A Few Early Christmas Presents

I swear, I have the BEST friends!!!! I've received some amazing Christmas presents from them over the last few days...just thought I'd share...

From Erin- a beautiful necklace that I was drooling over a couple months ago while we were shopping together in London...I was so surprised and excited to discover that she had gone back and bought it for me...and in my favourite colour- blue!! The picture doesn't do it much justice- it's a funky shaped metal flower with a couple of blue stones on it.

From Shantal- "The Wisdom of Donkeys: Finding Tranquility in a Chaotic World." Perfect for two reasons...first, I LOVE donkeys, and second, I often get so busy and stressed that I end up sick and don't sleep for many nights because my brain won't shut off...perhaps I'll learn from the donkeys!

From Holly, Cait and family- Ozzy Osbourne quotes...yes, I'm a devoted life-long fan of all things Ozzy. This book is absolutely hysterical and we had a blast reading it the other night...well...everyone over the age of 16 had a blast reading it anyways. And a plaid hat! I love goofy hats, and this is my favourite type. I have three of them in different colours. This one is perfect because Holly and I are very into tartan anything right now. We're both Scottish....and we're obsessed with Johnny Reid...also Scottish, and belong to his fan club, the Tartan Army. I plan to wear this hat to the next concert....maybe he'll notice us!!

From Bob and Pat (my landlords)- an amazing little donkey statue!!! He came with the name Dooley, and I absolutely love him! He's quite heavy and has the cutest look on his face...I'll cherish him forever.

My Race!

I can't hold my excitement in any longer....I beat my personal best by 3 WHOLE MINUTES!!!!!!!!!

Phew, with that out of the way, now onto the whole story!

SO....I've been group leading a 10k clinic with Todd, and our group's goal race was on Sunday! It was the Ajax Snowflake 10k.....appropriately named of course, since it snowed throughout most of the race...it was a very chilly 9am run along the shores of Lake Ontario. Our main group consists of Todd, myself, and  Erin #2, not to be confused with my best friend Erin #1 who I've talked about a lot on this blog. She was there too, but just to watch :-)

So Todd, Erin #2 and I were joined by 2 others from our group....it was a pretty uncommitted group so on a lot of nights it was just the 3 of us...which made this race fun to run...and we stuck together for quite a while, chatting, and laughing....our usual. Erin then hit "the zone" as well call it, and she was gone. Then Todd stopped for water at a water station and I left him there....and I hit a good groove as well. It was great! Here are some pics!!



Erin and I freezing our butts off, waiting for the race to start



Me, just after I left Todd at the water station LOL



Crossing the finish line- 1:03!!!!!



Our group- Todd, Katie, Nicole, Me and Erin!

 I've bought all of my floss for the Crazy January Challenge! I've been using my TV watching time for the last couple nights to wind it onto bobbins....and I think I still have a couple of nights of winding ahead of me. I'm pretty close to being organized!

Erin #1 has been here visiting me since Saturday, which is soooo good! I hate being separated from my best friend! She left today to go home to her parents house for Christmas, but she's coming back for New Year's WOOHOO!!!!!!!

Is everyone finished their Christmas shopping? I AM!!!!!! Yep, I'm bragging! I won't be stepping a foot into the mall until Christmas is over! Unfortunately I work in a grocery store making fruit baskets and fruit and veggie trays so I might as well be in a mall...bring on the craziness!!!!!

And on a side note, I just wanted to say THANKS to everyone who's been stopping by to read and/or comment. I LIVE for comments, they make me so happy....so thanks everyone!!!!

Crazy January Challenge Organization Progress

So......we're getting pretty close to our January 1st start date! I'm starting to get reallllllyyyyy excited, I can't wait to start stitching!!

Yesterday Holly and I went to a new (to us) cross stitch store in Whitby....and it was pretty awesome! There was lots to choose from...I guess the biggest problem was that we didn't have a whole lot of time to look around...it was getting late and the weather was starting to get pretty snowy and we wanted to get home. Also, we have very different tastes, and between her trying to help me, and us both getting frustrated because we don't like the same things...and my natural indecisiveness..it was a little stressful! But I think I got some great stuff, and my 15 is complete! Unless I'm able to get a couple of patterns that I specifically want but can't find locally. See above for the tentative list!

Well....I guess that's all for now! It's Christmas week (almost) and that means that work is CRAZY and our employers seem to think that we're machines...so it'll be a fun 7 days.

Oh, and I have a race on Sunday! The Ajax Snowflake 10k...excited!! Wish me luck :-)

Well That Was Firetruckin' Festive!

....on new "swear words," Shawn's belated birthday party, and our makeshift Christmas decorations.

Yep....I work in a special place! LOL! No really, we're goofs and we love it. We recently had to come up with fake swear words because...well...I can't exactly remember the reason. So a few of us created a list and have been pretty good about following it! Except for Shawn, on the day he knocked over an entire skid of blueberries :-)

So.....if you're really, really mad at someone...for example, the other day, when Shawn wouldn't leave me alone, you would say... "you sugarcrispy, firetruckin melon farmer! Just go to the farmer's market!" You can take from that what you like.....we know what it means, and I'm sure you can assume hahaha.

We found out that Shawn's birthday had passed a couple of weeks ago and he didn't tell any of us. When we asked why, he said that he didn't think we'd care. So of course, since this is completely untrue, we threw him a little belated surprise party the next morning....here are some pics....

Our "decorating"...notice the little plate of cupcakes ontop the the salad pile :-)

I had "fun" fighting with Cora, my pineapple coring machine while waiting for Shawn to get to work

Shawn reading his card

Hiding behind a box to eat his cupcake because it's "against the rules" to eat in the backroom LOL!



Me and Holly!

 And finally...we were quite upset that we're the only department that can't decorate for Christmas (stupid health department rules!) so we decided to use what he had.....a branch that had fallen off the trees the floral department sells, a grape tomato, a twist tie, and a pineapple chunk...to make our own "Christmas tree!" here it is.....

And in the words of...us....isn't that firetruckin festive? LOL!

Now....I have an hour to stitch before I have to be at the museum :-) Have a great day!!

The Past Two Weeks.....

My last two weeks have been completely taken up by essay writing...no fun at all! Except that it was...sort of fun haha! I was working on original artifact research and got to work with the curator of the museum...we looked at accession files, did a couple of oral history interviews, etc. So it was really cool to see how the museum does things and handles artifact research for new exhibits, while also fulfilling a huge requirement for my last unfinished course of the semester: a 4000 word essay on an unresearched artifact. Done and done!!!!! All that's left to do is my footnoting...so I'm feelin pretty good today :-)

Onto some stitchy-ness.....well....there hasn't been any. I haven't started working on any of my December goals yet....but that changes today! I'm so excited to be done with my school stuff so that I can relax and only worry about work, running and STITCHING!

Holly and I are taking a trip to Oshawa later in the week to do some Christmas shopping there and I hear there's a pretty decent cross stitch shop there...so it's on our list of things to check out. I'm hoping they'll have some nice kits and patterns for me to add to my Crazy January Challenge. The Michaels there also has a whole aisle devoted to cross stitch, so that's on our list too. Unfortunately the Michaels here in Peterborough fails epicly at this- all they have is floss. So hopefully by the end of the week I'll be a little more organized with that! And I'm heading over to Rose's next week and she's going to help me with my quilt binding, so that'll be another check off the old list :-)

For now- a finish. Not mine, but Holly's! She doesn't have a blog so I took a pic of her stocking to show on mine because it's soooo cute! She finished it last year but just finally sewed it into a stocking last week. Here it is!

What's Your Favourite Christmas Special?

Mine's How The Flintstones Saved Christmas. You know the one....Santa falls off Fred's roof and breaks his ankle, so Fred and Barney have to deliver all of the toys on Christmas Eve? I have such a soft spot for the Flintstones! There's something so magical about the scene where Fred and Barney are in Santas Workshop helping the elves make all of the presents...can't wait to see it this year!

What's your favourite?

A longer post to come soon :-)

Happy December First!

Phew, November went by fast, didn't it? All I remember was a lot of work, school stuff, exams, and rain! I didn't have any stitching-related goals for the month of November because I was determined to get through what had to be done for school...and I did! I'm down to one big assignment, then a BREAK! Yay!!!

That being said, I thought it might be a good idea to set out some goals for December:

1. Finish It's a Girl Thing for Love Quilts (inspired by Vonna, the Twisted Stitcher)

2. Finish Vancouver 2010- make it into something so Erin can finally take it home rather than visiting it at my house

3. Stitch Feelin Festive and Joyeux Noel by Jan. 9 to give as gifts at a post-Christmas family gathering

4. Sew the binding onto last year's Christmas quilt

5. Most importantly- organize everything needed for the Crazy January Challenge!

Here's my progress on It's a Girl Thing so far:

Hmmmm....what else is new? Well, I went to my first Christmas party of the year on the weekend, which was our annual work dinner. It was fun- good food, some drinks....



And, to mark this first day of December....it finally snowed! Like, actually snowed, as in significant accumulation! It started around 9 this morning, and this is what's fallen since, in about 4 hours:

And finally, I was super-excited to read that Robin from http://stitchingwitch.blogspot.com/ has offered to send me a chart to add to my Crazy January Challenge supply! I'm so grateful to her and I can't wait to see what she sends :-)

Enjoy your week!


The Crazy January Challenge

Yep...you all know what I'm talking about. If you don't, head on over to http://minnanharrastukset.blogspot.com/2010/11/ristipistohassutus2011.html where you can read all about it.

I'm very conflicted about this. I think it's an awesome idea, and a very intriguing one as well! I could blame peer pressure....I could blame my insanely competitive nature...I could blame a need to be "part of the group" or I could blame my desire to stitch everything I see....but for some reason, I really am tempted to sign up and commit to this challenge!

HOWEVER.....

What a challenge! I can see this becoming very stressful hahaha! Just the idea of preparing for it gives me a headache....I don't have 15 charts in my stash, so I would have to go out in search of more (not a problem, really LOL). But with that comes the organization that's required of such a project: buy and organize the necessary threads, fabric, days, storage, etc. And for me and my spazzy, unorganized, unfocussed self...that's a problem!

But.........I'm very tempted. I've been reading all of your blogs about signing up for it, or not signing up for it and it's got me thinking!

On another frosty note: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

Last night we had our first significant snowfall of the year and I woke up to a beautiful, sparkly white blanket of snow covering everything this morning. This is my very favourite day of the year, every year: the first snowfall. I'm a life-long lover of all things winter, so it was definately reason to smile today :-)

A Finish, and a Shawnathanism!

I finished this yesterday:



Swirly Snow- Freebie from My Big Toe Designs

 As usual, it looks much nicer in real life! I'm in love with this piece. To date, it's my favourite thing I've stitched. I'd like to make it into a pillow, but I haven't learned how to "finish" my work yet. So for now, off to the bin of things that need to be finished it goes! Trust me, it won't be lonely there!

My boss Shawn sometimes comes out with some pretty entertaining comments...and even more so because he often thinks he's funny...which makes it more funny. Today was no exception....

Me (after observing Shawn engaged in an intense phone conversation): What's going on?

Shawn: My rutabagas didn't TURNIP so I had to call the guy (he says with a huge smile)

Ha...ha....ha.....ha.

A Belated Account of the Amazing Johnny Reid Concert

It was amazing. It was wonderful. It was invigorating, inspiring, extremely enjoyable, and HOT! Yes, that's right....Johnny Reid.....is.....amazing. Simply amazing.

That being said, Holly and I had a great time at the concert 2 weeks ago! We drove everyone crazy at work all morning talking about it, then set off for Oshawa! We had lunch, checked into our hotel, then stalked Johnny's busses!

Unfortunately, there were no Johnny spottings.

We got ready, then went to have a couple of Long Island Iced Teas at a cool pub called the Thirsty Monk. Awesome nachos too! We both think we'd like to go back there some time...it had a cool vibe.

So, once concert time approached, we found our seats (17th row!!) and sat down...and waited. And waited. And...waited.

The cover band was called The Stellas, and they were fantastic! At the time I wasn't really into them. Honestly, they were the only thing standing in the way of me and Johnny Reid, and I grew more hostile about them by the minute. But a few days later I looked them up and listened to some of their stuff and I absolutely love them. I encourage you to visit www.myspace.com/stellamusic and listen to their stuff!

And then Johnny came out....WOW! Ya know, you hear a lot of singers in real life and they aren't as good as on TV or on their CDs but Johnny was 10 times better in person. He has such a raw talent that blew me away. It was just awesome and I can't wait until he comes back! He was on stage for 2 and a half hours, and spent a lot of that time just talking to the audience, telling stories and jokes- he's FUNNY!!!! Who knew? I just can't say enough about how great he was...so I'll show some pics instead.....

Kindness

I'm very behind in my blogging, I know. I have yet to post a Johnny Reid concert review, or pictures, or comment on anything else that's happened in the last couple of weeks. Yes.....very behind. As you all know, life gets in the way from time to time!

Although I should be doing about ten million other things right now, I felt the need to stop and discuss the power of kindness for a minute. Just a single kind gesture can seriously turn your whole day back in the direction it should be going in.

Why have I come to think this, all of the sudden? WELL.....

I worked from 5-12 this morning, and while in the midst of dealing with very difficult people, rotten vegetables, and a crappy radio station, I discovered that my production went up 25 items, yet I LOST a half hour! I can't make sense out of my schedule. I talk to my boss, he says he'll change it, and if I don't stay right ontop of him, the next week it's the came crap all over again. They have to make a choice- they can't have it both ways! They can't have 25 MORE salads than normal in a half hour LESS than my normal time! ARG winter cutbacks suck!!

And then off to the library I went to dig through the archives. I'm doing an intense research project for school on three rare canoes, and the info about them is scarce. After a full afternoon of hitting dead ends, I came home, frazzled, layed down on my bed and thought about just sleeping away the rest of my night.

But no! It's Wednesday! I have a clinic group to take out. Because I  signed up to lead 10k running. Huh. Anyways, we're at 8 now, and I've developed the beginnings of plantar faschitis. Which is a painful issue with the tendon along the arch of your foot. I usually just take a painkiller before I go, and deal with it. But I wasn't in the mood tonight. It was windy, raining, and COLD! So, as you can see through this long and whiny post, life sucked today and I was so exhausted that I was getting mad at my friends for texting normal things...just because they were content and I wasn't. And that was making me mad too.

On the verge of some sort of nervous breakdown.....

My doorbell rings.

So up the stairs I trudge, rolling my eyes all the way...and open the door to the smiling face of my next door neighbour.

She brought me over 2 big bags of peanut brittle and rice krispie squares, along with some left-over Halloween chips! Just because I'm "such a sweetheart."

So....here I am, standing on an ice pack, munching away on peanut brittle, and feeling very grateful that I have such wonderful and kind neighbours because that small gesture of kindness put a big smile on my face and got me through the rest of my day :-)

An Un-Stitchy Week

As my title suggests, there was no stitching happening in the last week. Unfortunately, all of my time has been spent doing only four things: working, studying, running, and trying to win Johnny Reid tickets.

Haha I'm quie sure we're all gonna get fired over the Johnny Reid ticket debacle. Two of my friends and I work in the back produce cooler in a grocery store and the radio station we listen to is giving away 4 tickets to his Massey Hall show at the end of next week. Yes, I know we already have tickets to TOMORROW'S show, but Massey Hall is an amazing, beautiful place...and seriously, who wouldn't want to see him twice? Plus..the limo transportation that's provided sounds pretty awesome too. So the deal is, when you hear the cue to call, you call, and have to be caller 12. This happens every half hour. Unfortunately, we aren't allowed to have our cell phones anywhere in the building other than the lunchroom or locker room....so...there was a certain amount of rule-breaking going on all week.

Every time we heard the fancy "call now" music, we all whip out our phones and run into the cooler to hide behind big boxes, trying desperately to get through. It was maybe a little too obvious when we recruited a few other people to help out...so people started to get suspicious when our entire produce staff randomly disappeared into the cooler every half hour. My boss asked what was going on....we said nothing, and smiled sweetly. He shook his head and told us we were being weird, then asked if it had something to do with "that Johnny Reeves guy" LOL!

His suspicions were confirmed when, working alone yesterday, I heard the cue to call, ran into the cooler...and alas...the phone was ringing!!!!! I ran into a corner and waited. Then Shawn popped up from behind another box...and our conversation went something like this:

Shawn: Hey! What are you doing?

Me: Shhhh...it's ringing!

Shawn: Hey! Hang up! You can't do that back here!

Me: Shawn....be quiet!

Shawn: Seriously, hang up! Who are you calling??

Me: Watch the door! I could be caller 12!

Shawn: F***, you're gonna get us both in sh**!

Me: Not if you watch the door!

Shawn: Dave's out there walking around, he could come back here and catch us!

Me: Then watch the door!

So he did. Hahahaha...my poor boss...the things we do to him!

And....if you're still with me...I was caller 11. That made it official- I've been every single caller, except 12. All we have left is this afternoon.....then we're out of luck! One of the three of us got through once, so his name is now in the draw for tickets...so at least we have a chance!

Anyways, thought you might enjoy my slightly funny story this morning. And I promise, after tomorrow night, the obsessive Johnny chatter will end :-P

Enjoy your Sunday!

The Countdown Is On......

Only 6 more days until I'm sitting a measley 17 rows away from....

JOHNNY REID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, I'm pretty excited :-)

Did everyone have a spooky Halloween? I was busy watching LOST reruns with my Dad, which was indeed, very spooky.... while my Mom worked on her pumpkin.

Here she is with the finished product....

Also, if you haven't visited Vonna's blog lately, please click over and check out her latest post about Love Quilts. It's a great cause...... http://thetwistedstitcher.blogspot.com/2010/11/showing-love.html

Well....I'm off to attempt some homework before heading out to work at the museum and a hilly night of running :-S

A Quote To Ponder.....

"Keep doin it. Don't stop. Human beings are lazy by nature so if you keep going, everybody else quits 'cause they're lazy, so you'll win by default." -Jennifer Nettles, Sugarland

I got a kick out of this quote...love it! And I think it speaks to the down-to-earth-ness of Sugarland. Yes, I'm a big fan...and, as big fans do after the release of a new CD, I'm obsessing. Just a little bit though :-P

My Week, In Pictures

Yep, I'm feeling pretty ambitious tonight, and thought I'd throw some pics into the mix! Not that I don't usually have pictures...um.....anyways......ack it's been a long day :-)

Last Thursday I embarked upon a very long journey....to London (Ontario) to visit my best friend Erin. I wasn't looking forward to the long, lonely 6 hour drive....but as luck would have it, Sugarland's new CD came out, so I had 2 wonderful companions with me on my drive....Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush! It was pretty awesome....until the SNOW hit! Yep....between Arthur and Listowel, it was blizzarding. Thank goodness it eventually stopped, I wasn't impressed! The windshield wiper on my side isn't working very well, and I have yet to purchase snow tires for my new car :-S

Anyways, I eventually arrived safe and sound, and we had a GREAT 6 day Frienaissance! LOL!

Erin bought some really tasty treats....like these chocolate covered blueberry and acai berries.....

And she cooked a Rachael Ray recipe....and if you know me, you know that I absolutely LOVE anything to do with Rachael Ray....it was called "Chicken Noodle Hold the Soup" and it was so so so good. I highly reccommend it- here's the link

http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/chicken-noodle-hold-soup/

 It looked like this:

Annnnd we walked around downtown, which is one of my favourite things to do in London. I can't pinpoint what exactly I love about it, but it has a great atmosphere. It has the excitement of Toronto without the extreme busy-ness. It rained during our walk, but it was actually a nice rain!

Oh, and we had a sushi feast! This is Erin enjoying a roll of some sort...we lost track of what all we were eating.

Now...onto the good stuff.......

London has an awesome cross stitch store called the Thread and Eye. They have a fantastic selection of patterns, floss, and other supplies and I look forward to this part of every trip I take to London. Here's what I bought...

Equally exciting is the fact that the store inspired Erin to learn to cross stitch! This is proof that if you drag a non-stitchy friend along to enough stitchy stores, they'll eventually cave and ask you to teach them...here she is with the project she picked up....

And finally......here's the little piece I've been working on lately.....

I'm home now, and sad to have left Erin behind....but I'm settling back into my routine of work, schoolwork, running, and the museum. There was WAY more time to stitch in London, since it was sort of like a holiday, than back here in boring old reality LOL!

Have a great weekend!!

I'm Alive!

Yep, you read right! I braved the 8am, -1 degree (with windchill), frigid cold and extremely HILLY 10 kilometer race through Cavan Hills! I've heard many horror stories about this race. One friend was passed by a very slow moving tractor during a trial run, another had to stop halfway through due to extreme leg pain caused by insane and constant hills. One reported a squirrel falling out of a tree right infront of her, landing on the road dead.

It wasn't quite as bad as all of the stories tell, but it WAS hard! It became much faster to walk the hills rather than try to run them, and once I figured this out I passed a lot of people and ended up having a pretty good time of 1 hour, 9 minutes! My normal 10k time is around 1 hour, 6 minutes so all things considered, I'm impressed! Especially since my whole group chickened out and left me to run it alone, and since through the first 3k I thought I was going to have to stop to treat my hands, which appeared to be frost-bitten! There were awesome snacks at the end too!



Here I am about to cross the finish line



And even more exciting than crossing the finish line: Tims coffee in hand, about to hit the snack table!



In stitchy news- I've started a new piece! I decided to stitch the logo, or my adaptation of it anyways, of my friend and my favourite show. We've spent many years watching it together, discussing it, and even obsessing about it at times. It's provided many, many hours of entertainment to us and I think I owe it to the show to stitch it to be kept forever! LOL, I'm a dork, I know! So anyways, I'm going to attempt to make it into a pillow when it's finished, for Erin. Here's the picture I'm basing my design on, and my progress to date:





A Finish

Well, here it is! My second finish of 2010! What can I say? It's been a slow year for finishes. But I'm super excited to have finished this, and am hoping to squeeze in a couple more before the year's over. This is "Little Cups of Friendship" by Lizzie Kate.

 

Today I started to stitch what I'm hoping will eventually be a pillow to give to a friend as a gift. I had a "vision" and sketched it out on graph paper. It looks pretty good so far...I thinking it'll only take a couple weeks.

I had a great relaxing/working weekend. I had turkey dinner with my parents after work on Saturday, and turkey dinner with my "second family" at their cottage after work on Sunday. It was a beautiful drive up to Apsley- the leaves were breathtaking...but so was the traffic. Today I slept in, then went back to my parent's house to hang out. I stitched all day, and had some mroe pumpkin pie, of course! Here's a pic for you to ponder:

Yep, there's a turkey under that pile of romaine! My Mom's friend swears that covering your left-over turked in lettuce leaves keeps it fresh and juicy. Imagine that!

I Smell Pumpkin Pie!!!

Who would have ever thought that one could use pumpkin pie as a torture technique? For future reference...oh yes, you can!

My employer has become a master-mind of pumpkin pie proportions! You see, fellow stitchers, I work in a salad bar...a cave, if you will, located deep in the dark corners of a grocery store, and Thanksgiving just happens to be one of our busiest weekends! So I spent my afternoon making millions of fruit and veggie trays in preperation......

So, where does the torture come in, you ask? It just so happens that the bakery's oven is built into the back of the wall that my counter is bolted to, and let me tell ya, that oven has one powerful ventilation system, sending the sweet, delicious scent of baking pumpkin pie at me in powerful waves all day long! And no! This isn't all! They also ran out of room in their cooler and had to use mine to store the pies after they had been baked. So alas, there was no escape for me!

And yes...I did resort to saying to the bakery manager, out of desperation of course, "so...I accidentally licked one of the pies. Do you think I should just eat it now?" He thought this was hilarious. I was only half-joking.

In stitchy news........

I'm almost finished stitching "Little Cups of Friendship." It's going great, and has been a really quick and easy pattern! I picked up the last colour I need this afternoon and, as soon as this post is posted, I plan to use said colour to finish it off! I also picked up a piece of BLACK aida cloth for a project I'm planning to start next week. I'm not sure how it'll go...I've never stitched on black before...you know, that darn fear of the unknown! And I don't really have a set pattern either. My brain knows what it should look like, so I plan to grab a piece of graph paper, sketch it out, and just....GO! 

Well, I'm scheduled for 2 days of work and 3 Thanksgiving dinners this weekend, so I better go get some stitching done now before all that turkey and pumpkin pie takes over my life!

A very happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving to you all!! See ya next week!

Wine, Sushi and Stitching!

That pretty much sums up my weekend! Let's start with a stitchy update. I've started working on the Tea Crazy collection by Lizzie Kate. I love these patterns! I bought them a while ago on a trip to visit my best friend in London and they've been sitting here, begging to be stitched, ever since! So here's my progress on Little Cups of Friendship:

This one is stitching up really quickly and I'm loving the colours!

Well, my weekend involved a lot of social type activities and not nearly enough homework or housework related activities...but I think that's okay once in a while!

On Friday a friend and I went to a winery in Buckhorn and did a little wine tasting! Among my favourites were Frosted Pumpkin wine, seasonal of course, Apple, Peach, and Apricot. Very, very good wine. The place was called Kawartha Country Winery- highly reccommend it!

On Saturday after work, Holly, Cait and I drove out to Burleigh Falls to look at the pretty fall foliage, have some lunch and ice cream, and walk around in the woods. Sunday after work the older couple who live upstairs took me out for a delicious sushi lunch...YUM! And today I visited my parents, where I accomplished a great deal of stitching! So...back to work tomorrow for a busy, busy Thanksgiving week!!

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Douglas

I wanted to share with you all a picture my cousin Caroline drew last weekend... because I think it's amazing.

She named him Douglas, and drew him from a random picture of a bald eagle she found.

Caroline is only 18, and to draw something so life-like and detailed is so impressive, I'm very proud of her and her talents!

She's a wonderful artist and I can't wait to see what she draws next: owls, I think :-)

Pincushions

Hey everyone! I hope you're all having a good week so far :-)

Well, I have a bit of a problem. Not so much a problem as a general situation I guess. I have a tendancy to put needles in my mouth when I need both hands to do something. This irritates the people around me so much that I'm constantly being nagged at by whoever's around. And then there's the other issue of trying to talk while said needle is in my mouth. It falls of course, never to be found again. So, after losing so many needles that I had to resort to borrowing them from the museum gift shop office, I've decided that I need a puncushion. I think I'd like to make one though- it seems fitting.

I remember reading on a cross stitch blog that someone had made some. Stitched the top and maybe attached it to a mason jar lid? Does anyone remember reading that, or writing about it? If so, please point me in the right direction! And if anyone out there has any idea of where to find some instructions or patterns for them, I'd love to hear from you!

Now, onto the good stuff. I made a little bit of progress on Earl Grey this week. Here's an updated pic:

Sorry it's so dark...I should really work on taking pictures during the day rather than at night! So, as you can see, just a small amount of progress has been made this week. There is a leaf on the left-hand side that is in the process of being ripped out because apparently I can't count. Again. Haha...this is a theme!

I'm thinking about starting one of my Lizzie Kate teacup patterns this weekend...I bought them back in March or April and I can hear them calling to me. Yes, my patterns DO talk to me :-)

Water For Elephants

Have any of you guys read this book? I just finished it today and was pretty blown away by it! My friend Erin gave it to me just about a year ago now and it sat in my pile of "to read" books until last week. I just kept rotating it to the bottom of the pile, for no apparent reason except for the fact that it didn't seem to grab my attention. Lots of people reccommended it but after reading the back, I just didn't think I'd be into it.

A couple weeks ago I heard that Robert Pattinson was going to be playing the main character in the film adaptation of this book, and....what with my Twilight obsession and all, I was very excited. I have this need to always read a book before I watch the movie so I dug it out of the pile and started reading it. I figured I'd just read a couple of pages every night until I finished...but I ended up devouring it in a few days.

The writing is impeccible. A critic wrote that the writing style and storyline are reminiscent of Robertson Davies, and one of my favourite books happens to be his Fifth Buisness, and this critic was so right....they were so similar! The storyline pulled me in and I was so into the characters that I couldn't put it down. I was also fascinated by the history it gives of what it was like to work on a circus and live that sort-of exotic lifestyle.

Anyways, I just thought I'd share...I highly reccommend this for anyone who isn't sure what to read next!

Earl Grey Update and Erin's Secret Project!

Hey everyone!



So old Earl is just about finished, finally! I was afraid for a little while that the Cross-Stitched Donkey's Aid Society was going to come take him away from me for neglect, but thankfully they didn't, and he's looking okay. He still needs some hooves and eyes, and the flower needs stems, but for the most part, he's done! Oh, and there's the issue of the the minor surgery I need to perform because of that third ear he seems to have. I guess I got chatting and wasn't paying enough attention to what I was doing. Poor Earl.

As for Erin's secret project, it's no longer a secret. She's seen it, but it still isn't quite finished. This past winter she was obsessed with the olympics, big time, and was annoyed because she was looking everywhere for olympic clothes and everyone was sold out. So I stitched her a little olympic pattern and am going to make it into a little pillow. I don't know how to do that yet, which is why it's still not finished. I'll soon try to figure that out so that the next time I see her she can finally keep it. I'm really happy with how this turned out. It originally was set inside the outline of a donkey, but I took it out and rearranged it a little differently. Caitlyn is working on her own now...it's the perfect size of a project for a 10 year old, and she's keeping her's inside the donkey!

Well, that's all for now....have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Fall!!

....almost!!

Well, summer's slowly coming to an end, and I thought I'd take this cold, rainy September day as my chance to re-enter the blog world! And I'm happy to be back! The summer just got so busy that I couldn't read blogs or post on mine.....so I'm definately excited to catch up on what you're all working on!

Hmmm...where to start? How about a short review of my summer! Well...there were a couple cottage weekends, a couple races, my Dad developed some pretty serious health problems, there were a couple of deaths, I bought a new car, I spent a couple long-weekends with my Grandpa, worked a LOT, and ended the summer with an 11 day trip to the East Coast with my best friend Erin! Here's a pictoral review to supplement my very short written review hahaha.....



My parents at a memorial for a friend

Peggy's Cove



Me and Erin at the Hopewell Rocks, Bay of Fundy

We ran into Stephen Harper in Lunenburg

And we met Anne of Green Gables in Charlottetown

Me finishing the Heydenshore 10k

We camped right on the ocean a few times

We obsessively and admiringly spent a day at Green Gables in Cavendish

And a day at this deserted cove in North Rustico, PEI

My Mom grew a giant Castor Bean...

My group before the Kawartha Lakes 5k

We sat in the rain for 2 hours to be this close to George Canyon...and it was worth it!

And that's it! For now anyways :-) Stay tuned....tomorrow I'll post CRAFTY pics! Yeah!!! Earl Grey travelled all the way to the East Coast and back with me, and now he's almost finished! I won't lie...he never left the car, but he's almost finished nonetheless! And he's lookin good! Thanks for sticking with me, and watch for Earl tomorrow!! :-)