A new start by accident

Yes I've gone and done it again, I've just finished kitting together a new start. Didn't really plan on it, it just happened by accident.... a car accident that is. I'll explain the accident shortly, I'm much more excited by the new start. It's Secret Snowdrift by The Trilogy. I love snowman, felt like stitching some and this piece fit the bill. The fabric and buttons come with the kit and I had all the floss with the exception of one which I'll pick up later this week (when I have a car!).

The new start was the result of a car accident I had this past Sunday. I didn't go into Ottawa with my DH on Sunday morning because of a headache which I'd had since Friday. However later in the day I was feeling much better and decided to drive in and join him for a piano concert I wanted to attend that evening. On the way I made a pit stop at one of the malls to pick up some Ibuprofen since I'd depleted our supply. Coming out of the mall there is a stop sign after which I was making a left turn. Although I looked both ways I swear I didn't see anything, but when I started to make the turn I saw a large grey pickup bearing down on me. I hit the brakes but he obviously didn't see me, kept coming at a good pace and smucked me on the drivers left front side. No-one was hurt initially although I'm having some pretty good back pain now. The truck's front bumper and grill were damaged but I suspect that my car will be written off. I'm sure there is axle damage since I could no longer turn the wheels to the right and the frame is bent so that I couldn't open the driver's door and the window would only open halfway. I just paid off this car in the fall and was hoping to hang on to it for another couple of years so I'M NOT IMPRESSED!!! Also not impressed with the fact that I made this mistake in the first place! However the police say that the driver of the truck was coming very quickly and the overpass from which he was coming curves as it approaches the mall. So no charges were laid and because things took place in a parking lot, the insurance is 50/50. And yes, I did make the concert!

I spent yesterday running around to the body shop, insurance and car rentals and took today off work to rest the back. Don't think it's anything serious, I just strained it, but I'm due at the doctor's on Thursday anyways and will have it checked out then. Headache's gone though!

As for the new start, well that came about because when I had the car towed I left my cross stitch bag in the car. I'll be getting it back tonight when Bob gets home. In the meantime I couldn't go without stitching!! After all I definitely need it right now! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!

Last week I did a bit of stitching on both Cirque and Easter Fairy with a small amount of progress on the two. I'll spend the rest of this week on Cirque. As you can see I'm working my way left. I really only have about two full pages left on this one.

As for the Fairy, I'll spend the weekend working on her second wing after which that pretty well only leaves her legs and the beading.

My takealong right now has been my January ornament which is well on its way to being finished. It's a freebie by San-Man Originals and is called the Merry ornament.

If I have enough stitched, I'll post a pic next time of the Secret Snowdrift. I'm just getting started and I'm not even sure right now if I want to go with the fabric included in the kit. It's a linen and I'm not particularily fond of stitching on linen. I much prefer the evenweaves.

Let's hope this is a much better week than last!

Back on track

Not only am I back on track with my stitching, slowly but surely I'm getting back to my normal routine. As much as I love Christmas, I'm always glad when things are back to a normal pace again. Things seem to be much too hectic for me anymore or is that just my age talking?!

Today I spent the morning putting away all of the Christmas decorations and tree ornaments with the exception of my snowmen which will remain out until the first signs of spring.

I absolutely love snowman and I'm slowly adding to my collection. I'm partial to a lot of the Jim Shore pieces. Speaking of which, has anyone seen any of the Jim Shore cross stitch patterns? They're based on some of his collection and are quite colourful stitches. In the future I'd like to do his 12 days of Christmas sampler.

This past weekend I returned to stitching on Cirque des Cercles. Above you will see the point at which I left off and below how much I accomplished this past weekend. I concentrated on the motif on the bottom right corner. It's a real pleasure to stitch this piece and when I resume stitching on it I always wonder why I've left it for so long.

I was invited by Kathy A to join in a Mirabilia SAL for the new year. Rather than start something new, I decided to drag out one of my UFOs, my Mirabilia Easter Fairy. With any luck I can actually have her complete by Easter of this year! This SAL was the kick in the pants that I needed to get moving on this piece again. I've got a really good head start. It took me long enough to find it in the mess that is my craft room but find it I did. The picture shows where I left off the last time I stitched on it. You can visit the progress on our stitches at Stitch a Mirabilia.

I'm not one to set goals for the new year because if I do that you can be sure I will never finish them. I'm not very good to sticking to a plan. I am pleased with what I accomplished this past year though. By joining the Christmas Ornament SAL I managed to complete 10 ornaments. Thanks Jennifer, for the invite to this one. Besides the ornaments I had 14 other finishes which I think is a record for me. If you follow the link on my sidebar to my Webshots album you'll see all of my finishes.

Now I'm off to find a new small start which is my take along project as well as choosing an ornament to start for this month. Happy stitching!

Happy New Year!

Just a quick note to wish all of you a very Happy New Year. I hope that 2009 is full of blessings for everyone. I know that I have been blessed this holiday season. Two weeks off work and all of my family here! Our Christmas was spent quietly with my two youngest sons and some dear friends who had us join their family for our meal this year. Christmas Eve I'd travelled to Ottawa for church and the weather was so poor (freezing rain) and the roads so treacherous that I stayed overnight in the church with my DH. I returned home in the morning after the salt trucks had been out and done their thing. I knew that my boys would be sleeping in at home so I had a very quiet morning until they woke and Bob arrived home from playing the morning service.

It was a most enjoyable, relaxing Christmas Day and Santa was very good to all of us. Daniel received tickets to see Mama Mia at the National Arts Centre so that is where we spent our Sunday afternoon.

My oldest son Jeff and his girls arrived at his father's place on Boxing Day. He landed in here on Monday after having spent the weekend with his father and family. Since they got here I haven't stopped. The girls are very busy and we have had so much fun with them. Oceanne sat beside me this morning and watched me stitch. Every time I completed a cross she would holler, "X, encore Grandma!" The girls speak French but understand English. I can usually get what they're saying but there has been the odd time when I haven't been able to figure out if it's jibberish or if they're really saying something to me. That X came out loud and clear though and she cried when I finally put down my stitching. Think we have a budding little stitcher there?!

Tomorrow we drive them back to Drummondville, stopping along the way to take Dan home. Chris returned to Ottawa on the weekend since he works in retail and had to be there for all the post-Christmas sales.

We've been invited to a home party in the neighbourhood to ring in the New Year but we're both so tired that we're just going to stay put with the boys. A friend gave us a lovely bottle of champagne with which we'll toast the new year and then promptly hit the sack! After all, we have a 3 hr drive to Drummondville in the morning and then the return trip home. I'm still off work until Tuesday so that Bob and I can enjoy a few days together of blessed peace and quiet. I might find it pretty boring after all the hustle and bustle of the past month.

The only down side to our holiday was that my boss died on Christmas Day after having been diagnosed with cancer just this past September at age 58. He was in so much pain that I'm glad the end came quickly for him. I know it's very diffcult for his family though and my heart goes out to them.

When I get home tomorrow night, I'm going to check my stash and decide on my next new start. I finished off Jingle All the Way just before Christmas. I only have to add a small star charm at the tip of his hat which I ordered this past week but hasn't arrived yet. The past two mornings I've managed to put in a few stitches on Cirque before the girls woke. Boy have I missed this one! I'm definitely looking forward to spending more time on it this weekend.

May you all have a great New Year. I look forward to seeing all your new starts for 2009.

Winding down

Last week I was in high gear trying to get everything done that needed to be. However things are starting to settle down now that I have time off work . I finished work last Friday and with the exception of Boxing Day, the 26th, I don't have to work again until Jan. 6th. Yippee! I went into Ottawa on Saturday and finished last minute shopping, catching some great sales at Michael's in the process. Today I'm doing some cookie baking and tomorrow I'm trying a vegetarian tourtiere recipe since my youngest is a vegetarian and won't be touching the turkey. We've been invited to our good friends' home for Christmas dinner. They're also from Windsor originally and don't have family in this neck of the woods. I'll be bringing the tourtiere(regular and vegetarian) and my DH is making his famous broccoli salad by request. For those of you who are not familiar with tourtiere, it's basically a meat pie usually made with pork or a beef and pork mix, lightly spiced. It's a French-Canadian tradition which I was introduced to by my ex-husband and family. Now our Christmas doesn't seem complete without one.

Dec. 12th marked my DH's birthday and the 15th was my son Daniel's so the two of them shared with a joint celebration on the 15th. We spent the weekend attending various Christmas concerts including one of my husband's choirs. With the exception of Christmas eve, all of our choir concerts are now complete and we are free to take in various other concerts around town of which there are many!

Last night I had time to finish stitching up my Christmas Box ornament. I love how this one turned out. There are three in the series so I'm planning on stitching the other two in the new year. Haven't decided whether I'll do them all in the same colours or not. I had hoped that I'd have a day in which to do some finishing on my ornaments but as usual other stuff got in the way. Besides I'm just too tired!

I'm also continuing to stitch on my Jingle All The Way ornie. I only have limited stitching time right now which is usually in the evenings and it would be nice to have this one complete soon but I'm not holding my breath. Lately I've been known to fall asleep in my stitching chair just minutes after settling in!

The Noel Tree which I recently finished stitching arrived here this week from Vonna's place where she did a flatfold finish for me. What a beautiful job she did!! This time I provided the fabric from my stash and I love how it turned out. It's difficult to see in the picture but the fabric is covered in gold trees. Thanks Vonna! As I sit here blogging, I'm listening to the all the Christmas tunes from your playlist. That, plus the 20cm of snow we've received in the past few days, is putting me in a very festive mood!

The Christmas following my marriage to Bob, I decided to do away with my old decorating scheme and purchased new lights, ribbon, etc. for our tree. I went with a blue and white theme since blue is one of the predominant colours in my living room. After 7 yrs of this I wanted a change and dug out the old red and green beads and plaid ribbon once more. As you can see I never throw anything away! I updated the old lights with some of the new LED ones which made a big difference. Since the kids have grown older I've started collecting handblown glass ornaments for the tree. When my grandchildren come I just move some of the glass ones up higher where they can't reach. Fortunately my cat has never been one to bother with the tree. He just likes to sleep under it as you can see from the picture at the start of this post. I've posted a few pictures below of some of my favourites glass ornaments.

All three of these ornaments have sentimental value attached to them. The skate was my first Christmas present from Bob. The moose was a special gift from my sister the first Christmas I spent alone with the boys and the owl we brought home from Muskoka to remind us of the woods around the cottage. Now I'm looking for a loon to remind us of our summers at the cottage. Instead of a star or an angel adorning the top of the tree we have something a little different. It's Father Christmas. This was a gift from my boys one Christmas and proudly sits at the top of our tree watching over all the goings on below.

To finish, I wish all of you a very blessed Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope that the year ahead is not filled with as much uncertainty as I know it is for so many, myself included. I am very thankful to have made so many good friends through blogging and I thank each and every one of you for your lovely comments and your expertise. Enjoy your holidays and I'll see you in the new year!

Sticking with smalls

I've decided not to touch any larger projects until after the holidays are over. Working on smalls is much easier right now since I spend a great portion of my time stitching in the car while we travel from one event or one place to another. Besides, when I finish one I feel I've at least accomplished something because I'm certainly not getting anywhere with my Christmas preparations! Life is quite busy as I'm sure it is for many of you at this time. I'm determined not to get stressed out about things this year. So what if the tree doesn't get put up until the weekend before Christmas? We're not here most of the time to enjoy it anyways. Same goes for baking. Nobody home to eat it right now! Since the tree isn't going up until a bit later, then I figure my finishing on my ornaments can wait a bit too. I finish work on Dec 19th and then I'm off until Jan. 5 except for one day - Dec 26th. Other than Christmas Eve, all of our concerts will be finished by that weekend so I'm going to enjoy the time at home baking and decorating.

I've managed to complete one ornament and I'm currently working on two others at the moment. My Prairie Schooler Partridge is my latest finished ornie. My two new starts are both ornaments, one called Jingle All the Way by Sweet Pea Designs and the other is a Christmas Box Ornament by Country Garden Stitchery. Jingle is from the Dec. 2007 issue of Just Cross Stitch.

The Box ornament is actually number one of three. I think they're all very pretty and delicate and hope to stitch all of them. The pattern calls for floss by The Thread Gatherer ... In The Burgundy. I decided to go with my own colour choice which is Shiraz by Dinky Dyes. I had this particular one in my stash along with a lovely piece of a Silkweaver Opalescent Solo. I picked up some beads and Kreneik gold cord on the weekend to match. Below is a picture of my progress so far. It's stitching up pretty quickly. I've also posted a pic of the little bit I have completed on Jingle.

Tonight on ebay I won an auction for some of the TG In the Burgundy silk floss so I'll use this for one of the others. If by some small chance I finish stitching these before Christmas, I have another start in the wings. It's Button Up for Christmas #1 by Cathy Jean of the Victoria Sampler. I'm really enjoying taking a break from bigger projects to stitch on these lovelies.

We're currently having our first major snowfall of the season as you can see from the picture below. I'm not counting that storm we had before Halloween because let's face it, that was just a freak. This storm is dumping a bit more than was predicted. On top of that, the transit system in Ottawa is set to walk out tomorrow which means more cars than usual out in all that mess since the buses won't be operating. What a miserable time for a strike with the holidays approaching. I know my son is quite concerned about how he'll get to work since he often has to open the store where he works. Many students rely on the transit system and with exams just around the corner it's making life difficult for them. I hope things can be resolved fairly quickly although it's not looking very promising. I took this photo from my front porch. I was going to head out to shovel but my neighbour cleared the drive for us with his snowblower. My DH stayed put in Ottawa tonight so he could avoid the miserable drive and as a result he can drive my son to work in the morning. After that he's on his own to find rides.


Now I'm off to work a little on our Christmas letter and then a bit of stitching time before bed. Mornings start earlier whenever there's a snowfall. Hope you are all safe and sound and having a good week.

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.