A Strange Project in a Strange Land

Well, it's strange to say, but it's actually getting COLD at night... cold enough I almost wanted the furnace on this morning! I guess that's what comes with living in the north. It does have it's bonuses though, like seeing the northern lights! And moose! And, and, and!
And black billed magpies! These things are all over the place and are actually amazing creatures.. they can recognize themselves in a mirror, and actually have 'funerals' for other dead magpies! I managed to catch a picture of one finally, in the neighbors yard.

I've been working on a strange project this week - a trailer. We were given a trailer by my father but it was in rough shape. Seriously rough shape. There were about ten layers of paint on the thing! So we put some serious work into it this week.. removed tires and fenders and other things, wire wheeled the surface and then I did one coat of primer and two coats of paint on the thing!

It was a lot of work, but I'm pretty happy with it! Not bad for free!!

J's Most Excellent Stained Glass

My long time friend J, is an artistic and talented person. She can knit, make jewellery and she's also adept at stained glass! (amongst other talents of course!) Years ago, her and I joined forces to enter our first craft/art fair in Ontario. It was a stressful time, I tell you! I stayed up late the entire night before to make more bags I was so nervous! I've posted some of the photos earlier but I thought I'd post some of J's excellent stained glass art.

Tea Cozies and Wallets

A few years ago, my dear friend Jane sent me a teapot cozy - it's lovely isn't it?

In July we took a trip to the province next door to attend my grandmother's 95th Birthday reunion. I whipped up a few tea wallets for my sister (who requested one for an aunt) it's just as easy to make a few as one. This time I made them without interfacing to see if I liked them better.. I find the ones with interfacing seem very 'thick'. Hard to explain.

It's also not the easiest thing to find buttons in this town. I resorted to Wart-mart which had very limited stock. I'll have to buy some next time I go to the big city. I'd also like to find a alternate to the elastic. It's not looking as 'pretty' as I'd like.

And here's the kids after a rainy day (one of the few rainy days!) As you can see, they are being made to lay on the towel until they dry off a bit more!

Did I Ever Finish That Linen Closet??

Well I did did did! I painted the piece that will be (ok it is attached) to the door, added hooks and mounted it up with some extra strong glue 'liquid nails' ... I don't think that sucker is moving! I was also gifted with two lovely sets of grey towels (and some accessories for the bathroom, soap dish etc. from the in-laws as a house warming present) The hooks have been very convenient for elastics etc. I really wanted to find a strong enough magnet strip to hold tweezers but haven't found anything yet. The problem with a small town in Northern Canada.

getting glued down on the patio

how to figure out what drill bit you need

I also drilled the hooks into my measuring spoon/cup hanging thing-a-ma-jig - I'm not sure of the color. I may trade it out for beige or brown or white. Of course even though it was measured carefully, they are too long and need to be trimmed to fit in the cabinet doors. Sigh. I blame the mister, who cut them for me.

measuring spoons

measuring cups

I also took some time to experiment with my sewing machines ability to make letters... or not. I wasn't impressed. Back to hand stitching! I suppose one could pull out the threads in between, but it was impossible to get the letters in a straight line.

Here is a bit work done on the 'garden path' quilt. We're at a stand still with this group quilt. Apparently a few people have fallen behind. That's ok, plenty of time to quilt, and a million of these suckers to sew and turn inside out.. yep, not exactly enjoyable!

my clauss scissors are awesome!

Tea 4 Two!

On the trip down to the coast I prepared some gifties for my loved ones. This is a mug rug I made for a dear friend for her birthday. I also made a few "wallet tea bag holders"

mug rug

wallet tea bag holder

inside of wallet tea bag holder

eye mask, and back of the mug rug (and a loose tea holder)

These wallet tea bag holders were quick to make, and fun to give! I'm currently making a few more as requested! I'm sure you remember the eye masks from a previous post. These have come in handy as there is no.darkness. It stays light almost all night this far north, though it's past the solstice now so we should start darkening again? I hope?

Tee Hee!

my version

internet version

Well Where Have I Been??

Life kind of got a head of me for awhile. We took a trip down to the coast. I spent some time making gifts for some lovely friends and made sure everything was packed. This was our first trip with two dogs and we had to bring one of the crates in the cab of the truck as Casey is not a good traveler! Oddly enough, having Tucker seemed to make the trip much easier for her. They were both well behaved. We saw family, had a birthday party with friends and then visited the in-laws to pick up our big boat.
Yep we're crazy. Truck, camper, aluminum boat, 16' bowrider, little old truck, a 4runner and new to the family, my santa fe. We used it have another home made camper if you can believe it!

dog craziness on the drive!

exhausted at the hotel

still confused at all the adventure!

relaxing in the sun

Not long after the in-laws came to visit which required MUCH organizing and cleaning on my part. I fixed up the 'bedroom' downstairs which was cold and uninviting. It has no flooring so I guess technically it's cold! It's a large room that I'd like to eventually make smaller and move the door, but for now it's great! I put up a closet unit on one side that I would like to eventually make into a closet, and found some extra shelving (it's the open wire stuff) at a garage sale. I just need to figure out how to cut it!

I found some mistints that closely matched the paint upstairs - I keep thinking I should go back and get the rest of the cans to finish of the basement. I put up a curtain rod and hung a green sheet I had for a curtain and we moved the queen bed downstairs as we had purchased a new king size bed (yay)
Luckily I have a whole queen size set in green. We put up a new light and it's feeling pretty cozy. Some things I need to finish up to make it a bit better is some wooden frames I need to paint white and hang up. I need some nice side tables too for the lamps. I'll post some photos later!

We spent a lovely day on the lake as well, the first time for both dogs on the boat. The dogs acted the complete opposite as what I thought. Casey seemed to get into it, Tucker hunkered down and didn't move.

Casey

feeling adventurous

Tucker

This totally a fake photo. I had a picture of Tucker I liked but the background was poor, and I took the picture of the sky the same day. Little bit of snip snip in photoshop and voila!

resting after a long day

Luggage Tags and Flowers

Just a quick shot of the petals and leaves for the garden quilt!

Then some experimenting with luggage tags. I read an online tutorial that used the packaging that sheets and bedding come in, and I happen to keep those. I'm not complete sure how I feel about them. I think a string through a grommet might look better then a sewn in strap. Surprisingly the plastic is easy to sew through. I wonder if it will tear easily though, because it kind of looks 'perforated' if you know what I mean!

 And I'm picking up the Japanese quilt again. I bought some backing in Grande Prairie last month in this lovely orange color, and I'm thinking this multicolored orange thread will look great against the black.

 Close up of thread

 And here is our pups, sleeping in the sunshine. It's since snowed again. Go away snow!

Garden Path Quilt (continued)

I made some adjustments to the corner pieces. Originally they were supposed to be a pink check, which look s great with the quilt as a whole, but right next to the roosters? It looked horrible! So I substituted the blue 'comb' fabric - I'm sure this might not be the only one I make...

I used my GO quilt cutter to cut a lot of the strips needed, which worked great. I still made a lot of mistakes cutting though! But nothing that's not fixable, even if I have to patch a few strips together!

And here is what we are supposed to do before the next meeting in it's final form!

There are flowers and leaves that will be appliqued in the centre, so it won't look as bare as it does right now. I chose the brown and pink check for the flowers, I hope it works out! There were 84, count 'em, 84 of each to cut out! I purchased some traceable vinyl to use to make the pattern for the flowers, much easier to trace and cut out then using cardboard.

You can see the pink check in the corner block - it would really have clashed with the roosters!

Dollar Store Closet Re-Vamp

Well the closet is a wee bit closer to being finished. I started adding back baskets I had bought previously for the closet, and then bought a few more. Then I realized that I need some small baskets to sort things a bit more (ie. first aid stuff is all thrown together)

 I added some dollar store lights, just to help out a bit. Dollar Store Couture!

 I need to get some new towels, I'm leaning towards grey and charcoal (hides dirt well!) and I'm contemplating blue or maybe even orange in the bathroom! Maybe grey bathroom and orange towels? 

They should all blend together, right?

 I had bought these little label holders from the dollar store a long time ago, and while they look super cute, they'll have to be replaced. The stick out to much and I *know* they will be pulled off when I pull out a basket! I'll have to figure something out, because the labels look very cute!

I also want to create an emergency kit to store in the closet. Something that can be picked up and carried easily. Perhaps a backpack? <off to do some research into what goes in an emergency pack>