New Covid Restrictions for Alberta (Nov.24, 2020)

Another lovely day in this snowy neighborhood! 

I got out for a walk this morning - it was kind of nice out, warmer than it has been lately.

This afternoon, BH and I headed over to NCT's Christmas Tree house that she has been working on and put up some garland in the windows for her.

It took a bit longer than we thought it would.

Then, after supper, we headed over to BH's to finish up some signs.

The premiere, Jason Kenney and the Health Officer for Alberta made an announcement at 4:30 pm today and I think most Albertans were watching with bated breath to see what the new Covid Measures being imposed were going to be.

The Covid 19 numbers are rising rapidly and some people are calling for total shutdowns to try to stop it.

Kenney is against that and I kind of agree with him.

Shuttering businesses again would be devastating to some people and I think that while physical health is important, so is mental and economic health.

There have already been businesses that shut down after the last lock down and I would hate to see that happen to more.

It's the smaller, local businesses that get hurt the most too because most of the big box stores are allowed to remain open.

So here is kind of a summary of the new restrictions:

No social gatherings in private home - 0 visitors allowed

All sports group activities cancelled.

Grades 7-12 will start to be homeschooled again.

Younger grades are going to have an extended holiday break.

Stores and restaurants and theaters, churches, etc are allowed to remain open but at 25% capacity.

Bars and restaurants to close at 10 pm.

Those are the basics and I don't think that is so bad.

I do think that we need to work on slowing the spread but sometimes I wonder if it's as dire as the media depicts?

Whether it is or not, I will follow the rules because I don't want to get sick or inadvertently pass it on to someone else.

Hopefully everyone else does the same and the spread slows until we can get vaccines.

We watched the end of the live broadcast over at BH's before we got to work on the signs.

We were so busy that I forgot to take pictures.

We got a few things completed, even made a sign for NCT herself.

We ended up being there until close to 10 and now with the new restrictions we aren't even sure if the Christmas House can go ahead.

Kind of a bummer after all of the work that NCT put in.

At lease she can still sell the signs and make some cash that way for Communities in Bloom.

My Honey stopped at the store on the way home from work and found a new flavor of Smartfood.

He tried it and said it was really good.

When I got home, the kitties were laying on the floor being their cute selves.

Professor Snuggles started being a goofball, ha ha.

I expect when I go in to work tomorrow that we are going to be told to work from home for the next few weeks.

We'll see in the morning I guess.

That's all for today, until next time, be happy!

A Negative Result is a Positive Thing! (Nov.22, 2020)

 I got up early this morning and as per my usual weekend routine, made myself a coffee and found something to watch on tv while I sipped it.

I just happened to find a really good one too.

I love anything Dolly Parton - especially her movies.

She just captures human nature so well and they always get me emotional.

This one was a musical and I loved it!

Mom wanted to get each of the kids a piggy bank so she can start saving money for them for our family Disney trip.

I had the bright idea to make them just out of mason jars.

I looked up how to paint them and it looked pretty easy so I thought I would give it a try.

Basically you just take modge podge and add food coloring then pour it into the jar.

Then you just roll it around in there until it covers everything.

I needed to make 5 and these are the colors I chose.

I let them stand upside down to avoid big drips in the bottom.

So far they are looking pretty good.

I did add glitter to the ones for the girls - not sure if that was a wise decision or not?

The next step was to bake them in the oven for 1 hour at 200.

They go kind of opaque like this.

There were some spots on the jars that didn't seem to have any color at all and so I did second coats on all of them except the purple one.

You can see some drips but I think it looks kind of cool.

The final step was to cut out vinyl on the Cricut and personalize each one.

I wanted to do green on green, blue on blue etc... but I think the colors are too close so it's hard to see the sticker on it.

Mom said she doesn't like it so I think I might go to black vinyl.

The more I look at them though, I don't know how happy I actually am with them.

I might just scrap this idea and try something different.

Meanwhile, My Honey was hard at work preparing Sunday bbq for the guys at work.

They are having crunchy chicken today.

He also cooked up ribs, potato casserole and salad.

Looks pretty good.

Oh and can't forget that awesome dessert.

Can't wait to try a bite tonight when he brings a slice home.

I got ready and headed out for a walk just after lunch.

It was a gorgeous day out there - everyone was out working on Christmas lights.

I don't mind winter days so much when they are warm and sunny.

We are lucky to live so close to the wilderness too - it's so pretty with all the snow.

Walking in a winter wonderland.

Just look at that sun peeking through.

Sunshine and fresh air are good for the soul.

Miss M's boss got her results back today from her Covid Test and she was negative.

Yay!

So once we found out, NCT came over and we worked on a couple of signs.

Then my son brought Baby F over for a visit.

I was so happy to see her - it's been a couple of days and I was starting to really miss her.

Notice all the centerless Oreos?

She likes to eat the middles and then just leaves the rest.

She is such a little ham - she makes the funniest faces.

She does it on purpose too - she enjoys having an audience.

When Papa got home, she insisted on having a 'box dance' with him.

Cool dudes!

She is talking so much now, it doesn't mean I always know what she is saying though!

She is definitely the center of attention when she is here - no wonder she loves coming over.

And we love it that way - we want her to know how special she is to us.

Chilling with Papa.

Grandma had to get in on the snuggles too.

Best girl in the whole wide world!

Snack time!

She found some band-aids so was fixing everyone's oowies!

Guess my lip needed fixing!

That is all for today, until next time, be happy!

Sign Making Session (Nov.23, 2020)

 Today was weigh in day.

I seemed to be hungry this week, I went over my daily points allotment every single day.

I didn't use up all of my weekly points though, I still had 7 left so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from the scale.

Then this happened.

I weighed in at 203.0 lbs.

That means I lost 2 lbs this week and I'm now 70 lbs down since I started.

I can't even begin to describe how happy and proud I'm feeling.

Also, physically and mentally I just feel great.

What a difference a few months and some effort can make!

When I got to the office, I had a few parcels waiting for me - I love getting parcels.

They were Christmas presents for other people but still fun!

I decorated my office for Christmas this morning.

It looked like so much last year but this year it looks sparse for some reason.

I may need to add a few things.

I saw this on Instagram and I LOVE it.

We have a shed in the back and I think this would look so good on it (it's in our backyard though so nobody would really see it).

NCT got a few more signs completed today, she really loves this one.

I had a busy morning finishing off payroll and making some updates in there so I didn't get out for a walk.

So when I went home for lunch, I went for a walk around the block.

Then late in the afternoon, I did get out for a walk at work.

It was so nice out, I wanted to take advantage of that.

My Honey sent me this, a guy he works with is making them.

They are pretty.

After work, I had a quick supper then headed over to BH's for a sign making session.

BH has a great set up in her basement and we all got to work.

It was good that we had all the help we did. 

Weeding then transferring and painting, it all takes time and every extra hand helps.

We picked some pretty intricate designs that took a lot of time to weed.

I think they will be worth it in the end but it didn't feel like it sometimes when the weeding was getting frustrating.

We worked until 10 pm and got quite a bit done.

We are going to do another session tomorrow night and just make as much as we can then we will call it good.

The Christmas Tree house and the craft sale starts on Friday and NCT has put an insane amount of effort into it all so she is just exhausted.

We really want to help her make it a success.

When I got home, I made myself a decaf coffee and sat and enjoyed it before heading to bed.

I saw this post on Instagram and I love EVERY SINGLE THING in this store!

Wish I could go there.

In fact, I want to own a store like this some day.

That's all for today, until next time, be happy!

A Lonely Day in Self Imposed Self Isolation (Nov.21, 2020)

Since our crafting plans for today were cancelled and I'm self isolating, I felt like I didn't know what to do with myself today.

I watched some tv, enjoyed my coffee, had a bubble bath and read some of my book all before lunch.

It was only -6 in the afternoon so I headed out for a walk to rack up some steps.

It really was pretty out there.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland.

I was dressed probably too warmly but that's better than freezing my butt off!

I called NCT and told her that if she sent me some measurements and what she wanted, I'd at least start cutting out some stencils for her on the cricut.

So she dropped her roll of vinyl off on my doorstep, sent me these and I got to work.

These are just two of the six she sent.

It took me a while because I had to fiddle with some of them a bit before cutting.

We've discovered that we prefer the designs in the Silhouette store way more than the ones available in the Cricut store.

You can buy them in the Silhouette store and as long as you pay extra for the SVG file, you can upload that into Cricut.

Sometimes you need to do a bit of reworking though but it's still so worth it.

When I got them done, I put them in a bag and hung them off my front door handle and she came back and picked them up.

She got two made and sent me this to show me how they turned out - they look good.

When My Honey got home from work, he made the dessert for the bbq tomorrow.

Chocolate pie - looks delicious.

We were planning on having Baby F sleep over tonight and my son was going to drop by to visit but I had to tell him not to come and I was so missing them.

I think he needed some company too so I felt so bad but I would never want to make either of them sick.

We'll have her over next weekend though and I think I'll see if Miss A & Mr H want to sleep over too.

I haven't been seeing a whole lot of them lately and I really miss them.

They love making crafts and I thought this might be a neat thing to make with them.

Gingerbread houses out of Pop Tarts - what a great idea!

That's all for today, until next time, be happy!