Wearing many hats

Nothing is more satisfying than entering the kitchen in the morning and seeing a dishwasher full of clean dishes. 

The dishwasher cycle is finished!

I had to put on my appliance repair hat because this happened. 

The night before, M loaded some stuff in the dishwasher and I suspect there was a LOT of food left on the plates. I woke up to an F11 error message on the dishwasher. OK -- no big deal, I've dealt with that before. Oh no! The dishwasher was filled with greasy, orange water. ICK!! I shut the door and would deal with it later. 

Finally, at lunchtime, I had some time to scoop out the water and clean the primary filter filled with debris and that orange grease from some food she had. Double ICK! 

Just before dinner, I finally had time to get the gizmo out in the drain section, and YEP -- there was a lot of debris in that thing. 

The ball bearing in the drain system

Well, I'm getting good at removing that little thing, but I struggled to get it back in. I didn't remember it being so hard to replace. Then I remember, it rolls to the right to remove, so ROLL it to the left to put back in. Don't force it from the top. Will I remember that? It doesn't matter -- I figured it out, the dishwasher ran, and everything is nice and clear. The orange ICK is gone. 

Then I had to put on my wild animal removal hat because this happened. 

In the afternoon, I discovered why Murphy has been under the weather. Sorry -- you don't get to see a closeup of this picture. 

Murphy carrying a prize encased in snow

Needless to say, I saw her prancing around the backyard with a big chunk of snow. What???? Upon a second glance, I realized there was something in that chunk of snow. Fortunately, she dropped it without much fuss, and I got my shovel and heaved it over the fence. Usually, the girls do NOT eat what they kill, but with Murphy's horrible flatulence, I suspect she ate part of it. Does that even the score? Rabbit 1 (for trapping Murphy under the deck) and Murphy 1 for taking revenge on the rabbit? 

I'm sure there are more where that came from. Sigh..................   She gets the last bit of chicken this morning, and hopefully, she is good. The gas seems to have passed. No pun intended! OK -- pun intended!!!

And then there's cute Little Bear, who seems to have stolen Murphy's new bed. This is the bed that will go on the new raised platform. He likes it because it's soft and cushy, and he almost sinks into the edges of it! I hope Murphy will sleep on it. 

Little Bear in Murphy's bed

Then I had my technology hat on. And I guess my teacher hat and my free motion quilting hat. 

I taught the first of a two-session class on Free Motion Quilting. I wasn't worried if things would go well as if you are prepared and know your stuff, what can go wrong? Nothing! But I did have a full house on the call, and I must say that everyone behaved nicely! 

My setup to teach a Zoom class

I had three cameras going, my laptop, a sewing machine, and I monitored the whole show on my iPad. There was just enough room on the table to make that happen, but I had to get a stool to sit on; that darn tripod for the camera takes up a lot of room! 

The setup worked beautifully, and I was thrilled with the class. I have to say that I'm pretty proud of myself for making all that work. I got some fantastic feedback (thanks to everyone who participated). I think it went exceptionally well. There's so much that one could teach and say about free-motion quilting. I'm in the midst of getting out the notes and their homework assignment to them. Hopefully, I'll finish right after I walk the dogs. I need to get that off my plate. 

Dare I say this, but I think the free motion class was ALMOST better than in person. Why? Well, each student could have all their personal setup without carting a ton of stuff to class. I could show closeups of what I was doing, which I can't do in person. And I didn't have to pack anything either. They had time to do the assignments on their machines. Yep --- I'd be tempted to do this on Zoom going forward!!

BUT here's the thing  -- many people do NOT know their sewing machine! Things like dropping the feed teeth, setting the tension or the speed control, or what presser feet are used for what! You know what I'm going to say --- get out your User's Guide and READ IT. Take a small section each day and read it!!! 

And still, with the technology hat on, I finally got a chance to install our new wi-fi booster system in the house. Someone told me it's so easy -- you just plug them in. Well, NO -- it wasn't quite that easy -- it took at least a half-hour. Unplug, then plug, but didn't tell you where to plug the wires, so I had to Google that. Then some of the boosters didn't pair up right away, so I had to redo that part. And then one we had to install using the serial number. Thankfully, M was standing there so she could read the teeny tiny script and give me the number. 

The new wi-fi booster system

I haven't had a chance to test it out and see if it makes the wi-fi better or worse in the house. I didn't really have an issue, except in Studio U. The internet works, but it is very weak, and I can't Zoom from there. I want to sew in that room during Monday sewing, but with the old system, that was impossible. I'm hoping this will make it better. 

The only thing I don't like is that these things don't plug directly into the wall - there's a cord attached. Oh well, we'll manage. 

Then just as I was going to start making dinner, M wanted a ride across the city to have dinner with her friend. I know she had hinted a couple of times during the day, but I had a busy day. I finally said yes, but I also gave her a task. Nothing is free - not even for your children. Her friend's boyfriend works in the television industry, and he worked on the set of The Great Canadian Baking Show. YES --- how could I refuse to drive her when she could pump the boyfriend for information? So we talked about reality shows on the way there and the baking show specifically. I had some very specific questions. I'll let you know what I find out!

Let's see -- I also wore the dog walking hat, the personal walking hat, the shovel-a-bit more snow from the driveway hat, and probably one or two others as well. I must say that our driveway isn't as clean as it should be. Somehow I got lax in that department, but the sidewalk is clear, and hopefully, the sun will melt more today. I'll be out there, cleaning it better, now that I have a pretty quiet day. 

I have to share this video with you. It's about the weather in Canada, and it's hilarious. And it's so true. I check the weather app each day, and I'm looking for the +one!

I did NOT even turn on a sewing machine other than the one I used for my class. There wasn't time, and I hope to get to the embroidery machine and the sewing machine later today. I have one easy session this morning. No prep required!

On that note -- I'm out of here to see which hats I'll be wearing today. Hopefully, it'll only be one or two, not many! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Magazine clean up

 

There is nothing like satisfaction at getting things done! And quickly. As you know, our microwave went on the fritz earlier this week. Not that we use our microwave all the time, but well - we do. I like the microwave to make oatmeal, it's great for reheating leftovers, and I like to microwave my Magic Bag to use either just for the warmth or for an aching muscle. 

So, when it went, we needed action fast. Through the wonders of the internet, I researched (a little bit) about microwaves, and bought one, and arranged delivery and installation, all without speaking to a single person. Well, we had some webchats or texts, but that was it. 

The microwave was delivered in an extremely efficient and timely manner. Thanks, Goeman's Appliances. The installer was late, but well - it worked out, although I couldn't be there at the end as I was on a Zoom call. But DH was here. 

I snapped this photo when the installer went out to his vehicle for something. What a mess!!!

Installation in progress

But there was an even bigger mess on the floor after moving the stove out of the way. ICK!!!!

The mess under the stove

We only found ONE beer bottle cap and a plastic thing from the top of a juice container. It could have been a whole lot worse. Not bad, considering that stove had probably never been moved in 15 years. 

It's all clean now. 

And here's the new microwave. 

The new microwave

WOW --- not a whole lot has changed in microwaves, but the lights are LED, and they are BRIGHT—both inside and beneath the microwave. The time button is also much brighter, so it shows up in the dark. The best part? It's super quiet!! So quiet, I can barely hear the darn thing work. At first, I thought - it's NOT working. But it heated up the Magic Bag no problem. And my oatmeal this morning? PERFECT. Zero learning curve!

Yep - I'm a happy camper and glad that it's done. 

Now half of our appliances are stainless steel, and the others are white. Do I care?  It's so not a factor that I didn't even think about it when buying the new one. Our dishwasher is stainless steel.

I finished off my presentation yesterday afternoon, and I was excited about a totally free afternoon. I actually sat down and read for a bit. It was glorious. My Dad reminded me that I shouldn't get so busy that I don't stop and smell the roses. Well - I still walk a couple of hours each day, and I blog, and I do read every day, so I am busy, but I still get my personal time each day. 

I have many things that I want to get organized, and there isn't time to do it all. But I'm also on the hunt for a couple of specific embroidery files. Now when I purchased my first embroidery machine, it used a FLOPPY disk. The 3½" kind. Oh my - that was a while ago. 

Anyway, I dug out some of the floppy disks. 

Floppy disks for the embroidery machine

I happen to have a 3½" floppy disk drive so I can read them. I dug it out so I can hopefully transfer these files to my hard disk. Then the question will be - what do I do with the floppy disks? Keep them as a backup? I'll have to think about that. They are neatly stored in the box with the other machine embroidery CDs, so I may just put them back. But the key is to get all those files loaded onto the hard disk and into some kind of an organized program so I can readily have access to them. 

A floppy disk drive

Speaking of organizing, we chatted about magazines yesterday. Oh boy - that's a huge, cluttered area at my house. Actually, it could be a lot worse. It WAS a lot worse, but now, it's not bad. Most of them have been sorted by title and are labeled and stored on my bookcases. I have a couple of piles that are not sorted or not labeled.  

Bookcases with magazines

I got up early this morning and decided to tackle the end section of that bookcase. These two sections are the worse. 

Oh my -- look what I found. Do you think I really need FIVE copies of this magazine? 

Five copies of the same magazine!

I did NOT buy those five copies. These were complimentary copies, but why five? 

So I did a wee bit of rearranging, and I sorted. But only in the right-most section. I have a huge pile on the floor that still needs to be sorted. I would need more empty spots to put each one in their separate stack—something to contemplate tomorrow. 

A bit of sorting and organizing in the magazine area

There are also quite a few "one of" magazines that could probably be dealt with very quickly. 

WAIT A MINUTE -- it's 6:30, and it's LIGHT OUTSIDE!!!!!  WOW - spring is on the way!!!

What are we going to do with all these magazines? 

1. SORT them by title. 
2. Get rid of duplicates.
3. Decide if you can get rid of a particular title or whether you really want to read it.
4. Find a place to store them - in boxes, a bookcase, or wherever. But they must be neat and easy to find. So if you put them in boxes, LABEL them with the title. Sometimes, it best to get things out of sight, so you're not overwhelmed. 
5. Of those you want to keep, do you want to read them and then keep them or read them and get rid of them? 
6. Start with those that you want to read and get rid of. Find a time each day that you can spend a few minutes reviewing/reading a magazine. Find a place to put those magazines, so you don't forget - the bathroom, the night table, the kitchen table, your reading chair. 
7. Make it a habit to read a magazine - EVERY DAY. 
8. What to do with it when you're done? If there is a pattern or an article that you want to keep, SCAN it with your scanner and save it on your hard disk as a PDF. You can create a filing system to sort them or save the documents and tag them. I don't know if you can tag  PDFs, but I'm going to check it out.  
9. When you are done with the physical magazine, put it in the recycling or donate to a friend ONLY if that friend is interested. ASK FIRST!!!
10. Think twice before you buy another magazine. I have no problem buying, as long as you are reading them. 

I found a "few" older magazines that I could probably get rid of fairly quickly. Those will get put into a separate pile, and I'll try to deal with them a bit at a time. It would make good summer reading in the gazebo. Those days are rapidly approaching!

But the important thing is to get them organized so that you know what you have when you do read them. I'm currently reading Cloth Paper Scissors STUDIOS magazines. I had sorted that stack. They are ones that I don't want to keep, so once I'm finished, I have a home for them. I'm on my second title since I started the organizing thing. Yes - it's going to take a long time depending on the magazine. Some are filled with articles, and others are filled with patterns. The ones with patterns only will be a snap to zip through. BE RUTHLESS. 

My love for magazines developed years ago when I started working. I worked in the head office of a large bank and didn't really know anyone. I was terribly shy (I KNOW!!!), and so on my lunch hour, I'd wander the streets and check out the shops, including the newsstand. I've bought a LOT of magazines in my time, but not always to read. Those captions on the front are so enticing! I'm learning to say NO, but it's been hard. The pandemic has really helped!

I also managed to work on my Summer Moon quilt. I got a good part of the third section (columns 5 and 6) together. It would be great if I could get the top finished this weekend. That's my goal because I have another quilt that has to go on the wall. 

I also spent the morning at the computer and made excellent headway in the paperwork that needed to be done. That was a huge weight off my shoulders. There's more, of course, but there are only so many hours in the day. I'm OK with that. 

I have one class and a meeting for the ENTIRE weekend. How did that happen? It's not that I don't have anything to do, but no urgent things because of a deadline. 

OH -- when I was at the grocery store the other day, I ran into Pauline. Well, she recognized me and called out my name. When was the last time you were recognized, or you recognized someone while out shopping!!  Good to see you in person, Pauline!!  

I'm off to do errands this morning. I hear that our area is finally coming out of lockdown on Monday, but my normal shopping area has been open for a while, and I need to get some stuff. I have a list, and I'm excited!!! I'll be in and out as I need to get home as there are quilts to quilt, a class to teach, and quilt tops to sew together. 

I'm so excited that it's getting light in the morning. When does that time change happen? But at least, it'll be light later into the evening! Spring is coming!!! Now, all we need is a bit warmer weather. The last couple of days, the wind has been quite cool, but that hasn't stopped me from walking. I'm still out regardless. Got to get that fresh air, got to clean the cobwebs from my brain. The apple has fallen far from the tree in that respect as my mom has NOT been out of her apartment in over two years. Not even to go into the hallway of their building. Not even on the balcony! I would die!

Well, it's time to get the day started!!! I'm off to find out what time the stores open. 9 AM!!!!

And if you're wondering what the decluttering task is today? It's a continuation of the magazine thing. 

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!!

The wave of the future

 Even though I had a lot of work to do yesterday, solving the microwave problem was a priority. I downloaded the Jiffy app (a place to find service people) in the hopes that I could perhaps get the microwave fixed. I researched and found out that three different pieces can cause the microwave to stop heating. I found a service person, and they got back to me very quickly through the app. 

He STRONGLY suggested that it would cost me almost as much to have the microwave repaired as it would be to buy a new one. Not only was cost a factor in the repair, but the part would not likely last too long in an older (hmmm - must be 15 years old???) microwave. He suggested that I buy new. OK - so that was easy to figure out. Then onto the Goeman's Appliance website to see what was available. 

A microwave is a microwave - really - how different can they be? I did a webchat with a salesperson, and we went back and forth with details. I got a quote for one that would fit my space, and that was in stock. We discussed the installation options via webchat. I went back to the Jiffy app guy, and he would do the deinstall and reinstall for less than HALF of what the appliance people would do. SOLD!!

I bought the microwave which is supposed to be delivered on Thursday, and the service person is coming on Friday morning! I wasn't sure what people are doing with the pandemic. I have no problem that they come to my house, but I wasn't sure what protocols are out there since we're in lockdown. So - hopefully, I'll have a new microwave on Friday. 

The hilarious thing was that we were scheduled to have leftovers last night for dinner. OH - and how do we heat that up? I ended up putting dinner into the frying pan, and it worked like a charm. Just took a wee bit longer. 

So, what about the breakfast thing? I could have had another protein bar, but that just felt weird. Thankfully, I got an e-mail from Jackie suggesting Stoked Oats. I was off to the grocery store in the afternoon, and guess what I found? 

Stoked Oats - a new version of Oatmeal

Jackie, thanks for the tip! You can microwave this product, or you can just add boiling water. Simple! These oats are mostly rolled with things added - I prefer the steel cut texture better, but hey - I don't have a choice right now. And yes, someone already suggested that I have a new learning curve to cook oatmeal in the new microwave. Hopefully, my existing formula works. 

It wasn't until later in the day when I realized that I bought a stainless steel microwave and our fridge and stove are white. HEY - our dishwasher is stainless steel. Personally, I couldn't care less what it is - I don't even know the brand. I just needed a new one. How silly of me. But we get so caught up in the details and really - size and availability were the two most important factors. 

Diane has been busy sewing and sorting. This is a bag of flannel scraps that she isn't going to be dealing with at this point, so it came back to my house, and I'm good with that. I'll be going through it and sorting it by color. Then I can sew the scraps together to make blocks, and we can use those blocks to make more quilts. I love doing that kind of thing, and I might just book a day to make that happen. 

Flannel scraps

While I was at the grocery store, I had a peek at the magazines and came home with two. I know - I shouldn't have, but I have hardly purchased a magazine over the past year; I figured I deserved a treat. 

Two new magazines

Hmm - I haven't heard back from anyone regarding the 1988 Piecemaker's Calendar. I'm guessing that's going to be a lost cause, and I'll have to wait to get it from Carol's estate!!

Here's something else that I came across over the Virtual Retreat. Paul was chatting about his friend Micheal who lives in New York. Micheal had a couple of placed quilts in the American Quilter's Society challenge "New Quilts from Old Favorites". So I dug out my collection. 

New Quilts from an Old Favorite books

Then I did a bit of digging. Oh my  --- there are quite a few that I do not have. Ohio Star, Mariner's Compass, Pineapple, Storm at Sea, Bear's Paw, Seven Sisters, Sawtooth, Burgoyne Surrounded, Baskets, Jacob's Ladder, Caroline Lilly, New York Beauty, Flying Geese, Bow Tie, Oak Leaf and Reel, Wheel of Fortune. Although some of those sound very familiar - I must look at the covers to see if I recognize some of them. Then they can be filed together. 

Check out the link - they are taking a break from this contest and have a wide range of themes. 

Speaking of the quilt top that I finished yesterday, here's the quilt top again. 

Someone asked for the name of the pattern. It's called Quilter's Patch by Edyta Sitar. You can check out the quilt on her web page. 

And Sophie sent me this picture yesterday, which was hilarious. I taught this quilt as an ongoing class at The Hobby Horse several years ago. Actually, I think it was 2017. In the original pattern, there's a cat in the garden. I switched it up for Lexi and Murphy. Here's a picture of me in the class showing my girls on the block. 

Lexi and Murphy on the quilt block

Oh gosh -- look at my hair!!! A tad bit shorter than right now!!

I know that you've had a couple of days off from the decluttering process. Here's a suggestion from Diane. Go to the furnace room or the cold room or wherever you have stored old frames/pictures. Dig them out and decide what to do with them. I still have that frame of that fantasy poster sitting in the office. It's been a bit of a time challenge these days, so I haven't dealt with it. 

I bet if you searched on Pinterest for old frames, there would be loads of things to do with frames. Or take out whatever you have in them and donate the frames if they are still in good condition. The glass in my frame is broken, and so without the glass, the frame is pretty worthless. It also wasn't an expensive frame, so I need to take the picture out. Actually, I have some errands to do on Saturday with the car, and I might just deal with that poster on Saturday. The frame goes in the garbage, but I have a couple of ideas of what to do with the picture. 

It's hard to believe that we're halfway through the week already. The days seem to be blurring together with all the prep work. The days are getting light so much earlier now - that's exciting, and I didn't freeze yesterday even without the flannel-lined pants. It's much warmer today, so I can't wait to go for a walk. Most of the ice is GONE from the sidewalks. Yeah!!!

I did something last night that I don't usually do - I sat up quite late and listened to an audiobook scheduled to go back this morning at 5:53 AM. And yes - it went back at 5:54 AM. So I sat in my comfy chair and listened to the book for a couple of hours. Yes - I had to go back a couple of times because I nodded off. I wasn't doing anything else but listening - I NEVER do that. 

This book is DISTURBING. It's disconcerting, but as a thriller? Oh yes - it's a great book. Another new Canadian author. Hannah Mary McKinnon. The book was Dear Sister. I'll be mulling those details in my head for days - gosh - it was disturbing and evoked a TON of emotion. To me, when the book pulls you in and grabs you and makes you want to cry or feel compassion for the characters, that's a good book. 

On that note, I'm out of here!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!!