Dec 31/17

Some Christmas vacation stitching! A Janlynn ornament on perforated paper. I chose this one because it fit nicely into my suitcase and it should not take long to complete.

Happy New Year and Happy Stitching!

Dec 27/17

Another Christmas season is almost over and now I look forward to the New Year. We spent the holidays at my mom's home in New Brunswick although most of the celebrating took place across town at my youngest brother's home. Lots of memories were made as we hung out, ate, assembled gifts for kids and chased dogs all over the house. My favourite memory has to be of my 18 month old nephew running up and down the main hallway with our puppy running along side him as she licked his fingers.

On a holiday and craft related note, I made an awesome find when I was digging around for gift wrap in my mom's spare room. My mom used to weave on a large floor loom when I was a kid. She recently sold the floor loom as she had not touched it for years and I thought that was the end of the weaving stuff in the house. I had recently been looking around on the Internet for a small table top loom, but was not willing to pay several hundred dollars to try out a hobby so it was thrilling to discover a loom that looks very much like this image that I have borrowed off the Internet!

Mom said that I can borrow the loom to try it out! I did not bring it back with me on this trip as I have just far too many things on the go at the moment to add something new into the mix. The puppy, the French lessons, work, my new position in the Rotary club, the Christmas letters and projects that still need to be completed and the general healing from this round of illness all kind of take up all of my time. I still can not believe my good fortune that Mom just happened to have one of these and somehow I had never noticed it in her house!!

Well, I should go get a few things done before I settle in to watch Canada play Slovakia in the World Junior Hockey Championships.

Happy stitching!

Dec 21/17

The ort jar overfloweth although I am not sure how considering how much my stitching time has been impacted by the pneumonia that felled me in November. Six weeks later, I am still coughing and looking for my get-up-and-go.

We are heading to Mom's for the holidays tomorrow morning, gifts and dogs in tow, so there will not be any more stitching until we return home. Happy Holidays to everyone who reads and comments on my blog. I wish you all happiness and good health and time to indulge in your crafts!

Dec 17/17

I finished the piece on the left tonight. The piece on the right is from the Dimensions kit titled "Cardinal Joy" with 14 count Aida and threads from the kit. The piece on the left is on 28 count white Monaco with some threads from the kit and many others from my scrap thread bag. Now, onto the washing of the pieces tonight before I go to bed and maybe finishing them tomorrow. They will be sent to my longtime penpals who live in Norway and Sweden once I return from my Christmas visit home.

In other news, the puppy has struck again. We are now up to 1 phone card, two pairs of sandals and 1 library book that have been replaced. Fortunately, the librarian was good humoured about it and told me to just buy a replacement copy.

The puppy is most fortunate that she is both cute and amusing as these replacement costs mount! When she is not pestering her big canine sister, she is wrestling with and chasing the cats around the house. Yesterday, she jumped onto the back of a child who was enjoying our recent snow falls at the local sliding hill and took a trip down the hill. What a little card!

I doubt that I will get much more stitching done this week as I try to get ready to head to my mother's for a Christmas visit. There are gifts to wrap, work shifts to get through, gifts to exchange with friends and co-workers, laundry and packing and possibly another visit to the doctor for the results of the repeat chest x-ray that I had done on Saturday. I have pulled a muscle from coughing and 5 weeks later, I still have a very wet, congested cough so my doctor is trying to figure out what the heck is going on. It is frustrating because I am barely able to visit with friends or get more than 1 or 2 things done per day. A close family friend recently had heart surgery and I may not be able to visit with her at the nursing home because of this awful cough. Anyhow, I will recover. I just need to be patient!

Happy stitching and happy holidays!

Dec 11/17

Here are the finished ornaments! The blue felt has been a bit challenging to glue, but I think I fixed it this morning. Three of these ornaments are wrapped up and in their mailing envelopes for drop off at the post office this morning.

Happy stitching!

Dec 10/17

So, I took a look at this tutorial this morning to finish some ornaments and realized as I was reading through the tutorial that today was the day that I really needed to buy the proper tools to do my crafting. Off I went to brave the mall this close to Christmas to our local craft shop, Atlantic Fabrics, to buy an Olfa cutter and mat and look what I came home with! Finishing the ornaments was a breeze with the right tools. You will get to see the final products once the glue has dried.

The Christmas parcels are piling up in the kitchen so that I can take them to the post office either tomorrow or Tuesday in the hopes that they arrive in time for Christmas. My energy levels are so low that I did not start anything until 1pm today and it took me all day to go to the mall, drop off a few gifts to my neighbours before they all start leaving for Christmas leave, prepare parcels to go to the fella's kids and finish the ornaments. I also had to mop the floors because the puppy is in the early stages of house training and the fella' has been busy doing the list of things that I had for him to do.

Happy stitching!

Dec 9/17

This hockey logo was stitched 1 over 1 on 28 count Monaco, leading me to fully accept that I will need bifocals sometime soon. There were moments where I had to take off my glasses to confirm that I had completed the crossing stitch if I was also trying to watch something on the television at the same time. Much of this soon to be ornament was stitched with my glasses off as I listened to what was on television. At this point, I must say that I am a Montreal Canadiens fan and the only reason that I stitched this logo was as a special request by the fella' for one of his sisters. My fingers did not shrivel up and fall off so that is a good thing!! Hockey rivalry in Canada is our way to vent any aggressions and keeps us one of the most peaceful nations in this world.
(Came back to add that I found this on pinterest)

I hope that tomorrow will be a finishing day as our parcels to the fella's children need to go in the mail on Monday. Today is a day of rest for me as we have a work Christmas party this evening and my cough has been increasingly bothersome again these past couple of days.The fella' is busy playing with the dogs in the back yard and winterizing our yard as the first major winter storm bears down on us this weekend.

Happy stitching!

Dec 4/17

Three weeks and two antibiotics later, my life is slowly starting to come back together. I had finished a 10 day course of antibiotics on Thursday and went back to work that same day. I was exhausted, but glad to have a bit of normalcy after being in bed for 2.5 weeks. The next day, the phlegm changed colour so my doctor saw me on an emergency visit. He heard some stuff in my lungs so he prescribed me an antibiotic to take if my symptoms worsened. I started it that evening after hacking and coughing all day at work. I am resting lots in between things like the Christmas party that I went to last night for my Rotary club and only doing what is absolutely necessary around the house like letting the dogs out.

Now that I am no longer bedridden, I am resting in the living room with a needle in my hand. Here are two ornaments that I have stitched this week for friends and family. I found the pattern on pinterest and added the heart in because pets have a big piece of my heart!

The first one is for one of the fella's sisters as her family has a chocolate Lab.

The second one is for a friend of mine who has five dogs and a puppy. The colours represent the different colours of the dogs. I am going to stitch one in all black for another one of the fella's sisters who has a black Lab mix.

Happy stitching!

Nov 29/17

Well, it is back to work tomorrow for me, fingers crossed. Today is the best that I have felt in weeks.

I had felt great on Monday so I started my Christmas stitching for my co-workers. My tradition for many years now has been to give my co-workers a stitched ornament. There are several stitched ornaments in a bag upstairs in the craft room, but finishing may not be happening before Christmas this year. Fortunately, I found these cute little Charlescraft stockings that I bought several years ago while visiting New England where I stop into every Joann's that I can find to check out their sales. I used this pattern from pinterest to do the lettering which looks super cute on these stockings. To finish off the gift, I will add miniature candy canes so that the stockings will have a little gift in them.

Front:

Back:

Happy stitching!

Nov 26/17

There are some signs of life out of me. We went to the grocery store this afternoon because the cupboards were bare and the fella' did not want to brave the grocery store on his own for a long list of items. I took forever to go from aisle to aisle and the fella' had most of the groceries packed in the car by the time I made it from the store. The small victories can mean so much.

Here is a photo of our new puppy with Maggie in the background. This was taken last week when getting out of bed was akin to climbing a mountain. The easiest way to supervise Tillie, the puppy, was to keep her in bed with me. She is a mutt although we strongly suspect that Australian shepherd may be her breed. She has two speeds: a million miles a minute and stone cold asleep. We are constantly trying to find new games for her to keep her busy and to stop her from chewing on things that we would prefer she not chew like my phone charging cords.

I picked up my needle the other day and started to stitch during the moments when I was out of bed and feeling energetic enough to stitch. Here is the second version of this cardinal kit. I can usually make 2-3 versions of the Dimensions kits with the leftover threads from the kit, adding in threads from previous Dimensions kits when needed. The fabric is 28 count Monaco from my stash.

While watching a movie this evening, I closed up the backs of the CADPAT bibs as one of them needs to go into the mail soon. After two weeks on not being able to do anything beyond walk to the back door to let the dogs out to pee, getting even the littlest thing accomplished feels awesome. I still have a long way to go as I learned when I went upstairs to fold the four loads of laundry that had piled up. Walking up a flight of stairs and folding sheets should not have left me winded.

Enough whining from me. I hope that you all are well and are happily stitching away as the holiday season arrives!

Nov 24/17

Pneumonia.
That is what is happening in this house. This is the first time in over a week that I have even opened this laptop. No stitching whatsoever.

I hope that the rest of you are faring better during this holiday season!

Nov 12/17

The fella' was watching the Leafs play the Bruins on Hockey Night in Canada last night when I came back from a chilly walk with the dog so I pulled out this piece to put in a few more back stitches. All the remains now is the brown that frames the cardinal and the french knots.

Just a short update today as we are leaving a few minutes to go pick up our newest member of our household, the cutest little miss Tillie!

Happy Sunday!

Nov 8/17

Hold the presses! There has been some back stitching done on this piece. Only a few strands have been stitched but it is back stitching nonetheless.

From what I have read on the various facebook groups about cross stitch, it would appear that back stitching is either greatly disliked or greatly loved by those who post in those groups. Me, I love back stitching as I love watching the piece grow and become more alive under my fingers. I have never been good with a paintbrush and paint so I view cross stitch as my painting with back stitching being the last bits of shading and definition.

Well, it is off to bed for me as I need to be up a few minutes earlier so that I can get a flu shot from my doctor before I start my work day.

Happy stitching!

Nov 6/17

The progress on this piece mimicks my return to health.....super slow! I am still coughing two months later and my energy levels are low. It is frustrating because I can barely get anything done around the house before I have to stop and recharge. The fella' is not one to notice when the house is disgusting and grungy and he has been quite sick as well so our house is barely presentable.

Anyhow, enough complaining about something that will eventually pass. Here is the update on the Dimensions hanger that is taking forever to stitch:

The back stitching and french knots should be done a few days after Christmas, at this rate.

In other news, we are adopting a puppy. While we were crashed out in bed while on vacation, a friend posted photos of puppies that she is fostering for a rescue group. Long story short, we met the puppies, introduced our Maggie to the puppies, filled out the application and paid the fee for little miss Tillie who will be coming home to us on Sunday, November 12. Never a dull moment around this house with two cats, a dog and now a puppy!

Happy stitching and good health to you all!

Oct 31/17

We were away this past weekend to Prince Edward Island so our Halloween preparations happened today. The fella' scooped out the pumpkins last night so that I could carve them today. I usually make him carve one so that our front step truly represents our house, but in the interests of time and not needing a whining session of "I don't know what to carve!!", I carved all five of them with a little help from this kitty who walked over my work space several times when she was not stealing my chair.

A fake spider web, a skeleton with a dog walking light as its heart and our jack o'lanterns were the sum of my decorating efforts this year. I was chuffed to hear a couple of kids tell the fella' that they really liked our pumpkins. 

We had about 25 kids stop by to trick or treat. It was so fun to see all of the different, well done costumes and to see some of our favourite little neighbourhood faces as they stopped by to say hello.

Happy Hallowe'en!!

Oct 25/17

As you can see, a few more stitches have been done on this cute little hanger. There is still a lot of coughing and tiredness as this chest cold lingers on, but I am plugging away at getting back to normal by walking the dog further each day and putting a few stitches into this piece. Well, it is off to bed for me.

Happy stitching!

Oct 22/17

Despite the coughing coming from both me and the fella', I am putting in a few stitches here and there.

I do not have much energy, but I am trying to keep working away at the house work, laundry and dog walking to avoid the slovenly conditions I found when I emerged from my bed a few days ago. The fella' just is not bothered by grime like I am so, well, no need to go into great detail, but I have been wandering around with a cleaning rag always in my hand to both clean and disinfect this house. He does try to keep up with the dishes and laundry so I will give him credit for that and he has a weak stomach so I understand why he avoids the kitty litter boxes, but he somehow can not see dirty hand prints (his) on these white walls of our cozy PMQ.

Well, time to hang out the laundry on this glorious and, oddly, warm October day before taking the dog out to enjoy some sunshine.

Happy stitching!

Oct 19/17

My stitching mojo has been making itself known again after two bouts of whatever the heck has hit my system this past month. The fella' was muttering about our house being cursed as a virus felled me on the last leg of our vacation in September. Then, he came down sick two weeks ago, recovering just in time for him to leave for a week long course that involved rappelling and rescue techniques. The day after he left, I came down sick and am still hacking and coughing 9 days later, but I am able to work without feeling like I could just lay down on the floor and sleep which is good because he is now sick enough that he gave me NO resistance when I suggested that he go to the health clinic in the morning. He even called his supervisor to let him know that he would be a bit late in the morning as he was going to the sick parade, or what we civilians call a walk in clinic.

Enough about illness, here is what I have been stitching these past few evenings after the evening stroll with the dog.

This project is a Dimensions kit called "Cardinal Joy" that will make a cute Christmas present for one of my dear friends. She and I met at a concert at the Mess, discovered that we are neighbours and have built a good friendship these past 18 months. We both love doing creative things and she loved the bag I stitched as a gift for her wedding this summer. I think that she will love this little banner.

It is a relief to stitch again and to get my life back after being laid up in bed with the dog so much recently. I also need to get moving on finishing all of the ornaments that are stashed upstairs in the craft room. Finishing is not my favourite part so I always put it off until the last minute. There are so many other fun things to do right now like plan a weekend get away to Prince Edward Island, having friends over for dinner and thinking about how to carve my Halloween pumpkins. The fella' just shakes his head as he listens to all of my plans and like a good sport, he helps me to pick out things to go in the Halloween goody bags and agrees to cook everything after I invite our neighbours over for supper.

Well, I should get my germy self into bed so that I can get a decent amount of rest to face another day at the pharmacy. 

Happy stitching!

Oct 15/17

How is my stitching going, you ask? Oddly, I can not remember the last time that I picked up a needle.

Being sick for almost two weeks in September put me behind on many things. Then, I had a couple of weeks of feeling great so I worked on harvesting our tomato crop and turning it into salsa and roasted tomatoes. My pallet Christmas tree was painted. My walking routine was getting back into gear. Life was great until last Tuesday afternoon when I suddenly could not stay awake while watching TV. Yup, another go round with a virus. The fella' had been battling a virus for almost a week and was on the mend when he left on Monday for the week for a training course. I am on the mend now, but it has been a heck of a week where I debated about getting antibiotics, something I am not keen to do anymore because I have taken so many over the years.

So, cough, cough, cough, no stitching is getting done. The only thing getting done is a whole lot of sleeping and coughing. I hope all is well with you!

October 1/17

Mother Nature has been a bit bipolar recently. We had a heatwave last week where temperatures were well into the 30C territory and I went swimming in an outdoor pool this past Tuesday. By Friday, the temperatures were cool enough that I pulled out my winter coat to sit around the fire on both Friday and Saturday night. I did not need a coat this afternoon to sit out and work on my pallet tree as the temps were in the low teens, but I did start to get cramped up and stopped painting the red parts because I was getting chilled. I need to do some more work to fill out the ribbons so that they do not look so stringy and to fill out a few spots to make it all more balanced. Overall, I am pleased with how it is turning out.

Here is the last of the CADPAT bibs that I finished stitching tonight. This bib is the last one in my stash with the terry cloth backing so I am undecided about whether I will stitch any more of them. A military friend has a baby due in December so one of the bibs will go out in the mail in a month or so as they are now posted on the West Coast.

My ort jar is not filling up very quickly. The arrival of cooler evenings means that the jar will fill up much more quickly as I stitch away while winter does its thing outside.

Sept 25/17

So, we are in a bit of a heatwave these days so stitching is not really on my mind because the house is so hot and I keep getting headaches as I find it almost impossible to keep up an adequate water and salt intake. That being said, I did use the heat to my advantage yesterday to quickly dry the first couple layers of paint on a pallet cut into the shape of a tree.

The white is an indoor/outdoor primer paint that I had for some touch up jobs at my old house and the blue is a chalk paint that I bought for a project that is still on the to-do list. To finish the painting part, I plan to use red enamel paint, once used for my front door, to paint a filigree type ribbon all over. I need to both draw it on and do some practise painting before I put red paint on this piece. Then, I am thinking that a string of white lights will nicely light it up when I put it out for a Christmas display on the lawn.

Sept 19/17

Hello! Long time, no blog.

Not much stitching happened during our vacation as I was busy enjoying time with family and making sure that my fella's kids had the perfect time with us at a cottage on Lake Simcoe in Ontario. I usually stitch during the long stretches of highway from Nova Scotia to Ontario and back, but I did not stitch on the way home because I was showing signs of a tenacious virus that is still hanging on two weeks later.

Before we left on vacation, I dropped off a piece to the framer to be framed. I had stitched up a beautiful design of a black Lab that looks exactly like our Maggie, right down to what I call the goober expression on the face. Our Maggie is a happy dog who is eager to please. There was a message on the phone from the framer when we pulled back into the driveway after 6000km of driving. Here is the final result:

The pattern is so safely tucked away that I can not, for the life of me, find it to give credit to the designer or the website where I made the purchase. I am very pleased with the end result of both the stitching and the outstanding framing job. Now, we just need to install it on the wall.

August 30/17

On vacation.

A few stitches were done during the long car ride to this cottage on Lake Simcoe in Ontario. A few more will be done during the long car ride back to Nova Scotia. Have I mentioned that our vacation involves many hours in the car?

Aug 16/17

The dog days of summer have seen a whole lot of this (the dog is not dead, I promise!)

and not a whole lot of stitching. I have been busy enjoying the beautiful days and evenings by being outside as much as possible, walking the dog when she looks more alert, swimming, sight seeing or reading. My French lessons are coming along nicely as well. We rarely have such a glorious summer, being on the Atlantic coast of Canada, so we are all taking full advantage of this gorgeous weather.

The fella' is in the military and his kids live a few provinces and 20-25 hours of driving away from us so when I found these cute little bears, I thought that they would be perfect for the kids to cuddle when they are missing their dad.

Then, I came across some of his old badges that he no longer needs for his uniform so I asked him if it was okay to personalize the bears with his badges. I tried to figure out how to also include his chevrons, but I did not want to destroy the chevrons as I removed them from the epaulets so they are set aside for another project that I have yet to dream up. The kids are going to love these bears!

Happy stitching!

Aug 9/17

You know when you are constantly busy and on the go, but can not pinpoint just what is keeping you so busy? That has been my life recently. Between it being so hot here recently, trying to exercise more thanks to my Garmin step counter gizmo, socializing with friends, being busy at work because of vacations and enjoying summer, I have not felt much urge to stitch. Add in not liking how the back stitching is designed on the seahorse pattern and that finish is taking forever. I don't like having more than one WIP on the go so I force myself to finish all of the stitching before going on to another project. I do not always do the final finish as is obvious by all of the not-quite-finished projects in my craft room, but I finish the cross stitching.

Anyhoo, here is the current state of the seahorse bag:

The back stitching is about half way completed and it will not be completed tonight as I am about to go to bed.

I am looking forward to stitching this pattern although instead of doing it on white as pictured here:

I am considering a piece of variegated blue and green 28 count even weave (I lost the tag as to the exact fabric although I think that it may be Monaco) that I have in my stash. The road block is that the stitched pattern is 16 inches by 20 inches and my fabric is 20 inches by 23 inches so there is not much left on the sides for framing or finishing. It is unfortunate because I think that it will look really cool with the varying shades of blue and green so I am measuring several times and contemplating several times plus one while I finish the seahorses. I do have a blue and white variegated piece and a white piece with gold flecks that are both large enough, but they do not capture my attention when the skeins are laid out on them while I contemplate the pattern. Maybe my next post will be a photo array of my fabric choices.

Happy stitching!

July 31/17

I started the back stitching this evening during the latest episode of "Game of Thrones" and completed it during the first episode of season 2 of "Queen of the South". A few quick twists of wire around a pen and voila! Now to decide what to do next with my projects.

After two summers of trying to figure out this sandy soil here, I think that I finally have figured out a thing or two. This bloom that greeted me on Saturday morning is evidence of my triumph after several failures to get plants to thrive and bloom in this yard. All of my lilies, both day and asiatic have been blooming like crazy this summer, making it a joy to pull into my driveway after a long day at work.

Speaking of work, I should head to bed as tomorrow I am working the second of two extra shifts that I have picked up this week. As part of my continual attempts to improve my life, I have come to realize that I am rather sleep deprived these days so I am trying several lifestyle changes to help improve the quality of my sleep. The first step for me is to actually get into bed as it is so easy with the bright Ott light on to stay wide awake into the wee hours as I stitch away.

Happy stitching!

July 28/17

Despite my exhaustion tonight, I was determined to finish the cross stitching part of this ornament. Sleep deprivation thanks to peri-menopause and a scent-induced migraine knocked me sideways today to the point that I am exhausted, but I am waiting for my brain to slow down after a whirlwind of a day at work. I must have sounded a bit nuts this morning on the phone because one of my favourite doctors in the building said, "You do good work" after he called in some refills for his patients. So, the cross stitching is done. The back stitching may happen this weekend.

Here is my belated TUSAL contribution for this month:

I only empty the jar when it is full so there are more than a month's worth of orts in the jar which may not be fully in the spirit of the TUSAL. I like watching the different layers of colours as they reveal themselves as time goes along. There is also a little of perverse pleasure in seeing how many DMC floss sleeves end up in the jar because they mean that yet another skein has been stitched up.

Here is a photo of our cat, Strong, to give you a giggle. She likes to sit on this chest so that she can keep an eye on our other cat, Pebbles. Everything else in this house has cat hair on it so why should the tennis rackets be spared?

July 24/17

So, stitching has been close to non-existent in this house because I have been so busy at work that my brain is mush in the evenings and then we were away this weekend. I have also been busy cruising through Pinterest to help me put a picture to some ideas that are percolating in my head for my next project or two. My brain and fingers were able to get a few stitches done last night to get this far:

I was going to post some pictures from our travels, but it looks like the photos are all on the fella's phone. We spent the weekend wandering along the southwest part of Nova Scotia. We drove on the beach at Crescent Beach, visited Kejimikujik Seaside national park, dodged marathon runners on Cape Sable Island and ooh'ed and aah'ed at hundreds of kilometres of shoreline. Here are the views we had from lunch in Lower West Pubnico and Liverpool.

We delivered the wedding gift bag of wine on Friday night to rave reviews. Our friends were so excited to get something homemade and filled with wine! They head home to Newfoundland this week to begin their wedding celebrations. I was thrilled that they loved the gift!

Well, Mondays for me mean laundry, Rotary, groceries and various other errands so I should get my butt in gear.

Happy stitching!

July 16/17

Not having all of the colours that I need to do the back stitching for the canvas bag has forced me to change gears until I can get myself to the craft store to purchase the necessary skeins. Last night, after an afternoon of touring Port Royal, I pulled out this little kit that I had in my stash. Actually, no, I started this on Friday night after working and then hanging out at a friend's place with the fella'. My progress is slow on this project because I have been starting to stitch it late in the evening so my time is limited before my eyes start to droop. We are busy without being crazy busy, with lots of hanging out with friends and neighbours and puttering away at things. My French lessons are moving along nicely, summer vacation plans and day trip planning is coming together and somehow, I am not too far behind in the battle of three shedding pets against the vacuum. Well, it is off to bed for me.

Happy stitching!

July 13/17

The orange seahorse developed a tail and snout last night! My stitching time tonight was spent putting away skeins from other projects while trying to find the skeins for back stitching this piece. I have 2 of the 5 or 6 skeins so there may be a trip in the near future to the local fabric store to get the rest.

Not stitching related, but definitely relative to my life:

Happy stitching!

July 12/17

I suspect that I am not alone amongst stitchers when I stay up to stitch far too late at night when I have to be up early for work. Last night was another one of those nights. Just as my eyes were starting to droop, I realized that the orange seahorse was missing his fin so hopefully that will get stitched tonight before some thought goes into whether to back stitch or not. I probably will do the back stitching so that the pattern is complete although the pattern looks pretty good without it, I think. First, I need to do a quick bike ride around the neighbourhood to shake some life into these tired legs and feet. The joys of being on one's feet all day at work.

Happy stitching!

July 9/17

Where has the time gone? I just looked at the time stamp from my last entry and six whole days have passed since I have done any stitching. The heat and humidity are partly to blame as is my new resolve to read more books while decreasing my mindless internet time. Work is a bit nutty at the moment as other staff members are off on vacation. Plus, there was a promotion party for one of the fella's colleagues, our Maggie requires daily walks and attention, one cat is coughing up hairballs, etc. We spent the afternoon today at a friend's son's birthday party, enjoying the beautiful summer day while hanging out with friends in the pool. All of the sunshine and shenanigans left us rather tired so my evening was spent relaxing on the couch with needle and thread in hand. 

The seahorses are coming along nicely. Only the fin of the orange seahorse and the parts of the leaves that require DMC 319 remain for the full crosses before I start the back stitching. I have no definite plans for what I will stitch after this bag is completed, but I have been looking at cat themed patterns on pinterest and I have been thinking about making myself a pin cushion. My idle needles are all shoved onto a scrap piece of Aida which has been holding my needles nicely for years. Seeing all of the beautiful smalls projects on the various cross stitch groups that I belong to on Facebook has given me pin cushion and biscornu envy. Time will tell where the next project will take me although these are my preliminary thoughts.

Happy stitching.

July 3/17

The heat and the humidity got the best of this afternoon so we headed to the shores of the Bay of Fundy. The thermometer in the car was showing 28C when we pulled out of our driveway and 19C when we left the shore. Craziness! The shore is only 15 minutes drive from our house. Here is a picture to show the highest tides in the world. We were there during low tide this afternoon and these boats were high and dry at the wharf. Right about now at midnight, the tide is probably about halfway out again.

Our house was so warm this evening that I sat outside to read for a while to enjoy the shade and the breeze before coming inside to stitch. The heat got the best of me today, resulting in two naps! We have had such a busy week that the fella' and I flaked out this evening. We have spent all weekend visiting family and friends so it was a relief this evening to not be out visiting and to not have any one here. The fella' has to go back to work in the morning after being off all week for his son's graduation so he fell into bed around 9pm and I am on my way now at midnight after my two naps. I stitched until my eyes and brain gave out on me tonight. This pattern is stitching up nicely and I am loving working with these colours. Making a wee dent in my stash is also a joy to me.

Happy stitching!

July 2/17

No stitching was done here on Friday as I came home from work, attended to the needs of the critters and went out to the pub and mall with friends who live on our street. I fell into bed shortly after finally get home for the night. A few stitches were put in yesterday morning as I sorted out the timing of the fella's arrival back in Halifax as his flights were delayed on the homeward bound leg. As a stitching bonus, his delays meant that I had an extra hour at home before I had to go pick him up and then head over to my brother's place for a BBQ. We ran into a thunder and lightning storm on the way home last night. It had mostly passed over by the time we pulled into the driveway, but I enjoyed an hour or so of stitching while listening to the rain before going to bed.

Canada Day was a rainy and foggy day here in Nova Scotia. We did see a few fireworks as we drove home along the 101, the highway that goes through the Annapolis Valley, despite the thunder showers that were rolling down the valley. I was disappointed to not be able to see Halifax from the Dartmouth side of the harbour because I wanted to see all of the ships that were in port this weekend, but Mother Nature and the fog had other plans. Maggie went to Halifax with us today because all of our friends were either busy or away. She was a loud and boisterous greeter for the other travellers while we waited for the fella' in the passenger pick up area.

Well, off to see what we can see and do on this soggy long holiday weekend Sunday. Happy stitching!