PhotoHunters - Game

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Game"

I took this picture in Santo Domingo this past February.  Dominoes is the national "game" of the Dominican Republic.

Snow Day Fun!

Overnight on Tuesday we go a huge dump of snow, in the area of 20cm our first big snowfall of the year! Busses were cancelled, so I didn't have to rush to get into work ontime, but I still had to go into the school despite 95% of the kids staying home.



Here' sweat greeted me when I went out to my car in the morning. I was sooo lucky, Todd had gotten up early to snowblower the drive, brush off and warm up my car! What a sweet thing to do.

Since kids weren't around I decided I'd partake of a day of arts and crafts! We turned the TV on and enjoyed a Criminal Minds and CSI marathon. I had decided last week I needed something new to go into my book display for the Christmas season. I was tired of hanging garland and balls from the ceiling. So a Google search was in order!

I found this awesome idea, that involved recycling a book and would be just fantastic!



The process started last week when I cut apart a book (many have asked me what book, it was Pierre Burton's Last Spike), it was very liberating! Then I started rolling the pages into cones and securing them with a little scotch tape. I had shown this picture on Facebook, asking my friends of they could guess what I was up to! Someone jokingly responded "unicorns!" So it became "project unicorn".



On Wednesday I took in with me a sheet of mat board and my hot glue gun. I started construction!






There was one last finishing touch, but I needed to go to the dollar store to get some red and gold Christmas balls!



Look at my beautiful book page wreath! It fills my book display beautifully and I can't wait to hear everyone's reactions when they see it!


- thanks for reading!

Weekend Stirching

Well it turned out to be the perfect weekend for stitching. Friday night I did all of my running around, Todd and I had a nice dinner out (which we rarely do) and I settled in for the weekend, especially when the snow started to fly on Saturday morning. I wasn't going anywhere (also had my snow tires out on just in time!).




I picked up this Lizzie*Kate chart with all the threads a couple of weekends ago at Knowledge and Needles when I went to the November Timberhouse retreat (I haven't blogged about it, but have pictures on my camera). I had been on the fence about buying it for awhile, until I saw it stitched up on Sally's blog, then I had to have it.

After working on the Accolade since I came back from retreat, I decided it was time for a bit of an over-one break, and these we're calling my name! I pulled out some 28ct fabric to stitch these on. Digging around for the perfect fabric I realized my 28ct drawer is ready to puke fabric everywhere... In other words it's getting hard to close it without some escapees. So I either need to start using this stuff up, or I need to buy more fabric to fill up my 32ct drawer which isn't even half full. I've been gravitating towards higher counts lately so of course the 28ct has been piling up.

So since Friday night I have stitched up all 3 Lizzie*Kate Flora McSampler 2012 Ornaments. They are stitched on mystery 28ct fabric using a combination of Weeks Dye Works and DMC threads. I also outlined each of the designed and did a backing piece so I can whip stitch these together... Whenever I find my finishative. I also included a motif from each pattern onto the back of each piece. I'm not sure if I'm going to just whip them together or add a beaded edge.




Rejoice



Noel




Believe

I really love the colours used to stitch these.

Since things have calmed down just over a week ago, not only have I been stitching quite a bit, I've started something else back up again. I've started posting to my other blog again after a long silence. I use this blog to talk about my struggles to loose weight, and to lead a more active and healthy life. I think I need it at this time in my life to get and remain motivated. I've been doing a combination of either treading water or drowning for quite awhile now, and I need to turn things around again.

- thanks for reading!

PhotoHunt - Over

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "over"

I took this picture this past August during my trip to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.  We took out to do some mackerel fishing from the small fishing town of Main-a-Dieu (translatest to hand of God).  When the day was "over" the fisherman cleaned some fish before scrubbing down his lobster boat.

Accolade

For the last little while The Accolade (NOT a HEAD) has been receiving my attention.



Here she is, I last worked on her on Thursday night. I'm quite enjoying this piece.


- thanks for reading!

Farewell Adriana

I've been trying to compose this post in my head for over a week now. No words can do this woman justice.




In the wee hours of Sunday, November 10th, my favourite 97 year old stitcher went to Heaven. I'm not a person of faith but I know Ariana is up in Heaven stitching up a storm. This past Friday we said goodbye.

I am honoured to have known Adriana, been in her presence to call her friend. I've been so lucky to know this woman for the last ten years of my life, and I'm richer for it.



When I first met her I can recall that she was stitching on Aida, that she was too old for linen/evenweave. It didn't take much for us to encourage her to pick up evenweave again. She never gave up evenweave again, because she was "too old". Adriana taught me that age truly is a state of mind, she wasn't 97 years old, she was 97 years young.

She was a woman of deep faith, a lady who always wore a skirt or dress, she was a proper lady, kind to all, never had a bad thing to say. She was graceful and beautiful and would fill a room despite her petite stature. She was loved and we could feel her love for us.



She handled life in stride and with grace.

If I could grow up to be like anyone, I want to grow up to be like Adriana.



- thanks for reading!

PhotoHunt - Neat

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Neat"

This is another picture from my trip to Charleston, South Carolina in July.  We spent a day walking through the historic neighborhoods in Charleston.  On one of the houses I found this really "neat" doorknocker!

Zeus IS Cute!!!

Happy Dance

It's a busy week and I don't have a lot of serious blogging time right now. 

I did finish Picalilly using Sulky Blendables, this is the end result. 

Thank You

Collecting Ginghers

I collect scissors, especially the Gingher Designer Series. They release a pair do scissors each ear with a pretty handle. 

Then in the late fall, they release a second pair that is exclusive to JoAnn Stores only. They can be a challenge to get because in some areas they're snapped up quickly. If you do manage to get a pair online they won't ship them outside of the USA. 

So Tracey, Christin and I made Watertown our way home today (more about our weekend later this week), we me managed to pick up our scissors!  This year' pair is called Sharon. 

Aren't they pretty?

PhotoHunt - Sale

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Sale"

This picture I took this past February in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic.  There was all kinds of rice for sale at this one shop in the local market.

Missed PhotoHunt - June 29, 2013 - Citrus

The theme for the PhotoHunt on June 29, 2013 was "citrus"

Another picture from Dominican Republic, oranges for sale at a stand on the side of the road.  There is nothing like fresh, local citrus!  Oh yum!

Humour

Just had to share... Cause stitching is so gangsta!

Sulky Blendables

I mentioned in my previous post that I had gotten some Sulky Blendables to try stitching with. I had first heard of them on two blogs about a month ago. I read about them on Tracey Horner's Blog (designs for Ink Circles), and also on Anette's blog (Anette's Acre). 

I had checked a few quilt stores in the area with no luck, I couldn't find them in 12 weight. I had mentioned them to Bonnie and she had seen them in a nearby quilt store, so she picked me up a few colours I had seen online that I liked. 

I was anxious to try them out, so once I finished my flurry of Lizzie Kate ornaments, I picked a small Ink Corcles design I had (Piccalilli) and a piece of white 28ct evenweave.

 According to what I've read, this thread works great with either 28 or 32 count fabric. As I hope you can see from this close up, it looks more like a perele cotton, but it's got a nice sheen to it and it's a little on the slippery side. I did have to use a bigger (smaller numbered) needle. I do really like working with the thread itself, you can easily use long lengths, it doesn't tangle easily, and the fact that it's on a spool is quite nice. 

Now I'm not sure if it's the colour I've picked (changing quite quickly) or the design... I'm not too happy with how the design itself is turning out. I think I should of used something with out so much variation. It's just too busy. I'm. To giving up on this thread, I just don't think it's right for this design. 

Oh what's a stitchy post without a furry purry?

New Stash

Late last week Bonnie came by for a visit, and brought me some new stash!

First, this chart Lives to Stitch from Stitchy Kitty. I have this vision of someday having this wall near my stitching chair (aka nest) full of all these little stitched pieces all about stitching!  I've already got two up there, two more are stitched but not finished. It's a nice vision, but I've got to get un-lazy and actually do some finishing. 

I also had Bonnie pick up from a local quilt store a couple of spools of Sulky Blendables in 12wt. I've seen some chatter on blogs about using this to stitch, you only need to stitch with one strand over two on 28 or 32 ct. I've started a little Ink Circles piece to test out the purple one (iris). I'll save that for tomorrow!

I got out for another run today. I thought it was a great idea to tackle this hill on the edge of the village before hitting my regular route. (It's steeper than it looks here) My quads assure me it was not (a good idea).. It is good to get some hill work in to be a better runner. I'm still not running non-stop, but I managed to run for 4 minutes and walk for two. On this run I managed to run for about 26 minutes. I'm impressed with how well I'm progressing, I know that going to the gym twice a week since September is paying off. 

Ornament Frenzy

My little Lizzie Kate ornament last week started a bit of a landslide over the weekend. 

In the space of two days I have stitched up three more LK ornaments!  All of these are from the chart Tiny Tidings IV. 

These are stitched on 32ct Belfast Dirty Linen using a combination of GAST, DMC, and #4 braid. 

Hunter helped me with the snowman. 

TUSAL and Some Finishing

It's TUSAL time again. 

This month it's quite a mix of threads as I've been working on all kinds of smaller projects. 

This weekend has been rather productive, too productive to share it all in one post!  Since I'll be blogging daily for the rest of November I'll need to spread things out a little.   I did the finishing on my exchange ornament for next weekend. 

Being in the finishing groove, I also did the finishing on the six JBW Doves I stitched up earlier this year.   I like the simplicity of this finish. 

In the last few weeks I've started running again, albeit slowly and with frequent walk breaks. This weekend I braved the cooler weathers and got out on Saturday for a "long run" on my favourite trail!  I did over 7km walking 2 minutes, running 2 minutes. There's something about being on this trail that I just love that I'm willing to bundle up and risk getting rained on to spend time on it. I pretty much had it to myself, only running into one person in the 70 minutes I was on it. 

Today I did a shorter run in my village, over 3K. This time in increased my run intervals since it was a shorter distance. I walked 2 minutes and ran for 4. 

I'm so happy to be running again, I had to stop due to a foot injury, a month ago I hand a cortisone injection and so far it seems to be doing its job... For now. The last one I had only lasted six weeks. When I run I feel powerful, I feel alive, unstoppable. I just ordered a new pair of running shoes and I look forward to hopefully picking them up this week.  I'm taking it slow and trying not to push myself too hard hoping that my foot will hold up. 

PhotoHunt - Musical

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Musical"

I have yet another picture for you from this August's "East Coast Adventure" when I drove 17 hours all by myself in my zippy little red car to visit Tracey at her cottage this summer.  One afternoon we went into Sydney, Nova Scotia.  She took me to the waterfront for me to see this giant fiddle.  That's one big "musical" instrument!

NaBloPoMo 2013!

It's that time of year again!  It's time for NaBloPoMo!!!  That's right,  national Blog Posting Month which means I need to blog every day in November. 

As you can see, Zeus thinks I'm crazy!  I've done it successfully in the past, let's see if I can do it again.   My track record hasn't been the best this year with blogging.