Muskoka stitching

Week two of my summer vacation resulted in far more time for stitching. Can you imagine stitching in the chair at the right?! This Muskoka chair is seen at the entry into the town of Gravenhurst and for us it has always signalled that we've arrived.

As you saw from my previous post, Halloween Cove showed significant progress. Besides that I had a small happy dance. My Trilogy Summer Lineup is finally finished. I got tired of waiting for the petit black beads which I planned on using in place of all the french knots in this piece. Then on my trip to Thread & Eye in London I picked up a pack of the beads. Just one minor point when it came to using them. I had not brought a single beading needle with me. Hmmm, do I wait until I return home to finish this or do it now with the called for french knots while I'm in the mood? I elected to give the french knots a try. It's amazing how easily they came when I was relaxed! And here are the results.

With the finish on this one came the need for a fresh start. I'd grown tired of Halloween Cove and needed a change. My resources were limited since I'd only brought a small number of projects with me. I browsed through my packings and decided to give my next LHN ornie a start.

Red House in Winter has been a really quick stitch. Most of this ended up being done in the car on the way home. Shortly after I started it at the cottage our time was taken up with visitors and visiting.

We were unable to rent our usual cottage during our visit this year. So I scouted the online rental sites and found another rental just down the road but on the other side of the point from our usual spot. This rental was a boathouse on the water and let me tell you, it was an incredibly beautiful view from the deck. This particular bay on Lake Muskoka was much calmer and quieter. We seemed to be sheltered more from the wind there. The boathouse itself was lovely and contained every amenity we could possibly need during our stay. Our hosts were such friendly folks and made sure that our stay was a pleasant one. We had chatted with them about my DH and his specialty of baking banana bread. Would you believe it? When we returned from an outing on our first day there we found a basket full of banana muffins on the dining table with a note asking how they compared! Thank you so much Nina and David for sharing your lovely spot with us. We hope to see you again next year.

One of the things I love to do while at the cottage is to head out in the boat and snap pictures of all the various boathouses on the lake. Over the years my collection of pics has grown and I have several favourites I love to revisit. Next post I'll give you a peek at some of the boathouses on the lake which I've come to love.

Our time in Muskoka was over too soon and once more we were on the way home. We had just left the cottage road and onto the main highway when I spotted something coming out of the woods in the distance. Was that a bear? As we got closer we could see that it was! He was sauntering across the highway and stopped briefly to glance in our direction. I was fumbling in the car, trying to find the camera. By the time we caught up with him, he'd already headed up the lane of a cottage. He refused to turn and look at us again despite Bob honking the horn so I only caught a pic of the back end of him. I'm sorry that it's not focused. I was so excited that I didn't take the time to focus before snapping the pic. I was afraid I'd miss him and then nobody would believe I actually saw him!

The weekend is promising to be a good one and I hope that yours is as well. Take some advice from the saying on my T-shirt in the following picture! From the looks of the size of me, I think I'm enjoying it a little too much, lol!