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!

Nov 6/18

There are days when I wonder what the heck I have been up to because it is the end of the week, I am exhausted, my house looks like a bomb has gone off and I feel like I have done nothing except work and vacuum up pet hair. Apparently, there has been a little bit of this

and a little bit of that 

and a few other things going on around here. Hallowe'en is a favourite night of mine with the kids out and about in costume and I go a bit nuts with carving jack'o'lanterns.

For good measure, there were chocolate chip cookies made as well.

The jack'o'lanterns have been chopped and roasted. Pumpkin soup was made yesterday, muffins will be made today and the rest will be frozen for treats for the dogs. The dish cloth pattern has finally morphed into something that I am quite happy with. There have been a few adjustments made to the size and the number of rows within the pattern to where I am quite happy with it.

One of the downsides of the Hallowe'en decorations would be this fright I gave myself the other night when I walked by the front door during the wind storm. Our peeping tom was dealt with ASAP after I got over my scare!

Happy stitching!

Oct 17/18

So, a quick peek over here tells me that I am a little late  for the TUSAL, but ya know, better late than never! This photo is doubling as my stitching update for tonight, done after walking the dogs and while watching a few TV shows.

The late night hail against the window is telling this chick that it is cold and wintry outside tonight and that it is past time for me to be in bed. The 6:20am alarm comes earlier than this night owl prefers.

Happy stitching!

October 16/18

There has not been much crafting going on here because of arthritis in the baby finger of my left hand. The arthritis flared recently while knitting dish cloths and while not debilitating, I am reminded of it while typing or doing anything that involves my baby finger. Ugh. This getting older thing is a learning curve of what body part is going to ache next. 

We had a beautiful day on Sunday, in between rainy days thanks to the tropical storms sweeping up the eastern seaboard, so we packed up the dogs and headed to the South Shore of Nova Scotia. Here they are having some fun in the ocean before a woman yelled at us for having our dogs off leash.  Yes, we should not have had them off leash as there were signs at the park entrance, but there was no one around when we let them go to enjoy the ocean. There were several other dogs off leash in the park and we avoided them when we spotted them because our Lab goes snaky when she sees another dog while she is on a leash. We are responsible dog owners, but unfortunately, our puppy loses all sense of recall when she gets excited. I suspect that the woman must have been afraid of dogs which would explain her reaction. 

The cooler temperatures have brought on the annual flare of colour as all of the hardwoods turn brilliant colours before the leaves drop. Here is the view I have from my spare bedroom where I have placed my reading chair by the window. The winds today are pulling off many of the leaves and I see a carpet of leaves forming on my lawn. The drive to and from work is a delight of orange, red and yellow splashes of colour along the highway. Sadly, it also signals that cold and snow are around the corner. Brrrrrr!!

I have done some cross stitching in the past week. Here is a kit of Ursula Michaels ornaments that I had in my stash. I am not sure who they will be for just yet, but it will not hurt to have the designs stitched up.

Happy stitching!