Dresses for the granddaughters and a beard trim!

I set up the card table, with patterns
and directions on the wall.
Dorah is very tired after all this.

I don't normally post sewing projects, there are so many experts out there, but fellow grandmothers have asked about my girls' dresses and my progress.

I bought two pieces of fabric, just because I thought they were cute designs.  A couple of metres each; I didn't have a plan. I showed them to Isabelle Coccinelle and Josephine Jelly Bean, and they liked them. (Coccinelle is French for Lady beetle and rhymes with Isabelle! It's what Josephine thought Isabelle should be named - it is her nickname!)

I bought two patterns that I liked, and combined the sleeves of the one pattern, since Fall is coming, with the High-Low fancy-dancy hem pattern from the other pattern.

Princess sparkly butterflies for Jos.
Bugs for Isabelle Coccinelle.
(Isabelle & Coccinelle rhyme! It's her nickname.)

Isabelle, who likes to 'do it myself', and her mother (M.Sc.!), likes to be independent, as does Jos. I put Izzy's zipper in the front. Dressing it up a bit, I added some flouncy trim, and pockets, as good scientists need pockets!

The first thing I did was to set up the guest room as a sewing room. That really helps! The cats have been supportive, as is hubby. Buster kept me company one day, Dorah on the first day, but they get bored. Daisy likes the material, too.

I've stuck to a schedule, my morning on the computer, workout, lunch, gardening and then a shower. Then, in the late afternoon, I sit at the sewing machine, a glass of wine, with the radio on, relaxing before I prepare dinner.

I took the bodices to Prince Edward County, putting each dress in a shoebox, where we were visiting the kids who were on holiday. They were happy to see my progress while I fitted them.
It was much fun revealing them.

Fitting of the bodice for Isabelle.
She liked the idea of the zipper in front.
It didn't actually call for a zipper!

Isabelle's insect dress

The iron was NOT on!

Jos' princess dress.
The blue trim is from
my late mother's sewing basket.

Sure helps to have
supervisors, Daisy.

My Dotty Daisy!

Buster Brown helps, too.

Next, with the elastic for Isabelle's dress done, I put on the bottom fancy frills – once I figured out how short or long to make it.

The sewn gathers for Jos' dress makes it lovely and full. I had to put in the zipper next. I did the one side twice, as I heard my Mom's voice in my ear. It wasn't good enough!

Finally, I had to tack the sleeve hems and trim the loose threads.

The consensus was a lacy trim,  and high-low hems. Back to Sew Crafty for more supplies!

The pattern didn't call for a zipper,
but I thought that just dumb!
I put one in front for easy self-dressing.
"Do it MYSELF!"

Jos wanted a high-low hem, too.
I followed the pattern from
Is' dress!

They look pretty good one them, and there is room for growth! At ages 4 and 6, they are growing like mad!

Outdoors, we were preparing for Papa, who was shaving his beard for the first time since before Josephine was born. He looks about 10 years younger! We are hoping he'll be carded!
A grand visit for all!

Bambi came for a pee!

Deer in yard from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.
When I used the lawn tractor I left some clover blossoms. I'm glad I did! Bambi came for a meal and the bees love them. She had a pee then moved over the the clover!

August 2014 precipitation

Total AUG. 2014: 185.25

August 31st

It was a wet one that morning in S.E. Ontario, bringing our

• Aug. 2014 total to 185mm. 
• (August 2013 was 166.5mm.) 

Lots of rain, thunder and lightning.

Little twerp in the gauge
has been removed!

August 12/13

The gauge read 72mm over 2 days!

Wide trough

Day 2!

Stacking wood, I had helpers!

Mostly moral support, but what can a woman do?
First job was to clear out the shed. As I went in, I spotted a snake. This was Friday afternoon.



The truck arrived!

Willows Farm in Balderson

Here is where the moral support comes in... Daisy. She was napping in the goldenrod. Then, very cat-like, parked herself right in my path.


Buster came by, but he was only passing through.

Then I had to stop and take a photo of a plane, then grab a drink of water.

Dorah was watching from the house. She was no help at all!
There was a dock spider supervising, too.

Saturday morning it was still there.
The wood fairy didn't help out at all!

No one worked on it during the night.
I began around 9 a.m., NO helpers until hubby began to help, having done his dishes.

 Saturday Morning

Be careful with your back, JB.
He was loading up the garage.

Things had to slow down, as I realized the wagon tires were flat. Nothing is ever straightforward, is it? Then I had to move the old wood to the back of the house to make room for the new wood in the shed.

Time out, while I had to pump out the tires in the trailer.

Hubby was helping by putting some old wood in the garage. He also went out and killed a caesar wrap for me for lunch, as well as scoring some boxes in town (for the debris that will be our kindling). Then he had to go back in to buy some groceries for his special diet.

I soldiered on!

I stopped for a moment to check out the Eastern Comma that morphed. More on that later. I'd been trying to film a Question mark, but accidentally deleted the video when I thought it hadn't emerged. I was pretty tired, I suppose.

Last week, an Eastern Comma broke free.
They are ubiquitous on my Hops.

 I stopped for lunch to watch the US Open Tennis, with Milos Raonic vs. Burgos (who played rather well!). We have two Canadians in it this year. Raonic and Bouchard. Both hard-working young people. 

We were watching for my cyberfriends, who were at the match!
Did you think I spotted them - it's a fuzzy shot from the TV?
This is his selfie. I love their t-shirts!

@SocialKeenan and wife Julie

This has to be Keenan trying for phone service!
He has lots of friends wanting selfies
for vicarious thrills!

Lots of photos of Raonic floating about.

Thank goodness, Raonic won. He didn't play his best, but he did win. @ITVTennis, they were showing it in TSN 5, were pretty harsh making fun of Milos' hair, several times. Really.

Back to work after the match, I found more friends. There was a honeybee right in the doorway, with a home in one of the mice tunnels. It went in, I covered up the hole, not wanting to be stung. I unburied it when I covered up the wood for the rain.

I'm about 3/4 done, but we had 20mm rain last night, and more this morning. I had to put away the boxes of kindling in the shed. I had a feeling... We shall see if I go out. I'm pretty achy!

Chipmunk wash up!

I was watching the chipmunks from the deck. They were so cute! They clean up under the bird feeder. This one was sitting on the bridge across our little ditch.

Bullfrog weigh-in – a challenge

Now, as a retired teacher, I love doing math problems. When I was tutoring young women in a home for single mothers in the fall, I had to go back over my high school math. Since our medical woes, I haven't had the time nor energy to do so. I quite enjoyed helping them with their schoolwork.

I loved teaching math. The discovery math, currently in vogue, has done nothing but harm our students. The recent EQAO test result seem to confirm this.

EQAO concerned about 'persistently low' test results in math, English

CTV News-Aug 27, 2014Share

TORONTO -- Ontario's education minister wants to examine how applied math and English are taught in the early high school years after ...

The brightest and the best of our students, with rich, stimulating backgrounds, have the ability to achieve in elementary school, where the foundation is laid. It's the rest of the kids who need to be taught times tables, and need didactic lessons in numeracy. This is the same for literacy. The kids whose parents have done a lot of pre-reading work and play with their kids do not need to be taught to read. They are thirsty for learning, especially if it is modelled. I taught too many special education students to think anything different. They're doing much harm to the high-risk students.

OK. Off my soapbox. Back to my personal challenge. I was incredibly curious about the weight of my two bullfrogs. They are quite happy in my hand-dug goldfish pond. Since Jeremiah moved in this month, I've realised how big Geraldine has become. She's quite used to me; I don't often catch her.

They eat leopard frogs, as well as the odd bug. You can see what likely amounts to leopard frog limbs sticking out of Jeremiah's belly giving him an odd look. It is a frog-eat-frog world!

I found out that Geraldine is about 460 gm (~16oz.) and Jeremiah is about 200gm, although it was tricky reading the scale! I laughed so hard, hubby watched, too.



Geraldine wasn't thrilled! I set up the camera with the video running. She did a cameo appearance for me. You have to laugh! She hopped over to the camera when we were done and glared!


frog weigh-in from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.
How do you weigh a bullfrog? Carefully! She was 460gm (~16 oz.); he was 200gm.

Saturday's Critters #39