this moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Hosted by SouleMama

My Commute

The other morning Jonathan had to come into town with me. So I took advantage of it and took a few pictures with my iPhone for you all to see how pretty it is out here.

How to Make Stuffed Letters - O's, A's and all those other tricky letters

A while back, I posted How to Make Stuffed Letters, which has been my most popular post to date. My same frustration in making stuffed letters was also the same as yours - what about the letters with the holes in the middle - they don't turn, it doesn't work. And it doesn't. I don't know if I'm the best person to try to explain how I got it to work as I'm still such an amateur at sewing, but I did indeed figure it out. What I did to get the "O" to work was this: 1: Fold the fabric so that the the pattern is on the inside and there are 2 layers. 2. Pin your letter template to the fabric 3. Cut out the fabric 4. Take off the template. Re-pin your 2 pieces together so that the pattern is on the inside. 5. Sew the outside circle of the O 6. Turn the fabric out and match the centre up (you are now looking at the pattern side) 7. Sew most of the inside circle together, leaving a hole for stuffing 8. Stuff 9. Sew the hole up. Yes, I know this isn't as neat as having both the inside and outsides turned in, but it does work. You can sew pretty close to the edge so that it still looks neat overall. I found this all out the hard way and did a lot of seam ripping and repairing. Since having these up, I've had a lot of positive comments and compliments for it. I hope that explanation helps you out!

this moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

City Life Vs. Country Life - Traffic on the Bridge

So the bridge into town is under maintenance. So instead of 2 lanes going in both directions, they are down to one. The funny thing is (and please explain to me why if you know the answer) is that people start lining up into one lane way before it's necessary. I mean like 2 or 3 KM early. I don't get it. I've never seen this before ever. You would never see this in a big city. I've driven in Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and New York, no one does this. Everyone waits until the last possible moment to merge. I've never seen 2 KM of free open highway before a merge before. So I don't merge in early. I don't see the point. And really, what are people going to do about it. Yes you can all glare at me all you want (I know you are), but I'm driving in an open legal lane! There's no rule saying I have to line up nicely and really early all because you do. Now, I haven't gone completely big city driver snob here, I don't wait until the last possible merge moment (although I could), but I wait until I'm under a KM away. I just can't justify merging in 2 or 3 KM early and adding in 10-15 minutes to my commute.
Actually, yesterday, one guy did decide he was going to be the line up police, and pull out in front of me just to block me. He didn't quite go all the way into my lane and out of his. He was in both lanes (which is really illegal) and driving the snail pace of the line up. I just had to laugh at him. What was his point? Nothing, except being uptight about his line up. Get over it buddy! So I just followed him to see what he would do. I hope he enjoyed his moment. I know I enjoyed my morning giggle at him.

Not Me Monday - it's back!

Not Me Monday is a fun little meme hosted by McMama. She's had it on hiatus for a year now and I'm so pleased that she's decided to start it up again. Never participated in a Not Me Monday before? Head on over there to check it out. Of course you would NEVER do any of those parenting things would you?

Just like I would never allow my 20 month old daughter to eat 3 yogurts for lunch just because she's on a yogurt kick right now. After all, we all know that kids need a much more balanced diet than that.

Just the same way that I would never put on the same Elmo DVD for her twice in a row because I get a kick out of her excitement at seeing that fuzzy little red face, and hearing her sing "la di da di da" over and over again. Because kids under 2 shouldn't be watching TV anyways.

City Life Vs. Country Life - the commute

We recently moved from a city of 2 million to a country village of 600. It's near a small city of about 120 000. I commute into work 3 days a week. It takes me about 20 minutes to half an hour to get there. Many, many people have commented, "How do you like that commute, being way out there where you are?" Honestly, I love it. It's 20 minutes of free, empty highway driving, followed by 10 minutes of relatively empty city driving. It's not a big deal.
In our previous place it took me 20 minutes of bumper to bumper city traffic to get to Wal-mart on a regular basis. Then you fought your way through crowded isles to get what you needed. I actually found it easier to jump onto the highway, drive 20 or 30 minutes north to a smaller suburb to go shopping.
Here's the highway near where I used to live:

And here's where I commute into now:

So yes, I don't mind the commute at all.