Been Busy

Hope you all are having a good Easter. Weather has warmed up somewhat here which is good. We even got a bit of sun. Barry has been here twice to work on disassembling the pool. Today he has his welding equipment so he can take the bolts out. Some are very obstinate! But I guess that means the pool was well constructed. The old deck is gone now too as they couldn't get to that side of the pool because of it and we have to reshape it anyway and also lengthen it. We want it to go to the end of the house, have it longer rather than deeper.
I have been knitting up a storm and have several items on the go at once. I find knitting very boring so I usually have many needles filled with wool for various projects. Same with my crocheting actually. There's a skein of wool and a crochet hook in almost every room in this house. So whether I'm watching tv, eating, or sitting here at the computer there is project by my side or in my hands. And yes I have wool and a hook in the bathroom too LOL Well at least my bathroom down here in Dolton.
I can finally walk from one end of Dolton to the other without making any detours. Oh not everything is in perfect rows. There are some zig zags which makes it more interesting. The old Dolton ended up in U shaped cubicles and I may have to go that route here too but for now it's okay. As I 'play' more down here I will adapt the set up to the way I do things. But it's starting to feel like Dolton now.  I am currently marking down where every doll is sitting! Now that's a big task. First I had to print out all the names of the dolls (numerically). Then I went around and tagged every unit, desk, house, table, whatever and where ever dolls are sitting. I think I am up to AAO, that's 67 items the dolls are sitting on. Some units like the Ikea shelving hold 60 dolls or more while others may only 6-10 dolls. And there are some dolls that just don't have seats yet and are perched on the edge of shelves or standing where ever there is a spot! Anyway I am up to the letter J in listing them.
At the same time I am updating my inventory for the new dolls that were bought in the 2600 population. I can't believe I have bought 25 dolls since I moved here! Really that many? I've only bought 5 for Lofton! And no Silkies! I was hoping Mattel would bring out a nice Silkstone Ken for his 50th but so far I haven't seen anything to my liking.
Anyway I've had a little rest and now it's back to listing the dolls again. I can't stand for very long on the cement floor as it hurts my ankle. I reinjured it moving furniture down here and now I have to wear the ankle strap around it again. So frustrating.
Oh and my tulips (6) that I brought with me from Mississauga have taken and are sprouting up. It's really cool in the  ground here still, so I haven't been able to do much gardening. Standing outside in the cold is not good for the ankle or my body either. Arthritis is not your friend! So I will wait a little longer before I spend much time out there. I can't do anything in the back yard anyway until the pool is gone and it's still way too early to plant our veggie garden. So that is good as I won't feel guilty spending my time down here in the New Dolton.
So hope the Easter Bunny is good to you and brought you lots of chocolate goodies. See ya!

Doctors, Doctors and more Doctor's Appointments

Jack’s operation went well and he can see better than me now. The showoff is reading the tiniest of print just to prove it too LOL I am busy giving him drops throughout the day. We have also had a couple more doc appointments that has kept us busy this week.

One thing they did find is that is heart is only registering every 3^rd beat. Scared the hell out of the staff at the hospital and they rushed him to emerg to check it out.  A cardiac doc was on duty and she checked him over. Because his  heart problem is asymmetrical (meaning no symptoms), he hasn’t felt that anything was wrong except for the shortness of breath, which worsened this winter. He now has 2 appointments next week with her for tests. She thinks there may be a blockage in one of his arteries. Although it was a scary situation it proved to be a good one as he has now jumped the waiting list line to see a cardiologist specialist and that means we will find out what is wrong sooner rather than later.

Today he saw a dermatologist for the markings on his temple and back. You know they tell you to alert your doc when you find these things. And the one on his temple has been growing 3 dimensional which has worried me.  But the specialist told us today we have nothing to worry about as they are most likely age related. Still it was better to find out, right. No one on Jack’s side of the family dies of natural causes as EVERYONE for the past 3 generations have died of some form of cancer.

His diabetes numbers are good now, with the help of the meds. We are still waiting to see that specialist. Waiting times in this country is what kills you! There just are not enough docs anywhere. Even if we were still in Mississauga, even being next door to Toronto, the waiting times would be just as bad.

The weather has been horrible. Winter has returned. It goes down to 0C at night and north of Toronto and even some parts of Toronto have snow. Even in Ottawa which is only 100km away they had freezing rain and snow flurries. Living by the water helps keep our temps a bit milder and so we have only rain. Although we may have to drain the pool again!

South of us in North Carolina they had 62 tornados in one day.  Over 45 people are dead so far. That severe storm system and another one coming from Texas (where all the bad weather starts) is keeping us in winter conditions here in Canada. Still I would rather have that then those dreaded tornados. Even my girlfriend in Texas who called me yesterday said they are under a Toronado watch and she lives just outside of Dallas. Major cities rarely see this kind of weather. So everything is crazy down there.

I think I am going to hibernate in Dolton and never come out! So far *touch wood* it has stayed dry. I have a few units up on bricks, which I brought with me from Mississauga. The back end wall had a leak this winter which I believe was backup of snow because of the pool. Once that is gone, there should be no more problems. *again touch wood* I would hate to jinx it.

Anyway this afternoon I have been in Dolton, yet another rearrangement. I keep saying this one is the last. But another idea comes to me that I think might be better than the one before and there I go again moving stuff. Just like the old Dolton, in order to move one thing, 15 other things have to be moved so you can get your body in and have an area to shift the item to where you want it moved. I am hoping with this latest lay out I can get the last wall unit built and it will have a spot. So then everything will be put together and in place. Oh I forgot about the friggin' boxes. Well their turn is coming, trust me on that one LOL

No luck with the lottery, the $50 million has been split 3 ways. That's good cos $50. is just too much IMO, although I bet I could spend it *grin* Just as well cos if I won I would have to pack Dolton up again for it's new home that I would buy with the money. And right now that is the last thing I want to do. Rich or not.  Some of you would say, oh just hire people to do it for you! Would you let someone else pack up your dolls? Yeah I didn't think so.

So now I've had a little break from moving furniture it's time to get back into the fray. My dollies are really getting annoyed with being knocked over and falling and being bumped into. I bet they all have bruises LOL I know I do!

Take care everyone and stay dry.

Busy Day in Dolton (The New Dolton)

Don't get excited no it's not done yet.... But Jack did install my 3rd computer with all my old programs on it. Now I have my music once again. I had downloaded every single disc in this house and have it on my computer to listen to. Despite the fact that all my computers play discs and I also have 2 stereos. Okay you by now you know I am a pack rat and will not throw anything out LOL
Anyway, I had come up with yet another layout for the New Dolton as the one I have now is okay but the tall bookcases block the light and some areas are very dark. This whole basement only has ceiling lights (3) and although we have installed the newer energy saver and brighter bulbs it's still dark. In the old Dolton I had florescent lighting which made it very bright. Anyway....I had come up with another layout to get those bookshelves once again, against a wall. But when I pulled everything out, another idea came to mind. So now I am shifting almost the whole end once again. Since I don't have a lot of space between the rows (enough for me walk comfortably through) I have to move everything so I can manouever all the units around. And that means emptying the shelves. There are dolls EVERWHERE! And of course on top of the shelves I have my NFRB dolls displayed so they all have to be taken down as I don't want them damaged. Or falling on top of me when I move the units.
So all is emptied now and ready for the big shove!  It's so much nicer when you have good music to listen to too. I do hope to get it all done today as tomorrow is Jack's eye surgery and I don't know how much nursing I may have to do afterwards.

It's friggin cold again and some areas are expecting snow and I don't mean just flurries! What't the date? February? Sheesh. Anyway I don't really care as I am so busy down here in the New Dolton. I just hope this time it's the final set up!

Emptying the Pool

Today Jack's son came to empty our pool. He had a special pump and it was drained in less than two hours. Unfortunately by the time I thought to take a picture, it had started to rain. But you can see the water gushing out down our laneway.

That's Barry's van in the driveway. It used to be Jack's but he gave it to his son when he bought the PT Cruiser a couple of years ago. It has over 400,000 kilometers on it. Good vehicle. It's the same year as mine, only mine was the 15th Anniversary SE and I only have 135,000km on it!

As you can see here the pool is empty, except to clean it up. It was full of leaves at the bottom. There was no time to clean it up last fall. Barry and Jack are taking the pool apart now. It's freezing cold out there but both are dressed for it.
The seat is going to be moved against the house and the deck will be squared off and widened to the end of the house. Where the pool is we are going to put stairs to the garden. The pool was sunk into the ground about foot. It's not the way it was supposed to be installed so we will have to buy a pile of soil to fill it in once the pool is gone.

Like I mentioned above it's raining out and bitterly cold. Good day to stay indoors. Stay dry everyone.

Nice day for a walk

Although it was cool, especially with that wind, it was a lovely day today. I did a lot of walking this afternoon. It was nice to get out and explore the neighbourhood a bit too. Lots of houses springing up for sale. But then that is norm for spring time anywhere. Prices haven't gone up much around here since last year. Jack's youngest brother and his wife are looking to move here. It will be nice to have family close. And he is the one brother that we don't see much of because of where he lives.
I can see a few tulips popping up that I brought with me from Mississauga. Some mums survived too and a couple of hens and chicks. Both of which are periennial and will spread like weeds. That's what I want, to fill up the front garden. I only managed to clean up half of it last fall when we moved here. Between the lateness of the season and my fall I wasn't able to get much done. But it's gotten cold once again so unless it warms up I won't be spending much time standing in the cold earth. My ankle hurts like hell if I do that. I am sure I will have arthritis there down the road. I still have some anti-inflammatory pills to take when the ankle hurts and I only needed it once this week when I was moving those bricks in the back yard. It was warm work but you forget the ground is still cold yet and that travels through your footwear into your bones. So anymore garden work can wait until I'm sure it's warm enough.
Next week I am going to be busy enough as Monday Jack goes for his cataract surgery. He is having both eyes done at once so he will be quite helpless for awhile. He is not allowed to bend over for a couple of weeks and must wear dark glasses 24 hours a day. Yes even to bed and he must sleep on his back. Oh no, many sleepless nights of snoring to contend with LOL He also is not allowed to lift anything for 6 weeks. I wish he could have had this operation during the winter while we were sitting on our butts watch tv. Now that we have so much garden work to do he won't be able to do it and I know it will frustrate him terribly. He has been itching to get back to building his workshop in part of the garage and now he won't be allowed to it.
He has finally got an appointment for the ultrasound to check on his breathing. But we are still waiting for an appointment with the specialist for his diabetes. Our national drug store chain has councilling on diabetes and we signed up for that. I wish our damn politicians had to wait like normal citizens do for health care. Maybe then they would do something about it instead of talking bullshit! Well I'm not going to get into politics on this site, it's not the place!
Anyway it's Friday night. I have music blaring and hopefully the Doltonites are enjoying it too. Maybe they are dancing somewhere behind all those boxes that I have not yet unpacked. I'm going to check. T.G.I.F. everybody.

Another Day, Another Delivery

Well today my Mary Maxim delivery arrived. MM is another wool and craft store located in Paris Ontario. I have visited there on a couple of occassions. Huge place! It's about 2 hours NW of Mississauga. Now Paris Ontario is nothing like Paris France, as a matter of fact, I think Dolton has more residents LOL Anyway now that I am so far away I will be doing more catalogue ordering that is until Michael's comes to town. They carry a lot of same products and I won't have to pay for shipping!

Not sure how well you can make out what's in the pic. But standing up is the canvas stitch for a doll house. It comes not only with the pattern and the canvas, but the wool too. I don't think it will be big enough for Barbie but perhaps for my Bratz or maybe little Bratz. But once I make this then I can enlarge the pattern for the larger dolls. I have Tiny Kitty in mind. Since no one has created a doll house for her.

Underneath is pattern for doll clothes, specifically for Mrs. Claus! I didn't realize the wool and the clothes line with pegs comes with it. Bonus! The red wool you see draped across the picture is the start of the cape. I just finished my 10th row. Only 32 more rows to go LOL Not sure if I will finish it today or not as it's once again a lovely spring day here and I do want to get out and enjoy the sunshine. Although it is streaming in the patio doors on me as I sit and knit at the kitchen table.

I also bought a leg exercise, like a pedal pusher.  I have it underneath me and I can exercise my feet and legs as I sit. Although I have not had leg cramps since I moved here, it is still good exercise to do while you are sitting. And I am a very fidgety person so this helps relax me too. It was also in my order. Everything that I ordered was on sale, so I also got some knee warmers for next winter. That part of my body always gets cold! And the last thing I got was a bobbin holder. It is in a stack and it spins so you can find your bobbin. As I have many. Last year I ordered the thread spool holder. It goes on the wall. So I will install that when I get my sewing room set up. That is if I can find enough wall! I am up to the ceiling almost everywhere now with shelving. If I can't widen or lengthen the room then I have to go up! Right!

Anyway I'm off to enjoy what is left of the day. When you only get up at noon, the afternoon is quite short. Thank goodness the days are longer!

See ya!

Jane and Reba are here!

Sometime this morning my new dolls arrived. They came by courier but we didn't hear anyone at the door. I just happened to notice the box beside the side door, which fortunately is under the carport as it is raining today. Anyway I am happy to report that Jane and Reba have arrived!

Jane will live in Dolton Proper and might get invited to the Vampire House. WE'll see if she can behave. But if she's anything like me.....
Reba will stay NFRB for now. If I can find a suitable spot in my cabinets for her, then she can come out of her plastic prison but will stay in the cabinets except for performances! She is wearing her famous "Fancy" gown. Reba performs it everynight as her closing song. I always wanted to make a "Fancy" gown but I think I would have made it all in velvet, although the song says it's only velvet trimming.  The doll itself is just a Barbie and does not look like Reba IMO. Although she does have Reba's new hair style. I have 3 albums/discs by Reba so now I can have a full evening concert of her performing all her songs.
Oh and today the Faith Hill and Tim McGraw pix were released. I'm not impressed. Faith just looks like a blonde Barbie and the outfit is not that great either. The Grand Ole Couple set that Mattel did back in 2000 is more authentic than the new Faith and Tim couple. Oh well I'm sure they will sell. I'll wait for them to drop in price if I get them at all.

As I mentioned above it is raining today. So another good day to spend in Dolton. Yesterday I was out all day in the glorious sunshine walking around the shopping district of Cornwall and later working in the backyard. There were a load of bricks piled up against the garage, which needed to be moved. Took over an hour but I got them all placed at the back of the property for now. Not sure if we will use them or not. We have a brick patio which also has to be dug up once the pool is gone, it will be relaid when we finish the deck. As we plan to put stairs from the middle of the deck to the lawn below like we had in Mississauga.  Jack's son is supposed to come this weekend to help us drain the pool but if it's pouring rain (as the weather man has predicted) then it may have to wait. I am so anxious to get rid of this pool!
I had to use Jack's camera again for today's blog picture of Jane and Reba as I am still not used to mine. Turns out it was made in Mississauga! That city is haunting me! It is a brand new brand of camera and mine is the first off the line. I guess the Heart and Stroke Foundation received them as a trial for their prizes. It's called an HQV. It's so small compared to my previous digital camera which was a Fuji. But it also can make video and can take 3 pictures in a row if you are taking moving scenes. I doubt I will ever use it for such. I am at the stage in my life where I hate learning new technical stuff and it frustrates me to no end that I am not comfortable with this new camera, although I guess eventually I will be as used to it as my old one. I am not a patient person!
I have come up with yet another layout plan for Dolton. I am overwhelmed with boxes still that I have no place to put and if I unpack them have not enough room to put their contents. It will work out eventually I hope. But it is depressing at times, so I walk away from it. Some days I wake up with a new idea so I know my subconcious mind is working on a solution. I just wish it worked a little faster LOL
Well that's all for today folks, time to play!

Another Delivery this morning

Had a busy weekend with my granddaughter here. We went to the Cornwall home show which was a bust. What did I expect? Anyway we didn't stay long. She was rather disappointed that we didn't play in Dolton. So many boxes are still left to be unpacked and I am waiting for Jack to put 3 more shelves on the walls before I can go any further. So we watched tv.
But Saturday was much more fun. Jack left to go to Erika's fathers house to help him do some work. He was staying for supper and most likely to watch the hockey game there. So we had all day to ourselves. And it took all day too. Once again I emptied out the cabinets in Cornwall Heights. Erika got to meet all the Loftonians and Silkstone dolls. She memorized quite a few of them. We also got out all the clothing that we could find and organized it all. I made up envelopes (huge 11x14" size) for the Loftonians to keep their own outfits in. Most of my dolls each have their own wardrobe but some items are shared. We redressed a few of the dolls, like Batman, who Erika had the honour of redressing. You can see him here in his new Tuxedo.

By this time it was getting late, 9 p.m. and we knew Jack would be home in an hour or so, so it was time to put all the dolls back in their cabinets. We were sitting relaxing and watching the 3rd movie in the Twilight saga when he got home. The house looked like we had done nothing all day but sit in it LOL Although we told him what we did.
We also found a box of Silkstones with 3 dolls in it that was missing. I still have 5 Loftonians unaccounted for, although I have seen the box here in Dolton somewhere!
I let Erika set up the Tonner/Tyler dining table set and we placed a few dolls around it. I have yet to open the piano though,  for lack of space mainly.

We are planning to have a Vampirish wedding here in Dolton so that Erika's Edward Cullen doll can marry the Erika doll. She is infatuated with this actor. I can remember when I was a young teen wanting to be Mrs. Elvis Pressley so I can understand this desire. She will grow out of it, maybe. In the meantime my Erica Kane doll will play Erika Murray and marry Edward. Since the Erika doll is already in a wedding gown, she will be the least to concern about dressing. I have lots of wedding paraphanilia including tuxes for the Ken size dolls. Only Jacob twilight will need a special suit because of his biceps! But I know I have a bigger suit here he can wear. It just won't be in black. If I could get my act together I could make him a suit. Nah I'll find the blue one first LOL Of course the wedding won't be until the summer, as Edward and Erika will have to court a bit first. It may be love at first sight (or bite LOL) but I am making them get to know each other first. Kind of a lesson for real life too.
Will all this love of Vampires etc, when Erika saw the Evangeline Ghastly dolls she was enamoured with them too. I have to admit there was 2 on the sight that I liked.  Oh no I don't need to have them in Lofton too! What will this town become?  Anyway I put the 2 dolls on my wish list. I have a coupon for Wilde Imagination for 15% so we'll see if I succumb!
Speaking of succumbing. I really wanted to get the Jane doll from Twilight and saw her on MFD's website. So this morning I ordered her, along with the Reba McIntyre doll. Of course Reba will go into my cabinets and only come out to give a concert or two. If I find she goes on sale then I could get a second one to play with, which is what I often do with the collectible dolls.

We had a wicked thunderstorm during the night, actually I think it was around 5 this morning. We had stayed up to the watch The Kennedys on the History channel. It's a series I think but last night was the 2 hour opening episode. We had missed the earlier showing as we had taken Erika back home to Ottawa and round trip is almost 3 hours. That's what is so nice about satellite tv is you can watch your shows in different time zones if you miss its regular time slot. No point in taping the show cos there is never enough time in the day to watch it. And both Jack and I are night owls anyway.  Getting back to the t-storm. There was a very loud crash along with a loud clap of thunder. That's when the power went out. So a transformer must have got struck by lightning. It woke Jack up which in turn woke me up. My first thought was the huge maple tree on the front lawn. But as my brain slowly realized I wasn't in Mississauga anymore. There are no trees except little lilac bushes on our property so nothing to worry about them falling on the house. Jack took the flashlight and went around to check the house inside, including the basement for any flooding. The rain was just coming down in torrents and the wind was wild too. But the house was dry. We had been told by our neighbours that when there is a lot of rain sometimes the sewers here back up as they are old and can't handle a lot of water at once. That really concerns me with Dolton being in the basement. The frequent floods that we had in Mississauga, although were small (until the last one) really worried me and so all my cabinets and wall units and book cases were all up on bricks because of this. I did bring some bricks with me when we moved but not enough for everything down here. Most stuff is off the floor anyway except for the items that are in plastic bins, that won't hurt if they get wet. But it's the boxes that I still haven't unpacked that could get damaged if they got wet as most of them are holding doll clothing. And that would be one huge mess. Unpacking the clothing has not been a priority as yet.

On the bright side we were awakened once again with a delivery. Finally my camera that I won from the Heart and Stroke Lottery arrived, along with the kettle. It's red but what can you do? Anyway it's one of those cordless jobs that sits on an electric hot pad. Jack has been wanting to get one of those for awhile now. So we each got something we can use. We played around with the camera a bit. My God it's tiny. But it can shoot movies and I can download onto the tv if I want. We still have to install the program on my computer yet so maybe tomorrow there will be pix from it. For the pictures above I used Jack's camera. Nice thing though is the smart card is the same as the one for Jack's camera as are the batteries. The camera also came with a carrying case. At least after using Jack's camera these few times I already understand some of the features on my camera as Jack's camera is only a year old.

Anyway that's the weekend and today so far. It's been raining off and on and man it's humid! They were calling for tornado warnings NW of the Toronto area but I doubt it will hit here. Although you never know as the winds are still quite strong out there. And I expect it will rain on and off for the rest of the day.  It will be a good day for Dolton.
Stay dry everyone, where ever you are.

My Girls Are Here!

Yippee! Even though I was got out of bed at 8:30 this morning it was worth it. As my girls have arrived. Of course I couldn't go back to bed so I opened them.

Head shot.

They have beautiful green/gray eyes like a cat. I have one outfit that I am bidding on ebay. I had names for them but now after seeing these gals in person I may have to rename them. Perhaps when Erika arrives later today she can help me.

I'm also bidding on a few other items but we will see how much I persue them.

Also last night I ordered the Kate Middleton doll! She will be here late May!  Lofton is growing once again. And the lottery tonight is $50 million. Wish me luck!

T.G.I.F. everybody!

Gardening Clean up Day

Back when I lived in Mississauga, this company that you see in the picture delivered soil all over the GTA. You would mark an "X" in your laneway and a tractor would drive up and put this huge bag of soil down for you. After you emptied the soil, you took the bag back and got a $5. refund.  The bag would close in on itself and keep the soil from getting wet if it rained. I sure wish they had a company like that here in Cornwall as my front lawn sure could use some. Oh the grass isn't too bad but it's very uneven and it probably wouldn't hurt it to have some fresh soil on it. The lady who lived here was in her late 80's and so I am sure not much maintanence was done. She had been an avid gardener but she had died the winter before we bought the place and so a lot of weeds took over the property. I saw no signs of any spring flowers like tulips except the half dozen that I managed to bring with me from Mississauga. There are lots of lilac bushes about and some hydrangeas too. Both of which I like. Of course she has some flowers that I absolutely can't stand and that is iris's. We have them in Mississauga and in almost the same damn spots around the house that are here. They have tubular roots and go down deep, not to mention that they spread underground which makes them hard to get rid of. In the 22 years that I lived in the last house, I never could get rid of the damn things and now I have to contend with the ones here! But since there is nothing else growing around them, drastic measures will be taken. And I don't mean chemicals as I never use that on my garden as I have been an organic gardener since the mid 80's There is no need for chemicals if you look after your yard and garden and tend it properly. Did you know the weed killer causes breast cancer? Yeah it's not a well known fact. However in the past couple of years our provincial government has banned those chemicals and is forcing the lawn care companies to use "greener" products. Of course it doesn't stop Joe Public from buying that shit in the stores. Until they are banned those chemicals will still be in our soil and atmosphere! I'll get off my soapbox now!
Anyway I spent almost 3 hours out raking and digging weeds today. I could have stayed out longer but I didn't want to overdo it. Afterall my granddaughter is coming for the weekend and I didn't want to catch a cold or be too sore from too much exercise. But the sunshine was nice and although it was chilly I wasn't cold with the sweat that I worked up raking.  We finally took the xmas lights down too. I needed Jack to go up to the roof edge to unhook the lights that were up there. Hopefully I will have more trees and stuff on the front lawn to put my lights on. It was a pathetic display last winter.
I am also planning on getting some kind of fir tree for the back yard once the pool has gone and then I will be able to decorate it too. The kitchen is in the back of the house so if I decorate the back yard we at least can enjoy it.

I had hoped my new dolls would be here by now. But I guess even though this is a border town, deliveries are not very quick. Strange. We are still waiting for our prizes to arrive from the Heart and Stroke Lottery. I really miss not having a digital camera, even though I can borrow Jack's whenever I want to. It's just not the same.
So not much else to talk about. That's why I didn't post on the blog yesterday. Why ramble when you have nothing interesting to say.
See ya

Rain Again, Time to Play

Well it's raining again today. Supposed to clear up later. But it sure is cool out.
Now that I have my Silkies in numerical order I can find which doll I want at a glance. Today I redressed a few. The first gal is The Secretary Barbie. I have a couple of these gals, one is the secretary to the mayor of Silkendale and this one in the ski outfit is her sister Lillian.  Beside her is Samantha, she is Trenchsetter Barbie. I crocheted this dress for her yesterday. Next is #3 Silkstone, Sarah. This dress came off a cheapy playline no name doll. I sometimes buy these just for the outfits. They are well worth the money to get a fancy gown. Next is Cynthia, she was the Usherette Barbie but I got my mine nude, off ebay probably. She is wearing a Mattel outfit. You probably can't see the pinstripe in her knickers. Next to her is Francine, she came in yellow and mauve underwear and slip. She was called Toute de Suite. She is wearing a mauve gown that belonged to a Liz Taylor doll that I never got. Next is Laura, who is Happy Go Lightly Barbie. I put this brown gown on her because her shoes and pantyhose were brown (as is her stand) only her gloves were black but they are from her original outfit. Don't think you can see the brooch that holds the scarf, it's attached to the dress. This gown was a Kari Michele outfit. Lastly is Highland Fling Barbie, she is wearing a Kari Michele outfit also. You can see the pants are too short for her as is the sleeves on the jacket. These dolls can't wear most of the Barbie shoes as their feet are too large and hard for the shoes to fit and stay on. I do have footwear for these gals but they have not been unpacked as yet.
Squirty has been under the weather these past two days. Not sure why. She wouldn't eat and just sleeps and her nose is rather warm. But last night she perked up (when Jack got home). She cried during the night so we succumbed and let her in the bedroom with us. She slept at the foot of the bed. I guess there will be no more closed doors in this house! Anyway she is fine now and has a nice cold nose today. Either she was upset that Jack was gone overnight or I was paying too much attention to my dolls. If you recall I took all of them out of the gallery and then put them all back. Then last night I unpacked 4 more boxes in Dolton. So maybe the poor thing thought we were moving again! Anyway glad that she is back to normal and talking to us once again.
Jack has gone out to wander around Home Depot, that's his version of TRU! Plus it gives him a bit of exercise strolling up and down the long aisles. He will bring home some wall brackets so he can put up some more shelving for me in Dolton. Meanwhile it's time to play. Let's see how many boxes I can unpack today!
Stay dry, if it's raining in your neck of the woods.

Rainy Day Monday

As they say April showers bring May flowers. Boy what a diference a day makes. Yesterday was so warm and sunny and today it's raining. Don't get me wrong we need the rain. And it will wash away all the dirt from the old snow. But it's cold! I had to turn the furnace on again as it was quite chilly when I woke up this morning.
After my marathon day yesterday, of playing with the Loftonians and Silkies I was pooped and slept very well thank you very much. I was on my feet for at least 10 hours except for the 5 minute drive to Walmart. I even ate my pizza supper standing up as I was moving dolls between bites. My feet didn't get sore but my knees sure did. But I felt good and as I said above I slept well.
I called the Heart and Stroke lottery people to find out the status of our prizes, as I know that will be the first thing Jack asks me when he gets home later today. Anyway the items were packed last week and have been shipped out. So hopefully I will have a new camera this week. Will probably take me a month to figure out how to use it LOL Of course today's cameras are much easier and it's more press and click. I don't think I've used my SLR camera since digis came out. And I miss having control over my picture taking, then again my eyesight is not as good as it used to be so it's probably just as well I let the camera do the focusing for me *grin*
My horoscope (which I don't read much) told me I was going to have a busy week and I think it will be so, what with the new Ellowynes coming, my lottery prizes and on Friday my granddaughter Erika is coming back for the weekend. Next week Jack goes for his cataract surgery. He will be blind for a day apparently and you can't sleep on your side and can't bend over or lift anything for weeks. I guess the blood would rush to your head and pop out the stitches and lens. It's like getting a permanent contact lens in your eye. They laser out the old one and insert a new. Jack's oldest son had the surgery in his early 40's. Kinda young for that but I guess his eyes were really bad.
Squirty was fascinated with the rain and sat there wondering why the drops disappeared. Snow was so new to her too and she used to sit at the window and try and catch the snowflakes. But she can't do that with the rain. She looked up at me rather quizzically wondering why this was so. She is tired now and sleeping in my lazy boy chair. I have a soft cushion for her on it and she likes to sleep there often now.  Of course I have another cushion for her on the bed down here beside me and she usually is here sleeping while I am on the computer. But it's a bit damp down here today. I shall have to turn on the baseboard heater on the wall behind me. Because this room is closed off from the rest of the basement (Dolton) it has no heat ducts from the furnace and they had installed a baseboard heater on the wall. Like I did back in Mississauga, all the doors are taken off the rooms down here. I hate doors (and curtains for that matter). So they were removed and stored. They always get in the way and I never close them anyway. The doors on the main floor of the house are still intact...so far LOL But I have no curtains in this house at all. Every window has blinds and they were all new when we bought the place. Curtains are just dust collectors anyway.  I did have curtains in Mississauga but they were the insulated ones as the back walls in that place faced north and were always cold or hot in the summer. The bottoms were always covered in cat hair and were a real pain to clean. I have some lovely sheers from the house I grew up in but I dare not hang them with cats around. I've been carting them with me for almost 30 years now, maybe it's time I let them go.
So with it being  miserable  out there today, that means it's gonna be a Dolton Day. I feel well rested enough now and able to tackle down here again. I have to find my wall brackets that are still packed so Jack can install the shelves he cut for me on Friday or was it Saturday. I have no idea most of the time what day it is anymore. The bank is open 7 days a week now and Walmart til 11 p.m. everynight so there is no need to care what day it is. LOL Anyway I am rambling here so that means I've actually run out of things to talk about.
Oh I almost forgot I bought a new Barbie yesterday at Walmart. She's called Movie Star Barbie and I have named her Amanda-Lynn. That makes the Dolton population 2672 and I have changed my lottery tickets accordingly. Okay it's time to play. Have a great soggy Monday everyone.

While the Jack's away I will play!

Well Jack has just left to go to his son's place to help with some work around the house. He is staying overnight. So it's gonna be dolly time here big time. I plan to finally rearrange the Loftonians in their cabinets and that means taking them all out! I will have the whole house to myself and so I can spread themout all over the place. I am tingling with anticipation. I'm going to keep this blog open during the day so I can add things as I go along.

Well it took me 2.5 hours to empty all the cabinets! Every Loftonian is out (in the living room and kitchen) and most of the Silkies are out too. I don't think I will have enough time for redressing but I will have a bit of a play with them. The ones that are in the kitchen are looking longingly out to the back yard. They wonder why I am not taking them out to play.
It is a gorgeous day out there. T-shirt weather! I sat on the deck for 20 minutes while I crocheted a square and took in some rays of Vit. D I dread coming down here to the Dungeon and am seriously thinking of moving my computer up to the kitchen. The kitchen in this house is huge! I haven't had a kitchen this big since 1985!

Okay so the pix took. I did have to phone Jack to find out how to download them on his computer. Turns out I was trying to plug the camera into the wrong opening Duh! But now at least you will see a few of the dolls.
Here's some of the Silkies on the Bravad (Swedish/Ikea for island counter) in the kitchen.

And here's a few standing around in the living room.

And a whole bunch more sitting on the couch.

I couldn't get the ones standing in front of the window as they just silhouetted because of the light behind them. I know better and should have closed the blind more.

Anyway I'm gonna have a bite to eat and play some more then I'm off to Walmart. It's time I changed the placemats on my kitchen table from snow men to something more spring like. 
Oh and before I forget there will be 3 more Loftonians coming to town soon. I ordered 3 Ellowynes last night. One blonde, raven/brunette and of course a redhead. They are the latest set out. With our dollar higher than the U.S. it's almost a bargain even with shipping and of course duty. Our anniversary is in 3 weeks that will be my gift as Jack already got his b-b-que. And it means I can change one of my lottery numbers, maybe it will bring better luck than the ones I'm using now. Anyway time to play!

What Happened to Saturday?

Well this day flew by. Once again I am late at posting here. I don't know where this day went. I spent most of it on my arse here at the computer. Missed a nice day too. Okay I did shuffle some stuff around in Dolton also. And after a bbqued supper I walked over to the corner store to buy lottery tickets for tonight. I play daily but to no avail! Means I don't win! LOL I used to win all the time back in Mississauga. Oh not big amounts just enough to keep me in tickets and sometimes a little extra to buy a doll.
As I mentioned in my blog yesterday I don't have a digi camera anymore and have to use Jack's when I want to take a picture. It's a pain downloading it on his computer and then having him send it to me. I'm waiting for this blog pic to arrive as I type this now. I did win a camera on the Heart and Stroke lottery but to this date it has not arrived yet. I hope it comes soon because two stores in town have digital cameras on sale. We also won a toaster oven and a cordless kettle. The oven arrived 2 weeks ago but not the kettle (or the camera). So if nothing is here by Tuesday, I will have to make a phone call. I just hope the items haven't been stolen by (heaven forbid) the post office!
I've taken a break from crocheting granny squares today and made a couple of stools and a chair for my dolls to sit on. You can see the chair only has one arm. That is done on purpose as it will sit at the end of a row.
Jack has cut the rotted (by water/flood) two end pieces of the wall unit/book case that I took apart yesterday. I will have about 8 feet of shelving to put up on the wall over my Ikea shelves. Of course I will have to use a step stool to reach but I can't go anywhere but up now.

Ah the picture has arrived. I had an abundance of lid less cans (from cat food) which I make into stools. I really like the purple and green varigated chair colour scheme. It has my two most favourite colours in it in 2 shades of each colour. I'm making a 3rd stool now. So soon as we get those shelves put up my dollies will have more places to sit and not on boxes anymore. Then I can open the boxes! It's like xmas everytime I open a box. Some I already know what's in them as it's listed on the box. But sometimes I slip items in to fill the box or fit a spot and I don't remember what it is. So it's a nice surprise when I find something I forgot about. Even more so when it's something I have never opened. I have a lot of dolly furniture, dioramas and even a couple of doll houses that I never opened in Mississauga. Most of the stuff was bought for the future to play with. Well the future is here so time to play!
Have a great weekend everybody. It's Dolton time! Somebody turn up the music!!!!

Late Again Posting

Today being Friday (T.G.I.F. everybody), it means it's usually grocery day for us retirees. We get the flyers in Thursday's freebie paper and read through them Friday morning while having breakfast. Sales don't start til friday anyway. So off we went  grocery shopping. There are 3 major grocery stores here in Cornwall and each one is less than a 5 minute drive from each other and where we live. I always take my crocheting with me and today never even got a row done before we hit the first store LOL I also went to Zellers for a look around but was greatly disappointed as usual.

Speaking of crocheting I found a new granny square to make. The item in the picture is not mine. I found the picture of it on Ravelry.com It's a place I frequent every day and spend oodles and oodles of time there, reading forums, drooling over everyone's crafts and getting tons of ideas of things to make. Knowing full well I won't live long enough to get everything made in my Projects file. *Sigh* Oh well. It’s a fantastic place. Its members (over a million now) are all knitters, crocheters, weavers, spinners and other craft minded people. I browse through the finished projects section with is over 3000 pages (at 20 per page), I am up to page 2031 thus far. Every time I see a new version of the granny square I have to try it out. Now remember I don’t read instructions so I just enlarge the pic, count the stitches and away I go. So last night I found two more neat squares that I liked which of course prompted me grab some yarn and try them out. This is the one I am making now, it's in a variated orange and brown colour. 
I am currently in the middle of making 7 afghans Now you may wonder why I am making so many at once. I used the same wool in each one and so make the square for each afghan until that wool is used up. I probably have a skein of wool for every doll in this house. And I am not exagerating!
Of course two of the afghansare for me or rather for this house. I may give one to my granddaughter (Erika) but I am teaching her to crochet so maybe she will make her own.  I used to make afghans for wedding gifts but I will have to wait until another generation gets to that stage.


So as you may have gathered I am a granny square afghan nut! You never see without wool and a hook in my hands.  I am doing it now between typing and reading this entry.  I can crochet with my eyes closed, watching tv or even riding my stationary bicycle!
The odd time you may find my two knitting needles there for a change. But I am not that avid a knitter. Learned too late in life I think. I really only wanted to learn how to knit so I could make sweaters for my dolls! Now there’s an incentive!

Well that square's finished. Wish I had a camera to take a pic of it. But yesterday my camera died. Well it was almost 12 years old. I have won a new digital camera with the heart and stroke lottery but I am still waiting for it to be delivered. I guess my old camera couldn't wait that long LOL
Have a good weekend everybody.