Double Trouble

I am joining Dittle Dattle for Amaze Me Monday with  my bear photo. It was done with a

blending program . I tried to do this again and couldn't!

Have a beautiful day today. I will be spending most of the day in town-catch you all tonight!

dittledattle.blogspot.com 

Gifts

 

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,

and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom

there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1:17

Blueberry Picking in Wawa

 

Today my DH and I drove 2 and a half hours north to Wawa to pick blueberries.

If you've never made the trip north on the transcanada highway you have to put

this on your bucket list. I hope you don't mind if I share a few photos with you!

This was taken about one third of the way up Hwy. 17 at an overlook.

Wasn't the water today bluer than blue?

This was taken while driving back from Wawa heading home at Montreal River,

which you'll miss if you blink.  The only thing there is a resort.

This is Wawas town symbol. It is located at the visitors center. The town thinks it's

worn out and they need a new one. I saw a sign saying you can buy a feather for the

new goose for $50. Now that's one way to raise money for it!

This is Wawas rustic visitors centre.

These are a modern version of the totem poles. Notice the Gitchee Gumee on the bottom?

 This is Old Womans Bay coming south from Wawa. It has a beautiful sandy beach.

This was our view looking out from Katherines Cove where we had our picnic lunch.

There are many outcroppings like this all along the lake.

This ol' fellow seemed to think, for some reason, that he deserved some of our lunch!



Pines, birches, and jagged rocks line most of the highway.

It was a long day-eleven hours away from home. But well

worth it. The blueberries were small this year. The road into

the site was atrocious. But the drive- it was "priceless".

Tell me, to what lengths would you go to get berries?

Scheduling BooBoo

  Hi Friends!! I went to check my post for today and it wasn't here. I checked and realized that I posted it for 11/11/11. With everyone talking about fall, I think I have it on the brain. Or maybe one in the morning is just too late to think clearly. Is there anyone who can help me with this?

Party and Patterns

I am joining Shelia at www.notesongs.blogspot.com for her Chickens and Rooster party. I don't collect

either, but remembered I had two pictures up in the kitchen hallway.



                                                                                                                                                                       

After investigating every angle possible on-line I've discovered that there is no feasible way to protect

my patterns. And now that they have been posted on Etsy I don't think they can be edited. I'm wait-

ing to hear back from them. But I doubt it's likely there is anyway of changing my site now. So my

plan now is to show samples of a few of my patterns here and if anyone is interested they can leave

a comment or e-mail me and I will re-activate the pattern long enough for  their purchase. It is

super simple-it just takes a click and it's done. That way my patterns won't be left on 24-7 to be

copied, but the buyer can see the whole sets and buy still. All patterns are sent PDF so you would

receive them that same day. If this is as clear as mud to you, just e-mail me and I'll get back to you.

There are seven of these adorable kittens. One for each day of the week.
Priced-$7.99

These are doll t-towel patterns. There are seven of them also. I've never seen this sweet pattern anywhere before. Price-$7.99

A lovey Dutch couple for each day of the week.

Price-$7.99

WW2 Soldiers for any proud patriots. I don't have anyone in a military family, but I thought these would be a cute gift for a soldiers family . Price for seven-$7.99

                                                                                                                                                                    

That's it for today. I apologise for the sloppiness of this. I was just thinking next time I'll try a different

way of arranging this. sigh ........I have so.....much to learn! Hope you have a wonderful Tuesday-Kimberly

Whirlwind Weekend

  It was Friday around 4pm when the children pulled into their new home. We had just arrived about 15

minutes ahead of them. There was flurry of the men unpacking the truck and Emily helping and directing

them to the proper rooms. I tried to keep the grandchildren entertained. Which wasn't too hard. Starlet

enjoyed riding her new bike after having been cooped up in a car for 2 days and Lambie had a well

worn dinosaur book to read to Nannie. At 8:30 we headed to our motel and got a quick bite to eat.

Emily brought the grand kids over to shower, have an ice cream treat, and spend the night. Lambie

decided he was ready to go back home with his mother when playtime was over and it was bedtime.

No surprise!

Sweet Starlet could not wait to get in Lake Superior. This was 10AM and she was already in the water.

She was agate hunting. Of course by the time we left she had a baggy full of pretty rocks!



I love the way the sand was rippled by the small waves.

Dino boy Lambert imitating a monster. His favorite pose now according to his mother.

Canadian geese not far behind the grandchildren taking flight-they must have followed us over!





You can well imagine my surprise when I pulled into the yard and there was this fellow awaiting us!

I had to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing double. I snapped this photo as proof that I wasn't!

We all know the camera never lies. Right?

Just when I'm losing my confidence that I might not be making my fortune selling vintage patterns on

Etsy here strolls this big fellow into my yard-an answer to all my problems.

So what do you think? Maybe a circus act?

                                                                                                                                                                     

On a more serious note, I did hear back from Etsy. They were confirming what I had already suspected.

They do not provide any means of protection against copying. So I will be working on finding a solution

to this problem. Thank you all for your suggestions. I'll be considering them all and let you know what

I figure out as the best plan of action.

Happy Monday Friends!

Encouraged

Random Yard Shots

 

Life is a mixture of good times and bad times, happy moments, and unhappy moments

The next time you are experiencing one of those bad times or unhappy moments that take you close to your breaking point, bend but don't break.



Try your best to not let the situation get the best of you. A measure of hope will take you through the

unpleasant ordeal. With hope for a better tomorrow or a better situation, things may not be as bad as

they seem to be.



The unpleasant ordeal may be easier to deal with if the end result is worth having.

Written from: Timeless Truths Devotional



This devotional seemed so fitting considering the circumstances of the last few days for me. Just letting it go for a couple of days has already given me such a release from the frustration I was feeling.

I want you to know that you also played a big part in helping me find that release. I want to

thank you my friends for your support and advice concerning my dilemma with Etsy.

Your words of encouragement have blessed me beyond words. My prayer is that the

Lord will use me at some time to be a blessing to one of you!

Disappointment

  I'm sure some of you are wondering what I am still doing at home when I'm suppose to be helping our

daughter, her husband and children get settled in their new home. Two days ago when I spoke to Emily

she wondered if we would mind if they waited until Friday to make the move. She had some unforseen

things come up and felt it would be better to delay the move by a couple of days. I agreed. And, as I

told her, I've waited years for this to happen-two more days isn't going make any difference for me.

See this dancing plate? He's so happy he's jumping for joy. That was me last week when I had finally

copied all of the patterns I was currently going to place on Etsy. Now all I had to do was copy and store

them so they would be ready to send when the orders started flowing in. Now keep in mind this was over

150 pages to copy and store. I entered them all PDF. Now I'm ready to finally open that Etsy shop.

I go to the Etsy site, set-up my shop, and am ready to attach photos of my patterns for the shop.

Rejection! It will not accept PDF. I have to go back and recopy all 150 plus patterns in JPEG!

OK, stupid mistake. I should have been smart enough to have known if it's considered a photo

you're going to have to use JPEG. Well it was disappointing, but nothing more than a little bump

in the road. I re-entered everything JPEG and began tranferring to my shop. This was over the course

of 3 days. On the day I was entering my last pattern (this last Monday) I had noticed that I had

already had over 140 views combined on my patterns, but no sales. I thought that was odd, but

I often view items but don't purchase them. But as the day progressed I just couldn't get it out of

my mind. You know how something keeps niggling in your mind?

I felt like I had touched a hot iron! What if there was the possibility that a person could copy my patterns

right off of my site?  No that's just crazy thinking , I told myself. Etsy is a highly respected selling engine, they would surely provide protection against possible down-loading theft. But my experiences from the past told me to check it out whether I thought it was just some crazy thought or not.

I went to my site, clicked on my pattern photo, and was able to print the pattern easy as pie! I have to

admit I was equally furious and devastated. No I'm not exaggerating. All I could think of was all the time

and hard work I had put into preparing these vintage patterns to finally get to this place where I could

finally list them for sale and any Tom, Dick, or Harry could simply steal them with the simple click of

a button. I didn't know what to do. I ran out to the garage to share with my husband my findings. His

advice was to shut it down right now! But I had already paid over $23. in fees for the listings. He said

to just consider it a loss and find somewhere else to sale my stuff. I didn't want to give up that easily on

Etsy. So I contacted them through e-mail. Of course you can't talk to a human being anymore! That

was Monday and I still haven't heard anything back from them. I have done a little research and found

another selling site that is similar to etsy and it didn't have any protection against down loading theft

either. E-Bay does make it impossible to copy off of it's site, so that's a possiblity. But now I have to

learn how to list with them and that whole process is always such a pain for me.

Anyway I've had a good cleansing cry over the whole deal. I've stepped away from it for a couple of

days and decided I'm going to let it go until next Monday. I'll go enjoy seeing the grandkids for the

weekend and come back to examine it through fresh eyes. Hopefully, I'll have heard something from Etsy by then. I can't say that I'm putting much faith in thinking their going to change their site to accommedate little

ol' me. But I would think it would be something other Etsy shop owners would be concerned about too.

If any of you have any knowledge or advice about were I should go from here I would more than welcome it

And "thank you" for letting me vent my friends. I try not to be a "whiner". I guess I lost this battle though.

What Are You Watching?

  I don't know about you, but my husband and I have a hard time finding anything good to watch on TV.

We had some favorites that were once shown but you couldn't find on any of the channels anymore.

So we started buying our favorite programs on video.

This is what my husband and I watched last week during the evenings. And no one, in my book, does a

better Miss Marple than Joan Hickson. She is Miss Marple. Now whenever I read any of Agatha's  

Miss Marple mysteries her face is the image I carry in my mind.  But in all fairness, I also have enjoyed the new PBS Miss Marple programs starring Julia McKensie. I think she does a fine job in the role.

Here's the rest of our Agatha Christie collection. The cheapest place we've found to buy DVDs that we like is a company called Acorn. Please do not confuse it with that government supported agency that was

dismantled last year. I'm sure you can find it on-line. Tommy and Tuppence really 

isn't one of my favorites. I liked the books but not  the video.

Have you viewed any of these programs? In the past I watched Hetty on PBS and Rosemary and Thyme on a British Columbia channel-Knowledge. Pie in the Sky we bought cold turkey and we really ended up

enjoying it!

I'm sure you must know these fellows! I was so happy when they brought Lewis back with a program

of his own. Morse had been such a favorite of mine for so many years. My DH  and I took to betting whether the murder would take place in a church or university. It seemed so many were either in one place

or the other!

Are you looking for laughs? Well these are guaranteed to please. We also have Andy Griffith, Beverly Hillbillies, and Petticoat Junction to watch for a hearty cackle.

Here are my two original Jane Austen movies. I can't tell you how many times I've watched the two

of these. We bought them sometime in the 90's. I do like the newer versions too. PBS has done some good

Jane Austen movies. Even Hollywood's versions weren't too bad.

And last, but never least. The Queen and Churchill. Now I hate to admit this but I was busy doing something

else when my husband watched "Monarchy". So I'll have to watch it and let you know what I think. But

I can highly recommend "Chasing Churchill". It was a documentary done  through the eyes of his

granddaughter. It was a historical and personal account of his life. And was filled with more footage

of Churchill than I had ever seen in other specials.

The husband and I have decided the next purchase we make in DVD is definitely going to be (drum roll please) Foyle's War. We loved these programs. My sis told me about it when they 1st began airing but

I thought it was a war show, and I hate war shows. So we didn't watch it. Last fall we happened upon

it and DH  thought we ought to give it a try. Well after we watched all they were showing, we went to

the library and rented the series from the beginning to the end. I researched it and discovered that the

show was over (after all the war ended), but people loved it so much they are making more concerning life

after the war. I can't wait.

Let me know what your favorite DVD's are to watch and any that you would like to recommend.

I'm all ears!

Newbie Party

  I forgot to add that I am linking up to the "Newbie Party" over http://www.debbiedoosbloggingandblabbing.blogspot.com/. This is

a party Debbie throws for all of us newbies out there. She has

done this to help those of us that are new to blogging get our

name out there and it's also a great place to find other blogs

that are of interest to you. This is the third time I've participated

and I did receive traffic from her blog because of it.

Please hop over there and join.  You will enjoy her postings

also. She has so many neat decorating idea and she was recently

featured in "Country Woman" magazine! Here is what I posted.

Please take the time to read my main post for today following this one! Have a wonderful Monday!

A Special Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow our only daughter and her family are moving just four hours away from our home here on the lake. It's a real answer to prayer and we are so excited. I spent yesterday gathering a few kitchen items to take over. I have boxes of home decor and housewares I no longer use but think I'd better have her go through it all before I start loading her down with stuff she might not want or need.

Today I will be busy cooking stuff to take over, blowing up balloons, and finishing a banner I made to hang in their home. We will drive over early so we can make sure the house is in tip-top shape and then spend some time in our old stomping grounds. It's always fun to see how things have changed in the years since we've been gone. Who knows, maybe we'll run into some old acquaintances somewhere! We are staying until Wednesday and since I'm not sure if I will be anywhere that I can connect to the internet I may not be able to post for a couple of days.  I will have so much to catch up on, won't I?

I got another good video of the bear in the yard again today. I discovered the reason I can't upload them is because my satellite internet service is not high speed. It isn't slow like dial-up. In fact it's pretty darn fast, but apparently not fast enough for that function. We have heard that there has been a new phone tower that's going to be activated in August that might enable us to get cell phone service from our home and supply us with very high speed internet too.

 This is a photo I shot last night of the sunset through the trees.

I hope your Monday is starting off as well for you as it is for me!

Blessings Friends