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 25/18

My current philosophy about Christmas is to do a little bit every day and eventually, it will all come together. I stitched away at this ornament yesterday evening. The fella' went to bed early with a headache so I watched the first two episodes of the most recent season of the "Great British Bake-off" and stitched. 

I have been working on more dish cloths as I am thinking of gifting them in bundles of two, one with the variegated holiday yarn and one white cloth. So far, 5 white ones are completed and a sixth is on my needles. The other women at my book club meeting on Friday night were fascinated by watching me knit while we all talked. They found it freaky that I could knit while talking and looking at them because my fingers know this pattern so well now. Truthfully, I found it freaky that they were all watching me so closely! It is interesting to me because I grew up in a rural community where every one knits, sews, quilts, etc. The women in my book club are 15-20 years younger than me and so many of them wish that they knew how to do these things, but have never learned whereas I learned because my mom and her friends were always working on such projects. While I certainly appreciate the convenience of mass produced items, I feel sad that so many people have not known the joy of sewing or knitting or making things by hand. Thoughts from anyone else?

Well, back to hauling laundry to my neighbours' house because our washer is making some warning sounds. Thank goodness for kind neighbours who are allowing me to traipse through their house with my laundry!

Happy stitching!

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 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!

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!

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!

June 24/18

Some stitching has happened in this house! I made a point of staying off of social media today and worked away at things that I love like walking, reading and stitching. Maggie and I walked on a new to us trail this morning, I finished reading "The White Queen" for my book club and started "The Battle Within" which I am reading for myself and I worked on the two ornaments on the left. The ornaments are from a kit called "Home for Christmas" from Design Works Crafts. The fella' was busy catching up on his TV shows after we took the puppy to obedience class this morning so I puttered away. My step counter tells me that I am almost at 13 000 steps for the day, Maggie stinks like the ditch water she ran through and we are all off to bed at a decent hour. The best kind of Sunday!

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!

Dec 11/17

Here are the finished ornaments! The blue felt has been a bit challenging to glue, but I think I fixed it this morning. Three of these ornaments are wrapped up and in their mailing envelopes for drop off at the post office this morning.

Happy stitching!

July 24/17

So, stitching has been close to non-existent in this house because I have been so busy at work that my brain is mush in the evenings and then we were away this weekend. I have also been busy cruising through Pinterest to help me put a picture to some ideas that are percolating in my head for my next project or two. My brain and fingers were able to get a few stitches done last night to get this far:

I was going to post some pictures from our travels, but it looks like the photos are all on the fella's phone. We spent the weekend wandering along the southwest part of Nova Scotia. We drove on the beach at Crescent Beach, visited Kejimikujik Seaside national park, dodged marathon runners on Cape Sable Island and ooh'ed and aah'ed at hundreds of kilometres of shoreline. Here are the views we had from lunch in Lower West Pubnico and Liverpool.

We delivered the wedding gift bag of wine on Friday night to rave reviews. Our friends were so excited to get something homemade and filled with wine! They head home to Newfoundland this week to begin their wedding celebrations. I was thrilled that they loved the gift!

Well, Mondays for me mean laundry, Rotary, groceries and various other errands so I should get my butt in gear.

Happy stitching!

July 16/17

Not having all of the colours that I need to do the back stitching for the canvas bag has forced me to change gears until I can get myself to the craft store to purchase the necessary skeins. Last night, after an afternoon of touring Port Royal, I pulled out this little kit that I had in my stash. Actually, no, I started this on Friday night after working and then hanging out at a friend's place with the fella'. My progress is slow on this project because I have been starting to stitch it late in the evening so my time is limited before my eyes start to droop. We are busy without being crazy busy, with lots of hanging out with friends and neighbours and puttering away at things. My French lessons are moving along nicely, summer vacation plans and day trip planning is coming together and somehow, I am not too far behind in the battle of three shedding pets against the vacuum. Well, it is off to bed for me.

Happy stitching!