OOOOHHHHH.....

  

Canada!!!!

(picture from the BBC)

I have never,

in my life,

watched an ice hockey game.

I did this afternoon

and it was great!!!

But I probably won't again.

I couldn't stand all the spitting and nose picking...

Yucky boy stuff!!!

One more for Haiti

On this last day of February

I have one more heart for Haiti...

don't forget them

(I made these out of aluminium foil

an embosser

a pencil

and a crochet hook!!)

Lovely day

It is very quiet today.

Almost as if everything is resting.

The sky is blue and the sun is shining

and if you stand in a sheltered place

you can feel it

warm you.

The snow is melting fast now,

so the birds both on and off the water are busy

rummaging around in the grass

looking for a little something.

Or they are on the feeder

grabbing what's left

of the feast

I will replenish it the next time we go to the store...

and the ducks and geese are

floating peacefully in the sun dappled water

which is now flowing free and no longer frozen

I sense a change in the air

and the light.

I feel less antsy and gloomy today,

even with the news from Chile.

This earth is mightier than we

and there is nothing we can do to stop it from

being what it is.

A planet being a planet.

With or without us, it will do what it has done

forever,

and all we can do is get out of it's way

and hope that those who are caught,

live through it,

or find solace in eachother.

(photo from the BBC)

Have a peaceful sunny day

Have you seen this ad?

TGIF....

Dreaming....

of things to be.

Have a great weekend.

If the snow...

doesn't go away soon

I am going to run away

in my new caravan.

I will pack my bags and load them in

and take off for sunny climes.

(?)

When I get there I will grow flowers

of many colours

(3)

 that will grow over and around

my little home

and I will sit in the sun and write poems

and make dandelion wine

I will park my wheels in soft dirt

so I can balance my little home

or find a rock to

lift it up onto

(!)

So, if you do not hear from me again

I will be somewhere green and warm

in a crooked felt caravan

with massive sunburn

drunk on dandelion wine

 rhyming

to the flowers.

Please bring me home!

Still learning

this blogging thing.

I have just found some comments

I didn't know were there.

As I said, in a post a while back,

getting comments really is nice

and I enjoy going to the persons 

blog and seeing who they are.

I don't have that many comments

so when I get one

it feels good!

 I'd like to thank all of you who have commented.

It's nice of you to take the time to say something!

I used to be very shy about commenting

until I realized

nobody knows who you are,

so why not!!!

I think the first comment I made was on

"I am I said"'s page,

but that is because I know him,

from WAY BACK WHEN...

right N ??!!!

Having the visitor counter has shown me that there are people coming for a visit,

so I am not talking to myself after all,

but so few say anything.

It's so interesting to see a flag from Australia or Coventry, England or Kuwait flying over the globe....

mind blowing to think we can see eachother with a press of a button.

OH WELL.....

"I LIKE all the ones I have gotten

and I'm going to keep them!!!"

(one of my sons said that an age ago, when he didn't get ALL that he wanted.....)

(There is one very mysterious one though,

I happened to see the flag on the globe the other day

but it had no ID attached.

From the middle of the US.....

who are you?)

New week...

Where does time go?

It seems to be going faster

every day.

Guess age is showing...

Well, theroomontheleft

is back in place.

Sorted, dusted and feeling much better.

We took all the junk

up to Goodwill on Saturday

and you will be surprised to hear

I

came

back

with...

NOTHING!

Oh, there were things I could have picked up

and brought home,

but this time I let my head lead

and left it all behind.

I of course regret a couple of things,but I will survive!

I had decided to buy a bunch of flowers

when we were at the grocery store,

but I think $20 is a bit much for a half dead

smelly bunch of lime green somethings,

so I got a small neon pink begonia.

I need some colour

and it fit the bill!

Not my favourite colour

but you know what they say about beggars...

The prayer plant was happy to see it!!

The weather was absolutely lovely over the week end.

The sun shone and the air was warmish and the dripping continued.
I even sat outside and had my coffee when we got back from the store. What a treat!

The icicles have vanished and the snow is receding.

Rather like a old man's hair line.

Slowly but surely.

A friend called and asked if I had any necklaces,

she needed one to give to somebody...

so I sat down in the mess and made one

and mailed it to her! Haven't played with my beads for quite a while and it felt good......maybe I'll get them out this week...

I am including a photo or three of what I did over the week end. The book I mentioned was a bit of a disappointment

and I got very frustrated trying something new, so I did something easy.....

Two knitted cloths,

the yellow one needs it's back

A paper bird made with magazine pages...

(I don't know...)

Something that just happened while

I was talking on the phone..

it would make a good card.

And some paper balls,

made with more magazine pages.

So, along with cooking and wiggle-ing and cheering for all the wonderful Olympians...that week is gone....

a new week has begun.

Got a new book

so I am scouring it for new things.....already found one and if my hands hold out, will have something to show soon. Don't get too excited.....
They just told us there is a storm coming on Monday.....the weather people are almost afraid to talk these days!!! 50% chance of snow, he said and then ducked!!!!!

The geese on the lake are having a terrible time finding something to eat. Why they don't fly somewhere else I don't know. It's hard to see them float on the cold water and sit on the ice, looking miserable and somehow lonely. The small birds have the food I put out for them and they are fine. The snow is still piled up all around us and I am so sick of it I can't tell you. But I have a new book to look at and the Olympics to cheer at, and a very happy hubby, who is building another computer.....well he's changing cases. He's giving the one he has to our son who has an old one that came in on the ark!!!!!

still at it

getting there.....

on a hope and a

prayer............................

..........................plant

When you lose your water supply, what do you do?  We go to HD and get the hardware we need to fix it and hope that it is what we think it is.

while the resident plumber,

jack-of-all-trades is off buying

pressure switches

and such

I go to see the plants

hoping to find something

a little colourful

and cheery

but all I found was a prayer plant

that whispered to me

and I listened

and brought it home.

Strange what you do when you have no water

well,

flowing

water,

we have water,

but it is

all trapped inside the snow,

which we gathered

in buckets,

and brought inside .....

it's all fixed now

so little prayer plant

won't go thirsty...

Wiggle wiggle

I'm working on it

wiggle wiggle wiggle

feed the cat

wiggle wiggle wiggle

cook dinner

wiggle wiggle wiggle

cheer for who ever is winningwhatever

wiggle wiggle wiggle

write a post

about

wiggle wiggle wiggle

-ing

Not mine.......

Little explanation about the new header photo.  IT IS NOT MINE.
I was so fed up with the weather I decided to bring some bluebird happiness to my world and found this lovely image on "NAT GEO", as they call it nowadays.....why can't people just speak properly!!!!  Anyway, I do not want anyone to think I took this....I will when the bluebirds come back, and I think I saw one the other day. But for now, this little fellow will make us feel better until the real thing comes along.

B-day and V-day

It's my husband's birthday on this day,

so we've always shared it

we've been together a very long time

some years have been better than others,

but that's life

as they say

this year it went like this

a month ago

what do you want for your birthday...

nothing

sure...

yup

three weeks ago

what do you want...

silence

what...

well my keyboard is acting up

and it's driving me crazy

ok, get yourself one...

naaah,

I'll make do with  this one

two weeks ago

what do you want

how about a new robe

i saw the hole in the sleeve...

well, I ordered the keyboard and a mouse

and a "who knows what"

ok...

grocery shopping

what kind of cake do you want...

don't

sure...

yup

we came home with a strawberry creamy thing

a very small cake

which we ate on Friday and Saturday

today

did you get me a robe

no, you said you didn't want one...

oh

well i saw this one

he ordered it from AMAZON

few minutes later

are we going out to get a cake and some flowers

no i'd rather go to michael's and get some yarn...

ok

we got a cake

no flowers

they were rubbish

and he wants hamburgers for dinner!!!

.......

Happy Birthday

Husband

and Happy Valentines...

  

Wagon Wheels Hooooo

The Wagon Wheel Square,

that I copied from

Attic24's post about the

old book she was looking at,

is my version of what I saw on her blog.

I have not bothered to look up the pattern, and I am sure there is one somewhere,

but I thought I would just write what I did.

(I write ch 2/3 because it depends on your yarn and needle size as to whether 2 or 3 chains are needed to reach the height of your stitch. I also have started using hdcs because I find them less "floppy" than dcs. Use whichever stitch you like, remember, I made this up from looking at a picture, so it's open to interpretation!! I also use US terms, because, quite frankly, I don't know the UK ones.)

Chain 8

join with sl st

chain 2/3 and make 16 hdc into ring.

 change colour.

Join into any space between hdc with slip stitch

chain 2/3 and hdc ch1 into each space around.

(16 hdc 16 ch1 spaces)

change colour

Join with slip stitch and ch 3 (makes first dc)

make 2 dc in same space.

make 3 dc in next space and each space around

(45 dc)

change colour

join with sl st and chain 3.

make sc, ch 3 into space between dc groups 3x

in next loop (corner) ch 6 and 3sc again into 3 loops, all the way around.

change colour

join with slip stitch into any ch 3 space and make 3sc into each ch3 loop 3x

in corner make 3 sc chain 2 3 sc

change colour

join in any sc and make sc in all sc around block.Fasten off

and you should have your own

Wagon Wheel....
If you click on the photo you can see the stitches clearly and count them too!
(I didn't block it)

good luck and show me what you make.

If there is a mistake or it doesn't make sense

let me know and we'll sort it out.

FLtr followed by sc back flip...

In the spirit of

the Olympics,

that's what I did last night,

while watching

the Opening Ceremonies

from

Vancouver!!!

(and I didn't hurt myself!!!!)

For those of you who are not

hook wielding

fanatics

the title of this post

refers to crochet stitches.

I have been crocheting ever since I was a young girl.

(Yes a long time)

I can pretty much follow a pattern to it's end and have something to show for it.

Lately, with all the crochet and knitting resurgence

going on, there are books by the dozen being printed

and old and new patterns are being presented.

I look for things I have never tried before

or

never seen or heard of.

Example...

the "wiggle" stitch.

When first viewed it looks

quite old fashioned

and kitchy

but upon making it,

with new yarns and different colours,

it isn't so icky after all!!

I have never FLtr before.

So I tried it.

It is just simply putting the hook through the Front Loop of a stitch and making a triple stitch in it.

The sc "back flip" is my way of describing what happens next.

You turn the tr to the back and use the unused loop of the stich you made the tr in.

Confused and bored.....OK.

I'll show you.....

It was amazingly easy and fast to do.

I have no idea what one would do with it

but there...... my first

"Olympic Ring"

so to speak.

If you want to know how to do it....leave a comment and if there are enough I will post a tute!!! on the stitch

I found the "round" in

"Edie Eckman Crochet Motifs"

no middle

If you must know something about me,

the most important thing is..

I"M FICKLE.

And, I don't care who knows it.

I am a Libra.

I go from side to side.

I like, and must have,

balance.

Therefore,

I can now tell you

I like it!!

Heart Time

Today I packed up a box to send to Rebecca.  It is full of beads and bits, for her to take to Haiti when she goes. It made me feel better and she makes me feel better. The story on Haiti is getting smaller and more out of focus.... but they are still there, waiting. For all the things they need to live life. All I can do is once in a while remind you of this. And then hope you do something too. However small. It all helps.

I made a collage to add to Rebeccas Heart Sessions....her button is on the right.

I know that the pictures are out of focus......I did it on purpose.

"nothing is impossible to a willing heart"
john heywood

Signs of cabin fever…

When do you know you have cabin fever?  When, while brushing your teeth, you notice the sun and you go and get the camera, tooth brush in mouth, and snap a shot of what caught your eye.

I rest my case.

Practice a new stitch

Making a little cloth

which is all the rage nowadays

is a good way to practice

a new stitch

I did the entrelac stitch and the v-stitch

and now have two little cloths

which are great to wash my face with!!

I have used these, so excuse the "used" look!

one colour wiggle

While watching LOST

last night

and

watching the blizzard move in this morning

I made a new wiggle

I have seen a few popping up here and there

but

they are made with two or three colours

so,

I wondered what a one colour one

would look like

so I made one

I like it, very much,

if I do say so myself!!

Bad words...

are coming out of my mouth so let me

let Whiskers tell you....

she made me blurry because

the air is blue....

this is what she wants you to see....

It's doing it again.

Those are his tracks in the snow...

they changed my box.

Thank you for listening!!

cat catch-up....

The cat does not belong to the said neighbour......don't know who he belongs to. We fed him and he spent a little time with the snow shoveller and then sat in the sun for a while and I have not seen him today.

The resident princess

is

most

pleased!

brief encounters

I am not going to bore you with the snow.

It did just that.

A lot.

This morning, while I was catching up with what else had happened in the world while we were cut off,

I heard a very plaintive voice, outside the roomontheleft.

It belonged to the cat next door,

who had found his way over here and was now obviously

lost, cold and a little perplexed by this strange new world he found himself in.

I watch him now and again

as he wanders through the garden,

on his way to the lake.

There, he challenges the Canada Geese, stalks the ducks or chases the squirrels back up the trees.

 In the summer, he unearths a vole, or mole

and spends a little time torturing it

until, very catlike, he leaves it for one of us to step on!!

He is a hunter, and unfortunately he has been successful,

every now and again, with the birds. But that is nature and I just have to forgive him!!

Anyway, once he saw me inside, his cries became louder and more pitiful.

Husband opened the front door and there he was, on the other side, looking for all he was worth like a refugee from Siberia !!? His house is a hop, skip and a jump away, but he can't or doesn't want to walk through the deep snow.

Our little furry one was most put out by the attention we were giving him,
and after a brief encounter,
 through the glass,
she got up
out of bed
and
went
 to
 her
 box.

She is not amused!

Nor does she feel sorry for him.

snowmaggedon

IT SNOWED..

That's all I have to say on the subject!!!

More hearts for Haiti

I just visited Rebeccas' blog...

(http://rebeccasower.typepad.com/rs_out_of_hand/)  

to see how things are going with Haiti and read a post she has  written that made me quite miffed, to be polite. She also has a little "heart sessions" going on, for people to take pictures of hearts they have made, or have in various forms and she is linking us together.  I'll let you read what she says on her page, and once again ask, if you can, help please.

Here is my contribution of hearts.....

I crocheted some, I drew one, I cut one out of paper, my grand daughter drew the little picture with the colourful hearts, bottom left,I quilled one

I found a silver one

and some gemstone ones...

and I will keep mine open for Haiti...

more wiggle wiggles

Here is the wiggle rug

I haven't really been working on it, but when I do it's surprisingly easy and fast.

 I made the base the size I thought it should be and started going around the outer edge.

I made the base out of cotton

and am using acrylic yarn.

I am also doing hdc because I think the dc proper would be too tall and get too matted.

Anyway, showing it will encourage me to finish it

and with the threat of the "storm of all time" upon us, AGAIN, I may get more done than I planned!!

I am also completely hooked on making photo mosaics and am looking through the books I have and little ideas keep creeping in causing me to make various and sundry squares.

Maybe by the time this winter is over I will have a rug comprised of squares, wiggles and who knows what.

This is why the top of my page says

"where inspriation turns to chaos"

I must learn to focus.!!