Canada Post

I am SO frustrated with Canada Post's parcel delivery! Or, I should say, lack thereof!

Liz from Grandpa's Dollhouse mailed me the prototypes of the project for our next year's club project. They arrived this morning BUT the delivery company left the phone ring only two times then left. So I have to wait until tomorrow to pick it up at the post office.

THEN, I tried to deal with that. Long story but I ended up leaving this message on the Canada Post Facebook page:

Oh! If you think that's bad, try living in an apartment/condo. No attempt at all! In twelve years, I've actually had maybe 5% of my parcels delivered/tried to be delivered. I've written to Canada Post and my MP - that helped for about three deliveries! I did, however, get a reply from an assistant of Deepak Chopra (head of Canada Post) that gave me a phone number to call in St. Albert. That worked ONCE!

 I tried that number today and now I get a message to call a 1-800 number which gives me 6 choices which lead nowhere! I tried the website which was basically the same thing - canned answers leading nowhere. So I tried here....my complaint showed for about 5 minutes....then it disappeared. I am SO fed up with Canada Post!!!!!!!

If these contractors were required to actually attempt delivery after a complaint is lodged, maybe we'd see some improvement! I'm SO frustrated! My post office is .8 km away. I don't drive and the return home is uphill so it is a true PITA.

When I originally posted my complaint, it disappeared within 5 minutes.However, no one monitors the Canada Post FB page overnight so that's when all the complaints are really there for you to see! SO...every time anyone complained about about not being notified about a parcel delivery, I just replied and pasted the above note. 

It will be very interesting to see if someone from Canada Post answers. I'll let you know if anything actually happens.

Serendipity! Definitely Non-Mini

Sean, Julie, Jonah and Holly spent two days at Waterton National Park on their way here. There had been bear warnings in the Park so Jonah was quite concerned when they set out on their hike and asked his parents if a warden would be there. They reassured him that, yes, a warden would be there.

As they continued, they did, in fact, run into a warden. He was on a walk during his lunch hour. They talked for awhile and Julie asked if he had been there in 1991. He had so Julie asked about the accident. He joined the park service three months later but knew all the people involved but he was the last of the park rangers who knew what had happened. All the others had since retired.

From the newspaper clippings:
In March, 1991 (Spring Break), DS Sean and five of his friends (all Royal Canadian Air Cadets Squadron 533 St. Albert) had gone camping at Waterton. 

Three of the young men witnessed a pickup truck leaving the road and dropping over a 400 foot drop. The other three at their campsite hadn't even heard the noise. While Ian Glas flagged a ride to notify authorities at Waterton townsite, the other five took their first aid kits down to where the truck had landed upside down.

The first victim was lying dead in the water but two had been thrown from the truck. 

Sean: "All our leadership and first aid training came together. We had had practical exercises but it all paid off when we saw how the six of us worked together and how well we diagnosed the injuries and knew what to do."

The group calmly stabilized the two survivors, staunched their bleeding and kept them warm. One died later although Sel and Sean managed to keep his air passage of blood for the 45 minutes until help arrived. The second young man survived, although paralyzed.

Our dear Jonah is standing there, totally blown away by all this information! He had had no idea that his Dad was a hero!

So when Sean was telling me about this experience, Jonah asked if I had anything about the story, I dug through two binders I had of miscellaneous clippings, etc., (including report cards! LOL) and at the end of the second binder, sure enough, there were two copies of newspaper articles and two of the awards they had received. So I copied them for him. That is one very proud young man.

HOME!! At last!!

Well, actually, I got home on Tuesday but have been on the go ever since. DS Sean, DDIL Julie and the grands arrive on Saturday and am trying to get ready for that.

Here are a couple pictures of Columbus. He was SO excited on Monday when they came home!

Unfortunately, this is as far as I got with the shingling. I had hoped to get the attic itself finished to send home with Sean and Julie. But even if I do get it finished, the plexiglass piece for the front has gotten lost somewhere in my workroom. Unless it shows up, the whole thing will have to be delivered in October when I next go to Ontario.

 This is the template I used for the shingles. I've made another for the right hand side. The edges still need to be trimmed.

Leanne and Robert really enjoyed their trip. They spent a lot of time with family, of course, and took a trip to the Czech Republic to see Rob's Dad's home town. Took two trips on the Danube, visited (and blew some of their own) glassmakers, saw incredible cathedrals, castles, a monastery and a silver mine. Haven't seen Rob's pictures yet but did see Leanne's on Monday night.

Leanne brought Joanne a little snowman, a geode and some postcards (one is laser cut on wood).

She brought me the Reutter plate and stein, a snowman, the ladybugs (about 1.5x RL - think I may make earrings from them), a geode and these incredible shears! They're actually pruning shears but they'll be good for working in miniature. And they're an incredible fit in  my hand!

Will finally get to see Joanne for lunch tomorrow! Have a bit of condo business to take care of then hope I'll finally be ready for company on Saturday.

Where do I go from here?

I need to decide what to do next...

My idea was to finish Vern's Attic by August 1 so I could send it home with Sean, Julie and the grands. I can finish the room itself but don't think I will have time to finish all the things that I want/need to go in it. So I think that this will need to be stalled until I go to Peterborough in October. (Then I'll worry about taking it on the plane with me.)

I will try to finish the roof tomorrow.

The bird cage/gazebo will probably be a new project! I've been working it out in my head and have some great ideas for it.

Most of my ideas for scenes these days are ones that I want to do to give to people who are important in my life. And the gazebo is one of those.

My DS Marie's BIL Gary and SIL Lorraine have had their garden recognized as the best in Edmonton. I've only been there once but it's absolutely incredible! So I would like to do the bird cage as an homage to that  and gift it to them....so they can have a garden inside during the winter!

So that's the NEW plan so far.

What a great day!

Earlier this week Sunni called and mentioned that our friend and fellow miniaturist, Carol K., lived out this way. It turned out that it was June who lives where Sunni thought Carol lived but that's neither here nor there. In any event, e-mailed Carol last night and we spent the day together.

First had to go to London Drugs so Carol could pick up a new phone. After she got that, we looked around a bit and I spotted this 'bird cages'. We hummed and haaed then Carol decided she would get one,

I decided that I had to say 'no' to it - too many projects already on the go! THEN Carol went through the checkout and it was 40% off the $19.99 price. Well, at that, I just couldn't resist so I went back and picked up the last one. Will make a wonderful gazebo with wicker furniture and all my plants from Connie Stitt. It's already coming together in my head. Can hardly wait to get home and start working on it.

Didn't measure it but I'd say the footprint is roughly 8" x 10". In addition to a small gate, the top is hinged for great access.

Why do I do this to myself?!?

After that we stopped for lunch then went to Carol's. It was my first visit and I was thrilled to see all her projects. She has revamped her basement into a great workroom and showcase for her minis. In addition to her miniatures, she makes dolls, quilts, does mixed media art so it was a real treat to see all her workrooms. Like the idiot that I am, my camera stayed in my bag and I didn't take even one picture so I can't share with you. BAD Maureen.

Got the roof started!

Love these mukluk liners but they're filled with something!

So got my tweezers and started pulling!

No wonder they were so stiff! It just kept coming and coming!

 This is what's finished so far. Unfortunately, it's only about half of what's on my list of things to go into it.

I had started to shingle the roof with sandpaper. But then I got some sheets of shingles at club one night (stacked to the left of the attic) so I'm going to use those.

 But first I'm going to put some flashing around the edge of the dormer roof. This is some light-weight brass that I got at Lee Valley years ago. Cut two strips of it and backed it with double-sided carpet tape.

In place....

My first strip of shingles:

 Backed with double-sided carpet tape, then marked around the dormer.

One strip down - about 14 more to go. I've marked lines every 3/4" across the roof. Now to finish!

My original thought was to install it all with the carpet tape but that means double cutting everything. So think I'll try to glue it. I didn't bring any clamps with me so that may not be the best idea. But I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Where has the time flown?

Oh, my, goodness! It's been three weeks since I posted - and about that long since I've done anything mini!

I've been rabbit/house sitting for Leanne and Rob while they're visiting Germany with his family and it has been a real stay-cation! Although I brought a box of minis (including the attic itself) to work on, didn't even open this box until this afternoon. Just reading and watching Netflix!

This afternoon I did open the box, thinking I better do something! It's an even smaller baby step than last time but I did get ONE thing done.

I bought this wheelchair at Bowmanville a year and a half ago. It was grey so I spray painted it black...and there it sat.

So this afternoon, I got out my fine tip Pilot pen and added touches of chrome to it.

But I'm afraid that's all I accomplished. Pretty sad state of affairs. This attic is NOT going to be done before Sean, Julie and the grands arrive at the end of the month.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.