Saturday night

It is Saturday night before a costume event and I can’t get my butt off the couch and get things organized (lunch made, picnic basket emptied of UFO knitting so I can get the lunch packed in it, petticoat hooks checked, costume pieces gathered and ironed….)

I’m too tired.

I was out on an outing with my seniors on Friday.  It was a fun but tiring trip to the park.

Followed by a wild night of tummy troubles for me and the dawning conclusion that puppy may not be feeling well herself (vet booked for Monday).  Crap crap expensive crap.

On top of all that, I watched my kid start moving his junk out of my house into his fiancés home (which he will be moving into at the end of the month after his wedding).  I’m feeling nostalgic.  (Cried at home movies last night because I missed my babies).

So, is it my fault that I am procrastinating by writing a blog post about procrastinating?  Tomorrow I will be writing about how much fun I had but I’m tired because I was up at 6:00 am trying to get everything done…. Oh stupid me….

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Random modern projects

This is just a quick post on some random things I did this past week.  I had a little party for my seniors at work that was ocean themed.  As a little treat, I dyed some vanilla pudding blue with food coloring to create “ocean water” and used some graham cracker crumbs to make “sand”.  They liked it!

 

I also made little origami sea creatures (which I forgot to get a photo of) for decorations and parting gifts.

This past holiday weekend I worked on a modern summer dress that may or may not be worn at my son’s casual wedding.  It is all done except for the sleeves (and ironing).  I took this picture before finishing the neck line.

I can’t decide what I will do for sleeves.  Easiest thing is to just hem the edges.  But, my arms aren’t exactly the arms of a 20 year old athlete.  But I also don’t have a lot of left over fabric to deal with so I wouldn’t get much more than a cap sleeve out it.  I will stew on it this week and see if any inspiration comes to me.

Christmas ruminations

Tomorrow is December 1rst.  I don’t really like to do much about Christmas before December arrives.  Sure, I send out and request Christmas wish lists for folks that require mail service to give and receive gifts.  I start amassing stocking stuffers during my weekly grocery shop.  But I refuse to put up decorations.  (I do let hubby put outdoor lights up because it is easier in snowless November than in the waist deep snow of December).  If the radio starts with the Christmas tunes I turn the station.  One of my favorite stations has been playing only Christmas tunes since November 1 (grumble grumble!)

But tomorrow I will start thinking in earnest.  I have to pick a day to put up the tree.

This photo is several years old but I still have that shirt. I wear it every time I put up a tree…including at work. I secretly love the Grinch.

It is best to do that before the decorating insanity starts at work.  In my old job, I had to help stand 7 trees-one was close to 20 feet tall.  I had decorate 3-4.  By the time I got to mine I had no desire left!  (Damn lights). 

This year, in my new job, it seems I only have to stand 3 and decorate 1.  And none of them are over 6 feet.  Sweet.

I also have to get my butt in gear for the shopping.  We have no children in our clan now so some of the fun has gone out of it.  And we have all reached the state of life where we just run out and buy the little things we need and want so there is nothing to put on our lists except big-ticket items that no one person would reasonably buy for another.  So we are moving towards the gift card option.  This gives the person the option to hoard cards from one store to “save up” for something they want/need or hold onto several different store cards until they think of something they want or need.  Shopping will be a snap…just stand in front of a wall of cards and start selecting.  The Santa in me wants to have at least one or two well thought out gifts that the person may like but not think of buying themselves.  But lots of times it is simply walking by something in a store or craft sale and having an item cause me to stop and think of someone.  I can tell you this because my brother and sister-in-law don’t read my blog…They have two wiener dogs,  Jenny and Leonard.  Jenny is brown and Leonard is black.  I was walking in the store and I saw these.

And they dance!

Completely useless but funny!

An added joy this year is my older boy will be home for Christmas.  He missed the last three.  The first year he was in Australia.  I found a tree ornament that year of a kangaroo.  I cried when I hung it on the tree.  The next two years he was in Germany and I cried when I hung the stupid kangaroo on the tree.  I also cried (messy, need to leave the room cried) every time I heard “I’ll be home for Christmas” and “Blue Christmas”. Really inconvenient in stores and a bit scary in the car.  No crying this year!

Wishing you all Merry Christmas prep!

Don’t Feed the bears

I’ve been 2 months in my new job now.  If ever there was a sign from God that I had made a good move this is it.  Shortly after my arrival, I learned that my new work space was celebrating 100 years as a hospital (the land had held a hunting lodge, hotel and mansion in various stages of its history).  It became a hospital during the first world war and is now a hybrid facility with a personal care home, rehab hospital, day hospital and some medical things like labs and x-ray facilities.   In celebration, the Costume Museum of Canada was invited to put on its Heritage Fashion Review, which has models wearing near perfect replicas of items in the collection.  (It was like God was saying “You fit here.  You belong here.”)

In spite of volunteering with the Museum for years, I haven’t actually seen the show yet.  Lucky me!  As part of my job, I had to take down, and sit with, some of the residents that are living in the personal care home section so that they could see the show.  Basically, I got paid to see a show I’ve wanted to see for years!

In honor of the show, staff were encouraged to dress up in their favorite decade from the last 100 years.  For me that would have to be the years closest to the Victorian era, obviously. But, I don’t have anything from 1916…closest I have is my 1901 widows weeds.  But, being a middle aged woman in war time, it wouldn’t be outside the realms of possibility that during a time of mourning, I pulled out my widows weeds and in the interest of frugality and war time shortages I wore it in spite of it being 15 years out of date.

The other reason it is perfect is because of the sign over the gift shop where I work.

The gift shop is called the Dancing Bear gift shop.  I can’t find proof for this but I believe the photograph is connected to the location of my work space.  Perhaps when it was a hotel?  In addition to the gift shop there is a bar called Chad’s Bar.  It is an actual pub for the patients and residents in the building.  (The name Chad is also connected to the history of the land, I believe)  And next to the entrance to the bar is a stuffed bear.

This was my photo op!

All in all, a good day!

 

Whoa! Stop this crazy ride

Just a quick note to explain why you don’t get a real post! Yesterday (Tuesday) was the last day at a job I held for 8 years. Today I start a new job. Overwhelmed city!

Ah, life

I wish I could say my life is solely what I write here but, alas, it is not.  In between my volunteer work at the museum, family parties, sewing, knitting,collecting cabinet cards and romping around in pretty dresses, there is the rest of my life and it can get in the way of “blog life”.  I wonder how many bloggers wish that blog life was the only life they have?  Most of us put a pleasant shine on it.  The only negative is a little self depreciation, “oh, look how I screwed that sleeve up….”

But in reality there is drama that I don’t bore you with.  There are stresses that need dealing with, changes that I’m opting to make and changes that are foisted upon me, and there is work.  So sometimes there is no time or inner oomph to crank out another post (that 14 people will read).

I try to have a post go up Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday with pictures to break up the print and help you figure out if you actually want to read the print.  If I miss a day, it is likely due to real life.   Forgive me?

Halloween Party

We had a Halloween Party at work on Friday and I wore my Victorian Bathing suit.  

I didn’t get many photographs so I played with my phone app with the few I have.

My co-worker (who also is sorta related to me-my step cousin-in-law once removed…lol) decided to dress historically as well.  She was Rosie the Riveter.

Hope your Halloween was fun too.