Good Day / Bad Day

Monday, bah why are Mondays never awesome days?

Today I started out the day with a headache which by the afternoon moved onto the realm of migraine.  I didn't get to the gym because of this, I came home and went to bed for a few hours. 

On my way home, I picked up the mail and there was a lovely surprise from Edgar!  I had won his blogiversary draw and he sent me this WONDERFUL parcel!  He's stitched me this wonderful sheep pinkeep, which is perfectly finished.  There were also some fantastic goodies as well!  A postcard of San Francisco, some lovely inscents, ribbon, sheepie fabric (which Edgar backed the pinkeep with), and some delectable chocolates!  Edgar, how did you know I love that type of mint chocolate!!!  I have been very reserved (remember 3 lbs to go) and ate only 3, honestly I could of demolished the whole box!

After my nap I got up and felt well enough to go to TKD, we had a great, sweaty class!  I probably should of stayed home though... because on my way from the dojang to the house I hit a deer with my car!  In 18 years of driving I have never hit a deer!  Now don't go worrying or freaking out, I am fine, and by flashlight my car looks okay.  I didn't hit the deer full on I think I glanced its head with the edge of my front bumper (the deer is dead).  I did my best to avoid the deer but alas no luck, despite breaking and going into the other lane (there was no oncoming traffic).  I pulled over onto the shoulder, threw my four way flashers on and took a moment to collect myself.  I pulled out my trusty mag-lite out of my glove box and checked out my car.  There was no apparent damage to the front bumper, the headlights still work (though the passenger side one is pointing a little down and in), no flat tire, no leaking fluids.  So I drove back home.  Todd's going to take another look in the car in the light of day.

I think what frustrated me the most, is here I am on this country road in the dark.  There had been vehicles behind me in the distance and none of them stopped (not sure if they really noticed me hit the deer but they should of noticed the breaking and swerving and pulling over).  Also while I was pulled over with my four ways on and checking out the car with a flashlight a couple of more cars went by ... still no one stopped.  What has happened to human kindness?

Weekend Stitchy Update

I had a fantastic weekend!  How often do I say that, not that often (unless its an awesome stitchy weekend!).

Todd decided not to go fishing this weekend, and we actually spent it together (not something we do too often really he fishes, I stitch!).  We started out with taking in a matinee Saturday morning (I'm too cheap to pay full price for a movie), Iron Man 2 was not bad, but of course as usual the first movie is always the best.  We then took in a late lunch and enjoyed sitting on the patio of one of our favourite restaurant with fajitas.  Then that night we were back out, for my friend Jason's surprise Stag and Doe.  All and all a great day!

Today was a quiet day for us, I got to spend today stitching (which I didn't get a single stitch in yesterday), working away on Jason's wedding sampler.  I have now passed the 1/2 way mark on this.  Boy its stitching up so nicely and quickly!!!!  If all goes well, maybe I'll be dancing by the end of the weekend???

Of....

The consensus was very strong so I guess my instincts were right, I went with Dried Thyme for my TKD buddy's wedding sampler.  I started the piece on Tuesday, and here's where I am at the end of the night Thursday (could of been further along if I hadn't crashed at 9PM last night).  I'm stitching this using the DMC substitutions instead of the hand dyed fibers and I'm really enjoying this piece!

Tuesday was weigh in day for me, as you know I'm battling to loose those extra pounds!  I dropped another pound this week!  That's 3lbs down and 3lbs to go.  My food choices have been really on track this week, well until today... we had a pizza lunch with my Dominican students to wrap up our year together.  I did adjust my eating accordingly today and since tonight's TKD class wasn't a tough workout I put in some extra time on the treadmill.  I've not gotten out for a single lunch time walk this week, the first half of the week's temperatures were scorching, and of course today's pizza lunch!  I'm hoping to at least get in a walk tomorrow.  Hopefully it'll be enough to see a bit of a loss at my next weigh in.

1/4 Of A Dragon

I kept to my goal this weekend and despite going out dancing last night I managed to finish 1/4 of Celestial Dragon.  Well its not treally 100% finished, there's a scale pattern to be done on the dragon in gold blending fillament, a netting to stitch in the backgrounda and beads to go on.  I'll be leaving all of that until the end.  (BTW I did fix the loop by the dragon's mouth/tongue!)

The consensus for the wedding sampler is Dried Thyme which was my instincts as well!  Tomorrow I'll make a working copy of the chart and get started.

May Ornament Happy Dance

I was a good girl, and stuck to my plan yesterday no matter how tempted I was to pick up Celestial Dragon I didn't and focused on my ornament.  Which I did finish and was able to give CD a little time before bed!

Not A Creature Was Stirring...

c2008 Casey Buonaugurio Designs

December 2008 Just Cross Stitch

Stitched on :32ct Belfast Mint Green

Stitched with : DMC cotton and Mill Hill Beads

I'm looking forward to backstitching this 1/4 of Celestial Dragon today!

Long Weekend Stitching, and Fabric Opinions Please!

Its the May 2-4 weekend as we Canadians call it, technically its Victoria Day Weekend, for some strange reason we get a long weekend to celebrate Queen Victoria's Birthday.  She's been dead a very long time now, but I'm not going to knock it!

So first I'm going to ask for your opinion, a good, long time TKD buddy of mine is getting married at the end of July and I finally got the wedding invite.  So its time to buckle down and stitch his wedding gift.  I've settled on Bent Creek's Wedding Row.  I really want to work from what stash I have so I've narrowed down my fabric choice to two, both from the Wichelt hand dyed Joblean line.  Let me know which you think looks better.

Dried Thyme - This is the one I'm leaning towards

Sandcastle

Not A Creature Was Stirring... JCS 2008 Ornament Issue

First up on the stitching agenda for the weekend is my ornament for the Month of May.  I'm working on this cute little guy.

I'm also hoping to finish off 1/4 of Celestial Dragon, I won't be stitching every single moment this weekend as I've got some things to do and go to but we'll see how far I get.

I'm In Love With Celestial Dragon!

Lately all I want to do is stitch, stitch, stitch!  Especially on Celestial Dragon, I am just so in love with this design!  The colours are fantastic and the pictures just don't show how shimmery this dragon is!

Also on Saturday Art Deco Spirits got some needle time.  While I was waiting for my Mum at the hairdressers I brought ADS with me and got quite a bit of it done.

Today was my weigh in day, and my hard work from last week has really paid off!  I'm down two pounds!  Yay!  Now to keep this same focus this week and hopefully I'll knock off those last 4 pounds in short order.

April Review, and May Goals

Wow more than two blog entries in one week?  How can that be?  I keep thinking I need to blog more regularly again.  So lets try again!

I haven't sat down and figured out what I wanted to get done this month stitching wise, first lets cover April's goals.

April Recap
Stitch an ornament - Yes
Stitch a freebie - Yes
Work on Celestial Dragon - Yes

May Goals
Work on Celestial Dragon
Stitch an ornament
Work on Beatrice's Mirabilia RR
Start Jason's wedding gift

Something else I haven't really touched in a few blog entries is my continued weight battle!  Yes, if you haven't followed over the last few years you wouldn't know from my pictures that I battle my weight all the time.  I touched in an earlier entry how I had put on 5 pounds back in March and that I was battling those extra pounds.  Guess what I'm still doing?  Yup battling those pounds.  I managed to take 2 pounds of it off, and then last week what did I go and do?  Gain two pounds, then what did I do this week (Tuesday is my weigh in day)?  I gained another pound!  So as of Tuesday I'm currently six pounds over my doctor's recommended goal weight (I haven't been able to get within my healthy BMI range).  This week I have finally physically and mentally re-committed myself to the Weight Watchers plan, eating properly, tacking my food, and trying to get in 4 activity points a day.  This week has been a challenge to get hose APs in with all that's going on!  A few days this week I've managed to get out for a 30 minute walk at lunch, I've made it to a spin class (that is hard!) once a week the last two weeks, and I've manged to get in some running too.  Now to just keep going!  That's the hardest part, its so easy to slip into old habits, to sit on my butt and stitch.  I'm sure many of you out there understand this, its so much easier to do nothing.

Keep fighting everyone!

Celebs, Old Friends, New Friends, Stitching Friends and Stitching!!!

From left to right : Lori, Lynn, Beatrice, Bonnie, Kathy, Rebbecca, Christin

Wow, this update is long overdue!  I bet you've been dying to hear how my stitching weekend went.  Well it went VERY well!  There were 8 of us in my little living room, chatting, stitching, and eating!  I think my guests did far more stitching than I did, my mojo was... off.  I just couldn't get into Celestial Dragon, perhaps it was the complexity of the design and a room full of company?  Trying to work on CD came to an end when I dripped some tea on it!  The horror!  I was pushed by all the ladies to get it in a bath ASAP.  So instead I pulled out Art Deco Spirits, which actually was a joy to work on, to the point that I didn't put it down until bedtime Sunday night!

Here's Art Deco Spirits when I put it away on Sunday

Hunter decided to steal the show on the weekend!  He made a show of himself becoming best friends with Christin for the weekend.

L to R : Mioced Yammesse, Pedro

This week has been a whirl-wind for me!  On Monday evening a few people from Experiantia Dominicana were here in Canada!  There was Robert, the program director, Mioced who was our guide in the D.R., Pedro a school teacher from Esquela De La Salle, and Yammesse a young lawyer.  They came up for a week to talk to schools about education for all and the borders that Dominicans and many other come up against : economic borders, social borders, political borders.  Monday night we had a pot-luck dinner for the Dominicans which went VERY late!  On Tuesday morning they came out to the school to talk to about 200 students, we had a quick lunch with them before they were off to another school in the area.  That night we all met up again at a restaurant in the Market for dinner... yet again another VERY late night!  Then, it was time to say goodbye as they were heading to Toronto on Wednesday.  It was sad to say goodbye again, but on the other hand so nice to see them again!

Pedro Yammesse, Anne, Brid, Mioced, Me, Val, Robert

Now you're wondering about the celeb part aren't you?  Today at work we had a fantastic surprise for the grade 10 & 11 students!!!  We've been having mental health awareness week at the school, we had an assembly where a young lady was talking about living with extreme OCD.  After she was done speaking, a local celebrity came out to speak to the students as this is a cause close to his heart as his sister is affected by mental illness.... Daniel Alfredson, Captain of the Ottawa Senators!

Up until last night I've had NO time for stitching, but CD has been getting some of my attention!  Here it is as of this entry tonight!

I've got a good weekend ahead (I'm ready for Friday, believe me!), my Mum and I are going to get our hair done (its about time too!) and out for dinner.  A belated Mother's Day out for us.  Sunday, I'm hoping to get out to see Ironman 2.  Oh and there's sleep and stitching too!  Lots of sleep!

Helping Friends, Borders and Dragons Oh My!

Wow I am nowhere near as regular a blogger as I used to be!

Friday after work Christin and I hopped in my poor (now fixed) little car and drove down to Kingston where we stayed with her parents for the weekend (thanks for the bed Mom & Dad!).  Saturday I was up early (for me!) and even shocked Christin's Dad by being up, showered and dressed before he was!  I had to head into town to help Ann out!  The Cataraqui Needlework Guild was hosting their annual market day where Ann was setting up her booth for Knowledge & Needles.  It was a very busy day, and I was pretty tired by the end of it all!

Matilda got to go on her first road trip.  During a quiet moment she got to play in the flossie bin!  Oh what fun and a stitcher's dream!

Caleb, Rebecca's son having a little cuddle time with Matilda.

That evening we met up with Rebecca and Bonnie to stitch for the evening.  I kept plugging away on Celestial Dragon.  Sunday after breakfast we went back out to Rebecca's and stitched some more!  It was a great weekend.  I wrapped up the weekend the best way, by finishing the border on Celestial Dragon on Sunday night.

The week has been a busy one and I've grabbed a few hours of stitching here and there, its been great to finally start the dragon on CD.  Unfortunately I've delved back into the golds again, I am looking forward to hitting some of those greens and rich blues!

Looking forward to the weekend again, as usual!  I'm having my stitching friends over and I can't wait!  I'll be stitching with Christin, Rebecca, Bonnie, Kathy, Beatrice, Lynn, and Lori.  Hopefully things will work out for Beth and she'll make it too!