March Goals & Moanings

Well its the end of February so time to see what I got done and didn't do, time to make plans for March!

February Recap

Stitch Two Treat Bags - Done!
Stitch Two Ornaments - Done!
Stitch Two Models for Great Bear Canada - Started 1st one
Participate in TW SAL - Yup!
Participate in Celtic Banner SAL - Yup!
Put some stitches in Noah's Sub - Nope!

Pictures of everything listed above can be found in my blog


March Goals

Stitch One Ornament
Stitch Two Models for Great Bear Canada
Participate in TW SAL
Participate in Celtic Banner SAL
Start/Finish Bug Collector during March Break

With the start of March tomorrow brings my birthday month... I turn 3o on the 27th of March this year. Maybe its just me or maybe its just turning 30 but I feel so much older! I'm realizing now that the age gap between me and the students at work is much larger. When I first started working for my current employer I was only 21 and kids went to school through grade 13 so there was only a 2-3 year age gap between the oldest students and myself. Now the age gap is over ten years! Argh! One day I was playing my cell phone ringer for a grade 10 student... he didn't recognize the Muppets theme song! Everyone recognizes the Muppet theme song! I graduated college 10 years ago this year! OMG I'm old! In 2 years I'll be getting my 1o year pin at work! Arrrrgh! Where has my life gone, its slipped away!

I have aches and pains, I can't keep up with the teens at TKD anymore. Sigh.

It sucks getting old.

SAL Progress

Finally I had a good stitching stretch on both of my SALs! Yesterday I worked on Celtic Banner and I got a good stretch done on the border I'm sure it'll be done before March is out!

Today I continued to work on celestial Dragon's border... gosh you'd think I'd be getting bored of these borders!

Hmmm I don't have much else to say today.

Ornament Happy Dance!

Yay! I've finished my second ornament for the month! Seeing as today was Dragon Dreams SAL day over at the Needle and Thread BB (link in sidebar) I've participated in that at the same time. This was the last ornament in the JCS Retro Ornament RR. Here's Never Too Big by Dragon Dreams from the 2004 JCS Ornament Issue.

For the rest of the evening I'm going to work on my next ornament, Golden Garland by Paw Printings from the he JCS 2005 Ornament Issue.

The Weekend Is Here

Ahhh its one of those weeks where I'm glad the weekend has arrived!

Thursday I had packages waiting for me in the mail! One of them was my next JCS 05 Ornament RR. I'm tempted to start that today after I've finished my last JSC Retro RR piece. We'll see how I feel later in the day when I finish Never Too Big by Dragon Dreams. If I don't start that next RR I'll be starting another model for Great Bear Canada.

My second parcel was my last piece of opalescent fabric I had ordered from Silkweavers back at the end of December. It is the piece which will be my first choice for Mirabilia's Christmas Elf Fairy when I get around to starting it, my second choice will be precious Metals. Here's a picture of the piece I received, Wandering Ivy 32 Opalescent Lugana. The mottling is more subtle than I had hoped but I think it'll still be very nice.



Yesterday I received my February Blahs exchange package from Chrsitine. She made me a beautiful pouch with some candies for me. Thank you Christine its just loely!

Originally today I was going to hit the roads, pick up Christin at her parents house and continue down to Knowledge and Needles for Ann's open house today to check out all the new Nashville stock. But mother nature has changed those plans. Right now nothing has started up here but we're supposed to get 10-15cm of snow with gusting winds at 40-60KM/h, definitely not conditions you'd want to be doing a 3hour road trip in! Also I talked to Christin and her Mom this morning and it started snowing in Kingston around 5am and its pretty white out there. So I'm snuggling up with some DVD's and stitching.

Now That's Dedication!

Okay ... you know you're a stitching addict when....

Tonight I was making one of my favorite comfort food dishes from my childhood, Spanish Rice. I had pulled the pot out of the oven to see if I needed to add any water for the rice. Everything was cooking nicely so I put the oven mit back on and grabbed the handle of the pot then with my other hand grabbed the lid. A 350F degree lid!!!! I did it without thinking, normally I use that pot on the stove top not in the oven so it was second nature to just grab the lid. I've now got small second degree burns on my right index finger and thumb! I've got two nice blisters on my index finger and one on my thumb. These are the fingers I use to hold my needle!

But I still stitched, despite the owiiees in my fingers!

I also finished up a framing job tonight too. Actually you know what is the hardest thing with these blisters on my fingers? Writing! So work might be fun tomorrow! On the flip side, at least I'm going to work tomorrow. I'm a member of CUPE and originally we were having a one day strike against some legislation the Ontario was trying to put through that would severely impact our pension. To my relief I received a phone call telling me that a tentative agreement has been reached and we're not walking out tomorrow.

I stitched in a new place earlier this evening, its always interesting to see what places we do stitching in. For the first time ever tonight I stitched at a Timmies while waiting for my other half to pick me up! (Tim Hortons) I dropped my car off at my favorite Hyundai dealer to get my breaks checked out and a regular service done on my car. Once this is done my car will be ready for me to take off during March Break in a couple of weeks.

I'm not sure where I'm going or if I'm going anywhere but it would be nice to hop into my car and just go if I feel like it. At the moment my March Break options are : Drive to Tennessee and spend the week with my best friend Claire (I was in her wedding this past summer), a 17 hour drive. Drive down to Brighton and spend a day or two with my friend Ann, a 3 hour drive. Go down to Toronto spend some time with my friends Elana and Warren also visit with my old school friend Laura and meet the new baby, a 5 hour drive. Or go down to Washington D.C. with my mum for 2 or 3 days, according to Google a 12 hour drive (I think its not really that long) or Mapquest a 9 hour drive. Or I could just stay home. Decisions, decisions!

I'm so ready for March Break... start the countdown please!

New TUTORIAL, Progress, and More!

First off I'm sure you're excited to hear that yes, a new tutorial is available at TKDchick.com! Here's what you can learn to make with this new tutorial, a draw string bag which is lined with fabric. Follow the link at the bottom of the page, finishing instructions. A big thank you to Debby from my guild for checking my grammar and spelling!

These are actually quite easy to make and looks impressive!



On Saturday I met up with Sara from the Needle and Thread Bulletin Board at a nearby Bead shop. She was one of my two partners for the February Blahs exchange. She received the Celtic Heart bag from me. Well Sara made me this ADORABLE fishie bag! Its stitched on sparklie hand dyed fabric and Sara finished it with some great co-ordinating fishie fabric. Thank you Sara I love the bag and I've been enjoying the treats you put in it! My second partner was Christine and she has received the bag I made her. She says I should have her giftie by the end of the week. Of course I will share pictures!!

After meeting up with Sara I went to pick up Christin. We had two things to go buy. I needed to pick up my night splint from a medical sports shop for my planter flaccitis (sp???). Christin was told by the insurance company to go ahead and pick up a new laptop. We had a nice visit until it was time to head out for dinner... and then.... NICKELBACK! It was a great show on Saturday night with the opening bands, Dengo (sp?) Jones and Live (who I've loved since I was in High School... oops I'm dating myself again... scary I turn 30 on March 27th... I'm feeling my age this year!). Needless to say not much stitching happened on Saturday.

Sunday I was a very good girl and pulled out Celtic Banner. I've gotten around to the bottom! Once I get that bottom totally stitched up I'll move back up to the top and work the right hand border from the top down. I didn't get as much stitched up as I would have liked to, but I had framing to get done!

Today I didn't get in a nice long stretch on Celestial Dragon as I thought I would. I got called late in the afternoon. I was asked if I could teach at TKD last night, as the scheduled instructor was ill. Of course I said I would (duh, like I can say NO to anything?). So I had a little stitching time on CD and I had that framing to finish up tonight!


There won't be a lot of stitching going on tomorrow, its guild night. I'll be finishing up that beaded brooch we started last month. I'm hoping this week to finish up another ornament and then get a start on two more models for Great Bear Canada.

Ornament Happy Dance!

Yay! I've finally finished my first ornament for February. This one is from the JCS 05 RR, our first round.

Its taken me about a week to stitch up, but then as you know I've not had a lot of productive stitching time. This piece is called a Christmas Blessing c2005 Full Cirlcle Designs. Its stitched on 35ct Lambswool Permin Linen. I have to say I HATED stitching on this fabric! My stitches just didn't lie right and looked rather lumpy at times. This is one ornmaent I probably won't keep for myself this year. Its also not really my style, but that's fine I've got a couple of people in mind it would suit nicely this Christmas.

I do have one complaint about the design... the designer used a lot of overdyed cottons. Now that in itself doesn't really bother me. Its the fact that one colour was used for less than 20 stitches and nowhere else. The Yellow also was used for only the stars... again not a lot of stitches. Then a darker green was used for the vines and loops where the same green from the borders could of been used in my opinion. This is the reason why these ornament RR's are great, at least this way these colours where they are barely used are being stitched with by six people as the supplies move from person to person in the RR.

I have to say that is my biggest complaint with needlework designers sometimes. It feels like there's a competition going on sometimes to see who can design the most expensive piece to stitch. I find it a huge waste to get the consumer to purchase a skein of something when you're not even going to use one length! If I had kitted this ornament up for myself I would of made some substitutions from my stash unless I already had those barely used colours.

Now that this ornament is done I'm moving onto my second one for the month of February. I've got a small start on Never Too Big by Dragon Dreams from the 2004 JCS issue. This is the last ornament in the JCS Retro RR.

Saturday afternoon I'm meeting up with Sara to exchange February Blahs parcels! This will be the first time we meet in the flesh.

Update and SBQ

This morning I dropped Christin off so she could get things sorted. I called her on my drive to pick up my other half. She's had the locks dealt with, and started her claim with the insurance company. Unfortunately the adjuster is out of town until the weekend so it will be at least Monday before her claim really gets going.

So she's doing okay.

Now I totally ignored yesterday's SBQ in light of what had happened.

Q : Comment on your comments (giving and receiving): Do you love comments or hate them? Do you check them every day, never check them, or find them helpful? And finally, are you convinced no one is reading your blog if you don't get any?

A : I LOVE comments! I do find them helpful, they give me fuel to keep going on projects I'm not too thrilled with. Or more fuel for projects I love. Its nice to find your stitching is appreciated by others who understand the "addiction". Also it lets me know you folks really do read my blog, that I'm not wasting my time!

I have bonus stitching time tonight! Environment Canada is calling for freezing rain all night tonight, so my TKD instructor has cancelled tonight's classes. So hopefully I'll be able to "bust a move" on my JCS 05 ornament!

Some Policemen Are Cute But...

When you usually meet police men its not under the best circumstances!

Tonight while teaching my little kiddies at TKD my cell phone started ringing, now not a lot of people have my number and well it rings so infrequently it took me a couple of minutes to realize it was mine! It turned out to be my other half calling. I was a little surprised he called because he knows I teach on Wednesday nights and I told him that. He was like I know I'd only call you if it was an emergency. So of course my first response is okay what's wrong.

It turns out that my best friend Christin's place had been broken into and that I needed to call her. After a short conversation, I made arrangements for my assistant instructor to take over the rest of my classes and off I went to Christin's... picking up some dinner for her along the way even though I know dinner was the last thing on her mind.

I kept her company and we started a list of what needed to be done while we waited for the police to show. She was lucky in the fact that, she wasn't home but her laptop and laundry money had been taken. As computer savvy stitchers I'm sure we'll all understand how much an impact the loss of a computer can have on us! Also being burgled in not a nice feeling.

I have to commend the local police force they sent a good looking cop with a great personality to check out her place. He was very sympathetic and quite through. He even took the laundry container for fingerprinting!

It turns out that attempts to force the locks on several apartments on different floors had been reported and so far Christin's apartment was the only one they were successful with.

So I've brought Christin home with me for the night. I know I wouldn't of wanted to stay home by myself after I've been robbed.

Off to a Slow Start

I'm sorry I haven't blogged in awhile its half between I haven't had much to say. The other half... I keep loosing my phone service since Sunday night. Every time I've settled down to update my blog I have no dial tone! Its all quite frustrating and I'm ready to tear a strip off of Bell Canada. This is not the first time this has happened, I had this problem as well in the fall.


Okay so let's get everyone updated here...

Sunday I was a good girl, I worked on Celtic Banner during the afternoon and evening. I spent part of the morning working on my JCS Ornament RR which I fear will probably be late going out in the mail! I did make it down to the bottom, but not quite around the corner!










Monday I did try to work on Celestial Dragon, but between everything that was going on, then a couple of phone calls at 9pm I just called it quits and went to bed. I felt like I was getting no where!

So once I'm done online I'll put in a little bit of time on my Ornament RR.

I'm Psyched!

Well I finished the stitching on my second treat bag earlier this evening (aka 11pm). So that was good I accomplished one of my goals for the weekend. Then I decided to start the finishing on the first treat bag that I finished stitching about a week ago. I had a few hiccups when I was finishing. Stupid things like putting one right side of the fabric touching one wrong side, forgetting to turn the lining right side out and so on.

In the end I am extremely pleased with my results! It looks just fantastic... Christine you'll be over the moon with this. Hopefully Sara's will turn out just as nice, and a little more smoothly.

I was a very good girl and took step-by-step photos. When the girls have received their treat bags a tutorial will be available on my website at www.tkdchick.com And of course I'll post pictures here!

I'm wide awake and if I didn't have to teach TKD at 10am I'd stay up and do the finishing on Sara's bag. I should try to go to bed now!

Progress Reports

Well I was a bad, bad girl and didn't blog at all last night! I was just too tired! I didn't really get much stitching done yesterday either... I did take two naps and I had slept in as well!


I probably shouldn't of gone out Saturday night, but when you've had tickets for a month and the show is sold out you go! The Trews put on a great high energy show. My complaints? Well the tickets said doors opened at 7pm, when we got to the venue we were told to come back in an hour. When we returned to the venue we weren't early enough to get a seat so we were on our feet ALL NIGHT. By the time the Trews came on stage at 10:45pm I was pretty miserable and couldn't really enjoy the experience. Yes there were two other opening bands, but there was so much time between each band it really put another negative spin on the night. Needless to say we didn't get out of there until after midnight!

Sunday I picked Celtic Banner back up for my weekly SAL with Christin, Abi, Carmen and Colleen. Between the naps I didn't really get far at all. I got one more length of my 6" q-snap done that's it. I'm hoping next Sunday I'll be hitting the bottom of that left hand side and coming around the corner.



Today is the TW SAL over at the TWBB and I put in about another two hours in on Celestial Dragon. The outline of the border is coming along nicely. I imagine after my next rotation comes upwith this piece I'll have that border all outlined and will start with the next colour in that outline.

Stitching HD!

Yay! I finished my first treat bag for the Needle and Thread exchange! Its not put together yet but I am incredibly happy with how the stitching has turned out! Of course I can't share pictures yet, as the recipient reads this blog!

I got a good start last night on my second treat bag and will continue to work on it today.

tonight Christin and I are going out to see The Trews at a club called Barrymores. I can't wait! I haven't gone to a show at a small venue for quite awhile and they're usually the most fun! I just hope I'm not feeling miserable by this evening. I suddenly came down with a cold yesterday out of nowhere!

SBQ & Goals!

Hello everyone! Its SBQ time again, its been a bit since we've had one, I kinda miss it when the moderator is on holiday!

Q: With the exception of your online stitching friends, do you have any other stitching buddies?

A : Yes I do! Once I really got into stitching I started converting my friends in to stitchers! It was kinda a Borg mentality...

"You will be assimilated..."

I also made real, larger than life, stitching friends thru my online groups! I've been lucky to have many opportunities to meet the friends I've made online. Its been amazing how online friends have become fast and true real life friends. I find we get along just as well or better in person!

I've also met and made stitching friends through joining the local guild. Attending stitching shows, retreats, get togethers and so on.

Oh yes I realized in last night's blog I didn't mention the title of the chart I got. Its a repoduction of a painting called The Accolade. This conversion is done by Gitta's a shop in Toronto.

Good news, there's no imminent deadline for those new models. I can get my personal deadline stitching done first! Yay!

I'm about half way done stitching my first treat bag tonight!

Gosh I almost forgot my January re-cap and February goals!

January Recap
Stitch on Celtic Banner on New Year's Day - Yes
Finish one page on Noah's Sub - Nope
Stitch one ornament - Yes
Start model for Great Bear Canada when it arrives - Stitched two!
Model stitching sure gets in the way of your plans!

February Goals :
Stitch Two Treat Bags
Stitch Two Ornaments
Stitch Two Models for Great Bear Canada
Participate in TW SAL
Participate in Celtic Banner SAL
Put some stitches in Noah's Sub