A lazy day in the backyard

Let's just say that yesterday did NOT turn out as I planned. Instead, I was a slug and spent time in the gazebo and bonding with Murphy! I'm happy to report that she seems to be feeling much better, and I think I mentioned that she even came into the house on her own in the morning to hang out with me.

Then she lay at my feet while I was blogging, so it was hard to type! But that's OK. 

MOM - I need to be with you!!!

I was in such a relaxed mood that I even forgot to make an appointment with the vet and the physiotherapist. So those are on the must-do list for today. 

It was such a glorious day that how could I stay out of the gazebo? Before I know it, the summer will be gone, and I'll be lamenting that I didn't spend enough time out there. And of course, my trusty companion was right there with me. 

MOM - I love spending time with you!!!

Now that the backyard is fully "done," at least for the moment, it's nice to just take some time and enjoy it. While I don't mind working, it's also nice to just relax and enjoy. 

A glorious day in the backyard

I've decided, and I had better write it in my agenda, to spend one half hour each week maintaining the backyard. I see a few weeds are sprouting up again between the flagstones, so if I keep on top of it, it won't be a big deal. And I need to tidy up the shed, and there are a few things to hang on my back fence. So I will pick a day and get out there - once a week. 

I had a chuckle yesterday as a friend was flying to Toronto and I was in the backyard. It's so nice to be able to communicate with people on a plane these days. Not that I want to, but if I need to, it's possible. Anyway, she was looking to kill some time as it had been a long flight. She was 30 minutes away from landing. I told her that they would likely be landing on the east approach to the airport, not the west, since I wasn't seeing any planes land. In that gap you see above, we can see planes approaching the airport on both east/west runways! 

Thankfully, our house is far enough south and west of the airport that we don't hear the planes unless the cloud cover is just right. The best of both worlds - close to the airport, but not close enough to disturb us. 

Murphy was feeling so much like her old self that I found a toy out of her toy box!!!

Hmm- someone wants to play with her toys.

I also bought some plug-in calming devices. I had noticed them in the exam room at the vet, and someone mentioned them in a comment. So I have two of them on the way. We'll see how they work, but the sleeping outside thing seems to be working. She is venturing into the house much more than she was a week ago, so that's a positive. And she is now safely ensconced in Lexi's raised bed beside me. And she was downstairs with me this morning while I was sewing. She can go down with supervision, but she can't make it up by herself, so I use a towel under her tummy to support her. I doubt she will ever feel comfortable on those stairs again. 

I had put carpet treads on them, but even that isn't enough to secure her, and she slipped even with those. But I am OK with helping her up. We just need to be diligent about blocking them so she doesn't even attempt it. 

Speaking of getting up the stairs, I was chatting with a neighbor yesterday, and they had a chair lift installed in their house because their in-laws live with them and they need assistance on the stairs. It cost $15K to have a custom (curved stairs) chair lift installed. Yikes!!! The way our stairs are, I don't think that is even possible because the staircase is open (no walls) on both sides at the very bottom. I told DH - he better get doing some exercises! I am NOT moving. 

I was at the gym yesterday, and I'm doing OK on my own. I miss the spin classes, but I get on the bike and do half of what I would in spin class, then spend the rest of the time stretching and doing some other exercises. I am trying to get in the habit of doing the exercises I got last week. 

Did I mention that these are mostly for strengthening the hips, but it's also the legs. So Chair Squats - we all know how to do those, and they are easy. But there were two step-up exercises that were challenging. But they are simple and good because they work not only on your strength but also on your balance. 

One of them is to find a step - use your staircase if you don't have an exercise step. Stand on the floor and take one step up. Then bring the other foot up, step down with both feet, and repeat. 10 repeats, 2 - 3 times on each side. You can actually raise your heart rate with this one. I like to add to it by lifting my free leg up, like high-stepping, then back down. That increases the heart rate even more. If you don't hang on, it helps improve your balance. Another important factor of staying independent!!!

The next one is the reverse of the one above, and it's darn hard! Simple but deceptive! Stand with one foot on the step and bend that leg so that the heel of your loose foot touches the floor. OH MY --- that was a challenge for me. I was finding that I could touch the ball of my foot, which I then used to push myself back up, but that is NOT the way to do it. You need to touch the heel so that only your leg pushes you up. Yikes --- I'm going to have to work on that one and, of course, try to remain upright (not leaning forward) while doing it!!!

If you want to see videos of the exercises I was given, you can find them here. 

Scroll down until you see this. You can download the paper that I have, and the videos are there as well. It's hilarious because it's really for someone who has had a hip replacement! But I'd rather do this now and not need a hip replacement! My joints seem to be fine - but my muscles are not!  

One of my neighbors has this GIANT hibiscus in her front yard, and I grabbed a photo yesterday. The blooms have to be at least 6 or 7 inches across. It's beautiful, and when we had so much rain the other day, I thought the blooms were toast, but nope - they dried out and popped right back open. 

A giant hibiscus

It looks like there are a ton of buds on it. Perhaps I can see if I can find one and plant it somewhere in my garden. WAIT -- I have a perfect spot in the back beside the gazebo. 

Over the last couple of years, we have been compiling a list of tasks that require an electrician. DH is not handy (hey—I have to inflate the car tires if one is low, which I did yesterday!). And I don't want to deal with electricity. 

One complete set of ballasts in Studio B has gone, and of the remaining light fixtures (6), half of the bulbs are toast, so it is getting a tad dark in there. 

Three dead ballasts

The remaining ballasts are sketchy.

I think only one ballast has two working bulbs. 

So after much "nagging" on DH's part, I finally decided to bite the bullet and sent my list to our electrician. They have always been super busy, and I knew it would take some time before they could get here, so I might as well start the process now. The list was LONG. 

Imagine my surprise when I got a call from them asking if I would be home as they would come out and assess the situation that afternoon. Yikes!!!! I happened to be at the sports store buying shorts, but I was almost done. 

We walked around the house (inside and out), and I showed him what needed to be done. He offered suggestions, and we worked out the logistics. And can you believe that the first thing he spotted when he walked into Studio B was that one of the bulbs had NOT been inserted properly (by myself) and that the end was bent. 

The prong is bent

Or did he bend the end when he tried to fix it? Anyway, I didn't put the bulb back in, so there goes another light! 

After assessing everything, he put my world in a tailspin when he said, "We can come on Thursday and Friday to do the work." Yikes—that would not normally be a problem, but we want a bunch of new lights installed, and I do NOT have them. So guess where I'll be today? Shopping for lights. I've got a couple of places in mind, and I was searching their websites last night, so I think I'll be OK. I'm not super picky - I want it to look nice, but I don't need something so specific that it has to be special ordered. 

I need 17 devices installed, but thankfully only 5 styles. As long as they have them in stock, I should be good with what I saw on the website. 

That doesn't include what is going into Studio B, which they'll provide. Then the thought occurred to me that it would require moving a lot of furniture to get those lights installed, but then I took a closer look this morning, and the moving will be minimal. 

I asked him why they had free time. They are waiting for some parts for a big job, and I got lucky! It was meant to be!!! And now we will have proper lighting all through the house! I can't wait. I think they also have a few more electricians than they did the last time we hired them. 

And can you believe he accused me of having OLD light switches in my house? The one in question was installed less than 20 years ago!!! By their company! We still have some of the old toggle switches—we have a huge variety of electrical things in our house. He even noticed a cracked faceplate. An eye for detail to be sure!!!

And as part of my lazy day, I sat down and finished that puzzle. Throughout the day, I would sit and get at least five pieces in place. And sometimes that required taking one piece at a time and trying it in multiple spots. I didn't do a lot of that, as it's very time-consuming, so I tried to go by color (though that was a challenge) and then by shape, which proved challenging as well. It is done!!!

Puzzle complete! 

Now I'll put it back in the box and in the giveaway box, and I won't start another until the electrician is done since that table is near one of the lights. 

And then at last, I did get some sewing done! 

Remember my horses in Down on the Farm and how I didn't like them? Well, the horses were fine - it was the colors in the locations I had that I didn't like. So I decided to move the horses around, and I had only two choices. 

This is the before. So lots of white/grey animals in this block. 

Too many white animals - before

And two darker animals in this block. 

Two dark animals - before

I switched the brown and grey horses, so this is what it looks like now. 

This looks better

And the other block with the grey horse

I like this much better, so I'm good. I still have to remake the turtle, and perhaps I can get that done today and then move on to the final four blocks.

Other than that and a bit more on the pattern testing (counting the number of pieces), I didn't get much done. So far, I've been able to match the actual number of pieces in the blocks with that in the cutting directions. Except for these last two blocks - the numbers don't match, and my anal brain won't let it go, so I'm going to attempt it one more time. Out of 250 pieces in those two blocks, I can't account for three! 

An update on the class signups -- the Scrap Class is now available for signups. And OH MY -- did you see how fancy the information was laid out? I was so excited that even I wanted to sign up for the class. LOL!!!!!

I have a feeling that a wee bit of AI went into making that, but I'm good with that. I see that quite a few people signed up yesterday. Remember, the class has a limit of 99, and if we go over, we may have to do some fancy work to accommodate everyone. Here is the link for you to sign up. 

An update on the 40 Shades of Grey patterns: 30 patterns have been ordered by the Out of Hand quilt shop, and if you are signing up for this class, please use this link and select the NOTIFY ME WHEN AVAILABLE button so when the patterns arrive, you will get an email alerting you to that fact. I will try to put together the distribution list to alert you as well, but since most people have probably only seen this class information on my blog, I'm telling you here. 

And again - here is the link for the class list if anyone still wants to sign up for something. 

On that note, I'd better get myself organized. I have to tell you about my short shopping, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

 

Class sign-ups begin!!!!

We all had a decent night. Murphy is content to sleep outside - I just don't get that, but if it keeps her happy, then I'm willing to do it. But should she ever bark, I'll be like the Dad in The Night Before Christmas - "I awoke with a flash and flew to the window and tore open the sash!" That will be me! But so far, so good. And when I brought her in around 5 AM (that's kind of the witching hour for raccoons), she was happy to sleep in Lexi's bed, but when she wanted some attention, there was one somewhat subdued BARK at the top of the stairs! 

So she is learning to cope - she doesn't ask or attempt to go through the barricade at the top of the stairs. OH WAIT - I need to take pictures of my barricades. I'll do that for tomorrow. So all is good. Needless to say, I was a happy camper yesterday because I had a decent sleep. I accomplished a lot, and, well, I just felt good. We don't have a perfect workaround yet, but we are getting there. 

You all know that when Murphy wants to go for a walk, she likes to walk very fast. The one "positive" from her slowing down is that she's not so keen on pulling on the leash. No kidding. The pressure she put on her legs to pull like she did was insane. 

And by the time we headed home, she was getting a wee bit tired, which you can see by all the slack in that leash. I swear she was walking like a properly trained dog on a loose leash! 

Mom - I'm a wee bit tired

Can you believe that it's August? Where has the year gone? Just flying past, or do we just forget that we have lived all those days! Lots has happened, the days are full, so no wonder it goes by quickly. BUT lately, when walking in the forest, I hear PLOP PLOP PLOP. Hmmm—it's not time, but yes, it is!! The squirrels are harvesting their acorns, and some of them are plopping on the ground. 

The acorns are ready for harvest.

These ones look a bit green still, but those squirrels are having a grand time! 

I did spend a bit of time (OK - all morning) dealing with paperwork and managed to clear some of the backlog, so that made me feel quite happy. I hope to put out a small stack each day and get on top of it again. Once I get to it, it's not so bad, but miss one day? Yikes!!!

When I pulled those boxes out with all my early-memory things, I noticed I had kept some of the work things I had done. I know -- why? Well, I was a newly minted MBA, and I wanted to show how useful I could be by generating reports after studying how people worked in the office. I guess, at the time, I felt it was worth keeping! 

My first report at a newly minted MBA!!!

That report was quite thick, but it was mostly the backup data that took up all the space. 

That's a thick report!

But I put these details here so my spreadsheet-loving friends know that I was once capable of generating all sorts of tables and charts and knew how to massage the data!! 

Charts and graphs in my report

Actually, this was Lotus 1-2-3, which I had used quite extensively. I used to work at a bank, and we used spreadsheets to assess traffic at specific branches to see which had the least traffic and so on. 

It's just that using a spreadsheet to track some of the stuff that people track - that's not in my vocabulary. I know you can create input forms and generate nice output, but I'm not taking the time to do that! I don't need that level of sophistication!

Anyway, the report is now in the recycling bin! Yes, when I put something like this in the recycling bin, I remove the pages that are still blank on one side for printing. I have a nice little pile beside my desk. I remove the coil binding, put it in the garbage, and put the double-printed pages in the recycling. 

Miss Murphy is quite happy to spend a good part of the day outside, and the side of the house seems to be her go-to place. But why does she lie like this? She has always slept this way, but you would think with her leg that she wouldn't be comfortable, but if she's happy, then I'm happy. 

On guard if anything should come through the gate!

So the next block of the Down on the Farm (Sew Fresh Quilts) is done! While I'm behind in the pattern testing, I think the pattern will be available for purchase in the near future. 

The dragonfly and bullrush block

So whose idea was it to use DIRECTIONAL fabric for the pond? I found this water-looking fabric and thought it would be a great idea! And it is, but it was a challenge to cut the variety of shapes needed. And when I put the dragonfly block in its place, all the water was going in the opposite direction to what it needed to be. Thankfully, that was easily fixed by rotating the block so that the dragonfly faced left rather than right. PHEW!!!!!

BUT -- I have no idea how Lorna even went about designing that dragonfly. It's an engineering feat to be sure. Sew on a square with a diagonal seam, add two more pieces, then another diagonal seam and VOILA - a dragonfly. OK -- it's a lot more complicated than that, but seriously - these blocks are creatively designed. 

And now there are my five blocks so far. I'm almost done with the 6th block, and I hope to get the entire middle row completed today. It's doable as I have NOTHING else on my agenda!!!

My five blocks so far for the farm quilt

I have sewn a LOT of enders and leaders together in making the quilt so far. And I'm using up those little triangles, and now I have a lot of things to press and trim. I'm OK to leave that because I want to focus on getting this quilt top together. 

A huge stack of triangles to press and trim

Hmmm -- I was wondering what to do with this quilt, and I have a second cousin who just turned one. Maybe it would be good for him. I wonder if Mom would appreciate it, though. If I were going to teach this quilt, well, I could take some pictures now and use the pattern to help people through it. Hmm -- got some thinking to do about that. 

This is my setup as I sew the blocks. I printed out the cutting charts because it's much easier to check off the pieces as I cut and sew them. But the pattern is 25 pages in total, so I have downloaded it to my iPad and then follow along. It's working very well, and when I need to zoom in to see some of the very small bits, it's easy as pie!

My setup for sewing the blocks

I have to use the mini design boards sparingly, as I have three in use with my current puzzle!! I managed to get some work done on it last night, but it's a challenge. 

OK - so you are wondering what happened with my appointment at The Sports Clinic. Well, in all honesty, what my doctor told me years ago is basically the same advice I got yesterday! STRENGTHEN and STRETCH!!!!!! 

Yes, I have arthritis in my knees. Actually, I didn't ask how bad it was, but it doesn't seem to be an issue, which I knew. My joints are OK, except they get stiff if I sit for a prolonged period. But if I move them while sitting (and NEVER cross my legs), they are good when I stand up. 

After much manipulation and testing for strength in my legs, she decided that my main issue is the sciatic nerve in my left leg. That is an issue that I've had for 16 years, and of course, it has gotten worse. The first time it reared its head, and it may have actually been just a muscle cramp, was on a bicycle trip. I believe I mentioned that a couple of months ago. 

It has flared up over the years but not constantly. Now it's a constant and very annoying. Thankfully, she says it's coming from my glutes, NOT my lower back, since I don't have issues there. It can be "fixed" by doing some strength training. I have a good range of motion in my joints, although the muscles around them are tight, and she said the main issue seems to be my left hip, not my knees. The joint is fine - it's the muscles around the hip that are weak. 

I got a series of 12 exercises to do and will go over them with a physiotherapist to ensure I'm doing them OK. 

But you are going to laugh -- no, you shouldn't be laughing because I have been telling you this for months. Look at this exercise. 

Exercises for strengthening

Do you see what the second one down is? They call it Chair Squats - I call it Stand Up/Sit Down!!!!! 

Get off your chair and do 100! And try not to lean forward - try to keep your upper body posture straight! That's my downfall!

I MUST find a way to incorporate this into my daily routine, or however often the physiotherapist recommends. I MUST regain strength in my hip and quads to relieve pressure on the sciatic nerve and the tendons in my knees. I know this and have known it for a while, but it's not until someone tells you that you resign yourself to making it happen. 

I do not want surgery unless absolutely necessary (that was never the goal of this quest), and I do not want to lose my independence (that was my proactive goal). I also need to strengthen my core and improve my posture. If I start now, I can keep my independence that much longer. How important is that to me? I will need to remind myself of that daily! If I wait, I'll be in trouble. 

I was at the grocery store and spotted these Lego sets. Oh my—they have Lego for everything. 

Lego set at the grocery store.

And they keep up to date with trends. See the mountain bike with the fat tires? I got a chuckle from that. 

Fat-tired mountain bike!

Well, there are phone calls to make today, and emails to send, and just the usual stuff. 

I want to remind everyone that I am now officially opening registration for the fall classes. You can find the details in this blog post. If you need the 40 Shades of Grey pattern, let me know. And YES, I confirmed with Thimbles and Things, and you will be able to sign up for the scrap class once she posts it on her website. She has NOT prepped that yet, but if you are signed up for her twice-weekly newsletter, you will receive a notification about the class and a link to sign up. That will likely happen mid-August. 

For the other classes, please send me an email (preferably one email per class so I can file them in the appropriate folder) and include the class title in the subject line. I've been filing the ones that have come in so far, and hopefully I haven't missed anyone. I'll be scouring email to ensure that I've got everything. 

Confirmations will occur around the third week of August, and at that time you'll receive a supply list and any other information you need. I want to warn you that I have to reschedule the classes scheduled for October 17 (I think that is the date), and I need to do that today. 

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

Have a wonderful day!!

Ciao!!!