A Lovely Weekend Away

I truly believe that when life gets very busy and you start to feel run down the best thing you can do is just get away.  Which is what I did this weekend, on Friday after work I got into my trusty Hyundai Accent and drove down to Brighton to the home of Ann and Dan and my favourite LNS (yes my favourite LNS is 3 hours away!) Knowledge and Needles.  Its been a very busy time at work for me and the drive down was quite a challenge, I had to stop at one point to hit Timmie's and get a tea.  Then a little while later, I was forced to pull over at a rest stop and take a 15 minute power nap.  After that I was good to go!

Before I got to Ann and Dan's I stopped in at Kathy's new house!  Kathy was heading off to Arizona for the winter on Saturday morning, so I wanted to get in one last visit with her and see the house now that all their renos are done and her stuff moved in.  By the time I got to my final destination I was pretty pooped and ready for bed!

Dan's great vanity plate! CYI DRV

A man, admiring his Kingdom

Before Dan had it re-painted

On Saturday I had a great day!  After a great breakfast made by Dan, he and I set out in his brand new TOY, his convertible Corvette.  Dan was very generous, and let me take the 'vette for a good spin!  I must admit at first I was quite nervous taking his baby out for a spin.  Boy... did I have fun driving a real sports car!  He also let me chauffeur him around in it again today.

Playing shop owner for the afternoon

Ann and Dan had a meeting they needed to attend that afternoon, so I was left running the shop, Knowledge and Needles for the afternoon!  I quite enjoyed helping the customers that came by that afternoon, and making some sales on Ann's behalf.  While talking with the customers I thought to myself, "wow I really know my stuff!".  I could easily see myself running an LNS if I ever had the time, luxury, and money.

Sam, a little visitor at Ann & Dan's

The PERFECT day!

I wasn't alone the whole afternoon, Ann and Dan had a house guest, and he needed letting in and out.  I set myself up in front of a nice fire in the wood stove with Art Deco Spirits.  After lunch Bonnie and Beatrice joined me for some stitching too!  Thanks for coming out girls!

I got a good chunk started on the Air block of Art Deco Spirits, but I must admit I find these large blocks of colour a little boring.  I miss the complexity of projects like Celestial Dragon.

A fist full of colourful Carrie's Creations floss

Couldn't leave these cute JBW designs behind!

Of course, I couldn't leave without buying a little stash!

Ann & Dan thanks for a great weekend!

Catching up on PhotoHunts

Unfortunately I have no stitching to share with you.  Life has been VERY busy and will continue to be so for about the next two weeks.  I have two major fundraisers going on at work for our Dominican Experience Project, they are keeping me quite busy and preoccupied.

I am working on an ornament, but its top secret, for an upcoming exchange.

I am quite looking forward to this weekend, after work I'm hitting the road down to Brighton with a stop with Kathy on the way (before she heads South for the winter).  I'm going to have a visit with Ann and do her a favour on Saturday by keeping her needlework store, Knowledge and Needles open for the day.  So if you need to pick up some stitching supplies ... you know where to go on Saturday!

Instead I'll get all caught up on the last few weeks of PhotoHunt

October 16 - Miniature

Miniature - a child's toy front end pay loader.  I spotted this abandoned toy "cleaning" up the fall leaves while out for a walk with Bonnie a few weeks ago.

October 23 - Orange (this seems to be a frequent topic for some reason)

This was another treasure of a shot I came up with while prowling the Antique/Flea Market/Junk Shop on Saturday with Tracey.

October 30 (a day early) - Dark

The Village is a dark silhouette against the setting sun

Bombing Around The Valley

Today my friend Tracey and I hopped in her SUV and started bombing around the Ottawa Valley!  What fun we had!  Tracey was looking for a few very specific things for her new home and we needed to hit some Antique/Flea Market type places to do so.

I managed to to pick up some 7 year old cheddar as a treat.  Yes, for him old, old, old, stinky cheese is a treat (ewwwww).  I got a Christmas gift for Christin, and some very sexy 3 inch heels for myself (originally $80 for $36 what a steal!). 

I had the most fun at our second to last stop later in the afternoon.  At this huge Antique/Junkyard place.  It was just stacks and piles and miles of stuff!

For some reason I love insulators!

This pretty jug is just sitting outside in the elements

Beautiful coloured glass on a windowsill

The interesting textures of washboards

Piles and piles of junk that you can barely move between... piles taller than me!

Looking for hubcaps?  I know where you can find some!

Fantastic old taps

Tracey carrying one of her purchases back to the truck

Tracey is a tiny little thing, you could barely move around INSIDE!

Because I'm vain... you author taking a self portrait in a chrome thingie outside!

Rebbecca's Stitchy Weekend Report

Sorry its taken me a little longer than expected to give you my report.  I've been down and out for the last 24 hours with a migraine.

Now onto the good stuff!

Friday night after work Christin and I hopped into my car and made the drive down to Rebecca's place just outside of Kingston.  Bonnie had beaten us there, but we were taking our time, stopping for dinner and to buy a new pair of shoes (me).  Rebecca's Mom Sylvia was also staying for the weekend, the four of us stitched until almost midnight Friday night.

Saturday was such a nice sunny day (for the first time in ages) that before the bulk of the stitchers arrived, I got my gear on and went for a nice 10K run.  It was a great run, beautiful country roads, and perfect temperatures!

Saturday was the main get together for the weekend.  We were joined by Trista, who was there for such a short while that I didn't get a chance to take her picture.  Of course Rebbecca and well, her picture didn't really turn out so I don't have one to share of her.  In attendance were a lot of the usual suspects!

Bonnie, she spent most of the day working on Paradigm Lost

So did Christin

Kathy Happy Danced with a San man Design

Beatrice had the same Happy Dance!

Sylvia worked on a variety of projects, but I was most fascinated with the Bunka piece she was working on

Barb was stitching up a storm with some ornaments

Beth joined us for the afternoon and was working on a gorgeous piece I don't know the designer!

On Saturday I finished up the Fire block on Art Deco Spirits

Now at the half way point!

I do also have some small happy dances to share with you!

'Tis Red

c2010 La-D-Da

2010 Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue

Stitched with DMD 115

Stitched on mystery linen, it actually looks green

Needle Wizard Needlecase - class piece

c2008 Dragon Dreams - Creativ Festival

Stitched with : DMC, Caron Waterlillies, #4 braid

Stitched on : 28ct Mushroom Jazlyn

Roger Waters & The Wall

Well fair blog readers, I'm sorry its taken a few days for me to get around to posting!  It was a busy weekend, and well yet again I am tired!  This time I do have a good excuse, I was at Rebecca's Stitchy Weekend Friday-Sunday morning and then Sunday night I went out for dinner with my Mum, then to the Roger Waters The Wall concert.  I didn't get home until very late, then I had to work a 7 hour day then instead of teaching one Taekwon-Do class I ended up teaching 3, all on 5 hours sleep!

I'll post again later this week with a few pics from the Stitchy Weekend and my progress, today its just a sample of pictures from an AMAZING concert!

We had GREAT seats!  A huge thanks to Christin for scoring the tickets for me and my Mum!

It was a packed crowd at Scotiabank Place -- 16,000 in attendance!

Before the show started this man was wandering about.  Roger Waters is all about political statements and observations about society yesterday, and today

The show started with a BANG!  Nothing like a little bit of pyro.

Fantastic set!

"So ya' thought you might like to go to the show..."

"Hey Teacher! Leave us kids alone!" A local children's choir was brought in to help with the chorus in Another Brick in the Wall Part II

Mother kept an eye on us

As part 1 of the show went on the wall was slowly being built brick, by brick

The Wife showed up too

Relaxing with "13 channels of shit on the TV to choose from"

My FAVOURITE shot of the night!!!!

The Hammers!

The Pig put in an appearance, floating over the audience

"Tear Down The Wall"

After the show... yes we had great seats!