Ancient Relic Tour Day 5

Beautiful Valletta….we took the hotel shuttle into Valletta today and spent the afternoon strolling and wandering through this amazing city. Parts are very steep and much of the ground is uneven so we took extra care to ensure Dear Mom stayed in an upright position.

I am finding it hard to believe that no “incidents” have transpired yet quite frankly. Usually by now, we would have at least brought out the bandage container.

There are unique balconies that dot the facades of buildings, everywhere you look in Valletta.

The harbour is beautiful, a mix of old and new. There was one cruise ship in, however the city was not exceptionally busy.

I love the laundry hanging from balconies, it must dry in no time as the day was very warm. We took a break from walking and hopped on the Valletta Fun Train, an hour tour around the city…I know Dear Mom appreciated the opportunity to sit down and be chauffeured.

We had dinner at a small outside restaurant…Dear Mom didn’t feel like anything substantial and opted for ice cream. I guess at 88 she’s entitled to anything she wants. She did want to try something different and ordered pistachio.

Ancient Relic Tour Day 4

Finally arrived in Malta…..gorgeous weather, 28 degrees Celsius, sunny and glorious. Our hotel is beautiful…the Corinthia Palace at San Anton.  I think I might have to spend a bit of time by the pool.

We opted to have just a quick stroll around the area and visited San Anton Gardens. Just amazing….Dear Mom and Uncle enjoyed the gardens and were snapping pictures non stop.

In the evening we travelled to Naxxar, at the suggestion of the concierge, to attend the Naxxar Festa, complete with a street festival, bands, fireworks and crowds of locals. Most of the festivities take place at the Naxxar Parish Church. What an amazing piece of architecture. We had a lovely dinner at a local cafe, the food was amazing…..look at the size of that chicken wrap…wow.

We are all exhausted and ready to hit the hay….I can’t believe we crammed in all we did today, including the flight from UK.

Ancient Relic Tour Day 3

It was nice to have an uneventful day, (fossil wise)…..I need to take advantage of them, as I never quite know how many of them I will be blessed with.

We had a day layover before we fly out to Malta so we took advantage of the day to visit Brighton on the seaside.

The town is lovely with so much to see and do. It was extremely busy with travellers taking advantage of  the great Sunday weather. The pier is the focal point of the area and we walked to the very end….which houses an amusement park. The beach is very interesting, not typical sand but totally covered in smooth stones. A boardwalk, of sorts, lets you walk the length of the beach, dotted with shops, small restaurants, galleries and outdoor cafes to have drinks and fish specialties.

You have to wonder why they would need to post a sign warning people not to jump off the pier….it’s only about 50 feet above the water.

We did have a great day, lots of fun, lots of walking…..and walking.

Best part of the day……the fabulous seaside Fish and Chips…and who could resist the onion rings….

Ancient Relic Tour Day 2

Despite a nerve racking take off thru severe thunderstorms out of Toronto, and a whole 7 hour flight of turbulence..we landed safe and sound ay Heathrow.
Is it just me,  or have I got a bulls eye painted on me when it comes to seniors and their antics?  First day of travel and already the nightmares are starting.
Throughout Heathrow are  mass transit lines of moving walkways..like escalators but flat. I’m being extra careful with Dear Mom as it was a long flight, she’s tired and at the best times these walkways are tricky to manoeuvre.  We are behind a group of elderly travellers who have their carry-ons in tow. They are in line, along with Dear Mom and I to get onto the moving floor. All of a sudden an elderly gentleman gets caught up on the moving belt (really, these units are simple physics people! ) down he goes, his baggage falling after him and while I am watching him, legs and arms flailing in the air, he’s on his back  being transported along the belt, relatives screaming.  I envision the domino effect starting……with everyone who is in line after him….piling on top.  The issue with seniors is  they have lost the ability to forward think. Plus, they instinctively form cues behind each other shuffling aimlessly along in groups. When they see this happen, they don’t stop or back up…..they just keep on going as if there is safety in numbers. The whole fiasco was like watching that I Love Lucy episode where she can’t keep up with the chocolates on the conveyer belt and they start backing up and she has to start eating them to keep up.  The problem with this picture is that Dear mom is third in line to be added to the terror. I envision the morning headline……
Canadian Senior Hospitalized in Conveyor Belt Tragedy at Heathrow.
As my life flashed before my eyes I hit the emergency button on the damn thing and ended what was sure to be a disaster in the making .
May I remind you….we are only on day 2 of the trip!
So it’s on to the hotel…by Hotel Hoppa Bus….I had very good instructions how to get from point A to point B and had sent Dear Uncle a gentle reminder as well. Our planes were suppose to arrive within a half hour of each other. We arrived at the hotel first….no Dear Uncle….now I’m starting to get worried….what if he had the wrong directions, or got the hotel wrong…how would we eventually connect?
Dear Mom is adamant that he won’t come by bus, it’s too much for him she says….I say sure he will, it was so easy and I gave him exact instructions.
“No he won’t”.
Dear mom and I opted to get a nice hot cup of tea and wait in the lobby till he came. Within 5 minutes, he arrives….but not by bus….taxi.  God she knows her brother well. So then he tries to backpedal …making some excuse as he couldn't find the number stop 26…he could only find 20 and 21… he went to ask this taxi cab fellow for help….then the taxi cab fellow just happened to say…  “get in, I’ll drive you.”  I just bet that unless we had not caught him in the act…he would have said the bus ride was delightful.

You can see they loved their shirts….it was so wonderful to hear them laugh.  I hope the whole trip is filled with such hysteria…truly I do.
I feel bad that I spent money on the shirts, when it was really socks that Dear Uncle needed.
It just wouldn’t be London without the famous double decker buses.

Looking forward to another day tomorrow with the fossils seniors….no honest I am!

Let the Journey Begin

For all of you who followed me thru my last adventure with the seniors, be prepared, here we go again. The last tour was appropriately named The Fossil Expedition(if you wish to reminisce again you can follow the saga here)http://lesliesitchintobestitchin.blogspot.ca/2012/08/the-great-britain-fossil-expedition-day.html

So how did I get roped into another trip with the fossils? I have no idea what really transpired, someone mentioned to Dear Mom where would she love to go if she could…. “Malta”  she says….then Dear Uncle chimes in.. “I’ve always wanted to go there too, that sounds like a fabulous trip”… next thing the two of them are looking at me with cataract laden puppy dog eyes and I’m booked on a flight to London.

I tried to bow out gracefully, but Dear Mom played the Ace card and says…. “this will be my last trip”.  I’m pretty sure she said that the last time too.  AND  I’m pretty sure I made that same statement  when I arrived home from the last trip as well!

You would never be able to duplicate the Fossil Expedition so this trip is entitled……appropriately….The Ancient Relic Tour.

If you haven’t caught on or don’t know me personally, then I should bring you up to date. Dear Mom is 88 and Dear Uncle, her brother just turned 79. Like I have said before…God help me.  That last trip was 2 years ago, and while Dear Mom is doing quite well for her age. I have noticed subtle changes in her health.

She has had these bulging varicose veins on her legs and for weeks now I’ve been urging her to wear her support stockings  to get her re accustomed to them prior to the flight and trip. But she says it’s been much to hot….we live in Ontario and this summer has had record breaking lows…..Hot no…stubborn yes.

I’m sure you know what’s coming…and we haven’t even left on the trip yet….

So last week she’s in Wal-Mart getting pictures printed and somehow a plaqued picture falls off the wall in front of the counter where she is standing and nicks a vein causing a  Niagara Falls effect in living color to spill over the floor…. sending the Store Manager and Health and Safety people scrambling to the scene. There was so much blood they were asking if she was on blood thinners and does she want to go to the hospital. They get her patched up and as usual she takes this calamity in her stride. She calls to describe the fiasco to me and with great excitement states that they gave her the pictures for free, all $28.00 worth….Dear Mom, Dear sweet Mom…..they only  did that so you wouldn’t sue their asses…..they should have given you free pics for LIFE!

A visit, on my insistence, to the doctor last week, gives her a clean bill of health, nick on the leg and all…..and guess what….doctor says she should be wearing her support stockings….go figure.**_*(!+(!*_*_!#*

Now I know you think I’m kidding…but the whole trip will be like this…day in and day out, one calamity after another…and times two, cause they work as a pair….no matter how hard I try to skirt disaster. For instance…not only last week did Great Britain raise the terror alert to it’s highest level in 3 years, with attacks imminent…. but the Iceland Volcano just started spewing more shit than the winner of the Arkansas Annual Refried  Bean Eating Competition.

My worst fear is that they will close the airspace over Britain due to the volcanic ash again and I will be stuck with them an additional 2 weeks in the UK…AFTER the holiday. 

So they like to have fun and I thought it would be great to make up shirts for them for the trip…which really  brings me to the reason for the post…to demo how to print shirts using your computer.

I started with white T’s from Michaels…tea died them to give them an antique kind of look. Then I chose an older looking font for the lettering, downloaded a clipart and reversed the image before printing onto the shiny side of pre-cut freezer paper.

Quickly, before the ink had time to dry I flipped the image onto the front of the T-shirt and pressed with a hot iron….voila….a vintage looking image…..

Don ’t you just love the clipart of the two seniors shuffling along…..I made one for all of us…..When I was telling my daughter about the shirts, she made a great suggestion….she said I should have bought florescent shirts so I would be able to locate them easier….what a great idea….this from the mother of a 4 and 2 year old.

That actually would have worked this week…I take her out shopping to pick up a few last minute things for the trip and I’m specifically looking for earplugs….I’m ok with kicking Dear Hubby if  he snores, but not Dear Mom….I want to be totally prepared.

I locate them at the store, Dear Mom by my side….I’m looking at the choices….I swear no longer than 15 seconds….I look around and she’s GONE. I spent the next 1/2 hour searching the aisles….she literally just vanished….like freckin Houdini. God help me.

My brother, bless his heart, knows Dear Mom and Dear Uncle, almost as well as I do and calls to thank me for taking one for the team wish me a safe flight…I missed the call and had to call back, explaining that I was getting my hair done before the trip….he asks why… “so I can look all spiffy”….again, he asks why…I repeat…”to look spiffy for the holiday”… in all sincerity he says why would you bother….you're going to pull it all out anyway.

So I’m off…..my rocker …on an overnight flight with Dear Mom to the UK, meeting up with Dear Uncle there and then off to Malta….Let the games journey begin.

Hung up on hang ups

I thought I would adapt my recent pattern to utilize the cute little panel I bought when I was at Market in Pittsburgh this year. The panel is from Greta Lynn's Made with Love line and has the cutest little squares, just perfect for this pattern. The panel comes with sewing machines, needles, pincushions, thread and pins in delightful colors.
The squares are a little larger than the original ones I used so the pattern took a little modifying.
I think these will be great for all my quilter friends.
I love the way the grommet fits perfectly on the plug so that all the cords and phone are off the floor.

Ahoy Matey

This is the start of something good….

I’ve been working on blocks for the BOM that will be offered at Kindred Spirits Quilt Co. this fall. The pattern is from Amy Bradley and called Pirates for Boys and Girls. I’m working on the little boy version, as I have grandsons, however the pattern does have options for girls.

Step by Step, Inch by Inch

I’m teaching Eleanor Burns Pineapple Table Runner class at Kindred Spirits Quilt Co. and while the pattern is fairly straightforward, I thought it would be beneficial to provide students with samples of the process …..step by step.

This way students could see exactly each step as they progressed through the process. They would be able to overlay their own rulers onto the samples to get a better idea where and when to cut.

Bonus for me….now I have a great start on a lap size quilt…once I catch up!

O-Christmas Tree

I pretty much have all the seasons covered now with these lovely table runners from Shabby Fabrics.

I quilted it in the pantograph Happy Times and added a bit of bling  by utilizing Hot Fix Crystals at random to the tree after it was quilted.