Five on Friday

This was supposed to be a post linking up to a party yesterday, but the link-up hasn't appeared on that site, so I'm rewriting this to be a Five on Friday post with Amy. Thanks again Amy for hosting!

The clouds finally lifted here in southern Ontario. It's been a very gloomy January, so let's hope the sunshine will be with us a little more in February. Yesterday was Groundhog Day, and for those who care, the groundhog declares there will be six more weeks of winter since he saw his shadow. Who started this tradition anyway?!

One: I took the kids for a walk in the woods on Monday as soon as I saw that sunshine. It was brisk, but nice to get out in the fresh air in our tiny woods at the end of the road. I saw a large gathering of cedar waxwings in the trees alongside the road when we arrived. Unfortunately, my phone camera is useless for bird photos. Someone has put a binder inside a wooden box in the middle of the woods to encourage people to write down the wildlife (mostly birds) they see in the woods. It's interesting to read, and lots of people have seen the great horned owl and the long eared owl. I'd love to see the long eared owl!

my tiny companions

chickadees forever looking for handouts

Two: In my own backyard, we received a bit of snow overnight on Tuesday. It was enough to allow us to toboggan down the hill beside my driveway yesterday. A nice break from the usual routine.

It's not a huge hill, but enough for a bit of outdoor entertainment for two active two-year olds and Cody!

The snow had melted away in the sunshine by the end of the day, which made me glad we got out there when we did. Snow has been scarce for us here this winter. Now it has turned a bit colder at -10C this morning with a windchill of -17C. Not too bad yet, although the weather network is predicting a messy February with fluctuating temperatures. Sounds like fun, right? This morning I've been singing (in my head) "Sunshine on My Shoulder". This tune always springs to mind on a sunny day in winter for some reason. If it's sunny in the afternoon, I like to sit in my favourite chair to read or knit with the sunshine pouring in the front windows .... ah ... bliss!

Three: On Saturday we're getting a new furnace and water heater installed. It seems like just a couple of years ago that we had our last furnace installed. "And then one day you find, ten years have got behind you; No one told you when to run; You missed the starting gun ..." (I'm a Pink Floyd fan).  We are going to rent our furnace (the water heater was already a rental). I like this option better than dishing out over $4,000 for a new furnace every 17 - 20 years. It's going to cost just a little bit more each month than it was to pay for our service contract. The new furnace will be high efficiency, and I'm hoping it will distribute the heat better like everyone tells us it will. For a small bungalow, there are a lot of cold spots in our house. 

Four: This morning is "Fireside Storytime" at the library. I hope they have the fire going! I'm going to take the two toddlers and one baby, and hope it all goes well. Two of these kids are a challenge and have high energy (the boy and the baby). Wish me luck because I really don't want to buckle three kids in car seats with snowsuits on and control their behaviour for the half hour we are in the library ... and then get them all buckled into their seats again for the five-minute drive home. 

Five: Although I don't discuss ageing much, I am getting closer and closer to being a senior. This past year I let my hair turn completely grey rather than colour it every two or three weeks. I guess I am "prematurely" grey like my mother. Neither of my older sisters or my younger brother have grey hair (as far as I know!). My hair stylist said "it will age you" when I told her my plans. Whatever. Life will age me too. I'm still rather shocked to see how grey I am when I look in the mirror. Last week I went to the drug store to buy some hearing aid batteries (I'm sounding older with each line I write!!). I'm always depressed at the cost of batteries, but I didn't voice my opinion to the clerk. When I got home I was looking at the receipt and noticed I was given a "senior's discount" of $4. I was a bit hurt that I was viewed as a senior by a 16-year old kid, but a $4 discount on batteries is good, right?! To be honest, I would rather they just give me the discount rather than ask me "are you a senior" when I'm in line with a lot of other people. I guess the hair stylist was right. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was carded to get into clubs ... then I was annoyed that I still looked like a 16-year old when I was well into my 20s. 

Well, that's it for me. I'm looking forward to the weekend as the kids have been wearing me out this week! I want to work hard on the blanket I'm knitting for my dad and maybe start the drawings for my canoe paddle too. I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to do, but now I want to see it on paper. 

Thanks for stopping by

and enjoy your weekend!

Wendy

Five on Friday

Joining up with Amy's Five on Friday today.

I've not been able to blog much for the past few weeks. I've been working on a few projects in all my spare time, and just couldn't find time to blog. Thank you for all your kind comments on the knitted scarf I last wrote about. I apologize for not replying to comments (which I normally do), but time has not been on my side lately. I haven't been able to finish that scarf as I didn't have enough yarn to make it as long as I like. I haven't quite decided what I'll do with it, but the yarn is too beautiful to be cast aside. I have a couple of ideas though, both of which involve ripping back the entire scarf.

One: Last weekend my husband and I took the dog for a walk at Heber Downs Conservation Area at the north end of my town. We were surprised to see snow in the woods as it's been so rainy and mild all this winter. There is no snow where I live closer to Lake Ontario. The path was quite icy, but the woods were pretty with fog hanging low in several spots. We walked along the paths that I have only recently started to explore ... and we got lost. Lost in the woods! The paths are not marked, which I find amazing for a conservation area, and it seems people have created their own paths criss-crossing through the woods. We followed one such path straight across the woods and met up with a well-worn path along the other side. Unfortunately, that well-worn path soon petered out into nothing in a very boggy, icy, deep snow section, and that's where we got lost. We didn't want to back track ... I hate backtracking ... so futile ... I want to complete the trail! We did have to go back a little ways as the bog was getting too difficult to get through. We ended up finding someone's laneway through the woods and came out on a road quite far from where we thought we were. Where we came out onto the road was a sign "Private Property/No Trespassing" ... oops! It was a long walk back to the truck, and rather than seeing the fun and adventure in that, my husband just got annoyed. Oh well, Cody and I enjoyed the adventure ;)

 

Two: This is one of the projects I was working on. One of my daycare clients recently had a baby girl, and despite the fact that I know she was given a large number of outfits from someone at her work, I couldn't resist knitting up this little dress. I had a heck of time with the gauge as I knit quite loosely. I must have knit about five swatches to get the gauge correct. I think I knit half a dress with just those swatches! Anyway, I was pleased with the results ... my first dress! This was knit in the round and I only had to join the shoulder straps with kitchener stitch and it was done. I made the hat up myself copying the "trellis" pattern from the yoke of the dress. 

Three: Yesterday we had sunshine. This fact alone deserves a post of its own! We have had such a grey and dark winter this year. Very little snow where I am, and every day it seems has been overcast and either raining or drizzling, or just plain yuck. When it does snow, it has turned to freezing rain and made a mess of the roads. I can't even remember the last time we had a sunny day ... I think it was in the fall. When the sun broke through yesterday morning, I told the parents we were skipping the library storytime and heading to the woods instead. They didn't argue as they knew their kids were getting tired of being indoors. So we travelled over to Lynde Marsh and had a relaxing walk in the fresh air. These are not my favourite woods as they are now well-worn from so many people walking through, but I take what I can get. We went along the boardwalk first that heads straight out into the marsh. The marsh is loaded with Canada geese & swans. When the swans saw us, they paddled over to us in a big hurry looking for handouts. We had a bit of corn for them, and a few seeds for the chickadees that came to us in the woods. The turkeys are still there too, and they are such fun to feed and hear them "gobble". It's been so mild that earlier this week my son and I saw a great blue heron flying across towards a little pond in our neighbourhood. Normally herons migrate until early spring. I've also seen flocks of robins all winter long, both here in my yard and again in Heber Downs.

 

Four: Visits to dear old Dad have continued, but not as often as I would like. It seems everyone I care for lately is on a jigsaw puzzle craze. My daycare kids can't seem to get enough of jigsaw puzzles this winter, and when I saw Dad recently, we also did a puzzle together. My mom and dad used to do jigsaw puzzles all through the long winter months. They would have a table set up in the living room just for jigsaws and would work away at them together. I too like working on a jigsaw, but these days there always seems to be something else I need to work on instead. It was nice to slow down and do this (surprisingly difficult!) puzzle with Dad.

Five: I am now working on a project for Dad. I'm knitting him a lap blanket. Possibly the worst winter to knit a blanket, but I've put this off for a few years now because I couldn't decide on a pattern. (I know, I spend far too long making these decisions!)  Despite the fact that I have a lot of blanket patterns to choose from, I finally decided to just knit the thing in stockinette stitch. I'll share more on this next week with Jennifer's Winter Project link.

Thanks for stopping by today, and have a great weekend!

Wendy

Five On Friday

I'm joining up with the lovely Amy of Love Made My Home today for her Five on Friday link party. Amy is dealing with lots of difficulties these days, and it's so nice of her to continue hosting the link party. Thank you Amy :)

One

My brother suffered the loss of his sweet little daschund the day after Christmas. My family owned a red daschund when we were growing up, and "Skipper" lived to be 16 years old. "Reba" was a lovely dog, and she was the first dog my brother had owned. She was also in her 16th year, but suffered some sort of tumor in her abdomen and quickly left this life. I made up this felt ornament for him. On the back is a phrase he would ask his kids when they were deciding where to take Reba for a walk ... "Beach, woods or mountains?"

Two

I was happy to see these two scarves revisit me this week! The daycare kids who received them from me (brother & sister) loved them and wore them each day. A very satisfying sight in my entry hall :)

Three

Three balls of scrummy yarn that I will share more about tomorrow!

Four

I have joined the masses. My husband signed us all up with Netflix for Christmas, and also gave me my very own TV. I am in a certain kind of heaven now ;)  I wear a hearing aid and my hearing deteriorates steadily. A hearing aid doesn't fix your hearing loss, it's just a tiny amplifier that increases the volume of everything around you. The increased volume destroys what hearing you have left. One day I hope someone can develop a better system for those with hearing loss. It has now become impossible for me to watch regular television. The closed captions are a joke, and cause more frustration for me (and my family) with trying to read and decipher the terrible translations and still keep up with the images and the plot. I challenge anyone to turn on closed captions and turn down the volume and see if you can keep up. I gave up and turned instead to reading the news on my computer and watching DVDs for entertainment. With Netflix I can watch such a wide variety of both TV shows and movies that it kind of eases the hurt. Netflix you see has proper subtitles attached to their movies and shows. Thank you Netflix.

Five

We bought our dog Cody a new bed for Christmas. He's a little bit lost in it, but he does love the thickness and the softness of it in his old age. He will be 12 in March. He has been in my bad books for a few weeks now as he has suddenly started raiding the bathroom garbage pails. We have had to close all doors when we leave the house ... even if it's just for ten minutes! He sits in the front window to watch us leave, and then he gets to work. I'm trying to be a patient dog owner, but honestly, it feels like a huge betrayal. He has also enjoyed stealing the following from the kitchen counter this Christmas alone: two loaves of bread, one package of bagels, one whole box of Purdy's chocolates (a gift that I hadn't even unwrapped!), a bag of homemade dog treats (a gift for him from a friend!), and about half a bag of rabbit pellets (the hay pellets, not the poop pellets). He has no shame and only a smidgen of guilt.

"Who, me?!"

Thanks for stopping by!

Be sure to visit Amy's blog to see others' Five on Friday.

Wendy

Five on Friday

Good Morning! Two more sleeps ... are you ready?! I'm not, but it's not for lack of trying. I still have two more things to finish up. One is a painting project for my husband and the other is stuff for my brother. Wish me luck in finishing them in time!

I'm joining Amy of Love Made My Home for her final installment of Five on Friday for this year.

This is just a sort of wrap up of all the Christmassy things the I've been working on for and with the daycare kids.

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I bought the book "The Mitten" by Jan Brett for one of my charges. I really like this book and bought it myself a few years before I had kids of my own. I bought the board book for this little girl, although the story is much condensed from the large hard cover book. Basically, the story is of a little boy who begs his grandma to knit him mittens as white as snow. Grandma tells him if he drops it in the snow, he'll never find it. Of course, that's exactly what happens, but all sorts of woodland creatures come and find the mitten and crawl inside it stretching it out of shape. 

I made eight felt animals to go with the book, and also knitted up one snow white mitten. I was in a frenzy of stitching these darned animals up all this week, and even when the girl's mother came to collect her yesterday, I was still stitching the last animal closed (I embroidered details on the front and stuffed them). Unfortunately, I did not get time for even one photo before I shoved the entire project into a gift bag and raced downstairs to hand it over. All I have to show you are the paper pieces I used to cut the animals out of felt. I use freezer paper for this, and highly recommend it for making felt pieces. You just draw your image on the paper, iron it onto the felt and cut out the shapes. It was a fun project even though I was crazy rushed.

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The kids have been happily working on some little Christmas decorations all through the month of December. I think this little guy was my favourite ;)  I had these tiny baskets on hand, and the kids painted them up. Then I made some very dense pom poms for the cardinal bird baby, and they glued in the paper beak, the googly eyes and the feather tale and added details to the basket. It's stuffed with Spanish moss inside.

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Other decorations we made were paper mache balls that the kids painted and decorated with glitter and beads.  Rudolph made with handprint hands and the face is their footprint.  Christmas trees made from jumbo popsicle sticks and other decorations. And jingle bell bracelets that we made up and then spent some crazy time dancing and singing Jingle Bells accompanied by Michael Buble!

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I finished up the two scarves for the older kids. I know the girl will love her scarf as she seems to wear a different scarf every day. The boy ... not so sure. I was about three-quarters of the way through making his when he told me he "hates scarves that you have to wind around your neck". sigh..... He's getting it anyway, but I wouldn't be surprised if I never see it wound around his neck. They turned out so nicely I thought, and they are very squishy! I knit the orange/grey scarf with a basket weave stitch, which looks really nice. It isn't reversible, but the pattern isn't too awful from the back (you can see it in the photo).

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Yesterday was my last day with the kids until the New Year. I'd had enough of crafting and knitting and sewing, so I took them for a very enjoyable, very quiet, magical walk in the snowy woods. We were the only ones there. I would very happily have laid down in the snow and watched the snowflakes come down through the branches ... something I did often as a kid when out tobogganing with my brother on our own hill. Simple pleasures :)

Instead I enjoyed watching the kids running and falling into the snow and giggling the entire time. The big white pines in this forest are my favourites, and I took a couple of panoramic photos to share. Apparently there is a great horned owl now living in these woods. I'll be keeping my eye out for him when I visit again.

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And that's my "five" for this year! It's been a real pleasure joining in with you Amy, although I haven't always had something to share. This is a nice meme to join in to share something simple that's happening in your week. Thank you for hosting.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

God bless you all and enjoy the time with family and friends.

Wendy

PS Just wanted to share a couple of pottery decorations I purchased at the Pottery Guild Show in Dundas back in November ...

Five on Friday

I made my first ever Christmas cake with a recipe that Mom gave me many years ago. It's not a really dark one like she used to make, so I'm thinking maybe she used a different recipe. I'll have to search through some recipes I have of hers to see if there's a different one. I haven't sliced into this cake yet, but it is ageing in the garage wrapped in rum-soaked cheesecloth. It's tucked inside Mom's official Christmas cake tin too (which I didn't get a photo of, but maybe another day I'll remember to do that). It's an old unpainted heavy square tin that is quite aged and lovely because of that. It's not a pretty tin, but Mom liked it because it closed up tight. She stored her Christmas cakes in there every year, and there were butter tarts at other times. Good memories.

A couple of weeks ago the four of us plus one (my daughter's boyfriend) all went to Toronto to do a bit of fun Christmas shopping. This is inside the Eaton's Centre. They always put up a magnificent display for Christmas, and this is the "tree" reaching from basement level right up to the glass roof. I used to work just across the street from the Eaton's Centre and spent many a rushed, but happy lunchtime there Christmas shopping!

Back at home the following week, we worked on decorating our house and got our own fat tree assembled and placed in the front window. A lot fewer decorations adorn it this year, and I'm really happy with the results. The photos don't do it justice (phone!!!grrr), but it simply glows with the clear lights we put on it this year. I've always wanted clear lights and it's made quite a difference to the tree. I put strands of faux red berries, icicles, snowflakes and tiny felt mice on it. Also a long ribbon of burlap with red edging made by me about 30 years ago. I've always loved the rustic look of burlap ;)

A beautiful tatted snowflake from a new friend was gifted to me this year.

A crystal snowflake that we made from chenille sticks and Borax

A red-tailed hawk my son made out of papier mache
for a school project sis on the tree top

 The living room looks a lot nicer this year without all the clutter of Christmas decorations I usually set around it. We have room to put things on the coffee table and the buffet now :)

a cozy corner with Christmas cushions

Just a few decorations here and there ... this is a tiny porcelain snowman
I picked up when shopping with my girlfriend a few years ago

A cedar branch display with "nature" themed decorations.
Some of these stay on the branches all year. I peeled the bark
off the branches and they are super smooth and now darkening a bit with age.

A small thrifted aged lantern full of tiny pinecones

Another small snowman tealight & tree on top of the desk

Just a few things on the buffet with some greenery in front and
a big log tealight holder underneath

Log tealight, hedgehog bootscrape and metal reindeer (also made by my son)

My "Winter" Brambly Hedge teacup that my husband gave me years ago.

Mom & Dad's ancient tree-top angel that I cleaned up sits
on top of the bookshelf with a few friends

Father Time atop the only logical place

Just a few of the many nutcrackers we have. Even they were getting on my nerves in the past,
so I put only a few on top of the china cabinet this year.

The kitchen was decorated as well, and received it's usual garlands of pinecones across the windows and my pinecone wreath in between. I put some greenery around our light as well, but am a little bit leery of the oil lamp being lit right underneath it. So far, so good.

I made a little felt decoration that sits inside the wreath this year.

Our Countdown to Christmas chalkboard.
I really like this small calendar rather than an advent calendar and have
had it since my kids were little. It was a kit I painted up.

We have a full-sized red pick-up truck, so I couldn't wait to decorate my son's
childhood toy with a fake tree. Couldn't find a smaller tree, but we had a laugh
over this one ;)

A favourite wooden bead and wooden snowman & Santa garland leading into the living room

This is a tiny smoking table at the top of my entryway stairs. Just added my mini tree there with some polymer clay ornaments I made about 30 years ago. I'm surprised they lasted this long! The photo is on the table all year round and is from a blogging friend last Christmas :)

My son was looking around the house the other day and commented "we have a lot of pinecones in our house". It's true! But I find they are such simple yet pretty decoration year round. I get out more at Christmas time, but some are out all year round.

I'm joining up with Amy at Love Made My Home and her world famous Five on Friday.