Picture This....

I was over at Holly's last night for dinner, and asked if I could see the progress she's made on Frosty. She replied "wait, look the other way and I'll get set up, you can see how I work on him!"

I laughed because she mentioned something about a magnifying glass, and was curious. So I turned the other way and chatted with Cait, who was laughing her butt off...and then she said she was ready.

So....

She has a large magnifying glass resting on her chest (it kind of has a stand), which is secured in place by a string thats been tied to both sides of the magnifying glass and looped around her neck. She's holding the hoop under the magnifying glass with a little light clipped to the top, and smiling at me like a crazy person.

Poor Frosty must be so confused :-)

I'm going to try to sneak a picture next time hahaha....wish me luck with that!

Boston Cream Timbits?!

Yep...I know what you're thinking...there's no such thing!

But wait...there is!

I'm currently training for a 5k race with the Running Room. Tuesday nights are clinic nights, so only the people in my group are there, but Wednesday nights are training nights, so EVERYONE is there...from Learn to Run people all the way up to marathon people.

Well, this past Wednesday a few people from my club had just returned from running in the Boston Marathon and to celebrate, the Running Room people specially ordered a ton of bostom cream timbits, which they don't make usually, but agreed to make specially for us. So after our runs we all got a timbit!

I'm telling you, these were the most adorable little timbits I've EVER seen! I wish Tims would make them on a regular basis becuase I want more!

Just thought I'd share...I bet you want one now too :-)

AHHHHHHH Johnny Reid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holly and I have been obsessively listening to Johnny Reid for months now. When one of his songs come on the radio at work everyone else knows they have to shut up so we can hear every single word, and whoever is closest to the radio knows that if we yell "JOHNNY!" they have to turn it up. Simply put, he is an amazing singer with a rare raw talent, and we love him!!!!

So imagine our excitement when, one very happy day last week, he announced new tour stops, and one of them included Oshawa, which is only an hour away!!!! I freaked, called Holly...she freaked, and we agreed that we would try to get the best tickets possible. This involved me getting up at 3am to start work at 4 in order to be finished by 11. Tickets went on sale at 10, but there was no way I could swing that. WELL......

We got tickets in row 17!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH! Sooo close! We are SO excited!!!!!!

Too bad the concert isn't until November LOL!

Frosty Goes On Vacation!

...Sir Frederick Frosty, that is!

Frosty has decided to take a little vacation, at my friend Holly's house! She finished stitching a Christmas stocking for her daughter Caitlyn a couple months ago, but hasn't started another project.

Since I started workingo n Frosty, I frequently joke that Holly could take him and work on him for a while. She quite often talks about different projects she and her sister in-law stitched together in the past, and I would always respond with "let's work on Frosty together!" and she always laughs and says "no way, I can't even see the holes in your cloth!"

But things took an interesting turn last week while another friend and I were discussing our current projects and Holly got jealous that she didn't have anything to work on. She then asked if she could work on Frosty while I worked on the donkey. And she was serious!!! So the next day I ceremoniously handed Frosty over for a little vacation at Holly's house. She was very scared to start working on him, but I told her that although he's intimidating, deep down he's just as scared of her as she is of him hahaha. And that night, I received some pretty humorous text messeges about her progress:

"I can't see. Seriously I CANT see! I'm going to search for a magnifying glass"

"I can't do it! Haha it's not funny, I'm blind! It took me all that time to do 3 stitches holding a magnifying glass. Going somewhere after work to buy a proper magnifying glass."

"Oh man my eyes feel like they are 90. I've stitched for an hour, and you can't tell at all. I'm so impressed you've done all that!"

Since that first day Holly has bought a clip-on light up magnifying glass, and is making better progress :-) I was extremely amused by her reaction to Frosty.

I started a little project on Friday, and finished stitching it today. It's a secret! It's for my best friend Erin who sometimes reads this blog, so I can't tell you all what it is or show you a picture until I give it to her. But it turned out really well...it's cute, and I'm excited about it!

Progress on Earl Grey (Singing Free) has been slow, but not bad. I'm working a little bit every day, and having a blast! The name Earl Grey came from Tina from http://borderlineexpress.blogspot.com and I love it! She pointed out that it was perfect since I love donkeys, and tea, and I agree!!

Well, I think that's the extent of my stitching for the past week! I hope you all have a wonderful night :-)

A Question

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any good figure skating themed patterns.

The owner of the store I work in is a fellow cross-stitcher, and she's desperately looking for one, but she says that none of the ones she's seen have been very nice. She's looking for something nice, but not too intricate. I was rambling about the great patterns I've found on blogs, and she asked me to keep my eyes open for her.

If you guys know of any that you could link me (and her) to, that would be great, and very much appreciated!!

Thanks :-)

My Trip to London

As I mentioned earlier, I just got home from visiting my best friend Erin in London for the last 5 days. I feel like I haven't been in months between being in Southampton and London...but I didn't have much of a choice about timing, becuase starting tomorrow I have to work 6 days/week until the end of July. That makes me sad. LOL!

I worked Wednesday morning, then stopped at Holly's for pie and coffee. I then departed on the daunting 5 hour drive to London. I know it isn't THAT far, but when you're alone and have the boredom issues I have, it seems really, really long.

On Thursday Erin had school for most of the day. She's taking Landscape Design at Fanshawe College, which I think looks really cool. So I went with her and tried to get as much of my own school work done in the library while she was in class. After she was finished school we went to Chapters to read magazines, which is one of our most favourite things to do. We also tried to plan our upcoming summer trip to Eastern Canada (mostly PEI I think?) but we didn't get much done. We eventually realized that it was like 8pm and we had been there far too long, and decided to go get some dinner.

On Friday I went for a plant walk with her class, which would have been interesting if I knew how to speak Latin hahaha. I was a little lost. And cold. I somehow forgot to bring a winter coat with me. So I layered and layered until I could hardly move, and was warm. Until it started snowing. Yep, that's right, it snowed ALL day. After her plant walk we walked around downtown, and found a really cool indoor market. And inside the market was the Tea Haus, which was filled with hundreds of different loose leaf teas. We spent a LONG time in there.

We then continued our walk and ended up a little lost, becuase we kept following pretty things and had wondered much further than we thought. By the time we got back, we were exhausted and did nothing.

On Saturday we went to a cross stitch store called Thread and Eye. This was definately the highlight of my trip, aside from seeing Erin of course. I immediately noticed Lizzie Kate patterns, which the stores in Peterborough don't carry, so I was excited. I bought this one:

I was conflicted between this one, and a very similar one that was coffee themed because it's a long running joke among my friends that I have a major coffee problem. When I go away on vacation or to visit I generally don't keep up with my coffee quota, which concerns the people I'm with because apparently I need it. LOL! But on the other hand, tea is something that I ENJOY rather than need, and I have several friends who also enjoy tea, so this one will be more useful...I can stitch for myself AND for my fellow tea-loving friends :-)

And, Erin just happened to find a donkey pattern! I LOVE donkeys...you could even say I have a passion for donkeys. I don't know why, I just do. I collect donkey anything, and this pattern will make an excellent addition to my donkey stash!

I went to Michaels today and picked up the floss I need. I actually decided to change his colour to grey rather than brown so that he'll look like the grey donkeys I met in Oatman Arizona last summer.

Now...my singing donkey needs a name....... :-)

My Trip to Southampton (A VERY Late Easter Post)

I know, I'm very behind on my posting, so I figured I might as well not procrastinate any further!

So...back to Easter!

 I went to Southampton to visit my Grandpa for a few days, which was really nice! I love this town...it's very beachy, on the shores of Lake Huron. People are very friendly, and there always seems to be something to do because it's very touristy. And I love to see my Grandpa too!

I had the most amazing run while we were there. The weather was unseasonably nice, it was like 24 degrees celcius, sunny, beautiful. So I set my ipod on Johnny Reid and we ran together on the beach LOL! It was heavenly. BUT...I hurt my ankle. I don't know how it happened, but as soon as I stopped it started aching, swelled up to the size of a small apple, and I couldn't stand on it at all. This gave me a much-needed reason to put my feet up and stitch Frosty, which I did for the remaining two days.

My Grandpa, who makes me laugh, has never rolled up a Tim Horton's rim before. So I made him roll mine. As you can see, he is not impressed during the roll, and not surprised that he didn't win anything. This emphasized his point that I'm ridiculous. Or so he thinks hahaha.

I came back to Peterborough on Sunday to have dinner with Holly's family, which was delicious, and then back to my parents house on Monday for another turkey, which appeased my Dad and Cooper. So, it was a pretty eventful Easter this year :-)

I'm Back...

Hi everyone!

Well, I'm back! I've been gone for what feels like forever! I visited my Grandpa in Southampton for 3 days around Easter, then had to come back here to work for a couple days, then I visited my best friend Erin in London for 5 days. I just got home tonight, after a very long and boring 5 hour drive, and I'm exhausted! I had a great time in London...Erin's the kind of friend who when I'm with her, I almost feel complete. This sounds really corny, I know, but it is what it is. We did a lot, and I'll tell you all about it tomorrow!

I also managed to make it to a cross stitch store in London, and I can't wait to show you all the awesome pattern I bought...I'm so excited about it, I'm going to start stitching it tomorrow.

AND....yes, I worked on Frosty quite a bit too! Woohoo! I think you can almost see another branch :-)

Well, I'm off to bed, I'm sooo tired, and have to get set for work, a run, sushi with Shantal, grocery shopping, laundry, cross stitching, etc, etc, etc!

Will blog more tomorrow.