We had a relaxing, slow start to the morning. Cathy left about 10:00 after a simple but delicious breakfast of granola, yogurt and fruit. Danielle left closer to noon then the remaining 4 of us walked over to the Chateau, the trails through the forest and along the river are very pretty with snow still covering a lot of the ground and the paths not too messy from the melting yet. We came back for a simple lunch of soup, veggies, cheese, crackers and cookies. Flora and I walked into town for coffee and milk while Karen and Sheela stayed back to read. We had a delicious soft taco dinner inspired by the delicious dinner that Nancy had served us last Wednesday at bookclub. Flora whipped up some mango salsa to go along with the roasted cauliflower, the fried halloumi cheese and the avocado dip. We had no room for dessert. We played Bananagrams as well as Code Names. A great day filled with lots of activities and friends.
Throwback Thursday – 2010 04 10 – Hide and Seek
Saturday: Roland and Heidi had soccer practice from 9:00-11:00. I took Stefan out to Embrun for his 11:40 game (we took a bit of a scenic route since I missed a turn). Another loss. After the game, Stefan had lunch with his team out in Embrun and I headed home for Heidi’s 1:00 book club. She baked cookies and the other girls brought lots of goodies. They spend more time eating and chatting than discussing the book (Sketches by Eric Walters). I sent them out to do some sidewalk chalk art (which was in the book) since it was a beautiful afternoon. Roland went out to see Stefan’s second game. After book club, Joanne drove Heidi, Emily and Emma to South Keys for a movie. I picked up some veggies which we brought with us to the Jordan’s where we had a fun filled evening with friends including the Mortimores and Lams. After dinner and watching the ceremony for Daniel Alfredson’s 1000th game) the boys played XBox while Emma and Heidi (dropped off by Rosemary after the movie) watched a video in the basement. By the time I got around to seeking the boys out for my picture of the day they were playing hide and seek. A great day filled with lots of activities and friends.
And a photo from his parents’ negatives that Roland has been scanning.
Wednesday: ‘A Fresh Face’ was my Picture Spring photo assignment for yesterday (Spring is the season of renewal and rejuvenation. Beyond the blooms, our spirits feel alive! Today, as you soak it all in, capture yourself in a self-portrait. Celebrate yourself! You’re worth the hoop-lah!). I didn’t do that assignment yesterday, so I’m sort of doing it today. I didn’t have time to take any photos before leaving for Stefan’s 6:30-8:30 hockey practice, so I brought the camera along and asked him to take a photo of me. So here I am and “I am enough”. I say that because interestingly enough I came across a blog yesterday about the very subject of celebrating ourselves: iamenough (a self-kindness collaborative). Anyway, back to our day: very rainy. I took the children to their 3:20 dentist appointments then we had a quick pasta dinner. Roland took Heidi to her 1.5 hour soccer gym practice. I enjoyed having some time to do some digital scrapbooking in the rink lobby while Stefan enjoyed his time on the ice. Stefan watched a bit of hockey when we got home and Heidi finished her homework when they got home. I’m off to bed with just enough time to spare to brush my teeth before my 10:00 target.
It turns out that the link to that I am Enough collaborative on Tracey Clark’s website no longer exists. But I do see that she has a calendar of daily photo prompts which I am going to investigate.
No morning walk for me before Roland and I played pickleball 8:00-10:00 and took Luna for a walk when we got home then I had lunch and organized myself for 1:00-3:30 Crafty Crew at the Dementia Society. Then I met Louise at her mechanic. She came over for a quick dinner (pasta) then I dropped her at home before 6:00-7:30 curling. Of course we stayed after for a quick drink (Ginger Beer which I think is made in the States not Bermuda so I will have to find another drink – although the curling season is almost over) and now I am getting this blog post done.
100DayProject Day 44
Nothing to report. But I did have 4 helpers at Crafty Crew today and we made quite a bit of progress on the 2 bee-themed cards for an upcoming online class kit. The bees are adorable. And I still really love that flower stamp. The ladies were a huge help die cutting, stamping, colouring and assembling kits. I glued the bees together since I didn’t want to subject anyone to that fussy work. There were 3 extra Thank You containers of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies which I brought and which were well received.
I love all the rocky outcrops along the hiking trails right near our cottage.
Skyward Sunday
I always love the sounds and sight of the stream that we cross over on our forest hikes.There are very few signs of snow or ice in the stream anymore.The woodpecker(s) has/have been busy! Can you see Luna lounging in the background?Luna was very happy (as usual) in the woods. She was smiling but I wasn’t able to properly catch it in the photo.
When I got back from my walk with Luna, Roland inquired how the weather was. So-so was how I responded. Because that’s exactly how it seems. Not great and not bad. A bit of blue sky at the beginning but that seemed to disappear by the end of our short walk. I’m glad I had already picked skyward as my theme for the day. It seems much more uplifting than so-so. And, it reminds me of a concept that I have learned about mindfulness: the idea of blue sky. There is actually always a blue sky up there above the clouds. I wrote that this morning and was going to add more but it is now 10:39 and I need to get this blog post done!
I did finish baking the cookies that I had scooped out yesterday and left in the fridge. The first time I baked them they were undercooked, so I baked them again. I also finished decorating the thank you containers for Heidi into which she’ll put 1/2 dozen cookies to share with her colleagues.
Roland got a bit of a start making a platform for Luna for the back of our kayaks. I don’t have any photos to share progress but I am definitely hopeful that it will work out so that Luna can come with us on kayak day trips. I don’t think we’ll bring her on any overnight trips.
Heidi die cut the thank you sentiments while I worked on cutting the paper for the tops and sides of the containers.
100DayProject Day 43
I had cut out the side from a container to use as a template to cut the papers with the appropriate curved edgesAll filled up with cookies (6 in each) to be delivered to Heidi’s helpful colleagues.
No more progress to report other than that I’ve watched a few more videos, printed off some of the Canva one page summary of the photos from the cards from classes that I’ll be using as my inspiration to make my own cards (once I get back into my card making groove), and put together a few dozen sets of blank cardbases, card fronts, card inserts and envelopes. I thought it would be worth having some sets of the 4 elements that I usually use to make each card already cut to size, scored and together in a set. Hopefully it will save me a bit of effort for each card I make.
I did a short walk with Luna checking out how the neighbourhood spring perennials were progressing. A few new tips were popping up. I really need to get back on track with getting to bed early. Enough of staying up late to work on blog posts. I was quite tired when my alarm went off at seven so I didn’t leap out of bed and I managed to (very easily) talk myself out of heading to the pool for a swim. I even briefly crawled back into bed after getting dressed with a vague notion of getting some more sleep. I expect I will end up having a nap on our way to Heidi’s team’s 10:30 ringette game.
Rather than starting to make a card, I decided that I need to focus some of my 100DayProject efforts on getting my craft room disaster back into order. I have a reasonably good system for organizing my supplies, I just have a very poor record with putting things back where they should go and establishing a ‘home’ for my new things. So, I spend way too much time when I am working on a project trying to find things, moving stashes around to find a good spot to work, etc. So I set my timer for 5 minutes to put some things away. Then I started to work on cataloguing and filing a few new products for 5 more minutes. It took me a few minutes to figure out what the weird light pattering sound was. It turns out that water was dripping from my overhead light fixture in my craft room onto my very crowded work surface. I am really glad I was down there working at my table when the water started to come in. I was able to grab a plastic painting drop cloth to cover it up and we added a few plastic containers to catch the drips. It seems to be coming from the washing machine which is above it since the water is soapy. And, so Roland is trying to figure out what’s wrong with the washing machine during the spin cycles. We’ll wait for it to finish before pulling off the light fixture. Fun and Games! So much for my new found resolve to get and keep things in better order in my craft room.
In addition to watching Heidi’s ringette game we’ll also be playing a game of curling. I wrote a few cards before heading out to her game. It was a very good and exciting game with her team tying the score with 6 seconds left but unfortunately losing after 2 -1/2 minutes into the first overtime period. Heidi spent the afternoon and evening with her teammates, having lunch then watching the two semi-final games together. Roland and I dashed from her game to a brief practice ice session we had at our curling club since we hadn’t been on the ice at all yet this week. I baked some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies then it was time to pick up Karen and Peter to head to the Navy curling club. We won our first game and really enjoyed our après game drinks, snacks and conversation with our opponents. Then we went to Pub Italia in Little Italy for dinner.
100DayProject Day 41
I didn’t do any cardmaking today but I did watch the next few lessons in my Altenew For the Guys course. I look forward to getting on with making an Interactive card for Lesson 4, a Pop Art style card for Lesson 5 and a Gaming card for Lesson 6. I did do some google image searching for a few inspirational pop art images to help me with the design of my card for Lesson 5.
I did take off the plastic that’s covering the worksurface in my craft room just now before heading to bed so that if I have a bit of time between our 2 curling games tomorrow I will have a spot to work on those cards. I think that the reason my overhead light stopped working a few days ago is likely because water had been gradually accumulating in the light fixture for a while until it overflowed today. There were some wet spots on the table which has a wood surface so it is a good thing I took the plastic sheet off the check things out tonight rather than later in the day tomorrow.
Card 28 | Altenew For the Guys Lesson 2 Artistic Techniques
I started this card a few days ago. There were a few vector images of the Ottawa Skyline that I really loved. This is one of them. I was inspired by the curve when I created the stenciled skyline on the envelope, back of card and inside of the card. https://stock.adobe.com/ca/images/vector-ottawa-city-skyline-design/117472716
I used a Spellbinders die cut for my sentiment. I had been looking for a ‘welcome’ die cut sentiment because I thought I could give this card to a university friend who lives in Texas now who is coming to visit us in the summer, but I came across this ‘from me to you’ banner sentiment which I think is perfect for this card. I will definitely make some more of these in the future, with this particular sentiment this card will be perfect to send to friends and family who live outside of Ottawa. I also do want to try to make it with that curved lower edge and reflecting upon water with fireworks stamped in the sky and reflecting in the water. But that’s way more ambitious that I currently have the energy, creativity or time for right now. I’m only on Card 28 on Day 40. I’m hovering at about 70% on keeping up. So, I’m off now to watch lesson 3, Cards for Boys, of the Altenew For the Guys course.
Card 29 | Altenew For the Guys Course Lesson 3 Cards for Boys
Between game and when I got home from the curling club, I was able to make Card 29. I was definitely not feeling very creative when I made this one, but it is kind of cute. While I think it is totally suitable as a card for a boy, I actually made it with Heidi in mind. Teal and purple are the City of Ottawa Ringette Association (CORA) colours. While she’s currently playing for the Gatineau NRL team, CORA is where she spent most of her many, many years playing (and coaching) ringette. So, I think this cute fellow giving hugs seems appropriate to make for her since she’s approaching the end of an era.
End of an Era
Nancy dropped me off at Brewer after we walked Luna (of course I forgot to take my usual photo in the morning since I was so busy talking with Nancy while we were out with Luna). I had about 1/2 hour swim and was ready at the pool entrance at 9:00 for Roland to pick me up to head to Ray Friel for Heidi’s team’s quarterfinal game against Montreal. It was a good and fairly close game, but unfortunately they lost 7-5. That was a team they had played several times during the season, most of them being very close and with one win against them. So her team moved into the consolation division and will have another quarter final game in that division against their most frequent opponent, Nepean.
Her team’s loss against Montreal really brought home to Heidi that the very long, very important chapter of her life in which she’s a competitive ringette player is really quickly drawing to a close.
It would have been nice had they been able to win another game or two in the championship side of the tournament playoffs and we certainly believe and hope that her team has the talent, ability and hopefully remaining energy to win the consolation side of the tournament. Regardless, we will definitely enjoy watching these upcoming games. It was a very close game in the evening against Nepean which Heidi’s team won in overtime, 9-8.
Roland and I stopped at Loblaws to buy some Canadian made dog food since Costco, where we usually buy her food, only carries brands that are made in the States. As an individual I mostly feel powerless and that I can’t do very much to help the current and upcoming tariff situation, but working to shift our purchasing habits to try to buy more Canadian products is at least a small thing that we can do. And so we’re trying. Then we went to the curling club to join our fellow Learn to Curl classmates after they came off the ice. I guess that would be referred to as après-curl. We were able to book 1/2 hour of ice for tomorrow afternoon to practice a bit since we missed being on the ice tonight and we have the first game of the Navy Curling Club Bonspiel Friday night.
Friday: Oma and Babu left Toronto about 10:30 and, unfortunately, ran into lots of traffic. The Carrancos joined us for dinner (BBQ shrimp and baked salmon; very tasty). We took advantage of being together to celebrate Heidi’s and Babu’s birthdays early. Babu loved the framed photo from Mexico of the children with he and Oma. Heidi was absolutely thrilled with her early birthday gift: a laptop. She’s been using the computer a fair bit for school work and the old laptop was either slow or its screen wouldn’t work. After dinner we watched the excellent video that Kurt had made of our Mexico trip; what a great vacation it was. Stefan commented on how the travel video is better (than others Babu has made) since he’s in it (meaning that he’s actually been there too).
How this compares to today: Sadly it has been a bit more than a year since Kurt passed away, so there will be no more shared birthday celebrations for Heidi (whose birthday is in May) and Babu (whose birthday is in April). We still have the Carranco’s as great neighbours although we tend to not see them quite as often as when the children were growing up. That trip to Mexico is still the only family trip that we’ve taken south. And family trips are far less frequent than they used to be. I do want to try to get both children to commit to coordinating a family trip every couple of years. While we do have time together on weekends in Ottawa, Toronto, at our cottage and at Castle Oma, it’s not the same as all being away together on vacation. It’s been a while since we’ve watched any of the videos Babu made. In addition to scanning in old negatives, Roland is gradually uploading old videos to YouTube which is great because it will make watching them so much easier. It’s kind of crazy how lazy we have become and would prefer to simply stream rather than load in a DVD.
And a photo from the ones that Roland has been scanning from his parents’ old negatives. I am pretty sure that given the yellow forsythia’s and a cake on the table that they are celebrating Kurt’s birthday. How fun that the photo from April 3, 2010 was also a photo of Kurt celebrating his birthday.
Thankful Thursday
Since it’s also Thankful Thursday I made sure that I wrote a Thank You card and have it all ready to pop in the mailbox tomorrow morning. I also got an Easter card ready to mail to my brother. I am so lucky to have a huge number of cards designed by Vicki in my stash. She generously makes so many card kits for the classes that I give for the Dementia Society. Usually she makes the kits by herself, sometimes we work on the kits together, often we work on the assembly instructions together and always I really enjoy putting my copy of the card together in class. And the best part is actually getting around to sending the finished cards to someone.
Creative Treats 