Jason & Roxanne Get Hitched

Before I head off for my trip to Georgian Bay, just wanted to let you know that Celestial Dragon is still not done, so it'll be coming with me!  I won't be online until I return!

Here are a few shots from the wedding I went to Saturday night.

Here's a not so great picture of me, gosh my hair needs brushing!!!  That's what happens when you drive around in a car when its hot and the windows are down.  I can take a good picture, but I am never happy with the pictures of myself.

My friend Paige (on left) with her cousin, we hung out for the evening.

The ceremony was held outside on one of the rooftop terraces at a downtown hotel

Bride & Groom

The Kiss

Dancing up the aisle!

Wedding Row All Framed Up

I haven't done any framing in ages!  Wedding Row proved to be a breeze to frame!  The frame went together beautifully without giving me any headaches, and the stretching went so smoothly.  No tweaking and playing with it for hours on end to get things straight and even.

Wedding Row by Bent Creek

Frame detail

I'll be giving it to the bride and groom tonight.

CD, all the purple netting done now onto the blue netting

Here's were CD stands.  I was hoping for a nice long stitching marathon last night, well I was wrong I was in bed by 8pm (which is very unlike me!).  Oh well, all of my chores and stuff are done I've got until mid afternoon to stitch before I have to get ready to go.

Frrrreeeedoooom!

Today at 3 pm I officially started my holidays!  I have been looking forward to some time off of work.  For quite awhile my plans were up in the air, also I didn't really want to nail myself down.  Now I've got two busy weeks ahead of me!

Wedding Row - Bent Creek

Saturday evening I have a wedding to go to, one of my long time TKD buddies is tying the knot.  Today I started the process of framing the wedding sampler I've stitched for him and his bride.

Monday I'll be packing up my stuff and my stitching and heading back up to Georgian Bay to visit Sheila.  She hosted our June get together, this time I'm going for a visit just her and I!  So I'm looking forward to lots of stitching, relaxing, some nice walks/runs, and time out on the water. 

My second week, it looks like I'll be spending a couple of days with my Mum in Quebec City.  After having a small taste of it back in 2000 I knew I wanted to go back.  Quite a few of my friends and family have been recently and its helped us narrow down this year's destination fairly easily.

Where I've had the time this week I have been working away on Celestial Dragon, its still not done!  I spent Saturday and Sunday finishing up the backstitching of the dragon, the scales on the dragon, and couching gold braid on the border.  I'm now working on the backstitch netting, I've almost completed all the purple netting but there's still blue netting to go in and a LOT of beads!  There's a lot of stuff to do tomorrow, so I'll try to get in as much stitching as possible but probably not as much as I'd like!

I have been stitching where I can this week, but it has as

July Goals And Stuff

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by and visited my new blog and thank you for all your support and very kind words!  I read and appreciate every comment (on both blogs).

We're a few weeks into July and I still haven't shared my stitching goals with you (shame on me!).  Even though I haven't put them up here to share with you I did make a point of jotting it down on paper when the first of the month rolled around. 

June Review
Finish Wedding Piece - Yup just have to get it framed before next Saturday!
Stitch an Ornament - Yes!
Find Something for Beatrice's Round Robin - Yes I've picked it and made my working copy
Work on Celestial Dragon - Yes!

July Stitching Goals
Finish Celestial Dragon
Stitch an Ornament
Start Beatrice's RR
Start 2 Smalls

I didn't take a Celestial Dragon progress picture Friday night as I usually do, probably because I was so anxious to work on it!  Late Thursday night I put the final "X" in the dragon!  Last night I started the process of backstitching the dragon on this last quarter.  I wrapped that up today (I took this picture before I realized I hadn't finished the beard), and started giving the dragon scales.  Boy that is taking a long time!  Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to start the background netting.  There's still a lot of detail to go into this piece!

Have you noticed this year that I'm not sharing as many photos with you as I used to?  That's because I haven't really been shooting very much this year.  I don't know why, I'm not shooting as much and I find I don't carry my camera around as much either.  I used to always have my point and shoot in my purse, I've really got to get it back in there!

Earlier this week after getting home from work I decided to photograph some of my day lilies that are currently in bloom on the side of my house.  It felt really nice to get out with my camera!  Now I wish it would just cool down enough for me to go wandering around with it again, like I used to!

Here are some shots from my time in the yard.

Anudder Blog

I'm a member of the Weight Watchers Canada online communities and e-tools, over the weekend there was a recent upgrade and one of the components was a blog section which being an avid blogger for so many years I decided to start one over there.  But is it really getting any traffic, and I can't easily share with you guys (for those of you who care/are interested), there seems to be no direct link to that blog.  So I'm going to share with you here what I'm putting over there as well.
I'm hoping this will help me stay in focus and on track

Follow the linkity-link : Battle of the Bulge : Trying to Stay at Goal

July Stitching Get Together at Lynn's

Wow!  What a busy weekend!  I was actually off this past Friday, but I didn't get to relax!  I met up with my friends Tracey and Terri and we were off cross-border shopping (again)!  I left my house at 7am and I didn't get back until 10pm what a long day!  We hit up all the major stores and mall in Watertown N.Y. and swung by Wal Mart in Ogdensburg, N.Y. on the way home!  I didn't buy much but I enjoyed the girls day out!

Saturday I was up bright and early (again) this time to pick up Christin in the city shortly before 9:30am, gas up the car, get a skinny caramel frappucino in me and hit the road again!  This time it was off to Lynn's place for our July Get Together!  I was surprised to find we weren't the first there but shortly after our arrival everyone started pouring in!  There were 11 of us in total for the day's stitching.  We lived up to our motto for sure Stitch, Eat, but no sleeping this time.  There was a lot of fantastic projects being worked on and lots of healthy and decadent foods!  Thank you Lynn for putting on such a great day and a fantastic spread!  I'll let the pictures do the talking!

Beatrice was in attendance, her and Kathy made the 3 hour drive!  That is dedication!  Of course we're called the Travelling Stitcherhood for a reason.  Our GTGs range anywhere from almost Cornwall, Ont. to Brighton, Ont. this way various people have the chance to have it close to home!

This is Lianne, she's new to the group.  Earlier this summer she e-mailed me and Lynn looking to meet other stitchers.  I was so glad I remembered to forward on the invite to her!  She was so nice, I look forward to getting to know her better and of course stitch!  In the background is Rosanne who I had me a few years ago at one of my retreats.

On the left is Rebecca's Mom Sylvia and on the right is Lori, she's new to my neck of the woods this last year and was brave enough to e-mail me as well to get to meet some stitchers.  See, it pays to be brave and send out an e-mail you can meet some wonderful people!

Rebbecca is working away on Kaleidoscope by Ink Circles, I so want to start this piece some day soon!  This was the second week in a row I got to see Rebbecca and Mom!

Shhhh... group session in progress!

Our wonderful hostess Lynn and the happy dance she got to share with us!

This is Leslie, she's form Lynn's stitching group.  This is the first time we've met.

Here's my CD progress from Friday-Monday, not as much as I'd like to have gotten done but like I said the weekend was busy!

So after all that driving on Friday (at least I wasn't the driver that day) and Saturday, what did I do on Sunday?  I got back in my car, again!  This time I drove in the opposite direction to Arnprior where I met up with my friend Carolyn from work and I went kayaking for the first time!  Carolyn has two and invited me to come join her.  We spent about an hour on the Ottawa River, it was so nice but it was a warm day and I couldn't handle any longer than that!  When I got home it was time for some serious napping!  LOL!!!

Now onto the Weight Watchers front... somehow despite last week being a write-off food and exercise wise due to the heat I had a good week at the scale!  I am down 1.5 lbs!  I've started this week fully re-committed to the plan, determined to get back to goal!

The Week's Progress

Its been a very long week with the extreme temperatures and humidity we've had here in the Ottawa area.  Temperatures have been in the mid 30's all week long and it certainly has taken a toll on everyone.  I've not worked out this week because driving home in my greenhouse on wheels (aka no A/C in the car) left me feeling ill after the 25 minute drive.  I pretty much came home most evenings and went right to bed for a few hours!  My appetite has suffered as well, and I've not been able to eat proper meals just a little here and there.

I have been stitching a little bit this week, and here's where Celestial Dragon stands before my weekend of stitching!  Tomorrow Lynn is hosting a day of stitching and hopefully I'll get a lot done... instead a lot of eating and talking!

Things have not gone well on the weight front again.  Last week saw me at a stay the same on the scale, and that I could accept.  This week, I was up 2.5 lbs again, so I'm back 6.5 lbs over my goal weight.  So the battle continues.

I'm looking forward to Lynn's tomorrow!

Thanks Rebecca!

I had a fantastic, perfect stitchy weekend at Rebecca's!  She had me out to her place from Thursday-Sunday and oh boy did we stitch!  Bonnie joined us on Friday and... oh boy did we stitch!  On Sunday Beth joined us in the afternoon, it was so good to see her again.

Here's where Celestial Dragon ended up at the end of the evening yesterday (with a little bit of Hunter's tail).  I finished yet another 1/4 of the dragon and got a good start on the last.  Unfornately once all of the cross stitching is done on this last 1/4 I won't be finished yet!  There's the scales to backsttich... all in gold blending fillament (ick), then the whole background is netting, all done in backstitch, witha bead in each corner!  Lots and lots of beads!!!!  So unfortunately the finish line isn't in sight.

On Saturday we spent the day at Rebecca's grandparent's cottage.  It was a fantastic day to be sitting on the screened in deck... you've got it stitching.

The boys were just having so much fun in the lake!

Bonnie was a sweetie, after she found herself a flower frog... she managed to find one for me too (for a great price!!!).  My scissors are now proudly displayed in my new scissor frog.  Thanks bonnie!

Hunter was being adorable while I was trying to photograph Celestial Dragon, so I took a picture of him.

Cuddles was feeling left out so he got his picture taken as well!