Last Minute Preparation!

Well! The craft fair is tomorrow and I hate to jinx it but I think I'm ready!
I ended up building the cursed backdrop myself. I sucked it up and went to the hardware store and explained what I wanted - thankfully a nice person was working and didn't laugh at me and was even able to suggest the thickness of plywood to use. My main piece is 4"x6½" and then I have two side panels that are 2"x6½" (that way I only needed two pieces of plywood because they come in 4"x8" sheets). I got it painted and hinged together and I think it should be pretty good! (we're going to ignore the HILARIOUS story about me painting it first THEN hinging it and the hinges being on the wrong side and me having to repaint it - I wasn't about to move the hinges!) . I'm just waiting for Glen to get up so we can go downstairs and take the pins out of the hinges so we can move it easier tomorrow (because if we didn't I could bet money that the damn thing would bust).

I sewed up another bear -no pictures yet- he's blue with yellow accents (inside of ears, paws, back of head, bow). I still like my first one better and I seemed to have more trouble with the second one. We did an appliqué tea towel project at quilting on Monday - my first appliqué - no pictures of that either. It turned out pretty cute I think (I put three stars on a white towel).

I got my first goal in hockey on Tuesday! Glen just happened to come that night to take pictures for me and even managed to get a picture of me scoring! woo!

Maybe now that the first goal is out of the way I'll get more ;-)

Today is my last day of work under the old contract. If I didn't get my position back it would be my last day at the group home - weird!! I have the next three days off because of the craft fair so when I go back on Wednesday I'll be working for my old boss. There's been "goodbye" notes at the end of reports all week now... WEIRD!

Cross your fingers that the craft fair goes well and my backdrop doesn't fall and crush me mid-way through!!!


Temperature: -18C
Sunrise: 12:20pm
Sunset: 3:02pm

Getting down to the wire...

Craft fair knitting has definitely slowed to a crawl... I've been getting some sewing done though. I wanted to make some fabric baskets to hold things on my table so I made a few of those. I also thought I'd make some for presents so I made a few extra (and once I get more cording I'll probably do a bunch more). A co-worker's husband is hopefully coming by tonight to look at my plans for a backdrop thingy. In exactly one week I'll be hauling my stuff over to the rec. centre to set up!

I've been cutting out blocks for a quilt too (I have one on the go that is driving me insane so I've started cutting out stuff for a new one just to give me a mental break from it). No pictures of it yet but I'm pretty excited about both of them (my first attempts at triangle pieces). I don't have enough fabric for the first one so I bought some extra and it *kind of* matches --- That's what happens when you buy fabric 7 years ago and only get around to finish sewing stuff together now. So I'm hoping it will work out afterall...

It has gotten outrageously cold here - or it was outrageously cold yesterday anyway. -38C with the windchill - wtf? I got into the truck yesterday and it said -29C (no windchill) brrrr! It's not supposed to be this cold yet!!! I've been waiting to pull out my parka and my warm mitts but I think I might be doing it sooner than planned. It's also super dark out now (doesn't help that it's been overcast). Not enjoying that much either... blehhh!


Temperature: -18C (winchill: -28C)
Sunrise: 11:45am
Sunset: 3:33pm

I've been scolded!

Sorry for the long silence it's been a long and confusing two weeks.
I don't really have any news so that's the main reason I've been waiting to update. I've been offered my regular position back but haven't signed any papers. I don't think I'll get screwed over but I wouldn't be surprised if something random happened. Things at work are really confusing because there are some staff members that aren't getting their job back and they are WAY disgruntled (don't blame them really) BUT they're making everyone else's life difficult. So much so that a few of us aren't telling that we've been offered positions. Yikes... It also means all the things I wasn't going to have to do (like putting together Christmas lists for 5 people) I'm going to do. So I brought all the latest Sears catalogues home with me tonight to hopefully compile some lists on my days off.

My days off lately have been rather unproductive due to me deciding to get a life. I've been faithfully going to quilting every Monday (not really getting a lot done though... hmmm) and then hockey on Tuesdays. Hockey is SO.MUCH.FUN. I'm having a blast. I hurt myself pretty bad last week but I should be good to go by Tuesday again - thank goodness for pads and a helmet!!! My head bounced off the ice (I don't even know how I fell but I lost my balance, my feet came out from under me and I landed on my back) so I've been recovering from what I imagine is ice whiplash :-P And a lot of soreness. But, totally worth it.

Knitting wise, I haven't gotten a lot of big things done but many, many small mittens. I'm embellishing them (and some mini sweaters) with felt cut-outs (Christmas trees, presents, stockings, snowmen, hearts etc). I spent my evening yesterday tracing out, cutting and embelishing little felt things. I'm really pleased with how they're turning out. I'm seriously going to make an effort to unpack everything and take a picture of it!
Speaking of the craft fair, I got my big box of "table stuff" on Thursday (table cloth, cash box, gift bags etc) the only major thing I have left to do is figure out a backdrop thing for my photos. I'll either borrow one or build one (yikes!). Only a few more weeks!

So there ya go! I think that's a pretty decent update --- Oh! And if there are people reading that I owe letters to I'm going to try super hard to get them written this week! Sorry I'm such a terrible penpal! ugh! :-(


Temperature: -12C (feels like -18C)
Sunrise: 10:19am
Sunset: 4:54pm
(stupid time change! Only a month of daylight left!)

Spring Forward Package!

Here's my latest secret pal package (for our single box "Spring Forward" swap)!!

This is what I got: Burts bees lotion (!!!), two boxes of tea: Earl Grey and green tea (my favourites! I had a cup of green tea today and it was SO good), a Kentucky magnet, a bag to put around my wrist for knitting in public - so handy!, a pencil, a ball of Austerman Step, a crazy sproingy sheep toy - scared the crap out of my cats haha, peep toys (woo! I don't like peeps but these toys are cute!!), some mints in a cool tin, dpn point protectors and a really cute card :-D
My SP also sent me all sorts of really cute e-cards. Thanks!!!!!!!

(and if you look close enough in the picture, you can see that we still have a tonne of snow!!)

I started doing some needle felting on another pair of slippers but no photos yet... I would've been done last night but I went straight to bed when I got home from work.

Temperature: -18C
Sunrise: 6:44am
Sunset: 11:04pm

Busy!!

Busy, busy, busy!!!

Wow, the last month went by so fast! I've hardly had time to do anything between getting us ready for Christmas and getting everyone at work ready (a lot of planning goes into ordering, wrapping, baking, planning etc etc for 5 people). Things went well this year despite the fact that I was running out of time to get things done and didn't manage to get everything done that I wanted to (it was mostly the baking that got cut in the end - I made over 400 various kinds of cookies for work since I was putting together boxes to hand out to a few local places - long term care, resident's families etc. So because of that I didn't get any baking done for here and didn't manage to get any bread or buns done either - I realised at like 10:00pm Sunday night that I'd completely forgot to make buns for at work and then was way too lazy to make some for our dinner - oh well!). I was extra busy but this is the first year that wasn't full of stress and things getting all messed up. At work we order all our presents through Sears and this is the first year that everything made it on time - even the stuff they said wouldn't be here until January made it by the 23rd!
One of the resident's mums is visiting for the holidays and it's been a lot of fun having her around (I'm pretty close with the family). She originally came here for medical but extended her stay for Christmas. Because of her medical condition she has a very hard time getting around so I've been taking her out and helping her with her errands and stuff. Luckily she's a very small woman so when we go out, Glen and I just pick her up and put her in our truck (well, our landlord's truck that we're using while they're away) and then put her in her wheelchair to get her around. Most of my evenings at work have been spent chatting with her and asking questions about how life used to be up here (she's not even 50 yet and was born out on the land). It's so fascinating to hear about that sort of stuff - especially to hear about her first experiences with "southern" culture (one of her first non-northern foods was a mandarin orange and she says she can still remember how sweet it was). I made her a pair of mittens while she's been here since her usual rabbit fur mitts are a bit too bulky for trying to get in and out of vehicles. I only have a picture of one of them but I'm going to try to get a picture of her wearing them.

In other news, only 5 or 6 more days until the sun comes back - yay! The "sunrise" each morning has been getting better and better - pinks, purples, oranges. The 50th anniversary of Inuvik is this year so apparently the budget for the annual bringing back the sun fireworks has more than doubled. Should be exciting!

On the knitting front - I still haven't finished my knitted nativity (I haven't worked on it much in the last few weeks) It'll be finished before next year but it might take a while... I have a few other "urgent" things I need to get done first. I'm almost finished a super secret Secret Pal present. I've never knit anything for a Secret Pal before so I'm both nervous and excited I can't wait to post about it though.

I was going to post pictures but that will have to wait until another day... Glen is trying to watch the cricket on the other computer and uploading is messing that up.


Temperature: -18C (feels like -25C)
Sunrise: -
Sunset: -