December 11, 2019

Smalls are so fun and satisfying to stitch. I love having a finish in a few hours and there is a part of my brain that gets so very excited about using up bits and bobs from my craft room. This pattern also comes from "Christmas Cross Stitch" by Michael Powell. In between stitching, I am pulling together all of the parcels and cards that need to be mailed tomorrow and reading all of the books I have borrowed from the library. My book club decided on books for the next 3-4 months so I put them all on hold at the library, not expecting to get them all so quickly! "The Course of Love" just went back to the library today and "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" is next up on the bedside table to be followed by "Beartown". I should be working on my pharmacy continuing education as well, but I don't wanna so I won't (just yet).

Happy December stitching!

December 9, 2019

My current obsession is with the word "maker". Last weekend, I worked as an assistant for a friend of mine who sells her baking and mittens at a big flea market here in Ottawa. Her mittens are sewn from felted wool sweaters. When people complimented me on the work, I always made sure to point over to my friend who was working the baked goods table and proudly say, "My friend Melissa is the maker!" as I did not want to take any credit for her work. In this day and age of mass production that comes into Canada from all across the world, we have lost so much connection with raw materials and those who build or develop the item in our hand. I give away my handmade ornaments for Christmas and regularly receive comments from friends and family about how they treasure the ornaments each year as they place them on their Christmas trees. My heart is warmed by that connection being made.

I am a maker. I am driven to make things, to deconstruct the every day things in my house and figure how to make them myself and to make things. My urge to create has been suppressed these past few months because of work commitments. There just has not been the time, the energy or the drive to create, leading to a maker's block as it were. The urge to create has hit again and I am feeling so energized by it. This past week has been a flurry of organizing Christmas parcels that need to be mailed out. A batch of bits and bites was baked up the other day, dryer balls have been wound while watching television, ornaments have been stitched during a lazy Sunday yesterday and I mixed up a batch of laundry powder this morning.

The ornaments are being stitched on a scrap piece of 28 count either Lugana or Monaco with scrap threads that I am somewhat matching to the picture of the finished product in the book.

Can you tell which dryer ball might have been pushed off the table by the cat for the dog to unravel and for me to unsuccessfully try to re-wind? I hope that it felts well once I finally get them into the washer and dryer.

Now that the maker urge has hit again, I feel so much more content. There is such joy in watching a handful of raw materials turn into something that is useful or beautiful and to have it enjoyed by loved ones.

Happy stitching and making!

December 2, 2019

Hot off the hoop! "Wild Thing Quilt" designed by Julie Dobson Miner for Dimensions. Next step, washing machine to remove the dog hair, the stamped ink and, hopefully, the coffee that got spilled on the bottom left. If not, my friends love our dogs and we spent many hours chatting over coffee in our livingrooms back in Greenwood so the mess kind of sums up our friendship!

My other "craft" efforts this weekend have involved these boxes:

The boxes are going to collection points around CFSU (Ottawa) as part of a Holiday food drive being organized by the Uplands Community Council. Our two rental housing entities and our family centre have agreed to let us place boxes in their reception areas for collection of non-perishable food for the Ottawa Food Bank. I was very quickly reminded why I prefer gift bags over gift wrap as I was folding the paper around the boxes and getting tape stuck every where. Oddly, there are several cat and dog hairs stuck to the boxes as well. *looks around at the guilty parties sleeping innocently beside me* I did have lots of fun digging out the crayons we keep here for the fella's kids and colouring in the colouring contest picture. Sometimes, indulging in one's inner child is the best medicine!

My next step today is to start finishing cross stitch ornaments. I have missed the international mailing dates as usual and we need to deliver a parcel to family on Saturday as that will be the last time we see them before the New Year. The fella' left this morning for a training course this week so I can putter away without tripping over him or him asking me why I am doing whatever it is that I am muddling away with at that moment. He is not a hobbyist or crafter so he does not understand why I collect so many bits and bobs or how I can find anything in the jumble of boxes in the spare room or where the heck the random little doodad appeared from and magically pulls together whatever is in my hand.

Happy stitching!

December 1, 2019

How is it that it is already the first of December? I have no ornaments completed, our decorations are all still in the basement and I have barely started to pull together my Christmas gifts. I feel all out of sorts this year because everything has changed and I am still adjusting. We will have a "real" tree this year with decorations and lights and family here to celebrate instead of us packing up and heading to another province. My job takes up more of my time with hours and travel time and I am still adjusting to living here in Ottawa. The adjustment is all good, don't worry. It is just the usual adjustment of a country kid moving to the city, getting used to the new environment and finding one's place in the community.

As part of finding my place in this community, I am leading a food drive for the Ottawa Food Bank as a way for us to give back to the city that has welcomed us so warmly. My job for today is to decorate three boxes to be left around the base to collect donations from people who may already be headed out on Christmas leave before we go door to door to collect the donations. Our community council here is small, but people jump in to help fill in any gaps in planning and execution so that is most helpful. Many hands make light work!

Crafting-wise, I am determined to finish this quilt today while the fella' packs to go away this week for a course and Christmas Mess dinner with his fellow linemen. This panel was my favourite as the giraffe's face popped up at my while I was doing the backstitching. Giraffes are so beautiful and I fell deeply in love with them after seeing a bub that was hours old at Monarto Zoo wobble around its doting mom. This face was adorable as the backstitching brought it out under my fingers. I have one more panel to backstitch then into the wash it goes before heading out to the intended little guy who is almost 3 months old now!

Happy Sunday and stitching to you!

Nov 11/19

The progress on this baby blanket is slow, at best. Somehow, having both the energy and the inspiration to stitch is a rare combination these days. There is no regularity to my work schedule as I travel around the Ottawa region to cover shifts. Getting up at 5:30am to be in Brockville for an 8am start or working until midnight and then driving an hour back to Ottawa can take its toll. Today was a good stitchy day after we came home from the Remembrance Day ceremonies in Manotick. Snow was threatening all day and finally started late afternoon so it was a lovely day to curl up on the couch with the dogs, sip coffee and stitch.

There is a fair bit of back stitching and satin stitching on this quilt. My satin stitching is super rusty so there will be no close ups of that work. I love how the lettering pops with the back stitching here as I worked with a few shades of orange, my favourite colour. I will get more practise with my satin stitching when my next Amazon order arrives. Recently, I learned of a pattern style known as zenbroidery, a sort of colouring for stitchers. The patterns are stamped and the stitcher can play with colour and embroidery techniques. Before I fell down the rabbit hole of cross stitch, embroidery was a passion of mine and there are a few pieces that I stitched as a kid somewhere in one of my boxes.

The fella' does not know how much yarn I carried back from a recent trip to New Brunswick. My mom is downsizing and moving from a house to an apartment so yours truly brought back part of her yarn collection. He also does not know about the book on making cards and gift tags that I picked up at a used book sale back home or the 2 cross stitch patterns coming in the mail. In fact, he helped me with my luggage and failed to notice that the cloth shopping bag I used as a carry-on bag was stuffed full of yarn. He claims to not understand, but a quick glance at the tools and gadgets in our basement reveals that he so very much does.

Happy stitching!

Nov 5/19

So, apparently my last blog post was in August, a week or so before I started back to work after taking some time to move and to find a job. My new job is challenging and, at times, draining both mentally and physically. I have been struggling to find a balance between work and home, life and things I love to do and settling into a new city. My previous job was 8am to 6pm from Wednesday to Friday so I had these wonderful four day weekends every week which allowed me time to decompress from work and to do all kinds of fun stuff like stitching and hanging with my dogs. I was so spoiled with the time to recharge and to explore things that caught my interest. It was lovely to make enough money to live comfortably and have the time to putter away at all of my projects.

Two months into the new job and I am finally finding time to stitch and craft again. A batch of castille soap is curing in my kitchen, the back stitching is being done on the baby quilt and I have done some knitting during my recent travels to Toronto and New Brunswick. My university aged seatmate from Ottawa to Toronto did a double take when I pulled out my knitting on the train. What a low tech way to pass the time during a 4 hour train ride! To meet more people, a friend and I are considering starting a stitch and bitch club in our neighbourhood. We founded a book club this summer and we recently organized a haunted house for the neighbourhood on Halloween so we are looking for other ways to meet people because we so want to feel connected to our neighbours during the time that we find ourselves living in Uplands, the military housing in Ottawa.

The fella' just never knows what he will find happening in the house when he comes home from work. Last week, he found himself in the backyard testing fog machines for the haunted house. Another time, he tripped over a bag of yarn for a poncho that I hope to start knitting soon. Yet another time, he found my hand mixer in the freezer after I had burnt out the motor blending olive oil and a lye and water mixture for soap. The motor did not revive and I had to stir the mixture by hand to get it to set. I flew home to New Brunswick on Sunday so of course, I was chunking up jack o'lanterns for dog treats and pumpkin soup on Saturday night instead of packing. Do not tell him that I have been recently intrigued by a thing called zenbroidery which is essentially colouring for stitchers or that I have been browsing through online yarn companies. Creating and working on projects is relaxing and nourishing to me, even if it means having a dining room full of strobe lights and fog machines.

I flew home to NB this week to help my mom with some things around her house which she has up for sale so that she can downsize to a seniors apartment complex that is being built at the end of her street. She sent a table top loom back to Ontario with my brother on Thanksgiving weekend, yet another craft. The fella' just shook his head as he carried the loom into the house after we picked it up from my brother. I get my crafting abilities from my mom so the fella' is doomed to being surrounded by yarn and fabric and materials for as long as he is with me!

Happy stitching!

August 18/19

So many things have happened over the past 2.5 months that I barely know where to begin. We packed up and moved from Nova Scotia to Ontario with our critters in tow, I have been looking for a job in Ottawa and we have been busy enjoying time with our families who live in the Ottawa area. We have also been getting to know our neighbours and our neighbourhood, checking out the essentials like the grocery stores, banks and take out food! The dogs and I have been out finding new routes to walk and parks where they can run free with other dogs.

I have been creating lots of stitches, thanks to knitting dish cloths, but no cross stitch until yesterday. Friends of ours are expecting their first baby in September so I pulled out a crib quilt kit that I had in my stash and started stitching away. 

Stamped cross stitch is not really my thing, but these crib quilts look so cute when they are done and they are so well received by the new parents so I keep buying them and stitching them up. Being unemployed at the moment is giving me lots of time to work on projects like this quilt although I now do all the housework since the fella' has started back to work (we came to Ottawa for his job). My library card is also getting a work out now that I have founded a book club here and I am trying to become much better read. A new chapter is being started on so many levels!

Happy stitching!

May 29/19

Wow! It has been ages since I have posted on this blog. My cross stitch bug has been displaced by a knitting bug these days. My partner will kill me if more yarn comes in the door, but knitting has been a good way to keep my hands and mind busy these days as I deal with the details of a move. Yep, that's correct, move. The fella' and I are relocating to Ottawa for his job so our lives have been a whirlwind of me working on getting re-licensed in Ontario, looking for a job, finding a place for us and our critters to live and spending time with our amazing friends here in Nova Scotia.

Stress has been an ever present companion as we only have 3 months total from our notification to the day the moving truck pulls out of our driveway. To deal with the stress, the dogs and I have been taking very long walks around town every evening so that I can concentrate on something else and to work off the body effects of stress.

Anyhoo, once we get settled in Ottawa, hopefully my cross stitch bug will come out of hibernation. All the best to you, dear readers, and happy stitching!

March 19/19

Well, things have been busy since the last post. My Rotary club donated $3000 to buy medications for the medical mission that I did March 2-9 in the Dominican Republic. I purchased all of the prescription and over the counter medications for the clinics that we ran in villages and in one of the jails. My house was over run with boxes for weeks as I stashed them in every corner of every room until they were packed. As an aside, let me give a big shout out to Air Transat who granted me 3 free pieces of baggage for humanitarian reasons.  Here is a glimpse of my pharmacy!

A wicked head cold that I developed on the day I returned home plus the fella' being away for a week meant that the dogs were not walked much and little crafting happened around here. Tonight was the first time in weeks that I did more than a few minutes of crafting. The snowman ornament now looks more like a snowman than a white and grey blob.

I did finish the back stitching on this bib last week. You must ignore the weird crease marks. I made the mistake of leaving a dog uncrated and she decided to 'inspect' the needle work projects that are piled up beside my spot on the couch. She had been in her kennel all day while I worked on Friday with a couple of visits from one of our neighbours and I felt guilty about leaving for book group that evening so I left her out of the kennel. BIG MISTAKE. I came home to her gnawing on my embroidery hoop and this bib along with several dish cloths strewn across the couch. Grrrrrr!!!

The fella' was visiting one of his sons last week in Ontario and his son's little sister made these book markers for me after careful consultation with the fella' about my favourite colours. Her mom said that she worked hard all week deciding on the designs and colours, putting the beads together and then ironing them together. How sweet is that?

Happy stitching!

Feb 21/19

Progress report! Work just about did me in yesterday so I came home, ate, took a shower and sat down to stitch to relax. The bib is coming along nicely, if I do say so myself.

I needed the quiet stitching time last night as I am one of those people who like to take on several big life projects at one time and be busy to the point of insanity. My house is being overrun with supplies for a trip to the Dominican Republic in just over a week. There are bags and boxes of medications and supplies stashed in every nook and cranny. In addition to that, I have been working on my pharmacy continuing education to get that done as soon as possible. It is not due until September, but with the threat of the fella' being posted out of this town, I want to be prepared if I need to relicense in another province. My philosophy is to do a little bit every day on my various projects and eventually, a little bit here and there adds up to something much bigger.

Well, time to get back to stitching this evening. Happy stitching!

Feb 19/19

Progress update on the bib:

I was too tired to do much more than stitching on Sunday after a wonderful day on Saturday at a curling bonspiel. Today was a provincial holiday here in Nova Scotia so I could not run my errands today like I usually do so, rubber arm twisted, I stitched! The one errand I could do today was pick up my new passport from the post office (the holiday was provincial, not federal, so federal employees were at work). Considering that I leave for the Dominican Republic on March 2 for a medical and Rotary trip, time was running out for me on the passport renewal which I left to the last minute instead of renewing it last February when it expired.

The weather was cold and calm this afternoon so the dogs and I headed to the Bay of Fundy for our daily walk. They love running on the beach, sniffing all the smells in the tidal pools and in the seaweed. The dogs did not seem to mind the icicles that formed on their bellies and legs from running through the pools and the streams. Those white flecks on Tillie's butt are icicles, but clearly she is not the least bit fazed as she lies in the wet seaweed to catch her breath before chasing after Maggie, our other dog.

Our beaches are cold and rocky here. Walking on these rocks is a balancing act to avoid twisting knees and ankles. I love looking at the rocks to see all their shapes and colours with the hope of seeing sea glass. Sadly, I saw lots of plastic garbage and no sea glass.

The tide was still going out while we explored the beach. The water was so beautifully calm after the wind that has been buffeting this region for days. At one point, we were far enough down the beach that we could not hear anyone else and the quiet was so calming to my soul. The sea air fill my lungs and the joy of watching my dogs run along the shore made me happy. It was a lovely afternoon.

Happy stitching!

Feb 14/19

Happy Valentine's Day! I bought the fella' a funny card from me and the critters and he is doing something special tomorrow after he gets paid. We don't get all crazy for Valentine's Day, opting instead for trying to be kind and thoughtful to each other every day. We often fall down in that goal, but we keep trying.

I started a new cross stitch project the other day. My massage therapist is having a baby boy in July and I thought of the perfect gift from me to her after she told me during my appointment that she is having a boy. I have made this bib pattern before so this picture may look familiar to anyone who has been peeking at my blog over the years. My massage therapist has helped me through some tough times like the time I tore the muscles in my back from coughing so much with pneumonia. I am so excited to stitch this and gift it to her!

Happy stitching!

Feb 3/19

Whew! How is it that it is already Feb 3? Time just keep flying by faster and faster. Admittedly, I have been busy with several big projects this past month so I do know where the time has gone. Since the New Year, my time has been taken up with work, migraines thanks to the crazy weather swings, paperwork for things like a Rotary grant and my work related continuing education, getting ready for a medical and Rotary mission trip in March to the Dominican Republic and another big project that I can not talk about until it is complete. My knitting needles are still clicking away with another 5 dish cloths waiting to have their ends woven in. There are a few paint pots waiting for me to paint some more of our pine furniture, too.

I love being this busy because I thrive on getting things done and trying new things while pushing on the edges of my comfort zone. If I don't try, I won't succeed or have the experience.

Jan 21/19

Wax warmed and buffed and the bench has been put back in its place:

While looking at the two pieces that are painted, I spotted a fourth piece under the dogs' couch (aka as a garden bench) that is natural pine. My to do list includes the table under the television, the storage chest behind the couch, the storage chest under the dogs' couch and the coffee table that is in need of a refreshing paint job. Those are projects for another day!

Jan 20/19

The dish cloth adventure continues on my knitting needles. The fella' just shakes his head as the pile grows beside me in the livingroom. I do not really have a selling strategy just yet although one of my girlfriends saw me knitting them at book group and she is going to buy some because she loves homemade dish cloths. I have been monitoring online sales groups to see what other people are using for pricing and I have a pricing strategy in my head. The patterns are made up by me so that is one angle that I hope to promote because my cloths are not like everyone's cloths. Also, I am making them a little bit bigger than the current popular patterns because the fella' wanted a slightly larger cloth. My camera settings need some tweaking to better photograph the twists of colour in the yarn that I am using because it is hard to tell that the top two cloths are red, green and white and the bottom one is red, navy and white. 

A messy weather system of snow and heavy rain has churned up the Eastern Seaboard and we have been getting heavy precipitation for over 12 hours now. We have had 15cm of snow followed by ice pellets, freezing rain and now rain. The lawn is bare again and houses are started to flood because the ground is frozen. Since I was housebound today, I figured it was a good day to paint this cute little bench that my mother gave to me a few years ago. This piece is the first of 3 pine pieces that I want to paint. Another one is peeking in the left corner of this photo. Chalk paint goes on so easily with good coverage and the slathering of wax gives it a rustic finish. I used Folk Art chalk paint that I bought with the gift card for Michaels that my brother gave me for Christmas and Annie Sloan wax leftover from another piece of furniture that I painted three years ago.

As you can see, I had an inspector. The cat loves to help by getting in the way as much as possible. Our Lab kept her shepherded out of the way most of the afternoon. The fella' kept me going with questions and food all afternoon. He is not much into crafting, but he did take the hard drives out of the two non-functional lap tops that we had had stashed on the bottom of this bench. The lap tops will go to the recycling depot and the drives will go to the destruction box where he works.

The bench has been painted, touched up and waxed so now it is curing over night before I take a hairdryer to it to even out the wax coat before I put it back in its place in the living room. The lighting is so poor in our living room that I am waiting until tomorrow to take the final photo. All in all, a day well spent doing things I love to do while casting an eye out the window at the ever changing weather system. I hope that all of you were having as much fun during your Sunday afternoon!

Jan 5/18

The other night when I crawled into bed, I pulled the blankets up and heard a ripping sound. The fabric of the top sheet gave way and created a fair sized hole in the sheet. In the spirit of not garbaging things that can be repaired and getting creative, I may have gone overboard in using the boro technique to repair an inexpensive top sheet that could have just as well been re-purposed as a drop sheet. I dug out some scrap fabric and my embroidery threads that I save from all of the kits that I have done before sitting down and watching a couple of episodes of my current favourite show while playing around with colour and pattern. My photography skills are kind of crap, but you get the idea from this photo. The fella' is out at a camp with the boys tonight otherwise he would be sitting beside me and shaking his head at my efforts to save this bedsheet. I think that it was a wonderful way to spend this rainy Saturday night!

Happy stitching!

Jan 1/19

Happy New Year! Where, oh where did the Christmas holiday season go? I begin 2019 with lots of ideas, plans and peace. There may also be some exhaustion after a busy month at work and lots of fun with family and friends. Migraines are ever present because of the constantly fluctuating weather here, thanks to the Gulf Stream, so we missed a few parties and I struggled to get things done in time (2 Christmas parcels have yet to make it to the post office!). I am not a Christmas perfectionist and my mantra is "the 25th will come whether I am ready or not". I had time with family and friends and that is all that matters to me.

On the crafting side, my mother asked me on Christmas morning if I wanted to make a blanket. I said no. I am not convinced that her hearing aids are working well because she immediately went downstairs and dug out two pieces of fleece. Arguing was not going to get me anywhere so I sighed and went to help her because it was do it then or that evening after the family dinner. She then announced that she was going to take a shower after she handed me the tools. While she showered, I measured, calculated and trimmed the fleece to size and started to cut the edges so that they could be tied together. Mom returned in time to help tie the blanket together. My brother had better love this blanket when he gets it for his birthday in a few weeks!

Recent road trips have allowed me to knit up several dish cloths. I have spent about 15 hours as a passenger in the car in the past week so I took advantage of that time to knit away. Ron thinks that I am nuts, but I think that I have a chance at selling these as I have been looking online at local markets to see what other people are selling and at what price. My colours and pattern are different so I think that there is some appeal in that. Perhaps I should do a little testing with trying to sell them online myself before signing up for any craft sales this year. I would love feedback from my readers about selling handmade items, if you sell your items.

I have decided to do a rotation of crafts. Last week was knitting week, this week is cross stitch week and next week will be pattern development for another idea that I have as well as selling some more of my patterns. By focusing on one thing at a time, I feel less scattered or frantic because that is how my brain works when I make of list of things to be done. Giving each thing a time of its own is making it easier for me so far.

Happy stitching!