February 27, 2017

Here it is! The thirteenth mitten. (pinterest) Who knew that I could squeeze so many cute designs onto a piece of fabric that I detest using usually. My next step will be to figure out how to finish them all before washing the pieces and finishing them. Finishing is not my favourite thing to do so I usually drag my feet about doing it, but in the interest of downsizing the mess in the spare room, I have promised myself that finishing will be a priority.  Plus, we are still in limbo as we wait for the posting (transfer) notices to come out so I am both killing time by doing this stitching and trying to get ahead for Christmas stitching.

Since I have bought up enough fabric for quite a while, I am going to share a great source for cross stitch fabric that I stumbled across on ebay recently. The seller is named Jennifer and she has a large array of fabrics and colours for sale. Her prices are quite reasonable and her shipping rates to Canada are amazing. Usually between the US to Canadian dollar exchange rate and the shipping rates to Canada, it is very expensive for me to buy fabrics from American sellers so it was a joy to find this seller and to have such great fabrics arrive in my mail box. I was so thrilled that I recently placed a second order to bulk up my fabric stash which was seriously depleted because there are no decent places around here to buy cross stitch fabric. Check her out! I highly recommend this seller.

February 26, 2017

Hello dear readers! There has been a little stitching going on this past week although my pace has slowed considerably. The whole hours in a day plus things I want to do along side my need for lots of sleep and things just don't all get done as quickly as they once might have. This mitten was finished earlier this evening (pattern from pinterest).  My attention then turned to the final square of fabric for this series while watching the movie "Lion".

We went to Halifax last night for a fabulous, and I do mean FABULOUS, evening of a wonderful dinner on the waterfront, a concert with my all time and forever favourite band Blue Rodeo and an overnight stay with my brother and his girlfriend. I had a delicious seafood chowder as an appetizer than this delicious lobster for the main. The concert was an emotional and moving experience for me as I have not seen Blue Rodeo live in concert in 22 years while listening to their albums hundreds of times. There was nothing else in the world for me once we moved away from the rude twats who were talking so loud behind us that we could not hear the music.

For a bit of fun, this sculpture know as "Disco Lobster" was in the foyer of the pub and restaurant where we had supper last night. You know you are on the East Coast when.......

February 20, 2017

Here is today's finish, another mitten! You can find the pattern here on pinterest.  I am surprised that I could finish this piece this evening as my hands were so cold and I had such a chill from walking the dog along our favourite beach on the Bay of Fundy. The wind was cold coming off the water and I was chilled to the bone when we got home. The dog had a blast running on the rocks and smelling all of the smells that comes with the ocean. Happy stitching!

February 19, 2017

This mitten was actually finished on Friday, the 17th. The lateness of the hour of the finish and our busy day yesterday prevented me from posting the picture. Here is the pinterest link. I am not 100% in love with my colour choices as the colours do not pop quite the way I had envisioned it when I was choosing the threads. The colours do work when seen with all of the other mittens which is good since I am planning to do things like hanging them in a tree arrangement on the wall or on a twig tree or displaying them in a bowl on the table.

To give you a peek in my life, yesterday involved a 3 hour shift at work, a trip to Frenchy's (a second hand clothing store chain here) to find some summer clothes for our upcoming trip to the Dominican Republic, going to a snowshoe race to cheer on some friends and attending a games night with some of the women in my neighbourhood. Today, I am about to go take the dog out so she can run and I can snow shoe on the golf course before we go to a potluck supper tonight. Making friends and making a community around me has been a challenge for this 40 something introvert. Joining the transient military lifestyle has taught me some skills in that department and I have been meeting some fantastic people on this first stop.

February 15, 2017

Yet another mitten! I am really loving these little projects as they stitch up so quickly and are so cute. This mitten comes from pinterest and was stitched yesterday as we laid low after digging ourselves out at the end of the storm. There seems to be a new mitten pattern every time I look through the similar pins on pinterest. I am trying to stick with winter and Christmas themed ones for now as I use up this piece of fabric, but there are lots of interesting ones with different themes.

Well, it is late and I am worn out after having to stay an extra 1.5 hours at work today to finish up everything. The joys of snow storm after snow storm this week.....people were out in droves on the one nice day we are expecting this week! The latest snow storm should be starting any minute now so I kind of don't expect to go to work at the pharmacy tomorrow morning as I have a most awesome boss who lets us take "snow days". Happy stitching!

February 14, 2017

Happy Valentine's Day, or as it is known here this year, Happy Dig Out Day. We received 55.9cm of snow over the last 36 hours. Our picnic table in the backyard had been mostly uncovered before the storm and now one can barely see the table top. 

The drifting was fierce as can be seen by the snowdrift art that formed by our fence. Behind the fence in the trees, the lawn is visible in some parts. The whiteouts were so bad yesterday that at times we could not see the fence behind our house. Our driveway was hip deep in snow where our neighbours across the street had empty driveways. I think we need to apply to move across the street as this is not the first time this has happened!! We cleared the driveway last night with the help of our neighbours and their snowblower, hoping against hope that the continuing high winds would not cause it to drift back in too badly overnight.

I stayed indoors all day and stitched while the wind howled and the snow piled up. This mitten is, of course, from pinterest. The photos that I had seen online were done in red which is going to be the next variation I try once I round up enough red thread. The blue has turned out quite nicely though.

 

Now, we are just waiting on word as to whether my fella' has to go to work today before we go clear out the driveway and the mini-mountain left by the plough at the end of the driveway. Happy stitching!

February 12, 2017

This mitten was started yesterday as we hunkered down at home for the evening. The design comes from pinterest with a loose following of the colour key, using threads from my scrap thread bag. I love the colours and may play with some other colour combinations in a variation or two.

Winter was late arriving to the East Coast of Canada, but it has arrived with a vengeance with snow and cold. We had a snowstorm early Friday morning and we are expecting a blizzard any moment with anticipated snowfall of anywhere up to 50cm over the next 24 hours. The temperature was -14C when I left for work yesterday morning. I went snowshoeing this morning with the dog to get her well exercised before we hibernate again for a day or so. One of the cool things about living by an airbase is seeing all of the planes. The crews were getting in their flying time today, a normally quiet day here, in ahead of the storm so there were several planes taking off and landing as we walked the base golf course. Maggie is so used to the planes that she does not even wake from her naps while my friend's dogs were stopping to look every time a plane went over.

Tomorrow will be a day of stitching, shovelling and eating storm chips! Happy stitching every one.

February 11, 2017

Oops! It has been a few days since I have posted a stitching picture. I finished this mitten yesterday while we were both hanging out at home thanks to a Nor'Easter that roared through Thursday night into Friday morning. I started yet another mitten pattern yesterday evening, photo to be posted when my fingers warm up enough. The dog and I were out on the golf course this afternoon, on a walk that included my boot breaking through some ice to get covered in mud and a phone call home to get help to round up the dog because my hip was wrenched during the mud incident. Fun times in -14C weather. On the upside, my snow shoes came in handy today in the new snow!

We are forecast for another snow storm tomorrow night so Monday will be interesting. Monday is one of my days off and I must admit that I quite enjoy having the house to myself on my days off. I can putter around without tripping over someone asking me why I am doing this, that or whatever. Winter has arrived!

February 6, 2017

I finished the backstitching for the piece on the left and started the piece on the right this evening. I may have to do some jiggering of the design for the latest one as I changed a part of the pattern but did not center the design properly. The stitching is going to be dangerously close to the edge of the fabric on the right side. I think that my final adjustment will work out just fine although I am shaking my head at my lack of planning when I most certainly know better. Mitten number six comes from this pinterest pin.

The dog and I had a wonderful stroll on the golf course today. The wind was wicked, but the beautiful sunshine and seeing my dog enjoy her run made it worthwhile. Maggie loves to run and sniff and run some more. I love watching her ears go back as she runs full tilt in the fields. Wearing her out helps to control her "Lab sillies" as I call them where she runs around the house like a maniac and there is no listening to any commands from the humans. She is a high energy dog in between naps!

Happy stitching!

February 5, 2017

Apparently, I am not the only person who is fascinated by orts. I came across this blog and post today while I was blog surfing. The idea of the TUSAL (totally useless stitch a long) made me giggle because every stitcher creates orts and every stitcher can participate in a TUSAL. Here is my contribution to the TUSAL as of 5 minutes ago, a little mason jar that has served me well for many years. I stash orts, fabric ends and various stitching detritus in there, including a piece of popcorn this time!

There has been some stitching today in between ice skating on a local pond and now I am on my way out to let our dog run free on the golf course. What a lovely Sunday!

Mitten number five has been mostly completed today. The backstitching is the only hing left to do and will have to wait until tomorrow as my fingers are starting to hurt. Of course, this pattern comes from pinterest. The ort jar is about to be emptied and the scrap thread back is getting lighter as each piece is stitched. Win-win in my books!

February 4, 2017

This little mitten has taken all week to stitch. In between home stuff and work stuff, I have been worn out on all levels. Some things have greatly improved so here is to better days. Happy stitching!

February 1, 2017

Does any one else find the first day of the month impossible? I think that I wrote January on every thing I dated today at work before remembering that we are now in February. 

I managed to wear out Maggie, and by extension me, yesterday. Doesn't she look adorable when she is passed out on the couch between my fella' and me. Her head was resting on my leg when I took this photo last night.

No stitching was accomplished yesterday as the day was full of continuing education, walks with the dog and curling. I had a harrowing drive home after work in a snow storm which added a half hour to my commute. The road conditions were quite slippery so it was a great relief to chill out and make some headway on the fourth mitten of my series. I would stay up late to finish this piece from pinterest, but I need to be up early tomorrow to run an errand before work. Happy stitching!