What a day!

When I was planning for my volunteer shift at the art gallery in Selkirk yesterday, I was mainly concerned aobut having enough hand work with me to keep me busy. No worries! There were 47 people through the gallery in the five hours I was there. These weren't people who walked in , walked around and walked out. These people stayed and talked and asked questions. The fellow trying to teach a watercolour class was blown away, and he volunteers there regularly. The norm is probably closer to 6-8 people in a day. It was avery busy day and I was exhausted when I got home.
Very gratifying , in that I was able to get a lot of general feedback on the three pieces I have there. One in particular got a lot of attention. It was a great chance to talk about art quilting and what sort of thing qualifies as art quilting. The show contained both very traditional stuff and the very art-y stuff. A good range of styles--and skill levels. ( enough said about that!) One piece was hand-embroidered traditional "Red Work", and then hand quilted-the most tradtional piece there. I was lucky enough to meet the lady who made it, and was able to verify the info I was handing out. A good thing, as I was just going by my knowledge of the the tradtion and how it was done. Turned out I was right.
So now I'm having a cup of coffee and waiting for Amber to come to pick me up for the crafty fund raiser at Dalnavert Museum

time creeps up on you

Pati here-
The next week will be busy. Yes, time is catching up with me. I made my lists yesterday of everything that has to be done by Wednesday. Then I decided that I should give priority to the cold that suddenly hit me about 3:00 yesterday morning, and went to bed for a nap. I still feel "fuzzy", but I don't seem as stuffed up, so we carry on. Today I have to spend 5 hours volunteering at the gallery in Selkirk, which isn't a physically demanding job, and tomorrow I'm taking the little girls to a crafters brunch fund raiser. We get brunch and 5 different craft stations where we can try things out. Amber will be with us, and we'll have some crayons etc to keep Samantha occupied, while Jessica does her thing. At some point, either today or tomorrow, we have to go shopping so that we can finish the last few pieces of work for the sale next Saturday ( picture hanging wire and screw eyes), buy the gelatin to make 4 diferent trays of gelatin for print making at the retreat on Thursday, soup makings to use before we loose the turkey stock we made last Monday, etc. etc. And all of these things have to be done by bedtime Monday. And I have to pack for the activities at the retreat, my own personal needs, and the stock that David will need for the sale on Saturday. I head off for the retreat on Wednesday, and will be out of touch until late Sunday, or maybe even next Monday morning. Last Thursday we packe dthe "goodie" bags, and I think they will be quite adequate. I had been worried aobut them being "scant", but the other lady involved has done a great job of shopping on a budget. I have to say, I'm getting excited.

Be - I have missed so much

Just signing on now and surprised by all the news. I am so glad to hear Dave has had his surgery and from your last message all is OK so far. I know from speaking with him this summer that he was quite anxious about it all, so maybe an earlier date without much time to think was advantageous? Does he have to lay off the Poker games for awhile or can he do that with one eye? It has been beautiful weather lately hasn't it and we are wise to take advantage such as Patty's bicycling or Cathy's four wheeling. The night skies have been spectacular - I wish I were in Cathy's back yard in the dark and with her 180 degree visibility to truly enjoy the view but even here with the streetlights I was awestruck. Today it started to rain so perhaps it is all coming to an end. I need to rake more leaves as the maples are all dropping now. You would never believe by the looks of the yard that I had done any raking at all. I put up some
Hallowe'en decorations today so that helps to boost the morale a little bit.
Well tomorrow we bake Christmas cakes, so I had better get some rest. Hope all is well with you both. Take care

Safely home.

And a good nap. We have to see the opthamologist in his office at 8:30 tomorrow, when he'll take the bandage off. David will have to wear an eye shield while sleeping for the next while, and three different types of eye drops--all at different times of day. Last time I tried to give him eye drops it was a battle royal, so we'll see how that works out.

Wish us well

We got a call from the opthamologist, himself, today confirming David's eye surgery for tomorrow. We have to have him at Misericordia for 8:00. David had received a call last Wednesday letting him know that there was a chance of a cancellation and that he might be called a the last minute. Actually she told him to fast after midnight and give her a call at 9:00 to see if he would be able to have surgery at 11:00.

It is just so beautiful right now. And so appropriate to give thanks. We have made it out on our bikes for the last two days after almost a month of not getting out. After our ride today, we drove out to Steinbach to pick up a couple of jelly roll pans to use for gelatin printing at the retreat next week. A delightful ride, except we still had to fight our way through the construction on #1. We needed to find the Steinbach Legion, so that David wouldn't waste any time when he goes out for the sale on the 23rd. We expected a real hassle finding it, but wouldn't you know it was right across the lane from Dianne's home. She also gave me a plastic bag full of men's tie to use during the retreat, so David spent sometime to day opening them up to save the silk fabric--while he was watching the football game--and a good game it was--evidently.

Down Time

I started my holidays at 10am on Friday. The perfect holiday; a book and sunlight. I sat outside until it was time to go and work meat draw. It was surprisingly busy. I thought everyone would be outside but there were a lot there. Next week is the annual all you can eat pickeral fish fry. We are again working meat draw (don't ask... it just worked out that way) We already have our tickets for the fish fry. This year I will arrive hungry and say no to all the frills like mashed potatoes. Fish all the way. Today my baby girl turns 35. She is still my baby girl, but where did all the time go! I will be phoning her later. Maybe she knows were the time went. Yesterday we got all the stuff done in town that we needed so today and tomorrow we are free. We are planning a quad ride. We were only out once this summer, but since the weather is nicer now than it has been all year., we are off. Last night we built a huge fire in the pit and sat out for quite a while. Alan came over and he and Jim stayed out even longer. Yesterday the dogs were getting all excited so I checked. There was a baby weasel in the wood pile. We put the dogs inside and Jim had quite a conversation with it. It was chittering away and staring up at him. We finally had to scare it away because he was quite content to stay where he was, but we knew the dogs would get him. Tuesday JIm plans on borrowing a truck and heading to Brandon to pick up a storm door for the rec room. He found some good ones at the ReFit centre for about $50.00. It's an outing. I can't remember the last time I was in Brandon. Knowing Jim's culinary tastes, I will remember the A & W coupons when we go. Time to get the day started. Happy Thanksgiving to both of you.

Roller Coaster

You know how it goes. He was a Death's door Wednesday but today he's feeling great, up and walking around, and wanting to go home. Darren told us that the doctor has taken him off all medication. He's still in both kidney and liver failure. Darren said this morning that he's going to take the girls out for a visit and then tell all concerned that he won't be able to get out every day--he's losing money with not being able to work. We were concerned about him having to pay cash for funeral costs and hope to be reimbursed out of the estate, but it turns out that his family owns a funeral chapel and there shouldn't be any problem.

My class yesterday was very interesting, and I know I learned a lot. Today was the last of the four classes that i got with my new sewing machine. The morning one was good, but about quilting, so very much in my comfort zone. The afternoon one was about programming the machine. The same woman taught them both and told us, before lunch, that the second one was very short and we should be away in less than an hour. However, didn't work out that way (Chaos Theory??), and we were still sitting there two hours later. As we were leaving, more students were arriving for the 3:00 class. Poor woman hadn't had a break since we arrived at 9:30, as she was working on the sale floor all during our short lunch break.

After, I went to Cre8ery Gallery, where an acquaintance had a one-woman show. I really had to get in there now as the show comes down on Tuesday. She had 365 individual pieces (small) all hooked together in a massive collage of her life. She works mainly in collage and acrylics, and for this show, has started to do image transfer. But--for this show she has also been working in stitchery. She told me that she had sold enough to show a profit on the show. When she was talking, she sounded surprised at the fantastic mob scene for the opening reception, and that pieces had been sold before the show even opened. But, she is a well-known person within the arts community, and I had read two very long,but flattering newspaper articles on the show. While I was there, several other people came in, and a couple of them mentioned hearing about it in the newspaper today. This is the same woman who taught the collage class that I took a couple of years ago, and started the piece that has been out in Selkirk for the past month. It's home now, but I have three pieces in the current show out there.

Anyway, I get to relax for the rest of the day. It's been so long, that I'm not sure I remember how! I was going to bake Red Velvet Cake from the "Just like Eaton's" recipe I have from Mom's box. I even bought the supplies! But I had a Freudian moment when I got home, and turned the oven on to "clean'. (I must have been channelling you Beth.) So we can't use it until tomorrow, so no cake. Too Bad! So sad! Yeah, it stinks, and it wasn't that dirty.
We are still expecting everyone for supper tomorrow, although Darren may take advantage and use the time to catch up on work.