Tonight we hosted a potluck dinner for our Waterloo University friends. Usually we are the 5 couples who live in Ottawa but tonight we were also joined by a couple who live in Waterloo but are up for a wedding tomorrow. It was so nice to see everyone. It’s hard to believe that many of us have known each other for more than 40 years. So grateful for Jane being the glue that organizes 3-4 dinners each year for the Ottawa crew and that we’ve had a few larger reunions at our milestone years of turning 50 and 60. Friendships are so important and I love that we have kept up our friendship with this group for so many years. We already have our next dinner booked for May plus and extra girls luncheon in April to celebrate Jane’s upcoming retirement.
I was mostly out of the house today: walk with Luna then swim then drop off the car then Costco then lunch with a friend I met at work more than 30 years ago then out to Arnprior with Roland and another friend who I’ve known more than 35 years where we spoke with the owner of a small bicycle business whom we are going to buy some new bikes from.
So no crafting time (yet) and it’s already 10:10 p.m. and we have a curling Bonspiel tomorrow morning. We’re in the early draw so we’ll be leaving home just after 7:30. However, I will try to spend a few minutes before bed but I am going to post now so will add any 100DayProject progress photos tomorrow. Maybe I’ll soon make a card inspired by the beautiful photos that Connie brought as a hostess gift. As I was walking this morning I figured that it won’t be too much longer before some spring perennial flowers will be out braving the frost on my morning walks with Luna.
No progress to report on my 100DayProject although I might try to sneak in a wee bit of work on it before going to bed. But it is 10:10 as I write this because I’m just back from book club where we celebrated pi day a bit early. We enjoyed quiche, chicken pot pie, apple pie and a berry pie. I wish we had had a family tradition of having a pie meal on pi day every year. Heidi was mentioned that she never gets to celebrate pi day with her math students because it falls on March Break so I think she’ll be happy if we develop a new family pie on pi day tradition.
It’s now10:47 and I did take about 10 minutes (or was it more?) to try out the Garden Delights stamp set. I just realized that there is actually a few more small stamp layers to fill in the centre of the flowers but that will have to wait until tomorrow to add it. I haven’t decided if I’ll go for the darker two shades of green or for the lighter 2. And I haven’t decided if I’ll do a mix of the two types of flowers or just the one type. I’m leaning towards just using one for simplicity, although I think I will include some of the second variety of leaves. Tomorrow’s 8:00 swim is now in as much jeapordy as my Tuesday one (which I skipped). Fingers crossed I get up when my alarm goes off at 7:00 despite me being so poor at adjusting to the time change.
It’s beginning to look a lot like I’ve at least started my Card 10!This is definitely not a card that I’ve made, but rather it is thefeatured project for my Altenew All About Layer 4 Class 4 which I will be using as my design inspiration for my Card 10 of my 100DayProject. I had better pick up the pace since it is now Day 18
I received my Advent Calendar on December 6 and did the first card on December 9th. While I’m currently only batting 500 on my 100DayProject, I am making much faster progress on my daily Altenew card quest than I had on my daily Advent Calendar quest.
Wide Open Wednesday
It took me until the turn around point of this mornings walk for me to decide my theme for today. The stream was finally wide open after having been covered in snow and ice for many months. It was also a theme quite consistent with a thought after I set out when I figured out why the toes of my socks were wet: while they weren’t wide open, there was certainly an opening in the toes of my boots where the soles meets the upper part.
On my way back home I considered what I would do if I had a wide open day. It’s definitely a good thing to think about every once in a while. How much of the things you do every day would you want to include if you started your day with no routine or any commitments? If your ideal wide open day would vary tremendously from your typical day I think its definitely time to start thinking about making some small tweaks each week to better align your typical day with your ideal day.
I definitely had a good day. I enlisted Heidi’s help in tackling the disasterous kitchen rather than just doing it myself. There is still lots more disaster areas to tackle on the main floor, but somehow the kitchen always takes priority and all of my energy. Having some help is less draining for sure. It’s not what she was planning for the middle day of her March Break I’m sure. Here’s to hoping I can tackle some my disasterous desk in the family room tomorrow. I had a crafternoon at the Dementia Society with 2 of my Crafty Crew volunteers and we got a very good start on making 2 sets of cards. I decided that I really like the two cards I made with the Spellbinders Advent Calendar bee dies (back on January 5 and February 21 which were doors 6 and door 18) so we’re making them for my online class to do.
I liked the Spellbinders Advent Calendar card featuring the sequins from door 18 along with the bee die from door 6 that I’m making card kits featuring this design for my Dementia Society class.I liked the Spellbinders Advent Calendar card featuring the bee die from door 6 that I’m making card kits featuring this design for my Dementia Society class.
AECP Card 3 | Spellbinders Door 23 | For my Best Pal
Below is my AECP card 3 (All About Layering Three – lesson 3) which I combined with using the dies from the 23th door of my Spellbinders Advent Calendar. Just one more card to make using the cute die that came in Door 24. This has been such a fun project to do along with my friend, Shelli.
AECP Card 3 (All About Layering 3 – Lesson 3) | Spellbinders Advent Calendar Door 23The inspiration for my Day 3 (All About Layering 3 – Lesson 3) card
In an ideal world, I’d have a finished Day 4 and Day 5 to share as well today, but that’s not the case. And I would already have typed up my thoughts about this Day 3 card, but that’s not the case either. I did make pretty good progress on my Day 4 (All About Layering 3 – Lesson 4) card and may be able to finish it over the weekend. But I’m leaving early tomorrow to head to the cottage for a girls weekend and don’t expect I’ll have much, if any, time to craft.
A good start to my Day 4 card (All About Layering 3 – Lesson 4)Barely a start, but still a start to my Day 5 card (All About Layering 3 – Lesson 5)
Thrown Off Thursday
I didn’t get up until about 7:00 this morning because I was up later than ideal last night. And somehow that has thrown off my day. I did get out for a walk with Luna which I enjoyed. It was really nice to run into a friend who was out with her dog whom I hadn’t seen for quite some time. So we had a quick catchup chat for a bit while our routes overlapped.
I have a lot that I want to fit in today and seem to be struggling with figuring out a suitable plan. I’d love to fit in a second swim this week – clearly 8:00 today was not the time slot for it. But perhaps 11:00 today will work or tomorrow morning. Roland wasn’t interested in running with me due to an achilles / foot issue so we walked Luna together. Then I had to eat. And so no run or one&done done yet. And no plan beyond writing a few words and spending some time my 100dayproject.
Rather than focusing on being thrown-off I’m chose to focus on a Throw Back Thursday.
So I went back into my old blog to find a post about cycling. I don’t have any posts about me cycling, but there were 4 about the children cycling. So one of those will be the focus of today’s blog post.
You may be wondering why I wanted throwback cycling post. Last night a friend asked for some suggestions about a challenge that she might do for her 60th birthday that is coming up in about 3 years. She found it inspiring that I had done a psuedo-triathlon for my 60th birthday. Day 1 was a 60 km run from the cottage to home. Day 2 was a 60 km ride from home to the cottage. Day 3 was a 6 km swim around the perimeter of our lake. Whenever I think about that birthday goal, I am always so grateful that I get to live in Ottawa and to have a cottage nearby. And that I had so many people join me on segments of that triathlon and in a celebration after each event. But I digress.
I was so lucky to have a great group of friends cycling with me for different portions of my 60 km cycle to the cottage. And some other friends who took photos.
I suggested to her that she completes sixty 60 km cycles before her 60th birthday. Which works out to 20 bike rides a year. Which works out to about one a week in the summer months. She seemed to like that goal. And, so I’m thinking about cycling. And thinking about setting a goal this year: sixty-two 62 km cycles before my 62nd birthday on 14 July. But, that seems overly ambitious. But who knows …
At the start of the 60 km birthday cycle. I’m looking forward to joining my friend, Diana, on several of her upcoming 60 km cycling adventures.
Throw Back Thursday
Day 39 – Pacific Rim, B.C – Best Cycling Ever
Tuesday July 8, 2003
This will be about our furthest point west: 3744 km from home according to the GPS. I didn’t have a good sleep – I had to get up twice to go bushy pee – I had had hot chocolate and tea to drink the night before to warm up. I’ll have to stop drinking around/past dinner. The children rode their scooters and played on the rings before breakfast eating some raisins between swings. We ate our cereal first, then Roland stayed around while the children ate theirs while I went down to the beach to poke around amongst the rocks then ran into Roland and the children along the path on my way back to the site. We stayed down on the beach for a while then set out to Radar Hill for a bit of a scenic view over the area although the views were limited due to low clouds. The children enjoyed their cardboard video cameras and didn’t like our goofing off while they videoed. From there we went into Tofino to have a look around (very busy place, seems much more developed than when I kayaked from there with Shelli many years ago). Roland took the children to the park while I bought a few groceries. We ate lunch while the children continued to play then they ate their sandwiches in the car on the way to Long Beach. It was fairly busy there – a number of surfers as well as lots of families and groups about. We spent some time on the log piles looking for a stick for Heidi to draw in the sand like Stefan had already found. Roland had the great idea to get the children’s bikes out and we all had a great time going down the beach to the Green Point part where we were camped. The children’s helmets were at the site with the scooters so they really looked wild and free with the wind blowing through their hair as they rode. We all, except Stefan, who already had very cold feet, waded in the rather cold Pacific Ocean before I set off back down the beach under a very light drizzle to get the car while Roland and the children flew Stefan’s kite. I saw them at the phones on the way back in and stopped there for a while. Colin wasn’t feeling well due to some surgery so we won’t be staying at their place in Victoria. Later in the day, I spoke to Joanne and we can stay with her instead. Roland started the campfire before dinner – cantaloupe with prosciutto as well as cucumbers for appetizers before our gourmet (but well liked) sloppy joe dinner. Since it was about 7:45 when we finished eating, Roland took the children to the theatre at the campground while I cleaned up then I joined them for an interesting program on bears and how we need to minimize them becoming accustomed to humans by keeping ‘bare’ campsites etc. The interpreter was very good so there was lots of audience participation including some new songs to familiar tunes. After the children went down about 9:30 I called Joanne then returned to the site, browsed through my magazine briefly then caught up on my journal. Overall, it was a good day, despite not terrific weather.
I am so glad that I kept a journal during our 3 month trip in June, July and August 2023. And that we took that time off work to enjoy exploring the western portion of Canada.
Creative Treats 