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What Kind of Wednesday | 100DayProject Day 39

What Kind of Wednesday

What kind of Wednesday are you having? My daily theme has generally been about me. Now it’s time for me to wonder more about you? What is your theme for today? So far it’s an average day here. Not too warm. Not too cold. I was up in time to take Luna for a short walk after putting out the compost bin and paper recycling. It’s not a ‘cans and cans’ day (a term I adopted from a friend for the biweekly days that we put out garbage cans and cans/glass recycling).

Roland had another early morning shift at the the Canadian Ringette Championships then stayed out that way and worked from there until Heidi’s 1:00 game. I went to 8:00-10:00 Pickleball then made some pasta sauce for an early 11:30 lunch with Kevin. Lots of dishes had accumulated (my experiment of doing my own and leaving Roland and Heidi to do theirs is turning out as expected: an accumulation of dishes) so I got them cleaned up before heading (late) to Heidi’s game. Nancy’s hosting bookclub at my place tonight so I wanted to get the kitchen cleaned up. After the game I continued to transform the past sauce with some noodles into ‘lasasga’ – I find it easier to just use a layer of rotini or other such small noodles rather than actual lasagna noodles when making lasagna.

The game was good, with Heidi’s team winning which puts them first in their pool and advances them to the quarter finals tomorrow morning at 9:45 with no need to play tonight which is nice because otherwise I would have had to miss a lot of book club. Karen and Kevin were out to watch the game so I had a good catchup with Karen since we ended up sitting side by side. We see each other briefly at pickleball and curling but rarely get much time to catch up. It was kind of like the good old days when we had more time to hang out with ringette parents while the children were in the change rooms and during the games.

Some of the other ‘What kind of Wednesday’ thoughts that arose today. Such as wishing for different weather. Not me, but a lot of other people get quite perturbed by the weather. I find it a lot easier to accept that we’ll continue to have winter weather occasionally at least until the end of April rather than expecting the weather to be good and being disappointed when it isn’t. This reminds me of an episode of a life coach podcast that I listen to by Jody Moore entitled ‘wasted wishes‘.

At pickleball we self-organized because we were without an ambassador – it worked out fine. We all waited out some turns. As usual there were some ‘where is my phone’ and ‘what did I do with … (my keys)’ occasions for me during the day. And ‘what is his/her name’ at pickleball. Usual memory deterioration I expect but I’m going to make a more concerted effort to remember names – and to pay more attention to where I leave things. I’m back to listening to some ‘Better Brain Fitness‘ podcast episodes for some motivation to get back at activities that are great for developing and maintaining cognitive function.

I made some soup while Nancy put the finishing touches on the dinner she’s prepared for book club. Very yummy vegetarian tacos. We all loved the roasted cauliflower, grilled Halloumi cheese and mango salsa. And the brownies and lime cheesecakes for dessert. I’ll have to get the recipes from her. And actually make it. I seem to accumulate recipes to make much faster than I actually make recipes. And, of course, we loved the conversation and laughter.

100DayProject Day 39

I didn’t make any progress at all on making cards or even watching videos today. But I did send out two cards – at bookclub everyone who was able to attend signed the cards to send to 2 of our friends who couldn’t make it because they were sick. We didn’t send cards to those who couldn’t make it due to travel. Too bad that postcards seems to have been a thing of the past. It would be fun to receive postcards from them on their travels. It’s always interesting to see where others go on their vacations.

Tournament Tuesday | 100DayProject Day 38 | started Card 28

100DayProject Day 38 | started Card 28

I haven’t done much on my 100DayProject today. The 2nd lesson of the Altenew For the Guys course is entitled Artistic Techniques. The instructor made a beautiful ink blended galaxy / starry sky background which she then fussy cut into the shape of a city skyline silhouette that she had stamped. I don’t have such a stamp set but did search for images of an Ottawa skyline. I took a few screenshots and printed them out. My plan is to print them on the back of a piece of cardstock and create my galaxy / starry sky background on the other side then cut it out. I don’t think that would be violating a copyright of the images to use it in that way.

My ink blending before adding any white splatters, black ink and white/stickles splatters.
My background after adding white splatters, black ink and white/stickles splatters. The inspiration card just had a skyline silhouette but I like the idea (inspired by the images I found on the internet) of having a reflection on the water somehow, perhaps with a fireworks burst above the skyline because that is how the skyline looks on Canada Day. It shall be interesting to see if I can transform this galaxy background into a nice card. My splattering techniques still need a lot more practice!

I did write 3 thank you cards today. And of course had lots of crafty chatting with Vicki when I was at her place.

Tournament Tuesday

Roland was up early for another volunteer shift that the ringette tournament. I slept in, but still walked Luna before heading to the pool for what ended up being only a 10 minute swim. But I’m still glad that I went. In the photo I took this morning, Luna seemed to be anticipating her displeasure of being left at home for quite a bit of the day because we were going to be away from the house to watch Heidi’s 2 tournament games today. Luna did get out for a second walk with Roland and me after he got home from his morning volunteer shift. We were able to go in the conservation area because the snow/ice was still frozen. As usual, I like to see how the stream at our usual turnaround point has changed since the last time. It’s totally clear of snow and ice now except for along the shore. After tonight’s game I considered changing my theme to two win Tuesday. Both games today were very exciting; very close games. They played Saskatchewan and BC. I visited Vicki who lives in Orleans near the arena after the first game. It was great to see a lot of Heidi’s teacher colleagues out cheering her on, complete with handmade signs. And to talk with Jenna, whom Heidi played several years of ringette with but whom she had first met when Jenna coached her starting way back when she was 11. Heidi’s likely retiring from NRL next year and will play on Jenna’s team. I couldn’t make my usual Tuesday evening walk but did get to see a friend briefly to pick up her prescription paperwork and drop off her filled prescription. I’m glad that the schedule worked out such that I could get to the pharmacy for her. And Luna got her third outing of the day with Roland while I ate my dinner.

Mail It Monday | 100DayProject Day 37 | Card 27

Card 27 | Altenew For the Guys Lesson 1 Geometrics.

Mail It Monday

It’s 10:30 and I’m just getting started with writing some words for today. I haven’t even yet written my cards that I’m going to mail, but I have picked the cards and recipients out. In addition to working on my 100DayProject to create cards, I am also trying hard to get cards sent out into the world, too.

I skipped Pickleball this morning to try to put a bit of order into all the crafting supplies and tools that I haul between home, the cottage and my different crafting classes. It is very out of control; I am always loading too much into the car and bringing it into the house, cottage and carrying it up and down the stairs from my craft room. I really do want to get some more duplicates of some tools to lessen how much I move around and how much time I spend packing and unpacking. But mostly I need to get my projects more organized so that I’m only bringing the supplies that I need for each project.

We had 3 participants in our in-person Card Crew program at the Dementia society with 2 volunteers. Everything went well making cards similar to ones that I had made with my Spellbinders Advent calendar supplies. The husband of one of the participants gave me a card that his wife made last week to take home in which he had generously included a gift card. It was so lovely to see his wife’s shaky signature; I remember how my mom’s handwriting gradually deteriorated until she was no longer able to sign her name. It’s not easy aging, and living with Dementia adds an extra level of challenge and caring for a person with for Dementia is even more daunting. I love seeing how much the husbands of two of my participants are so patient and loving with their wives and hearing from the wives in class how much love and appreciation they have for their husbands.

I stopped on the way home at a participant of my online Creative Cards and Crafts program to bring her the most recent kits for her and her sister. She gave me some homemade Chinese dumplings which were perfect for my dinner after I had a nap. I was feeling quite tired and knew that if I didn’t have a nap it would be a real struggle to stay away heading out to Orleans for Heidi’s 7:30 ringette game and back home again. I get very sleepy in cars, even when driving; I’ve been known to pull over into a parking lot for a 10-15 minute nap on the hour drive to the cottage.

Then Luna got her second solo walk of the day with me after my dinner. Roland had an early morning shift at the ringette Nationals tournament and has another one tomorrow.

One of the sample cards I had to show my program participants. I made this during my Spellbinders Advent Calendar project.
The other sample card I had to show my program participants. I also made this during my Spellbinders Advent Calendar project.

I made my Card 27 based on the first lesson in the Altenew For the Guys course entitled Geometrics. But seemed to not find the time to post about any of the recent cards that I’ve made.

It’s now 11:17 and I am still struggling with my Google drive not synching properly to my laptop so I’ve done a bit of a workaround to get a few photos included in the post. But I need to get to bed so I can go swimming at 8:00 tomorrow morning. I’ll update this post tomorrow to add in some more photos.

Sleet on Sunday | 100DayProject Day 36 | Card 25 | Card 26

100DayProject Day 36

I made 2 cards today: Card 25 based on Lesson 5 of the Altenew Easy Ink Blending Techniques which covered Faux Watercolouring. Card 26 was a slim shaker card using the technique in Lesson 6 of the Altenew Easy Ink Blending Techniques course entitled Putting it into Practice. Since it’s almost 11:00 p.m. already I won’t be posting the details of how I made the cards. I do hope to get those posted tomorrow since I’ve been trying to use the colour scheme in the Color Throwdown Challenge #289 to which I can link my cards using that colour combination until tomorrow.

Card 25

I have been using my Gardenia Duo stamp set quite a bit lately for my class assignments. I need to get busy making thank you cards to send out to everyone who so kindly made donations to the Dementia Society in my mom’s memory. I have quite a few nice card designs featuring the Gardenias that will be perfect for those cards. Gardenias were my mom’s favourite flowers.

At 26 cards made by the end of Day 36 I’m at about 72% completion rate. I definitely have some catching up to do, both on making cards as well as posting about them. If I continue to do 2 a day for the next week that would put me at 40 cards by the end of Day 43. Definitely an ambitious goal! I did get one lesson from my next course, For the Guys watched entitled Geometrics.

Card 26

Sleet on Sunday

As forecast, there was freezing rain today. Luckily it turned to just rain later in the day and we didn’t get nearly as much freezing rain as they had been forecasting earlier. We opted to take Luna for a short walk on the road followed by a short walk in the woods when we realized that it wasn’t raining too hard and that it was actually slipperier on the roads than on the forest, especially because we stopped back at home and put on our spikes. We definitely had a sluggish start to the day. And Luna came back rather soggy from our walk. We packed up and headed home before lunch in case the roads got icier. I did some grocery shopping at Costco and Farm Boy for Heidi who has a big week coming up with her ringette Nationals here in Ottawa starting tomorrow. I also made her some pasta sauce and will make a few more things including some soup early in the week. I’ve got the carcass from a Costco chicken boiling with some celery, carrots and onions overnight. She had a practice this morning and did some school work before opening ceremonies then had lots of laundry and other prep for the week to tackle before making her egg bites, getting her smoothie ingredients packaged into baggies and back into the freezer, boiling her pasta and assembling pasta and sauce containers.

Snow Angel Saturday | 100DayProject Day 35

Snow Angel Saturday

Another (10:15 p.m.) start to my writing. So it will be a short blog post today.

We had about 5 cm of fresh snow overnight so it was back to being a winter wonderland. Of course, Luna was quick to be making snow angels as soon as we were out the door on our way for our morning forest hike. The first walk of the day was just me and Luna. We did 2 more forest hikes with Roland. While the lake is still covered with ice, we’re not sure how safe it is, so we’re avoiding going on out the lake. It was such a nice day to be outside. Since my theme for the day is Snow Angel Saturday, I couldn’t leave it to Luna to make all of the snow angels so I found a nice flat patch of freshly fallen snow on the driveway after my morning walk. It was a good thing made my snow angel early in the day; a lot of the snow had melted by the afternoon.

Luna and I just did the Mount Saint Kincaid loop this morning; I didn’t have on grippers on my light hiking shoes nor did I have gators. So it was quite slippery and my socks and pant legs got wet from the snow. The addition of grippers and gators made the other 2 hikes much easier and more pleasant.

We left it too late to roast the Butterball turkey breast that we had brought up for dinner. We won it back at the Gobbler Bonspiel back in December. So Roland BBQed salmon filets. And I made Apple Crisp for dessert. I’ve added a blog post with the recipe here.

100DayProject Day 35 | Card 23 | Card 24

I made cards 23 and 24 today but will post more details about the process of making them another day. I’m going to add the photos of the finished card in this blog post then I can later link that photo to the blog post with the details about how I made it. I’m not sure how well that system will work, but I’ll give it a try. That is sort of what this 100DayProject is all about: experimenting.

Card 23 | Altenew Easy Ink Blending Techniques Lesson 3 Adding Details to Ink Blending | SCT C&C Spellbinders
Card 24 | Altenew Easy Ink Blending Techniques Lesson 4 Emboss Resist