The Biggest Ottawa GTG Ever!

Ottawa has always been a tough city to get a descent sized Get Together of stitchers. Tonight we've had the biggest one to date. It all started with Belinda from the TWBB posting that she would be in Ottawa this week on business and wanted to know if anyone wanted to GTG.

Well count me in! Actually just call me the Eastern Ontario Social Co-ordinator. With a couple of e-mails I suddenly had a group of six agreeing to meet tonight at the Cross Stitch Cupboard followed by dinner out. We were : Belinda up from Florida, Chrisanne drove in from Cornwall (what a great gal and she picked up Belinda as well!), Alison, Christin, Vicki, and I made up the Ottawa Valley contingent.

We had a good little shop (with a personal pre-shop at Kettleman's Baels mmm.....). With some ribbing from Alison I picked up one of the Mill Hill Beaded Tassel Ornaments. She said she wanted me to figure out how to put it together first before she would put hers together. That was a tough sell! Alison was also such a sweetie and picked up one of the Monica Ferris needlework mysteries for me to read when I'm in the hospital over night on August 9th (S-Day... surgery day).

All of us except Alison (her wee one is sick) piled into our various vehicles and headed en masse to Kanata where we had an excellent supper at The Glen my favorite Scottish Pub. I will dare you to find anywhere that has better fish and chips! So over excellent food we talked about, life, families and stitching of course. Ohhed and ahhed over the goodies that Chrisanne had to share with us. Soon enough it was hitting 9pm and it was time for all of us to go our separate ways.

Belinda, if you read this thank you for being the instigator and pulling everyone together for a great night out! I hope you enjoyed our little group and liked what you saw of Ottawa.

Wooo Hooo!  Last Ornament for July
 
Yup,  I would of finished it last night but I just had to go to bed.  It had been a long, emotional day.  So after going to Taekwon-Do tonight I sat down and finished it.
 
This month's second contribution to the pile is :
 
Dragon Dreams c1999 Christmyth Griffon
Stitched on : 28ct Antique White Linen Silk

And For My Next Trick...
 
I got my first ornament done for this month!  Well it was actually two that I stitched since the design calls for it to have a front and back (pretty much the same).  The back is supposed to contain your initials and year but I decided not to put those in case I decide to finish these as two separate ornaments.
 
Here is Star Stocking Ornament by Periwinkle Promises

Yay!
 
This morning I finished page 4 of Bandon Lighthouse!  So that's another goal for this month met!  Now if I can get the last 4 pages finished next month I'd be happy!!!!
 
Here's my progress scan of Bandon Lighthouse copyright The Silver Lining


 

Now I'm going to focus on getting my ornamets done for this month!

A Long Week
 
Yup, its been one of those.  Our family emergency is still ongoing and it looks like it will for sometime.  So if blogging starts to become rather erratic let me apologize up front.
 
I was just thinking as I was waiting for blogger to load (stupid slow rural connection!) that last month I got SO MUCH done stitching wise.  This month I feel like I'm treading water.  We're down to the last week of the month and my two ornaments are not done, they are both in different stages of being worked on ... slowly.  I've picked one ornament that I'm really not enjoying and I find a PITA to work on.  But I'm stubborn I won't let it get the best of me!  Also I won't let myself work on my fun and colourful griffon ornament until this is done.
 
Progress on Bandon Light is going nicely I should have page 4 done by the end of the month... that's if this emergency doesn't get worse.
 
So I have one more week of work before I'm on holiday for a week.  Guess what I'm going to do?  I'm going to stitch.  The following week after my holidays I'm going for surgery and then I'll be off of work for 4-6 weeks.  Hopefully in that time I'll get Bandon Lighthouse and Mini Cottages 3 done, and hopefully start my friend Laura's wedding present.  Also there's keeping up with Mystery 6 and Mini F both I'd like to get done in the week before surgery.
 
As for the surgery I'm starting to get a little freaked out over it.  I've never been operated or put under ever.  My biggest fear is not being properly sedated I think.  I've read that this can happen in about one in a million people.  You can't talk, you can't move but you can feel everything they're doing.  That's what I'm really scared of.
 
Its the weekend I'm going to stitch...

I'm a Good Girl!
 
As stitchers I think we all have pieces we should be stitching on and pieces we want to stitch on.  Right now I'm working on the piece I should be stitching on (Bandon Lighthouse), and I've been very good its the piece I've been working on all week so far and will continue to work on it until the next installment of Mystery 6 is released.  As I sit there stitching I keep thinking boy, I'd rather be working on....  or I'd like to start...
 
I think life is going to be a little rough for the next while.  There are some family issues going on that are quite upsetting.  Also I'm going for surgery in 18 days.  So I'm not sure if my focus is going to be all there.  I'm hoping my stitching will become my "refuge" while I'm sailing rough seas.  I've never had surgery before, and as it has been getting closer (and its been so far away for so long) I've started having dreams about it.  So all of this makes it a little hard for me to do the stitching I should be doing (while I think about the stitching I'd like to be doing).

Evanessence
 
Last night my friend Christin and I went and saw Evanessance.  Opening for the band was : Breaking Benjamin, Seether, and 3 Days Grace.
 
Breaking Benjamin, rocked I really liked their music and I hope to hear more from them in the future.
 
Seether, honestly all their songs sounded the same!
 
3 Days Grace, I saw them in February when they opened for Nickleback.  I thought they were awesome then and I still think they are awesome now!
 
Evanessance, not a bad show.  I'd give them a 2.5 stars out of 5.  For a brand new band with only one CD I have to say they did fairly well.  But if I were to compare them to a lot of the other acts I've seen over the years I would say they were okay.
 
Now when you have 3 opening acts and you're sitting on the end of the row where people go up and down the stairs to get to general admission you get to do a lot of people watching.  I finally had to get a piece of paper and pen to write down my observations that I made to amuse myself and Christin...
 

• When navigating small steps... leave the Herman Munster shoes at home!
• Tulle skirts... only if you're 90lbs soaking wet please
• Sir... the seat of your pants they're a little worn out
• Hmmm spike heels in general admission???
• Honey, next time you go to the ladies room don't forget to tuck in the ribbon on your udnerwear
• Sporty skirt... t-shirt... hat... high heels?  Hmmm mixed messages, sproty or classy I think just plain trashy.
• Can you please scream a little louder I still have a working ear drum left
• Tube tops and stairs, don't mix, hike it up baby!

I have to say I saw a lot of very interesting outfits and impractical footwear!

 

Finally Bug Free!
 
Ahhh its nice to have that Wee Beastie taken care of!  I've just finished stitching on Suz's Wee Beasties Round Robin.  For Suz I stitched up the Ailanithus Silkmoth.  As you know from my whining over the past week or so this one has taken me awhile (well at least a while by my standards).  I'm glad to have it done! 
 

Ailanithus Silkmoth - Wee Beasties Part 2 c1999 Dimples Designs 
 
Next to stitch today, is a Dragon Dreams Design.  Today is the once a month DD SAL over at the Needle and Thread BB.  So to help kill two birds with one stone I'm going to stitch up the 1999 Christmyth ornament.  This way I'll get one of my two ornaments out of the way.

 

I have been working on another ornamment however its kinda dull and I've not been working on it as much as I should!

Another Small Happy Dance!!!

On Thursday... since its now barely Friday we received another installment of Mini Mystery F, part 1B.  I printed it out this morning and finally got to sit down and start working on it after work.  I took a break for a nap and then went to Taekwon-Do (like a good little girl!).  Once I got back home Mini F just jumped right into my hands, and I figured I might as well stay up an extra hour to get it finished (who can sleep when something is almost done?  I know I can't).

 

So without further ado... Mini Mystery F Part 1B

 

Yay! I Can Share!!!

If you're one of my few regular blog readers you'll remember in late June I finsihed up a "surprise" item for my seasonal exchange partner in Australia then during the long weekend I finished into something.

Well she's received it and she's in love! So without further ado...

Dani The Stitching Dragon Finished as a Tote Bag!

Ack! Bugs!

Actually its one bug in particular, the Wee Beasties Round Robin I'm working on. I'm stitching up one of the moths and there are so many scattered and partial stitches I'm quickly loosing interest. Discipline... must stay disciplined. I hope to get all the ecru done tonight. I keep thinking... geeze I'd love to pull out Mini Cottages III but I should get my deadline pieces done first before I can indulge in my guilty pleasure!

Dani's Laws (kinda like Murphy's Law)

Don't decide to change the cat cat litter with a bad headache. You just end up pouring the entire 10Kg bag into the litter tray end end up scooping half of it out because the cats don't really need that much cat litter.

It Arrived, I Stitched it, I Rocked, AND I Slept!

It Arrived... Yay my kit for Chatelaine's Mini Mystery F arrived today, the mystery that my friend Chrisanne signed me up for. The materials are gorgeous as usual! More silike for the collection when this piece is done!

I Stitched it... I started Mini Mystery F practically as soon as I got it in the door. This one is stitched on linen band, my first time using this fabric, its quite nice. I got it mostly done yesterday before I took a nap, then I went out. I finished it up this morning while watching the British GP. Here's a piccy of it so far...



I Rocked... At the Bluesfest last night! Christin and I went and saw my favorite band in the whole wide world, The Tragically Hip! As usual they were most excellent! I was up at the front of the stage for a fair amount of the show but being short I just can't handle being up front for two hours! I didn't get home until after midnight.

I slept... Yes! Hunter my little cat left me alone to sleep last night!!!!!!

Today I'm working on updating my webpages some more and then I plan to stitch the day away on Suz's Wee Beasties RR!

If you want to see how my webpage is coming along click HERE

I Could Cheerfully Kill My Cat

So far for most of the week my little cat, Hunter has not been letting me sleep through the night. I'm getting to the point where yes I might even contemplate murder!

He's taken to waking me up in the middle of the night by nipping (very hard) any exposed flesh! I can tell you on a hot night its hard to make sure you stay covered by the comforter!!!! For awhile I could kick him out of the bedroom and go back to sleep but he's started meyowing and scratching at the bedroom door. Which keeps me up as well! So I started ignoring him.. now he's taken to throwing himself at the door.

Will I ever get any sleep?

When You THINK You're Getting Ahead

You're not.

We had a bit of a crisis tonight here at home. Todd was mowing the lawn this evening to discover water bubbling up out of the ground within inches of our well cap.

Now this is not good.

I had a 10 minute pity party, having no clue what was wrong, what to do, or who to call. Also the panic of oh my gosh this is going to cost us. After a talk with my Dad we came to the conclusion that the pipe that leads from the well to the house is broken, cracked, etc. Our next phone call was to a well drilling company who also dealt in well to home connections. They told us the same thing (they were very nice to us on the phone). We've been told to turn the well pump off for the time being (water has stopped bubbling to the surface. Because the pump would bring water up, it would drain out through this leak and would have to pump again. So the long and short of it is we need to dig up this pipe (or rent a backhoe we can't afford) then get a plumber in to come fix it.

Tomorrow night.... we dig.

On the positive side I started working on Suz's Wee Beastie RR, that is moving along nicely and I've started updates to my webpage (hasn't been done in 6 months).

Part 7 is DONE!

Yes! I managed to do it, I got part 7 of Myster 6 finished this weekend! Now I'm moving onto my Wee Beasties Round Robin.

Oh yeah... suppose you want some pics right? They're a little on the yellow side due to poor lighthing.

Here's a Gazebo closeup...


And here's the entire mystery so far

Mummies are the BEST!

Yesterday afternoon I went out to my Mum's she was going to help me make my exchange partner's stitched piece (that I stitched for her) into something. I am not going to give any particulars because once again, its a surprise and I don't know if she reads my blog or not.

But my Mum was just awesome she directed me in what to do and how to do it, never once did she butt in or take it out of my hands. She just let me work on it, learn how to make it, and to make mistakes. But you know what... its GORGEOUS!!!! I hate to give it away.

I was hoping to get all the trellises on Mystery VI done last night but by 1am I had 4 left and a set of 4 takes about an hour. So I'll get those done today and into the "scroll work". Once again I won't get in as much stitching as I'd like because I'm off to visit a friend today.

Stitching Goals

Setting stitching goals for myself each month stated with a thread back on the Needle and Thread BB some time ago. Eventually I started participating then I actually started to try to meet those goals. I'm finding it a good way to stay focused and motivated in my stitching.

I did really well in June.

JUNE GOALS :
1. Finish pt6 of Mystery VI DONE
2. Stitch 2 x-mas ornaments DONE
3. Stitch WG's Wee Beasties RR DONE
4. Gift for Seasonal Exchange partner DONE
5. Pgs 1&3 on Bandon Light DONE
6. Put some stitches in on Mini Cottages III DONE

So as you can see I managed to meet every one of my goals and I'm pretty darned pleased with myself. Now for ...

JULY GOALS :
1. Finish pt7 of Mystery VI
2. Stitch 2 x-mas ornaments
3. Stitch Suz's Wee Beasties RR
4. Start Mini Mystery F
5. Pg4 on Bandon Light
6. Put some stitches in on Mini Cottages III

Now to share two progress pics. with you...

Here's Bandon Light by The Silver Lining over one on lavender sunset joblean. Progress by the end of June :


Next, Mini Cottages III by Michael Powell this is a kit and I'm stitching it on the aida provided since its fully covered and no partial stitches. I got two colours completed this month.


Progress is going really well on Mystery VI and I hope to have it done before the weekend is out.