Vacation - almost over

Only a few more days left, but it has been a great vacation so far. DH takes a lot of pics of me (that I don't like !) but he took this one last week at the Toronto Harbourfront and I do like it - It sums up my feelings exactly about this whole time off, can you tell ? :-)


Last week, it was all about family, friends, food, shopping...you know. For the first time we attended a RibFest - OMG it was good (and I decided then and there to not watch my food intake at all and just enjoy myself) !

Many of our outings were to flea markets. I came across 2 Singer buttonholers, both of which I'm sure will fit one or some of my machines - and hopefully they will work. They always seem to have good reviews, I've wanted to try one.



The couple we visit live about a 5 minute walk from the Ravine (a large park space with walking trails and bike paths, right near downtown Toronto). For the first time, I took the pups one morning for a walk there and was surprised to find there was a packed trail for walking parallel to the paved bike path. Just like walking in the woods - and so peaceful at 7am. Look :

My neurotic Pom, turned into quite the adventurer and just loved the walk - he led the way everywhere :-)

Deceiving - this was high enough to walk under without ducking.

The end of that log from the other side.


The shopping/fabric acquisitions...remember the bag ?...


6 knits from Fabricland - 3 are rayon/spandex blends, the other 3 are poly/spandex blends. The 3rd row includes fabric from the Fabric District shopping - top to bottom are, black twill lining for an upcoming project - if it works, you'll see it. If not, well...Next down is a leaf print in (I think) cotton. Both were from King Textiles. Next one is a rayon print from Downtown Fabrics - I loved it but am not sure exactly what I'll do with it. The 2 pieces on the far right are both wool from Sue who so generously parted with some of her stash to both Connie and I. The top one is in 2 pieces and there is enough to make a skirt. The other is not quite enough to make pants, I don't think.


Last year, we went into Archie Fine (& Sons ?) to find that they cut the ends of their rolls into pant lengths and the more you pick the less $ per piece. I wasn't prepare to spend for a bulk purchase then but intended to check it out again this year. The 7 pieces above were all $15/piece - I can't go wrong with that if they make wearable pants. The colorful print is strips of gauzey fabric sewn onto a lightweight cotton backing. Connie, Reethi & I all bought a bit. This is one repeat and I think I'll just gather it to a 2" elastic for a waistband.

Need a bit of help with today's purchase. Any ideas are welcome.

We stopped in our local thrift store and left with a bag of stuff for $15 ! Including the fabric below. The plaid is a fluffy wool that I figured for a skirt but it might be TOO fluffy - I'll see.

All of the other pieces are remnants, 6 are labelled Zegna, and I DO mean remnants ! They are all half-width and range from 32-40" long. Like, say, really big swatches ! There are 11 pieces and the rolled up bundle was only $2.99. I couldn't leave it there, but have NO IDEA what to do with pieces this small ! What do you think ???


Oh, I almost forgot...the boxes I brought home. Well, one was a Featherweight (given to me by the friends we were visiting - GIVEN !) and the other was a Singer 66 RedEye found on Kijiji - it belonged to the seller's grandmother. It had originally been treadled but she was keeping the cabinet - it was gorgeous ! The machine in the middle is one of the 99s we bought last year.

2nd Annual Sewing Buddies Day !

...and here we are this year !

Reethi, Connie, me & Sue

Thursday, Connie drove in for the day and both Sue and Reethi booked the afternoon off for Toronto Fabric District shopping and lunch. As expected, we had a wonderful day. Connie & I met early morning and after a kick-start of coffee and a catch-up chat, started right in. We hit a couple of shops before meeting Reethi, Sue and Connie's daughter Leah for lunch.

Afterwards, we shopped ourselves out before seeing Reethi off to an evening engagement and Connie and I took Sue up on a supper invitation. Her husband, Rusty, did the honours of chef and produced a wonderful fish/seafood supper. Sue gave us a tour of her sewing room and we chatted more about sewing. She had sorted thru her stash the previous night and had a pile of fabrics that we were able to choose from to take a few pieces home.

When it was time to go home, Rusty offered to take me on the bike. Oh, I haven't been on a motorcyle since we sold ours about 10 years ago - and couldn't resist - although I tried, LOL. I'm not nervous and once Rusty determined that, it was a great ride - I was very comfortable and really enjoyed myself. Now, this meant it was quite the production to get me home. Sue followed us in the car, because I bought too much fabric to fit in the storage of the bike and she offered to bring it. Thanks guys !

This was a quick post before we leave for home tomorrow but here is a quick look at the fabric bag - I'll detail it once I'm able to take it all out and get pics.


A couple other things are coming with me this year - a teaser pic...

Real pics once we get home.

So Ready for Vacation

8 1/2 working hours til vacation - yes, I'm counting hours LOL

We'll be in Toronto visiting friends and with a bit of planning ahead, Connie, Sue, Reethi and I have a girls' day (oh, yes - Fabric Shopping on Queen Street) scheduled for Thursday
I CAN'T WAIT - see you soon ladies !!!!!!!!

This is us - last year


I was going to write a 'real' post, but, you know, this pretty much sums it up !

Fair warning - giddy gloating to follow LOL

What a day ! BFF and I made plans to see HP7, part 2 today - in 3D no less. My whole life, I've had monocular vision. I only use one eye at a time. After an eye surgery 20 years ago, my Opthamologist told me I would develop binocular vision - I can now use both eyes but it takes concentration - this was the first time I could actually 'see' 3D. It was a GREAT finale !

No, that wasn't the gloating. We bought tickets for the 4pm showing and had the whole day to fill. Temps today went to above 30°C with high humidity - we decided indoors was best - the mall it was. I need tops so shopping was in order, if I found anything. Actually, I need everything...almost everything I own is too big.

Here it comes...

Since last October, I'm down 26lbs. For some reason, I figured I'd be 'maybe' down one size from a 12/14 to a 10.

We started in Sears. Picked up 2 tees to try on. Size ? BFF says 'try the small'. SMALL ? Say what ? I haven't tried on or bought anything smaller than a large or x-large in many, many years !

We wandered around the dress department picking a bunch (7) of size 10s - I was being VERY optimistic.

In the fitting room - the small tees both fit - the dresses were ALL too big, way too big. We went looking for size 8s. Found them all in an 8 plus a few others. Back to the fitting room with another armload. Aha, 2 fit. The others ? ALL too big. BFF went looking for 6s. Two of those went into the 'to buy' pile. In shock, I bought the 2 tees and 4 dresses in small, 6 and 8. OMG ! Normal is 12/14, remember.

Further down the mall, we passed a little boutique with more cute dresses outside (oh, it was sidewalk sale weekend). On the return trip back, the saleslady said the dress rack had been marked down a bit more since we had passed earlier. Between her and BFF they hustle me off to the fitting room picking up dresses on the way. More smalls and 6s ! No willpower, I bought 3 more.

I'm still a bit giddy - I KNOW the weight has come off but had no real idea how that translates to fitting clothes. For the first time, I own more than 2 dresses at once and they all fit to skim the body. It's going to take some getting used to, to wear clothes that are not baggy.

Wanna see ?

From left to right - coral/brown cotton w/belt, 3 poly/spandex knits all with wrap top and some type of ruching at waist, cotton knit tee dress (for the house only !), green/blue cotton/spandex sheath, brown/black poly/spandex knit w/cowl, 3/4 sleeves and belt (will be good for fall)

OK - gloating's done - and now,unless I want to go through this again in September, I need to get sewing ! I'll need fall/winter clothes too :-)

Happy 4th !

Happy 4th of July to all my American friends !!!

A quiet week

My 10 days of possibilities turned into 10 days of 'do whatever'.

I spent some time painting :-)




Lots of walking and I managed to get the bike out 3 times - think I'll try for 3x per week as much as I can - all this exercise was great for stress relief.

A bit of baking...
Hubby's coworkers were happy to see some of this cake show up at work the next day.

I tried a recipe for an oatmeal bread that was a complete bust - it didn't rise and it tasted icky - it hit the garbage before it even cooled off.

What else ? ah, time sitting on the deck and reading - the weather cooperated pretty well all week so there was deck time every day - lazy, lazy, lazy

No real sewing - I played with the narrow hem foot on my Singer 99, it was fiddly but not too bad. It makes a pretty cool hem. I traced Kwik Sew 3299 - I promised DH t-shirts ages ago and he's still waiting.

No gardening either - well, not entirely true, I spent a couple hours today with a friend redoing one of HER beds ! Mine weren't touched all week.

All in all it was the stress busting week I wanted. This was a familiar sight all week...what a life, eh ?


Tomorrow - back to real life.

HAPPY CANADA DAY !

201 km !

Self and I had heated words today...

After the dog walk this morning, I watched the weather for an hour or so and decided to take out the bike. Yesterday, it conveniently threatened rain all day and I used that as the perfect excuse to NOT go out on the bike. Yeah, yeah I knew perfectly well it was an excuse, but I had a sore butt, it was gonna rain, it was cold, yadda yadda, yadda.

5 minutes from the house she started:

Self - OMG, we can't do this !

Me - YES, we can, it's only 12k

Self - But, it's gonna rain, and our knees are sore, and our bum is sore and it's windy and it's faaaaaarrrrr ! whiny, whiny, whiny voice

Me - of COURSE we can, we did it Tuesday, we can do it today.

Self - but, I'm tired already and my bum's really SORE !

Me - just keep pedalling and shut up.

Self - but, but, but...

Me - lalalalalala, I'm not listening, keep pedalling.

55 minutes later self and I arrived back home after 13km (yes, she stopped complaining and kept pedalling LOL)

Not sure if I've blogged this before but I've been walking the Trans Canada Trail (tctrail.ca has an interactive map, you use a pedometer and log mileage or steps each day). This month my goal was 200 km for the month - it took 25 km on the bike to do it but I made my goal ! Happy, happy, happy :-)

Parting Shot(s)
I love that the trees completely overhang the roads in our neighbourhood. This was cottage country in the 1950s and most of the grown trees are at least that old.


Putting mileage on those little legs this week - 4k for 5 days in a row so far - and this is the result once we get home - everyone picks their spot...

Alex gets the couch:


Skippy, the sunroom carpet:


Charlie (who we have for 2 weeks rather than the expected 2 weekends) has settled in nicely and will flake out anywhere :-)

I'm a Wimp

HA ! what a whuss !


You can see where I'm going with this, right ?
That, my friends, is a picture of a torture machine (similar to treadmills, ellipticals, etc.)

For the past 3 years (hmm, maybe more) it has lived hanging from our garage ceiling. Every year I say I should get it down and use it. For the same 3 years (or more) I've started and stopped a multitude of walking programs.

THIS year I've actually made some weight loss progress ! Somewhat unintentionally at first but hey, that was just bonus. However, it has all been a result of counting calories and cutting portion sizes. There's that 4km walk most days, and while I expect it's helping some, I try not to count that, I'd rather it just be 'normal' for me.

Now, I figure I better up the ante a bit. A weight loss program should definitely include exercise and at the moment I'm going through physio for knee pain. Biking is a good idea overall.

DH tuned it up on Sunday, today I took it out for a short ride. Those knee muscles need a LOT of work.

I can walk 10-15km no problem - and did in fact start my day with the 3-dog 4km walk. But biking uses different muscles and I apparently haven't used those in a while. My short ride turned out to be an hour - 13km. It was all local on bike paths and I tried to keep it as non-hilly as possible - those inclines felt like mountains LOL. I know it was a slow speed, short distance but I gotta start somewhere and really, I`m happy I did it without having to walk up any of the inclines.

Tomorrow again, if the rain holds off - and if I can walk. Like I said, a wimp :-)

It's all about the puppies !

Rain cleared up yesterday afternoon. Today is the only sunny day on the weather report - 'course we all know how accurate they are ! LOL

After I waved DH off at the door this morning (oh I'm liking this !), I leashed up the 3 dogs and out we went. I'm bound and determined to keep my calorie count stable and my exercise up this week. Now that I've had a couple of quiet, catch-up days, I don't want to be a couch potato all week.

Here they are - ready to go...Alex and Skippy are coupled on the purple leash - after the first walk or two of the season they walk really well like this. They get enough room to sniff a bit and no knotted leashes for me :-)


We live in a residential neighbourhood and I've got a couple 4km walks mapped out. One, in the newer (more sunny) area and the other in the older, more treed area. It was already pretty sunny and hot when we left, so we went with the shady walk.

Bah, we got the walk in, but ended up circling around some roads. Why ? because some people insist on opening their doors and letting their dogs run loose ! Their big dogs. Their big dogs who, upon seeing other dogs out walking adopt a not-so-friendly pose.

I have 2 little dogs, was walking 3 little dogs this morning and two of those little dogs have big dog complexes. When they look in the mirror they see Rottie's or something LOL

With my two, I can scoop 'em up and get out of Dodge,so to speak, if necessary - not so much with three of them.

Much better to backtrack and detour around instead. We have to do this all the time and it p***ses me off.

People, if you want your dogs out, take them for a walk - leashed !
If you want to open the door and let them out loose, fence your yard !

Tomorrow, I'll go the other route :-)