Strangers In The Park........

In these times of Covid many people are working from home and that includes my son and his wife. It's not easy when you have a 10 year old and a 16 month old in situ.

The 10 year old is pretty good at entertaining herself and she has a best friend to play with that lives next door.  The 16 month old is a whole other thing. He goes to a day care three mornings a week. When he comes home he has his lunch and then goes down for a nap. So that's 3 days covered pretty  much :)

Two mornings a week he is taken to a local parkette by my husband, myself and his other granny. It's a great place with lots to do and he loves it. And, it does take three of us to watch him as he is a runner. He runs everywhere.

The other day we had five adults looking after him...me, my husband, his other granny and two great aunts. I find that very amusing.

Now the other granny and her sisters...the GA's....are locals. They have lived in the neighbourhood all their lives and everyone knows them and they know everybody in turn. Unlike me and the husband...we are newcomers. I had noticed people looking at us but because of Covid they haven't made any advances to find out who we are.

On this particular day, the GA's, granny and myself found some park benches in the shade and had a nice little natter about this and that while my husband played with the grandson on the swings.  It was a lovely day.

So, here we are sitting on the benches and I hear this little voice pipe up........"She's the granny that sews". I turn around and see a little girl standing with a couple of ladies. She was pointing at me.  I smiled and the ladies nodded.  I think they were a wee bit embarrassed.

I guess I'm not a stranger anymore..........I'm "The Granny That Sews".

Take care and keep safe :)

Life According to Covid.......

I finally was able to make an appointment with my hairdresser.  Usually I can get it the same day but this time it was in a couple of weeks. Understandable considering the present situation.

We don't live in her area of the city now but I felt that I needed to support an old friend. She has been cutting my hair for 20 years.

My hairdresser is in an office building at a major intersection of the city. I go to her because I used to work in the building.  I arrived a bit early and when I went in I saw only two people. The ground floor pedestrian area was completely empty. Usually there are lots of people hanging around.

Very eerie. I get to my hairdresser and the doors are closed. A notice said by appointment only. You must wear a mask and gloves. Gloves? Great!  I didn't know that and I don't have any.

I looked in the window and saw no one? Is it the wrong day?  Then a voice behind says "don't worry I was just getting a coffee." Sigh of relief.

I wear my hair very short and my hairdresser is always giving me a hard time because I wait too long between appointments...according to her anyway.  She took one look at my hair and groaned. The last time I saw her was in December and my hair was a bit long :)

We go in and it seems I am the only client. My hairdresser offers me a hand sanitizer, takes my temperature with one of those gun thingies and then asks me to put on some surgical gloves. No problem.

Masked, sanitized and gloved I go forth to get my hair washed. I ask if I should take off my mask. Apparently not. I had my hair washed with mask on. Okay. My mask did get a bit wet but it is washable.

Then I go to the chair, get the usual cape on and ask if I should take my mask off now. Apparently not. My hair was cut with mask on. Naturally I was a bit concerned about that. I had visions of her cutting the elastic on my mask as she cut the hair near my ears. I was also a bit worried about what this haircut was going to look like.

But, I'm happy to say that it was all fine. Whew.

She told me that she has had to learn a bunch of new skills. She is not a very happy hairdresser. Oh and I have gone greyer....I wonder why?

Take care and keep safe :)

Knot Bag........

I wanted to make a bag that is sometimes called a Knot Bag.

I had this half yard of batik cotton in my stash that is kinda summery. I also found a piece of polyester broadcloth that was a perfect match for a lining.

The pattern I used is called "Grab Bag" and was designed by Bonnie Kozowski. I found it at AllPeopleQuilt.com.

It was super easy and super quick to make. 

The designer suggests quilt batting or craft fleece to give thinner fabrics a bit of body. I lined mine with a type of craft fleece but it seems a bit rigid. I think it will probably soften as the bag is used. 

A small bag that goes over the wrist to carry hand sanitizer, mask, sunglasses, baby wipes and kiddie snacks when I go to the park.

Today is a very warm day and we don't have air conditioning. However, we are on the 5th floor and if we open the balcony doors at both ends of the apartment we get a lovely cool breeze off Lake Ontario.

Sometimes it's a bit too windy. My pattern piece blew off my sewing table and my son had to chase it before it went out the other door....ooops :)

Take care and keep safe :)

Can it get any worse..........?

We haven't been able to sell our house because of Covid so it sits empty. Someone must have noticed that we only go over on certain days and took the opportunity to break into it.

There is very little in the house at the moment. Just some odd furniture and boxes of books and dishes to go into storage eventually. They did break into a small safe which is now toast and will have to be dumped. No worries as there was nothing in it. It seems that they took nothing and were extremely tidy thieves.

Then......

My brother lives in a building that is an apartment block for seniors and they all have their own suites but have communal areas for meals and such. They have just tested everyone for Covid and they have one case. The building has been in lock down since mid February. Very scary and worrying.

I'm really really tired of the year 2020. 

Take care and stay safe!!!!

Waste Not........

My DIL asked me to shorten and hem some track pants. I had to take quite a bit off the bottom and I figured I could use it for something. So I made some leggings for my granddaughter's American Girl doll.

The original track pants had a double white stripe down the side of one leg. I had to improvise and turn the stripe and put it across the leg instead. It looks okay to me....LOL  However, I await the verdict from the doll owner :)

No worries there was social distancing involved. DIL put the bag with the pants on the ground and stood back and my husband picked them up. They were returned the same way.

It is one strange world we are living in at the moment.

Take care and keep safe :)

Self-isolate, self-quarantine, social-distance........

Amazing how these buzz phrases take hold.   

My husband and I did go grocery shopping yesterday. I'm a senior citizen and I should be staying at home but you do need to eat. I was surprised at how many people were out. There were a lot of empty shelves though. No toilet paper of course. One good thing is that grocery and drug stores here have just started special shopping times for seniors.

To keep occupied I've been sorting my craft stuff and I did make a new dress for my granddaughter's American doll. She chose the fabric from my fat quarters. This pattern didn't have facings for the neck and arms which I wasn't too happy about. I didn't fancy trying to make a neat edge on such a tiny dress. I don't have the patience. I ended up lining the bodice.

The pattern is called "123 Mulberry Street Summer Twirl Dress".

I also made a pair of jeans. Not such a great success as the fabric was a bit heavy but they fit and look okay. I think a stretch denim might work better. They are supposed to be distressed (torn) at the knees and the pant hem but I ignored that :)

The pattern is called "Liberty Jane Jeans".

Take care :)