June 29/17

So, the fact that any stitching at all is happening in this house is a miracle! I had a minor accident on Tuesday night while out biking with our dog. She stopped to attend to a call of nature and I did not which resulted in me skidding along the street on my belly. There are a few large bandages attached to a hand, a knee and an elbow and work is interesting as so many people have questions about the scrapes on my nose and forehead. My glasses and bike helmet saved my face from a huge disaster while sustaining a little damage. The woman at the the optometry clinic who re-adjusted the nose pieces on my glasses tonight remembered that these glasses are fairly new (bought in January) and apparently, still under warranty so a new pair will be here next week. I could have made do with my current pair despite the scratches on the lenses, but I would not say no to new ones. The muscle stiffness and tiredness from not sleeping well have been more of a hindrance to stitching than the bandages.

I did manage to put in a few stitches last night and ended up here:

After supper for both human and critter and a walk with the dog, I managed to put in a few more stitches this evening. There may not be much time for stitching this weekend as tomorrow is dinner and drinks at the pub to welcome home a friend who has been working overseas for the past 6 months and Saturday is Canada Day. The fella' flies home on Canada Day so I will pick him up at the airport before heading to my brother's place for a BBQ with my mom and sister who are visiting my brother for a few days.

Happy stitching and Happy Canada Day!

June 27/17

I was too tired to take and post a photo of my progress last night so here is a photo of where I finished off last night along with the skeins that I purchased today. One of my favourite fabric shops is the Avonport Discount Fabrics which, if you have driven in the Annapolis Valley, is right where you catch the first glorious glimpse of Blomidon as Highway 101 drops down towards Wolfville. Usually when I am in that part of the Valley, the fella' is with me and all of my dear readers surely know how painful it is to drag the fella' to places like fabric stores. I took full advantage of the fact that I had just dropped him off at the Halifax airport to pull into Avonport to see what wonderful fabrics were in store. I did only come away with the skeins because I could not decide on which fabrics might suit my current stitched but unfinished ornaments and I am trying to curb that "bright shiny" shopping habit of mine. There was a tour bus full of quilters in the store as well. The store is full of beautiful, affordable fabrics so it is no wonder that bus loads of quilters from other provinces stop in to visit.

The fella's flight was delayed by over an hour and a half out of Halifax which means he will miss his connection in Toronto for Sudbury. According to the airline website, he is somewhere in the air between Montreal and Toronto, arriving almost two hours late in Toronto. I guess I will find out in an hour or so if he has managed to get himself on the last flight of the day to Sudbury. My hands are sore after a particularly painful massage today so no stitching has been done yet today. Maybe later after the dog has been walked and I hear that the fella' is on his way to his final destination. He is on his way to see his oldest son graduate from high school on Thursday. He was so excited to see his kids today that he probably could have flown there under his own power if that were possible.

Happy stitching!

June 25/17

After a lazy Sunday morning and a trip to Wolfville to check out the Botanical Gardens, I settled in to stitch this evening. The heat and sun beating down on me while we were walking around Wolfville this afternoon has given me a bit of a headache, but I managed to make some progress on the sea horses. I am missing 3 or 4 of the colours so I will have to make a trip to our local craft store to pick up those skeins because it is becoming a bit of a pain to stitch around those areas. 

There was a moment of panic earlier when I realized that the pattern called for a 13x13 piece of 18 count and I have a 14x14 piece of 14 count. Fortunately, it looks like the design should just barely fit on this panel. Good gravy, one would think that after almost 30 years of cross stitching, I would have remembered to double check the count of both the design and the fabric.

Even though Monday is my day off, my to-do list is growing as I need to make sure that my fella' is ready to go away for the week to see his son graduate from high school and that I am ready to handle our household while he is gone. So with that, I am off to bed.

Happy stitching!

June 24/17

Well, it is that time of the month again. Noooo, not THAT time of the month. It is TUSAL time and here is my contribution to the TUSAL blog that I follow. My ort jar is lovely and colourful this month from the threads used in the project pictured just below my ort jar. The threads on the left are being used for my next project that I started this evening while watching "Rogue One".

I had to work this morning at 9am so you can imagine how bleary eyed I was when the alarm went off this morning after putting the last stitch into this pattern at 1:15am. Now to wash it and fill it with some Nova Scotia wines.

Here is my new start. This lovely seahorse pattern is also found in the June 2017 issue of "Just Cross Stitch". I had two canvas Charlescraft bags in my stash so I decided to stitch this one up as a Christmas gift for my mom. While I do not have a specific goal for reducing my cross stitch stash, I am thrilled to be using up as much as possible as quickly as possible right now. One of these days I will take a picture of my thread stash to share with you all as it astounds me at its size. Then, there is the pattern stash and the fabric stash. Besides, any of you who are into crafts can most likely relate to the reality of having enough materials for a few life times of crafting. Guilty as charged.

Well, back to the movie for me and then bed for this tired little stitcher.

Happy stitching!

June 20/17

Here is my end point for yesterday evening. It was too hot and yucky to put enough thoughts together to do even the briefest of blog updates.

Here is the end point for this evening:

The hot, sticky weather seems to have blow over for the moment so I have turned off the heat pump and have begun opening up windows so that we have a hope of a decent night's sleep. The new fan we bought yesterday helped to cool down our room, but the heat and the humidity had me headachey and sticky all day at work despite the air conditioning. I understand that the weather should be better tomorrow, i.e. no rain in the forecast, so hopefully I can get lots of laundry out on the line in between working on my Rosetta Stone course to re-learn the French language. The end is in sight for this pattern and I hope to finish it tomorrow in between the laundry, French lessons and biking over to the farmer's market to stock up on veggies.

Happy stitching!

June 18/17

Here is the end result of 10 hours in the car as we drove to and from New Brunswick to visit my mom. It has been a great relief to discover that I can stitch during our frequent road trips because as a child, I was a motion sickness expert. I am fine to stitch on straight stretches of highway and with patterns like this that do not require much reading. Driving in town with my nose in my stitching or indepth examination of the pattern will bring on nausea. We had great days for driving both ways....overcast with the occasional drizzle or shower so we were comfortable in the car without the air conditioner being on full blast and the dog did not overheat when we would stop for a break. I stitched away until it was too dark to see on Friday night as we did not leave until I was done work at 6pm and I had the whole drive to stitch on the way home this afternoon. Now that I have had a spot of supper, family members have been called for Father's Day greetings and the dog has been walked to make up for being cooped up in the car, I am going to continue on with the border.

Happy stitching!

June 13/17

Here is a photo of where I left off last night after stitching my way through three episodes of the latest season of "Orange is the New Black". We had some friends over last night to play washer toss and to sit around our firepit until a fierce rain and thunderstorm rolled in. We went from feeling a few drops of rain to grabbing the kitchen chair we had taken outside and running as fast as we could to the house! The storm passed within an hour or so and cooled us down from the 31C (37C humidex) that we had been sweating through all day.

Does any one else find that stitching allows them to filter through the madness of the day and life to find some calm in the eye of the storm? Sometimes I wonder where the negativity that I start out with when I sit down to stitch ends up being stitched into the piece or whether it is the time and focusing on something beautiful that allows my brain to make the negative have less of a hold on me. Turning the negative energy into something beautiful helps to keep me sane. My life is no more or less stressful than any one else's and stitching is one of my coping mechanisms.

Today's plan is to finish this post, stitch while watching a couple of episodes of OITNB and mow the lawn once it dries out enough. Then, there is a much needed haircut appointment this afternoon and grocery shopping. Oh! I also need to remember to buy three graduation cards for people in our lives who are graduating from various levels of education. The joys and exciting happenings on a day off.

Happy stitching!

June 11/17

This photo shows the result of a couple evenings of stitching since the last photo. This photo does not do proper justice to the cheery and bright colours which are making this piece so much fun to stitch.. The curtains are all drawn in the house, in an attempt to keep the house cooler during this hot and sticky day so it was difficult to properly photograph the colours. We are off to the shore in a few minutes to enjoy the cool air ocean air of the Bay of Fundy and to let dear Maggie run free to her heart's content. Some stitching may get done this evening if I am not too grumpy and tired from the heat.

Happy stitching!

June 7/17

So, I decided to switch gears yesterday from stitching CADPAT bibs to stitching this gorgeous design. The design is from the June 2017 issue of "Just CrossStitch" and it is being stitched on a Charlescraft tote bag. The colours are so very warm and tropical which is perking me up on these rather cool and damp Spring days that we are having here recently. Friends of mine are getting married next month so I thought that this would be a great little gift, especially with a couple bottles of local wine tucked in. There are some lovely wineries here in the Annapolis Valley that of course, do not compare to the vineyards of France and Italy although they do produce some very nice wine here. The bag alone is going to be stunning with all of the bright colours. The wine will be a bonus! *clink clink*

Happy stitching!

June 5/17

Tadaaaa! I just put the last handful of stitches into this bib a few minutes ago. I have one more bib of this style to stitch before biting the bullet to put them up for sale and to see how I make out with the sale of these bibs. There is a little voice in the back of my mind that says, "What if no one buys them? What if someone tells you that you are crazy for thinking that you could make a little money off your handiwork?". There is a slightly louder voice that says, "Jump!!!!!! What have you got to lose?"

Happy stitching!

June 4/17

We were away to Halifax on Friday night to visit with my brother and his girlfriend so naturally no stitching was done that night while we enjoyed supper at a seaside restaurant and watched a wonderful movie , "A Monster Calls". I did get some stitching in last night and this picture shows where I ended up. The lovely Maggie was resting nearby as I picked up my needle and thread this lazy Sunday afternoon.

Here is where I ended up this evening:

I considered pushing on and completing the bib tonight, but I am just too tired to do so. We have had a busy few weeks with friends visiting or dropping over and our jaunt to Halifax to run errands and to stay over with my brother. Even today as a lazy day found us on the lawn of a local park listening to the base concert band and being entertained by the children who were wandering around the audience with their super hero swords and dogs. I also helped one of my neighbours make some decisions about her flower beds. Our housing organization allows us to put in flower beds as long as they are not huge or in the way once we move out. My neighbour gave me a piece of a bleeding heart that I planted alongside some lilies and irises that I found while out walking Maggie. Those flowers were planted over our two dear kitties, Leila and Penelope, who have passed away since we moved into this house, or PMQ (Private Married/Military Quarters) as we call these houses. Anyhoo, I am going to finish watching a documentary on Prince Philip before heading up to bed.

Happy stitching!