Breaking With Dieting This Weekend

Its that time again in the dieting cycle when I capitulate and have something which is totally not conducive to good dieting practices.
My brother called last night and invited both mother and me out for a bit of a Sundae drive and I said to him, not this was Saturday, LOL, get it SUNDAE?   I know I should have declined, but, like all people who diet, the dieting cycle gets broken from time to time, and this was my turn to deviate from my 1,438 calories a day.  It has taken me close to one whole year to lose a measly 10 lbs.  You'd think I would be more mindful of the length of time it has taken me to lose just those few pounds, but the devil made me do it!   
After driving around a part of the country I live in and in three years haven't explored and seeing the massive new houses being built in a new sub-division we stopped at the DQ!  

Ten minutes later I sat in the back seat with a caramel sundae topped with lots of nuts and began digging in.  My sister-in-law had a cherry sundae - she just loves charries!  Anything at all which contains cherries and she'll have it.  My mother, bless her heart, she indulged in a chocolate fudge sundae, and my dear brother a huge vanilla cone. 

DQ Ice cream cones are sooooo delicious!

Don't these look absolutely scrumscious?

There isn't a member of my immediate family that are not ice cream lovers and Dairy Queen has always been the favored drive to treat place.

After having finished these scrumscious treats we were on the way home which is nearly a half hours drive from home. 
The road to home is very dark and we were moving slower than normal as the deer have been spotted coming out of the forests onto the road these pat few weeks and we didn't need to meet one of them on this dark road at night.  While we didn't meet any deer last night, we did see lightning streaking across the sky, huge beautiful streaks all compliments of Mother Nature.

When we arrived home I went in to close up the windows as the wind was picking up and with seeing the lightning I believed we might be in for a storm, my mother didn't believe me and decided then and there she'd water the flower beds.  I kept saying, it's going to rain, but nope, would she believe me?  After she finished that watering task in she came, locked the door and just before her nether end could come into contact with her chair the rain burst from the sky and came down in buckets!!  Not many times do I get to be right when it comes to my mother, but by golly this time I was right.  All that water used when it wasn't necessary.  

Oh well, now the flower beds are doubly watered and should last for awhile before needing a drink again. 

I finally came into the sewing room and completed a few more 4" stretched stars for the border of that Stretched Star quilt top.  Near 1 a.m. it really was time for lights out and a bed inspection, but before that, , I thought it best to make the rounds and make certain all windows and doors were locked, while doing that I looked outside and there they were, three little kittens romping through the front flower bed.  My goodness but they are so sweet, I am so torn as to whether or not to bring them into the house and look after them (mother included) or, to leave them be and let them grow and become a stray like their mother and more possibly their papa too. 4X trouble me thinks!
TONIGHT is our local Lions Club end of year party, oh boy!  BBQ chicken dinners all around and for some of the shut in seniors in town as well.  Every year our United Church puts on a Chicken BBQ and it is a great social event as well as a much needed fundraiser for the new steeple for the church.  The steeple was in sad need of repairs and they finally had to remove it from the roof rather than have a mishap or nasty accident while fundraising for much needed repairs. Watch this video of the steeple being removed, it is quite extraordinary.

Our Lions Club holds it year end party the same date as the church BBQ and nicely donate to the church while having a delicious dinner and get together all at the same time.  Two birds with one stone so to speak!  Seeing as I live across the river from where the party is being held I will collect all of the dinners and deliver them as well as mother and myself.  Can you just smell the aroma's coming from my back seat now?  I think you might.  There will be chicken, potato egg salad, coleslaw (all homemade by the way), hot buttered buns, and a side salad, then wonderfully home backed pies...now, here I go again, breaking out of the diet mode - you'd think by now I would have said no to the ice cream sundae last night know full well about all of wonderful food I would be eating tonight!  I will be taking the camera with me and making the good effort to get lots of photos, so, if you are not already bored, stay tuned for tomorrow's post when I get to show off what tonight's party looked like.
Now, have I told you more than you wanted to know?
Have a happy weekend and be mindful on those roads and by-ways if your travelling about, apparently the wild life in those woods are being driven to distraction by all of those huge and nasty deer flies that are biting them and so pose a hazard to vehicles especially around twilight. 

My Quilt, A MARITIMERS' DREAM

Frost Fest is over and from all verbal accounts from many different sources, it was another success story.  If your interested, why not visit the Frost Fest web site and take a gander at the gallery of pictures there of the numerous people and events taken over the course of the entire weekend.  Needless to say the final outcome will be determined once all of the financials are dealt with. 

Now that the Frost Fest is behind me, another project remains to be completed, that being the sale of tickets on my quilt donated as a fundraiser for my local Lions Club charity, GUIDE DOGS CANADA.  All proceeds raised from the sale of these raffle tickets will go directly to Guide Dogs Canada without one penny being diverted for any other cause. 


My online quilt group wanted to do a round robin quilt project and this is how my quilt took life and the journey of this actual quilt began.

In its beginning I had no idea as to how I would display something I was thinking of visually. While living in a province on the east coast of Canada, I wanted to tell people a story in cloth that would describe this womans' love of the region as well as her passion for quilting, and how in my minds eye my  surroundings might look from the inside out! 

This quilt began to live as each individual worked on the rounds and began to assert my description of my story and what the importance of sight meant to me.   Never, could I have imagined how beautiful this vision would become when set out in fabrics.  The world of textiles and its fabric designers provide quilters with endless possibilities of colour and themed patterned prints and especially with this quilt seemed somehow perfect to be sewn together allowing this persons' inner dreaming become a visual reality. 

I would like to describe for you on how the quilt took shape, beginning with the center and working my way outwards to its border.  A huge debt of gratitude go to Mary G., Kim L., Kris B., and Linda B. without them, their skills, expertise and immagination it would never have turned out so well.  

So here pictorially is the tale of A Maritimers Dream. 

This is the center block, its beginning.  From the window against the backdrop of blue sky and white clouds this dreamer looks out across to her neighbour who has a quilt being aired on the fence top. 

  Not only can the neighbours house be seen from the window, but, also the gardens that surround this dreamers' home.  Here in bright vivid colour are flowers in the border surrounding the house.  From there we see the picket fence which depicts a season, one season for each of the four sides which surround the house.  We have spring,  then summer makes its appearance with lush flowers all in their prime after which comes the fall and all its brilliant maple leaf colourations so very rich and vibrant in the advent of the winter to come which is set with white snow, animals and birds that frequent gardens in rural areas.  

Thanks to the designers for the rabbits,

the racoons and nut hatches

and the cardinals in this snowy winter themed fabric.  The last part of the fenced in portion shows of the wonderful red cardinals and other birds of winter. 



  

Then beyond the neighbours property is the forest where trees of all varities grow tall and strong, wild flowers manage to grown amidst the firs, evergreens, maples, ash, elm, oak, and birch with trails worn over time where people make their way towards the sand dunes and the beach. 

Finally the sand dunes make their presence felt, strong and in abundance and waving freely in the winds which drift along the sandy shoreline and into the Bay of Fundy.

This then is my visionary memory of a place somewhere on the shore of the Bay of Fundy where beauty prevails among the rough.

Not the best shot because I simply do not have space enough to properly hang the quilt.  It finished at 67" X 67" square.

IF YOU SEE A MEMBER OF LIONS INTERNATIONAL presiding over a fundraising event, please consider that all monies raised will directly benefit an organization that deal with those who suffer from some form of vision impairment or the total loss of vision.   In addition to those organizations which benefit from the works of those members world wide, disasters such as that which has hit Haiti also benefit, and if you are so inclined, no matter the amount be it pocket change or larger, these donations you give help each and every member of Lions International Clubs to serve those who are in need.

Thank you for visiting.  Again, if your reading this then like me you and I are above ground today and that is a blessing, so have a truly FRIENDTASTIC day.

TGIF

I love Fridays don't you? Seems like only yesterday it was Monday and already I have forgotten many of the activities I participated in these past four days. It must be a sign of aging, not remembering from one day to the next?

Seeing as it is Friday once again, I have managed to wake late, have two cups of coffee, taken two phone calls, one from each of my brothers and said goodmorning to the day by being greatful that once again I find myself above ground and in good humour. That my friends is a real Blessing.

The difficult work for the Scavenger Hunt for our Annual Frost Fest has been accomplished and put onto paper for approval by the Committee tomorrow morning and now I have only the physicalities of the Hunt to prepare. Oh my, alot of physical cutting and inserting of the clues, setting up the markers and making certain these are too hidden. I wouldn't want some of those teams to hunt for too long. Seeing as I have planned on the hunt taking place out of doors and not having the contestants go into any business establishments, the objects the hunters are to gather need to be in plain view but not too easily found. Saves having those snowy mucky boot marks being trampled all over floors, or customers being jostled or inventory knocked off shelves, besides Frost Fest Activities should be out doors and in the fresh air, which we have plenty of in our Town.

I have ready the Silk Floral Table Arrangements all made by my mother and the tickets and quilt for the Canada Guide Dog fundraiser innitiative we currently have going on. WISH us well in the sale of these tickets because all funds raised will directly benefit those wonderful Guide Dogs.

While your here and if you would consider it, please support my Social Vibe The Vision Charity. It is afterall a wonderful and worthwhile cause.