper, got a flat tire, had a big adventure, then Rachelle stayed overnight. I know it was a bit silly of me to worry - she is almost 18 after all - but, it was the first time and that's always the hardest.

Okay, enough jabbering for now. I have a dance class to get ready for, the OnlyChild has a job interview this evening (fingers crossed for her) and my pile of marking isn't getting any smaller.

Ciao! A bientot!

Rows and strings and a road trip

Friday night at the sewing machine... when I probably should have made a start on marking all those essays.

I played around a little with some red and white strings:

and I did a bit more (but not much) sewing on the Authentic quilt:

How I love this fabric!

I wonder why I didn't open up this charm pack sooner. Oh yeah... I had other stuff to do.

Tomorrow Mr. P and I are going on a road trip to Calgary. We'll stay overnight and leave the OnlyChild all by herself (with the Wild Things). She's almost 18, but we've never gone out of town and left her behind before. I hope she can handle the responsibility. Maybe I'll let the neighbours know we won't be around so they can spy on her...

Happy Weekend!

Who Cares?

(If you're here for the Blogger's Quilt Festival, please go to this post. Sorry, I didn't post a direct link...)

How did it get to be Thursday already? This week has just flown by, but it hasn't been without its trials.

I've had to adopt a new philosophy: Who Cares? (And, of course, the answer is Not Me!)

An annoying kid at school told me yesterday that it is my job to sit down with him and teach him all the stuff he missed in my seminars when he wasn't at school. And he said I should meet with him and his mother in the evenings to prepare him for his Diploma Exam. What? You're kidding, right? Nope, he wasn't kidding.

But who cares? After the feeling that I wanted to rip out my hair (or his) subsided, I really had to laugh at how ludicrous that was.

Then there's this:

The Put-Me-to-Sleep textbook I have to read for my master's course. Zzzzz. The questions we have to answer and posts we have to write are interesting, though. And this course will actually be finished in about 2 weeks, so that's nice. (I wish the professor would give us some more information about our final project so I can get started on procrastinating about that.)

Then there's that ever-growing pile of marking:

Just kidding - that's the picture of my Christmas marking pile. The present pile is not quite as tall, but it might be soon, since the final deadline for all work in my grade 12 class is June 7, and some of the students have a lot left to do in the course. Oh, the glory of self-directed learning. It would work so much better if more students actually had some self-direction.

But who cares... it will all get done... it has to. Right?

And lest you think this is a whiny, feel sorry for me post, I want you to know that I'm just exploring options and looking for a way to prevent myself from going crazy in the next month until school is over and I can fly far away across the ocean and leave this all behind...

Flowers and Coins

(If you're here to see my Blogger's Quilt Festival contribution, please go to this post. Or you could stay for a while and scroll down when you're ready.)

Ahhhh... Holiday Monday. My American friends have their day off next weekend, which makes more sense because the weather will be nicer. But here in Canada, we celebrate the birthday of a long-deceased British monarch. I'm not complaining: I'm British and I enjoy a long weekend. Bring it on.

After marking essays today (the ones I was supposed to do yesterday before I got distracted), I decided to plant the flowers Mr. P and I picked up yesterday morning. The last couple of days were cold and rainy (with temperatures as low as 3 degrees celsius, which converts to 37.4 degrees fahrenheit. brrrr.) so planting was out of the question. We actually had to store the flowers in the porch overnight.

But today, the sun came out and so did I. Finally, my flower barrels in the front have gone from this (ugh):

To this (don't worry - they'll fill out; they always do).

Mr. P is building me a planter in the back yard. This year, it will just hold flowers as I will be away all summer and can't trust Mr. P and the OnlyChild to take care of vegetables. Surely they can do a bit of weeding and watering...

I also picked some lilac off the tree in the back yard and displayed it in an old teapot on the dining room table. It smells heavenly!

While Mr. P was watching the hockey game tonight (Philadelphia won the series! Hurray!), I started a new project. I know, I know... I said I wouldn't start anything else until I had the Checkerboard Quilt finished. But I have an excuse (or three).

First of all, that quilt needs to be basted and the only place I can do that is at work on the classroom or staffroom floor. Second, I still have no idea how I'm going to quilt it. I just can't decide, despite all the suggestions you've given me. And third, I had this amazing charm pack and some yardage of Authentic just hanging around my sewing room, calling my name. How could I resist? I'm weak.

So, I have started a Chinese Coins quilt. Very simple, very fresh in these fabrics.

Who knows when it will get done.

But who cares? It's all about the process...

One leads to another and another and then to SuperBuzzy

I have a pretty extensive blogroll listed on the right hand side of the page, and I visit blogs that I "follow", which are listed on my dashboard. Yes, that equals lots of time spent on the computer, but none of it wasted, in my opinion.  :)

One of my new favourites is Noodleheads. I discovered Anna's blog a while back by a fluke and rediscovered it a few weeks ago.

She has had some guest bloggers lately, all of whom have provided wonderful tutorials. Today's guest blogger is Penny of Sew Take a Hike. Wow. You have to check out her fabulous blog.

Penny has a giveaway going on - but it's a limited time offer because it ends tonight. Why not go over and see what you could win. But hurry.

And if you just came over to see my quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival, click here because, even though we were instructed to provide a direct link, I guess I just didn't listen.