USA Thanks Giving, Hanukkah and Black (?) Friday

Canadian and American Thanks Giving are on totally different dates.

Canadian Thanks Giving is long gone and was Monday October 14th.
Today, November 27th 2013, is US Thanks Giving and this year it is also Hanukkah.

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But now we are getting into something seriously weird: "Black Friday". The first Friday after US Thanks Giving and viewed as the beginning of Christmas shopping season..... This may be true in the States but in Canada Christmas shopping is already in full swing.
Jut the same Canadian stores have adopted the American "Black Friday" and this week-end is an excuse for huge sales.

I just wonder why is it called Black Friday?
It sounds pretty grim. Were all the other colours taken?

Black Monday is such a darker thing.

The Shopping Queen and more African Fabric

I actually am not a great fan of shopping but I am down to one pair of pants and the logistics of living with one pair of pants is not great. So I ended up going to a large second-hand store and after trying a good dozen of pairs manage to find 2 that work....ok, who cares?
Here is the thing, while at the second-hand shop I had a look around and found some great African fabric: 6 metres of a superb blue print from Akosombo Textiles (Ghana)...and the price was great. I paid $10 for the 6 metres, which would be difficult to find in South Africa. The fabric itself is a thin cotton (not a superb quality but not as bad as some) but the print makes up for it. I think I will take it with me when I finally leave Calgary and hit the road again and use it to try to make myself a dress. I figure even if I really mess up there should be enough fabric to have another try with the same fabric.

Here is a close up.

Ok it is Cold

I realize that I am obsessing about the weather, but when one "camps" one tends to.
Today AGAIN Calgary is the coldest city in Canada. Even Iqaluit is way warmer than us.
This is crazy.

Ice on the River

The other day after a cold night I went for a walk along the river. I had never noticed before those little igloo-like ice domes that form from the wavelets above larger rocks (about fist size) in the shallow part of the river. They are quite nice I think. they do remind me of my new Christmas tree ornament.

...and just some bubbles trapped under the ice.

For people who know Calgary and the area, I drove to Canmore the other day and saw people skating on the Lac des Arcs. I thought that was brave. It seems a little early to venture onto the ice but apparently it was working for them.

More Sewing to Pass the Time in the Cold Weather

Don't worry this is not becoming a craft blog... I just don't do enough crafts for that.
Just it is cold. I am in the camper and I have to keep myself busy. I just learned, from a library book, how to sew zippers. It was one of those things I wanted to know but somehow had never gotten round to learning. Well, now I know, and as my friend M in Jo'burg said, it is simple once you know how.

Anyway I just made myself 2 pencil-case-type-things which of course in the camper are great for putting things away.
Only one has a zipper because I only bought one thinking that it was not worth buying more in case I didn't manage to do it right.

They are both made of the same fabric than the mitten because I bought an old wool coat at a thrift store for $2.00, took it apart, washed the fabric, hang dried it and ironed it. Now I have quite a bit of wool fabric. I am also working on another pair of mitten without the seam in the middle of the palm.

The embroidery is nothing complicated, just a little up-and-down stitch (I am not sure if it even had a name).
I do like the buffalo and the polar bear catching stars. They are just things I drew. The buffalo is obviously inspired by all the buffaloes I saw this year. The polar bear is not inspired from anything at all. I have never seem polar bears in the wild. It is on my list of things-to-do.

The backs are simpler with "abstract" designs, also just things I drew.

The advantage of using fabric from an old coat (apart from the price) is that it obviously came with a liner that worked well with the colour of the woolen fabric. I am quite happy with the result.

Snow is White

OK, I remember what is hard about snow.
It isn't the cold, though it is a pain and I find myself procrastinating sorting out the camper because it has to be done outside (-7C, 32F...so not even that cold in Canadian terms).
It is the amount of white there is. White, white, white, white, white.

I remember living in New Brunswick. Going to university I would walk to campus, and the route I chose was a little longer than the more obvious one it but went by a bright orange house and that little bright orange house was like a drink of fresh water in the desert.

Today I find myself really missing South Africa. I miss my life there, the little cottage, the walks, the grocery stores, the green grocer, the volunteering at the charity store, the Monday expeditions with K and all that stuff.

Today my resolution to stay in North America for the winter is wavering.
I just looked at the weather in southern China and the temperatures are in double digits pretty much everywhere.
Sometimes I wonder why I am learning Mandarin (well, I am trying to learn Putonghua which can be explain as "Beijing Mandarin") when southern China speaks Cantonese....Mind you the forecast for Beijing to day is high of 17C (63F) and low 4C (39F).
I know it is useless to complain about the weather but I am kind of bummed out today, and ultimately nobody has to read this.

Possiby very cool software

You don't often see things totally new that makes you think "what a good idea". Well, at least I don't. And you have to admit that I do not often post links for sites which are not news.
I know yesterday I posted a link for Plan Canada, a charity / foster parent plan site so the key words here are "not often".

Today I want to post the link to a site which allows you to download for free if you have Window a software which "makes your computer screen look like the room you're in, all the time. When the sun sets, it makes your computer look like your indoor lights. In the morning, it makes things look like sunlight again" (direct quote from their site).

Be warned: I do think the idea sounds cool but I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IT.
I am NOT telling you to download the software. In fact I haven't downloaded it myself.

I just wanted to comment on what seems like a pretty neat idea.

Anyway, here is the link to the software which is called f.lux.

Snow, Hand-Sewn Mitten and Beaded Ornaments

Well winter is truly here now. Today it snowed all day. All day, all day, all day! I shoveled snow 4 times off the sidewalk around the house I am house sitting.
I has been a grey day all day but not cold, making for heavy wet snow. This is why I shoveled it four times instead of waiting for it to really pile up. It is too heavy to wait for a solid accumulation. Right now it is 9:30pm and it still hasn't stopped snowing. The weather forecast is calling for an additional 10 cm (4") tonight.

This was around 10:00am.

It was the perfect day to stay indoor and do projects.
I have been meaning to make mittens (sewing, not knitting... I already know how to knit mittens) for quite a while. In fact since Edna in fort Smith taught me how to bead. I had already bought three different wool coats at thrift stores. I'd look on the internet for some patterns and today I made one mitten.... Only one so far.
It is going a little slow partly because I watch Chinese movies on my computer at the same time.
I am pleased to see that I can recognize a few words and expressions every now and then. Otherwise I just let the language go by and get familiar with its sounds and rhythm.

That's the pattern I used to make the mitten. I cut it out of the gift catalog from Plan Canada. (You can check them out at plancanada.ca/givehope)

I pretty much followed the most commonly shown mitten pattern on the internet but the result is not quite right from my point of view.

I don't like the placement of seam inside the hand. Look at it again.

The second mitten of that pair is already cut off so I may finish the pair because it is quite wearable. But I want to make modifications so the seam comes at the wrist. I have not seen any pattern bringing the seam at the wrist so maybe there is a reason why it is not done, but I want to try. If anybody has any experience with this let me know.
Once I have the mitten pattern I like I want to make mittens with wool on the outside and fleece as a liner and maybe I will put some beading.

So far the only beading I have done is to make small Christmas tree ornaments.

They are double sided and filled like little cushions. One side has a white background as the side you see here. the other side is brown made with a background I cut out of suede jacket I bought at a thrift store. Originally I used suede because I couldn't find moose hide and probably would not have wanted to spend the money on it for a beginner's project.
I am beading flowers even though they probably do not appear very christmasy, but they are quite traditional of beading works. Also I like to hang all kind of various things on trees.


I want to say how grateful I am to Edna for teaching me how to bead.

In Calgary doing tasks and having some quiet fun

I am in Calgary for a few days (house sitting and dog sitting) and I am trying to do as many tasks as I can while I am here. I am doing pretty good.
I had the truck fixed, nothing major bust still 2 days without mean of transport.
I moved the trailer in what should be permanent storage space with the help of CW.
I reorganized the trailer ...though this is not finished.
I emptied the truck practicallt entirely ... and that was not a job I was looking forward to. In the process I found my camera which had slipped between the seats. I thought that maybe it was lost or had been stolen out of the truck when I was in Medecine Hat (for the none Canadian this is the name of a town... pretty cool name I think)
I started clearing books and clothes not needed anymore from the camper.
I had the replacement jacks put on the camper.
I lifted the camper (finally possible with the new jacks) and moved the platform underneath it which had shifted forward too far.

All this has to be timed around snow. Last week end it snowed. Tonight (Friday night)  and tomorrow it is supposed to snow again.

But through all this I also managed to do some fun stuff.
A lot of going to the library and borrowing all kind of books.
I have been doing a lot of my Chinese language lessons (and I am quite happy with the way it is going).
I've eaten very good Vietnamese food.
And in the realm of entirely useless I bought myself a Christmas tree ornament. My favourite part of Christmas is the tree. I LOVE Christmas tree decorations and I found one really cute one. (for a dollar)... just made of plastic...
I looks like soon after December 4th (I will be house sitting again in a couple of weeks until December 4th) I will be heading south to the States. So Christmas in my tiny camper means no Christmas tree. Just the same I thought it would be nice to have this one ornament. See it for yourself::

Isn't it great...and SO Canadian in a none red-and-white way.
Maybe I'll use it as a rear view mirror ornament in the truck...right now I have a tiny stuffed buffalo.