Noel Tree finished

I had a lot more time for stitching this week and finally was able to complete my Noel Tree. I think I'd like to do this one again some other time, perhaps in a different colour. Originally I thought I'd keep this for myself but when I was at home visiting, my Mom mentioned how pretty it was so I'm thinking of giving this one to her for Christmas.
Speaking of my Mom, I forgot to mention the early gift I received from her. When I was young, my Mom had inherited a persian lamb coat and my Dad had bought her a mink jacket one year. Over the years fur fell out of fashion and the coats have remained in storage. This year Mom decided she was tired of paying storage costs for something she wasn't wearing any longer. Instead she took the coats to a woman in Windsor who makes teddy bears out of them! Each of her daughters and her granddaughter received fur bears as gifts.

We each had our choice of bears and I ended up with one of the mink ones. He's beautiful, with moving joints and lovely green glass eyes. The lining of the jacket was used for the pads of the feet and arms. My particular little bear almost looks like he's wearing a fur hat.

I was totally surprised! I had no idea that there was anyone doing this sort of thing. Now I just have to find a resting place for him, preferably one where the cat won't find him. Finnigan's first instinct was to wash the bear for me! As I write this, I'm sitting on the very front edge of my chair since Finnigan has joined me and is taking up most of the chair's seat.

Tonight I've been trying to catch up on my ornament for this month. I've managed to finish off the partridge and now I'm working on the pears for his tree. I don't know if I'll manage to get one complete for the month of December. The first of our choirs' performances takes places starting tomorrow afternoon and is followed by two more concerts on the next two Sunday afternoons in the month. Right now rehearsals are taking up a good portion of our evenings. On top of that it seems that there is a stomach virus making its rounds throughout the hospital staff. As a result we're all having to work double shifts to cover. I had my turn yesterday working from 7:00 am until 11:00pm. Needless to say I haven't done too darn much today!

With work and all the festivities that take place in this month I just don't have the time to do a lot of the finishing work on my stitching that I would like. Flat folds are something that I really haven't done much of but I love the look of them. So I decided to take advantage again of Vonna's finishing service for my M Designs Peace Tree. I mailed it off to her a couple of weeks ago and a few days ago she sent me pictures of the finished piece which I've posted below. I love it! The fabric she chose for the backing is so pretty. I told her I was tempted to keep this one for myself. It's on its way to me now and I can't wait to see it. Vonna does beautiful work so if you're like me and are not really into finishing, I recommend that you take a peek at her site.

This is the first year that I've given so much of my stitching for gifts. I've also had one of my pieces framed for a girlfriend. She loves folk art and I figured she'd like this one. It's the Country Garden by Blackbird Designs.

Now I'm heading off to get some shuteye. We've got a long day in town tomorrow. Enjoy your weekend!

Catching my breath!

It's been a busy couple of weeks here since I last posted. My quest for some quiet time still eludes me and with the holidays approaching I don't expect things will slow down anytime soon.
Two weeks ago I was on a business trip to Toronto where I did manage to squeeze in some Christmas shopping at the Eaton Centre. Last weekend we were off to Windsor to celebrate my MIL's 90th birthday followed by a trip this past Saturday to Drummondville to celebrate the 2nd birthday of my youngest granddaughter.

Stitching?...What's that again?! Well I did manage to squeeze some in mostly in the car on the trip to and from Windsor. My Noel tree is very close to being completed now as you can see. I love working on this one. It's one of those stitches where you don't have to refer back to the pattern very often since one side of the tree is just a mirror of the other. It moves along fairly quickly and I really like the design of this particular tree. I was going to keep this one for myself but my Mom mentioned how pretty it was when she saw it on my visit so I might just finish it off for her.

My ornament for this month has fallen way behind and I more than likely will not have it finished by the end of the month. I'd chosen a Patridge by Prairie Schooler but I'm finding it very boring to work on and I keep putting it off. I've already chosen my next start. It's by Barara Ana Designs and is called Stocking Stuffer. Her designs are just so much fun and this little snowman was calling to me!

This design is part of an 18 piece group of patterns by both Barabara Ana and Helga Mandl. Details on how to receive this patterns are found on Helga's site. The patterns are part of a Christmas SAL which takes place each year and is usually limited to those who receive the group newsletter. This year however, the patterns are being made available to anyone and for only $5 it's an incredible deal. No shipping necessary. Once you've made your payment you will receive an email with a link to the pdf patterns for download. Follow Helga's link and check them out. There's something for everyone. You can also subscibe to the newsletter on her site. Barabara Ana also has a newsletter available at her site.
In my stash I found the fabric which I had originally ordered for my Cirque. If you remember I was disappointed on this one because it had a splotch from the dying process in the middle of the fabric. However when it's cut it will be perfect for this piece. The only thing I'm missing is a couple of the DMC variation floss which I'm placing an order for today.

I promised myself not to get started though until I'd finished my Noel tree.

My trip to Windsor although brief was a lot of fun. Saturday was spent with my family and the Sunday with Bob's. We also managed to find time to meet with a friend for lunch on our way down in Port Hope and then lunch with some close friends from Michigan on the Saturday. Saturday night following a lovely meal and chat with my family, we headed to a club downtown Windsor to hear my DH's brother's band play. Bob's brother is a drummer and plays in a number of different groups. This particular group was playing a lot of music from our time in the 70's and it was just like a high school reunion. When we arrived at the club there were quite a few of our former high school friends some of which I hadn't seen in 35 yrs! We had a blast catching up with everyone. When they heard that we were in town for my MIL's birthday, several decided to drop by our open house on the Sunday since they had grown up in the same neighbourhood as Bob and family.



The open house on the Sunday was a huge success with about 75 people all told dropping in with best wishes. This was followed by a family dinner at one of the new restaurants in town. During the meal it started to snow and there was still a light snowfall during our trip home the next day. We also ran into some snow squalls in London where we stopped to share a coffee break with Bob's oldest brother. My son Daniel was able to accompany us on the trip and he also had a super time catching up with his cousins. Below are a few pictures from our visit. On the top right is one of moi with my two sisters and Mom. Top left is my son Daniel and his cousin Andrew. Bottom left is myself and Bob with a group of our school band friends along with our band teacher from grade school and the bottom right is a group photo of Bob, his Mom and two brothers.

Once home again, it was off to Drummondville to celebrate my granddaughter's birthday. The big celebration is actually taking place this coming weekend but I have a choir rehearsal taking place that day plus the weather was more promising for travel this past weekend. Drummondville gets a lot of snow and I didn't want to be driving into one of their storms.

Summer is turning 2 next week so she still isn't really sure what all this fun is all about yet. Her older sister Oceanne was more than willing to help her unwrap all the parcels and teach her how to play with everything! Both girls are getting so big now. I can't believe the curls that Summer has. Her dad says that when her hair is washed and all those curls are stretched out that it's really quite long now. They have a terrible time trying to put a brush her hair. She fights them every step of the way. Her sister Summer is getting to be quite bilingual now. I speak to her in English which she understands perfectly and she answers in French. For the moment I understand everything she says but the time will come when her French will far exceed my abilities. By that time we hope she is speaking more English. My son hopes to send them to English schools. In Quebec you are only allowed to do this if one parent has been raised English which Jeff was.

Daniel joined me for the trip since Bob had to work all day Saturday. It's a long drive.... 7hrs all together going and coming. I really wish that they lived closer but it could be worse. Some of our friends have grandchildren who live halfway across the country and they only see them once a year.

We're planning on having them to our place sometime between Christmas and the New Year. I remember what it was like trying to travel to my Mom's for Christmas with everyone's gifts so I think it's easier to wait until afterwards to get together. Besides you never know what the weather will be like around here and this gives us a little more leeway.

I hope everyone has a good week and gets in a lot more stitching than I have lately! Although I may not have time for comments, I am checking in on your blogs when I can. I enjoy seeing what all of you have been up to lately. To all of my friends in the US, have a very Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all have a safe holiday weekend.

Christmas stitching

Now that October and Halloween have flown by I'm turning my attention to some Christmas stitching. First off I have a small finish albeit a little late for fall this year. I know the US is yet to celebrate their Thanksgiving but for us Canadians our fall celebrations are complete and thoughts have turned to Christmas. My JBW Pumpkin will have to wait until next year to complete my autumn decor. In the picture you'll see the fabric that I've chosen for my backing on a pinkeep finish.

I've made a start on my November ornie which is a Partridge from Prairie Schooler. Not enough done yet though for a pic. I took it on the road to Toronto with me this past week. I travelled with a coworker to attend a chemistry conference. I'd hoped to get in some stitching during the evenings at the hotel. My coworker had other ideas however. We were only a short walk from the Eaton Centre which is a major shopping mall in downtown TO. So consequently our evenings were spent shopping (window shopping in my case). My stitching didn't even make it out of the bag! The car trip was my first experience with a GPS. I've never felt the need for one since I'm pretty good with directions but my coworker insists she can't go anywhere without hers. Honestly it drove me crazy! Recalculating, recalculating.... as you can see, my driver didn't neccesarily follow the directions given. The GPS was always right but my coworker didn't trust it since some of the street names it used didn't jive with the street signs. So why does she insist she needs it?!

When I got home I was really in the mood for a new start. What to do, what to do? I took a look through some of my freebies and found a lovely pattern by Gigi R found on her blog. I think she's retired her freebies at this point but check back later, they pop up from time to time. This one is a Christmas tree, a picture of which is currently posted on her blog on her Oct. 25th post. I've chosen to do this one as a redwork, using one of the DMC variations. Here's my progress so far:

Sorry, the picture isn't very clear. The battery on my camera is getting low. I love the look of this little tree. I've even got my fabric already chosen since I might try finishing it as a flatfold or if all else fails, a pinkeep. This one looks like it should stitch up pretty quickly. That's if I can sit still long enough to stitch!

The fall season has passed so quickly for me. We've had a full calendar here at our house and I feel like I've neglected blogging of late. I've managed to post a couple of times but there's not been much time for reading blogs and commenting. So please accept my apologies if I haven't stopped by your blogs lately. I'm slowly getting caught up but there is often little time for commenting. Trust that I am reading them and will get back to commenting in the very near future.

Once again, the approaching weekend will see me travelling. This time it's back home to Windsor where we will be celebrating my MIL's 90th birthday. It's a very quick trip since neither my DH nor myself can take much time off work at the moment. We'll head down on the Friday and return on Monday, spending Saturday with my family and Sunday with Bob's. I'm going to try and stitch in the car since there will be no time for it once we've arrived. It all depends how bumpy the road is or whether or not I can keep awake long enough! When I'm a passenger car rides tend to lull me to sleep. Here's hoping you all have a good week filled with lots of stitching.

Finally... a finish!

Well it's certainly taken me long enough but finally I have finished my M Designs Peace Tree. I managed to squeeze in some time for stitching last weekend and on Tuesday I put in the final beads. This one is to be a Christmas gift for my youngest sister. It's stitched on a 28ct Silkweaver Opalescent Solo using DMC variations.

Also managed a finish on a mitten ornament but my finishing didn't turn out quite the way I'd planned it . It's far easier to finish off a square or round ornament than it is to manage a mitten shape. My skills need some fine tuning to say the least!

Now I'm trying to decide what will be my new start. In the meantime I'm trying to finish up my JBW Pumpkin (hopefully this weekend) and I'm considering giving some long overdue time to my Cirques des Cercles. It would be nice to see this one again, wouldn't it?

Last night was the perfect evening for Halloween... no rain or wind and mild temperatures. We had 110 at our door this year with the best costume being a butterfly. There was one unusual sight this year. An adult dressed in a ghost costume and carrying orange glow sticks wandered through the neighbourhoods. He would stop at the foot of your drive, spread out his arms and bow to you! Honestly, he was quite large and rather creepy. At first I thought it was the parent of one of the kids, taking them around but no, this guy was on his own. My son thought it was a pretty cool idea and a neat way to take in all the sights around the village on Halloween.

I did my usual carving bit as you can see in the pics above. Chris and I found a new site this year online for obtaining carving patterns called Zombie Pumpkins. You pay a $20 dollar fee for access to over 150 different patterns with a portion of the sales being donated to charity. I guided Chris through his first carving, a Michael Myers pattern. Now he's hooked and anxious to try more!
The fact that we had such a great evening weatherwise was no small feat. Just days before we had a freak snowstorm which came out of the northeast, dumping us with 15cm of snow in our area which is about 6-7" for those of you who are not into metric measure. I couldn't believe it when I first heard the forecast. I thought I was dreaming and it was still January or February but unfortunately I was wide awake and it was definitely coming! I desperately tried to get my snow tires put on but all the garages were booked solid. It started snowing Tuesday night around supper and didn't quit until late Wednesday morning. I left for work at 5:30 instead of my usual 6:00am and this is the sight that greeted me. How depressing is that?!

Notice my poor scarecrow on the left. I actually have two , one on either end of my front garden and one of them keeled right over with the weight of the snow. Quite a few tree branches came down because the snow was heavy along with the fact that many had not lost all their leaves yet, adding extra weight. Our area lost power several times during the night, the first time just as I'd sat down in a hot bath. It's kind of weird bathing in the pitch dark!

I managed to make it to work with no problems although I did spot several cars in the ditches. On may way home I took a few more pictures now that I had light. If this is any indication of the winter that's coming then I'm moving!! I had more than my fill last year.

It's an absolutely beautiful sunny morning here now and I'm off to check out my stash and decide on my new starts. I don't promise I'll have much accomplished by my next post since I'm off to Toronto this coming week for a Chemistry symposium with a coworker. It's not all business though since we are planning to squeeze in a shopping trip to the Eaton Centre in downtown TO. Hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend and keep those fingers stitching!

A new graduate!

I'm sorry but I don't have any stitchy updates to report this week. Life has been so incredibly full and busy lately! So busy that I'm desperately missing my stitching time and I'm wound pretty tight right now. Following our Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family (which btw was great!) I was out every evening after work until this past Monday.

The day following the holiday was a big one for us - my youngest son graduated college ! Chris is the first of my boys to receive a post-secondary diploma and we were all pretty exicited here. The graduation was held in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre. It's a fairly big venue but apparently the spring convocations are held at Scotia Bank Place which is home to the NHL Ottawa Senators and holds a significantly larger group than ours. However I thought the NAC was a much nicer spot for the graduation. Although my DH was unable to attend the convocation, he was pleased to hear that there was actually a pipe organ playing the processional and that it was a friend of ours who was playing. Chris' brother Dan and I went early since seats were general admission and managed to get one of the box seats which have a great view. My camera has a 15X optical zoom so I was able to great some great pictures. Chris' Dad was also able to attend so following the ceremony we were all able to meet up for drinks and a mini celebration of our own. So here he is... a graduate from the Algonquin College Class of 2008 receiving his diploma in Small and Medium Enterprise Management. Chris, we are all so very proud of you!!

Chris hopes to manage his own business some day but in the meantime is getting valuable experience in retail right now. He is working full time as a supervisor in a retail chain and hopes to work his way up to management at some point.

The next day I was back in Ottawa after work to take Chris for dental surgery. He had an evening appointment to have his wisdom teeth removed and needed a ride home after having been put out for the procedure. He came through very well and only one of the four areas is bothering him a bit. I stayed with him at his place until one of his roomates arrived home so he wasn't alone. Plus I needed to give instructions to his roomie regarding medication since Chris was still acting rather silly following the meds. Then it was another late return home.

Thursday saw me back in Ottawa again for choir practise and then it was out again Friday for a Partylite party at a friend's home. After pulling an overtime shift on Saturday , it was back into Ottawa this time with Dan who was attending a birthday celebration at a friend's home and of course Sunday again for our church service and a concert that evening.

By the time Monday rolled around, I just wanted to pull the covers over my head and stay in bed all day. We all know though that as responsible working adults we can't do that (Why Not?!). So I trudged back to the lab. Now my charge tech is away on union business for the next three weeks so I'm doing her job and my own. Murphy's Law being what it is, when I walked in the door on Monday they informed me that one of the chemistry instruments was down and they were unable to use it. Who gets to fix it?.... you guessed it- me! After troubleshooting for a couple of hours on the phone with technical service, we discovered the problem. One of the internal parts had been hit and was bent. The only way that could have happened was if someone had actually hit it. When I asked the other techs about it, it came out that yes, one of the new grads had knocked the part when she was doing maintenance but was afraid to tell anyone. With the part replaced we were back on track but had to work an hour overtime to catch up with everything.

Now I'm up to 9 hrs overtime with my shift the previous Saturday. Then I was foolish enough to return to work on Tuesday. Now what?.... the computer hard drive in Chemistry has crashed and we are without the computer which operates our analyzers.Back to manual procedures and reporting and another 4 hrs overtime working with IT to try and get the computer up and running. It was a temporary fix which we had to complete yesterday following work which led to another hour overtime. During all this time I had another instrument go down which resulted in service from Montreal having to come and repair! Could anything else possibly go wrong?! You know I should never have voiced that thought! So I'm up to 14 hrs overtime since last Saturday and I already know I have to put some in this coming Saturday after my shift to help train some of the nurses on some new point-of-care equipment. The government will love all the extra tax they can collect on my paycheck this week.

I'm off today and Friday and only just crawled out of bed an hour ago. With any luck I can actually pull out some stitching today! I've told my DH not to answer the phone if he sees the hospital number come up. I'm not paid to be on standby and the other techs can call service for help the same as I can. After all, when Louise and I retire in 2-3 yrs, they have to be able to do this on their own and they need the experience once in awhile.

I really want to get my Peace tree finished by next week so I can work on getting it finished for a Christmas gift. I'm fast losing interest in some of my Halloween projects and fear that some will join my UFO basket. My eyes are already wandering, looking for new projects to start. I've just received my first order form San-Man Originals Secret Shop. The items offered for sale in their shop are only available if you are on their newsletter list. They send out a newletter every few months which contains lots of goodies for purchase, along with a free chart. However there are limited quantities for a lot of the items. By the time I check my email and find the newsletter, a good portion of the items are already purchased. However last month I happened to be at home checking my mail when the newletter arrived. There were so many cute little Halloween goodies! I placed an order and hooray!... finally I was able to pick up some of these little designs. I don't know if you can still subscibe to the newsletter since their main webpage seems to be closed.

When the order arrived in my mail last week I was so surprised. Inside the envelope, the order had been placed in a lovely little fabric bag tied with ribbon. Inside the bag I also found a number of Halloween stickers. I was thrilled with my order and hope I happen to be home again when her Christmas newsletter arrives. All of the items are very reasonable in price and the charts and frames are really quite cute. I've posted a few pics below to show off some of what I received.

At this point I think it's time I got showered and dressed since we will be heading into Ottawa sometime this afternoon for choir practice. I hope you are all having a great week and are doing lots of the stitching that I don't have time for right now. I'll leave you with a lovely fall picture that my son Daniel snapped last week on a road tour we took of the Long Sault Parkway along the St Lawrence River.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A very Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadian stitching and blogging friends. We've just finished the carving of our bird after cooking it overnight. This allows me more oven space for cooking all the other dishes which accompany my meal. A few friends told me they wouldn't do it this way since the turkey gets dry after reheating but I've done this many times now with no problems. I think the fact that I'm cooking a fresh turkey, not frozen, makes a difference. I stuff the turkey just before bed, put it in the oven and set my alarm to check on it once during the night.

This way I can check its progress and gage just what time it will be done. When it's ready, my DH gets up early and does the carving. Shortly after, I take over and prepare the gravy. Everything is then refrigerated until later in the afternoon when it's reheated. It's a lot less hectic when it comes time to serve. I also like the fact that since the gravy is prepared early, I'm able to scrape and discard the fat off of it much easier after refrigerating.

My son Chris joined us last night and very soon I'm heading off to pick up Dan. Only Jeff and family are unable to join us. Just not enough time for them to travel here and return for work tomorrow. Some friends will also be joining us later.

I'm feeling much better now after being ill earlier in the week. I picked up strep throat from my son Dan after sharing a drink and popcorn with him at the movies last weekend. We didn't know at the time that he had strep throat but he did tell me he had a sore throat (after sharing our goodies of course!). Consequently I came down with a low grade fever and sore throat on the Wednesday. By this time Dan had already been checked out and started on antibiotics. My doctor didn't even bother doing a throat swab, he just started me on the antibiotics because of my contact with Dan. By Friday I was feeling much better and no more sore throat. However I was wiped out most of the week and only managed to complete a small amount of stitching. I finished one ornament and am just about finished a second one for my October commitment to the Christmas ornament SAL. I couldn't resist this little pumpkin by Prairie Schooler.

I picked up some felt yesterday from Michael's and will finish it off later in the week. I'll also have a pic of the other ornament by then since I hope to be finished it by tomorrow.

Tuesday I had the day off work and since I wasn't feeling quite so bad yet I followed my DH into Ottawa, dropped him off at work and then crossed over the river to Gatineau, Quebec. From there I headed to Gatineau Park to enjoy the fall colours and do a bit of walking through the park. This is an annual visit for us. Ususally we do this on a Sunday after church but this year either I was working or the weather wasn't cooperating so I decided to head over by myself this time. It was a gorgeous fall day and I spent 3 hours walking and driving through the park. It's an absolutely huge park containing many hiking trails and lakes throughout it. It also contains the residence of one of Canada's former Prime Ministers, William Lyon MacKenzie King. King was Canada's longest serving PM having served for 22 yrs during the years 1921- 1948. The home in Gatineau was part of his summer estate Kingsmere and is now open to the public. There is actually a lovely tea room which serves lunch in his former home. I took about 100 pics during my afternoon in the park of which I've posted a few. On the left is the estate followed by a summer guest cottage and the estate gardens. Below are some pictures of the various scenery seen throughout the park.

As you can see, the park is a photographer's delight. The autumn colours this year are spectacular and after spending the afternoon there I certainly felt rested and at peace. Following our drive home from Ottawa later in the day we were treated to even more of fall's beauty. Just look at the colours in this photo below. Absolutely beautiful!!



Now I'm off to pick up Dan and then finish preparing my Thanksgiving meal. We are truly blessed here and so fortunate to have so much when so many are struggling in today's economic times. Thanks be to God.

Welcome to my Witches Garden

Yup, her garden is now complete! I booked Monday off work since my DH was having some day surgery and while he was in the OR, I stitched. By the time we left the hospital I only had the stars and moon to finish off. That didn't take long to finish off on Tuesday night while I watched Dancing with the Stars.

I've really enjoyed working on this one. I can never seem to get a good pic of the fabric anymore though. By the time I'm home from work now and have finished supper it's already dark and I'm relying on the camera's flash rather than natural light.

I changed some of the floss colours since the original pattern was done on a much darker fabric. I like the way her robe turned out but I think I would have been better off using a darker floss for the sunflower's leaves. Oh well, live and learn. This one should be off to the framer's next week. On to the next project!

I wanted something small to cart to work with me so I've chosen JBW French Country Pumpkin. It's all done in one colour so it should move along fairly quickly.

I'm moving along slowly but surely on my Peace Tree. I can only work on this at home since I need my lamp and magnifying glass for it. The eyes sure aren't what they used to be!

I've managed to put in a few stitches on my October ornament but nothing worth showing yet. Last night on my way to choir practice I stopped in at my LNS to see if they had received the new JCS 2008 ornie issue. Yes, but they didn't receive their full order, at least not enough to cover all those of us who had reserved one. They assured me though that they should have all of them in within a few days. They weren't putting them on the shelves until the order was complete. So I was surprised when I returned home from work this evening to find a message for me that my issue was ready for pickup. I'm working the weekend so I'll just have to contain my excitement until Tuesday when I'm off next and can get back into town.

My DH is off on a solo trip to our home town of Windsor this weekend so I'm free to spend all my free time stitching. Too bad I'm working although if I hadn't been I would have joined him for the trip. It's not very often he takes time off so close to Thanksgiving with all the choir practices that involves but his one of his university music professors and friend is celebrating 40 yrs as organist at his home church with a banquet in his honour. This particular professor taught my DH how to play the pipe organ and has kept in touch with him. I'm sure Bob won't miss my presence at all, catching up with many long time friends and organists. I'll make the next trip home in November when we celebrate his mother's 90th birthday.

My renewed interest in reading is still with me so I'm off now to get started on a new book called The Shack. It was recommended to my by a friend. Although it's fiction, the reviews state that it will change the way you think about God. Piqued my interest... I'll let you know if it's worth picking up. Enjoy your weekend!