Thursday, January 9, 2014

Re-arranging and making


















Like a lot of people this time of year, I have been re-organizing our home as we have put the Christmas decorations away and life has returned to "normal". I am a born organizer and love nothing more than a good clear out and organizing session.  Last week it was the food storage area.  I have been purchasing some freeze dried food for the past few months and wanted to get it all organized into categories. The shelf life of this stuff is 25 years if not opened and 1-2 years when it is opened.  I have used the vegetables in soups and chili and they are fabulous!  It sure makes for a great last minute meal from scratch.

My sewing machine has seen some use again as I am making a baby quilt for Alicia's new little nephew who was born Dec 27th.  This is a very easy quilt and I put the top together yesterday afternoon.  Now I just need to quilt it, which I will start on today.

I have a cross stitch project which is ongoing.  I started this for Kelsi when she and Andrew got engaged!  It sits beside my reading chair in my sewing room and I guiltily look at it every day. I enjoy doing cross stitch, but I find that it is so hard on my eyes these days and I can only do a little at a time.  So it will be a slow going process, but I am determined to finish it this year!

I have just finished Susan Branch`s new book, "A fine romance" about her trip to England last year.  It has been my bedtime reading since Christmas and I have really enjoyed it.  Being the Anglophile that he is, Wendell wanted to read it after I had finished, but he couldn`t get into it like I did so gave up, which is very unusual for him.  I think Susan writes in a way that is easy for women to relate to.

Monday was Rebekah's 23rd birthday and as Alex had to work that evening, we all headed over to her apartment with Lebanese food and a birthday cake.  We had freezing rain that day and the parking lot in her building was a skating rink!  I wear spikes on my boots in weather like that, but even so it was dodgy.  As we neared the steps up to the entrance, a huge dog came bounding out of the door with its owner.  Trying to keep our balance while holding a platter of food and a birthday cake and having a hungry dog staring at us was a little unnerving to say the least, but we managed to stay upright! We had a lovely evening all together and playing with Bekah's little kitten Sammy. Did you notice that Bekah & I coincidentally had the exact same sweater on?  We bought them last year at LL Bean but have never worn them at the same time!

Well, I`m off now to shower and clean the bathroom so I can get back to the baby quilt!  Hope it`s warm wherever you are - we are still in a deep freeze here but it promises to be warmer on the weekend at 8 degrees celsius.

15 comments:

  1. I just found your blog through Jennifer at Thistlebear. We are in the same boat with cross stitch. I have such a hard time seeing where the holes are to put the needle through, even with my reading glasses.

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  2. Welcome fellow Canadian! I hope you enjoy visiting. I will check out your blog later today. I did buy a large magnifier from Michaels which sits on my chest with a neck strap. It helps, but nothing beats the eyes of a younger woman!! Oh well, we keep plodding on don't we?

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  3. Both your quilt and cross stitch are looking beautiful Julie! Glad that you managed to stay upright holding on to all of those things while the dog went past you - sounds a little hairy (no pun intended!). Lovely to see you back again. xx

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    1. Wendell was carrying some of the load and also trying to lend me an arm at the same time. But I had the cake on a pedestal stand - it was quite a sight to see, I'm sure. Oh well, we made it in and that's all that counts. Thank you for your kind comments Amy.

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  4. Hi Julie
    Happy New Year. Enjoyed this post - I too love a good sort out and reorganise after Christmas. Love your food storage system! Lovely quilt too x

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    1. It feels so good to get organized doesn't it? I can't function in mess!

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  5. I'm fascinated to see your food storage, Julie. We are not Mormons but we emulate your approach to food storage, and we even buy a lot of our food from the local Bishop's Storehouse. They open it to the public periodically and we go in and buy dry goods for storage. I recognized your cans right away because they look like ours. I have never blogged about it, but maybe I should because it's important to us. Thanks for sharing your life lately and happy birthday to your daughter!

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    1. How great that you live near a Bishop's storehouse Jennifer. Our closest one is in Toronto (5 hour drive away). My husband's cousin and her husband are running it on their mission so we pick up a few things when we are down, but I would love to be closer! The prices are so good. The other packed food I have is from Thrive Life. I went to a home party last year and buy a small amount each month. They have a bigger selection than the storehouse, but there prices are higher, so I only get what I can't get from the storehouse. Our storage includes quite a lot of wheat, rice etc which is in huge buckets under the stairwell of our storage room. I blogged about that in November when I made bread. I use it and rotate and it works for us. Do you make your own bread?

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    2. Hi Julie, I missed your reply to my comment. Sorry about that. We do make our own bread, but more as a treat than for daily bread supply. We love to do it, though; we have a Wondermill and grind our own wheat (which we also buy at the Storehouse). We have maintained our sourdough starter for about seven years now and use it for bread and pancakes. We buy our rice, sugars and flour at Costco and keep it in covered buckets. I haven't heard of Thrive Life before but I will have a look at them soon.

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  6. What a pretty quilt. I need to make a baby one soon for a friend's baby, so might use a similar pattern.

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    1. It's a very easy pattern Elizabeth and makes up very quickly. It's in a small book called "Three times the charm", but would be very easy to make up on your own. Let me know if you make one.

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  7. The book sounds good, glad you enjoyed it. Your bookshelves look very inviting, I'd like to curl up nex to them and have a browse! Glad you had a good time at Bekah's, I hope she enjoyed her birthday.

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  8. She did, thank you CJ. I wondered which bookshelves you meant, but then realized that the ones in my sewing room were in the photo of the quilt. There are some leather bound classics on their,along with Harry Potter and a lot of quilting and sewing books. Those are only part of our book collection - I have another bookcase in our guest room and another one in the living room. We both love to read!

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  9. A belated Happy Birthday to Rebekah. I really like the quilt - it's one that I could make. I cut everything with a template and scissors so the more complicated patterns or blocks seem too difficult for me to attempt due to the accuracy needed.

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    1. You would be able to make this quilt very easily with scissors Scarlet. Do you have a cutting mat at all? Quilting is not difficult really, but like you say, the accuracy is important and some of the more detailed designs do require other equipment. But give this one a try.

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