Successful potluck

Sunday's potluck with my DH's choir was a resounding success. The temperature was just comfortable and the rain held off until the last guest had left! I had to work the day, which was a quiet one, and then the first guests were just arriving as I pulled in the drive. In previous years it had either rained or was so hot that no-one wanted to sit outside. The day was a bit overcast but just perfect for sitting outdoors. By the time supper was served the sun had come out and it was really pleasant. And food!! Wow, did we have food! There were about 25-30 people present, most of which had brought a dish. At the end of the meal they had a short meeting. I was snapping some pictures of the group when a number of birds showed up to munch on the berries in the neighbour's tree. When I looked closely I discovered that several of them were Cedar Waxwings. I was able to get a few good pictures of them as well.

There was no time for stitching that evening but because it had been quiet at work I managed to get quite a bit done on my Britty Kitty. Today I haven't felt the best(too much food!). Bit of a stomach upset so I have rested and caught up on some of my reading. I'm an avid reader and the books tend to compete with the stitching for my attention! I'm getting the itch to start another project though since the Britty Kitty is almost completed. I'm going to look through my stash tonight and see what I can come up with. It can't be too big since this is my travel stitching.Perhaps one of the freebies I downloaded.

Some progress

I managed to spend a good portion of yesterday evening working on Easter Fairy. I didn't feel like stitching alone so I called up Pam who is one of my few stitching friends and asked if she'd like to join me. She gladly accepted. I don't get to stitch with Pam often since most of her free time is spent on decorative or tole painting. She's working on a landscape pattern, the name of which escapes me right now. We had a great evening, stitching and catching up with all the local news! Here's a picture of my progress so far.

I'll soon be ready for the sparkle in the wings but at the moment I've misplaced my Kreinik thread. I know it's here somewhere, I saw it not all that long ago! Until I find it I'll just work around the area.

Work was quiet today so I managed to spend a little time working on my Britty Kitty. I'm hoping we have the same kind of a day tomorrow and then I'll be able to update you on my progress.

There won't be much time for stitching tonight. I've already got a pan of peanut butter brownies in the oven for tomorrow's potluck.After supper I still have a bit of cleaning to finish and I'll be heading to bed early. Five o'clock comes much too quickly!

I'll leave you with a picture of the downy woodpecker I snapped this week. Bob and I were seated in the dining room when we spotted it. I'm playing around with my new digital camera so I grabbed it and used the zoom lens to see how well it would perform. I was pleased with the results!!

Thanks for the Welcome

Thank you so much for the very warm welcome I received from all of you who dropped by my blog! I'm really enjoying meeting others out there who are as addicted to stitching as I am. I hope to meet many more of you in the weeks and months to come.

In response to a few questions, yes Brotherly Love is a Britty Kitty pattern. It's my first although I do have a few others in my stash. And speaking of stash, yes Vonna, I'm approaching S.A.B.L.E. but always looking for help in increasing it!

Also thanks for many of the nice comments I received concerning my cat, Finnigan. He's really being a pain today though. He's strictly an indoor cat but once we'd finished the gazebo we took him outside with us to sit in it. He loved it! Now every time I head anywhere near the vicinity of the door he thinks I'm going outside. When he discovers I'm not, he sits and cries by the door and he won't let up! I've posted a picture of the gazebo and one of Finnigan outside on the deck.

I'm going to spend a bit of time stitching today on the Easter Fairy. Hopefully I'll be able to post a picture of my progress in the next day or so. Bob and I are busy cleaning house today. Bob is a church musician, that is, he is an organist as well as a choir director. He does this full time so in order to make any kind of a living out of it he has to have more than one job. At present he is organist at two churches in Ottawa(one Sunday morning and one on Saturday night), has two handbell choirs close to home and directs two community choirs. At the end of the choir season we always host a potluck get together at our home. This Sunday afternoon his Bytown Voices choir from Ottawa are coming out to our place. I'm working until 3 so I should arrive home right about the time they all start to arrive. It's calling for rain on Sunday here so we might end up with 30 or so people indoors. Consequently we are doing a cleanup today. Bob figures we need to have all these people out once in a while since we never seem to get any cleaning done otherwise! We're never home!!

Stash arrival

When I checked the mail today I was pleased to see some new patterns that I had ordered from SB&B as well as a couple I'd purchased on eBay. On eBay I picked up three Trilogy charts: Winter Spots, Garden Spots and Simple Blessings. I'm thinking of doing the Garden Spots for a friend's birthday.





The other two charts I'd ordered are Lavender Wings- And A Patridge and a Chocolate Cake Sampler by Casey Buonaugurio. My husband Bob is a big time chocolate lover and when I saw this sampler it reminded me of him. It's either chocolate cake or no cake as far as he's concerned!

Today and tomorrow are days off for me since I'm working the upcoming weekend. Today I headed into Ottawa to do some shopping. It's about a 50 minute drive from my place. I was looking for some patio lights to string inside the gazebo. I found them at my favourite store - Homesense! I also picked up some citronella candles for the backyard. After my shopping spree I headed to my local needlework store, The Cross Stitch Cupboard. Here I signed up for and paid my downpayment for their fall stitching retreat. It's held every October at the Glen Resort in Gananoque, ON. Jeannette Douglas is going to be there this time. I've never been to one of these and I'm really looking forward to it. My new stitching friend Dani asked if I'd ever been and if I'd like to go along with her! I was under the impression that it was always booked up because it's so popular. However she told me she had just booked and to give them a call and see if there were any more spots available. I called that week and I'm in!

After arriving home Bob and I strung the patio lights in the gazebo and then sat down to enjoy it. We had a brief downpour after supper but not enough to water the gardens well. Tonight I'm browsing through my stash, looking for my next project. I can't seem to make up my mind. Maybe I'll sleep on it.

First time boating this year

Today I had booked a day off work for no other reason than some extra down time. It was a beautiful day here, not too hot, and DH is also off on Mondays so we decided to take out the boat for a short ride. He spent the morning cleaning her up and then after lunch we headed for Morrisburg which is situated on the St. Lawrence River. We put the boat in and had a wonderful ride to Iroqois and back. She started on the first try too!

This evening we are finishing up with our gazebo which we started putting up on the weekend. I'm still hoping to get in some stitching time after that before I return to work tomorrow.

In the meantime I've posted a picture of my other WIP, Mirabilia's Easter Fairy. A good portion of the stitching was done during our recent Southeastern Ontario SAL.

What a fun weekend!

We had a very hectic but fun weekend here at our place. On Friday I took some time owing and left work a little early. I headed straight for Drummondville, Quebec where my oldest son and two granddaughters live. I picked up the three of them and drove them to my place to spend the weekend. On the way I got caught in rush hour traffic in Montreal. What should have been a six hour trip turned into an eight hour one!


Saturday we spent the day at the new playground equipment at the local park and in the kiddie pool in my yard. The girls are sooo cute! This is only the second time that I've seen the baby, Summer, who is 7 months. Her big sister Oceanne is 2. They were in bed early and then I settled down for a little stitching on Brotherly Love. This one should move along fairly quickly.






Today we spent the morning playing with the girls and then it was time to pack the car and head back to Quebec. I was too tired to do any stitching when we returned. I'm off tomorrow so I hope to get some more done then.

Up and Running

I'm here! It took me long enough to figure this out but I'm up and running now. Thanks Dani and Rebecca!
Now for a little about myself. I live in eastern Ontario in a small village with my DH Bob and a Ragdoll cat named Finnigan (much to Bob's dismay since he is not a cat lover). I'm mother to 3 boys ( Jeff-26, Dan-22 and Chris-19) who at this point have all left the nest. I work full time as a medical lab technologist and I'm addicted to cross stitch.
My sister got me interested when she gave me a cross stitch piece as a housewarming gift. None of my family has ever been particularily crafty and I figured that if she could do it so could I! I ran out and purchased my first kit (counted of course!). It wasn't until I called her with some questions that I realized she had done a stamped kit. Too late - I was hooked! I've been stitching off and on for about 17 yrs now.
I just finished hosting a SAL with some of myYahoo stitching group friends from Southeastern Ontario. We are trying to get together every few months for a weekend of stitching.
We had a blast and I've made some great new friends who encouraged me to start blogging.
I'm not much of a rotation stitcher. I've always tried to stick to one or two pieces. That seems to work for me. I'll post some pics of my WIP shortly if I don't screw it up!