February Ornament In the Nick of Time

I started this little freebie early afternoon on Saturday and finished it up this morning. The minute I saw this freebie I thought of Lori! She is such a Pirate fanatic!

Pirate Ornament Freebie

c2008 Sue Hills

Stitched on : 28ct Forest Green Jubilee

Stitched with : DMC cotton

Here are two more Daily Photos For you!

Friday February 26 - I was involved in ThinkFast, a fundraiser for Development & Peace and an awareness campaign for third world countries for the students where I work. As part of the process we fasted for 25 hours. This is the song we sang to get things going on our overnight activities on Friday night (City of God).

Saturday February 27 - All of my orts from Tour des Marques since January 1st.

Getting Caught Up On Photos

I am seriously behind on sharing my photos of the day with you! So I've got a whole bunch, except for this past Wednesday. I wasn't feeling well and just completely forgot.

Tuesday February 16 - The trunk of a birch tree on my parent's property.

Wednesday February 17 - A basket of colourful knitting yarns at the general store where I pick up my mail.

Thursday February 18 - The cut on one of the trees Todd and his Dad cleaned up a few weeks ago.

Friday February 19 - My new mouse! Isn't it soooo girly?

Saturday February 20 - My kick-ass lasagna. I'm told its VERY good, I'd like to think people aren't flattering me!

Sunday February 21 - The sun is trying to break through the clouds on a gloomy morning. This is the view from my kitchen.

Monday February 22 - The sun rising, this pink effect on the clouds only lasted a few short minutes, again the view from my kitchen.

Tuesday February 23 - Mmmmm Royal Gala Apples, I have one every day! Especially yummy with peanut butter and raisins.

Thursday February 25 - Teabags! Having British parents I was brought up to appreciate a proper cup of tea!

An Olympic Effort!

Its taken me many hours, lots of dedication and stubbornness to do this before February ended :

HAPPY DANCE!!!!

Tour Des Marques

c2004 The Silver Lining

Stitched on : 28 ct Bluebell Joblean (Wichelt)

Stitched with : DMC & Anchor floss

I started this back in January of 2007 and it spent many years ignored and unloved. Determined to start emptying out my stitching basket, I pulled it out late 2009 and finished it tonight! Its stitched one over one the stitch count is 140x289.

I'm not sure what's next on the stitching agendas. Since I'm leaving for my trip to the DR in a week probably an ornament, some smalls, nothing too involved.

On Saturday I'll get you caught up on my photo a day project (I'm sad to say I've missed one day!)

Staying Put

After reading all your input (and thanks for taking the time to do that!) I am going to leave my blog here at blogger. I also spent quite a bit of time playing with Wordpress, and I'm just so used to blogger that I don't want to change. Who likes change? I don't like change!

Oh yeah I haven't been posting because I'm stitching! Soon.... sooon....

Looking For Your Feedback

The opportunity has been presented to me to move my blog (with all the past content) to my own domain, and start using Wordpress.

So I'm wondering those of you who use Wordpress, why do you like it more over blogger?

To my loyal readers, would you continue to read my blog were it moved? I've been assured a re-direct could be set up from my old blog address to my new one, so it wouldn't be as if I suddenly disappeared.

I'd really appreciate any comments left on this.

Thanks!

Not Quite A Page

I had high hopes for my stitching long weekend, and boy did I stitch! But obviously not enough, as I had hoped to finish page 6 on Tour des Marques, and alas I didn't quite make it! I'm two colours short on the trees, and of course all the backstitching necessary for this page. After page 6 is completed I have two very short pages left! Fingers crossed, I'll have this baby done before I go to the D.R.!

I realized I'm way behind in sharing my Daily Photo Project with you! I have still been taking my daily pictures, still nothing super creative, but I'm still snapping and that's important!

Wednesday February 10 - I think this is called diamond plate???? Its on a trailer, I intentionally played with the focus and aperture of my camera so that only one small area is in clear focus, the rest is slightly out.

Thursday February 11 - Hunter playing hidey-attack from under my wool coat early in the morning.

Friday February 12 - Portable stitching, I always carry something in my purse. I pulled this Prarie Schooler freeibe out and worked on it while I was waiting for Christin at the bus stop.

Saturday February 13 - I had to run to Canadian Tire to pick up chain saw oil for Todd and his Dad. This gave me the opportunity to indulge in my old barn fetish.

Sunday February 14 - Hunter... begging for chicken.

Monday February 15 - On Saturday Todd and his Dad worked on cleaning up the tree we lost due to freezing rain shortly after Christmas. This is what we've been able to salvage. Boy we feel very exposed to the road now!

Valentines & Chinese New Year

Today is a busy day on the calendar! (and a good excuse to share some more pictures with you!)

(Photo : Gardens at Bolt Castle in the 1,000 Islands)

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day! I hope your DH's and DBF's are much more thoughtful than mine and maybe actually get you a card or a little something to celebrate the day. Honestly I had no hopes, because he's just not that kind of guy and never has been. I on the other hand got him a card and his favourite chocolates just to mark the day.

(Photo : Chinese Gardens at the Montreal Botanical Gardens)

For those who celebrate it, Happy Year of the Tiger!

Start of a Long Weekend!

I have been looking forward to this weekend for quite some time! Its a long weekend here in Ontario, as Monday is Family Day. What exciting things do I have planned??? STITCHING!

I took an update picture of Tour before I picked it up tonight. So here it is as of Friday evening, and you're not going to see it again until Monday night!

Now, how about a PhotoHunt?

The theme for this picture is "Low"

On one of my tours around the back roads in the area I live in, I came across these Turkey Vultures. The air temperatures weren't right for them to get off the ground. Here's one of the flock in a vain attempt to get airborne.

Well I think I'm well enough to start hitting the treadmill again this weekend! Finally I've not done a lick of exercise since Monday! I've eaten pizza (my cold demanded it!) and a few other treats in the last few days... I'm sure I'll pay for that! Oh well, it was good, gotta live a little!

Feeling Better

Yes, I'm feeling better. Not 100% but breathing better, and I had the energy to make it through my work day. I was really worried that I'd hit the afternoon and just crash, begging for my bed! I stayed home again this evening, to recover... the bonus? Stitching time! Tour got a lot of my attention tonight (except for a 30 minute snooze in the stitching chair).

Here's a Photo Hunt to entertain you... yup the theme is Entertainment.

I love being entertained, and there's nothing I love more than a good concert! Back in December I had a fantastic time at the Three Days Grace concert. Sometimes I'm amazed at the shots I can get with my little point and shoot camera. It would be a thrill of a lifetime for me, to get behind the security barriers and shoot a big concert with my DSLR. At the moment I can't wait for late March, on the 26th I'll be seeing one of my favourite bands, Billy Talent! The best part, its a Friday night, and the next day, Saturday is my birthday! I'm going to have a great birthday weekend this year!

A Late Post

I bet you were all looking for my latest Tour update on Monday morning? Sorry I didn't update on Sunday night, I felt like I hadn't really gotten in enough progress to warrant showing off.

I didn't get in much stitching on Saturday, I met with Lori and her daughter. We got along right away, and spent wayyy more time talking than stitching. I think our visit lasted about 5 hours! I'm looking forward to stitching with Lori again.

Sunday was as many of you know, Superbowl Sunday. Since I spent Saturday visiting, I had to get up and start cleaning my house, Todd's family was coming over for my Kick Ass Lasagna and the Superbowl (I'd like to think my lasagna is more important!). So many hours were dedicated to domestic goddess duties, darn it should of been stitching!

Well, my insane habit of keeping busy and running around all the time has finally caught up with me! I've got a cold! Not one of those knock you on your behind and into bed colds but more like one of the walking wounded. I've been going around sniffling and sneezing for the last two days. Having a bit of a off-routine weekend, not working out since Thursday, and coming down with this cold has shown up at the scale. The two pounds I took off last week are back! Urgh! I'll be avoiding the gym and Taekwon-Do until I feel well, I don't need this to be a long lingering cold.

Here are some of the pictures I've collected in the last few days

Saturday February 6 -Close up of a fern. Just looking for something to shoot without going outside.

Sunday February 7 - Is that a tear in your eye? Nope, just the onion! Getting ready to chop up an onion for my kick ass lasagna.

Monday February 8 - I drive by this roll of wire fence every day. Finally I stopped to take a picture of it, I wish I had my DSLR it would of been a better picture.

Tuesday February 9 - This is another thing I drive by every day! The first time I noticed this little guy was in the pre-dawn winter light, I thought oh my goodness! A woodpecker, how cool. The the next morning he was there again. What strange behaviour. Then I finally saw it in full light... fooled me!

Its the Weekend!

Yay! Its Saturday! I'm heading out shortly to meet Lori, whose new to this neck of the woods and wanted to find some people to stitch with. Also to bounce ideas off of someone whose local on where are the best places to get supplies. I'm looking forward to meeting a new local stitcher! Stitching groups in my neck of the woods seem to be few and far between.

Here's Tour as of last night, I'd like to work on it a lot this weekend, we'll see what happens!

Here are my pictures for the week!

Monday February 1 - Hunter, being cute as usual, I went into the bedroom on Monday morning, and there he was, sitting in Todd's empty laundry bin.

Tuesday February 2 - At work there are two staff members who drive VW Bugs, they always park them together! What a hoot!

Wednesday February 3 - I was greeted by this lovely sunrise as I was heading up the stairs to my library at work. So I went out the back of the building and took this shot.

Thursday February 4 - Stitching paraphernalia, yes I mark my charts(working copies that is)!

Friday February 5 - This is Cuddles, my other cat he's 13 and isn't anywhere near as cute or photographic as Hunter (sorry Cuddles). He spends a lot of his day now lying around and sleeping.

So that's it for now, we'll see if I get any great shots while I'm out today!

Photo Hunt "Utensils"

The week is almost over! Once again, I have gone through my week looking forward to Friday 3:30, I know I've got to change this mind set I've gotten into. Most likely, just February blahs.

My weight loss (well, getting back to goal) is progressing nicely! I dropped another 2lbs this week, I am now half a pound below my doctor set goal weight! I haven't been at my goal weight since mid August. I've been hovering around 2-4 lbs over that. Its nice to be back where I belong. What has made the difference? Honestly I think its getting back to the gym. I started focusing on running on my treadmill at home over the Christmas holidays. Once I got back to work in the New Year I started back at the gym twice a week. Since then I have slowly dropped 5.5 lbs, it proves that hard work does pay off! My current routine is two nights a week at Takewon-Do and two nights at the gym. The remaining three days of the week I use my treadmill at home, and usually one of those three ends up being a rest night.

Speaking of Taekwon-Do, over the last three weeks I've taught once a week. Slowly I'm being pulled back into the teaching schedule, which is great! The first week I actually was scheduled to teach, the last two I've been called in to teach for other instructors who needed coverage. Last night, I had the most fun when I filled in for the Little Tigers class, 4-6 year olds! We had so much fun, and they were so cute. I was a little apprehensive at first, but they were so much easier to work with than the older kids. I still feel like I have my teaching training wheels on but I know soon enough I'll be comfortable with teaching again.

I suppose I should get on with that Photo Hunt???

The theme is Utensils

I took this picture of Sylvia, Rebecca's Mom at the Knowledge and Needles Timberhouse Retreat this past fall. What a riot! She was sitting there waiting impatiently for Chef Dan's creation. Dan, the hostess's husband makes us lunch on the Saturday of the retreat weekend every year. This picture makes me look forward to this March when we'll do it all over again at the spring retreat.

January Review and February Goals

One month is over, and another month begins (this also means 5 weeks until I go to the Dominican Republic... on a school trip!). Its time to review how I did last month and what I plan to get done this month, stitching wise.

January Review

Stitch one Ornament - Yes

Finish Lettres A Mon Chat - Yes

Work on Tour - Yes

Work on Art Deco Spirits - Yes

Blogiversary Gift - Started, but not finished

February Goals

Stitch one Ornament

Finish Page 6 on Tour Des Marques (high hopes!)

Blogiversary Gift

Here's another Photo Hunt to entertain you!

The theme is "Rocks" - Late summer Rebecca's husband too me on a boat ride down this very calm waterway between lakes. The scenery was just amazing!