A Christmas start, TUSAL and Crumpets

Christmas is fast approaching, at least in terms of stitching it is! Having completed my Halloween Quaker I gave myself permission for a new start. Jenny Bean's Christmas Sampler is one that I've had my eye on for some time now. I have several of the Shakespeare's Peddler designs in my stash but this is the first that I've pulled to try. I'm stitching it on LL Magnolia and I'm really loving this fabric! Lots of lovely coloured floss too! I'll be packing this one up for my stitching this afternoon.

The new moon is upon us once more and with that comes TUSAL.
My little ort jars were pretty full this month. Lots of blacks, browns, rusts and golds from Halloween Quaker and Acorn Hill. My large jar appears to be just the perfect size to hold my annual orts. When I stopped by my girlfriend's place the other night she had the same jar but it was filled with potpourri. If you remember, this jar has holes on top of the cap so it's the perfect jar for scenting a room in this way plus it showed off the dried berries perfectly.

Last night's weekly stitch was filled with fun. Many of the ladies had just returned from the Fall Retreat in Gananoque. Unfortunately I was not one of them since it's just not in the budget. The retreats are now being run by Laura of Enchanting Lair designs. Laura hand dyes fabric and she brought a selection of her fabs to retreat. Following retreat the fabrics were sent along with a member of our stitching group for those of us who couldn't make the retreat.

Okay so you all know what happens when there is a table full of fabric and a room full of stitchers! Lots of ooohs, aaahs and major fondling going on!  I had hoped to pick up some more 32 ct for my stash but it all sold at the retreat so I came home with these two pieces of 28ct.

The one on the left is a lugana and the one on the right is a linen. I had a terrible time taking photos of these though. The linen is one of her new colours called Spydermyst. You can't see it from this pic but it has a very subtle mottling throughout it. I already have a project in mind for this one.

 

 The lugana fabric is oh so yummy! Isn't this a wonderful piece of fabric! That mottling is like a soft copper colour and I snapped this piece up as soon as I saw it. It's called Smouldering Skies. It would work great for an autumn or Halloween stitch I think.

On the lighter side, I've discovered crumpets! I haven't mentioned it here yet but I've been trying to shed some pounds. I have an athritic hip and haven't been able to exercise much. Combine that with my high blood pressure and it's time to drop some weight. My biggest downfall are breads. Actually carbs in general but breads just seem to call my name! We've replaced our bread with the Weight Watchers version but it just doesn't seem the same for my morning toast.

Yesterday I paid a trip to our local grocer and discovered these little goodies on the shelves.

Okay so I'd heard of crumpets but I never really knew what they were. Turns out, this particular brand has 0 gms of fat and a very low carb count. Hmmm, how would they taste toasted? I dropped the package into the cart and headed home with them. This morning was the true test. I love them! The bottom looks almost like a pancake and the spongy surface soaks up my reduced calorie jelly, filling the whole crumpet with flavour. Along with my shredded wheat it is keeping the hunger pangs away quite nicely. Who knew!!

I hope you all have the time to fit in at least a few stitches this week and welcome to my new followers!

Ironic

It's not Alanis Morrissette's song I'm referring to, but the fact that I decided to go into Ottawa a day early for an appointment and stay overnight to avoid the hazardous drive during the next day's impending snowstorm only to find myself getting rear ended on dry roads!! Yup, I think I must have a permanent target sign on any car I drive. This time I was heading to my Tuesday night SAL after which I would join my DH and spend the night with him in Ottawa. I had an early morning medical appointment which I didn't want to cancel and snowmaggedon was slated to make an appearance in the early morning hours on Wednesday. I was driving through rush hour traffic and had just come to a stop behind a long line of cars when BANG!!

I found myself being thrown forward and then back, my seat even flying back and dropping on its rails, as I was pushed into the car in front of me. So naturally, damage to the car front and rear. The man who hit me was from out of town and driving a rental. He hadn't seen me stop early enough and when he slammed on the brakes they locked and he ran right into me.

I immediately felt the impact in my back and the next day my DH convinced me to pay a visit to the emergency department at our local hospital when I'd returned home. Six hours later I was told that I had some whiplash, given some pain killers and sent home to rest from work for a couple of days. I always thought that whiplash resulted in pain only in the neck but apparently not since most of my pain is concentrated in my upper back. So here I sit, on an absolutely beautiful day post snowstorm, feeling sorry for myself.

I'm watching our neighbour's tree, shown in the picture above, where these little fellows reside. The chickadees have all been stopping by our feeder to stuff themselves after hunkering down all night during the storm. We received a little more out here than the Ottawa area did. I believe it was between 20 and 25 cm which is 8-10 inches for you non-metric bloggers. I just happened to glance out our back door and spotted the snow covering the old BBQ sitting on the deck.

It's shaped into the most perfect mound! I hate to see it get disturbed.

I'm trying to get some qualtiy stitching time in since I'm home but I can't sit for very long before the back signals me it's time to get up and move again.
Either that or the pain killers make me drowsy and I drift off into LaLa Land.

My progress on Tuesday night at our SAL was understandably meagre. I just couldn't concentrate so I chatted with the others and walked around the table, checking on what designs they were stitching. There wasn't the usual crowd out. I assume that some were expecting the snow to arrive that evening and didn't want to get caught.

I've spent most of my time this past week concentrating on Fair, Kind, True. I would love to have it done in time for Valentine Day even if the finishing isn't complete. Sorry, the picture is a little cockeyed.

I finally pulled out North Wind this past weekend and gave it some of my attention. It's coming along nicely. It won't be long before all I have left is the border. Gotta get that robin in there first though!

The week before last at our Tuesday night group we had a real treat. Maria and Louise from our group used to run Crafty Ladies, our retreat blog and they organized our fall and spring retreats. They have found it time consuming and wanted to devote more time to other pursuits so Laura, of Enchanting Lair fame, has taken over. She sent down a box of some of her beautiful hand dyed fabrics for us to look at, drool over, fondle and oh yeah .... buy!! There were so many that I would have loved to go home with but I limited myself to these three. All are 32 ct, two are evenweaves and one is a linen.

The one on the right is the linen and its a one of a kind colour. It's really gorgeous and I can't wait to find something to stitch on it!

OMG, I can't believe it! I just glanced out the window and spotted this fellow sitting in my tree. I believe it's a small hawk and usually I only see them in the country, not sitting on a branch in our neighbourhood!
Fortunately I had the camera sitting right beside me on the table, grabbed it, and got this shot. As soon as I stood up to get a better picture, he flew away. If you look closely at the photo you'll see his head was actually turned and he was looking my way!

I hope that those of you living in the US and Canada in the path of the recent snow have managed to make it through with no major problems. Apparently the storm hit 1/3 of the US! It has moved on now and is battering the eastern coast of Canada. I must say we've been lucky here so far this winter. This was our first major snowfall which is really unusual.

I'll leave you with a picture of Clarisse. I think it was Judy who recently asked if I had any recent pics of my sidekick. This one was taken as she sat at my feet watching me stitch. I've been trying to get one to show you just how beautiful her blue eyes really are and this one is it.

Keep on stitching!