What a Weekend!

It's Sunday afternoon, I'm incredibly tired but I have had such an awesome weekend here at Retreat! Where do I start?!
I arrived on Friday afternoon at the Gananoque Inn which is absolutely gorgeous! Dani is right, the Inn is first rate and the food is incredible!. I got settled in my room and found my way down to the stitching room which they had set up for us. I couldn't believe the number of ladies already settled and stitching away. What a beautiful sight! I sat myself down and immediately a few of the women came over to introduce themselves. I felt right at home. After stitching for a couple of hours I was just thinking of taking a short break when Dani walked in the room. After catching up I resumed stitching. Shortly afterwards there was a welcome wine and cheese during which time you could mingle with the fellow stitchers as well as check out everyone's recent finishes which were on display. I had taken my "Touching the Autumn Sky" with me. During this time Dani introduced me to Jeannette Douglas who is an absolutely lovely person! It wasn't long before supper and what a meal! I had grilled salmon with risotta and it was soooo good! Dessert was lemon meringue pie. Am I making you drool yet? Following supper Dani and I stayed up 'til about 11:30pm stitching. She was trying to finish up the beading on her model piece.
Saturday began early with a hot and cold breakfast buffet. Classes started at 9:30. I was taking my first class with Jeannette Douglas. The other ladies informed Jeannette that I was a newbie to retreat and this was my first class so I was a "virgin"! Not by the time class was finished though! It was a relatively small group so Jeannette was able to help me out with some specialty stitches. What a treat! It was an all day class broken up by a couple of breaks as well as a lovely lunch. After class we had about 3 hrs to ourselves before supper. I was actually feeling a little sick from having concentrated so hard in class so rather than more stitching I took a short walk up the road to a lovely shop where the retreaters were treated to a discount for the weekend.
I picked up a few Christmas gifts and then headed back for some more stitching. Supper was once again awesome. I don't think I've eaten as much food before as I have on this weekend!
They really know how to wine and dine you! Following supper, goodie bags were handed out to all the retreaters full of charts, threads, etc. Then everyone's names were drawn to pick a gift . Everything was wrapped so what you picked was a surprise. I ended up with a book containing several needlecraft stitches and instructions. I forgot the most important part. When the goodie bags were handed out we were told that one bag contained a glass slipper. Whoever had the slipper was not to tell anyone and would find out why the following day. Nope, it wasn't me!!
Next, more stitching! It was about midnight when Dani and I finally called it a night but we ended up talking in our room until 2:00.
Consequently morning came very quickly! Another incredible breakfast buffet (including making individual omelettes!) and then off to the next class. I'd signed up for a Hardanger class. Dani headed off to another of Jeannette's classes. I really enjoyed the Hardanger. I was terrified at first but it really isn't all that difficult. I managed to cut threads in the right places at least!
I think the most difficult part for me was trying to decipher the pattern but by the end of the class I was getting the hang of it and had managed to complete the design for a scissor fob. The one thing I did learn was that I need to get myself another pair of very sharp embroidery scissors! The class only lasted for the morning and then off to the final lunch. At each lunch there is always a soup and salad buffet followed by your entree which for me was vegetable lasagne. Oh and did I mention the desserts? Over the course of the weekend there were things like chocolate mousse, strawberry shortcake, pecan pie, hot peach cobbler (which was awesome), lemon pie and chessecakes. During every break between classes there was fresh fruit, fruit loaves and fresh baked cookies! I think they're going to have to roll me out of here!!!
The day finished off with door prizes and what prizes! Some included a free framing, a gift basket full of charts, custom made frames, etc. My name was picked and I won a lovely gift set of bath crystals, candle and body silk. Dani also won but I'll let her fill you in on her prize. The final name drawn received a free retreat for next fall or spring since there's also a spring retreat! All I can say is WOW!
I'm using the inn's computer right now so you'll have to wait until Monday or Tuesday when I get home for some pictures. Dani has headed for home ( where did you go to anyways? I looked for you to say bye but lost you somehow!) and now I'm headed back down to stitch until my DH arrives to spend with rest of today and tomorrow with me. The stitching room remains open until 3:00pm on Monday since several of the ladies stay an extra day.
I think I'm very fortunate to have access to such an incredible weekend and will definitely be thinking about next year's retreat!
Thanks Dani for convincing me to go!!

Off to retreat!

Tomorrow after lunch I head off to my first Cross Stitch Cupboard stitching retreat in Gananoque, Ont. Cross Stitch Cupboard is my LNS in Ottawa. I've always known about the retreats but they have been so popular and I was under the impression that it was nearly impossible to get into the Fall retreat. It became so popular that they started up a Spring Retreat for those who could not get into the fall one. It was Dani who mentioned it to me in the spring at a SAL at my house. She had just booked and as far as she knew they were still taking bookings. It's cheaper if you share a room so she suggested we book one together. Sure enough there was room and I was in! The location is really lovely. The Gananoque Inn sits on the St. Lawrence River and offers a gorgeous view. If you check out Dani's blog entry for Oct. 8 you'll see a picture of the Inn. This year Jeannette Douglas is teaching a class which I've signed up for on the Saturday. Sunday I've signed up for a beginner's Hardanger class. I'm told by those who've been to these in the past that I'm in for a real treat! After the stitching weekend is over my DH is driving up to join me. We're staying an extra night at the Inn and we have Monday off to do as we please. We might follow Dani's lead and tour Boldt Castle or we may take a short drive over the border to Watertown, NY for some early Christmas shopping. I can hardly wait!

This past week I was included in the You Make Me Smile Award by Beatrice. Thank you so much Beatrice, you really made my day. I haven't been blogging long but it didn't take me long to learn what a lovely group of people stitchers are! They are all so friendly and generous with their talents. As a rule of the award I have to pass this on to 10 people who make me smile. I know that several of you have already been tagged but since I'm fairly new to this, I'm still adding to my list of blogs that I visit. However I do know that all of you have made me smile at some time or another! I enjoy reading your posts and learning stitching tips from you.

The list includes:

Rebecca of Rebel in Ontario

Dani of Black Belt Stitching Wizard

Vonna of The Twisted Stitcher

Cheryl of Clydeside Stitching

Karen of Little Cat Blogs

Lynne of Queen of My Domaine

Cyndi of Just One More Stitch

Pam of Another Day Gone By

Joanne of Aussie Stitcher

Mindi of What's Up With Wyora?

Please don't be offended if I've not added you to the list. I know that so many of you have been tagged more than once and I was hoping to introduce some new blogs to the list.

I've been feeling better this week and made some progress on Faith. Just the border and a bit more of the butterfly and it's a happy dance. Don't know if I'll get it finished on the weekend with all the other stitching I'll be working on at the retreat but I'm certainly going to try. I've got another project all kitted up and ready to go. I'm going to be doing The Trilogy's Baby Spots for a coworker's daughter who is expecting in late November. Now it's off to pack and get organized for the weekend. I hope to have lots to fill you in on next week! I'll leave you with a picture of my sweetheart Finnigan. He's pretty well an indoor cat but he was quite adamant about going out on the back deck this evening to check things out. After running around out there for a while he came in and promptly went to nap. This is where I found him as I headed down to the computer. What a life!!

Feeling better

At least that's what I thought this morning! I was feeling much better on Thursday morning and headed back into work. However everyone at work is passing this cold around, we are short-staffed and it was just crazy. Throw in the first cold, damp weather of the season and I sort of feel like I've rebounded tonight. Head's all stuffed up again and I'm pretty wiped out. Nothing that a bunch of sleep won't cure though! I'm working the weekend but it shouldn't be as bad as the past couple of days and then I have Monday and Tuesday off to regroup. Thank you all for your well wishes. I see a few others have managed to pick up the bug as well. Hope you're over it soon!

Okay so my battery's all charged now and I got some pics of those Prairie Schooler charts that arrived. I really love these! As soon as Faith is complete, I've got the small sampler from Pumpkin Patch all kitted up and ready to go. It seems I like their seasonal pieces the most. I still would like to get Winter Winds and I believe there is a Spring piece as well. However I'm not as fond of their Santas. I've always been a big fan of folk art but for some strange reason these ones just don't do it for me. However I have thought about doing one for my friend Trish. She absolutely adores folk art. She's commented on my stitching several times (favourably, lol!) and since she's not a stitcher herself I might be tempted to do one of these for her as a Christmas gift. Trish is one of those friends who has everything! She and her husband own a Home Hardware Store and Trish is the craft buyer for the store. I love some of the things she comes home with from the buying trips in Toronto.

I've also thought she might like something by Blackbird Designs. So if I run out of time as the holiday approaches I just might finish off the Country Garden I did earlier for her.

I did manage to get a few more stitches into Faith this week once I started feeling more human.

I haven't done nearly as much as I would have liked. I found myself nodding off more than once!Here's my progress so far.

If you get a chance, drop by Judy's blog and check out how she recently finished Faith. She changed the colour of the border and her butterfly and it looks fantastic!

Voting day in Ontario is over now and all the talk at work was about the Premier's announcement of a new statutory holiday in February. There was more talk about this than about who won the election! For those of you who live in the US and haven't heard, we are to get a new holiday on the third Monday of every February called Family Day. There were a lot of mixed thoughts on this. Several people thought that the amount of money in lost business revenue just wasn't worth it, since in Canada most stores and businesses don't open on stat holidays. Then there is the question of whether or not Heritage Day in Feb. will still exist. I know that this wasn't an official stat holiday but our hospital had adopted it and was counting it as one of the stats for staff. You can bet they're not likely to pay out for two stat holidays in the same month! It should be interesting to see what happens as a result of this.

Fall weather has officially arrived! For the first time, I had to drag out the fall jacket and actually put some socks on! I absolutely hate having to put anything on my feet again other than sandals. I expect on my days off I'll be boxing up the summer clothes and bringing out the sweaters again. Didn't I just put those away?!

Not just the turkey was stuffed!

It appears everyone left the Thanksgiving meal feeling as stuffed as the bird itself! As for me, well I ended up with a stuffed nose. Yup, a lousy cold hit me on Saturday morning. Started as just a sore throat but by Monday it was a full blown cold. I was scheduled to work the holiday and you never call in sick on a holiday. It's just an unspoken rule. So off to work I headed, runny nose and all. My DH got the turkey in the oven for me after a few calls to me at work.( Which side is up when it goes in the pan? Do I add water to it?). I had prepared everything else in advance, thank goodness because by the time work finished I was finished too! I slept before the meal and had Bob wake me in time to do the gravy. Our guests had all cancelled. Nobody else really wanted to catch the bug. So I was able to come to the table in my housecoat since I had a fever by then. I wasn't able to taste anything so I headed back to bed very shortly. My two youngest sons were home though and they lapped it all up! One of the boys said it must be hard to be thankful when you're sick. I said it could be worse and I was thankful that this was the first time I'd had a cold in two years. Both boys were a very big help with the cleanup and took home large care packages of food. I stayed home from work today though since the cold has moved into my chest now. I tend to get bronchitis so whenever it reaches this stage I make sure I get lots of rest.

The downside to all this is that I haven't felt very much like stitching. I did take a few pictures of some of my stash which arrived. The camera's battery died before I could finish so I'll have more pictures to show later. Most of the fabrics are from Sugar Maple Fabrics. The larger one in the center is a Silkweaver Solo linen. Below are a couple of pictures of the charts I received. On the left is PS Trick or Treat and Shepherds Bush Pumpkin Stew.

On the right is Ink Circles Cirques des Cercles which I will be starting Nov. 1st as part of a SAL.

At this point all the rest of the charts turned out too blurry due to my fading battery. I just love the SB chart! I've never done one of their patterns before and this looks like it would be a fun stitch.

I talked to my oldest son this evening. He's the one who lives in Quebec with his two daughters. The girls have been sick with colds the past week and the youngest who is only 10 months ended up in hospital. Her cold had turned into brochitis (just like her Grandma!). Normally this isn't too serious for an infant but Summer has a heart condition. She was born with two holes in her heart. One has closed but the other is still there and she often has difficulty breathing. Now throw in the bronchitis and you see why she ended up in hospital. She is home now but Jeff says she is receiving breathing treatments and is on a pump. In addition they had to start her back on her heart medication. She is mending slowly but surely. She has to return in November to the pediatric hospital in Montreal where they are following her.

Jeff was feeling a little bummed out by all this and the fact that they don't really celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday where he is in Quebec. He says that they get the holiday off work but nobody really does anything special or prepares a special meal. I told him that it's time to instill some of his customs in his family. That way his girls will grow up with both their French customs as well as the English customs. I told him the next time he's home I'd give him a quick cooking lesson on how to do a turkey. After all, if my DH managed okay then Jeff can too!

I'm off to bed early now to get rid of this miserable cold. Hoping to feel much more like stitching tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A very Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all my fellow Canadian bloggers! Although I'm working, we are celebrating on the holiday Monday since that works out best for my sons and our guest.

My plans are to cook the turkey overnight on Sunday so there is not that much to do when I get home from work Monday. I'm cooking things in advance over the weekend. As I write this I have a roasted red pepper soup simmering on the stove and the pumpkin pie will be cooked later this evening.

Except for today, the weather has been absolutely marvellous the past week. Warm temps and plenty of sun along with all the fall colours has just brightened everything.We took one final boat ride yesterday and then winterized the boat motor and got the boat covered and ready for storage. On my way home from the river I took this lovely picture of the sunset. The colours were so stunning I just couldn't resist!

Canada Post finally came through this week with a good portion of my much anticipated stash!

I forgot to take a picture during daytime hours so I'll post one in the next couple of days.

Included were several Prairie Schooler charts , some fabric smalls from Sugar Maple Fabric and the chart for my SAL in November. After looking at the new charts I wanted to start everything at once! However my common sense prevailed and I've limited myself to just one, PS Pumpkin Patch. I'll start it as soon as I've got threads. I've already picked the fabric. In the meantime I've put the ornament aside until I decide whether or not to continue with it and I've started LHN's Faith. I haven't got very far on it since I been overloaded at work this week and just too pooped to do anything at night. Here's a pic of my progress so far.

I've decided to join a SAL with some fellow southeastern Ontario stitchers for Nov.1st. The group is split in two, some doing Paradigm Lost and the others doing Cirques des Cercles. I've decided to try the latter and ordered my threads(Vicky Clayton) and fabric(Kiwi Illusions) this week. This is my first undertaking of anything of this magnitude and count on the group giving me a nudge if I start to tire of things or have any problems. It's always much nicer having the encouragement of fellow stitchers. The date for my stitching retreat is fast approaching, only two more weeks! I'm really looking forward to meeting some new stitchers from my neck of the woods.

I'm off now to finish up my soup and then perhaps some stitching. I'll leave you with a picture I took this morning. It was raining lightly and while I was sorting through some recipes at the dining room table I heard a loud cheep. When I looked out the window I spotted this woodpecker at our feeder. In the past we've had some downy woodpeckers visit but this one was larger and we think it is a Hairy Woodpecker. We're going to check it out with a birder friend of ours. Enjoy your weekend!

Ok, so I tried it...

Punchneedle that is. I spent Saturday afternoon at my LNS taking a beginner's class on punchneedle. The company was good, lots of laughs at our "expertise" and the time spent passed very quickly but I must say that I don't think it will ever replace cross stitch for me. If nothing else, after a particularily bad work week, it was very therapeutic with all that punching! Lol! With the whole group doing it, it sounded like popcorn cooking in the microwave. You can see in the picture where I first started in the upper left. The loops are pretty loose. By the time I finished I was starting to get the rhythm down pat and the loops were looking much more even and neat. I probably will try another piece at a later date. They'd run out of needles to sell and have some on order. The size of the bevel on the needles surprised me. They were as large as some of the needles we use in blood taking. And trust me, if you don't watch it you will stab yourself and draw blood! One of the positives of doing this type of needlework is that completion is much quicker. We finished this piece off in 2 hrs and we were new to this. An experienced stitcher could finish a much larger piece in an afternoon.

As for my ornament I'm working on, I'm very disappointed. The fabric isn't nearly dark enough and the snowman (being stitched with overdyed thread) is just blending in so that all you can really see is the word Joy. It might have shown up better if I'd just used plain white thread but at this point I don't know whether to finish it off or just call it quits. I'm not about to frog out all the white. I might just pick up something else.


















All this time I've been waiting for my threads to start Trick or Treat Lane and the order hasn't even shipped yet! It seems they were waiting for a chart I'd ordered which was on back order and finally they just reimbursed me for the chart and are shipping the order out today.
So I'm kind of at a standstill right now! I've been thinking very seriously about the invitation I've had to join some friends in a SAL on November 1st. Some are planning to do Paradigm Lost and a few others are doing Cirques des Cercles. I think I've decided to go ahead with the latter. It's large enough for my first attempt at something of this magnitude! Now all I have to do is get my fabric and threads ordered. I really like the looks of one of the photos in the Cirques Gallery. It's done with some Vicki Clayton hand dyed silks. I don't care whether or not I'm using silks but I love this particular colour . It's called Dragon Hoard. Hopefully I can find something along these lines.


Thank you all for your help with my button dilemma on Blood Donors. I think I'm going to go with Cindi's suggestion of glue buttons mostly because I don't trust myself with the Tacky Glue. I'm a real klutz!

A finish...almost!

My button pack arrived today for my Blood Donor piece. Right after supper I sat down to sew them on. I sewed on the bats and ghost first but it wasn't until I reached for the little moon when I realized that this one had to be glued on. The same goes for the star. For the picture I've just placed them on. I'm afraid that I'll make a mess of things trying to glue them on. Can anyone give me any tips? Myself , I'd rather just get 2 replacements which can actually be sewn on.

The mail also brought me an early Christmas gift and I'm so excited!

I've been wanting a portable ott-lite for awhile now. So many times when I travel I can't stitch because I don't have the right light and I end up with eye strain if I try. Also one of our TVs is in our bedroom. Sometimes I'd like to stitch there while watching it but the light is really poor in that room. So I've been watching for a good price on one of the lights. When I found one earlier in the month I mentioned it to my DH and he told me he'd get it for me as an early gift. This way I'll be able to bring it with me on the Cross Stitch Cupboard Stitching Retreat in October. It also has a magnifying lens which is perfect since it seems I need that more and more each day!

I've been working an awful lot of overtime lately and not necessarily by choice. However the extra pay has allowed me a few extras such as some framing. Michael's craft store had a 50% off framing sale last week so I took a couple of pieces in with me to have estimates. I really only expected to get one piece done but since there were no mats involved I was able to get two done, Brittercup's Brotherly Love and Haunted Halloween. I'll post pictures when they're done.

This pic was taken on a recent boat trip on the St. Lawrence. The weather has been so great lately that after work I've been meeting my DH at the dock in Morrisburg where we've been heading out for short drives. We stopped at a marina in Iroquois to check it out and this is when we spotted this fellow. He certainly didn't seem bothered by our presence. I love herons and keep hoping to get a good shot of one as it takes flight but no luck yet. It won't be long before the boat is stored again until spring. Where did the summer go?