April 30/08

Wow! It does not seem that long ago that I was checking out Habitat for Humanity teams going to the Caribbean and Central America because I am leaving in 3 days for the Dominican Republic for a week of building houses and fellowship. The suitcase is packed full of school supplies that friends of mine have donated for the children there. There are scribblers, rulers, calculators, math sets, pencils, markers, sandals, hair accessories, erasers, glue and so on packed in that bag. If this experience is even half of the experience I had in El Salvador in 2006, it will be amazing.

While travelling to distant shores is my way to see and help the world, I encourage everyone to take a look around them to see what they can do. There are so many problems to tackle in this world and so many solutions if we could all just try to do a little bit every day. Imagine the possibilities......

Apr 25/08

I went back to the ceramic painting place yesterday and painted a second goblet. Now that I have a better handle on how the paints work and what the colours turn out like, I felt alot more confident and creative as I played around with this one!

Apr 16/08

Two of my cousins have had babies recently and I have been slow in my cousinly duties in doing up quilts for these latest editions to the Ono dynasty! This picture shows the start I have made on the first quilt. I am not saying which baby this one is for in case my cousins read this blog!

Apr 10/08

The finished product! I think it turned out not half bad for a first try!

On a health note, I am still coughing up the dregs from the nether regions of my lungs, but things are getting better......finally!

Apr 4/08

Not much stitching going on these past few days because my life has revolved around medicating myself. I came down with a fever over a week ago and that has eventually developed into a sinus infection and a lung infection. The doctor did not say I have pneumonia, but the lung infection is on the lower right side of my back. I actually thought that I had a muscle pull from coughing so much, but she said that what I was feeling is the infection because the site of the "muscle pull" is where my breath sounds were decreased yesterday. I had to bail on a Rotary club fundraiser last night because I could not stand up any longer and I hated leaving because it is our biggest fundraiser of the year, but the other club members insisted that they could get by without me.

So, here I sit in my pyjamas for the 4th day in the past week or so and feel like crap. The antibiotics are starting to take effect, but I sound like I smoke 2 packs of cigarettes a day and my cheeks have a rosy, feverish hue........I am not a very patient patient!!

April 2/08

This little beauty is the Victorian Lace Snowflake by Karen Kluba. The design is in the JCS 2007 Christmas Ornaments issue. I played around with the materials as usual, using up mystery cloth, using the Mill Hill beads I had on hand (03003)and variegated metallic DMC floss instead of the materials called for in the pattern.

Working on the ornaments is a nice little break from the two mega projects that I am working away at. I am making Christmas stockings for my immediate family and 2 baby quilts for some recent additions to the extended family. Those items take a big chunk of time so it is fun to complete a quick and easy project in between.