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!