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.