Take Time to Remember

This past week in Canada has been Remembrance Week.

Growing up Remembrance Day was always focused on the Veterans of World Wars I & II.  In the last few years Canada saw the death of our last surviving World War I Vet.  I know within my life we'll also see the last surviving World War II Vet.

In the last few years the Canadian Government has moved its focus way just these two wars to any wars, conflicts, and operations Canadian Soldiers have served in to our current members of the Armed Forces.

I am grateful for the men and women who serve this country so well.  Who protect us and maintain our reputation as the World's Peacekeepers.

I remember, do you?

Fantasizing About Finishing

As you all know I have sure been on a finishing kick lately!  Let me remind you about some of my more recent forays into finishing land... its so nice that I've found my finishative lately!!!

Of course along with the urge to finish items comes a little shopping!  Here and there I've been picking up some more fabrics for finishing.  I've also been picking up more supplies and I've been running out!

As you can see here I've run out of batting (Warm N' Natural) which I use in my ornaments, flat folds, and more.  A crib sized piece goes a long way.  During my aforementioned trip to Jo-Ann's in my Scissor post.  I saw they had rotary cutters for 1/2 off so I picked up a new one.  I also grabbed a pinking blade, this way I can do pretty edges on ornaments finished with felt, I had a 50% off coupon for that...score!  Now you may be wondering what that purple thing is in the picture.  Its a ATG tape gun!  This is a tape gun for double sided tape used by framers when putting together double mats, or the dust cover on the back of a framed piece.  I also often use it during finishing when I need to stick things together.  In the past I just rolled it out by hand... dealing with the pesky paper strip.  This gun not only dispenses my tape beautifully but it collects the paper strip as well!  Sweet.  Even better than that is how much I paid for it!  Normally $60.00, with a Michale's 50% off coupon, plus a gift card I kept forgetting about in my wallet... a grand $10.00!!!!  Double score!

What are your favourite finishing bits and pieces that you can't live without... or perhaps you should think I should get.  I already have a crop-a-dial on my list what else should be on it?

PhotoHunt - Seasonal

Oops!  Silly me I got my weeks mixed up for my PhotoHunt!  Last week was supposed to be "Seasonal" and this week was supposed to be "Kite".  Oh well not much I can do about it now.

My favourite seasonal event is the changing of the leaves!  This year's fall colours were spectacular!!!  This picture was taken along Country Rd. 10 that runs from Perth to Kingston.  I love taking pictures along this road its ... just gorgeous!

Copy Cats, New Starts and 1/3rd!

Interesting blog entry title isn't it?

1.  Copy Cats... they say imitation is the best form of flattery.  Well yesterday I posted about our fantastic get-together in Kingston earlier in October.  Well... take a look here and here!  I can assure you my post went up before Christin and Rebecca's did!  There will be another fantastic get together post this month so stay tuned!

2. New Starts... I've gotten myself involved in five exchanges recently!  I must be crazy!  Tonight during my Weight Watchers meeting (if you want to read about that journey you can check it out at my other blog)I started my last one.  Just to give you a tease... here's the floss toss!  If anyone can guess the design from just this... you deserve a prize!

3. 1/3 rd... I've officially finished one third of The Accolade!  Pages 1-3 are done! Done!  Done!  I've got a small start on page 4.  Its tempting to work on this all weekend.  The colours in this picture are a little washed out.

Belated Get Together Post

Its taken me awhile to get around to doing this post.  I think part of it was getting to the pictures!  Sometimes I get quite a bit uploaded and it takes me awhile to shift through it all!  Between you and I... I've got almost 20,000 image files on my computer!

Tracey, doing what she does best!  Shopping!  At Knowledge & Needles of course!

On Saturday October 13th, I got up bright and early.  Christin and Tracey were joining me on a road trip to Kingston!  Our first stop was to pick up my magnificent quilt which I shared with you awhile ago.  Our second stop was at the Cataraqui Needlework Guild's Annual Merchant Market!  For some reason we were all quite excited for the day, all in good cheer and the trip down flew by!

Rebbecca (left) and her friend Siobhan (right) picking out her first cross stitch chart!

At the market we met up with Rebbecca and her friend Siobhan who had recently immigrated form England.  We also met with Lianne, Kathy, Barb, and Bonnie.  We shopped, mainly at Knowledge and Needles I must admit!  In my opinion the market was much smaller than in past years, but we enjoyed ourselves anyhow.

Yes we're having fun!

Our hostess Rebbecca!

After shopping it was off to Rebecca's house for a day of stitching!  It was so nice to be among my friends again... especially Rebbecca, Kathy, Barb, and Bonnie who I don't get to see often enough in my opinion!

 Bonnie, working on Blair's Dragon

 Christin working on a Wedding Sampler

 When Rebbecca was out of the room, her son Caleb decided to pick up her stitching.  Tracey was happy to teach him how!

 Lianne

It was a lovely day that went by too quickly!

Seriously Scissors!

Recently on good old FB, I drooled over the newest pair of Gingher Designer Series.  These new ones called "Jennifer" were a Jo-Ann's in store only exclusive.  When I first saw Jennifer I jumped online to find that I couldn't order them online.  Tracey and I decided we MUST have these scissors!

 Jennifer

First Tracey called our nearest Jo-Ann, which was in Ogdensburg, N.Y. and asked if they had any... because she had just been there the day before!  It happens that the scissors had been put out within an hour of her leaving the store.  They were kind enough to set aside three pairs for us (for Tracey, Christin and I) , usually they only hold items for 24 hours but since we were coming from the other side of the border, a 45 minute drive away they were kind enough to extend that a few days.

So call us crazy!  Tracey and I were willing to drive 45 minutes and into another country just for a pair of scissors!  We did make the drive worth our while by picking up a few other things in Jo-Ann and a trip to Wal-Mart as well.

Emily

Not only have I recently gotten a pair of "Jennifer"s but back in September I got this year's pair of Ginghers (on sale in all kinds of places on line and in stores!) "Emily".

Here's my entire collection of Gingher Designer Series, beautifully displayed in the crystal scissor (flower) frog Leanne gifted me with to celebrate our 3rd "friendship anniversary".

Thank You Angela!

Earlier this fall Angela put the call out on her blog to do a fall exchange.  Life got tough for Angela, and she very gracefully had to bow out.  I was determined to stitch my piece for her anyhow and send it... its now in my car waiting for me to get to the post office!  Life has been pretty busy of late and a side trip hasn't been possible yet.  I'm going to do my best to get it in the mail this Thursday!

Late last week a surprise arrived in my mailbox, a BEAUTIFUL surprise!  Angela stitched up and finished this fantastic fall design for me.  Her finishing skills are superb and the flat fold is perfectly made!  Its now proudly on display in my living room.  I can't wait to get mine in the mail to Angela so I can share with you what I've stitched up for her!