Wet and Foggy

My daybook yesterday commented on the bright sunshine we were having. Before I finished the post, the sun had disappeared and the rain began. There was a chance of freezing rain so I decided I had better check the Post Office and go into Amerstview to pick up some milk and a few other things in case the weather today got worse. I mailed off a flash drive containing all the photos I took from the cruise to my SIL, and a birthday card to my mother.  The bubble mailer and postage cost me $3.70  I spent a total of $37.70 on the few groceries I picked up at the drug store, but every item I bought was on sale.

 Dairy cost $25.73  (340 g of mozzarella, 2 lbs. butter, 500 g cottage cheese, 2 litres of whole milk. 2 doz. eggs and 2 half litres of table cream.)

Tilapia fillets and 3 cans of chunk white tuna cost another $11.99

 It was absolutely pouring rain when I got up this morning, and the warmer temperatures over the snow has made it a very foggy day. I offered my son and his fiancee an opportunity to postpone dinner tonight, but they said they were still coming out. I have been receiving birthday wishes over the phone and tablet all day. My daughter sent me the complete season of Big Little Lies from Amazon. It is being shown over HBO, which I don't get but I have heard a lot of good things about this series with Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Shailene Woodley. I am looking forward to starting it tonight.
I cleaned off my dining room table today and put on a fresh tablecloth. I finally put away the kids' "office" in the living room and picked up all the papers off the floor. Wouldn't you know it? When my grand son called to sing me Happy Birthday, he asked me about his "office". He was disappointed when I had to admit to having put it away this afternoon. I can't get away with anything. *laugh*

I watered my indoor plants this morning. I washed my hair and had a long soak in the bath. I emptied the kitchen compost and took the garbage out to the bin out back. I worked a little on my embroidery. Anything it seems to avoid vacuuming or cleaning the Craft room. It was a no-spend day. WooHoo.

Daybook: Monday, Feb. 19/18

It is Family Day here in Ontario and a Provincial public holiday. Many banks and businesses will not be open today; but Federal government offices, including the Post Office will be open. It is also my Sister's birthday today, so I will be making a call to her later this morning.

Outside my window.....it is bright and sunny.

I am thinking.....that I have not felt very motivated the past week to continue my Spring Cleaning regimen and I do not have many goal accomplishments to show, but I did work on getting some things done.

I am thankful for.....relatively good health this winter [knock on wood]....I haven't suffered any cold or flu so far this season.

From the kitchen.....I finished another roasted chicken this week. I baked dog biscuits again yesterday and the last head of cabbage has been shredded and is sauteing in the kitchen now as I write this. I cooked the rutabaga yesterday and had some with dinner last night. I hard boiled 5 eggs last night to eat as snacks.

I am wearing.....black denim jeans, black fluffy socks and a navy sweat shirt.

I am creating.....an embroidery project on a pillow slip. I made 3 valentine cards and 2  birthday cards and one "Thinking of You" card last week. (So I guess I did accomplish one of my goals after all) I also water coloured some of my new stamps of crazy cats and crazy birds and made some backgrounds for future card-making.

I am going.....to the post office to check my mail and the drug store later today to pick up 2 prescriptions and some dairy items.

I am hoping.....I will feel inspired this week to do a bit of cleaning.

I am hearing.....only occasional traffic noises. The dog is sleeping upstairs.

Around the house.....the vacuuming is still calling out to me, but I have been ignoring it.

One of my favourite things.....right now is the new stamp I bought myself on Monday. I have been checking out Pinterest to gather ideas for card-making, including a number of cat and bird puns I can use.

A few plans for the rest of the week......start tomorrow with my son and his fiancee coming over with dinner to celebrate my birthday. Wednesday I have two doctors' appointments in the afternoon. Friday, a friend and I are going to spend the day together, and Sunday I will drive to my brother's and SIL's in Smith Falls. We have tickets to go to a concert in Ottawa that night, so I will be spending the night with them and returning home on Monday.

Here's the picture I am sharing.....

I bookmarked a site that has embroidery patterns that I can print out. I used carbon paper to transfer the design to an old pillow case I already had and I am using embroidery floss that I purchased years ago. This pattern has a little bit of everything....back stitch, split stitch, chain stitch, lazy daisy, cross stitch and french knots. I have been making mistakes as it has been years since I have done any kind of embroidery, but this is a great project for practice, or to get this NEED for embroidery OUT OF MY SYSTEM. Ha. I will either keep this for myself or give it to one of my grand daughters as a gift. It is also a good project to pick up and work on a little bit at a time.

No Plans

I made no plans for today. I didn't set goals or expect to accomplish much. I didn't disappoint. I decided that since I really hadn't accomplished too much this week...yet, then I may as well sit at the computer and catch up there, instead of tinkering around the house and wishing I were on the computer. Yesterday was supposed to be my actual card making day. I made one card for my mother, and then proceeded to make backgrounds for future cards. I made 4 cards on Wednesday afternoon, so the week was not a total washout.

So I made some outdoor backgrounds by inking in some grass and cloudy skies. The one I made for my mom has sun rays inked in. The cat is from my new stamp set I bought earlier in the week.

Then I dropped some inks on a transparency, spritzed some water over it, and "smooshed" pieces of water colour paper into the mix to produce these backgrounds. They look pretty behind silhouette stamped images.

And since I had my inks out, I decided to stamp my crazy cats and birds on water colour paper and onto regular card stock in order to paint some of them to use in future cards. In the card up top (for my mom) I used glossy accents on the eyes to make them shiny and bulge out (a 3-D effect). These are fun. Once I cut them out over the weekend, I should be able to make a few cards with them next Thursday.

It's a good thing I started the week with my errands, or I wouldn't have got anything done this week. We are into the start of another weekend. I hope you have a good one.

Happy Valentine's Day

It's almost my bedtime, but I wanted to jot down a few events that have happened over the last couple of days. I mentioned on Monday that I picked up a few more groceries for this week, so here they are:

 Dairy cost $11.91

 Produce cost $19.29 (yellow cooking onions, 2 heads of cabbage, 5 zucchini, 6 lbs of apples, rutabaga and 2 peppers).

Not pictured is a box of 100 Splenda packets for $5.99 and a whole fresh chicken that cost $5.46  I cooked that chicken already in my crock pot. My total grocery bill was $42.76

Yesterday I was on the phone making two appointments with my GP. One is set for next week while the other is for a physical early in March. I also made a start on my craft room clean-up.

I was talking only last week about getting some insurance quotes when my policy came up for renewal. Well the renewal packet was in the mail on Monday, so I called my broker yesterday morning to try and get some answers. My home insurance premium is another $27 a month more! Her server was down so she couldn't get the information I needed yesterday, but she has promised to phone me back this week. If she cannot explain why the big increase, I will definitely be checking other places. I used some of my new acrylic stamps on water colour paper last night and coloured in the images with my distress inks.

I spent this afternoon making cards.....a birthday card for my sister and three more valentine cards. I was invited to my son's and his fiancee's place for dinner  tonight, so I wanted to make enough valentines for the other guests. I got back home around 9:30 and will maybe relax in front of the TV before retiring for the night.

Daybook: Monday, Jan. 12/18

It is now 4:05 PM and I am just sitting down to start my Daybook. That is because I started my errands this morning.

Outside my window.....it is still sunny and mild. My weather app on my tablet says -4 Celsius and snowing but that is far from the truth. It is a gorgeous day outside.

I am thinking.....about my Life Lab results that say that my sugar chemistry went up. What the...? I have been true to my diet and so I will wait until my doctor's appointment to get her take on the results. I am pretty sure I have still been losing some weight....not a lot, but my clothes are loose on me.

I am thankful for.....a break in the weather. After all the snow we got last week, yesterday we got freezing rain. First thing this morning, the sidewalks were pretty slick. The tree branches were very pretty sparkling in the sun though, and I didn't think to take a picture.

From the kitchen.....I baked three chicken legs yesterday. I had one last night and will have a second one tonight. I made enough stir fried veggies that there are some left over for tonight. I may take the meat off the third to put into a chicken soup or into a freezer container.

I am wearing.....blue jeans, black socks, a black shirt with 3/4 sleeves with a red zippered fleece over top. My hair is in a ponytail.

I am creating.....6 more cards this week, as well as an embroidered pillow slip (I hope).

I am going.....nowhere else today. I went out already today to pick up a few groceries after I picked up my mail at the Post Office. I also stopped at a Service Ontario office where I bought my 2018 license sticker, and I renewed my driver's license and my health card for another 5 years. Then I drove over to Michael's armed with a 40% off coupon where I spent an obscene amount of time checking out the offerings. I wanted to buy some things for crafting and so I used one of my gift cards from Christmas to stock up on some discounted valentine card stock and ribbon for next year. I picked up and put back a LOT of things I wanted. When I finally decided on what I was buying, it was just slightly over $50, so I paid the overage with change from my purse.

I am hoping.....to get started this week and next on Spring cleaning my Craft Room. It is a big job, so I know it will take longer than just one week.

I am hearing....a lot of .traffic outside returning from work. The roads are bare of snow, so I can hear the tires on the pavement.

Around the house.....my Christmas cards are finally down, but my floors are screaming for a proper vacuuming.

One of my favourite things.....again, is my android tablet that allows me to interact with my grand children. They are able to show me things and read their favouite stories to me. It is like having them here in front of me, but I can hang up on them at any time. *laugh*

A few plans for the rest of the week.....include the aforementioned vacuuming, crafting and starting the clean-up of the Craft Room.

Here's the picture I am sharing.....

A heavy duty photo box ($2.50), 25 assorted sheets of valentine themed card stock ($2.79), 2 rubber stamps ($2 each, but I thought they were 2 for $3 and I didn't notice until I got home), and a 4 pack of scissors (on sale for $4.99). I used my 40% off coupon to buy a new Tim Holtz acrylic stamp set called Crazy Cats/Birds, so it only cost me $16.19  That is the most I have ever paid for stamps. On the pack of cardstock is DCM black embroidery floss for 69 cents, a hemp necklace set (makes 3) and extra hemp cord with which to make more. On the package of scissors is a packet of 200 tiny brads...the size I use most often in white and black.

Gray, Drab and Snowy

Drab, gray and snowy are how I would describe the weather the past 3 days. I talked to my son from BC this afternoon after I finally came in out of the cold having spent hours outside shoveling the driveway again. He said he was talking to a friend who lives in Toronto and was told that we had 3 snow storms back to back. I was sure it was just one storm that had lasted for 3 days, but whatever...the result is the same. We had lots of snow that needed to be moved. My job would have been much worse, but a neighbour saw me struggling with the plowed stuff at the end of the driveway (heavy with  sand and road salt and well compacted) and he took pity on me and used his little tractor with the snow plow on it to remove the worst of it. That left me to just have to clear the top of the driveway of  the fluffy soft stuff.

Sunday is the day I get a lot of family phone calls, which is so much fun with face time. I have spoken today with Dee, my brother and SIL from Smith Falls, my son in BC and two of my grand daughters, and my sister and BIL in Elliot Lake. In between calls, I have been in the kitchen again. I have shredded the last cabbage and sauteed. I roasted 3 chicken legs with backs attached. I will have one tonight with stir fried veggies. I unloaded the dishwasher and filled it up again for a load that is washing now. I finally took down my strings of Christmas cards that were hanging on the dining room wall.

Goals Update:
Environment - House- Finished Spring Cleaning my Master Bedroom (except for the windows)
                                    Have begun the job of purging, though not much as yet.
                      Garden- I threw out a lot of old seed packets in the Fall, so I only have one glass mason jar where I have stashed some seeds. I have Shasta Daisies, nasturtiums and marigolds. I have seeds for green onions, red lettuce and radishes and I have veggie seeds for turnip, 2 kinds of carrots, cabbage, pie pumpkins, corn and some green beans. All of these seeds do very well by directly planting in the garden. The veggies that would benefit with an early indoor planting....I don't have any of them. So I will be on the lookout for peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and broccoli.

Finances- I only had one spend day this week when I spent approx. $25 on postage to mail out souvenirs to my grand kids. I am thinking I will let my CAA membership lapse this month and pick it up next month in March. With the car needing a renewal in February and also I need to pay for my license  renewal this month, it is too much to handle at once. I did not renew this week like I planned, so I will move that to next week's goals.

Family and Friends   I kept in touch with family all week, but did not call my friends yet.  I have been commenting on blogs this week. I worked on fixing the problem with my vacation photos. Now that I have it sorted I should be able to download my photos to a DVD and mail it out to my SIL. I should also be able to post them to my Blog.

Health   I went for my blood work this week but did not call to make an appointment with my GP. I have to do that tomorrow. 

Crafts I made my 6 birthday cards this week, but worked on them on two separate afternoons. I tried to sketch out an embroidery project but I didn't like it. I am going to try again today with something smaller. I have located some embroidery floss and found some small needlepoint projects. I checked out some iron-on patterns on Amazon but have not ordered anything. I will do some needlepoint before I spend any more money. I also have cotton to knit up some more dishcloths. I want to use up supplies that I have already.

More pictures from Aruba.....

 Hooiberg (Dutch for haystack) is the name given to this remnant of a volcano

 It is not the highest point on the Island, but because it is the centre, it can be seen from anywhere on the Island.

 Aruba is known for its white sandy beaches on the southern coastline, but the northern coast is ruggedly beautiful. They discourage swimming here. These small sandy bay openings are called Bocas.

It is strange to see semi-desert right next to wide expanses of water and crashing waves. You have already seen the photos of the stone bridge so I won't show any more. I took so many. I won't say too many because I just loved watching the waves crashing into the shoreline. After we left this area we drove here to see the Bushiribana ruins (an old gold smelter). A lot of my photos today were taken from inside a tour bus. We did not get out here to take photos, so I apologize for the glare from the window.

We did get out here at the Casibara rock formations and were allowed to climb to the top.

 Beautiful 360 degree vistas from the top. Love all the red tiled roofs.

At the bottom of these huge boulders, inside the stone wall, was a garden.

 Some views of the garden.

I climbed up that rock formation. 

 Fields of Aloe Vera. We stopped at the Aloe factory. It was Sunday, so there were no workers, but the store was open for business. I bought some hand lotion and repair lotion for sunburned skin. I got to try the sunburn creme later on in Jamaica. It worked great!

 The California Lighthouse, named for a schooner named the S.S. California that crashed on these shores before the lighthouse was built.

 There wasn't time to climb to the top of the lighthouse, but there was time to buy a smoothie.

 And finally we ended up on the southern shores with the famous white sand beaches. We only had 20 minutes here. A lot of people didn't even get off the bus to take pictures, but my SIL and I did. This was the first opportunity to visit a Caribbean beach since we started the cruise, and we were not going to miss the opportunity. I snapped these pictures and then I went in up to my knees. I was hit by a wave and knocked down. The undertow grabbed me and pulled me out. Try as I might, I could not get back to my feet. My sister in law had to grab my hand and pull me up the beach. I was laughing so hard, but in reality, it was quite frightening. I was bruised on the back  of my thighs from where the waves had bounced me hard under the surf.  I was still bruised at the end of the cruise.

I look at these pictures now and I don't understand how I could have fallen. This beach looks so inviting. Anyways, I had my little adventure and got back to the bus in time to head back to the ship. This tour was called "The Best of Aruba" and was just over 4 hours long. Tomorrow we will arrive in Curacao.

Is It Friday Yet?

It was another busy day that got away from me. At 9 AM sharp, two workers from the Township arrived to change out my water meter. I mentioned to them that when I left for vacation a couple of weeks ago, I could not shut off the water to the house like I wanted (to protect my pipes from freezing while I was gone). They appreciated my mentioning that because they too could not budge the shut off valve. They needed to gently turn it off with a set of channel lock pliers. They loved my dog Satchel and gave him lots of attention. Usually people think twice about walking up to my door (He looks so fierce) and I like it that way. However, anyone who gets to know him, or Boxers generally, soon learn that he is a marshmallow. When they were done I asked them how the Utility clerk was going to figure out if she had overcharged me on her guesstimate, and they answered by saying that if the last bill was significantly higher than the next one, I should be credited with the difference. So I will be watching. If they do not adjust my bill, I will fight it.

The rest of the morning I spent in the kitchen prepping food. You might remember that last week I bought 2 huge containers of spinach that I have not been eating down very quickly. I decided to wilt  the spinach from one of the containers and place it into muffin tins to make spinach "pucks" for the freezer. Now I will be able to add to my omelets and/or casseroles instead of worrying about eating it all before it goes bad on me. I still have most of one container of raw spinach to use for salads.

I also fried up some onions and peppers (from the freezer) and half the large clam shell of fresh mushrooms that were still left. (I cooked up one of them last Saturday). This will be starters for two stir fry dinners. The other half of the mushrooms I just fried in butter for the freezer. I made a chicken veggie soup with the stock I made earlier this week. I shredded and sauteed another head of cabbage and I fried a pound of bacon and a pound of ground beef. I added the ground beef to half of the buttered cabbage for dinner tonight.

One package of bacon cooked and frozen. I just reheat what I want in the microwave for breakfast or add some  to a recipe.

I had two bowls of my soup for lunch, and then headed upstairs to work on my bedroom. I took the glass cleaner and paper towels with me to clean two mirrors and some glass shelves in one of my built-ins. I vacuumed my bedroom thoroughly. I would love to put some laminate flooring down in this room, but not yet. I want to pay off my credit card first. This is the last room to be done. When we first moved into this house, we ripped up all the old flooring (vinyl tile or old carpet) and painted the sub floors with paint. We gradually laid porcelain tile or laminate flooring throughout. Of course, our bedroom is the last floor to be replaced; but,  I can live with it for a while longer.

I sat at the computer to try and figure out the status of my holiday photos and realized that a lot of them were missing. When I tried to download them again, I figured out that the batteries on my camera were low and so only a few were being downloaded. So it wasn't my camera. It wasn't my computer. It was the operator. Go figure. So I am going to quit my busy day here and promise to send more holiday cruise pictures tomorrow. I have since changed out the batteries and have successfully downloaded all of the photos to My Pictures. I'm too tired right now to try and sort it all out. I was hoping to steal a wee nap this afternoon but that didn't happen. So I will go eat my dinner and call my son to see how his wife did during surgery today and find out how his last clinic appointment went. I think I will watch a movie on Netflix tonight. Have a great weekend everyone.

Taking Care of Business

Today was the day I decided to drive into Kingston to get things done. I chose the right time to go to the LifeLab because the crowds of people didn't start arriving until after I walked in. I waited for only 20 minutes before I got in. On the way home I stopped at Canadian Tire and registered for an emissions test.  The car was passed. I was in and out in only 10 minutes but I was falling asleep in the waiting room. I realized then that I hadn't had any coffee so instead of driving over to the license bureau to obtain my sticker, I decided to just come home, have my coffee, and make my onion, red pepper and spinach omelet.

This afternoon I worked on three more birthday cards.

 I wanted to go upstairs and do more Spring cleaning in my bedroom but it was really, really hard to get motivated. In the end, I took the vacuum cleaner upstairs and cleaned up more items from the bedroom that did not belong there. I threw a load of laundry in the washing machine to do later tonight after 7 o'clock. I still wasn't in the mood to clean, so I didn't push it. I came back downstairs and made zoodles with meatballs for supper. I read some blogs and commented. I emailed my DIL who is having surgery tomorrow. I "face-timed" with my grandkids and "Dee". I am not going to post any vacation photos tonight because I have not organized them yet. (Did I mention that my photos didn't download in chronological order?) Anyways, I think it will be an early bedtime tonight.

Physically Exhausted

There was not lab work again today. When I woke up this morning, the snow had just started. It was that really fine drizzly kind of snow that makes the road slick. At least that is what I believe, so I quickly made up my mind that I would not go out today. A little while later, the Emergency trucks left the fire station to respond to an accident, so I think I chose wisely.

I started the day with putting the rest of the roasted chicken in the crockpot to make chicken broth, and then I proceeded to Spring clean my bedroom again. I found another pair of rubber gloves and filled a pail with hot soapy water to wash the second closet doors (inside and out). Those louvered slats at the bottom of the doors are a great dust magnet. I washed the sills and frames of my two bedroom windows (I think I will leave washing the inside and outside of the glass until a warm day in April), the inside of my bedroom door, the television, all of my wood furniture and I spot cleaned the walls. I am thinking maybe I will paint my bedroom walls if I have time this Spring. I tidied the surfaces of my furniture and put unnecessary items inside drawers. I did not purge too much today, but I did remove things from the bedroom that did not belong. I still have to find a home for those items.

I purged only 3 things.....a John Frieda hair lightener for blonde hair (never used), another evening bag, and the bottom of a music box/jewellery box (plays Memories) I always thought I could remove the music box gizmo and put it in a real wooden music box, but that ain't ever happened. Ha. So let someone else do it.

I ate leftovers from last night's dinner for lunch before I sat down to make three birthday cards. If I go out tomorrow for lab work and run my errands to get my license renewed, then I am not going to have time to make 6 birthday cards tomorrow. So I used this afternoon to get half of them done.  I used the cricut to cut 3 identical yellow flowers and black fern-like leaves to make 3 black and yellow cards.

The snow had pretty much stopped falling by the time I finished these, so I went outside to do some more shoveling. I only did half the driveway....only enough to get myself out of the driveway. I overdid it yesterday and my muscles were still kind of sore today, so I didn't want to push it.

Here are some more photos from the cruise. Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao are known as the ABC Islands.  (The Dutch Antilles). Here are pictures from Aruba. Loved the beaches here, but the waves were monstrous and the undertow was deadly. 

 We are docked in Aruba. Soon we will disembark the ship to take a bus tour of the Island.

 Beautiful old architecture.

 Aruba is very dry. This is in fact their rainy season. Lots of cactus and the trade winds were very strong.

 This natural stone bridge is known as the Baby Bridge.

 The original stone bridge collapsed in 2005. The natural arch was carved from the coral limestone by the pounding waves.