Grad, Fail and Finish

First of all, I had a proud Auntie moment on Thrusday, my "little" Nephew Nick (heck he towers me!) graduated High School!  Yeah Nephew Nick!  So proud of you kid!  He graduated from the same High School and the same stage I graduated from oh a long time ago.

Next onto the fail... not my Nephew of course but for the first time ever I gave up on a piece of stitching and... threw... it ... out!  I had seen this ornament/Christmas design in the July 2012 issue of Cross-Stitch & Needlework and I really liked it, wanted to stitch it.  I was about 1/2 way through it and it dawned on me boy no wonder this is moving so slowly... I hate it, I really disliked working on the piece.  It dawned on me, life was short so why do something you hate?  This I threw it out.

 French Country - Hearts I

Noel House

c2011 JBW Designs

Stitched on 28 ct Navy Lugana with DMC B5200

Finally, for the finish... I sittched up this ornament instead!

PhotoHunt - Flash

This week's theme is "flash"

Victoria Day fireworks behind my house light up the night sky with fashes of rich colour.

Meet Lianne!

Remember the wonderful "anniversary" present I got from Lianne a few weeks ago to celebrate the 3rd year since we met in person?

I'd like you to take a moment to stop by her brand new blog and welcome her to the wonderful world of stitching bloggers!!!!

2012 Perth Kilit Run, Guinness World Book Attempt

Yesterday evening I participated in the 3rd annual (my 2nd) Kilt Run in the town of Perth, Ontario.  This year's race was an attempt at the Guinness World Book of Records with 2000 kilted runners.  That's right, the kilt was a mandatory part of the run!

I did this event last year and I can tell you it was one of the worst runs/races for me ever... personally.  Not the course itself but the heat and I was so sure this race would be a piece of cake and it wasn't.  It was also wickedly hot!  This year we were about 5 degrees cooler which made a huge difference.  I also didn't set high expectations but to finish, and not feel like crap while doing it!  I also was damned and determined to run the ENTIRE golf course it was hard but I did it!!!!!


Because this year we hoped to set a Guinness Record we had to all pick up our own bibs and sign for them as part of the process to verify this was a legitimate record.  As you can see its quite the lineup.

Surprisingly amongst all the people there it didn't take me long to find my Taekwon-Do buddies who were dong the run as well!  Last year Jason and I ran (and his brother in law Vince who is not in TKD).  Mark our running guru at the Dojang joined us as well this year!  Mark is a great motivator and helped me through the final kilometers of my half marathon last year.

 This fellow was in full gear competing in the Warrior Class which included running with sword and shield and challenges on the golf course!

There is quite a festive air to the town of Perth leading up to the race (the only thing I dislike is we have until 4PM to pick up our kits/bibs and the race doesn't start until 6:30 so you have to sit around and wait).  There was music, highland dancers, vendors, and food... yeah who wants a greasy sausage off of the grill right before doing a 5mi/8K run?  Not I!  It was nice to have friends there to hang out with and just visit!

 L Jason, C Me, R Mark, B Vincent

My favourite part of the whole event?  Its the free BEER afterwards!  Nothing goes down better than a cold beer on a hot day after a long run!  I think I deserved it finishing the 8K in about 59 minutes!!!!

TUSAL & An Exchange

I thought I'd double up on this post and do the two birds - one stone thing.

First of all, earlier this week was the TUSAL.  Here's my "jar" to date, there's a lot of dark and light at the top there... the darks are both from my seasonal Mandalas and The Accolade and the light is from the Seasonal Mandalas.  I really haven't stitched much lately... I've been doing a lot more reading than stitching.  That's okay though, I've really not been reading much at all over the last few years so its okay to make up for that.  I'd better get stitching if I want to meet my goals for this month!

Much earlier in the year Lillie and I set up a personal exchange.  My gift to her is still on its way to the other side of the world.  Hers arrived last weekend and I thought it would be perfect to go on display with my TUSAL.  She stitched me this fantastic year of the dragon flat fold!  She included a lovely little case and a year of the dragon bottle opener in a case.  I don't know if Lillie knew it or not, but I am a Year of The Dragon Baby!  How perfect was this exchange?  I hope she likes what I stitched up for her!

PhotoHunt - Hot

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Hot"

Another Dominican Republic shot from this past February.  This year our Dominican Experience organizers managed to get us a walk through of one of the first Fair Trade sugar refineries in the DR this one is located in Consuelo.  The worker is feeding the fires for the steam generators, what HOT work!

IHSW That Wasn't

This past weekend was witness to another edition of the International Hermit And Stitch Weekend.  However for me it was the stitch weekend that wasn't.  I barely put any stitches in!  It was a busy weekend!  I spent the day out Saturday with my Mum and kinda sorta Sister-In-Law, then had dinner that evening with Todd's family.  Sunday was Father's Day I treated my Dad to a movie we went and saw Prometheus (yeah!  Aliens rock!  Actually it was a great movie), then later in the afternoon the family got together to celebrate the day.  It was a fantastic weekend but so busy I was passed out on the couch before 10PM on Sunday!  I did enjoy myself.

Here are my current WIPs as of Friday night before I picked anything up:

The Accolade

Snow White

 

Here are my WIPs that I put a few stitches in... as you can see, a few.

The Accolade

Snow White

Saturday I took my Mum to a small quilt show the Country Quilter in Richmond puts on every year.  We've gone almost every year for the last few years (except last year for some reason), they put on this great little exhibit of local quilts in their yard its just so nice!  Here are some pictures from the day.

The Country Quilter is in an old house and they fill the back yard with quilts!

So many great and creative quilts!

 Annick my "sister in law"

My Mum and Annick

My favourite quilt of the whole show!

My second favourite quilt (I might be a little partial to red)

A Day of Stitching At Lynn's

Lynn's cat Clarisse she made sure she wasn't ingnored

 

 Tracey and Lianne

Last Saturday (yes I know I'm a week late in reporting but I just didn't have the drive to blog this past week) Lynn invited the "Tangled Skiens" or the "Tuesday Night Stitchers" as I like to call us for a day of stitching at her home.  Tracey and I met up Saturday morning and hopped into my "red rocket" (my red Kia) and drove the hour out to Lynn's place.  It was such a nice day to be out driving and of course stitching with friends!

Lianne celebrating a Happy Dance!!!

Mary showing off her wonderful work

 

The group ebbed and flowed through the day I would guess at some point there were almost 15 of us there.  Some of us stayed in the house to stitch and some ventured out into Lynn's lovely gazebo to enjoy the nice weather that we deserved after so much rain!

The Gazebo stitchers

After lunch some of us ventured into the heart of town to check out first of all the local fabric shop and secondly the Arts Festival the town was hosting.  I came out of the fabric store unscathed, but I know a few of the ladies made purchases.

A Mural Representing Chesterville

 

Lianne, Tracey and I wantedred around checking out the booths and vendors set up for the Art Festival.  I of coruse took this opportunity to take pictures!

 A FEMALE chansaw artist how cool!

 Old firetrucks on displya (these are for you Dee!)

Me, Lynn and Lianne

Wonderful goodies from Lianne

 

Also from Lianne a gorgeous scissor ahem I mean flower frog!  I love it!

 

Earlier in the day when Lianne arrived she had gifts for Lynn and I.  She wanted to celebrate our "third anniversary".  Lianne has shared with me her story why she e-mailed me one day after reading my blog for sometime.  I felt so touched when she told me why she reached out to me and how she appreciated my e-mails every time a group of us were getting together to stitch, inviting her to join us... to meet in person for the first time.  It took Lianne sometime to finally accept one of my invites and it was to join us at Lynn's home the first time she hosted her annual stitching day roughly three years ago!  Lianne I don't think you realize how much your story has touched me, how honoured I feel that you chose me to reach out to.  I value our friendship.  Thank you for such a lovely gift, of course your friendship is the best gift ever.

 Besides stitching there is always a lot of talking!

As the day turned into a beautiful evening many of us eventually made the trek home.  Thank you Lynn for another fantastic day of stitching!

PhotoHunt - Ripple

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Ripple"

The musicians fingers ripple across the strings of the harp.  This photo was taken August 2011 in the lower poiiton of Viex Quebec.

June Stitching Goals

I'm a little behind in talking about what I've done stitching wise in the month of May, and what I'd like to get done in June... which is shaping up to be a busy month so far!

May Goal Review

Stitch one ornament - Yes!
Finish Outlining on Spring Mandala - Almost, finished outline on June 3rd
Finish Page 2 on The Accolade - YES!!!


June Stitching Goals


Stitch one ornament
Finish Spring Mandala (would be nice...)
Work on The Accolade
Work on Snow White

20 Years Ago Today

20 Years ago today I asked Todd out.

Our most recent picture together - May 2012

We started dating near the end of the school year 20 years ago, Todd had come to my school for the year to take advantage of the technical courses offered there.  During the second semester we were in the same Design and Technology class.  I don't think I realized he existed for most of the semester until I got dumped.  Then I started to notice this tall dark haired, blue-eyed fellow in my class.  As June rolled around I knew I didn't have much longer to wait for him to ask me out.  So I found the guts to ask him out.

Who would of believed that 20 years later we're still together, our relationship gets stronger each year.  Things truly do get better with age.

Love ya hun!

PhotoHunt - Clean

This week's theme is "Clean" I can assure you this is not one of my favourite activities... and really I try to avoid it as much as possible.  I can tell you my home certainly looks more lived in than a show piece.  Personally I prefer lived in... just more cozy and relaxing.  In my house, you can put your feet on my furniture that's okay!

This week's shot is another one from February's trip to the Dominican Republic... there's just so much to take pictures of there!  One of our days on this trip is spent in the mountains of Hato Mayor along the "cocoa route".  While standing in the back of the truck as we drove through the hills and mountains I saw these guys "cleaning" their bikes in a stream.  Look in the background (click to biffigy)... do you see the fellow bathing back there too?

On a side note, we're preparing for next year's trip and I was overwhelmed by the number of students who came to our information meeting this year!  I had over 30 kids who are showing interest, if most of them bring in an application for it'll be really hard to narrow it down to 15!!!

Annual Georgian Bay Stitching Weekend

 Once a year I get together with some of my closest stitching friends, we gather at Sheila's beautiful home and cottage in the Georgian Bay area.  Its a fantastic weekend where we get to catch up after being apart during the winter months, stitch a lot, and eat more than we should!

 Our hostess Sheila (left) with Judie (right)

The waters were pretty rough, the geese and their babies came into the bay for shelter

Sadly, this year the weather didn't co-operate!  It rained and it rained and it poured and rained!  Saturday was cold and miserable!  At least in the morning it was nice enough for me to get in a 5.5K run.(click here for last year's pictures with much more pictures)

Bonnie also working on her Seasonal Mandalas

In attendance this year first of all was our fantastic hostess Sheila, myself, Christin, Bonnie, Kathy, Beatrice, Judie, Rebbecca, Sylvia, and Clare.  Sadly this year for some reason I didn't take too many pictures and because of the weather I couldn't get outside to photograph Sheila's fantastic gardens and pond!

Kathy surprised by Christin's finished Paradigm Lost, Christin had been leading her on to think it wasn't finished yet.

Christin hiding from the camera

During the weekend I worked on my Spring Mandala and Accolade.  Oh and I took some GREAT naps!

Sylvia with Sheila's dog, Molly

Of course we're always sad to leave!!!  I can't wait until next year!

Beatrice stitching away

I'm looking forward to this Saturday Tracey and I are off to a day of stitching that Lynn is hosting for our Tuesday stitching group!  Can't wait!