Houston

http://bonniemccaffery.com/vidcasts/053.html   Quilts from the show at Houston.   I hope this is the first time I have put these on the blog But worth looking at twice if I have :0
I managed to do something today after the past few days when nothing was accomplished. So lots happened today, first I embroidered a tea towel. No I have no idea who it may be for but I think I'll give it to Ray for his kitchen. Tomorrow is his birthday , we don't give gifts , just go out for dinner but I think he'll be happy with it. He likes my stuff.

Cute isn't it?

 We took my laptop to London Drugs this morning because the internet security programme Kaspersky was behaving too aggressively and blocking off my memory sticks as I mentioned last night. Ben took care of that for me .He said that programme was too much for a home computer. I had it for the past two years but this time it had increased the security issues and it was almost at a corporate level for my computer and blocked off my little quilting stuff. Crazy!!! He reset it so I can use my things. Next year I won't bother buying it. My upstairs computer has free AVG and no problems there.
I bought these few things. Don't you love candles?

A few years ago before my son went to Louisiana he worked as the Port Director for Wilmington Delaware and as such was in contact with Joe Biden the senator from Delaware. One time when I was visiting there he arranged with Mr. Biden for a conducted tour of the White House. So here is the invitation , note who signed it at the bottom of the card. I have kept that invitation for quite some time as it is very meaningful to me and  especially now  in light of  the fact that he is now Vice President Biden .  

Bathroom accidents just keep on happening LOL. I banged me hand on the corner of the sink counter and now have a blood bruise. I am getting these often lately, maybe I should stop taking aspirin, stubbed my toe on my slipper isn't that crazy, now how could that hurt. I would stay  out of that room is I could :)))

Time to watch the Mentalist so good night folks.

Take care.

computers are timewasters sometimes

At least today they were as I spent the afternoon trying to figure out why my laptop would not open up my memory stick with all my embroidery designs. I tend to panic if I think they are lost. So I will put them on a disc as well.   Or maybe buy another stick, they are expensive though. Finally I had a thought Hurrah!! yes that happens occasionally :) Perhaps it is that new Kaspersky internet security that I bought recently and downloaded to my laptop.  I went upstairs to the old computer my PC which had its own issues yesterday when the wireless mouse refused to work. Luckily I had another smaller one for my laptop and the connection worked in the PC, that was good!! Yes the sticks were fine so it is the Kaspersky. Apparently they had made it much more secure because they had trouble with it in 2008 and upgraded it for 2010. All well and good but it stops my own innocent stuff from working and that does not make me very happy. I'll go back to London Drugs tomorrow and ask the "boys" if they can do anything about that and while I am there buy another mouse for upstairs. I'd really like to buy a new computer as well but later when Jim comes down for Christmas. The discs for the Kaspersky arrived in the mail one of which was a Win Zip and I am wondering if that is what I need for the sticks, but enough of wondering tomorrow will bring the answers. If I cannot get things to work to my satisfaction then I'll download the free AVG which is doing fine on the PC.
As for the rest of the day, we just wandered around in the mall in the morning and drove around in the early afternoon. We wanted to see if the Westminster Quay market had reopened. For some reason we thought it might have. We used to go there every Saturday to buy our vegetables and fruit from the old Chinese man who owned the market. He was a sweetheart and was often very pleased that we would come in from Vancouver to shop at his market. He always gave us a present at Christmas and fruit at other times in the year. We missed him when he passed away and eventually stopped going there. The market  closed soon after and no not because we had stopped shopping there LOL. We went just to see if anything was happening there. Nothing. Too bad.
I promised the third photo of the 12 Days of Christmas so here it is.

The last of the three photos . The embroidery designs are from http://www.emblibrary.com/ for anyone interested.

A beautiful quilt made by my friend Pat who is an amazing appliquer and quilter.

No quilting today just messing with both the computers. Exhausting :)

Tonight I think I knit again on the socks for Ione.

Have a great night Folks.

Shubha raatri.

Patti

The designs are from Emblibrary.com

Shock and awe

Some days just start with a surprise and this is one of them. I was walking down the hall to the elevator when upon turning the corner in the window at the end of the hall appeared the face of a handsome young man with a huge smile on his face. I was stunned!!!! Explanation, He was cleaning the eaves and he was smiling because he saw the look on my face of shock and awe.
Today I took a few photos of the groups I attend on Tuesdays. First group: Kerridale Quilters  often referred to as Tuesday Group.

Heather's ducklings but that is not Heather seated it is Wendy.

Next two photos are a class of  table runners that Nancy gave, there are three sizes, small, medium and latge. All are beautiufl and showcase  a variety of fabrics.

Busy beeing away every Tuesday.

Whoops how did they get in there :))) 

Diane's lovely hexagons . I took another photo but for some reason it missed the mark. Sometimes the pictures don't take.

Second group. Community Quilters or Pumpkin Seeds who make quilts for those in need of warm comfort.

12 days of Christmas embroidered by Lynn and given to Ione.

Picture #2, three is to come but wait until tomorrow.

The three wise women sewing down binding, taking place in the family room at Mary Alice's home..

Lynn and Jocelyn  machining. Hand sewing and machine sewing go on in this room.

In the kitchen/dinette area and more machine sewing happening. Next week I'll take photos of the work that goes on in the basement where the cutting and layering of the quilts happens. 

Third group at Betty's where we go for tea.

Lovey African piece that Juliette bought on her trip to South Africa.

This piece also from Africa is made from dried tea bags and painted.

So went the day, I ate my way from one place to the next.

Hash browns with coffee  when I met Pat, then cake by
Nancy at Tuesday Group, lunch made by Ray ,sandwiches and cakes at Betty's and then dinner which Ray made, steak, mushrooms, baked potato and carrots. This has to stop. I'll get from pleasantly plump to much worse LOL, plus I am stuffed..

A good day for me, hope you all had a good one too.

Bon Soir.

a dangerous place to hang out

That would be the bathroom in my opinion LOL. This week I have cut my finger on a snap lid that bled for three days, not heavy bleeding but it wouldn't stop for long, caught my arthritic toe on the lip of the tub and  caught my finger between the shower doors as I slid them back. GRRR..... So you see it is a minefield in there :))
As for my day it didn't start out too well as I woke up with an upset stomach but that moved on quickly , just like the weather . After a while I felt good enough to go out, oooh this sounds like the blog of a hypochondriac, I must stop that.  Who wants to hear it.
We went up to buy some birthday cards for Lynn and Jack, Ray's childre. Lynn's birthday is the same day as Ray's the 3rd and Jack's is the 11th. I wanted to go to Telus and ask how to download my cell photos to the computer and the man told me that my cell did not allow for that.  Then what good is it I asked him. He said it is just for fun but there is no end result. What a disappointment that was. I have to buy a more expensive cell phone  to take
 pictures.  I'll just have to remember my camera LOL.

Telus store window ,the latest of their fabulous commercials. This one with the cats is delightful and is a take on the Brady Bunch where the two families joined in marriage with 3 kids on either side. Whoever does these Telus commercials is a genius IMHO.

Christmas at the mall with changing colours on the angel,  it is so pretty.

We didn't do much else there so we came home and I began sewing on my quilt. I am almost down to the last 2 rows on the Skins quilt. I did rows 7 and 8 today .Actually I did some chain piecing, I don't usually do that but today thought it would be a good day to try it out. It worked well  and I think I'll do it again on the next two rows.   So if it snows tomorrow as the weather lady says it might then I won't go out , just stay home and sew. My car is not happy in the snow even though I have snow tires. It is light in the back end and the wheels just spin for a while. I know I can add weight to the trunk but frankly I do not like driving on snowy roads and many of the street that I travel on Tuesdays are not cleared. So snow is out :))
One last thing before I go, my socks are finished Ione and I will start yours tonight. No picture yet but tomorrow I'll put it up.
So have a good night folks.
Bon soir!

At home

Doesn't that sound important :)) We stayed home all day. The Grey Cup football final is on TV . What true Canadian can miss that one LOL. The teams look pretty even to me and so they should be after all the other teams have been eliminated.
I spent the afternoon sewing once again. I really didn't feel like doing anything but I make myself get up and start to sew. Once I get started I set a goal and try to meet that goal. For me the goals are really not too hard to meet as I set them pretty low. haha....But I got another row of the skins done and sewed the two rows I did yesterday to the previous 4 rows and added another strip to the bottom of the 6 rows so it is ready for the next two rows. Did you get that :))) Kind of convoluted isn't it?
I had a few nice phone calls today. I called Tom, my son Jim's room mate to see how he was getting along. He had open heart surgery and was in the hospital for two weeks. He has not been out for long, but he said he was pretty good. We had a nice converstaion, he sings in the local opera company and wants to be in good shape for the next show which starts reherasal early in January. My son Rick just happened to be visiting his brother and I was able to talk to him for a while before he took off for Calgary. The my son Adam wrote and asked me to call him because I have the Shaw phone system and have unlimited free calls to anywhere in Canada and the States. I picked that one up when Shaw first brought in their phone systems. It has been good for us as we have family all over Canada and friends and family in the states. So if you want to hear from me just send me your phone number. I'll be calling soon Jean LOL.
I have just been going through my photos , It is such fun to look back and see what we have done. I think I'll add some of them to today's blog but first I need to check and see if they have been used at all.  These are from my files so I may have shown some before but don't think so. If I can't remember I'll bet  you can't either LOL.

Kathy's Christmas  hot pad.
We both took this class, Kathy finished , I didn't. I need to get back to it but can't seem to remember what to do. I have instructions so maybe that will jog my brain.  It is a Hoop Sisters design so it is all done in the hoop.
Thanks Kathy!!

I really like this picture that was taken in the summer, Adam,Lisa,Nan,Ray

From the quilt guild meeting in November, the colours are gorgeous.
We had sauerkraut and sausage for dnner tonight, it was delicious. Isn't everything delicious when someone else cooks it. Thank you Ray :)) Good guy tonight!
Ray mentioned that I needed to knit some more dishcloths as the ones in the kitchen had holes in them . I surprised him as I had some stored away . But my pile is getting a bit low and after I finish Ione's socks I'll do another pile of dishcloths. Of course I need to start Ione's socks first. LOL.
That's it folks. Have a good evening.
Ina ini.

catching up

I did some sewing today so now I have 6 rows of this quilt done but rows 5 and 6 need to be added to the first four rows.

2 rows  made today

isn't he beautiful

Angie the layout.

and the finished quilt design

The sewing took me all afternoon but it was worth it. I alwasy have trouble keeping a good quarter inch andhave to ensew often. The cloth seems to slip away from me, but that was okay, at least I got it done. My goal that is, which was two rows of the quilt. Only four more to go. This is a pretty fast type of quilt. I took photos of the process but decided not to put them up.

We went grocery shopping. Ray does the shopping and I took photosofhom pushing the cart but it was on the phone and so far I haven't been able to get them to my computer. I think I'll buy a cable to do that. So there is something to look forward to.  In my webshots there is an album, Man's Work Is Never Done, in which you can see all that he does.

http://community.webshots.com/user/nanboudreau

I am done for the night so have a great evening.

Buenos Noches

Katie andher first quilt

My granddaughter Katie at age 13 in her first quilting class. I wonder if she still has this flannel piece. She did a great job considering she had not sewn before.

correction

Jean again fixed me up. In yesterday's blog I said I could take photos with my camera . It should have been cell phone. I did take some with my cell but can't seem to get them to go to my computer
 but as Jean said I should take it to London Drugs, they could help. I laughed , even my friend in Delaware knows London Drugs from this blog LOL. That is what I'll do. I did try to send them but they have not arrived.  I need someone to show me.
I went to lunch with my Healthy Heart group today. I used to go to this group about 10 years ago and had to stop because of my feet. No doctor seemd to know what was wrong with me, then I asked the eye doctor and he told me. Can you imagine that?  We went to the White Spot a perennial favourite for Vancouverites.
There are 6 of us who get together every couple of months , but today only 5 could make it. We had a great time chatting it up. Two of the ladies are from England and it was interesting to hear that they get pensions from Britain. They paid into it so should receive the benefits. The interesting thing is if a man receives the pension he gets one for his wife , but Marie can not get a pension stipend for her husband. The inequity of that is unreasonable. It should work two ways or no way. 
We  talked about the politics of this province, which are crazy believe me. However this province has a premier who just resigned and Newfoundland's premier just resigned too. That make the provinces on either end of the county with lame duck premiers.
Then the woman who  was   convicted of  driving drunk and killed a beautiful 4 year old child and badly injured her aunt   just received bail.
 That was another topic as people are very angry about that.

Eunice and Marie from LtoR

Maureen,Olga and Nan

I did a bad thing last night. I went to bed at 8:00 because I was tired and started reading a book planning on falling asleep fast as often  happens. But I read that book until it was finished about 2:30. The book is entitled  Double Exposure by Carol Smith. It is a good story and an excellent mystery. You can get it from the library if you want to read it.  But because of the late night and because I got up at 8:00 I was tired after my adventure with my friends So I had a nap when I got home. Ray made dinner while I was napping. Great guy isn't he.
We called Marion , Ray's sister who lives in Winnipeg or Winterpeg as it is fondly referred to, to see how her chemo went today. She is such a cheerful person and if attitude has anything to do with recovering from cancer she will be the one to do that.
The snow left in the middle of the night , the temperature rose and melted the snow away . Amazing isn't it. Our winter snows don't last long here .
I have not knit for several days lately as my thumb joint is sore and the joints on my pointer finger are quite sore too. So my therapy is to not do any knitting. It will please my friend Buzz as she says there is too much knitting on my blog. So Ione will just have to wait a bit longer for her socks. Sorry about that Ione. :))
Have a good evening folks.
Good night!

a new trick

Camera, apparently I don't need to remember to take it. My friend Jean from Delaware sent me a letter this morning saying I could use my cell phone and she sent two photos taken with her cell phone as an example. Hah I did not know that. Thanks Jean! I love having friends who help me out.
So I had to figure out how to do that , first picture I took was a close up of my face. Dreadful Picture. Then I took another one and quite a few more to practice. Lots of photos , so now what do I do with them to get them onto the computer. I suspect it is not the same as the camera. I'll try it later. 
It has been a lazy day for me, after we came home from doing the things we do such as a walk, and going to the bakery which is in another mall ,and where we bought a few groceries, I sat down in my chair and haven't gotten up since.  Actually I felt awful, just one of those days.

Pretty awful profile photo. Ray took this when I was not looking.   Bad Ray....

At the mall,flying reindeer.

The snow has come down all day but seems to have stopped now. We suspect that the rain is coming in tonight.  I find wearing heavy winter jackets and boots tires me out. Really! I have always disliked heavy clothes ,they make my back hurt. I know who gets tired from wearing clothes, you probably don't believe me  :))))
So did nothing, have nothing to talk about  ;0. Now if you believe that I have a bridge I can sell you LOL.
Quilters, just for you  http://www.dreamcastlequilts.com/  Something new, at least to me. Enjoy.

Our street, remember when it was orange?  Now it is white!
These were all taken with my camera , now to see what to do with the cell phone. I'll get back to you.