Summer Adventures Update no.1

Todd quietly laughing on the inside

 

I think he was laughing at Tracey as she inflated the tube

 

Two weekends ago (July 21st weekend) Todd and Ed (Tracey's husband) went out in the morning for pre-fish on Mississippi Lake for an upcoming tournament.  Us girls got together in the morning and met the boys on the lake after lunch.

Like any good friend, I "accidentally" knocked Tracey into the lake

 

First, we made them take us tubing.  One in the tube is fun, but two is a blast!  I went out alone in the tube first, and the second time around Tracey joined us.  Todd was playing spotter and photographer while Ed drove the boat.

Tracey and Ed fishing

 

Then we went and did a little fishing... they really weren't biting, but Ed caught a little pike.

 It really was a nice day out on the lake, we had so much fun!

Celebrating the Olympics and a Happy Dance!

 Marline (above) & Me (below) at the site of the 1976 Summer Olympics

Thursday after my last day of work for the next 3 weeks my friend Marline and I took off to Montreal for an overnight trip.  We took the opportunity to celebrate the opening of the London Summer Olympics in our own little way.... we visited the site of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.  We thought we were both definately Gold Medal material!

 

Spring Mandala - Seasonal Mandalas

c2011 Ink Circles

Stitched on 40ct linen with DMC

Gorgeous colours

Today being my second day on holidays I settled in for some not-so-productive stitching.  You know when you sit there and just poke away at your stitching?  That was me, I knew I'd have a happy dance, and usually that excites me and gets me focused and stitching ... faster!  Not today!  But eventually I did get there, I got the HD!

 Winter & Spring on the same piece of fabric

I am now officially half done Ink Circles Seasonal Mandalas, only Summer and Fall left to stitch up.  I start Summer soonish.

PhotoHunt - Joker

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Joker"

This picture is from Frebruary 2011 in Hato Mayor, Dominican Republic.  This is two of our Dominican Experience guides, Ricardo and Pedro and together they were a true pair of jokers!

July IHSW Report

I fully intended to have this wonderful blog entry for you with a great IHSW update but as I was sitting here at my computer this HUGE storm came through (bad enough to almost send me to the basement... and I've lived in Texas!) and out went the power until after 1am.  Thus no wonderful update yesterday.

I'm sure I had some wonderful and witty things to say to amuse you all... but that's now gone, lost.  Its that whole short memory thing I think.

 Accolade before the IHSW

 Accolade after - I finished another row

 Spring Mandala before IHSW

After

I'm SO looking forward to Thursday at 3PM!  I start 3 weeks of holidays!  It looks like this year is going to be a staycation, I really have no plans, the only thing is an overnighter to Montreal with my friend Marliene to practice our photography skills.  Wow, dull for me isn't it?

PhotoHunt - Song

This week's PhtoHunt theme is "Song"

There's nothing I like more than rocking out to a great song at a rock concert!  This was taken at Bluesfest 2011 during the Billy Talent concert.

July TUSAL

Its TUSAL Day!  Its TUSAL Day!!!!

My ort "jar" is slowly filling up, this year, lots of over one projects and 40ct projects do not make for a lot of orts!  You can see a lot of the lovely soft colours from my Spring Mandala and a lot of white from both Snow White and my JBW hearts.

It is also IHSW and I'm not sure exactly how much hermitting (none) and stitching I'm going to get done!  We'll see after the weekend is over.

Stitchy Goodness!

There have been far too many non-stitchy posts lately haven't there?

 French Couuntry Hearts I - Scalloped Heart

c2011 JBW Designs

Stitched on 28ct Navy Lugana using DMC B5200

French Country Hearts I - Joy

c2011 JBW Designs

Stitched on 28ct Navy Lugana Stitched with DMC B5200

Guess what?  I think I've found my mojo!!!!!  Wool Hoop!  I had a 3-day weekend and I stitched and stitched and stitched!!!!  I accomplished so much!  I finished TWO yes TWO ornaments, started a 3rd (wee start not worth showing).  I just can't get these to photograph properly no matter what I try!

I've made progress on The Accolade

And I've made huge progress (like leaps and bounds ladies and gentlemen!) on Ink Circles Spring Mandala!!!

Fob from Lillie

 From Tracey to keep the frogs away!

I've got two gorgeous scissor fobs to share with you as well, the first one which is black and white was in the exchange from Lillie, I forgot to share it with you.  The second is a Swaroski crystal frog that Tracey picked up for me during her trip to California.  I love both of them and I just happened to have just the right pair of scissors to go with each of them!

In the last week I've felt like my life is finally settling back into place, that all of the pieces that have been missing have been found and are finally fitting together.  My mojo coming back is a sure sign of that and I've taken a few more positive steps which can only make me feel better about myself.

Sweatin' and a Rockin'

Really, you don't want to hear about the sweating part.  Christin and I were back out to Bluesfest last night and boy it was HOT!  It was 35c without taking the humidex into account.  We did get lucky, being on the Ottawa River just before Our Lady Peace hit the stage a breeze started to pick up.

Great energetic crowd... didn't help with the heat!

I don't think I've seen OLP in concert in about 10 years... or at least as I can tell when their album Clumsy came out.  I've been listening to them for a long time!  The didn't disappoint, and here are some of my shots from the night.

 Really, its not often you see a chick on stage!

 The lead singer climbed the stage supports, one of my best shots of the night!

 I was surprised this didn't happen on Monday night but we had crowd surfers last night!

PhotoHunt - Dance

This week's theme is "Dance"

I took this picture at the end of June there were a lot of Scottish festivities before the start of the 3rd Annual Kilt Run in Perth.  I came across these Highland Dancers.

Rocking In The Shadown of Parliament Hill

 Hello fellow readers!  I must apologize for my last post and the lack of warning about the REALLY BIG spider!  I guess I creeped out far too many of you with that cool sculpture.  You will be relived to find that this post is spider-free!

Christin & Me our annual Bluesfest Photo

On Monday Christin and I hopped on the bus and went downtown to attend our first of two nights at Ottawa Bluesfest.  This was our big night there with three bands we wanted to see!  It was a long night!

My Darkest Days Lead Singer

 Is it just me or is he yummy?

Look at this naught little boy in the blue hat!  We were encouraged to wave our middle fingers in the air during "Porn Star Dancing"

First at 6PM was My Darkest Days, I've enjoyed songs from them on the radio like "Porn Star Dancing" and "Move Your Body".  Not having a huge exposure to this band I really enjoyed them.  I also quite enjoyed watching the fellow with the mohawk... yummy.

 I think this is one of my best shots of the night!

This fellow had his shirt off by the end of the set and I must admit he had Marline and I practically drooling he was nicely cut under that shirt!  Now why did I not get a picture???  Oh that's right I was too busy drooling!

Next up at about 7:30 was Shinedown, I was first exposed to this band on Nickleback's last tour as they were one of the opening bands.  I now have quite a bit of their music on my iPod.  The lead singer is quite charismatic and I really enjoy him.

Me and fellow BB & Instructor Tasha!

While I was at the Shinedown stage I ran into friend and fellow Taekwon-Do instructor Tasha.

Marline and I at the end of the night

A little later in the show my friend Marline who I was expecting found me!  It was so great to rock out with some great friends on a beautiful summer night!

The final and big act for the night was who I fondly refer to as "The Boys"... Nickleback!  Yes, I am a lover ... not a hater.  For some reason people either love or hate Nickleback.  I think as of this week's concert I've seen them about 6 times now.  What can I say "The Boys" put on a great show!  My shots aren't the best because I couldn't just get any closer and the base was so loud from the drums that it was painful and you could feel it right through your body.  Which was a shame.

Friday night Christin and I will be heading back out to Bluesfest to see Our Lady Peace.  I've not seen OLP in probably about 10 years.  I'm looking forward to it, because I'm off of work as well on Friday!