Summer in the North

So, while I wait for the slowest doctor in town, I thought I would give y'all an update on the world up here in North Ontario.  

I have now lived up here through two very different summers.  The first year was so hot I came home and stripped to my underwear and sat in front of the fan as soon as I got home.  It was over 30C every day from June into September and I had no a/c.  I was so grateful that I had a cousin with a camp on Lake Superior only an hour and a half away, I was there every weekend.  The best was getting to have a four legged friend to explore with and getting to know my cousins better.  The worst was that I discovered that blackflies and I are not friends and suffered through a week-long swollen ankle.  

This summer was cold and wet, raining almost every day.  I think I only wore shorts about three times.  It also was really bad for bugs because it never got hot enough.  The garden was really slow too, hard to grow with hardly any sun and 5C temps.

It warmed up by the end of the summer and we got about two weeks of hot weather, so a few things grew.  The nice thing was that the blueberry season was extended into September.

I had the camp to myself a few times, so The Baz got to come out with me and take advantage of the screened in gazebo to have a lovely large area outside to run around in.

I gotta say, the North Shore of Lake Superior is a beautiful place the spend the summer.

Quilt Show 2013

This past April my local quilt guild held their quilt show, which they hold every other year.  It is not a juried show, so if you want to submit a quilt, you can.  There were prizes for the "best" of each category as judged by those attending the show.

I imagine most of the women take their time over the two years between shows to create their masterpieces.

I submitted my form saying that I was going to make three quilts in February.  I hadn't made any of these proposed quilts yet.

I didn't think this was a problem until I told people and they all looked at me with their mouths open.  This should have been a good indication to me that I had a few frazzled months ahead of me!

The first quilt I made was "Herd of Turtles in a Mudstorm"which is my Dad's favourite saying.  I had designed the quilt myself because I wanted to make a patchwork block that looked like a turtle, and I found this variation on the traditional quilt block "Drunkard's Path", but couldn't find a pattern for it.  I designed the quilt after only ever having made one other quilt in a beginner class.  I bought the fabric bac when I was living in Victoria and started cutting out the pieces and sewing them together when I worked as a nanny for my cousin's son.  So i really just had half of the turtles left to make when I got back to it five years later!

I had planned on getting it quilted professionally, but then the girl who was going to quilt it ended up having knee surgery.  So with two weeks left before the show, I basted and quilted it at work one weekend because I don't have enough floor space at my apartment.  It was only the second thing I had ever quilted.

This is the best picture I could get, but you get the idea.  Its twin bed sized, and just perfect for my Dad's nap blanket.  He loves it, even if it is six years late!

The second quilt I made was one that I had been wanting to try for awhile, Anna Maria Horner's pattern, Feather Bed Quilt.  I am glad I kept to the baby quilt size to try it out, because it was pretty fiddly, but I still want to make it in a bed quilt size some day.  I still have a few feather pieces to give me a head start on the next quilt.  It was a good thing I had extras, because those two half feathers were not in the pattern, but it just looked weird and lopsided without them.  I used all my pretty fabrics that had birds on them, so called it "Birds of a Feather".

The background fabric is a really bright blue, that apparently doesn't photograph very well, but really makes the feathers pop.  At the show, it was hung right under a spot light, so all you could really see of the quilt were the quilting lines.  Oh well!  This is now finally winging its way across the country to a sweet wee girl, and will hopefully get there before her first birthday!  I am so late with these things!

The final quilt I made for the show was a little wall hanging made using Elizabeth Hartman's Barn Bats Block Tutorial.  I thought it made such a cute Halloween decoration that wasn't too country kitchen looking like most seasonal wall hangings, and I even remembered to hang it this year!  I got to use up lots of little pieces of black, orange and yellow fabrics left over from other projects, but I did order one little piece of fabric, a test swatch, with the Batman symbol on it from Spoonflower.  It was just big enough to cut my pieces from.  I called the quilt "Black Night".

It was a lot of fun to be a part of the show, and I got a lot of complements on my quilts, especially my turtle quilt, some of the ladies still talk about it.  It was also nice to be able to help out with the show as a volunteer, it was a great way to get to know some of the ladies in the guild better.  

Hello, hello again!

Heya!  C and The Baz here again!  Did you miss us?

Who knows how long I'll last this time with the posting, but I will make an attempt to keep this going!

So, a bit of an update:

Moved to the TBay, started my job, have awesome co-workers, like my job, all is well!

In an effort to meet people and get involved in stuff, I joined the local quilt guild.  At the first meeting, the past president grabbed me at coffee time and told me I was going to meet the other young people!  So, I met M and T and had instant friends!  We do a lot of quilting, we actually get together sometimes and sew all weekend at M's place.  My kitchen table is almost never used for food because it is always covered in a project I am sewing.  

Since I have made so many things in the last year, I thought it was time to share them with somebody!

Warning: since creative crafty stuff has become a big part of what I do again, this blog is gonna turn pretty crafty, as you can see, even The Baz is in on the action!  

Hang onto your hats!  It's about to get all warm and cozy in here with a whole bunch of quilt rundowns!

Gassy Matters

So, I am sure that the best way to start driving a new car is to start off on a 1,500 km trip three days after you've bought it.  I would recommend it to anyone!  Just a few pointers though...

1. You should probably read your manual and be sure you know how to do all the things you will need to do, like turn on the windshield wipers, or the high beams, before you are trying to figure this out while going 110k/h on windy roads.

2. Figure out if everything works properly.  Finding out how to work the windshield washer fluid sprayers at 100k/h is exciting, but it would be more of a triumph if the fluid actually hit the driver's side of the windshield.  And even better if you had tried this when the first or second bug hit, and not after the 300th when you really can't see much.

3. Remember that you are now the sole owner/driver for the car and are therefore responsible for all its fueling needs.  This is the most important point.  A 1,500 km trip through Northern Ontario is not the time to play free and easy with the gas gauge =cough, cough=

So, here are a few fueling related stories from my trip to the TBay (which I made it to safely yesterday evening):

- The Fuel Door:
First time I stop for gas, press the fuel door opener and walk around the car to discover the door still closed.  Repeat 4 times. Try to stick fingers in to pry it open. Try to stick keys in to pry it open.  Nothing.  Figure, well I should have enough to make it to my cousin's house, I was just stopping to fill up at a good price.  Keep driving.  Make it to cousin's house and then have a good look at the problem.  The fuel door was wedged up under the opening in the side panel.  I pushed it down until there was room for a key to go in then pried it open the rest of the way and bent the hinge so it would open again.  Has been working fine since!  You can stop cringing now!

- Parry Sound to Wawa:
Now, I had been planning on stopping for the night in Sault Ste Marie, but when I got there, it was only 3pm, and I knew it was only about 3 more hours to Wawa, so why stop now?  On my way out the other side of town, I vaguely thought, maybe I should get gas?  But I had just one tick less than half a tank, and that had gotten me this far, and I didn't have the same distance to go, so I should be fine.  Let it be known, ALWAYS GET GAS IN SAULT STE MARIE!!!!  There is a Provincial Park between the Sault and Wawa, and therefore no gas stations.  While discovering how your car warns you about low fuel is kind of neat, it is not so cool when you are passing a sign that says "Wawa 40 kms".  So, do you want to know how far my new car can go on 1 tank of gas at approx 100k/h?  Googlemaps tells me it was 686kms, the last 15-10kms I am sure was just on fumes.

-Husky Gas Stations:
Today, I headed out to another cousin's camp about an hour away and realized I would need gas in order to get back home again (see, I am learning fuel forethought!).  So I stopped in the village near their camp for gas at the Husky station.  Forgive my ignorance, for we have no Husky stations in my part of Ontario, but apparently, they are sneaky buggers and I will not go there again unless absolutely forced.  There was one price for "Regular" gas on the sign, but when I got to the pump, I discovered there was actually only one choice for gas, "Premium".  They didn't even have buttons for the other grades on their pumps!  So when I thought I was going to pay "140.1", I was actually paying "149.9!!!!!!"  I only got $35 worth which brought me back up to half a tank.

So, see?  I am learning my fuel savvy!  Slowly but surely.  Nothing like jumping in at the deep end of car ownership!

Journey North

Though I would dust off the ol' blog because ....  dudes!!!!   Guess what?  I am totally a grown-up now!  (Can't you tell? ;P)

That is right!  C and the Baz are starting a brand new adventure!

In The North this time.

With a real full-time permanent job for me, and no more early morning bananas for the Baz (ha ha).

The interview and job offer and need to start soon have all happened so fast that I haven't had time to really think about it, which is good, because I am moving to a new city where I barely know anyone and it takes two days to drive back to my parent's house!

Here is what has happened since my last contract ended on April 30

-May 1st fly up to The North for interview and tour of city with new boss
-May 2nd interview, then fly home
-May 4th fly to Victoria
-May 5th H&C get hitched!  Yay!
-May 8th find out I have job.  While riding on the city bus in Victoria.
-May 9th fly home
-May 11th test drive cars
-May 14th buy first car ever!!!!!!!!  2010 Nissan Sentra, very cool.
-May 17th pack up car and start driving North.

I am stopping to visit family and friends along to way and should arrive in The North by Sunday night.

Then I start work on Tuesday morning.  Gah!

The Baz did not come with me on this trip because there was no room for her in the car (let me tell you, it is very full!), and I have to look for an apartment when I get up there and she isn't allowed to stay with me in the motel.  She will enjoy her last month as the only "kid" at home with my parents, getting her early morning bananas (eww! so gross!) and evening cuddles until Ma and Pa bring her up when they visit in July.

So I will be all alone for the next two legs of my journey to The North.

Another 15 hours of driving left, in a new car, when I have only ever driven a max of 4 hours in a stretch.  

Nothing could possibly go wrong!

This morning

This morning I checked my emails and webcomics with a baby wrapped around my leg.

This warm, beautiful, chubby munchkin had rolled over in his sleep when I took over his mama's place on the couch while she had her shower, and had flopped his leg over my thigh and curled right in.

We stayed like that for more than an hour, sitting peacefully, he, snoring and snuffling, me, stroking his fuzzy wee head while I surfed the net and then the new IKEA catalogue.  It was such a lovely, soothing feeling, this enforced quiet contemplation.

Unfortunately, it couldn't last.  I had to pee, and monsieur burped and decided another bottle was in order.  I mean, it had been an hour since the last one, was I trying to starve him?

But once that bottle was done, we went right back to our snuggle, him sleeping in my arms this time, and me just contemplating the wonderful little being lying across my belly, marveling at the glorious rolls and creases and chubby cheeks that have come about so recently, and wondering what the future holds for this fabulous little godson of mine. thankful that I am close enough and have the time now to see him so often and help his mama out as much as I can, wishing I could do more. thankful for the glimpses of what the future holds for me and my yet unknown babies.  thankful that his mama and I found our way, finally, to being such good friends.  thankful I came home to them yesterday to celebrate getting my first real job with baby cuddles and cooking.

Thankful his mama came home this morning before that diaper change.

Thankful that I was the one she called when he finally rolled over all on his own after I had left this afternoon.

Sucked in

I got sucked into the most terrifying tv show this morning.

So terrifying that I had to change the channel at some parts.

So terrifying that I am pretty sure there is still half a bowl of Life cereal on the bookshelf by the TV.

Apparently terrifying does not go with breakfast.


What show was this you ask?

It was an episode of Dr. Who with David Tennant as the Doctor.

I believe the episode was called "Blink".

I am not an avid watcher of the new Dr. Who series, but I did watch all of the old ones when they were played, often in black and white, on YTV when I was little.  My brother and I had definitely perfected saying "Exterminate!" like a Dalek, and I wanted my own K-9.  If I do watch the new series, I like David Tennant as the Doctor the best, but I have only seen three or four episodes max.  The episodes I have seen still had large elements of cheese to them, especially in set design or monster creation, which allowed you to separate yourself from the story a bit.

This one has stone angel statues that look like any garden statue (except when you finally see their faces, those still have a lot of cheese).  Stone angels that move when you aren't looking.  This is the stuff of my nightmares!

What is weird is that I thought the show would be scary right from the beginning,  the girl jumps a fence and breaks into a scary old house for crying out loud.  recipe for scary!  And yet I kept watching...

but then I saw that the girl was played by Carey Mulligan, an actress that has been in a lot of things I have wanted to see lately, and then she finds a note of the wall from the Doctor, and I figured, "Oh, its Dr. Who, it won't be too scary...."  So I kept watching.  And then it got scarier and scarier, but by that time I had to know how it would end.

And the whole time I was thinking, "Oh my god!  When did Dr. Who get so scary?!!!"

My mom came home and found me with both feet up on the chair, knees under my chin, with a death grip on the arms of the chair.

In the end, it was a really well done episode, I was really impressed actually...



I just don't know if I will sleep tonight.