Some Actual Stitching!

I think there's been enough non-stitchy blog entries lately... don't you?

So how about a little stitching?  I feel like I've spent so much time running around lately... and the fact that I filled up my car on Thursday morning and well, its about due for a fill up again.  So not as much stitching as I would like has been going on. 

However I did celebrate a little Happy Dance on the weekend!

I finished page2 of The Accolade!!!  You can even see the top of the lady's head!!!  Only 10 more to go!

Survived Race Weekend 2012

 Posing with the start line in the distance

This evening I ran the Ottawa Race Weekend 10K, the weather was beautiful... a little warmer than I'd like to run in but that's okay.

 All thumbs up and smiles!!!

Christin almost missed me crossing the start!

I was definitely not as "ready" as I was for last year's race.  Last year I ran the entire 10K without stopping, which was my goal!  I finished it in just over 71 minutes.  This year I made it to about the 5K mark before I needed to start run/walking (run 5min/walk 1 min).  The end result is I'm about 7 minutes slower than last year, I crossed the finish line in about 78 minutes.

OMG look at all of those people waiting to start!!!!  The crowd goes further back than you see!

Lots of people came out to cheer

The elite men taking off (the first person to cross the line was a Kenyan in 22 minutes!)

The elite women!  Crap they can run!!!!

I may not of set a new personal best, but I went, I did, I conquered!

Post-race thumbs up!!!

 

Now to start running a little more often and work in distances more... I'd like to do a half marathon in the fall again!

My friend Marline and I after our respected races (5K for Marline)

A HUGE thanks to Christin for coming along to support and be my "Race Day Sherpa/aka Bitch"!  Thanks C!  All of these pictures were courtsey of Christin.

We celebrated with sundaes!

Its Race Weekend!!!!

 My Run Gear, tank top, shorts (jiggly thighs oh my!), running shoes, run belt with pouch and water bottles

Back in the fall I registered for the 10K event for Ottawa Race Weekend.  I had all the best intentions for this year's race, to beat my time of last year (71 min 11 seconds).  Like they say for best intentions.... hmmm yeah.  I haven't trained properly for it this year, I the longest run I've done to date is 8K and in the last few weeks I've been doing about 3K per run.  So I've not been looking forward to the day because I know I'm not properly trained, also last week the forecast was upwards to 30c with high humidity maybe rain.  The last time I did a run in high heat (Perth Kilt Run 2011) I almost died and had the worst run EVER.

Well the weather gods have smiled on us today!!!  Its clear, sunny, and the warmest its going to get is 24c!  Wooo Hoo!  Gun time isn't until 6:30, so by then temps should be dropping to about 22... sweet!

So I've been dreading this day for weeks, but now I'm REALLY looking forward to it!  I'm going to try my best to run the whole distance ... as I said I've not run far enough but my adrenaline might carry me through.

Wish me luck... shout out if you see me!!!!

PhotoHunt - Creative

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Creative"

I shot this photo back at the end of March when my friend Tracey and I were wandering around the country side checking out antique/junk/shops in our area.  I thought this was a creative display of all kinds of padlocks and how they've changed over time.

Finished finished!

 Eat, Sleep, Stitch

Cherrywood Designs

my personal motto!

Somehow on Monday I was motivated to do a little finishing... I mean a little.  These two pieces had been all sewn up for weeks now, all I needed to do was stuff them and sew them up!  How lazy have I been????  So Monday I pulled them out and just got them done!

Gone Fishing

Jane Grenoff

a little something for Todd, the fisherman in my life!

IHSW Review

Hunter was enjoying the beautiful evening tonight

 

I'm a little behind in my IHSW report which was this past weekend.  It was a long weekend, I was off Saturday-Monday.  Which allowed for a lot of stitching time!

I didn't hermit too much, once again as I had stitching friends over Friday-Sunday.  My main focus this past weekend was to finish up an exchange piece, which I did Sunday morning.  Of course I can't share it with you just yet.  Sadly no pictures of this HD just yet.

???

Stitched on: 28ct Antique Green Jazlyn

Stitched with: DMC 75

Sunday afternoon I started working on my ornament for the month of May.  I really should of posted my progress of this piece on Monday night, which by that time I was just over 1/2 way stitched up.  But, I didn't I kept stitching away and look, its now a HD!  Sadly I have no information for this piece as its a printout from a few years ago with no information on it.

Letter D

Rosewood Manor

Stitched on: 14ct Aida

Stitched with: DMC

I have a second HD to share with you, this I stitched up tonight.  Its an initial block, for the friendship quilt I'm having put together.  I found out the other day we needed one more stitched block so an initial block it is.

I took a few other great pictures on the weekend I wanted to share with you.

 Ferns almost all unfurled!

Dwarf Irises have bloomed

 

 Bleeding hearts

Caught this bumble bee in action

Victoria Day Weekend TUSAL

I'm a day late in posting my TUSAL, not only has it been the monthly TUSAL this weekend but its also the IHSW weekend, well its a long weekend here in Canada (Victoria Day... thanks Queen Victoria I love celebrating your b-day!) so I'll post my IHSW progress tomorrow since I still have stitching time left!

So first to the important stuff!  The TUSAL!  We've had a glorious and hot weekend here so my ort jar (vase) and I ventured into the great outdoors for this month's photo shoot.

Every year for Victoria Day I'm very lucky and treated to fireworks in the little village I live in... and they happen to set them off in the farmer's field behind my house!  So I can go out on the back deck (well not much of one really) and enjoy them in my pj's!  This year I dug out my tripod and DSLR and played with leaving the lens open to catch multiple firwork bursts in one shot.  Here's a few of the fun shots I got... if you're my friend on FB you can go see them all there!

PhotoHunt - Magical

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Magical"

This was the magical sunset I got to witness as we arrived in the Dominican Republic in February of this year.

PhotoHunt - Scoop

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Scoop"

I took this picture in February of this year at a sugar refinery in Consuelo, Dominican Republic.  This big piece of machinery scoops up the raw sugar cane and dumps it into the opening in the ground which moves the cane into the refinery to be turned into sugar.

May WIPocalypse

This last Saturday was the full moon, a super moon!  Holy cow was it birght!  I spent some time stitching with Tracey in the evening and as I drove home the moon was so bright I almost wanted to pull my sun visor down on my car!

I was just plain lazy on Sunday, taught Taekwon-Do Monday night and had my big award Tuesday night!  Its been busy.  But I've finally had the time to sit down and share my report with you.

In the last month I've not stitched as much as I liked and usually do, its been a combination of busy/lazy and tired!  Here are my WIPs to date:

 The Accolade

 Seasonal Mandalas - Spring

Snow White (crappy picture, whites blown out)

Since last month I've alos managed to finish :

 Beading and dreamcatcher on Earthdancer

Seasonal Mandalas - Winter

A Special Evening

Notre Dame Basilica - Ottawa where Education Week Mass was held

Last night myself and 26 others were recognized at an award ceremony following mass to celebrate Catholic Education Week within the board I work for.  I was nominated by my peers at work, who wrote such glowing (embarrassing) letters talking about how I do my job, my work with the Dominican Experience trip that we put together for students each year.  Their letters were enough to sway a committee to select me for a prestigious award that is given to one support staff member each year.

 Official Photograph - Receiving my Award from the Director of Education

Its hard to read about yourself, to read how others see you... because you never see yourself in that light.  I just like to do my job, and do it well... and of course with a smile!  I've never done anything in the hopes of an award.

Myself and the DOE award winners with he Director of Education

It was a special night, some of my friends and co-workers joined us for dinner before coming to mass and the award ceremony.  They helped make it a great night!

 Todd and I at dinner

My friends Tracey (left) and Marline (right) ... Marline's brother George in center (first time I met him)

May Stitching Goals and Helping Out

Its taken me a few days to get around to doing this... well a week actually.  Its the start of a new month so its time to talk about what I hoped to accomplish and what I actually accomplished in the last stitching month.

April Stitching Goal Review

Stitch one ornament - Yes
Work on The Accolade - Yes
Finish Winter Mandala - Yes


May Stitching Goals

Stitch one ornament
Finish Outlining on Spring Mandala
Finish Page 2 on The Accolade

Earthdancer when I received her

I think it was about 2 years ago Christin and I started talking about the retirement of one of her co-workers, who is a former co-work of mine.  She is such a great person that we BOTH wanted to do something for her.  Finally Christin came up with the idea to stitch up Butternut Road's Earthdancer.  I immediately offered if she would do all the cross stitch that I would do the beading and the ultra suede fringe and dream catcher.  Oh I cursed and cursed for many hours but she is now done and looks magnificent!  Bonus... there's still some time (months) before the retirement!

 Earthdancer all finished!

I'm a little late with the WIPocalypse update as well that will be coming this week.  I doubt it'll be tomorrow... tomorrow evening I'm receiving a BIG award from my employer that goes to one support staff employee each year.  Hopefully someone will take some pictures for me, the awards are being given after mass at the Notre Dame Basilica downtown.

PhotoHunt : Zap

This week's PhtoHunt theme is "Zap"

This was a tough theme to find the right picture for, I was also willing to only spend so much time going through my photos.  This was the best I could come up with, these are old insulators.  They were put on the cross bars of the power line poles where the power lines touch the cross bar.  I imagine if you touched those power lines you'd get zapped!

Red Hot Chili Peppers!

I think I've loved the Red Hot Chili Peppers since around grade 9... oh that was a LONG time ago!  Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik hit the charts and I was hooked!  The Peppers were in town last night, and there was no doubt that I was going to be there!  Actually this is the third time I've seen the Peppers, but the last two times they were here I sat up in the 300's way up high!  When I heard they were coming back again, I said to Christin and Tracey that we were going and this time... we were sitting in the 100's no more nosebleeds for this girl!!!!

It was an awesome concert!!!  I had a great time I sang along and danced to every song except maybe two.  They played a lot of the hits, and they played quite a few of the not so well known songs that I love!  Oh and of course they played "my song" ... "Dani California" ... well I'm not for California but how many songs have the name Dani in it????

Here are some of my favourite shots from the night... I keep thinking if I had my good camera and I was much closer imagine the shots I could get?  These were from way back with my point and shoot digital camera with 14x optical zoom.

What I would give to be given the chance to be up front inside of the security barriers with my D-SLR!!!