It's like being in kindergarten

A quick comment about the keyboard. I'm used to using a laptop keyboard. There's a different touch of laptop keyboard compared to a stand-alone keyboard. I DID go shopping for a new keyboard a while back. I couldn't find anything that was BETTER than what I have and it was around Christmas time so I couldn't get a salesperson to chat with. BUT, I'm going to go again today. It's not so much that it's sticky, but it just doesn't work smoothly OR it could be me. Maybe I'm trying to type too fast? Some days the keyboard is totally fine - like this morning and other days, it's bad. So maybe it's just me and I have to just suck it up and rely on Grammarly to help me fix the mistakes?

While I have a ton of stuff to do, it's nice from time to time to take a class. I RARELY take a class with someone else. I'm a bad student. But a couple of us decided that we were going to take a class and yesterday was the day. Actually the first of two days. The next class is next week. We made Sacha drive and Vivenda and I (and Sacha) chatted all the way to Orillia!!!  We were a wee bit late for the class because of traffic. Let's just say that it felt totally weird to be at that store and not staying at the retreat house which is just around the corner.

There was NO way we could start the class immediately as we were like children in a candy store. Thimbles and Things is my ALL time favorite store. Sue (the owner) keeps up-to-date with all her stock - patterns, fabrics and other goodies. It's hard to walk away from that store without buying one, or two, or perhaps even three (or more) things. Sue wasn't there as she was on her way to Spring Market. Alas - I won't be going, but that's OK. I don't need to go and I have a ton of stuff to do. Besides, Sue will bring back all the good stuff and we'll get to see it next week at our second part of the class. No worries! She will unearth all the good stuff and I didn't have to take the time out of my schedule. Love that!!!

So what class were we taking?  Collage!!!!!   Laura Heine style. If you're not familiar with Laura's work, check out her website. And Sue had brought in some NEW patterns which we couldn't possibly leave in the shop. However, we did restrain ourselves so we would have a few things to buy next time we were there. We are so BAD!!!!

I've decided to use my Kaffe Fassett fabrics which have been sitting around forever to make my collage picture. Which pattern am I working on?  Oh - you'll have to stay tuned for that.

Cutting fabrics

 Actually, when we left, we told Jen that we were going to have several prepped for the next stage by next week. AH - the dreamers we are!!!!

OH MY GOD!!!!   This morning, I had to drop my car off for service to finally get the summer tires installed. That took an hour, just to drop off the car and get a ride back. BUT the Customer Service Rep, with whom I always deal with asked me if I had lost weight!!!   YES!!!  I was quite excited about that. Actually, I was at spin class this morning and cranked out my 30 K and I feel like a million bucks this morning. So nice to put clothes on and not have my body spill out where it isn't supposed to.

Anyway, back to the post.  In keeping with my daily handwork, I dug out the next block of embroidery. This is the one that I had to wash out and remark. The blue wash away pen had virtually disappeared or was such a mess of lines that I could no longer work on it. It was partially stitched so that presented a problem. 

The next block of embroidery

This time, I used a very thin permanent marker with my new light tablet which I'll show you another day. As I sat at the table last night and listened to my audio book, it was a breeze to stitch on those very visible lines. But they are NOT visible once I've stitched on them.

Going gangbusters on the stitching

 I believe this is block number six of ten blocks. It's the last large block, but even the small ones have lots of stitching on them. But the important thing - I'm going to focus on this. EVERYDAY!!! 

There's still a lot of marking to do in the center of the block, so maybe I'll work on that. Speaking of prepping, I did get the next 7 or 8 blocks (the red) cut for the 150 Canadian Women. I'm going to try and get it all cut out in the next couple of days. So much to do, so little time.

Now, this is a snob story. M used to work at Teavana which was in the nearby shopping mall. They have since gone out of business. But before they did and before she left, I bought a couple of canisters of loose tea. Spiced Apple Cider. Since I've given up Tim's, I've been making my own tea bags with the loose tea. I'm now through the first canister and there's one remaining.

Canister of Spiced Apple Cider (loose tea)

Notice that huge sticker on the side - 75% off?  Well, have a look at the price of that canister of tea. Yes - the regular price is almost EIGHTY dollars. That's crazy!!!  But I LOVE this tea.

Crazy price for tea

It was priced at $16 per 100 GRAMS which is insane. 

I have a couple of other canisters (smaller ones) of different flavors, but what am I going to do? I love this tea.  I suggested to M that I visit David's Tea and she said: "Oh if you want a lesser quality tea!" What a tea snob!!!  I know there is a new tea store at the mall and I might just check out both places and see what I can come up with. I still have a couple of months worth of tea here and lots of green tea so I'm not going to go short anytime soon, but I don't like change!  (Well most of the time).

That means I have to put keyboard and tea on my research list and see what I come up. 

Now that I'm way behind for the day, there's a pattern that I need to write today and then I have to hit the sewing machine this afternoon.

OH - I should tell you my UPS story. So I went yesterday to take that box of quilts. I had applied for a UPS card which would give me 10% off shipping. I found that out from a DIFFERENT UPS store than the one that I go to all the time. Why wouldn't he tell me???   Probably because he wanted to "keep" that 10% in sales.  And I'm already on my second UPS store in the neighbourhood. So I told him about that because I couldn't find the darn card yesterday before I left the house.  Would he give me the 10% discount?  NOPE!!!!   I was a bit ticked off. So you can be sure that I'm going through the stack of paper where that darn number is residing and will be presenting it the next time I go there.  Serioulsy, I showed him the e-mail I had received from UPS (welcoming me to their program). Not good enough.  Thanks a lot - UPS store!    I think I'm going to start checking the weight and size of the boxes before I go to the store. Somehow I don't trust them and this guy used to charge me $5 to get a signature on the other end without asking me. Now I know to say NO SIGNATURE. I should have brought the box home and shipped it today. The discount was worth $12!!!!

On that note, I'm out of here.

Have a great day!!!!


Ciao!!!!