Nov 19/18

Well, would you look at that. The first ornaments of the 2018 Christmas crafting fiesta are now completed. They are cross stitched on plastic canvas and backed with red felt stitched onto the canvas with ribbons sewn in. These ornaments are for the fella's kids so they were the most important to finish. Our postal service is being hit with rotating strikes as the union tries to put some pressure on Canada Post with the Christmas parcel season rolling in. These ornaments and other assorted items will be put in the mail next week. My philosophy is that it is best that they arrive a little early than too late.

I have listed a few kits for sale on some of the sale groups to see if I can reduce my stash any further. So far, there have been no bites, but it just takes one person to really want the item. I am encouraged to open up some more boxes and list some more items for sale to reduce the stash. I set a goal for myself that everything has to fit comfortably on the shelving unit I have in the spare room. Currently, there are 3 boxes of crafting supplies sitting on the floor beside the book shelves so this could be a bit of a challenge! These kits are all listed for $5 except the dragonfly which is listed for $20. I just want the stuff gone!

Oct 2/18

So, this happened this weekend:

Yes indeedy, 25 years since this chick graduated from pharmacy school. Can someone please help me find out where those 25 years have gone? I could have sworn that it was only a couple of years since we put away our text books, donned the robes to accept our diplomas and headed out into the world. It was so cool to catch up with my classmates and to learn about some very interesting careers. My classmates have gone on to do cool things like movies about pharmacists, a dean of pharmacy in the US and a corporate executive. I kind of fall into the cool category with the medical missions to the Dominican Republic. Everyone has an interesting story to tell about where they ended up and why.

The fella' and I were tiffing on Sunday and Monday so I ignored him last night *(Monday) and did the last of the back stitching on these ornaments for his children before sewing on the red beads. My plan to finish them is to attach red or green felt to the back with a blanket stitch instead of glue and make ribbon hangers. Hopefully, the love, and not the bickering, was stitched into these Christmas gifts.

The fella' and I called a truce when I sent him this meme this morning:

He laughed and we moved on. I went on to make this gorgeous pan of soap this morning. I took a class on soapmaking this morning from a wonderful soap maker at the Happy Hippie Soap Company. It was so cool to be measuring and stirring the ingredients while looking out the window to see the source of the goats' milk grazing in the pasture behind the house. The fella' mistook this pan for supper and was sorely disappointed when he licked the finger that he had stuck into this mix. NEVER A DULL MOMENT IN THIS HOUSE!

Happy stitching!

Sept 10/18

The back stitching is now complete on three ornaments. Three down, three to go before beading!

Does anyone else have a preferred time of day to stitch? My stitching urge is at its strongest from 9pm to midnight. I can stitch at other times of the day like all day during a snow storm. I tried all evening to settle in to stitch, but one of our neighbours came over to have her passport application signed and then the dogs needed to be walked and then I finally sat down to stitch after catching up on phone calls. Maybe it is my preferred hour because the world quiets down at that time of day, the phone does not ring, the darkness of night calms things down and it is my way to slow down at the end of the day.

Today was an amazing day. Somehow, I was the first one awake which is highly unusual because the fella' is the morning person in this house. He slept until 10am while I was up and reading at 8am. I am enthralled by the author Lisa Genova. Her books are gripping me in a way that has not happened in a long time. This morning, I polished off "Inside the O'Briens", a novel about a family grappling with their father's diagnosis of Huntington's Disease. This topic hit close to home as the husband of one of my dearest friends has a father with Huntington's. After the fella' finished washing his uniform, we hit the road to explore a part of Nova Scotia we have never seen.

I have often seen the place name Bear River on the highway signs so today was the day to visit this place. We pulled off the highway onto some back roads and followed them down a steep hill into this quaint little village of buildings on stilts along the river, old homes that revealed the shipbuilding roots of the place and signs all over for artists' studios. We had a late lunch of two of the best burgers we have ever tasted before heading out to poke around in some wonderful galleries. I enjoyed learning about the place and enjoying the vibe of the village which was rural and slow placed, but with interesting nooks and crannies tucked into the hillsides along the river. I need to go back to explore more of the galleries as places like that inspire me so much!

Well, tomorrow is a bit of a busy day with Rotary and the Health Auxiliary so I should go curl up in bed with my Maggie dog. Happy stitching!

Sept 9/18

The back stitching in black has begun. A headache, but not quite a migraine, made stitching a slow process this evening because my brain was working as if it were trying to wade through mud. I persevered despite my headache and stitch by stitch, managed to complete the back stitching on one ornament before putting some stitches onto a second ornament. I also found a section of gold filament that had been overlooked and quickly filled in that section around the mailbox of the top ornament.

I had an idea for the third panel of the triptych that I was working on ages ago. The third panel has languished for lack of inspiration, my failing eyesight and lack of motivation to stitch. My brain was in processing mode as I was driving to work the other day when the idea came to me. The idea involves using various shades of the same colour and creating a cascading kind of effect. Christmas ornaments are a priority at the moment, but I look forward to the third and final step of the triptych.

Happy stitching!

Sept 4/18

The gold filament stitching and the back stitching in green are completed. I found a few more spots here and there where I missed stitches so I fixed those spots. Getting off facebook and watching documentaries apparently is good for my stitching mojo as I actually get some things done! My goal this evening was to finish up the stitching with the dreaded gold filament because I dislike stitching with that stuff so much! The documentary on the Vietnam War that I was watching was still playing so I kept going with the back stitching of the pine needles on two of the ornaments. The outlining in black and the red beads are all that remain to do now.

Happy stitching!

Aug 27/18

This picture is horrible which pretty much sums up my feelings about stitching with gold filament. The end result will be lovely. The cursing during the stitching will be plentiful. Ugh.

Happy stitching!

Aug 26/18

Stitching has been part of my sanity maintenance program this past week. The fella's two youngest children are visiting for 2 weeks and it is an adjustment to go from 0 kids to 2 kids. Our days are jampacked and busy as we try to cram in as much time 'doing stuff with Dad' in a meaningful way. For instance, our base community centre organized a whale watching tour for today for an incredible price so we spent the day out on the Bay of Fundy, looking for whales. All of the fresh air and fun with the children of friends of mine who also went on the tour have worn us out. The kids fall into bed every evening with the fella' only moments behind them. I enjoy the few hours between their bedtime and mine to stitch and to have some Me Time as I am more of a night owl than the fella'.

The full cross stitches of floss have been completed tonight after much squinting at the pattern and the stitching to fill in all of those stitches that somehow I overlooked when I did the first round of stitching. No matter how careful I am about counting, I always miss a stitch here and there and end up filling in the spaces while doing the back stitching. Next, there is gold filament to cross stitch and then the back stitching. Hopefully, these will be done in time before Christmas! There just seem to be so many other things to do right now like the kids' visit, my continuing education for work and fun things like book club and walking the dogs.

Speaking of fun things, I did this last week:

A co-worker of the fella' called the other night to see if I wanted to go to a paint night with his wife. It was totally last minute and I was totally intimidated because she is an artist who paints, but I am always game to try something new so off I went. While this painting is so very badly amateurish, I did get lots of compliments from the other people who were also at paint night so perhaps I am not as hopeless as I had thought.

Well, tomorrow is another day of refereeing and entertaining kids while trying to wrangle our two dogs and two cats so this stitcher should take her behind to bed! Happy stitching!

Aug 15/18

Between the tropical heat and humidity that we are wilting in this summer and not being able to see properly, my stitching mojo was in a funk until recently. The heat and humidity have not relented, but bifocals have made life easier. To be more precise, I have tri-focals for close, middle and far where I need to use a computer at work along with being able to see the markings on tablets and capsules up close. Stitching is not the struggle that it has become in the past 6 months. A few stitches here and there have suddenly started to add up to something as you can see by my progress photo. I am probably not alone in starting out on a project and looking at the pristine threads and fabrics while thinking, "this is going to take a long time". Then, for the longest time, the piece does not look like a whole lot of anything but some blobs of colour here and there. Suddenly, one day the piece starts to jump to life with each and every step until I put the last stitch in to the piece.

We did a little sightseeing and exploring this past weekend, taking in some places that we have not been to before. The Lookoff certainly lived up to its name as we had amazing views of the Annapolis Valley from high up on the side of the mountain. From there, we drove on to Blomidon so that the dogs could get out of the car and have some fun. High tide limited the size of the beach to a mere 10-15 feet wide strip and there was another dog close by so the dogs could not run free. They did, however, run into the water to cool off, pulling the fella' with them. The collie had a blast paddling around while the Lab was content to just get wet enough to cool down. We are so fortunate to live in such a beautiful place.

Happy stitching!

Aug 7/18

Hmmmm.....I have been either too busy or too hot to stitch. It took me a few weeks to adjust to the bifocals, but I have the hang of it now. My eyes and brain do not feel all wonky when I try to stitch now. Here is the current status of the Design Works ornaments.

In other stitchy news, I have started to go through all of the patterns that I have accumulated over the past 30 years. There are so many patterns in the boxes in our spare room that it would take several life times to stitch them all. I even found a few patterns that I do not remember purchasing and two stocking patterns that were stitched up. Honestly! I need to sort out that mess and get it under some kind of control. The "no" pile will be going up for sale some time soon on one of the selling/buying cross stitch facebook pages that I belong to so hopefully, I will make a little cash and the patterns might get used.

Happy stitching!

July 22/18

The oppressive heat and humidity that has been blanketing our region was made worse today by the intermittent showers. I should have been smart enough to stay indoors with the dogs, but I was determined to clean up a few things in the yard today. The Weather Network said that the temperature was 27C with a humidex of 39C while I was out weeding and poop scooping in between rain showers. Now, I know that some of you live in parts of the world where such temperatures are the norm, but this is too much for this Canuck! My favourite temperature range is 15-25C as I can wear shorts and it is not too hot to be outside. I keep hoping that a big thunderstorm will roll through soon to break up this weather so that I can turn off the air conditioners and open all the windows.

I spent the evening in front of the air conditioning, stitching on these Christmas ornaments and  hanging out with my dog, Maggie. Our puppy overheats easily and Maggie is a black Lab so the recent hot and muggy weather has found them indoors more than not which is highly unusual for them as they love being outside. Maggie is currently asleep beside me, directly in front of the draft coming from the air conditioning.

Well, back to putting a few more stitches into these ornaments before I fall into bed.

Happy stitching!

May 21/18

Here is my first attempt at making bath bombs. I used the usual citric acid, baking soda, cornstarch, olive oil and water. For epsom salts, I used the Body Shop peppermint foot soak that I had in the cupboard and eucalyptus oil. The mold is a muffin tin that I found at the thrift shop the other day when I was doing a shift there. The directions that I found on pinterest were pretty straightforward. The hardest part for me was figuring out how to change the measures of ounces into something that I understood so that I could double the recipe. After packing the mold tight, I left to sit in the mold while I visited with some friends and then left them on the cutting board to dry overnight. They are now in the bathroom for the fella' to try out during his next bath.

I did start stitching the Christmas ornaments for his kids, watching TV and stitching late into the night last night. My project for this evening is to make chocolate chip oatmeal cookies so that we have a treat for this week. I so enjoy making stuff!