I know I said I would not post

But I am at work, its my lunch break and I am stuck on hold with Apple Support so why not!

Here is my sad story for today (with still a very shiny layer as I leave for Mexico in 12 hours and 5 minutes). When I plugged my iPhone to charge two days ago, I was informed there was an update and so I updated! This caused my phone to crash and have to be restored to its original settings - so it wipes off all my apps, my music, my photos - everything. Thankfully the computer does do a back up of your phtotos, and phone numbers so I was able to salvage that info. I did this on my work computer as I live here. When I got home, my home computer had a back up of my apps so I put them back on. My music however was lost.

I proceeded to reload my iPhone with my saved playlists in my iTunes from my home computer. The next day, I thought I would like to listen to this music, so I selected the iPod function and to my surprise, it was empty! So I plugged it into my home computer again to see what is going on. It showed all my playlists, but nothing under the music tab. So I grabbed more songs from my iTunes and put them into the music folder on my iPhone.

OK - should be good to go right? NO, still nothing shows in my iPhone's iPod funtion. So I plug it back in, yes they all show in iTunes, what is going on, I do not know. Then I notice there is a button at the bottom of iTunes that asks if I want to populate the play list from iTunes. OK, sure that sounds good.

Ehh, not so good. It grabbed every song from the iTunes which is way more GB then my phone can handle. So I start deleting as they still do not show in the iPod function and now I am thinking its too full to work?? You know I am technically challenged so I do not know. I get it down to just over half full. Still nothing.

When I try to open the iPod function, it is blank and then it just closes itself. To my horror as well, I discover this morning that my battery is no longer holding a charge.

OH, Apple support just answered.
ttyl

Samelia's Mum is doing a give away

For a chance to win on Samelia's Mums blog, click here. She is celebrating her 100 post with two fabulous give aways!
She is an excellent quilter, has her own Etsey shop and not only gets to be a great mom, she gets to live in Australia!! A frozen Canadian girls dream. ha ha Any where warm at this point would be great!
Happy Thursday everyone.
Cheers,
Carolyn

Bee together sewing bee!

I have joined this fun quilting bee, and there is only 11 spots so if you would like to join me, click here.
Hmm, I tried to post the picture, but it was rejected... well, click on the link if you are interested in joining a fun quilting bee!


Okay and now, I am serious - no more blogging until I get back from my trip... ha ha ha

Time to clean the house and pack for a trip!

Hello my friends. I had mentioned to a few of you that I would be posting a picture of my new plan to solve my place mat dilemma. But unfortunately, that is going to have to wait until after I get back from Mexico!! Almost a year ago, I won a free all inclusive trip, air fare and resort included from a magazine called Dreamscapes. The package is from AirCanada Vacations and they have some great packages. In fact, our second last trip which was to Cuba was through an AirCanada Vacation package. I could not believe it when I got the phone call that I had won!
Any who, we leave at 12:10am on Saturday morning and my Father and his Wife will be house sitting for me. That means, I have to stop sewing and actually clean the house. As Mr. Hunter informed me, all you do is blog and pinwheel, its time to put it down. How depressing is that?? So I have agreed to put it down, sure, I will - until we get back!! Then I am pulling everything back out! HA, take that Mr. Hunter!!
We are going to the Occidental Royal Hideaway resort. It is all-inclusive and ADULTS ONLY!! OMG, this resort is sooo out of my price range and I cannot wait to get there!
I will be thinking of you while sitting in the sun, reading a book. Or not, I could be drunk and dancing on the beach having too many servasas!!
We get back to the International Airport at midnight on Wednesday so I will hopefully be able to post some pics on Friday.
Have a great week and a bit my friends.
Cheers,
Carolyn

Little booties

Lucky's feet get so cold when he gets outside. He had the cutest little booties last year, but they fell apart, closer to the truth is they disintegrated right off his feet. Although they were cute, they were a terrible design. I thought I would buy his some new ones, but they are 50 dollars! So being the cheap person I am, I thought I could make them. .. ... maybe not. I will probably be going to the store and getting him new ones. I actually noticed that the store I was looking at were all sold out on the weekend. I wanted to take a picture so I had something to go on. The ones I wanted for him looked like a sock with padding and velcro added.
So I bought Lucky some baby socks. I wanted new borns, but had to settle for 3-9 month or something like that. They are a little big, but I thought the velcro would handle that.
Then I got him some little booties, I thought I could add elastic and velcro to that and tadah done - for 15 dollars! Yeah, no such luck. The booties are just too big and although I could get away with it for a while, I didn't want the funny fit to bother him.

 Here are the socks and booties, are they not adorable! Below is my answer to a better fit. But Lucky is not like a good little boy, he will not let me fit them on him. I did manage to get it on, and the fit is good. But its a real pain in my @$$ so I will have to see how it goes. I am not an apparel maker that is for sure! I have started the vinyl part  for the bottom, and for the back of the heal, but it is slow going. Might run back to that store to save myself some sanity!

 Cheers,
Carolyn

Christmas Draw

My siblings and I started a new tradition last year, of drawing names for gift giving rather then trying to shop for everyone. It makes it a lot easier as we are all pretty busy people like everyone else I know.
This year (don't worry - they do not read my blog, we may be blood related but that does not mean we like the same things) I drew my brothers name, and Mr. Hunter drew his wife's name. Awesome! I actually had my brother last year two and I spent way more on him them I was supposed to, but he is my brother! And we do both like the same shoes! I got him the coolest pair of Converse high tops on the planet. Seriously, they were lime green and black half checkers. Sweet!!
This year, they both requested a 20 something item ordered online -easy peasie and now I am making them for their new to them house - placemats, coasters and a table runner. If I had time, I would make them matching oven mitts and maybe some knitted washcloths. But alas - I do not have that kind of time. I can still strive for it and just package up whatever I do get accomplished. 
So, after a couple of days wasted trying to come up with and choose "The" design, I finally went with this:

For the Placemats

The table runner - I want the stars to overlap onto the triangles - but I am a lazy sketcher.

  So this was the plan, but then in reality - as why would I use a pattern or draw this out on paper?? Well, I could not find my paper roll - too lazy to look that hard. Its so darn cold, once I am under the blanket, I do not like to move. So, I used my new Dresden ruler to make my triangle shapes, 13" long. I think they look nice:

Then I placed my pinwheel pieces on top to see what it looks like:

I hate it! The patterns get lost in each other and well, that's about it - I need to choose different fabric or forget the pinwheels on the mats altogether. The latter is what I thought last night, and thought - why not use them on coasters? Like this:

Again, my patterns get lost on here. I think the red and purple pattern is OK, but the other has got to go - that or I need a different background fabric. I just flipped the patter here so you could get an idea - but now I am second guessing the whole thing. 
What do you think? Should I keep the pinwheels on the placemat, but choose more contrasting fabrics? Or leave them as is, and do the fancy pinwheel coasters? Or both. Ah, I don't know... feel free to leave me a comment and tell me what to do. ha ha
Another thing I am thinking is to use a 60 degree pinwheel square, rather then the above 45 degree. This makes a pinwheel with 6 points, rather then the 8, so it would be less busy.
I hope all your projects are going well.


As for the quilters carry all bag. I will do a tutorial for you - but please bare with me until after Christmas so I can get some gifts done.
Cheers my friends,
Carolyn

The day the music died

Our truck was broken into - again! Last time was over a year ago and the took Mr. Hunter's satellite radio and I think they pulled out the old stereo even though he had the face plate in the house. 
This time, and he had just after waiting this year and a half in some kind of self punishment for someone else stealing from him, replaced the stereo last weekend while I was at the quilting retreat. He went to leave for work in the morning and then came in to tell me that not only the stereo, but all electrical items in the truck such as the amplifier, his sub-woofer and all the other techie things that go with boy stereo systems was gone. They obviously have been checking out the truck as they came with tools. They neatly disconnected and took it all. 
One week of finally not having to drive in silence. The thieves even unscrewed our security lights to stop them from coming off and on - how nice. 
This along with the thefts out of our back yard - oh yes, even the back yard. I even had someone come in and take all my bottle recycling which was right outside my back door - and I was in the kitchen making supper. The kitchen window looks out over the backyard. We are at a loss as to what to do, the police are too busy keeping the rich neighborhoods safe while we have to monitor our streets and alleys ourselves. 
I have had to change my window painting so we can keep a more diligent eye on the back yard as obviously nothing is safe.

 I cleared off the blue just on the one side so if someone is out there, we can "hide" behind the colored part while I get the bat. Mr. Hunter is very sad, but he is trying to be a trooper. 
No cheers today =(
Carolyn

Friday Night Sew-In

My goal was to finish the top of my never ending pinwheel quilt. But my body's goal was to fall asleep sitting up, next to Mr. Hunter whom as well fell asleep sitting up. Apparently we are too old to stay up late and party with Ozzy. Luckily we did not sleep the entire night away! We woke up - freezing, the temperature outside had dropped what felt like another 5 degrees. Our house lacks the basic things that keep that cold out - you know the stuff? Its call insulation and vapor barrier. Our house being built in 1948, it was originally insulated with wood chips which has settled to the very bottom of the walls. In our exploratory searches, we have found some exterior walls without even the wood chips. But I digress - so we woke up, freezing! Mr. Hunter grabbed some food and got ready for hockey. I stayed on the couch, covering myself with not one but two fleece blankets to try and thaw. Once he left, I hopped up and got onto my sewing machine - ready to go! I put on my heavy hoodie, took one blanket with me for my legs and got to sewing.
I did not get the last 5 rowes on, I only got three. Fortunately, I intend on continuing to sew all weekend so I will finish the last two rowes and get a start on the back. Yippee. 
I did feel pretty good after my nap. This morning we even slept in. All three animals were crawling all over us trying to wake us up for breakfast, but they soon gave up and laid down with us. Now I am ready to go!! Which is a good thing as it is already 11am! I am usually up at not later then 8am. I better get a hustle on.
Here is the pins so far:

So here are my last two rowes. At least the diagonals are done - wont take long (I hope!).
What did you guys do last night? 
Cheers,
Carolyn

My Friday task list and last nights fun

For the Friday Night Sew-In, I am hoping to complete my pinwheel top - I know, I have been working on this darn thing forever!! I still have 5 rowes to go and then I need to come up with something for the backing.

Did any of you joing the FNSI? I think there is still time, click here to sign up and possibly win a prize!

Last night, Mr. Hunter and I went to see Ozzy Osborne. I do not listen to Ozzy anymore, but as a young person I did. In fact, I saw him in concert just 11 years ago. That concert was amazing and this one was good too. Although his voice is not as strong as it was - for an old guy - he still rocked the stage and everyone except these two stick in the mudds in front of me had a great time. We had tickets on the floor, rowe 16! Here are some pictures (from my iPhone so not amazing, but better then nothing!)

Oh, this one is actually Halford from Judas Priest, he was the opener.

Wow, what a crappy pic huh??

Okay, I wont make you supper through any more grainy awful pictures.
Happy Friday everyone.
Cheers,
Carolyn

Friday Night Sew-In!

Are you ready to come join the fun?? Heidi is doing a great Sew In Friday and you can win a prize! Check out her blog to enter to win!
Cheers,
 Carolyn

The carry all bag is done!

I was able to finish this up a couple of days ago - the zippers are installed, the new key pocket on the front attached. There are definitely some mistakes made on this bag, but all in all, I am pretty happy with it. Plus no-one knows what pattern I was making so, the differences are unknown.. ... but then again, Janice has asked me for the pattern! Since the pattern is pretty vague - I thought I could do a tutorial on it. What do you think? Is anyone else interested in learning how to make this bag?
Here is the finished product - to see the details on the inside pockets, please click here.

So, Do you like it? Would you like me to make another and show you how? Please leave me a comment about it.
Cheers, 
Carolyn

Trying to help the planet

I made a couple of coffee cozies, the one you saw here. I then made a couple more and in my mind thought - okay, if I make these slowly for the whole office as everyone here goes for coffee at least once a day - I will be helping the environment by saving literally hundreds of cardboard cozies from being used and being put in the landfill! Great idea huh?? 
PROBLEM - You can lead the horse to water but you cannot make him drink - they will not use their cozies. Can you believe that?? Its not like I used ugly fabric, I dipped into my beautiful Fandango by Kate Spain for these. I placed them on their desk and waited to see if they liked them. I always do this, I do not know why, but I prefer people to discover their presents on their own. I guess I do not want to see any disappointment on their face, and this allows them to have any real emotion they really feel and then regardless of love or hate it, they can thank me later if they want to. 
So you have seen the first one, here is the second one I made:

And the third:

I just loved how these turned out, but I have not a clue how to get them to use them. I mentioned to the one person when she came in with coffee and not the cozy, "Hey, you forgot to use your new cozy". I hoped that would work, but no, every day a coffee and not my cozy.  
That is 0 for 3, not a one of them use the cozy - so I stopped making them. I don't want to waste the fabric if they are not going to use it. 
Guess I will have to help the planet some other way! 
Cheers,
Carolyn

Kids these days

I can only guess that this sign was put up by a kid (anyone under 25, ha ha) as the text language takes over proper English.
Tell me, would you buy this to eat?

(sorry for the again - grainy cell phone picture)
When I drove past the first time, I laughed hysterically. It has now been up for a couple of weeks and I think I may be the only person who notices that it is spelled wrong! ha ha, just what is a Sad-wich? Is this chicken, beef - well it is a chicken place so I guess chicken. Really the entire marketing seems a little funny to me. Double Down Sandwich, double down?? Is this trying to play off our need to super size things or is it a reference to football? I don't get it. Hmm I just Googled it and apparently there is a Saloon with the name Double Down in New York, as well as a radio station called Double Down. Again - how does this Sad-Wich tie into these things? I also see that the Sad-Wich is 540 calories - not horrible, but 1380mg of salt! Oh - found an image.

Disclaimer - this is not my photo, I am not pretending this is my photo, do not bother trying to sue me as I have no money - to see the original site it came from, please click here.


Oh, I get it - double the meat. It looks so gross. Suppose it tastes okay. KFC usually is good for the taste buds, just not the rest of your entire body!
 I do enjoy the fact that even if I am the only one in this city who can tell that the sign is spelled incorrectly, at least I get a chuckle every time I drive by.
Have any of you tried this? Your thoughts, comments? Were you rushed to Emergency after eating?

It breaks my heart

I downloaded some pictures off of my iPhone and it opened up a photo gallery with all my photos - and there on the screen for me to see were the few pictures from our London trip that were not lost. Oh if only we had not even looked at them. I think knowing exactly what great photos were on the lost memory card makes it even worse. I know I should get over it, I mean I got to go all the way to Jolly Ole London, right? 
The evil thought that keeps gnawing at my brain and making me sad is that Alzheimer's runs in my family. Sometimes I have no doubts that it is already eating away at my memory. My grandmother used her photo album to help her remember for a while and I thought it was great that they had so many pictures to help her. Oh course that did backfire when she could not longer even recognize herself - but still - I dreamt that my photos would somehow help me stay with what is going on longer than without them.
So knowing that my brain will be turning to mush and that I will someday not even recognize my own face, let alone Mr. Hunter's makes me so. .. .. well, Upset! To loose an entire 4GB memory card full of so many memories I wanted to hold onto a little longer and now they are just gone.
Whah whah whah.. ... I promise to give this up soon, I know I have only minorly mentioned it maybe once or twice..  But I hope to not let it bite my ass forever! 
Well, here are a couple more photos from the holiday that we do have (really we do have so many - its just that we lost almost everything from London itself).

This is a banjo player David Hum - in Salisbury I think it was, he was fantastic! I bought his CD and recommended they invite him to Edmonton's Folk Fest which is the only thing worth living in Edmonton for. At the end of every festival you can fill out a survey and they ask whom you want to see next year. I doubt they will bring him, but I am going to put his name on my list of wants every year. His CD is awesome. I think you may find his if you google him, but I have never tried so .. ..

This is Owen - nickname is O-E. Memorize this face - he will be something someday. He has a brilliant mind - but he cheats at Battleship!

Here is one from London. I love the pedestrian signs. It is also fascinating (to me anyways) how they mix modern construction with the centuries old architecture that is there. I also find it amazing just how old everything is there. Canada is such a young country in comparison, the US too, we are living in baby countries. ha ha. I also loved seeing buildings and areas named the same as things here in Edmonton. Like our Provincial building is a pyramid which I always thought was odd - but the top of this building that was called Edmonton or Canada .. .. ah, it was in the lost photos and the Alzheimer's has stolen the correct name from me, but it is a pyramid at the very top - identical to our provincial building! And there is a neighborhood in London called Edmonton. I googled it while we were there, it has one of the oldest churches still standing there, but its also one of the worst areas according to what I was reading, so we did not go check it out. Considering the hood Mr. Hunter and I live in now, it probably isn't that bad! You get used to it after a while and it just living like normal. 

This castle was located in one of my favorite towns that we visited - yet I haven't a clue what town we were in! We came into town to get a tour of the castle - the family still lives in it! They have a small portion available to the public though to see how the wealthy royals get to live. So we get there, and they were not open that day! We went for a lovely walk and this was as close as we got other then the gated exterior doors with the schedule. I went into this brilliant book shop and got a book from 1939 - original. I started to read it, and it is a good book. I have not completed it yet. Then we went into this corner delicatessen and got Beer Mustard which we brought home. It is very good on a fire roasted hot dog!
Well, Cheerio my friends. I feel better already - still lots of pictures for memories.
Have any of you every lost a memory card? (I hope not!!)

My Quilters Carry All Bag

Okay - its still not done - but check it out!

Yeah.. ... my pocket is off-centre. Was not really paying attention to that fine detail was I?? I was trying so desperately to get it done before I had to leave and I just messed it up. I have a plan though! I will fussy cut another blue spool square to make a mini pocket  for my keys!

Close up of the fun fabrics.

Here is the bag laying open. Each pocket is lined with lovely purple fabric.

This Velcro enclosed pocket is for your straight edges and rulers.

So lets see here - pocket 1 on the inside.

2nd pocket.

3rd

This pocket was made into several smaller pockets - 7 in fact bringing our pocket count to 10.

3 more pockets on this panel, one with a zipper - 13 pocket count.

And lastly, here is one more large pocket with a zipper making the final count for the inside of the bag- 14 pockets!

The back

First outside pocket

Second outside pocket and when I do my fussy cut pocket, that will make three for the outside total, and 17 for the entire bag. Pretty cool huh??

If I follow the directions (I am not very good at that - something about being told how to be creative just does not seem to sit well with me - weird I know, silly Taurus stubbornness I guess?) all I have left to do is add the binding and Velcro to keep it closed. I think I will actually do another zipper enclosure for the entire outer length. I hate Velcro and I like doing zippers so why not. Then there is the little pocket. I went to Fabricland to find myself a little zipper and they do not come as small as I want. Maybe a button? Or the dreaded Velcro? What do you think? Or perhaps I will look online for a small zipper. I do not want it too cheap though, I would hate to rip the bag to get my keys out if it didn't open correctly. 
I hope to complete this today - wish me luck!
Cheers,
Carolyn

Retreat pictures

I still have not completed my project from the retreat, nor have I taken any pictures of it. I thought I did while I was out there, but I only have one. Here is a sneak peak of it. We made a quilters carry all bag. This is the pocket, on the front pocket.. .. ha ha ha, there are so many pockets on this thing!

Here are some other finished projects by the talented ladies out there:

This is Sue, isn't her quilt fabulous?

This is Shirley. This project is just darling! She was unsure if she wanted to do the snowmen at the top. I am so glad she did, its super cute!

This is Barb (on the right - to the left is my new friend Vicky), she made this amazing tree skirt!

Here is Wanda (in the fun white and purple flower shirt playing shy) showing off her finished quilt top for her son in law. Lucky guy!!

And finally, here is my friend Norma with our instructor Monica and Shirley trying (desperately!!) to open a (by that I mean another) bottle of wine.

And another picture because I think its funny:

Ah ha ha ha ha. They ended up pushing the cork into the wine. Like there was any worry they would not drink the whole bottle anyways!

Its the weekend - again! Perhaps there is more wine and sewing in my near future. How about you?

Cheers,

Carolyn

Another amazing retreat!

I only have a couple of minutes here before I have to go back to work, but I had to tell you how awesome this past retreat was! There were most of the same ladies as the one in September, plus a couple of new to me faces. Everyone out there already new each other, in fact, most of them meet on the third Wednesday of every month to sew for the entire day. I was very happy (but sad because I can not do this) that they asked me to join them on their Wednesday sewing days.
Here are a couple of pictures from the retreat. I will show you more of what I actually got done very soon, I promise!

This was Sunday Morning - and the weather was so nice. It was warmer then in September!!

I did make this pot holder which is fun.

Hope you are all having a good day. How was your weekends? Did you get much sewing done?
Cheers,
Carolyn