Early September

Home maintenance jobs continue - a lot of scraping, sanding, re-painting railings and spindles - repairing spindles on the back deck has been a long job - a lot of removing, sanding and gluing and painting and re-installing started in August and is continuing into September. The 3 deck surfaces have been painted. NOW there is a wasp nest/group OVER the front door. I got the only bite - and the swelling and heat/pain lasted 4 days to calm down. 

We took our first out of town (with our own lunch/snacks/water) on a 6 hour outing. It was great to see the scenery along the route - last trip was the past November. Tiny holiday. I didn't take any photos (likely because we didn't stop).

Stock finding/cleaning/pricing/tagging and adding to my booths has continued.

Halloween party started early in my booth.

Added some lovely pieces.

Painted and stencilled Buffalo Check (stencil by Donna of Funky Junk Interiors) on a lazy susan. Finished with Fusion Tough Coat Sealer, 2 coats over 36 hours.

Garden is mostly finished. Pulled whatever was finished, cut back a lot of various branches as well, all bagged, took to green recycling - bags filled the back of the truck. Kale will continue into November I think, picked the last of the blueberries, chives are still available. I need to start planning for next spring on what grows best and what was not a good choice and what we want to eat (instead of planting anything that was available this late spring). 

I find that I am in the mood to go through piles of 'things' and decide if it stays or goes. Started small. Continuing on is my hopeful plan.

Hello Dear Friends

Keep Kind

Keep Calm

Keep Safe

Hugs

Joy

August Catch Up

August work followed July's routine - preparing stock and stocking my booths five days a week. 

Some lovely finds have been added and many pieces have found new homes.

I made 2 signs - went through the junk wood box for 2 pieces of wood, sanded, white washed and added stencils plus stencilled a bulletin board with Buffalo Check after underpainting. Two orange signs were updated - the orange pumpkin was stencilled and Autumn now has a curled wire hanger. Check out Donna of  Funky Junk Interiors stencils.

Repainted another sign.

Blueberries have been lovely fresh additions for breakfast. I plan to add two more blueberry bushes in the fall. Beans are almost finished and the kale has been a nice addition to my smoothies (kale went into smoothie before photo taken).

Large brown bags for recycling weeds, vines and branch cuttings are filled for their turn to go to the green dump in town.

Carport is cleaned and sorted and the black bags full of unusable things useless to anyone have gone to the dump. 

Recycled anything possible - took empty/old dried out paint, anything electric, plastic, cardboard to the Recycling Depot.

DGS made supper Tuesday night this week - tasty chicken, rice and salad.

Repairing and painting spindles and railings are well underway. Deck floors are all freshly painted.

Next up will be re-staining the cedar boards on the back of the house - about 8 feet of height and 20 feet of distance.

Now into the 7 month of stay-at-home, normal is always washing hands a LOT at home plus sanitizing before/after going into a store, keeping distance, no gatherings at all (of people), wearing masks when away from home (my collection is growing) and hand washing each mask as soon as I arrive home. I now automatically do NOT touching my face at any time when I am out.

I am grateful that we can keep safe, isolated, have lots of home tasks to work on and that I can continue the work needed for my booths.

Following the guidelines of our Province.

Be Kind

Be Calm

Keep Safe

No group gatherings

Hugs Dear Friends

Keep Safe

Joy

Having a Collectibles Booth Does Keep Me Busy

Working makes time fly. I have been doing a lot of getting things ready and then putting them into my booths at Village Antiques Mall in Fort Langley. 

For those of you who have booths in Collectible malls, like Granny Sue  who often shares the work she does to prepare stock for her booths, it is an ongoing process.

Keep safe my friends.

Hugs

Joy

Mid July - Garden, Work, Small Projects

Daily life keeps me busy - just getting things done that have to be done.

I added 3 garden photos plus 3 images shared from the Graphics Fairy's collection - and put them in my booths at Village Antiques Mall.

Groceries - ok, we are now familiar with that. I have added another store since I am going to the mall 5 times a week now - Lee's in Fort Langley - It has been my grocery store for 25 years and I had really missed the people who work there (like old friends now) as well as knowing what they carry and where they shelve things. Shopping is different because of Covid-19 and we all follow the rules - masks, hand sanitizing, distance and we do not touch items we are not buying, dawdle or visit - just say hi - how are things going and... finished and gone. We bag our groceries, respectfully stay behind the cashiers shields and be as cheerful as possible without overdoing it.

Garden - rains a lot on coastal BC this summer so I haven't had to water. Peas and carrots and blueberries are picked every two or three days.  Strawberries are just a few little treats as are the raspberries. A few tomatoes have set their yellow flowers. Pink roses share their beauty and the daisy and zinnia have started to bloom. Forecast is a week of sunshine so I will be watering.

Mall stuff - writing stock up and putting in mall 5 days a week - I continue with my 9:10 to 9:50 routine for arriving and leaving my booths - before customers arrive, wear a mask, sanitize my hands before, during and after working.

Home stuff - I feel slow and low on energy and tired - I realize I am not eating many vegetables or fruit or protein - it has been more like chocolate stuff, cereal, coffee, bread and jam and pasta stuff. That likely is part of my problem so I have begun to focus on eating fruit, started eating raw and steamed vegetables, working on protein. 

Evenings when everyone has settled down I perk up and do get things like run the dishwasher, counters wiped, load of laundry running, garbage collected, get a few small chores done.

I never catch up on things that should be done and it is very rare to keep up the jobs I used to consider 'need to be done' as I did before March 17, 2020 when our Province/Country began to shut things down and we slowly learned another way of getting through each day, each week, each problem or issue or worry or ... 

Thank you Dr. Bonnie Henry the Specialist Health Officer and Health Minister Dix and Premier Horgan for insuring the Phases of what activities are safe to resume and for accurate daily updates on the Covid-19 pandemic in our Province.

Keep Safe

Hugs

Joy

Saying Goodbye to Rick Watson Today

This time in history has changed all of us.  There has been more sorrow added today.

 Dear Blogging Friend Rick Watson passed suddenly today - heart attack.  Such a wonderful person, Rick will be sorely missed. 

Prayers for Rick and his beloved wife Jilda and all of his many beloved extended family and friends.

Rick has shared his life stories and photos on his blog and through his music. You leave an empty space in our hearts Rick. Thank you for showing us the world through your heart, music, photos and writings.

Joy

To A Dear Blogging Friend

A dear blogging friend from Parksville wrote her final post. 

She has cancer that was diagnosed last week. She wrote: ... pancreatic cancer.  There will be an emergency surgery to remove my gall bladder and a spot on my pancreas but in all likelihood they will then determine how much time I've got.  I am taking this healthcare fight private.

I am praying for her. Her posts have been treasures over the years - as she shared how to live within one's income, to save, to plan, to think carefully through their plans, to be careful and to enjoy each day to its fullest, to love and support her family. 

Hugs and Love and Prayers.

Joy