SNAP THAT

Thursday, July 1st, 2010 is Canada Day.  Canada Day (French: Fête du Canada ), formerly Dominion Day (French: Le Jour de la Confédération ), is Canada 's national day, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act (today called the Constitution Act, 1867 ), which united two British colonies and a province of the British Empire into a single country called Canada. Canada Day celebrations take place throughout Canada as well as internationally. Canada Day is often referred to as "Canada's birthday".  The occasion marks the joining of the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces (the Province of Canada being divided, in the process, into Ontario and Quebec) on July 1, 1867. Canada became a kingdom in its own right on that date, but the British Parliament kept limited rights of political cont

Click banner when done reading this blog post. Yesterday I was practising knitting a sleeping sock to wear instead of slippers.  But I got frustrated. No matter what I did, I kept goofing on my rib stitch pattern. After many tries, I gave up for the time being. I need to be able to concentrate on the stitches more so will wait until I am better rested.  This photo shows my progress to a certain point n the sock, but I've since unravelled it all and will try again another day. Today I tried a new pattern for slippers rather than socks. This one requires me to cast on stitches in the middle of a project so I had to figure out how to do that. It took me awhile to find a satisfactory method and I can now do it! Yeah! But I will have to work on the actual knitting with more care. I made a model of it just so I know how the whole thing goes together. Next, I will now focus on making this slipper and making the purled seams properly as well as the ribbing at the toe. This is a gr

I've been making doilies this past week. I finished the second one a few days ago and I simply love the turquoise blue colour. Though this pattern is called Pineapple Blossom and pineapples are yellow/gold when ripe, I think the turquoise thread really brings out the pattern nicely. If you would like, you can see my first doily here . Next thing I am working on is my first pair of knitted socks. It seems like a simple pattern but I've started over and over again because I'm not used to knitting a rib stitch. I'm working it in a 2x2 knit and purl rib stitch (or at least the first part of it) and I keep goofing. Unravelling the stitches and picking them up again took a little getting used to and I don't unravel all my mistakes. If I can make the first sock, the next one will be much easier. That is always how it goes for me. I'm hoping to make some of these socks as sleeping socks (instead of slippers) for some of the orphan children near Kericho, Kenya. Many

Not a day goes by when I don't think about Kenya. My hopes and dreams are for the lives of the men, women and children of Kenya to be improved, even in small ways. I am especially focussed on Chepkurbet, Kenya where I have personal contacts. You never know how touching someone's life, even in a small way, can impact them in a huge way. Today I leave you with one photo and link to a story which you can read here . Can you imagine needing shoes? I know that in times past here in Canada even there were many who were too poor to buy shoes. That was long ago and today I have never see anyone going bare foot because they have no shoes. Shoes. They are such a simple thing to us and one I hope we don't take for granted. If you would like to know more about how you can help these Kenyan children get shoes, please contact me (kerichoyjoy[at]gmail.com). Have a wonderful day wherever you may be in the world.

If you are like me I'm sure you often wonder where the day goes.  More often than not, I ask myself, "what did I accomplish today?"  I sometimes need to reflect on this question so that I can feel I didn't waste my day. This is a little hold over from my working days. Though I am now retired, I still like to make progress on tasks, especially since I'd like to get organized for my bright future, and I have a list of goals for 2010. Today was a day for taking stock and assessing what I did. I started my day with coffee and a sandwich on healthy ancient grain bread (no breakfast today). I also had several glasses of water and a few cookies from yesterday's baking batch. I spent some time responding to blog comments and visiting other blogs. This was great since I haven't had enough time for visiting blogs and leaving comments for several weeks. I then filled and started the dishwasher and put in a load of whites for the laundry while I watched some tel

My World today is not an outdoor view but an indoor view of a quiet indoor activity. I've been working on a crocheted doily this week and I finished it in the wee hours of this morning. I should have finished it earlier in the day but wasn't up to much crochet until I had a nap. I picked it up around midnight and played with it off and on. This is a photo taken about half way through the doily pattern. I am not 100% sure if I followed the pattern correctly as it seems I had to do a little improvising on the last row but it looks fine to me with the minor changes. You might be able to see there are 6 large and 6 small pineapple motifs in this Pineapple Blossom pattern.  I chose to make this pattern out of the printed patterns I have because it is a larger than normal doily. Here is the book I got the pattern from if you'd like to make it yourself.  If you would like an easier Pineapple Blossom pattern, I found a free one here . These photos taken after co

Today, June 21, 2010 is National Aboriginal Day in Canada. Do you know what that is? It isn't a national holiday yet but is a day set aside  as a way of recognizing and celebrating the Aboriginal People's of Canada, the First Nations , Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada .  National Aboriginal Day is now part of a series of Celebrate Canada days, beginning with National Aboriginal Day, and followed by St-Jean Baptiste Day on June 24, Canadian Multiculturalism Day on June 27, and concluding with Canada Day on July 1. Here is a young Aboriginal boy dressed in his regalia and competing at a Calgary stampede. I'm providing the photo to give you an idea what young people might wear when sharing their culture on National Aboriginal Day. This regalia would be worn by plains or prairie First Nations.  [ Photo credit: efkaw from webshots ] [ Photo credit: Maple Creek News ] The above photo is of 3 young Metis girls. They are wearing the traditional sashes (two woven on

I started this doily the other day and I wanted to make progress on it this weekend. The first photo shows my progress after struggle to read the pattern and crochet the first four rounds. I did a few more rounds yesterday and about 12 rounds today to get the product in this second photo. This doily is called "Pineapple Blossom". You can't really see the pineapples yet. The pattern says the doily will ruffle slightly. Perhaps mine is slightly more ruffled then it should be as I lost the smaller crochet hook after the first day and a half and I continued with a crochet hook that is .25 mm larger. Once the doily is completed I will wash and block it. This process will hopefully flatten it out properly. I can post another photo after this process is done. Coupled with not having worked with thread for so long and a difficult to read pattern, I found the doily quite the struggle. I am just happy I've made it this far *smile and now feel I can complete it.

I meet my friend for brunch today and before she leaves I wanted to give her a small parting gift. It has always been more meaningful for me to give handmade gifts whenever possible and I think a wash cloth would make the perfect gift.  It is small enough that it won't take up much room  amongst the many things my friend has to move to her new temporary home out of town. It is also practical and she is a very practical person. First I have selected a white knitted dishcloth with specks of light green and teal blue accent colours. This is a close up view of the cloth.  I quite like this yarn and I should have bought more skeins of it but I only bought one.  I added a nice smelling box of Dove soap.  This one is a green colour with a fresh scent.  For ribbon I used a contrasting and complementary teal blue yarn to wrap the face cloth around the soap. I hope she likes it. Though I often don't give gifts anymore, from time to time I do like to remember someone with

Stephanie at her blog post here asked what is it that we are joyful about today. This blog exists because of my desire to be joyful each and every day over the small things. Today I will give a short list of things on my mind right now to be joyful about: 1.  I am happy that though my mother is not well physically she is still here on planet earth. Whenever it is her time to go I will miss her terribly and so I do what I can right now to visit with her and be there for her despite the challenges. No photo of my mama is posted here as she wouldn't like that. 2.  I am grateful that I connected with an old friend I haven't seen in ages. She is retiring early and leaving the city and I am sad about that but we will get together for brunch tomorrow before she moves into the next chapter of her new life. 3.  I am happy I have a new hobby, knitting. I am so glad I have finally learned how to knit and I am on my 3rd pattern for dishcloths. I hit a snag with trying this new pat

Due to travels and busyness, I am late with my Blue Monday submission. I hope you like the flowers. If you look closely enough you can see a bumble bee.  Gotta love them too since they make the wonderful honey. For more Blue Monday photos see here

Such a beautiful sky. Wait. Look again. Looks like a storm rolling in. I tried to capture the sun as it was peeking through the massive cloud cover. Have a look at more sky photos here .

This restaurant called Senor Froggy's has lovely teal blue topped tables and wonderful wall plates with various shades of blue. The food is not bad either!  The food is Mexican themed and there are several types of salsa of which you can have as much as you want. Drop in at Smiling Sally's blog and have a look at more beautiful blues.

For some time now I have been eagerly awaiting the completion of the new library on the North Shore of the City of Kamloops where I often visit.  I like to use the library when I come to the city and the old library had few spaces to sit and read.  It also had a long line of people to use the out of date computers to access the internet. Last time I visited was in April and at that time I read that the library was scheduled to re-open in it's new location on April 18, 2010. I had an opportunity yesterday (Friday) to have a quick peek at the new premises. Here are the comfy leather chairs and fireplace that are in the front area, just to your right as you enter the library. Here is a view of the entryway to the library.  The check out desk is just beyond the seating area to the upper right as you view the photo.  I love the sense of space in this new library. There are rows and rows (or stacks and stacks) of books.  Here is a lengthwise view of the new space. Last but

The following photos were all taken within a few minutes on my walk to a small hospital for laboratory tests.  It always amazes me how quickly the weather can turn to something dramatically different. It really rained that evening and it has been doing a lot of raining since.       Click here to have a look at more wonderful sky photos from around the world.