A Big Change!

This is me last weekend... (with Judie)

This is me this weekend... (not the best picture but you get the point) As usual Todd doesn't like it... he has something against short hair.

The Mongram Project!

Tuesday I decided to take the evening off from all my extra activities... no Weight Watchers, no Taekwon-Do, no Cardio TaeBox. I stayed home, took a nap, and worked on putting cord on all those little Monograms I had sewn together. I couldn't get them all done in one evening, but I manged to wrap everything up on Wednesday. So without further ado.... here's all 18 of my monograms of the "monogram project". There are a few I've done that aren't here in the picture those are for the girls at work for Christmas ( have a few more to do for that).

My next little project I won't be able to share with you, I've got an ornament to stitch up for an exchange that we'll be doing at the Timberhouse Retreat in a few short weeks!

Life had just been insane lately and you know what that means??? That I've not been doing well on the weight front. I've decided its harder to maintain than loose. So in the past two weeks I've managed to put on three pounds. Boy do I need to turn that around! I've made a start by trying to cook proper dinners again... instead of a bowl of cereal and a piece of fruit, etc. Also I need to turn around the candy dish addiction I've developed at work! It doesn't help that there's a lot of those tasty, tasty little chocolate bars around for Halloween. They are my downfall!!!!!

I'm off to Taekwon-Do shortly!

A Long Awaited Stitchy Weekend

I've been very lucky this year, I've managed to get together with my stitchy friends from along the 401 corridor once a month since May! This weekend was another one of them! This time it was hosted by Rebecca in the Kingston area. Our furthest east stitcher was Lynn from the Chesterville area and the furthest east was Bonnie from the Coburg area with folk from in between!

I only took a few pictures this weekend, I stitched instead of playing the shutterbug! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of Trista... well I did but it was out of focus! Sorry Trista. Ann and Beth couldn't join us as they both had the flu. On Sunday we were joined by Rebecca's lovely Mother and Law for a few hours too!

Rebecca, our hostess!

Beatrice

Bonnie

Christin

Judy...and Tasha by her feet, Tasha was a well behaved and constant companion for us all weekend long!

Lynn (foreground) and Barb (background)

Boy did I need this weekend! I needed an opportunity to step away from all the stuff I've got going on at work and at TKD and just enjoy my friends company and stitch! I didn't get pictures of everyone, but those I did get, you can see everyone is enjoying themselves and stitching!

Oh boy did I stitch too! I worked on Tour Des Marques from Friday night-Late Sunday afternoon. I got so much done!

Tonight when I got home I pulled out yet another monogram that I had on the go and finished it up too... there seemed to be a little speculating over my monograms going around the room this weekend. Judy has threatened my life if one of those J's doesn't end up in her hot little hands!

Red Threads Letter "P"

c2002 Rosewood Manor

Stitched on : 28ct Ivory Jasmine

Stitched with : Olde Willow Stitchery Rebekkah Green

Fingers crossed this week will be a little more in control than last and I'll get some good TKD studying in!!!

Blogiversary Winner! And More Monograms!!!

I've been missing for almost a week now, sorry folks. In all honesty I was not feeling well most of the week. Either I had a migraine and when my head wasn't hurting, my stomach hurt. Between not feeling well, or being at work, I was at the dojang. On Tuesday I was give the all clear to test for my 3rd Degree Black Belt on the last Sunday in November! So I'm working hard and studying!

Let's get down to the business at hand... who won my belated Blogiversary draw??? The lucky winner is...............

Chiloe

I have to admit that I didn't stitch much all week long, I spent all of my down time... wasting time on the evil Facebook! Argh! I am a Bejewelled Blitz addict! So I made up for my lack of stitching time by staying away from the computer for most of the weekend. I had a very productive stitching weekend! I did a whole bunch of Monograms! I can see the light at the tunnel now!

Letters : A, B, D, J, S, Red Threads

c2002 Rosewood Manor

Stitched on : 28ct Opalescent Lugana

Stitched with : Crescent Colours Pink Champagne

Stitched with : GAST Bittersweet

Stitched with : Crescent Colours Bing Cherry

Stitched with : Crescent Colours Cupid

Stitched with : Crescent Colours Sassy Brass

Stitched with : Crescent Colours Spinach

Stitched with : GAST Butternut Squash

Stitched with : Cresceent Colours Rainy Day

Photo Hunt "Purple"

Here's the PhotoHunt from April 18th, the theme is Pruple.

This is Kathy she is a very special person in my life! Back in September she was going through a tough time, and as a bonding activity with her granddaughter they went and got purple bangs!

I think I must be a little tired of my monogram project because I've avoided stitching most of the day today. I've finished one more since my last post, and I'm almost done another. I just couldn't face my stitching today. I stitched a little, went for a 3K run, napped, and went to my Mum's for the best roast chicken ever!

Its back to the grindstone tomorrow!

Belated Blogiversary

As I've said in previous posts, I've gotten wayyy behind on everything!

Did you know that a month ago today would of been my blogiversary? I have now been actively blogging for SIX YEARS NOW! Wow, who would of thought I'd still be posting and have over 100 followers six years later? Thanks for hanging in with me for so many years!

I'm not organized enough to have a wonderful blogiversary prize all planned and photographed here. I will stitch something special for the winner and probably throw some stitching goodies in the package too!

To enter my blogiversary draw you're not going to have to jump through hoops, you're not going to have to advertise my blog on your blog (I hate it when that's a requirement to enter a draw on a blog... a personal pet peeve of mine, if a blog is good, it'll get found, and read. You shouldn't have to troll for readers), put a banner anywhere or anything like that. You have one week to leave a comment on this entry (Sunday October 18th), if you don't have an e-mail address on your blogger profile, or your not a blogger user please leave an e-mail address in your comment so I can reach you.

Todd and I had a nice, not so busy Saturday! I went out for a run... I should go out again today its sunny, and not raining (for a change). Todd took me out for breakfast, and I've been stitching and napping (my two favourite activities). I've been working away on my Monogram project and I've got two more for you, and a motif. The motifs I'm going to make individual ornaments with, I'm not backing the monograms with them because that would just make this monogram project massive! I've been using those little scraps of fabric you collect over time to stitch these up and sometimes there's a little piece big enough for just a motif, so instead of throwing out the piece of fabric or setting aside a tiny piece I've been doing the odd motif.

Red Threads Letter "S"

c2002 Rosewood Manor

Stitched on : 28ct White Jubilee

Stitched with : Weeks Dye Works 2116 Blue Fescue

Red Threads Letter "B"
c2002 Rosewood Manor
Stitched on : 28ct White Jubilee
Stitched with : Crescent Colours Bejeweled

Red Threads Motif

c2002 Rosewood Manor

Stitched on : 28ct White Jubilee

Stitched with : Crescent Colours Bejeweled

I'm off to stitch another one, and think about going out for a run.

An Overdue Concert Update

I am just not good at this blogging thing lately. Life gets busy, and the I just don't catch all of you up. Back on September 27th Todd's sister Terri, and I went to see The Tragically Hip at the NAC (National Arts Center). I had never been to the NAC for a rock concert, I've been there for shows such as Phantom, Le Mis, Riverdance, Tommy, and Spam A Lot. I have to say it was quite a nice venue for a concert, and the seats are definitely very comfortable... not that we used them very much.

Terri got us excellent seats, only 6 rows from the stage! Not the closest we've been to The Hip (I've seen them about 8 times now)... once I won tickets to be in a special section right next tot he stage.

Here's Terri and I before the show.

This is the crowd at the NAC on their feet cheering for The Hip to come on stage.

Here are some shots from the show.

I'm just sitting here at my computer waiting for 10am to roll around... tickets for Star Wars in Concert are going on sale! I am such a geek, I so want to go... so my Mum and I are going to go together. We've also already planned to go to our favourite Indian restaurant for dinner before the show.

I do also have a couple of other shows coming up that I'm looking forward to (there's been a bit of a void of good shows lately). Christin and I will be going to see Matthew Good at the NAC in early December, then closer to Christmas we'll be seeing Three Days Grace at Scotia Bank Place. I'm quite excited that yesterday it was announced that Billy Talent is coming to the Scotia Bank Place... on March 26th its a Friday and its the day before my birthday. I am going to have so much fun!

And Now Back To Our Reguarly Scheduled Programming

Thank you everyone who has put up with me over the last month and my fundraising efforts. Thank you very much to everyone who was able to give, and those who would of liked to but just didn't have the means. Also Thank you to everyone who supported me before and after the event!

So now let's get back to what my blog is really about (besides snippets of my life)... stitching!!! First I shall share with you my goals for October, I am so overdue!

September Goals - Recap

Finish Todd's Stocking

Stitch Two Ornaments

Work on Tour

October Goals

Finish Monogram Ornament Project

Work on Tour

Stitch 1 Christmasy Ornament

When I've found the time to stitch I've been working on my Monograms, here are my latest monogram finishes :

Red Threads "M", "J", & 2 motifs

c2002 Rosewood Manor

Stitched On : 28ct Ivory Jubilee or Queen Anne's Lace Joblean

Stitched With : Crescent Colours Chili Pepper or Granny Annie

5, 27, 905

Yup those are my numbers for today!

5 - That's the 5Km I ran today in the CIBC Run For The Cure

27 - That's the number of minutes I ran my 5Km in for the CIBC Run For the Cure. I was aiming for 35 minutes so 27 is wayyyy better!

905 - That's the number of dollars I raised for Breast Cancer Research! Next year I'm going to raise $1000!

Aren't those just an awesome set of numbers?

Here's Christin, Todd and I just before we headed off to the starting lines (Todd & I to the runners, Christin to the walkers).

The official safety/pace car for the race (that bump is my pack that carries my epipen, puffer, cell phone, etc. in case I have an allergic reaction while running)

Crowds of people! 8,500 people ran and $1.5M was raised locally.

Help Me Raise $1,000 For Breast Cancer Research

Hey blog readers! My run is coming up on Sunday and I've now managed to raise $900.00 for Breast Cancer Research. Help me reach the $1,000 mark by donating online (you can be from anywhere in the world)

Click HERE to donate today!

Run For The Cure Update

Wow! This week has been just amazing so far with donations for my run on Sunday. As of this am I have now raised 755.00 for Breast Cancer Research! I have definitely surpassed my goal of 650.00!!! Of course, being ambitious I'm now hoping to raise more! I can take online donations until Saturday midnight. So help me raise funds to make Breast Cancer history!

Click HERE to donate.