Busy, busy, busy!

Christmas is almost here and I think each and every one of us can agree, we're VERY busy right now. Friday night I very gladly turned off my 6AM alarm until January 6th!

I didn't realize it's been about two weeks since I last posted. I've done a little stitching, a little more finishing, out for lunches, breakfasts, parties, and getting ready for Christmas.

In the last two weeks I stitched and/or finished a few more ornaments.



I did the finishing on this last Lizzie Kate, just a simple beaded edge on this one.







I stitched up this ornament and finished it for my friend Tracey's sister. It's double sided from Rosewood Manor's Red Threads. This is stitched on mystery fabric using Carrie's Hearts on Fire. Again, finished with a simple beaded edge.



I stitched up this little piece at my Sister's request. She keeps asking me for a rude cross stitch. I thought this fit the bill nicely. This little pattern is from the book Subversive Cross Stitch, which is full of all kinds of not so nice sayings but with pretty flowers and what not. I've stitched this on 28ct white lugana using DMC and using Carrie's Hearts on Fire, Blue Dreams and Sassy.



I just finished up Dragon Dreams 2013 Holiday Treat! This chart can be found on the Dragon Dreams Facebook page. It is so cute and I'm very happy with the fabric I picked, 28ct Bedazzled Blur Lugana. I've stitched it with the recommended threads.













Last weekend I finally put up our Christmas tree! It's been a few years... I always find it best to put it up in stages.... First just the tree, so that the cats can check it out/climb/chew on it.



After an hour or two I'll decorate it. I've decided it was best not to put anything breakable on it as Zeus likes to chew on our fake tree!



I know I've mentioned in the past I work in a school. This last week we had spirit week, each day is a different dress-up theme. I think I totally rocked ugly sweater day! I stole Todd's Toronto Maple Leafs jersey, I got a lot of great reactions. To help you understand if you're not into NHL hockey, out local team is the Ottawa Senators and one of our biggest rivals is the Leafs! I've found you either love or hate them.

I'm now into the final preparations for having my family over on Christmas Eve, the first without our Mum. I've not changed anything from what we've done in the past. Hopefully we'll still enjoy the evening.


- thanks for reading!

1/3rd Of A Happy Dance

Yesterday afternoon on Facebook Dragon Dreams released part one (of three) the 2013 Holiday Treat. When Jennifer started hinting on Facebook that a freebie was on the way I had pictures in my head of a snowball fight.



Look! Jennifer delivered! The start of a Dragonlet Snowball fight!!!! This is sooo cute! I can't wait for part 2 on the 17th!

Besides my choice of fabric, I did add a little personalization. I felt the unicorn's horn needed a little backstitch on an angle.

- thanks for reading!

Ornamentification Part 2

I seem to have found my finishative and I've been working away at reducing my pile of ornaments that need finishing. Normally I do this sort of thing assembly-line style. This time I'm tackling them one at a time, and I'm finding this way I'm putting a little more flair into each finish.



I'm especially fond of this little fellow! This is Dragon Dreams 11th day of Christmas Dragonlet. These guys were free via the Dragon Dreams Facebook page last year. I stitched up this wee guy in honour of my Scottish ancestry. I just love how the finishing turned out, that he's sitting on a plaid fabric similar to the tartan on his tam and bagpipes. The cord is made with one of the DMC colours used in the Dragonlet, and I just love the jingle bells I added which were two different sizes.



My next finish is this little Lizzie*Kate Tiny Tidings that I stitched up a while ago. When considering what finishing touches to add to this one, I came across this great wired pom pom trim with silver tinsel. Again, just perfect.




- thanks for reading!

Crazy Challenge Day 14 (Almost Done!)

Saturday was the second to last day of the Crazy Challenge (15 starts in 15 days), today is the last and I've got my final start (and my biggest) well underway.  I'll either blog about it before bed tonight, or tomorrow after work.

Sun Dragon by Teresa Wentzler the colours aren't very rich in this picture

Stitched on mystery fabric using DMC

My last "small" piece to be started was Teresa Wentzler's Sun Dragon.  I can't remember if this was a class or a freebie we were given one year at the Creativ Festival in Toronto.  This one was a companion to Jennifer Aikman-Smith of Dragon Dream's Moon Dragon which I had stitched some time ago, back in 2007.

Moon Dragon by Jennifer Aikman-Smith of Dragon Dreams

Stitched on mystery fabric using DMC floss and Kreinik #4 braid

Companion to TW's Sun Dragon

Zeus was being a cutie again, so let me share some pictures with you!

Rebbecca's Stitchy Weekend Report

Sorry its taken me a little longer than expected to give you my report.  I've been down and out for the last 24 hours with a migraine.

Now onto the good stuff!

Friday night after work Christin and I hopped into my car and made the drive down to Rebecca's place just outside of Kingston.  Bonnie had beaten us there, but we were taking our time, stopping for dinner and to buy a new pair of shoes (me).  Rebecca's Mom Sylvia was also staying for the weekend, the four of us stitched until almost midnight Friday night.

Saturday was such a nice sunny day (for the first time in ages) that before the bulk of the stitchers arrived, I got my gear on and went for a nice 10K run.  It was a great run, beautiful country roads, and perfect temperatures!

Saturday was the main get together for the weekend.  We were joined by Trista, who was there for such a short while that I didn't get a chance to take her picture.  Of course Rebbecca and well, her picture didn't really turn out so I don't have one to share of her.  In attendance were a lot of the usual suspects!

Bonnie, she spent most of the day working on Paradigm Lost

So did Christin

Kathy Happy Danced with a San man Design

Beatrice had the same Happy Dance!

Sylvia worked on a variety of projects, but I was most fascinated with the Bunka piece she was working on

Barb was stitching up a storm with some ornaments

Beth joined us for the afternoon and was working on a gorgeous piece I don't know the designer!

On Saturday I finished up the Fire block on Art Deco Spirits

Now at the half way point!

I do also have some small happy dances to share with you!

'Tis Red

c2010 La-D-Da

2010 Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue

Stitched with DMD 115

Stitched on mystery linen, it actually looks green

Needle Wizard Needlecase - class piece

c2008 Dragon Dreams - Creativ Festival

Stitched with : DMC, Caron Waterlillies, #4 braid

Stitched on : 28ct Mushroom Jazlyn

WIP Progress and Retro Photo Hunt

Its the middle of the week, I know, I know and I'm finally sharing my weekend stitching progress.  I managed to have a fairly quiet and low key weekend (I know rare for this girl).  I took advantage of having some time to stitch and time to just rest!  So let's get down to business!

I worked on several projects this weekend.

I spent the majority of my waking time working on Art Deco Spirits, I've finally gotten through those huge blocks of white, black and grey.  Of course I've moved onto more grey.

I gave Enchantment of Winter a little bit of attention as well.  I got a little tired of counting around and putting in gold confetti here and there so I pulled out the lovely purple silk and worked with that instead.

I also had a travel project, it really wasn't moving very quickly and didn't look like much until after a little needle time this weekend.  This is a class piece from the Creativ Festival given by Jennifer Aikman-Smith of Dragon Dreams when I last went a few years ago.  I'll give you more details on my next post, right now I'm too lazy to get up and go get it!  I have way too many class pieces waiting to be stitched up. But then who doesn't have a lot of projects waiting to be started?

Now how about a retro photo hunt?  This is from the end of August 2009, "Surprise"

In March of this year my friend Ann turned 60 and with my help and that of a few others her husband was able to throw her a fantastic surprise party!  Ann was shocked and overjoyed when she saw that her family had made the 3 hour drive to be there too!  Ann's reaction was the BEST surprise party reaction I have ever witnessed!  Here she is with one of her brothers.

My run is coming up father than I thought it ever would now, its this Sunday!  I am very proud to say I have surpassed my fundraising goal this year!  My total is over $1100.00 all going to Breast Cancer research!  Thank you to many of you fantastic readers who have made online donations!  There is still plenty of time to make a donation if you wish!  Click HERE to go to my personal donation page.

Productive Weekend

Well as my blog title says, I had a productive weekend! A fair amount of Saturday was doing two framing jobs. Here they are :

When I wasn't busy framing on Satruday I was working on my Ivy (Holly & Ivy Ornaments) Ornament. I was able to pick up my ornament this morning and finish it in the early afternoon today (Sunday).

The Holly & The Ivy - Ivy Side

c2008 Dragon Dreams

Stitched on : 28ct Mushroom Jazlyn

Stitched with : DMC & Kreinik #4 Braid

When that was finished I saw this lovely ornament on Carol's blog and decided, this was going to be my next start. I even managed to finish it tonight! The "dots" inside the border of the ornament was charted to be a stitch, but I decided to use a bead instead to "jazz" it up a little.

The Red Noel Ornament

Maryse Dupont - Gift of Stitching November 2008

Stitched on : mystery 28ct evenweave

Stitched with : DMC 4210, Mill Hill 03003 Beads

I think I might now have enough ornaemnts for gifts this Christmas... tomorrow I'll make up my list and make sure!

Oh and there are days... I wish I was a cat! Hunter makes it look so easy.

An Ornament Progresses

There's not really much to say tonight, nothing exciting to tell you. So I'll just show you how I've come along with my ornament this evening.

All Scotched Out

Unfortunately no exciting finishes tonight! I came home after work with the start of a migraine so I put myself to bed for a few hours. I got up with enough time for a quick dinner and I went off to Taekwon-Do, it was a great class... sweated lots and loved it!

I managed to get in maybe about an hour's worth of stitching tonight, and conquered the scotch stitch on the Ivy half of my Holly & Ivy ornament. Now its onto lattice stitches ... all the way around, again.

50 Pounds! Its Official!!!!!

Oh Happy Day! Oh Happy Day!

I couldn't make it to my WW meeting tonight because I was going out to dinner with some of my co-workers and administration. Luckily for me, there's a Weight Watchers Center not too far from my place of work so I made a point to go weigh in before tonight's dinner. I was quite happy to be told that I had stayed the same this week! Yes, I managed to keep off each and every one of the five pounds I lost last week after having the flu! This makes it official, I've lost FIFTY POUNDS! Yeee hawwww!!! Now, only 22 lbs to go to goal!

Tonight when I got home, of course I stitched :-D When am I not stitching, besides being at work or sleeping? In all honesty I should of pulled out an ornament I started back in October, its the Ivy half of the Holly & Ivy ornament I stitched awhile ago. But I just didn't feel like facing all those scotch stitches (whose idea where they by the way... Teresa? Jennifer?). So I pulled out this cute little freebie off of the Dragon Dreams website newsletter!

2008 Candy Cane Dragonlet

c2008 Dragon Dreams

Stitched on 32 Platinum Lugana using DMC

Its Been a Good Day!

First we'll start with the exciting stuff... stitching! Since the class has now been taught I can share with you A Dragon's Lullaby by Dragon Dreams! This was a lot of fun to stitch, it will eventually be released on Patterns Online

Dragon's Lullaby

c2008 Jennifer Aikman-Smith

Stitched on 28ct Lugana

Stitched with DMC, Kreinik #4 Braid, Caron Waterlillies, Mill Hill Beads

Next I went shopping for something to wear this Saturday night at retreat. Saturday's dinner has traditionally been dress-up but its not mandatory. I was hoping for some cheap little black dress but I didn't really want to spend the money on something I won't be able to fit into a few months from now (perhaps next year?). I ended up finding a nice pair of black slacks and a top. Get this... the top is a SMALL!!!! I'll get someone to take my picture... I got my hair cut two weekends ago and I haven't shared that with you either! Tomorrow night I get to pack my bag so I can leave after work on Friday!!!


Today I finally made the call to join one of the gym franchises. Through my employer I get a corporate rate to one of the gyms. The memberships run for a full year ending January 31st. So this way I was able to join for 3 months (since all memberships expire Jan 31st) at a reduced rate. This way I can try out a gym without throwing away too much money if I don't like it. My membership starts on November 1st, I hope I like it.


Now here's the truly exciting news! I am officially TKDchick once again!!!! I went to my first Taekwon-Do class in a year and a half! So far my foot has held up very nicely. The true test will be tomorrow when I get out of bed... will it hurt or not. The class was great and my dobok (uniform) is too big! It was GREAT to be back and so nice to be welcomed back!

Oh and the not so good news. The scales were not kind to me at all this week, I gained 2.5lbs! I know last week's loss was abnormal. But its still a little disappointing. I can only hope that this weekend's extravagance won't lead to another gain at the scale.

Presenting... Indigo!!!

*Shake*Shake*Shake*

*Shake*Shake*Shake*

Shake your booty!!!!

Yup ladies and gents, I am happy dancing here in Brighton today! I tried my best to finish Moonlight Guardian (aka : Indigo) last night. But my poor eyes got the best of me and I had to stop for the night just after completing the backstitching. However I prevailed today and finished up the beading during Ann's Thursday Stitching Group! It was wonderful to share my happy dance with about 13 other stitchers in the room! So often we celebrate our happy dances alone, at home.

Moonlight Guardian (Indigo)

c Dragon Dreams

Stitched on 28ct Blue Spruce Linen

Stitched using DMC Rayon & Cotton, Krenik #4 Braid, Caron Waterlillies, and Mill Hill Beads

Also what better day to celebrate a HD than on a good friend's Birthday! Happy 60th Birthday Beatrice! We celebrated with cake and tea during stitching today.

I also wanted to share a picture with you of Adriana, Beatrice's Mom who at almost 92 (next week) is still stitching... on evenweave! Here she is showing two of her latest finishes and getting ready to start a third in the same series!

While stitching at Ann's I've been quite entertained by this nest of baby robins whose parents made their nest in Dan's ladder. Poor Dan, he needed it at one point but just couldn't disturb the nest!

Last weekend I took a picture of the view off of the deck where I stitch when I'm at the cottage. Isn't this just a heavenly place to stitch?

Last but not least... this wouldn't be a genuine post from Ann's without a picture of one of the girlie dogs. Here's Paddy all pooped after this afternoon's company!