Oh Deer!

That's not exactly what I said when I ran onto one of these animals on my way to work last week! The deer fared better than my car for sure. I was in an area where there are lots of fields where the deer have been foraging but I was on a curve and there's a blind spot where you can't seem them coming. Fortunately I know they're there so I always slow down when I get to that spot and sure enough I saw a brown blur out of the corner of my eye. I slammed on the brakes but it wasn't fast enough and there was a large thud as I hit the deer. She continued on into the field to meet her friend where they then proceeded to recross the road in front of me as I checked out the damage to the car. It doesn't look like much but all said and done I need to replace the front fender and have a dent bumped out on the passenger side of the car. The hood of the car buckled slightly at that corner and the windshield washer container within the car split open and leaked its contents on the road. The fog light was also pushed in. Could have been much worse. A piece of the deer's flesh and fur stuck to my fender showed me that she did have some injury and as she took off once more I noticed her limping somewhat. Fortunately I was unhurt and insurance will cover the damage. It's the first time in 19yrs of commuting in the area that I actually had a run-in with one of them and hopefully it's my last!

In keeping with the lovely spring weather we've been having here lately, I wanted to start something new for Easter. I'd been looking for a small piece to do, preferably something with religious undertones to it rather than the usual Easter fare of bunnies and chicks. When I picked up the March/April issue of JCS, I knew I'd found what I'd been looking for. Inside was a little Easter piece by Diane Williams of LHN called He is Risen. I had all the necessary supplies in my stash and got started on this one last week. Above is a progress pic as of last night. I'm doing it on a white linen but in this picture it sure doesn't look white. Of course, true to form, I'll have it ready for next Easter rather than this year.

Believe it or not, that Mirabilia Easter Fairy that I started 2 years ago is still hanging around waiting for her beading to be complete. I know, I'm so close to finishing her off but I just can't bring myself to pick it up again. No excuse, and I just can't explain it!

Next up is my LHN ornie finish for this month. Just a Flake stitched up very quickly but somewhere along the way I screwed up in my counting. Consequently when I stitched in the snow at the bottom, his boots were resting one row above it. I stitched an extra row of snow rather than dealing with the frogs.

LHN Home of a Needleworker too (Hmm, do you notice a LHN theme here?) has been moving along slowly but surely.It doesn't progress as quickly as I'd like it to since I'm only stitching on it during my breaks at work. Sorry about the picture. I didn't feel like pressing the fabric. I'm feeling rather lazy today.

I'd planned on staying put and stitching for most of the day but Clarisse had other plans for me. I had a scheduled appointment for her this morning for her annual vaccines. It wasn't until
the car trip there that I realized she really can meow when the need arises. She's had vaccines before with no problems but shortly after we returned home she started vomiting. At first I thought that maybe she'd been a little car sick or it was just a reaction to the stress of the situation. But after 7 or 8 episodes along with some bowel movements outside the litter box, I realized we had a problem. Phoned the vet and found ourselves back in the car again for a return trip. More outraged meowing on the way.

Yes, this is an adverse reaction to the vaccine. They put her on an IV to give some steroids and antihistamines and told me to return in 2 hrs to pick her up. I was meeting Bob for lunch at Tim Hortons following his Saturday bell rehearsal and just killed some time shopping while waiting for him. After lunch I return for the cat. Everything's fine, she's settled down now, just keep an eye on her but she should be fine. Wrong! Shortly after getting in, once more she starts vomiting. This time I also find some blood on the floor. Panic, call the vet, and once more we're in the car on the way back there. More crying, much more subdued this time. Now keep in mind that the vet is located in the next village which is about a 15 minute drive away. So I've spent an hour and a half on the road today going back and forth. Neither Clarisse or myself are impressed! This time I return with no cat. They've decided to put her back on an IV and keep her overnight for observation. The blood is just from an aggravated colon but now they want to give her the animal equivalent of Gravol(an anti-nausea med). In all the years I've had cats this is the first time I've ever had one react in this manner. Needless to say I'm worried and wonder if this is going to happen each year when vaccination time rolls around. Any other cat owners out there ever have these problems?

To take my mind off of things I've now started to get my suitcase packed for my trip south to Florida. My flight leaves on Tuesday morning and I am soooo looking forward to it! What to bring, what to bring? The weather has been cooler than usual there but my Mom informed me that the days are warming up now. A jacket and some longer pants are still in order since the nights have been a bit cooler. I seem to be between sizes right now. I currently have a set of "fat" clothes and "skinny" clothes from which to choose. I've recently lost 11 lbs with hopes of losing more but right now I'm sort of fitting in between the fat and the skinny clothes. Now when I say skinny you can't take that literally since I have never been skinny in my life! I'm just referring to a smaller set of clothes than my fat clothes. The fat pants are dragging in the crotch and the skinny ones require some major inhaling in order to zip them up. Which is more uncomfortable, not being able to breathe or excess material rubbing on the inside of one's thighs? I'll have to weigh my options, pardon the pun!

I'm planning on bringing the laptop with me so let's hope that my little interet stick can latch onto a local cell tower for connection. If you don't hear from me you'll know it's failed and I'll be in touch when I return. I get back on the Easter weekend so I'll wish you all a Happy Easter now. I hope Spring has paid all of you a visit by then. I'll leave you with some pictures of my new Easter additions to our home.

CLARISSE UPDATE: The vet just called with an update and said that Clarisse is no longer being sick and seems much brighter. If she continues like this we can bring her home tomorrow.

The Lost is Found

After weeks of searching for my Trilogy Secret Snowdrift it finally surfaced last week. And was I looking for it at the time? No! Of course not! I was busy looking for the camera charger which disappeared several days before that. I found SS stored in tissue paper beneath a mound of papers on the mess that is known as our TV entertainment centre. This resides in our bedroom and became a catch-all clean haven during our renovations. However so many things ended up being deposited there to keep them dust free that we weren't sure if the entertainment centre was still there beneath everything!

Alas, the camera charger is still missing (last seen when DH used it). Bob keeps assuring me that it will turn up but in the meantime my camera has gone dead and can't be used. This means that if we didn't find it soon I wouldn't have a camera to take with me on my upcoming trip to Florida. So while he was waiting for it to turn up, I ordered another charger online which arrived this week. The night before it arrived in the mail, he finally admitted defeat and asked for the camera info so that he might purchase another battery charger. I told him I'd already ordered one and charged it to his card, lol!

So now all is well, both stitching and camera back in use. The pic of Snowdrift shows you just how far away I was from a happy dance when this little project disappeared.

The past 2 weeks I've gotten a fair amount of stitching done. At my Tuesday night SAL a week ago, I put in my needle on a new start, LHN Home of a Needleworker. I'm stitching it on 28ct Queen Anne's Lace jobelan. It's really enjoyable and is progressing at a good pace. When it's completed, I'm having it framed and hung in my entrance so that all who enter know exactly what I LOVE to do! Speaking of LHN, has anyone seen the new Easter piece by Diane Williams, He Is Risen, in this month's issue of Just Cross Stitch? I'm planning to kit it up this weekend. I'm sure it won't be finished for the season this year but I'll have it hung and in place next year for sure. It's not that it would take all that long to complete but life continues to be busy in this neck of the woods.

As I mentioned, I'm planning a trip to Florida again to visit with my Mom and Stepdad. Once more, my sister will be joining me, this time with her husband as well. I'm gone 10 days this time, arriving home just before the Easter weekend. DH is too busy preparing his choirs for spring concerts to join us. Once I've arrived home I return to work for only 2 days and then my surgery is scheduled followed by a recuperation of 6 weeks at home. I'm already checking my calendar for a date in late April or early May for a SAL at my place. I should be feeling much better by then and will probably be going stir crazy.

Next up on my list of stitching accomplishments this week is my LHN montly ornament called He's A Flake. The pattern on this one called for the snowman's scarf to be stitched in the same colour floss as the planter. I wasn't happy with the colour and preferred something a little brighter for the snowman so I've stitched his scarf in a lovely Christmas red, WDW Liberty.

I also replaced the gold coloured floss used in the tree garland with alternating red and gold beads. And here is a pic of how things look so far.

This coming Tuesday when I join the ladies for stitching I'm going to concentrate on Nantucket again. It's not likely to see much progress on in while I'm away. It's more bulky to pack and I prefer to take smaller projects with me on the trip. I have to save more room in the suitcase for future purchases! Does anyone know of a needlework shop in the Fort Myers area that I can pay a visit to?

I just glanced over the dining room table to find Clarisse finally using her new bed. She doesn't like our choice of hardwood floors (much too cold for her) and is missing the carpet. Consequently we've come home on numerous occasions to find her comfortably sleeping on our living room loveseat or sofa. We don't really want her up there since she leaves behind the equivalent of another cat in fur. In order to discourage her, I found a lovely pet bed on special at our local grocery store. It looked so soft and comfy and was a steal at less than $10. Of course, said bed has been sitting untouched now for weeks. She checked it out on the first night and hasn't been near it since until now. Looks like she's discovered it's comfort value!

It's an absoultely gorgeous day here today and now I'm off to run some errands. Can't stay cooped up indoors on a day like this! My tulips are even starting to poke up their heads in the front garden, can you believe it!

Getting organized

After more than 2 yrs of waiting for the completion of my craft room, I decided to get started by putting together my shelf organizers. These were a Christmas gift from my MIL two years ago if you can believe it and they've finally been put together. Their final resting place will be in my youngest son's former bedroom (most recently our living quarters during the kitchen renovations). The room has been painted but the carpet needs cleaning and that can't be completed until we move out the massive amounts of accumulated junk. I don't figure that will take place until perhaps during my recuperation from surgery. Of course I'll need DH's help which means that we might be waiting until summer when he has more time off of rehearsals. By that time the weather is beautiful and who feels like staying indoors. Get the picture? We may be waiting several more years before this is completed! Retirement perhaps?

In any case, most of the cubicles have been put together with the exception of two. These consist of more of the 4 drawers type so I now know that I need more of the divider cubes. These organizers came from Michaels and I saw them shortly after the holidays so I'm hoping that they still have some around. DH is going to check for me tomorrow in Ottawa since I'm working this weekend and can't get there myself.

It's so great to finally have everything in one place where I know exactly where to find it. No more searching through my huge box of floss for a particular colour. They're now arranged in the small drawers, sorted by DMC number. I store them in floss bags which are arranged on rings by their numbers, 100s, 200s, etc. My WDW and GAST floss as well as other hand dyes are still in another storage box residing on these shelves until such time as I get another one put together. I have such a huge amount of fabric though, particularily hand dyed, that I think they'll remain in their current storage box. All of my freebie patterns are arranged by season in binders and the remainder are stored on CDs. I know that it still looks a bit disorganized but if you could have seen it before you would have died! My God but you don't realize exactly how much stash you have until you see it all in one place. It's easier to fool yourself when it's scattered about the house.

Because I spent a lot of my free time doing this, I spent less time stitching. Plus I'm too caught up in the Olympics at the moment. I thought I could stitch and watch but invariably the stitching is put aside as I get involved in the games. Here's my progress for this week.

First I managed to finish off my LHN Pear Tree ornament. Of course by finished I always mean the stitching since I never have time for the actual finishing until a much later date. The next ornament in the series, He's A Flake, arrived this week and I've made a small start on it as of today. Picture to follow later.

While I was awaiting its arrival, I took out my M Designs name tree for my granddaughter Oceanne. I've only worked on it for one evening but it's progressing fairly quickly. I can only stitch on this one at home because it's over one and I need my magnifying lens.

Finally I've put some time in on Nantucket Sampler. I really love this one and I'm getting lots of positive comments from my coworkers whenever it makes an appearance. Sorry about the bump in the centre. I just didn't feel like taking the whole thing off of the Q snaps.

My floss package and fabric arrived last week for Winter Mandala which recently appeared in an issue of JCS magazine. It's a Tracy Horner design and the silk floss are by Vicky Clayton.

I'm looking forward to this one. In the meantime I would like to start LHN Home of a Needleworker. Add to that another design I spotted in last year's Jan/Feb issue of JCS by Hands To Work designer Tracy Riffle called This is the Day which I fell in love with. It's stitched on 40 ct but I'm thinking more likely 32ct. I have some fabric here that I think will work well. Some of the floss will need to be ordered for this one though so it might take a back seat to one of the others. Then once Oceanne's ornament is done it's time to get started on one for her sister Summer. I think there's enough on my plate for now. But oh my how I love the new PS designs! Tortoise & The Hare is adorable!

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day. DH was involved in a recital that evening. We did manage to make it to dinner but had to share our time with a guest who was also in the concert. We tried out a restaurant that I've been wanting to visit for some time now. Every time I would say to Bob, "We should try that one out some time.", he would respond with "I'm ready any time you want to take me!" Finally he took me. Although it's primarily an Italian restaurant, I had trout done in a balsamic sauce accompanied with a small pasta dish. It was heaven! I behaved though, no dessert.

This Friday following work I took a drive to the bird sanctuary near Morrisburg where I actually do more than check out the birds. The deer are also there in large numbers and are fairly tame. People drop off grain, apples and carrots for them. They know the sound of the cars and after sitting for a few minutes you will see them making their way out of the woods to check out the situation. I counted 16 surrounding me. I managed to get a few photos from the car.

Then it was off to feed the chickadees who land right on your hand to take their seeds. There were so many of them. I was alone so I couldn't get a picture of this but Bob is going to go with me on Monday and hopefully we'll get some good pics then.

I'll leave you with a picture of the sunset that I took on my way home. Hope you all have a good week. I know where I'll be.....parked in front of the TV each night as the Olympics continue. I might even get some stitching in!

It's a perfect winter day!

Look at the lovely winter day that greeted me as I headed out my front door this morning. I just couldn't resist taking a picture. It's so nice to see such a blue sky. It's also the perfect day for the opening of Winterlude in Ottawa. This festival includes snow sculptues, ice carving and skating on the Rideau Canal. It runs over the next two weeks so I'm going to try to make it there this year and take some pictures to show you. It's been a couple of years since I last made it to the festival.

This was one of those weeks that I was so glad to see come to an end! It was a 7 day stretch for me since I started working last Saturday and the week just seemed to drag. I've still been fighting some sort of a bug and spent a good portion of my time sleeping so I didn't get in as much stitching as I would have liked. Whatever I'm fighting has taken a lot out of me and I haven't felt this tired for a long time. When I say tired I mean the kind where I'm trying not to drift off on my drive into work! Pretty bad, eh? After being sick for more than a month now, I convinced my DH to make a doctor's appointment and get checked out. The verdict, some bronchitis and pneumonia in the right lung. He's starting to feel much better now that he's on some antibiotics. Hopefully we are both on the mend now.

Despite feeling tough, I rummaged through my needle bags and found Nantucket Sampler to brighten things up. I tried to find an earlier picture to show you my progress but I can't find the CD that I backed them up on. I'm enjoying this piece so much! I love the colours and can't wait to see it finished. Off course the colour of the fabric in the latest picture doesn't come close to the actual colour. Why is it that fabric doesn't photograph well? I've been stitching this on an 11 in. Q-snap which is a bit cumbersome to work with. I'm going to see if I can fit the pieces of some of my various Q snaps together to make more of a rectangular shape. It will make things a little easier. My biggest challenge with this piece is in trying to keep the fabric clean. As many times as I wash my hands it seems I always manage to get some dirt on the fabric. Fortunately its on the portion which won't be seen when its' framed.

Besides Nantucket I worked on my LHN Pear Tree ornament which is getting close to a finish now. I'm surprised that I'm managing to get these ornaments stitched up fairly quickly. The next ornament in the series hasn't shown up yet in my mail and I don't expect it will for another couple of weeks. When the charts are released we don't get them as quickly here in Canada as they do in the US. Speaking of the US, some of you are really getting whalloped with a major storm! I've been watching the weather network and when I saw some of the pictures I was thankful that we weren't anywhere near the path it's taking. We've been really fortunate here that our snowfall is below its usual level for this time of year. It's certainly made for better driving conditions on my way into work. For all of you caught in the middle of the mess, stay warm and take care! It's perfect stitching weather.

Judy was asking how Clarisse was and saying that she hadn't seen any pics of her lately. So here she is.Look at the difference that a year makes! You never realize just how big they're getting until you look back at the photos. I know it's the same with our children too. The first photo was taken just last week. She's really turned into a beautiful cat.

Bob wasn't too impressed when he saw that she was up on the beds in both photos. He'll tell you that he doesn't like cats but he has certainly taking a liking to this particular one. He says that she's the closest thing to a little dog. She comes when she's called, plays fetch with her ball and now we've even got her to beg for her treats! The last photo shows her in action. We didn't have the flash on so it's a little dark. Now she's even started begging like this while we're eating our meals. Bob claims it's all my fault since I'm the one who gave her some small pieces of chicken when I was getting dinner ready one night. She caught on quickly and figures any food is fair game now.

I guess that's about it from here for now. I've got to get a bit of cleaning done because we're hosting a potluck dinner tomorrow for one of Bob's choirs. There's really not much work to it since they're bringing all the food. We just supply the location.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

And two more makes three!

Yaaay! Two more finishes to add for 2010. This past weekend I finally finished Blessings. I really enjoyed working on this one even if it did take me a little longer than it should have. I was determined that I wouldn't stitch on anything else until I'd finished it.

Once complete, I reached for the next UFO which was the Ink Circles Spotted Owls. I finished it up on Monday night, just in time to show off at my stitching group on Tuesday. Now the hunt is on for my Trilogy Secret Snowdrift. I've found the floss and pattern but have yet to find the actual piece. I remember removing it from its Q snap which I needed for another work. I was concerned that it would get dusty with all the renovations that were taking place and I know that I put it somewhere where it would stay clean. But I can't remember where!!!!! I've looked through drawers, in stitching bags, fabric boxes and the like with no luck at all. I'm sure that it won't surface until my spring cleaning if then. That leaves my M designs ornament for Oceanne next on the list. The floss for this one is missing in action! I can't believe my mind is this bad. At the end of it all, I was too tired to start an extensive search so I did the next best thing. I started another project of course!

Up next is my Little House ornament of the month, Pear Tree. I'm off to a good start on this one now and I'm itching for something a little bigger. Then I remembered my Nantucket Summer Sampler. I'm not working for the next 2 days so perhaps I can get back to spending some time with this one.

The mail brought a pleasant surprise this week. Some stash showed up which was a little delayed in its arrival. The package included Plum Street Samplers Beloved, Val's Stuff Kitty Kalendar January and The Drawn Thread Spot of Spring. These were a treat from me to me. Beloved is based on the Song of Solomon 6:3. My DH has been known to refer to me as his Beloved and we had readings from the Song of Solomon at our wedding. I originally thought of doing this for him as a Valentine gift but at this late date it will either have to wait until next year or I could have it ready for our anniversary this summer.

Being a cat lover I just couldn't resist Kitty Kalendar. I see now that the February kitty is out. I'm wondering if I should do these as smalls or stitch them all on one piece. By the time I get around to stitching them, a year will probably have passed and I'll have the whole collection by then anyways!

Autumn Leaves and Sunflower Seeds by Blue Ribbon Designs was the other arrival which I'd been impatiently waiting for. I love it! The different squares can be finished in so many different ways. The owl and the turkeys are my favourites. As much as I'd love to get started on this one, I'm going to be good and wait until I've got more done on Nantucket.

It looks like I'll have a lot more stitching time this spring. I've been having some post-menopausal issues and as a result it looks like I'm being scheduled for a hysterectomy. It's not an urgent matter therefore there is a wait. I was told most likely late Feb. or early March. When I mentioned that I had a trip planned to Florida in late March, the Dr. decided to wait until after I returned just in case I had any complications while on vacation. That brings us to mid April with a 6 week recuperation. I might even get some finishing done with that much time on my hands!

Thanks to everyone for your recent visits and positive comments on my stitching. I love hearing from all of you.

First Finish of 2010

LHN Fa La La is my first finish of 2010. I frogged out all the white lettering last night and replaced it with the red and I'm much happier. This morning I finished off the beading and then proceeded to look for fabric for the finishing. I think this one will do quite nicely. Now I'm off to work on frogging out the stars in Blessings and replacing them. Hope everyone is able to have a stitchy weekend!

Close to a finish

I'm hoping it won't be long now before I have my first finish for 2010. I have 2 pieces which are close to being completed - Blessings and Fa La La by Little House of Needleworks. I started Fa La La about a week ago and it's been progressing very well. However once I got the lettering stitched in I wasn't happy with the way it looked. I didn't go with the recommended fabric,
choosing instead to use up some of the fabric in my stash. I chose a Silkweaver called Sand which is very close in colour to the recommended choice. However I find that the lettering in white is just not showing up. I'm thinking of replacing it with the red colour used in the one girl's dress. I think I shall start frogging tonight. The frogs have been in residence a lot lately and although this ornament is a simple piece, I've had to frog out several times. I think I was just too tired when I was stitching on this one. I managed to get both girls stitched when I realized that one was sitting up just one row higher than the other. In fact it was the first stitched girl that I'd counted wrong on and there was just too much stitched to be frogged. It would have meant redoing one whole side of the ornament. I chose instead to frog out the girl in green and move her down one row to even things up. That'll teach me!!

I joined the LHN monthly ornament group but because I live in Canada it seems that I'm behind the ladies who live in the US. I don't receive my charts until they've had theirs for about a month or more. I just received notice this week that my second ornament chart is being mailed to me so I should receive it next week. I think the ladies in Vonna's group are getting ready to receive their 3rd ornie chart. I am enjoying stitching these though. LHN is one of my favourite designers and her patterns are always a fun stitch.

As for Blessings, I'm having the same problem with the white floss not showing up on my fabric. The white stars just weren't popping so I replaced them with a soft gold colour. I'm still thinking though that they could've been much darker. Any thoughts? I'm looking through my floss to see if I can find a darker gold colour.

I know the date on this piece is 2009 which is when I'd hoped to complete it but I'm not changing it now.

Tuesday night stitching was a lot of fun. It was good to see all the ladies after our holiday break. There were a couple of happy dances to celebrate including Sally's finish of the Village of Hawk Run Hallow and Barb's Orca finish. Both works have been in progress for some time so there was much to celebrate. And then of course there was the fun of seeing all the new starts. Three members of the group are stitching Christmas in Hawk Run Hallow. Each of the three have different colour choices so it's fun to see how things are progressing.
I'd like to finish off some of my UFOs like the Ink Circle's Owl and my Trilogy Snowman. The snowman however seem to be lost at the moment. I remember removing it from my stitching bag which was getting too full at the time but for the life of me I can't remember where I've put it. Of course that was during the time of the renovations and there have been many things which have gone missing then. Sooner or later we'll find them all. I just found a Bluetooth accessory for DH's cell phone which has been missing in action for the past year! It's a real shame though because if I can't find the snowmen I just might be forced into a new start, lol!

Both myself and DH are under the weather right now. Bob has been ill with a chest cold for 10 days and I'm fighting it now. Fortunately it really hasn't taken hold of me the way that it did Bob. I stayed home from work today and didn't really stitch much at all. I spent most of my time sleeping instead probably due to the cold. I'm waiting for the arrival of a Blue Ribbons Design, Autumn Leaves and Sunflower Seads. I love doing designs like these and of course I'm partial to autumn scenes. Now I'm off to settle in for a couple hours of stitching before bed. If I can managae to drag myself out of bed tomorrow at an early hour, I should be able to get in some quality stitching time before heading into Ottawa. We've been invited to a choir potluck. Mmmmm!