Friends and Fun

That's what the past weekend was all about when I made a trip Kingston way for a SAL at Rebecca's home. I landed in on Friday evening after being stuck in a traffic nightmare on the 401 highway. Waiting for me was Rebecca, Dani and Christin. Not long after I arrived we were joined by Bonnie from Cobourg. Following a yummy supper provided by Rebecca we all settled in, stitching in hand and caught up with each other.


Saturday morning the group got a little bigger with the arrival of Trista, Kathy, Beatrice, Barb and Judy. Ann and Beth had both called with regrets due to illness so our group was complete.
I know that in the pictures which Dani took, it appeared that we were all business but there was still a lot of chatting going on while we stitched. Dani made terrific progress on Tour de Marque. Rebecca is now backstitching her wolves which we all agreed doesn't necessarily need to be done on everthing called for in the piece. Some of the stitching around the mouth just didn't look right and we all felt it looked better off without it.

Barb and I seemed to be visiting with the frogs (as well as snails which slowed us down) and I think I might have heard them in Kathy's corner as well or was that just Kathy, lol! Everyone else seemed to be making great progress. Trista's Taj Mahal Mandela was beautiful! I wish I'd taken a pic to show all of you. Later in the day the frogs departed and I did make some progress on Nantucket as well as a little on BD Blessings.

Here's Rebecca who hosted

Beatrice and Barb followed by Christin and Kathy

Beatrice with her Mirabilia along with Judy and Dani
enjoying the potluck



Trista with her Chatelaine

and Bonnie with her Blackstone Fantasy Garden

Nantucket Summer Sampler

Pot luck was on the menu for supper, one of my favourites. After a few more hours of stitching following supper, the Brighton contingent headed back home.

I've been having some issues lately with foot problems which in turn has resulted in pain in the back, knees and hips since I'm shifting my weight . I spent the weekend hobbling around and on Sunday morning made the decision to head home early. I really wasn't comfortable and it was putting a damper on things. A very special thanks to Rebecca for being such a super hostess and to her hubby for supplying one of my favourite drinks.

Since I last posted I also made a start on a little freebie that arrived with one of my online orders. It's an Ink Circles freebie called Ink Spots #6 - Spotted Owls. Can you spot the owls?

I love working on this little piece. I'm using a Dinky Dyes silk and figured I'd have plenty to finish things off. That was before Clarisse took off with some of my floss! I had cut all of the floss into lengths and laid it on the arm of my chair. Then I stepped away for a few minutes. When I returned, all but two of the lengths had disappeared. I looked everywhere for them with no luck. There are so many hiding places in my house right now courtesy of my renovations and the boxes of kitchen goods. She might have eaten some of it but I don't think she had enough time to ingest all of them. In any case, the floss is no more and I had to place an order for another skein to replace it. That'll teach me to leave my floss lying around, lol!

Speaking of Clarisse, she's really out of sorts now that the kitchen renovations have begun. We have to keep her cooped up in one of the bedrooms all day while they and we are working. There's really no other place for her. We don't have a door to our rec room to keep her downstairs. Usually we confine her to a bedroom during the night but now we're giving her free reign of the house while we sleep so she can get a bit more exercise. Of course there's plenty of dust which she's running around in so I'm sure she'll need a bath when it's all said and done.

All of our carpet is being replaced with hardwood so the carpet is now gone. I always camped with my boys so I'm used to eating and cooking out of boxes but I could do without all the dust. Meals are limited right now to using our microwave, toaster oven or the BBQ. Eating out is looking better all the time!
Since cleaning is out of the question at this time, I'm off now to sit and stitch a bit before bed. Hope you're all having a great week.

Indecisive

I'm not indecisive, I just can't make up my mind! I'm ready for a new start and I just can't seem to settle on which piece I want to do next. I've even gone so far as to actually start one and then wish I'd started something else. Am I the only one like this?
At this Tuesday's SAL there was a new start in the form of Blackbird's Designs Blessings Be Thine. I've admired this one for some time now. The plan was to start LHN Home of a Needleworker but the fabric which I thought I still had in my stash wasn't anywhere to be found and until I find something suitable it's been put on hold. Hence, the backup plan, Blessings. The fabric is a WDW 30 ct linen and I'm finding it's a looser weave than I care to stitch on. Sometimes that's all it takes to turn me off of a project and then I'm searching for the next start. Add to that the fact that I'm already going to have to frog out the star and replace it with another choice of floss colour. The white just isn't standing out enough.

My order of the new releases from St. Charles' Market arrived this week and that's calling to me. I fell in love with BD Midnight Watch! I know, I know, I said no more Halloween stitching but you should see it! Then of course there were all the new little Halloween quickies from Val's Stitchin' Stuff. Too cute. On top of that, with a recent online order I received an Ink Circles freebie called Spotted Owls. The owls are hidden within the design. Now I'm thinking, "What floss should I use for this and I wonder if I can find fabric for this one in my stash?" And how could I possibly forget the fact that I finally found a copy of JCS Christmas ornament issue at my local pharmacy. I can't count the number that I want to stitch from this year's issue. Help! So what have I done so far? Nothing. It's like my mind has shut down and now I don't feel like picking up anything. It's merely on overload and once I've calmed down my hand will reach for that needle again and I'll be alright. Everything will fall into place and I'll know exactly what I'm doing. I think!

Before the mind got too carried away, I did manage a little progress on Nantucket.

The camera came with me to SAL this past week and I snapped a few pics of my fellow stitchers . There didn't seem to be as much stitching this week. Instead there was a lot of talk of the upcoming retreat and much poring over the latest Herrschner's catalogs. Although I'm not able to make the retreat this year, I will be joining some of our fellow bloggers at Rebecca's for a weekend of fun, laughter, eating and oh yeah, stitching. Can't wait!

From left: Sylvia, Barb and Maria

Sylvia, Maria and Sally

Looks like a floss toss to me!

Roseanne et moi having some fun while Sue checks out the latest Herrschner's catalog.

Sally admiring Louise's latest stash purchase

Chantal and Leslie checking out the catalog.

For all you book lovers out there, Diana Gabaldon was in town this week for a reading from her latest release, An Echo In The Bone. I've been to one of Diana's book readings in the past and really enjoyed it. I'm a big fan of her Outlander series and can't wait to read this, the 7th in the series. I would have loved to gone to this reading but driving into Ottawa for three nights in a row after working in Cornwall all day is just too much commuting for me. Especially when I have to work the upcoming weekend. As it is I bailed out of my choir practice tonight after a particularily rotten day at work. The old gray mare she ain't what she used to be!

Kitchen renovations are slated to begin next Wednesday so keep your fingers crossed. While I was cleaning out the existing cupboards I found that I had a lot more selections of tea than I realized. A couple of my girl friends prefer tea to coffee especially the herbal decaf varieties. This led me back to drinking tea which in the past I'd limited to when I was ill. I have a love for all types of chai - regular, white chai, holiday chai, green tea chai, chocolate chai but this week I found a new tea which I'm equally hooked on. It's one of Tetley's teas and is called Warmth - Cinnamon Spice with Orange Blossom (decaffinated). I've managed to get my son Dan hooked too. So excuse me now while I go pour myself a cup and think of new starts. See you next week!

Snowmen and Palm Trees

That pretty well sums up what I've been stitching for the past week. I dug out a UFO, The Trilogy's Secret Snowdrift, that's been sitting untouched since last winter. I'm so close to finishing this one and I'm waiting for supplies for my next start so I decided to get this one moving first. I've only got one more snowman and a penguin to complete and then the border. I was so keen on this little piece when I started. I've never understood exactly what causes me to lose interest or why it only happens with certain pieces but it does happen. Maybe it's boredom, who knows.

The palm trees are found in Nantucket's Summer Sampler and I finished stitching the first palm tree while at my Tuesday night SAL. So far, so good, I haven't lost interest in this one yet!

Besides this I've had one small happy dance. I finished off my Cricket freebie for Halloween. One of the ladies in my group suggested finishing it as a bellpull or banner. Since I'm not much for sewing, I'm going to enlist the help of one of my coworkers for the finishing.

No more Halloween stitching for now. I want to pick out something to stitch for Christmas even if it's just an ornie. I'm anxiously awaiting the new JCS ornament issue. I'm told that it's now available in Ottawa so I'll try and get a copy this weekend. In the meantime I chose another start, LHN Home of a Needleworker. This one will be framed and hung in my entry so that everyone who enters our home will know exactly what I've been up to.

I've been having a great time checking out the new releases from St. Charles Market. Two of the ladies in our stitching group (formerly of the Cross Stitch Cupboard) attended the market and brought their new stash this past Tuesday for us to check out. There was plenty of drooling, oohs and aaahs. It was almost as good as Christmas morning! Speaking of Christmas, it seems that there are a few in the group who will be doing a Christmas of Hawkrun Hollow SAL. That's just too big a project for me at the moment with everything else that's going on around here. I have however ordered the new Shepherd Bush, Holy Night. Of course I couldn't stop there! I just had to have Blackbird Designs Midnight Watch. I also sprung for a couple of Val's Stitchin' Stuff smalls. Both with cats on them of course! This was my treat for all the overtime at work that I've put in lately.

Besides cross stitch, the ladies also brought back some beautiful beads for another fellow stitcher. She has been one busy lady, using these beads and others to create some fabulous fobs. She's taking the scissor fobs with her to the upcoming stitching retreat to sell. Because of our home renovations, I'm not able to attend retreat this year. Cry, cry, sniffle, sniffle, since this is the last stitching retreat that will be occuring. Unless of course someone else wants to take over the job. Up until now these retreats have been hosted by The Cross stitch Cupboard or Knit One, Stitch Too as it was recently known. Now that the store has closed, the owners feel that they would like to devote their energies to other pursuits. Anyways, because I'm not attending retreat, I got to pick out and purchase the fob of my choice at our gathering.

Isn't it pretty? Each fob has a protector attached which nicely fits over the point of the scissors. I'm so pleased with it and can't wait to see the new fobs that Elaine creates with all her lovely new beads.

On the renovation front, my kitchen cupboards have arrived! They are sitting inside my garage and have been sitting there for a week now while we wait for the contractor to start. He was supposed to be available the first week in October but is still finishing off another job. Meanwhile we have started to live out of boxes as will be the case well into December I'm sure. We can prepare meals on the BBQ once things are under way. We are fortunate that our BBQ has a side burner for heating pots. There's also the microwave which is sitting on a cart in the spare room where our kitchen table resides. Something tells me though that we will grow sick of this soon enough especially when we won't have our sink available. I expect I'll grow sick of eating out. For the first time in a long time I may actually look forward to cooking when everything is completed!

This weekend is the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday. Since I can't prepare the bird this year we have made reservations at a favourite haunt in Ottawa. I just purchased a bus ticket online for my youngest to come home from Toronto. His ride backed out at the last minute and Mom came to the rescue. His brother in Cornwall will be joining us as well. My oldest doesn't get enough time off work to come home plus his car is only good enough for short trips and not the highway driving needed to get to our place. So I'll be paying a visit to their home next month when we celebrate my youngest granddaughter's birthday. I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing weekend and to my fellow Canadian bloggers, Happy Thanksgiving! In these times of job insecurity and uncertainty, I consider myself truly blessed. Thanks be to God.