Heatwave is over

These pictures were taken from my back deck yesterday. Just two days ago, we logged a maximum temperature of 38 degrees and I had set up the sprinkler in the backyard in the evening so that the boys and I could try and cool off. Yesterday the clouds came over and the rain fell - and fell - and fell. It's falling again today. It's wonderful. Everything looks so green. The temperature has fallen to a more comfortable level.


When the temperature is in the thirties celsius, it's too hot to use the trampoline!


Our garden is benefiting from this lifegiving rain.


Can you see the water pouring off the roof? And in the background, there should be a mountain, but it's obscured by clouds. Can you tell that we don't get a lot of summer rain here and that, when we do, it's very much appreciated?

Going to the dentist

Ouch! I was suffering with a toothache the entire weekend. Actually, longer than the weekend. It started Thursday afternoon, which is just typical as my dentist doesn't work Friday, Saturday and Sunday! It was a constant ache in my face, at first all over then mainly on the right side. It didn't take long to work out which tooth it was - a molar which had developed a bit of a bump in the gum above it - felt like infection was setting in.

Toothache is NOT my favoured method for weight loss, but I certainly didn't eat much for a few days as I was concerned that I might make the pain worse. It did flare up a bit and I did resort to a few painkillers, but most of the time it was bearable.

I left a couple of messages on the answering machine over the weekend, and thankfully the dentist was able to squeeze me in. He started on a root canal, clearing out the icky dead stuff that was causing the pain and putting in a temporary filling. Next week I have to return for the job to be completed and a crown to be fitted.

I've always been such a coward for going to the dentist. I have found a really nice, gentle dentist, but I still dislike the discomfort of the dental dams, trying to swallow when the work is being done, worrying that one day I'll gag and throw up!!! Ah well, considering the health of my teeth, or lack of it, I guess I'll have to get used to it.

Quilted Placemats

Here is a recent project I designed and sewed using some of my thrifted fabrics. I quilted the fabrics by machine, first free-hand and then echo quilted the rest of the surface. I thought soft, curvy quilted lines enhanced the impression of the bamboo- like fronds waving in a breeze. After quilting, I cut the mats to the size I wanted and stitched on some bias binding I made from a fabric I've had in my stash. I love to see how fabrics can unexpectedly coordinate! This is the reverse side of the placemats, which is also made from recently thrifted fabric (see earlier post in our archives). Fortunately, I have enough of this left over that I'm thinking of making napkins to match.

Homemade laundry soap.

So, you take this stuff

( 1/3 to 1/2 a bar of laundry soap, half a cup each of Borax and washing soda and 32 cups of water)

about 5 minutes of your time and a desire to buy one less product made by a big corporation, and you end up with this
enough laundry soap to do 64 loads of laundry...all for about the price of a thrifted ball of yarn. ;-)

And Diane, look what I found - I was downstairs, in the spareroom, de-cluttering (trying to avoid the heat) and I came across the box for that doll we were talking about at knitting night. Is this the one that you meant too? She doesn't eat (like I thought) she kisses when you squeeze her leg.

More in the garden.....

It really is hard to keep up with enjoying all the things that are in bloom right now. My iris are almost all done, I have a few purple ones left that are still blooming in the backyard, the ones in the front have all been wiped out by this heat we are having.

Here is the lavender that will be used for soap, the plants in the back aren't in full bloom yet so I will save those for lavender bottles.

Some sea thrift.

I am just thrilled with the solar food dryer, dill was done in a few hours yesterday. Today I am drying lovage, more chamomile and I am even trying a few bananas.

* Spider warning - if you don't like to see spiders quit scrolling down now.

Katherine - these are the babies that we found, would appreciate if J will let us know what kind they are.

Hand-knitted socks

There's nothing like hand-knitted socks for making your feet feel great, and there's nothing like a girls night with lots of chat, laughter and chocolate cake for making your soul feel great!

Warning: Another Thrifted Fabric Post...

Just before the heatwave hit this week, I spent the afternoon with a dear girlfriend for some much needed "Girltime". We decided to spend the time browsing a couple of local thrift stores. The above photo along with one just beneath, were just two of my finds of the day at the KWS. I had never visited either of these two particular thrift stores before (I am a creature of habit who has "regular thrift stores" that I visit on rotation). I will be adding these two others to my list, though! The Women's Shelter Thrift store was great for deals on yarn (Dianne scored some awesome wool for felting projects) and I enjoyed the fabric finds and sewing notions (FYI: this has been the cheapest thrift store for yarn or sewing supplies).

Below is evidence of true friendship. Dianne found this beauty first, but decided not to buy it and passed it to me... (she said she picked it up in the first place because it made her think of me... awwwwwwww....) Anyways I love this vintage tablecloth and put it to use last eve. for my girlfriends to enjoy as well.

The photo below is of a vintage 100% cotton twin size sheet. I can't tell you how soft this is... I love the colour blue, and for a measley $1.50 I brought it home with me. I'm debating on using it to sew some lounge pants from the Amy Butler In Stitches book, or maybe use it in a quilt.

This final picture is the quilting fabrics I bought for $2. The fabrics are in various sizes and I did cull some unwanted ones out before the photo, but I think of this as a great deal to add to my quilting/crafting stash (which, yes, is getting impressive... for those declutterers out there, you will be happy to hear that in order to make room for my latest haul I have removed a couple of bags of assorted fabrics from my hoard. *I made sure my husband got to see all the fabrics I am passing on* mostly because he's quite aware of the yardage that seems to be pouring into the house lately - and lest he thinks I'm getting carried away... okay, I guess I have been a tad carried away with fabricaholism, but hey, it's not like I paid retail prices for any of it...I needed him to see I wasn't going to consume the recently decluttered space in our house with fabric... ;o)

Now I will be honest. I did not show you all my finds from Mon. afternoon with Dianne. Along with the above goodies were vintage notions, vintage patterns and some yarn. It was an was an amazing thrifting day. The very, very best part of it all was that I got to spend a few hours with my girlfriend - sharing, laughing and enjoying catching up with each other as we searched for "treasures" - many of these seemed to be items from our childhood which had us laughing at the memories they evoked. This post may seem to be all about the thrifted finds, but in my mind it's more about the wonderful afternoon I spent enjoying time with my girlfriend.