Fun with technology

So I have a new toy, and I love it!





It's taken a few days to figure out how to blog on the iPad, but here I am.
I finally found the right app that allows me to add photos and text intermingled, although I did spend a couple of very frustrating days experimenting with the wrong apps. One of them only allowed me to add one photo per post and another one let me add as many photos as I wanted to, but with no text in between. Now if only I could figure out how to centre the text...

Okay, just because I need to practice, here's another photo using one of the fun features of the iPad.





And a shot of my garden which is enjoying the rain.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The solar system

We've gone solar!  

  Enmax has a program right now that makes it affordable to install solar panels, so it didn't take much talking to convince us that we should do it.

Gary and his crew arrived at 8am on Saturday morning

They wasted no time getting at it. 

Not a great picture, but it was taken from the off-leash park about a block away.

(Still loving my little Canon)

While the guys were busy, we took the dogs for a walk.  

Then stopped at Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard ☺

By mid-afternoon, the panels were installed, tested, and found to be very efficient.

Now we can just sit back and watch our meter go backwards!  Ha ha!

Pillow for the purple chair

Remember the outrageously expensive pink chair?  And the cute pillow that it had?  I decided that my purple chair deserved a pillow too.

Ta da!  Just like that!  

A one hour sewing project that actually only took an hour.

So, how does it stay up you're wondering?  

There's a piece of wood enclosed in the back flap.  Pretty clever eh?

Okay, so it wasn't my genius idea, but I made it work, so it still counts.

You should've seen the look on Dan's face when I asked him if he had any scrap wood pieces because I was making a pillow...

...and when he had trouble finding some, I told him not to worry, I could probably just use rocks ☺

The purple chair

I loved my purple chair!  

 Was it a good-looking chair?  Not especially.   

Was it comfortable?  Definitely not!  

Did I sit in it often? Um, is once a year often?

Nevertheless, I loved that chair because my Dad made it for me.  If you knew my Dad, you know that he wasn't exactly a handy kind of guy.  He owned  2 power tools (a drill and a jig-saw), a couple of screwdrivers, a hammer and a large supply of black electrician's tape.  (His preferred method of repair for just about everything.)

Anyway, many years ago, he & Mom were getting rid of the adirondack chairs in their back yard and I jokingly suggested that he use them as a pattern to build me a new one.  Ha ha, big laughs all 'round.  

Well, damned if he didn't!!  He proudly gave it to me for my birthday in 1999.  It was unfinished, because as much as he didn't like building or fixing things, he liked painting even less.  I think he expected me to paint it white, because theirs had been white and I had liked them.  Nope, I painted it purple!  When he saw it, he was obviously surprised by my colour choice, but thrilled that we had designed a whole area of our garden around it.  I told him it was perfect, but I needed a foot-stool to go with it....He became ill soon after, and I never got my foot-stool.

When he died in 2000, the bunch of us were over helping Mom to clean out his things, and in his workshop in the basement, I found it.  My foot-stool was 3/4 finished.  

I've been in denial for years about the condition of my chair.  Sure, it was a little the worse for wear, but surely it was still salvagable?  Maybe it just needs a paint touch-up.  I finally had to admit that it was worn out, beyond repair, and downright dangerous.  It was time for it to go :-(

 I found a resin version and I could've been swayed to go with pink, but when I saw the $299.00 price tag, I choked and left the store in a hurry.  I only took a picture of it, because that little pillow was really comfy and I wanted to remember to try to make one.

Dan found a "bear chair" kit for $49.00  Okay, that's more like it.  He built it for me, then I just had to take it apart 1 piece at a time and glue it and screw it back together.

Okay, it's stopped raining;  time to paint it.

Primed

Ta da!  (Same foot-stool)

It's even comfortable, so I can sit in it and enjoy a glass of wine.

Cheers, Dad.

Spring!

I know, I'm weeks behind posting pictures of spring, but that's the way my life works sometimes.

Spring officially starts for me with the sighting of the first crocus.  

Our local off-leash park has been especially green this year.  

I love the way this path just kind of meanders through it.

This tree is just down the street from us.  Every year I'm blown away by how huge it is, and by how many blossoms are on it.

Tree in the park

Our back garden smells SO good right now!

Sorry, this is a really crappy photo, but considering it was taken from my office window, across the road and several hundred yards away, it's not bad.  This little calf is just minutes old.  He was just standing up on wobbly legs.  You don't see that from a highrise office downtown!

Our last week-end in Canmore was wonderful!

  This is the view from Cari-Ann's front deck.  Nice eh?

Bill & Vi came up to install the doggy gates that they made to keep Muñeca in.  Taz is helping her favourite person in the world to test them out.

We spent ages at the Quarry Lake off-leash park watching dozens of avalanches.  Cool!

I'm pretty sure we woke this guy up on one of our walks.

On a completely different note.  I've been thinking of trying my hand at quilting.  I'm gathering the accoutrements, but I haven't gone as far as actually buying fabric yet.  I love the idea of choosing fabrics and making patterns with it, but the idea of sewing still scares the crap out of me...

I thought I'd start small, like maybe a pot-holder or something.

One of my co-workers just had a baby, so I decided to make a pair of baby moccasins for her.  Over the years, I've made probably a dozen pairs of these, but none in the last couple of decades.  I was surprised to find that Tandy Leather still sells the kits.

They turned out okay, considering how long it's been since the last pair I made.

A rainy day.  This was taken from the kitchen window.  I just like the streakiness.

No rain today, though.  Bright & sunny - perfect for painting a chair.  More on that later,