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!

Nov 12/18

Today was not a crafting kind of day here. Today was a "get things done" kind of day here since the fella' was home for the Remembrance Day holiday. He was up on a chair taking down light fixtures and washing them while I tackled some paper work that I had put on the back burner. Light fixtures are clean and fly-free, paperwork is filled out and printed, and the dogs were taken on a lovely walk along the rail trail, on a section that was new to us.

After our walk, I set about on another task that I have been putting off....selling off some of the stash. A few months ago, I had done a very quick skimming through the boxes of patterns in the spare room. My boxes were full of collections of Teresa Wentzler, Paula Vaughn, Lavender & Lace, Mirabilia and so many more. So many patterns that will never get stitched by me! The fella' was grumbling recently about waiting for an appointment with the career manager to see if we stay here in Greenwood or if we move in the next posting season. While the military looks after the move for us, I keep trying to reduce the clutter in this house and selling off those things which I really will never use. Once the dogs were in the door and my jacket was hung up, I headed to the craft room to pick out some patterns to sell and took their pictures for the listings:

               
 

I belong to a facebook group that is for Canadians to buy and sell cross stitch patterns. I had been having some anxiety about whether my patterns would sell, was it worth the effort and would people want to buy from me. Plus, there was a general paralysis about just putting myself out there and getting things done. You can imagine my surprise when I sold 3 patterns within 10 minutes of the listing. The fella' is amused that there are other "me's" out there because he does not understand the affliction.

There are 3 parcels, containing 6 patterns, on the table to be taken to the post office in the morning. Now, I don't expect that all of my patterns will sell so quickly, but I am glad that I made the effort and I will look through my boxes again to cull more patterns.

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 22/18

I surely can not be the only person who has so many interests and just not enough time to dabble in them all? There are just not enough hours in the day or energy left over after doing the necessary stuff like working, looking after the house, wrangling the dogs and cats and sleep to do all of the stuff that I want to do. I recently did a shift at the thrift store and found myself collecting things to upcycle when I had to give my head a shake about when was I going to find time right now to upcycle clothing? It was painful to put them back on the shelf, but the fella' was muttering about meeting with the case manager some time soon so that means that junk collecting has to be kept to a minimum in the off chance that we move within the next posting season. Instead, I am trying to focus on the projects that are already underway and doing things that are easily achievable like emptying my ort jar. Reaching my ort jar was a little difficult last night as you can see:

Pebbles was doing her best to be in my way after her favourite human went to bed.

She did let me stitch a little on this ornament last night. My progress is difficult to see as I filled in all of the white stitching in the moon and in the candy cane border.  A few stitches of grey around the edges and some gold in the centre of the star will complete this one except for the back stitching.

I also started knitting some dish clothes for Christmas gifts. I am making up baskets of homemade stuff for my mom and my sisters-in-law. The dish clothes are in variegated red, green and white for Christmas and will be given along with the home made soap and perhaps a cross stitched ornament as well.

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!

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!