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.