Raspberries

I have a question... See these two raspberry plants?

The one on the right is strange. It has always been strange, to my knowledge. I thought perhaps it was attacked by an insect, but that wouldn't explain why just that one is like that, and even at the start of the year with brand new foliage and not many insects out yet.

Here's a close-up of the strange raspberry:


For comparison, here's the normal raspberry right beside it:


If it were you, would you remove it? Or, since it doesn't seem to spread, would you leave it? I've always been somewhat hesitant to eat the raspberries from it (I eat straight from the bush, rather than picking, washing, then eating), but maybe now that I know it's not covered in insects, I'll be more likely to eat it? (Or less, knowing it's internal... although it's unlikely to cross the raspberry-human species barrier.)

I took this photo while I was taking the others of the raspberries:

I find it funny for two reasons:
1. That pepto-pink is the colour that the house trim was when my parents moved in.
2. Given that it's the original colour, that trash can is at *least* several years older than *I* am!
(Also, what brand of paint is that... look at it's longevity!) This trash can is also the reason I was really baffled that my ex-boyfriend said that, when he was a homeowner, he would dispose of and replace his trash cans every few years. (Yeah, the bottom is a bit rusted out on this one, but that means the rain can't fill up the trash can... it's still perfectly functional as a trash can, and even appears to be in better shape than the newer ones beside it. (They sure don't make stuff like they used to!)

Cleaning Out The House

Hey, I remember making this:

What's it doing in the kitchen? (Uh... 25(?) years later?!?) It's a cute little thing, but since white glue is water soluble, not terribly useful. (White glue is making the seal between the straw and the cup.) Photo for old time's sake, then trash.

Heh... another vintage item:

I don't know how full it was when it was put in the cupboard, but it had completely evaporated even though fully closed. I didn't try opening it, to see if there were any fumes left. Somehow, I like imagining it being sold as a bottle full of imaginary cleaner with a pouffy brush... I didn't upload the photo of the brush through the jar, because it was a bit hard to make out. Here's a side shot:

Uh... "non inflammable"? Is that a typo, or intentionally misleading? Hee! A typo on a type cleaner bottle! (Hmmm... turns out *I'm* the one mistaken.) This thing is funny enough (and small enough) that I'm letting it stay for a bit.

Asbestos debate:

Is this plaster the type that does or does not contain asbestos? It's on the early end of the time range I've been reading about, I think before most of the cited dates.

How about this stucco ceiling? It's on the late end of the time range for asbestos-containing stucco.

My mom is so awesome, I don't know that I deserve her. Want to know how she spent mother's day?

Cleaning a soon-to-be-mine kitchen that has been used by two bachelors for 20 years. (And no, she's not the compulsive cleaning type. She did this because she loves me.)

These are all the cupboards she scrubbed inside and out, plus the fridge (including behind the fridge) and the broom closet (granted the broom closet shelves got a quick wipe, rather than a dousing of Fantastic plus a hearty scrub).

There's more cupboards, but six hours of cleaning on Mother's day is more than enough for even super-moms.

Did you spot that vacuum cleaner in the photo with my mom? See how nice and shiny new it is? The other day I asked if I could borrow mom's for the initial cleaning of the house. (The other option was to use the older-than-me vacuums dad and my brother left behind.) Guess what I got for a housewarming present?!? (Besides the cleaning... and a 100 pack of trash bags, and a combo pack of Fantastic in a spray bottle plus a ginormous jug to refill it.)

Thank you mom. You're the *best*.

(I also got a brand-new wheelbarrow that doubles as a dolly from my grandma!)

What was I doing while my mom was cleaning?

Marking. (I couldn't decide if I wanted the dust mask for the dust, or the respirator for the Fantastic fumes. I went for the dust mask, although I suspect I would have been better off with the respirator.) Yes, I'm planing on living in a place that currently has me wearing masks.

When I looked up, this is what I saw:

I'm pretty sure I can see the outline of where the deer's head used to hang above the fireplace. (Soot? grime? Mom's answer was "yes".)

Speaking of old things, remember when phones were just phones?

(And owned by the phone company? For some reason, though, they didn't want them back when they started allowing people to buy their own.) Yep, this one still works. (I think that clear knob is for selecting which line... we had a dual line phone!) Dad took his more modern phones with him, but left this one behind so that calls could still be made & received here before I move in.

Thrift Shopping

It was a long week, ending in a long day. I was going to go to a spinning group today, but decided I needed to sleep until I woke up, and not to an alarm. By the time I was up and dressed, it was too late to go spinning, but early enough I could go to the MCC thrift shop on Watt, and properly check it out.

Mom and I both think this category is funny:

(Especially since it's misspelled.)

Hey! I took that shops class too:

(Since my father is a pack rat, I somehow doubt that mine has ended up in a thrift shop, though.)

I was tempted by this folding rocker:

It's actually my height. :) It's good wood, although it could do with either reupholstering, or cleaning the existing upholstery, plus reattaching the braid. It was $75. I decided against it... I have no space, no time, and little money.

I thought some of my knitting friends might be interested in these sock blockers, so I took a photo to post on Ravelry:

I've never seen resizable ones before!

This rocker is just like some chairs we have up at the lake:

Except ours are regular chairs, and painted black. (With the paint chipped & worn.) This one is $125... I wonder how much ours are worth? (Priceless... they belong at the lake!)

My haul:

That's 17 assorted glass containers (tea light holders, shot glasses, etc.) for mixing paint (I'll still need more to run a workshop), two plates, 30" of fabric that felt like wool, a doily, a decorative plant watering thingy, and some garlic bulbils. All for $5.90. :)

When I took the price tag off the fabric and opened it up, I found an unused label in the folds that looked like it belonged with the fabric:

Googling, I found this kit, which comes with 30" of wool fabric. A good sign! I snipped off a bit of selvedge anyway, so that I could do a burn test. Set-up:

After holding a match to the narrow point:

It's self extinguishing! And the ash was brittle, not like melted plastic. :) I pronounced it wool.

I'm very happy with my haul!

Thrift Shop Purchase

Five shot glasses, two tea light holders, one small pitcher, a bag of quarter wrappers, and some "instant papier mache" that looked fun.

It's funny how the "old fashioned juice glass" looking shot glasses make everything else seem so much larger in the photo. ;)

No, I'm not suddenly taking up drinking shots, those are for silk painting (to mix paints in). I'm looking for inexpensive supplies that are about the right size and shape, and either white or clear. The tea light holders are for that too. (Candle will go into the stash of tea lights for power-outages.) I don't need scads for myself, but I need a bunch for workshops. The tea light holders look the best, but they only had the two in clear. There were more shot glasses, but they were taller and skinnier, but shorter and fatter are better (I think) for my purpose.

I'm considering painting the bottoms white, to make colour mixing easier.

All the shot glasses and tea light holders were 25 cents, but one was 40% off, because it happened to have a blue sticker instead of yellow. (Gotta love that... it was identical to one of the others, but on sale because it had been there longer!)

The pitcher was an impulse purpose. There's something about that shape that I love. It will either hold pencils, dpns, or flowers.

The quarter wrappers are for friends who collect quarters for me. (The bag had 32 instead of the original 36, but was only 75 cents... and the dollar store packages have 5-10 plastic ones, I think.)

When I was in Dollarama, I was checking out their tea light holders (inappropriate shapes and more expensive) and shot glasses (nonexistent, unless I just couldn't spot them).

Busy

When I help a student, I make a tick mark on the board. (Sometimes I do groups of three, after going down the row.) At the end of the 3 hour session Wednesday, I had a look at the tick marks, and had to take a photo:

All this on 1.5 hours of sleep. (Marking deadline that day.)

Granted, on days like these, my counts can be kind of inaccurate. (Did I tick those students when they arrived, or should I add the marks now that I've helped them?)

Today, I made a concentrated effort to not double count.

Okay, maybe Wednesday's count wasn't that off.

Feeling rather toasty on the way home yesterday, and not wanting a long walk in the rain (yep, still snow on the ground, but it was raining yesterday... today was a mix of rain and snow), I decided to wait for the bus that gets me the closest to home. Since there was a bit of a wait, and I was right next to a Sally Ann, I decided to have a gander.

I got this cool cookie tin for 79 cents. Cool. :)

Last night I got nine hours of sleep, but I'm still feeling rather toasty today. All those tick marks, plus an additional two hours of tutoring, and my voice was going by the end.

Three hours of tutoring tomorrow on top of help centre hours... I think I should pack a lemon ginger teabag, and some honey!

Wonderful Wool

I stopped in at an antique shop on the way home yesterday, to buy some replacement fake soapstone Domo figurines for a cousin who had hers stolen. (They may have been free with gas, but they're cute. I had to resist buying a couple more for myself.) I had a look around while I was there anyway, because there were a few more minutes before closing, and I like wandering around that shop. I found a fantastic machine washable wool blanket for $32, marked down to $26!

I ran it through the wash and put it on my bed... and finally didn't need to wear a sweater to bed! (I did get the air conditioners out of the windows, but that only warmed the place up by one degree, so it's still rather nippy.) I woke up *warm* this morning. Ahhhh!

It's 70% wool, 20% nylon, and 10% acrylic. I *love* it! Probably the only other way to get a wool blanket these days would be the HBC Point Blanket, and a similar size would be $325 + tax! (I don't know if the point blankets are machine washable, either.)

Contest Alert!

Thread Therapy is having another give-away, this time for a lovely tea cup and saucer! The deadline is soon, though. (Sorry for not being more on the ball!)

Friday Night Traffic

The bus I was on Friday night got stuck in traffic, so I started walking. Since the bus stop that would give me the best connection with the least traffic was near a vintage shop I like, I decided to have some fun and wander through.

I found a salt shaker kitty playing a... um... lute? Banjo? Guitar? (Probably not a fiddle, the way it's being held.) It reminded me of the quilt my great-grandmother made me (based on "Hey Diddle Diddle") and my grandpa (who would recite "The Owl and the Pussycat"). It was marked at $3, but she sold it to me for $1, since any mate it once had was nowhere to be found.

I also bought a $4 candle snuffer (I've been wanting one) and a bag of buttons that was pretty cheap at $4. (They had several bags for the same price, but I restrained myself to one.)

After a *long* week, it was a lovely diversion. :)

Hammer: Bone vs Fiberglass?

I still think it looks like bone, my brother suggested antler rather than bone, my uncle believes it is fiberglass. Does anyone know how to get a definitive answer? Here's some close-up views:








Definitely $2.99 worth of entertainment. :)

Whoever owned it, used it a *lot*, and had quite bad aim (to get so much damage on the handle).

Crafty Stuff

What I've been doing with my thrift store thread spools, and beads & buttons from Michaels:

Christmas ornaments:


Stitch markers:


(There were *two* duds in the package of lobster claw fasteners!)

Thrift Store Finds

I stopped off at the thrift store on my way home yesterday. (On my way to work I saw a spinning wheel in the window, and I wanted to check it out... but the auction had already ended and the wheel was gone by the evening.)

I already have a hammer, but this one was so strange (and only $2.99), so I brought it home with me:

It appears to have a *bone* handle! The handle *looks* original to the hammer. I had to find out more about it. (I may end up selling it to an antique store, or taking it to the lake, but at worst, it's at least $2.99 worth of entertainment.) Has anyone heard of bone-handled hammers?

Next up, a 100% wool (handwoven!) scarf to felt and use for rug hooking:


I've already stitch-ripped the wide hems up both edges of the scarf. I'm going to sew a narrow zig-zag along those edges to prevent it from shredding in the wash. It's so pretty, I feel a bit bad about stripping it... but it will make lovely strips, and it was only 25 cents. Plus, I noticed some small holes as I was seam-ripping it. (Moth? I'm not sure... but multiple hot washes should take care of any danger from that area.

I'm a sucker for vintage ornaments:

Especially since the ones on the right are just like some ones that my mom has from her grandma. I paid 80 cents. I carefully peeled off the price tag when I got home (and put it on a blank spot on the package, to preserve the history of it's journey), and found that the original price was 49 cents. Hee! :)

Two pretty glasses, 60 cents each:


Fun buttons at two cards for 25 cents:

These are for my thread-spool Christmas ornaments I'm making. (I decided the package of buttons I bought from Michaels didn't have enough variety.) I've taken photos of the first two thread-spool ornaments, and will show them in the next post.

Other things I picked up, but didn't take photos of:
• two *gorgeous* silk ties (for the fabric; I had already put them in the laundry basket, and forgot to take a photo),
• a pair of GE metal mixing bowls (I wanted smaller bowls with steep sides, these appear to be from a stand mixer),
• a Christmas tree stand that can hold lots of water, and adjusts small enough for ditch trees (pricey, at $6.99, but in good condition, and either difficult to find or expensive when new),
• two tins (one for muffins... previous tins are either way too tall for one layer but not tall enough for two, or not quite tall enough for one layer; one for odds 'n ends)
• a pretty fork,
• a grapefruit spoon that my grandma might want for peeling oranges (if not, it was only 10 or 25 cents, so no great loss),
• a 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon for my plant fertilizer (I have no idea what happened to the original scoop, assuming there was one),
• a "belt": a synthetic ribbon that would make pretty handles or a strap for a bag (80 cents),
• a yard or so of fabric that may or may not be cotton, but will make decent reusable bags ($1.10).

I think that about covers my purchases. Total: $26 plus a bit of change.

Allergist Visit

Sometimes I have problems swallowing... the food feels like it gets stuck halfway down, and I have to wait for it. Last time I was in, I asked my doc if she thought I had what my dad has, where allergies cause his esophagus to close (thankfully just the esophagus, and not the trachea... although it does occasionally interrupt meals for a trip to the loo), or if it might be what my mom had, where acid reflux created a pouch (treated using acid reducers). She said that she might need to scope me to check for a pouch, but to see my allergist first.

Since this mainly happens with hummus (that I make myself, so that it doesn't have tahini / sesame), I brought in some hummus, a chick pea, cumin, and paprika for a skin prick test. (I didn't feel like wasting a lemon, and I really don't think it's the olive oil.) As usual, everything produced at least a tiny bump... but cumin produced a big one. *sigh* I *like* cumin! I *don't* *want* to be allergic to cumin! I'm guessing it's a rather uncommon allergy, though, because both my allergist and the nurse doing the test were surprised that I'm allergic to cumin. (Well, the nurse was surprised... the allergist knows to expect weird things from me.) She's doing a blood test as well to confirm that cumin is bad and that chick peas are okay, as well as check some other things.

On the mildly interesting side of things, she thinks I *might* have eosinophilic esophagitis. (I got her to write the name down so that I could google it. To save myself from having to type it lots, I'll refer to it as EE.) Apparently EE is a recently discovered disease, and there actually is a way to treat the symptoms. (Yay!) She still wants me scoped, and will be sending a note to my regular doc that the gastroenterologist should take a biopsy to check for EE. (I wonder if my dad has EE too, and if there's a genetic link? I offered to send my dad to her if it turns out that I do have EE. She said that perhaps someone at the university might be interested in doing a genetic study.)

To cheer myself up, I let myself pick out some fun things at Michaels:

Tonight I made some lobster-claw style beaded stitch markers. I'll post photos of them (and other finished projects) another day.

Interesting thing I saw on my travels today: a bike locker at a transit hub:

Neat! It has a door on each end, and a piece of aspenite dividing the box into two wedge-shaped compartments. (I'm not sure how the aspenite will hold up to a well-placed kick, but it should be secure enough during the day.) Of course, both compartments were empty, and the only bike around was chained to one of the bus stop poles. ;)

I also treated myself to a trip to Mike's General Store. It was neat, but it didn't live up to the grand place I had built up in my head. Also, a lot of the things didn't have prices, and I hate asking. Oh well... it was still fun. :)