More Black Belt Stitching Wizard Stuff

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This little festive guy... we actually spotted him down a side street in St. Augustine. A few days early for him to put in appearance.
First a quick Weight Watchers update! Tonight I went to the WW meeting here in Jacksonville, Florida. There happened to be a meeting on the same day and time as my meeting at home only 3 miles from where I'm staying. I have to say the meeting leader was very friendly in welcoming me. Good news I lost 0.7lbs this week which puts my loss at just over 60lbs! Yay! Its taken me awhile to get here. Now only the last 10 (or 9.8 if you want to be technical) to go! I think I must of done so much walking since I landed on Saturday that it counteracted the eating out (which included my first Big Mac in over a year!).

So this is my St. Augustine report... from Sunday, sorry its been a few days since I blogged. Last night I was absolutely exhausted after a full day at the outlet malls (so no Monday pictures... just shopping) and the very late night on Sunday!

We started out our day hopping on the Old Town Trolley Tour. Despite the cost this trolley tour was worth every penny. Not only did we get the historical background on the town which was fascinating, we were able to also get on and off the trolley all day (and for up to three days if we were still in town).

This is the old jail... why is it every time I go somewhere I end up at the Jail???? (see my March Break 2007 trip!)

The first area we got off was the pedestrian street, chock full of people and shops. I honestly didn't take too many pictures down here because it was a gorgeous day and so many people were out and about.


Here's the oldest wooden school house.

A doorway I thought was cool

The old city wall

Various churches

The college (used to be a resort for the wealthy during the late 1800's early 1900's)
A building
The cannon firing at the fort (preceded by musket firing)

The Old Spanish Fort
We left St. Augustine around 4pm that day and booted it down to Cape Canaveral to see the shuttle launch. (I've added a few more pictures to my previous post so don't forget to check that out!)
My next entry will be all about today's trip to the Jacksonville Zoo where I took over 530 pictures!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Cross That One Off of My Bucket List

It has been a life-long dream of mine to see a Space Shuttle Launch, today with little forethought or planning I did!!! We had plans to spend the day in St. Augustine (those pictures at another time its really late!), and decided around 3pm to try our best to get down to Cape Canaveral to see the Shuttle launch at 7:40 PM. With Claire's heavy foot and good traffic we made it there with an hour and a half to spare. We were really hoping to find out if there was a way we could get into the Kennedy Space Center to see the launch but they were only letting cars with passes over the bridge. So we parked the car and walked the two miles down to the closest vantage spot which was by the Astronaut History Museum.

Here's just a few shots... its was amazing ... it almost made me cry.



Here's our big grins after the launch... and after we were allowed past the white line... still a little exhuast in the air.

Claire & Patrick

Me

Saturday, March 14, 2009

In Sunny FLA!!!

It was a VERY early start to my day today... and I'm surprised I'm still vertical at this point. I had a bad night's sleep (who sleeps well in a hotel???) last night, and I was awake before my 4am wake up call. I got myself all packed again, and organized for my taxi pick-up at 4:30am.

When I got to the Syracuse airport, it was already one hopping place! Full of Canadians going to warmer climates! In typical style... I ran into a student from my school on my flight from Syracuse to Cleveland! I just can't go anywhere without running into someone I know! I got into Cleveland with just enough time to walk VERY fast to the next terminal, go for a quick potty break and board the plane! Whew that was close!

Two hours later I was landing in Jacksonville Florida... I imagined it being SUNNY well, with my luck there was a heavy fog. Of course seeing my best friend from High School, Claire is much better than a sunny landing! Quickly we were off to have lunch (I was hungry!) I had a very yummy bison burger! Followed by lots of walking and window shopping. I haven't bought much so far, a shirt and a few things at JoAnn's.

While shopping we saw this very cool hot rod.

These little guys are very cute, scuttling all over the fence in the back yard. Us Northern girls just aren't used to seeing lizards running about free!

This evening... Claire is stitching, I'm computing but soon to be stitching! Here's where my Paradigm Lost stands, this will be my project for the week.

If no one had already guessed, the MacDonald Maple Leaf I stitched was for Claire. I finished it into a cube-it. I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Safe N' Syracuse

Hi Everyone, just a quick note because I'm pretty tired! My drive to Syracuse, NY was uneventful this evening. I got here with no problems, and I fly out to Jacksonville, FLA early tomorrow. I have to get up a lot earlier than I'd like to... thank goodness I'm tired!

Hopefully in the next day or two I'll have pictures to start sharing with you!!!!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Still No New Stitching to Show

Well this top secret project is being a pain and taking wayyy too long. If its not done before Thursday night (which I don't expect it to be) its staying in Canada and not coming to Florida with me. But I finally do have some sort of stitching I can show you, my squares for round 11 of Fair and Square were received today by Beth.

Winter Block - 4 Seasons
Prarie Schooler - Gift of Stitching
Stitched on : 32ct Natural Linen
Stitched with : DMC cotton

Tonight was weigh in night. I have to say in the past week, it was hard to find as much time as I'd like to work out. I also let me stress get to my mouth, not a good idea. Also I have to say there were a lot of nibblies and temptations this weekend which I didn't do well resisting (being tired, and stressed out really weaken your defences). The result was no change at the scale this week. I've not managed to get in a workout yet this week, things have been very busy and its been so hard to find the time to get to the gym or get onto the treadmill. This week is filled with my preparations for March Break... the good news Saturday morning I'll be in Jacksonville, Fla!

Sunday, March 08, 2009

K&N Open House Day 1

Well its Sunday, the clocks are all changed, Dan is cooking us breakfast so all must be right with the world.

The Knowledge and Needles open house on Saturday (still going on today!) was definitely a huge success! I'd have to say things were busy to very steady from 10am to 2pm! There were lots of familiar faces in the crowd and some new ones as well (which is always nice). Here are a few of my shots from the day.

This is my favourite stitcher in the world! Adrianna who turns 93 this summer, and she is a fantastic stitcher and still works on evenweave at her age! Also she won Saturday's door prize!



One customer brought in their daughter, the cutest little girl who was just in love with the dogs.


We got to see deer bounding through the field across the street.


And of course there was shopping afoot!