The Biggest Ottawa GTG Ever!

Ottawa has always been a tough city to get a descent sized Get Together of stitchers. Tonight we've had the biggest one to date. It all started with Belinda from the TWBB posting that she would be in Ottawa this week on business and wanted to know if anyone wanted to GTG.

Well count me in! Actually just call me the Eastern Ontario Social Co-ordinator. With a couple of e-mails I suddenly had a group of six agreeing to meet tonight at the Cross Stitch Cupboard followed by dinner out. We were : Belinda up from Florida, Chrisanne drove in from Cornwall (what a great gal and she picked up Belinda as well!), Alison, Christin, Vicki, and I made up the Ottawa Valley contingent.

We had a good little shop (with a personal pre-shop at Kettleman's Baels mmm.....). With some ribbing from Alison I picked up one of the Mill Hill Beaded Tassel Ornaments. She said she wanted me to figure out how to put it together first before she would put hers together. That was a tough sell! Alison was also such a sweetie and picked up one of the Monica Ferris needlework mysteries for me to read when I'm in the hospital over night on August 9th (S-Day... surgery day).

All of us except Alison (her wee one is sick) piled into our various vehicles and headed en masse to Kanata where we had an excellent supper at The Glen my favorite Scottish Pub. I will dare you to find anywhere that has better fish and chips! So over excellent food we talked about, life, families and stitching of course. Ohhed and ahhed over the goodies that Chrisanne had to share with us. Soon enough it was hitting 9pm and it was time for all of us to go our separate ways.

Belinda, if you read this thank you for being the instigator and pulling everyone together for a great night out! I hope you enjoyed our little group and liked what you saw of Ottawa.

Wooo Hooo!  Last Ornament for July
 
Yup,  I would of finished it last night but I just had to go to bed.  It had been a long, emotional day.  So after going to Taekwon-Do tonight I sat down and finished it.
 
This month's second contribution to the pile is :
 
Dragon Dreams c1999 Christmyth Griffon
Stitched on : 28ct Antique White Linen Silk

And For My Next Trick...
 
I got my first ornament done for this month!  Well it was actually two that I stitched since the design calls for it to have a front and back (pretty much the same).  The back is supposed to contain your initials and year but I decided not to put those in case I decide to finish these as two separate ornaments.
 
Here is Star Stocking Ornament by Periwinkle Promises

Yay!
 
This morning I finished page 4 of Bandon Lighthouse!  So that's another goal for this month met!  Now if I can get the last 4 pages finished next month I'd be happy!!!!
 
Here's my progress scan of Bandon Lighthouse copyright The Silver Lining


 

Now I'm going to focus on getting my ornamets done for this month!

A Long Week
 
Yup, its been one of those.  Our family emergency is still ongoing and it looks like it will for sometime.  So if blogging starts to become rather erratic let me apologize up front.
 
I was just thinking as I was waiting for blogger to load (stupid slow rural connection!) that last month I got SO MUCH done stitching wise.  This month I feel like I'm treading water.  We're down to the last week of the month and my two ornaments are not done, they are both in different stages of being worked on ... slowly.  I've picked one ornament that I'm really not enjoying and I find a PITA to work on.  But I'm stubborn I won't let it get the best of me!  Also I won't let myself work on my fun and colourful griffon ornament until this is done.
 
Progress on Bandon Light is going nicely I should have page 4 done by the end of the month... that's if this emergency doesn't get worse.
 
So I have one more week of work before I'm on holiday for a week.  Guess what I'm going to do?  I'm going to stitch.  The following week after my holidays I'm going for surgery and then I'll be off of work for 4-6 weeks.  Hopefully in that time I'll get Bandon Lighthouse and Mini Cottages 3 done, and hopefully start my friend Laura's wedding present.  Also there's keeping up with Mystery 6 and Mini F both I'd like to get done in the week before surgery.
 
As for the surgery I'm starting to get a little freaked out over it.  I've never been operated or put under ever.  My biggest fear is not being properly sedated I think.  I've read that this can happen in about one in a million people.  You can't talk, you can't move but you can feel everything they're doing.  That's what I'm really scared of.
 
Its the weekend I'm going to stitch...

I'm a Good Girl!
 
As stitchers I think we all have pieces we should be stitching on and pieces we want to stitch on.  Right now I'm working on the piece I should be stitching on (Bandon Lighthouse), and I've been very good its the piece I've been working on all week so far and will continue to work on it until the next installment of Mystery 6 is released.  As I sit there stitching I keep thinking boy, I'd rather be working on....  or I'd like to start...
 
I think life is going to be a little rough for the next while.  There are some family issues going on that are quite upsetting.  Also I'm going for surgery in 18 days.  So I'm not sure if my focus is going to be all there.  I'm hoping my stitching will become my "refuge" while I'm sailing rough seas.  I've never had surgery before, and as it has been getting closer (and its been so far away for so long) I've started having dreams about it.  So all of this makes it a little hard for me to do the stitching I should be doing (while I think about the stitching I'd like to be doing).

Evanessence
 
Last night my friend Christin and I went and saw Evanessance.  Opening for the band was : Breaking Benjamin, Seether, and 3 Days Grace.
 
Breaking Benjamin, rocked I really liked their music and I hope to hear more from them in the future.
 
Seether, honestly all their songs sounded the same!
 
3 Days Grace, I saw them in February when they opened for Nickleback.  I thought they were awesome then and I still think they are awesome now!
 
Evanessance, not a bad show.  I'd give them a 2.5 stars out of 5.  For a brand new band with only one CD I have to say they did fairly well.  But if I were to compare them to a lot of the other acts I've seen over the years I would say they were okay.
 
Now when you have 3 opening acts and you're sitting on the end of the row where people go up and down the stairs to get to general admission you get to do a lot of people watching.  I finally had to get a piece of paper and pen to write down my observations that I made to amuse myself and Christin...
 

• When navigating small steps... leave the Herman Munster shoes at home!
• Tulle skirts... only if you're 90lbs soaking wet please
• Sir... the seat of your pants they're a little worn out
• Hmmm spike heels in general admission???
• Honey, next time you go to the ladies room don't forget to tuck in the ribbon on your udnerwear
• Sporty skirt... t-shirt... hat... high heels?  Hmmm mixed messages, sproty or classy I think just plain trashy.
• Can you please scream a little louder I still have a working ear drum left
• Tube tops and stairs, don't mix, hike it up baby!

I have to say I saw a lot of very interesting outfits and impractical footwear!