Its Been Days and Days!

Hello BBSW readers! Its been far too long since I've blogged! First of all, I wasn't near a computer Friday-Monday afternoon, and I'm pooped!!!

Let's get down to immediate business. Despite a terrible migraine I wanted to get my weigh in at Weight Watchers over and done with. Just as long as I had been away from the computer I hadn't tracked either. Good news, I stayed the same again which was the best I could hope for after the last 5-6 days. I also have barely stitched since Friday so I'll save a stocking update for another day.

Wednesday after work I headed back down to Brighton! Ann was in Toronto helping out Dan's Dad for a few days, Dan and I met up with Beatrice and her husband for a nice dinner in Trenton. The rest of the evening I spent working on Todd's stocking.

Originally we were going to head out to the Holstein Rodeo on Thursday but since Ann was returning that day and was tried after being away for a few days we postponed our departure for Friday. That morning while Dan was at work I took Paddie and Molly for a walk in the nearby orchard. I followed that up with a brief run on the treadmill. Beatrice came over with lunch for the two of us. We had a great visit and stitched for awhile. I was hoping to put in a long evening of stitching, but for some strange reason I was pooped and it was early to bed for this girl!

Friday morning we all loaded into the motor home, dogs and all and hit the road for Holstein! I have to say travelling in a motor home is great, you can go pee any time you want to!!! I was able to stitch for a good 3-4 hours during the drive.

Here's the Rodeo site from the air... all those white rectangles... trailers and lots of them there were at least 600-700 sites booked for the weekend! I think there was more than 6,000 people in attencance, on Saturday they served 4,000 breakfasts and about just as many steaks that night! We were told they were serving one steak every 5 seconds!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday I barely had time to breathe or stop! Once we got the 50/50 ticket booth set up I spent 3-5 hours each day running the stands/bleachers at the Rodeo selling tickets! Thank goodness we had a beautiful weekend, with nice temperatures and sunny days ideal for running around!

Friday night's entertainment was Deric Rattan (now I'm not a Country Music fan so these names mean very little to me).

Saturday after dinner I was treated to a helicopter ride! The pilot was great, he offered to do the photographic tour for me... I told him I wanted the exciting ride! Boy what fun I had up there in the air!!!

Saturday night's entertainment was Beverly Mahood followed by the Road Hammers. I was so exhausted that despite being camped behind the stage I fell asleep to the VERY loud Road Hammers!

Sunday was our last day at the rodeo, and we didn't get back to Ann & Dan's until almost midnight. We got the basics out of the motor home, took showers, and all fell into bed! What an adventure! I had a great time, got some good shots, but boy it was exhausting. Hungry did come along for the road trip, but unfortunately the poor guy never got out of my stitching bag!

Here's some of my shots (when I had the time) from the Rodeo.

Waiting to ride the bull.

Look at that air!

*Cough* *Cough* Dusty!

Whoa Boy!

Yeee-Hawww!

Hang in there!

These guys are CRAZY!!!

What's a rodeo without a few boys on horseback?

What a face!!!

There's nothing more majestic than running horses.

Calf roping.

Perhaps Hungry will put in an appearance this weekend in Kingston! Christin and I are off to visit her parents for the weekend, followed with stitching at Beth's!

Photo Hunt #153 "Four"

It was weigh in night tonight. Good news, I stayed the same yes I'm actually considering this good news. I have to admit my eating was not the best nor closely tracked while I was visiting Kathy. However, I know that before WW I would of stuffed my face for days.


Before I head off to the Rodeo for the weekend, (a nice long weekend for me!!!) I'll leave you with a PhotoHunt "Four".



Here are four of the Snowbirds that I photographed this past weekend.

So what do you think of the new header for my blog?

Stitching n' Gifts

This weekend at Kathy's I really stitched up a storm! The sad thing is you can't really see it here in this picture. I started out stitching white-on-white on Friday afternoon, and I finally wrapped it up tonight... started the green YAY! I think if you click to enlarge you may see all the white I put it... its a lot! Kathy seems to think I won't get this done in time for Christmas. Well she's thrown down the gauntlet... I'm sure I'll have this stocking done by September or October!

When I left Kathy's yesterday evening I came home with two lovely hand-made gifts from Kathy! First is a stitching/pencil case. Well I call it a stitching case because it holds everything I need from scissors and needles down to lip balm and nail clippers. Its amazing how many times when you're stitching you realize boy I could use some lip balm... or look at that raggedy nail! Its all in the name of getting up less to stitch more!

Kathy was making some lovely stitched scissor fobs this weekend using pink fabric and hot pink floss. I whined one evening, showing Kathy my pink fob-less scissors. She surprised me Saturday night with a finished fob! It smells so pretty too, its stuffed with lavender! See doesn't it look perfect?

Well a couple of more days and I'm hitting the road again (Wednesday after work)! I'll be heading that evening to Ann & Dan's in Brighton (yes, back to Brighton again). From there we're going to the Holstein Rodeo! I'm looking forward to the fun pictures I'm going to take!!!!

A Weekend At Kathy's

Well, where to start and where to end? I had an AWESOME weekend at Kathy's! Thank you so much Kathy, for inviting me out and allowing me to do your dishes all weekend. Thanks to Beatrice for hanging out with us Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! Also thanks to the Brighton stitching ladies who came by Kathy's today. Each and everyone of you helped to contribute to a fantastic weekend, and it was so great to see everyone.

Thursday morning I had everything, all packed up ready to go.

After work I had a little get together with the girls from the office, then I hit the road, here's my mileage (kilometers of course!) before I hit the road.

Along the way I pulled over for these wonderful critters that I sighted from the driver's seat.

Thursday night Kathy and I of course stitched! Hungry and I were also happy to hit the hay that night, after a day at work and 3 hours on the road.

Friday we hooked up with Beatrice and headed into Coburg to check out the artisans at the Riverfest. Unfortunately they asked no photographs so I have nothing exciting to show you from this little adventure. We had a fantastic lunch at a German restaurant, window shopped, and got back to the van just as the rain began. From Coburg, we headed over to Ann's for a visit and a little stitching. Our evening was spent... stitching of course!

As usual mother nature didn't disappoint at Kathy's!

Saturday Beatrice came back out to Kathy's and we had lunch, stitched a little, then we did another little road trip. This time, into Bellville to hit Michaels, and Reid's Dairy for a yummy milk shake. Along the way back Kathy stopped on a back road so I could photograph the Snowbirds who were strutting their stuff at the Trenton Air Show. I took a lot of pictures, what I've got here are maybe 1/10th of what I took.

That night Kathy, Beatrice, and I stitched again, me on Todd's stocking (I'll share a picture of that with you tomorrow since I've got so much to show you tonight), Kathy was either working on scissor fobs or her Noddy piece. We did take a stitching break and here are Kathy and Beatrice making beaded scissor fobs after I gave them a brief lesson.

Sunday morning, there was no sleeping in ... we were up and at it, to get the house and food ready for the ladies to come over and stitch today!

Judie (of the Cows) was stitching

So was Marie-Paule

Beatrice and her sister Lisa were stitching too

Here's Lisa, Adrianna and Angie all settled in to stitch

Hungry and I were having a good time too!

Sadly, the fun had to end, and I drove back home... here's the damage to my odometer at the end of it all (over 500 Kms!).

So stay tuned for a project progress report and some lovely little gifties Kathy made for me!!!

Long Live the Road Warrior!!!

Ready... Set... GO!

After work yesterday marked the beginning of my summer roadtrippin'!!! My poor little car, car, I hope its ready for a little abuse (good little car, car!). For me summer is a huge season to get out and about to visit my friends! Did I mention... stitching friends, that is a requirement by the way, to be my friend is you must stitch. I am happy to teach you!!! You can ask Christin and Claire they have been properly converted.

Sadly, poor Todd is being left alone at home this season. Silly, silly man isn't taking any summer holidays so instead of staying home to spend an evening with him where he'll fall asleep on the couch and I'll stitch I'm hitting the road!

This weekend : its a visit with Kathy on the shores of Lake Ontario! I'm looking forward to hearing the gentle lapping of the waves on the shore when I go to sleep at night. I know some of my other Brighton stitching friends will be popping by as well. So look for pictures Monday-ish of this adventure.

Next weekend : its the Holstien Rodeo with Ann & Dan!

The weekend after : Stitching weekend in Kingston!

The following weekend : I'm flying to Jacksonville, Fla. to check in on my best friend Claire

This brings us up to August 2nd when I return from Jacksonville. My Mum and I have talked about a few nights in Montreal the following week while I'm still on holidays. Nothing is decided at this point, we'll see how I'm feeling after all that mileage!

Happy Birthday Canada!

Here's a montage of pictures I've taken over the years that clearly represent Canada (well at least in my mind they do!)

Yo yo, Results, July Goals & PhotoHunt oh MY!

Yup I'm officially re-naming myself from TKDchick to Yo yo. Back up again at the scales... up one pound. Am I surprised, not really. Last week was incredibly chaotic for me, my days were all over the place, I didn't take a lunch three days in a row, I worked until 5:30 one night (I finish work at 3:30), then went in for 7am the next day, thus my stress level was up, my organization & planning went out the window. I packed chaotic lunches, I can assure it it wasn't balanced, it was more like throwing already packaged things in my lunch bag... yogurt, granola bars, apples, microwave popcorn, etc. Then there was end of year treats around, with my stress level being up, my resistance was down. One night I had a DQ Blizzard for dinner, the next day I had a cinnamon bun for breakfast (oh if they hadn't had those on the table I would of been okay), then another one for lunch. Then there was a small shared popcorn at the movies. So, as you can see it was all my own fault. But this is the start of a new week and I can focus on organization and better choices.

Today I had my appointment with the Internalist who sent me for cardiac testing about a month ago now. My testing has come back clean, so there are no concerns over my heart (remember my fainting episode?). He did receive a letter from my allergist and between the three of us we agreed to treat this as Exercise Induced Anaphalaxis.

Now onto the fun stuff!!! Stitching and goals! I had a little time with Todd's Stocking this afternoon... before another nap! This evening after Taekwon-Do I pulled out Art Deco Spirits. At the moment its white on white... oh yay!

June Goal - Recap

Finish Blackstone Fantasy Garden - Yeah baby!

Stitch Two Ornaments - Yuppers!

Work on Todd's Stocking - Yes, aren't I a good girl?

Work on Art Deco Spirits - For sure!

Not on the goal list, but I also pulled out Tour des Marques, and worked on it twice!

July Goals

Stitch Two Ornaments

Work on Todd's Stocking

Work on Art Deco Spirits

Work on Tour des Marques

Tomorrow is Canada Day! The forecast is kinda crappy so I suppose I'll be stitching, and if it does turn into a nice day I'll stitch on the deck at the cottage instead.

Finally another PhotoHunt to amuse you with. PhotoHunt #152 "Space"

This was a simple choice, one of my photos of the shuttle launch this past March. One of the most exhilarating experiences in my life!