Popping In

Hi everyone, just popping in quickly!

I've not stitched since Sunday! Boy this photography class is really taking up a lot of my time!!! I'm very slowly getting there... getting off of the automatic settings (you know the mountains, the tulip, all those settings) and onto the manual ones!

I took this picture this afternoon, I was playing with the Aperture settings on my camera. This takes a lot of practice to get your aperture and exposure right! This picture isn't perfect (it could be a little sharper) but gets the point across that I'm being challenged for a change.

As for a Weight Watchers update, I was up 1/2 a lb this week. I wasn't too happy about that yesterday. Actually between that and being exhausted (I was nodding off at the staff meeting at work), I went home ate a 100 calorie ice cream sandwich and went to bed before 7PM! I slept through to this morning when it was time to get ready for work!

Hopefully I'll have a repeat from the last time I went up 1/2 pound the next week I had a 4lbs loss!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my Mum and Todd's Mom and all the other Mothers out there!

I spent yesterday with my Mum for Mother's Day. Originally we were going to go to a quilt show, but we decided instead to go to the Tulip Festival. Boy we're both glad we did! The day started a little grey, but it turned into a gorgeous day! We were out walking about at Dow's Lake and Downtown Ottawa until 4:30pm! (I earned lots of Activity Points!) We then went out for a late lunch (more like dinner I suppose!) and I took my Mummy home.

And did I ever take pictures 248!!! This is just a small sample of what I took.

Fair & Square Round 6 Received

It was soooooooooo nice to be home this evening! After being out three nights in a row there's much to be said for being home, making dinner, and stitching! Of course I worked on my model tonight, so I have no stitching progress to share with you. However, I do have an exchange to share!

Earlier this week I received Round 6 from the Fair and Square exchange (unfortunately I'm still waiting to get something from round 5). This round my partner was Marg from Australia. She sent me this beautiful quaker freebie stitched up.

She also included some lovely extras, a stitch counter, a JBW chart, and a lovely red skein of floss. Thank you so much Marg I love it all!

Here's another photo for ya'll! One of the many lovely trilliums I've been enjoying on my lunchtime walks lately.

Weight Loss Update

Sorry I didn't post last night to update you on my progress at WW! I pretty much had dinner and was in bed by 9:30pm! Which as all my close friends know that's WAYYY early for me! My poor ole' body isn't used to being out late on week nights!

Anyhow, this week I lost 2.5lbs for a total of 17lbs. It seem that this week people are starting to notice that I've lost weight and are making comments. Which is nice!

Here's PhotoHunt #97 "Free"

Wouldn't you like to be as free as a bird to soar through the skies? To get away from the roads, stop signs, traffic lights and gridlock?

Photo Hunt #96 "Heavy"

I really enjoyed my first photography class tonight (digital photography by the way). The instructor is amusing, and from the class outline I think I'm going to get a lot out of this class! It was a bit of information overload tonight, but I'm sure it'll start to make sense after my next class on Wednesday.

"Heavy" -- That's what my suitcase is after a trip! Embarassingly enough last year when I was checking in to fly home, I had to get rid of 5lbs in my suitcase it was overweight!

This N' That

Unfortunately I have no stitchy pictures to share with you. Sorry! However I have been stitching, but on my model for A Needle Pulling Thread. Also I have finally made a start on Sally's gift for winning my 1000th post draw. Its taken me a little time to figure out what I wanted to do.

Since there's no stitchy pics, how about an old SBQ? (Eeek this one is sitting in my inbox from March 5th!)

Q : After you stitch a pattern or kit, what do you do with it?

A : Well that depends on what it is...

A Kit - If I've marked up the chart or no one I know has expressed an interested in it, it goes into a binder. I have a binder of used kit charts.

A Chart - If I want to stitch it again it goes back into the binder I found it in. If I don't want to stitch it again I'll either pass it onto a friend or arrange a trade. If I don't want to stitch it again but its autographed it'll go in a stitched charts binder.

I just realized I still haven't reviewed my goals from April and set goals for May.

April Recap :

Stitch model #6 -- Still not done!
Work on Double Flips -- Got caught up
Work on Tour Des Marques -- A little
Work on Paradigm Lost -- A little
Stitch Contest Gift -- Nope
Stitch Fair & Square Rd. 6 -- Done but not in the mail (tomorrow)

May Goals :

Finish Model #6

Finish Neighbourhood RR

Stitch Ornament

Stitch Contest Gift

Finish Double-Flips

I'm trying to keep my goals small and modest as I start my photography course tomorrow night! I don't know how much or what I'm going to get done with being in class 6 hours a week.

Blog Ketchup!

Well its been a few days since I've blogged! How can that be? So lets get you all caught up on the going-ons in my life.

Thursday my Mum, Christin, Chrisanne and I went and saw The Police in concert. I had seen Sting about 5 or so years ago when he came into town as a solo artist. I did enjoy that show. Meanwhile The Police weren't bad, I have to say I've been to better concerts! As you all know I'm an avid concert-goer and I think my opinion stands for something (for some strange reason the local paper gave the show a glowing review).

The show was opened by Elvis Costello

First of all, Sting, you surely needed a shave! Meanwhile a 5 o'clock shadow is sexy on some men, a 3 day salt & pepper growth of facial hair made you look OLD and not sexy. The t-shirt you were wearing, was thin with holes in it! My first impression, did you roll out of bed after a 3-day drinking binge, suddenly remembering that you had a concert to put on?

Second, your opening song should be something that gets the audience on its feet, dancing, singing along, and cheering. A "mellowed down" version of "Bring On The Night" didn't even get me on the edge of my seat!

Third, the 3-4 songs following the opening were so obscure that I was starting to fall asleep! I was yawning big time! My Mum went out for a smoke (she's never done this at a concert!) and Christin and Chrisanne decided to visit the facilities. Usually a visit to the ladies room is the LAST thing you want to do during a concert!

Fourth, when you did start playing the hits, the improvising, melodizing, and drawing 4 minute songs into 10 minute songs ... just sucked! I want to be able to sing along, when you go off into long guitar riffs and leave out the rest of the lyrics... just sucks. I can't fault the guitar playing, I can't fault the percussion but everything just seemed to be mellowed down and drawn out. At a concert I want to have the urge to get off of my butt and on my feet dancing and cheering you seriously disappointed me Sting!

And that's all I have to say about that.

Now on the up side... more STASH! From Christin, part of my birthday gift, that took longer than expected to arrive in the mail. A FULL set of the DMC Colour Variations! How lovely!

On Friday my order from Down Sunshine Lane arrived! I've got the last four words for the Lizzie*Kate Double Flip-its! I also added to the order Housework Never Killed Anyone and A-B-C-razy Alphabet. I'm looking forward to stitching all of these charts.

Today Christin and I went and saw Iron Man in the theaters... we both really enjoyed it! Worth the cost of a matinee!