Getting organized

After more than 2 yrs of waiting for the completion of my craft room, I decided to get started by putting together my shelf organizers. These were a Christmas gift from my MIL two years ago if you can believe it and they've finally been put together. Their final resting place will be in my youngest son's former bedroom (most recently our living quarters during the kitchen renovations). The room has been painted but the carpet needs cleaning and that can't be completed until we move out the massive amounts of accumulated junk. I don't figure that will take place until perhaps during my recuperation from surgery. Of course I'll need DH's help which means that we might be waiting until summer when he has more time off of rehearsals. By that time the weather is beautiful and who feels like staying indoors. Get the picture? We may be waiting several more years before this is completed! Retirement perhaps?

In any case, most of the cubicles have been put together with the exception of two. These consist of more of the 4 drawers type so I now know that I need more of the divider cubes. These organizers came from Michaels and I saw them shortly after the holidays so I'm hoping that they still have some around. DH is going to check for me tomorrow in Ottawa since I'm working this weekend and can't get there myself.

It's so great to finally have everything in one place where I know exactly where to find it. No more searching through my huge box of floss for a particular colour. They're now arranged in the small drawers, sorted by DMC number. I store them in floss bags which are arranged on rings by their numbers, 100s, 200s, etc. My WDW and GAST floss as well as other hand dyes are still in another storage box residing on these shelves until such time as I get another one put together. I have such a huge amount of fabric though, particularily hand dyed, that I think they'll remain in their current storage box. All of my freebie patterns are arranged by season in binders and the remainder are stored on CDs. I know that it still looks a bit disorganized but if you could have seen it before you would have died! My God but you don't realize exactly how much stash you have until you see it all in one place. It's easier to fool yourself when it's scattered about the house.

Because I spent a lot of my free time doing this, I spent less time stitching. Plus I'm too caught up in the Olympics at the moment. I thought I could stitch and watch but invariably the stitching is put aside as I get involved in the games. Here's my progress for this week.

First I managed to finish off my LHN Pear Tree ornament. Of course by finished I always mean the stitching since I never have time for the actual finishing until a much later date. The next ornament in the series, He's A Flake, arrived this week and I've made a small start on it as of today. Picture to follow later.

While I was awaiting its arrival, I took out my M Designs name tree for my granddaughter Oceanne. I've only worked on it for one evening but it's progressing fairly quickly. I can only stitch on this one at home because it's over one and I need my magnifying lens.

Finally I've put some time in on Nantucket Sampler. I really love this one and I'm getting lots of positive comments from my coworkers whenever it makes an appearance. Sorry about the bump in the centre. I just didn't feel like taking the whole thing off of the Q snaps.

My floss package and fabric arrived last week for Winter Mandala which recently appeared in an issue of JCS magazine. It's a Tracy Horner design and the silk floss are by Vicky Clayton.

I'm looking forward to this one. In the meantime I would like to start LHN Home of a Needleworker. Add to that another design I spotted in last year's Jan/Feb issue of JCS by Hands To Work designer Tracy Riffle called This is the Day which I fell in love with. It's stitched on 40 ct but I'm thinking more likely 32ct. I have some fabric here that I think will work well. Some of the floss will need to be ordered for this one though so it might take a back seat to one of the others. Then once Oceanne's ornament is done it's time to get started on one for her sister Summer. I think there's enough on my plate for now. But oh my how I love the new PS designs! Tortoise & The Hare is adorable!

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day. DH was involved in a recital that evening. We did manage to make it to dinner but had to share our time with a guest who was also in the concert. We tried out a restaurant that I've been wanting to visit for some time now. Every time I would say to Bob, "We should try that one out some time.", he would respond with "I'm ready any time you want to take me!" Finally he took me. Although it's primarily an Italian restaurant, I had trout done in a balsamic sauce accompanied with a small pasta dish. It was heaven! I behaved though, no dessert.

This Friday following work I took a drive to the bird sanctuary near Morrisburg where I actually do more than check out the birds. The deer are also there in large numbers and are fairly tame. People drop off grain, apples and carrots for them. They know the sound of the cars and after sitting for a few minutes you will see them making their way out of the woods to check out the situation. I counted 16 surrounding me. I managed to get a few photos from the car.

Then it was off to feed the chickadees who land right on your hand to take their seeds. There were so many of them. I was alone so I couldn't get a picture of this but Bob is going to go with me on Monday and hopefully we'll get some good pics then.

I'll leave you with a picture of the sunset that I took on my way home. Hope you all have a good week. I know where I'll be.....parked in front of the TV each night as the Olympics continue. I might even get some stitching in!

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!

And two more makes three!

Yaaay! Two more finishes to add for 2010. This past weekend I finally finished Blessings. I really enjoyed working on this one even if it did take me a little longer than it should have. I was determined that I wouldn't stitch on anything else until I'd finished it.

Once complete, I reached for the next UFO which was the Ink Circles Spotted Owls. I finished it up on Monday night, just in time to show off at my stitching group on Tuesday. Now the hunt is on for my Trilogy Secret Snowdrift. I've found the floss and pattern but have yet to find the actual piece. I remember removing it from its Q snap which I needed for another work. I was concerned that it would get dusty with all the renovations that were taking place and I know that I put it somewhere where it would stay clean. But I can't remember where!!!!! I've looked through drawers, in stitching bags, fabric boxes and the like with no luck at all. I'm sure that it won't surface until my spring cleaning if then. That leaves my M designs ornament for Oceanne next on the list. The floss for this one is missing in action! I can't believe my mind is this bad. At the end of it all, I was too tired to start an extensive search so I did the next best thing. I started another project of course!

Up next is my Little House ornament of the month, Pear Tree. I'm off to a good start on this one now and I'm itching for something a little bigger. Then I remembered my Nantucket Summer Sampler. I'm not working for the next 2 days so perhaps I can get back to spending some time with this one.

The mail brought a pleasant surprise this week. Some stash showed up which was a little delayed in its arrival. The package included Plum Street Samplers Beloved, Val's Stuff Kitty Kalendar January and The Drawn Thread Spot of Spring. These were a treat from me to me. Beloved is based on the Song of Solomon 6:3. My DH has been known to refer to me as his Beloved and we had readings from the Song of Solomon at our wedding. I originally thought of doing this for him as a Valentine gift but at this late date it will either have to wait until next year or I could have it ready for our anniversary this summer.

Being a cat lover I just couldn't resist Kitty Kalendar. I see now that the February kitty is out. I'm wondering if I should do these as smalls or stitch them all on one piece. By the time I get around to stitching them, a year will probably have passed and I'll have the whole collection by then anyways!

Autumn Leaves and Sunflower Seeds by Blue Ribbon Designs was the other arrival which I'd been impatiently waiting for. I love it! The different squares can be finished in so many different ways. The owl and the turkeys are my favourites. As much as I'd love to get started on this one, I'm going to be good and wait until I've got more done on Nantucket.

It looks like I'll have a lot more stitching time this spring. I've been having some post-menopausal issues and as a result it looks like I'm being scheduled for a hysterectomy. It's not an urgent matter therefore there is a wait. I was told most likely late Feb. or early March. When I mentioned that I had a trip planned to Florida in late March, the Dr. decided to wait until after I returned just in case I had any complications while on vacation. That brings us to mid April with a 6 week recuperation. I might even get some finishing done with that much time on my hands!

Thanks to everyone for your recent visits and positive comments on my stitching. I love hearing from all of you.

First Finish of 2010

LHN Fa La La is my first finish of 2010. I frogged out all the white lettering last night and replaced it with the red and I'm much happier. This morning I finished off the beading and then proceeded to look for fabric for the finishing. I think this one will do quite nicely. Now I'm off to work on frogging out the stars in Blessings and replacing them. Hope everyone is able to have a stitchy weekend!

Close to a finish

I'm hoping it won't be long now before I have my first finish for 2010. I have 2 pieces which are close to being completed - Blessings and Fa La La by Little House of Needleworks. I started Fa La La about a week ago and it's been progressing very well. However once I got the lettering stitched in I wasn't happy with the way it looked. I didn't go with the recommended fabric,
choosing instead to use up some of the fabric in my stash. I chose a Silkweaver called Sand which is very close in colour to the recommended choice. However I find that the lettering in white is just not showing up. I'm thinking of replacing it with the red colour used in the one girl's dress. I think I shall start frogging tonight. The frogs have been in residence a lot lately and although this ornament is a simple piece, I've had to frog out several times. I think I was just too tired when I was stitching on this one. I managed to get both girls stitched when I realized that one was sitting up just one row higher than the other. In fact it was the first stitched girl that I'd counted wrong on and there was just too much stitched to be frogged. It would have meant redoing one whole side of the ornament. I chose instead to frog out the girl in green and move her down one row to even things up. That'll teach me!!

I joined the LHN monthly ornament group but because I live in Canada it seems that I'm behind the ladies who live in the US. I don't receive my charts until they've had theirs for about a month or more. I just received notice this week that my second ornament chart is being mailed to me so I should receive it next week. I think the ladies in Vonna's group are getting ready to receive their 3rd ornie chart. I am enjoying stitching these though. LHN is one of my favourite designers and her patterns are always a fun stitch.

As for Blessings, I'm having the same problem with the white floss not showing up on my fabric. The white stars just weren't popping so I replaced them with a soft gold colour. I'm still thinking though that they could've been much darker. Any thoughts? I'm looking through my floss to see if I can find a darker gold colour.

I know the date on this piece is 2009 which is when I'd hoped to complete it but I'm not changing it now.

Tuesday night stitching was a lot of fun. It was good to see all the ladies after our holiday break. There were a couple of happy dances to celebrate including Sally's finish of the Village of Hawk Run Hallow and Barb's Orca finish. Both works have been in progress for some time so there was much to celebrate. And then of course there was the fun of seeing all the new starts. Three members of the group are stitching Christmas in Hawk Run Hallow. Each of the three have different colour choices so it's fun to see how things are progressing.
I'd like to finish off some of my UFOs like the Ink Circle's Owl and my Trilogy Snowman. The snowman however seem to be lost at the moment. I remember removing it from my stitching bag which was getting too full at the time but for the life of me I can't remember where I've put it. Of course that was during the time of the renovations and there have been many things which have gone missing then. Sooner or later we'll find them all. I just found a Bluetooth accessory for DH's cell phone which has been missing in action for the past year! It's a real shame though because if I can't find the snowmen I just might be forced into a new start, lol!

Both myself and DH are under the weather right now. Bob has been ill with a chest cold for 10 days and I'm fighting it now. Fortunately it really hasn't taken hold of me the way that it did Bob. I stayed home from work today and didn't really stitch much at all. I spent most of my time sleeping instead probably due to the cold. I'm waiting for the arrival of a Blue Ribbons Design, Autumn Leaves and Sunflower Seads. I love doing designs like these and of course I'm partial to autumn scenes. Now I'm off to settle in for a couple hours of stitching before bed. If I can managae to drag myself out of bed tomorrow at an early hour, I should be able to get in some quality stitching time before heading into Ottawa. We've been invited to a choir potluck. Mmmmm!

Blessings Be Thine

Although the piece may not be finished, the wishes that it expresses are sent from me to all of you. May 2010 find you blessed in love, health and prosperity. I have met so many new friends through this blog and I thank each and every one of you for your friendship and encouragement.

I guess I should have dated this piece 2010 rather than 2009 but I'd seriously hoped to be finished by this point in time. As the holidays come to a close and my house settles back down into its regular routine I should be able to find more time for myself and my stitching.

Our Christmas here was full of fun (and exhaustion!) with the arrival of my granddaughters. We managed to cram in a whirlwind of activity in the short time that they were with us. The weather cooperated and we paid a visit to Upper Canada Village's Alight At Night. The entire pioneer village is decorated with lights during the month of December and into the first week of the new year. Horse drawn wagons are available to take visitors through the village and since the girls had never seen a horse up close before, we opted to tour the sights this way. All I could hear from the youngest was,"C'est beau Grandmaman!"

It wasn't a bitter cold night but it was still cool enough and considering we had a 30 min. wait to get our tickets and then another 30 min. wait for a wagon, I thought the girls were very well behaved. I think they were so awed by the sights and the number of other children there visiting. Following our tour we stopped for hot chocolate and then it was home to bed where not a peep was heard from any of us!

Christmas is always so much more fun through the eyes of a child and I'm so very blessed to have been able to spend some of that precious time with Océanne and Summer.

Our celebrations are still not complete since my youngest son Chris will be arriving here this weekend. I look forward to seeing him and spending some time catching up on his life in Toronto.

As usual, I've found a Christmas piece that I'd like to stitch now that the holiday is over. When visiting another stitcher's blog, I was introduced to some of the designs of Nathalie Cichon of Jardin Privé. I just received a pdf for her Christmas design and I'm looking at kitting it up next week. I'm always looking for something different to stitch and I love a lot of the French designs that are out there. If you get a chance, check out her site.

Now I'm going to try and stay awake long enough to ring in the New Year with my DH and DS. I'm working early tomorrow morning so I might see my bed before I see the New Year!

Have a very Happy New Year and I'll chat with all of you soon.

Merry Christmas! Finished at last

First of all a very Merry Christmas to all of my blogging friends as well as my friends and family who read my blog. I hope you all had a most enjoyable Christmas. I'm a little late with my wishes but we've been going non-stop here to get the house in order for the holidays. As of last weekend our renovations are finally complete! The painters cleared out the last of their stuff on Saturday evening and then the giant cleanup began. Because this is Bob's busiest time of year as a church organist and with me working right up until Christmas, we could only clean house during the evenings. The entire house was filthy. Trust me you don't want to know just how bad it was. As of now, the living room, dining room and kitchen are back in order with the exception of a few minor details. The bedrooms and rec room where we've been storing everything still remain to be cleaned up but that will take place in the new year. I've still got boxes of dishes and items from my dry sink and curio cabinet to unpack as well as a good portion of my food stuffs. We finished cleaning on Dec. 24th and since my boys are not celebrating with us until later in the week we spent Christmas Day wrapping gifts and putting up the tree. Talk about last minute! I haven't even had any time in which to write my Christmas cards. In any case here is how things now look as I sit and write this post. I think you might even be able to spot Clarisse in one of these. Hint - check out the love seat in the living room.

Speaking of Clarisse, I know now just how much fur she sheds on any given day. Hardwood floors show things which carpeting did not.

This is her first Christmas with us and since we weren't sure just how she would react to the tree, we decided to put up an artificial one. We were afraid that she might knock over the tree, spilling water on the new floors. However she hasn't shown any interest in it with one exception. She has taken to sleeping under it just as all our previous cats have. It's her new sleeping spot. She's not used to the coldness of the new floors and the tree skirt is a nice comfy place to settle on.

My oldest son Jeff will arrive this coming Monday with his girls for our Christmas. Daniel will also be joining us for the week after visiting at his Dad's place. Jeff is only able to spend two days with us because we share the visit with his father. Following Jeff's return, Chris lands in from Toronto on New Year's eve. He will spend New Year's Day at his Dad's and then return home for a dinner and gift exchange with us on the weekend before returning to Toronto late Sunday. This was the first time that he wasn't home with us at Christmas. Because he works retail, he only had the 25th off which wasn't enough time to get home and back for work on Boxing Day. I worried about him being alone but one of the girls in his neighbourhood when he lived in Ottawa is actually from the Toronto area and she invited him to spend the holiday with her family in Acton. Judy, if you're reading this, he was in Georgetown in your neck of the woods on Christmas eve, checking out the lights. I guess there's one particular house that's pretty spectacular.

I'm so tuckered out from all the cleanup this past week that I've decided not to cook a huge Christmas meal. Instead I purchased some stuffed turkey breast from M&M meats along with some of their lovely desserts. When Chris arrives we will do an Italian meal since he's vegetarian. I'm hoping to do a little baking tomorrow afternoon so that Grandma has cookies in the house for Oceanne and Summer's arrival. I have to return to work on the 29th and it's my turn to work on New Year's Day so we will visit with friends that evening.

I'm looking forward to being able to sit down this evening and stitch. Yayy! I can't wait! I wanted to show you the kitty stitched ornaments that I purchased at our church's bazaar.

Aren't they cute? I had no idea that some of the ladies do stitching but they tell me that they limit it to items like these because their eyesight is so poor now. I also have a new ornament on our tree this year to add to my Jim Shore collection. I love this one!

One other thing that has been a highlight for us this past month was the Olympic Torch run which passed through Cornwall.

The winter Olympics are being held this coming Feb. in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A good friend of ours, Ann Jardin-Alexander, was carrying the torch during this portion of the run. Ann is a former Olympic medal winner having won 2 bronze medals for relay swimming in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. I couldn't get the day off work to see her but luck had it that her run was taking place during my lunch hour. I drove downtown where I met Bob and it was only 5 minutes later that she passed by us. It was so awesome to see! To think that the flame has come all the way from Greece and already crossed through Eastern Canada on its way to its final destination. Ann stopped by at our place later in the afternoon and brought her torch with her so that we could have a look at it. I was surprised that it wasn't at all heavy.

Now I'm off to finally pick up my stitching after weeks of doing next to nothing on my pieces. With any luck I'll have some significant progress pics for my next post. I hope you are all having a very safe and happy holiday.