Ready... Set....

Not quite GO just yet!

For many years now I've had the tradition of starting a new project on New Year's Day. Slowly over the years my stitching friends have joined me and it's become an group event and we either agree on a project that we're all going to start or a theme.







This year's chart that we agreed upon was one that I picked up when I visited Stitcher's Garden back at the end of July. I had flown to Charleston SC out of Syracuse, NY and on my return is landed early enough that I had time to FINALLY stop at the LNS in Syracuse!



The stop was made extra special when Melinda and Erin (fellow bloggers) took time out of their busy day to meet me there! I can assure you I think I heard my Visa whimper a little! It's a great shop and I'm looking forward to going back at some point.



Anyhow, I digress.... The chart we agreed upon is Bent Creek's Stitching Row! For some reason this was a new to us chart though we discovered the design is about 2-3 years old. It so flew under my radar or I would of bought it ages ago!



Now I have to say in usual Bent Creek style the colours are.... Unremarkable. So I spend a good hour in my craft room (yes be jealous I have a whole room for my stash!), pulling out my 28ct fabrics I've got so much the drawer is about to spew all over the floor. Once I narrowed down the fabrics to 3 I played with fibres and narrowed it down to a piece of old Sugar Maple Fabrics I got years ago. The colour is called Moon Princess, love the mottling on this piece. Now the purples I've selected are for the letters, silver for the swirls, of course as I start stitching I may need to revise my choices as I go.

Of course now that this is all kitted up... I REALLY want to start it, but I'll restrain myself, New Year's is almost here!


Hunter was just looking so adorable today.....

- thanks for reading!

Ornament Frenzy

My little Lizzie Kate ornament last week started a bit of a landslide over the weekend. 

In the space of two days I have stitched up three more LK ornaments!  All of these are from the chart Tiny Tidings IV. 

These are stitched on 32ct Belfast Dirty Linen using a combination of GAST, DMC, and #4 braid. 

Hunter helped me with the snowman. 

Kitty Cats and Happy Dances

My exchange ornament is done, but of course I can't share it with you just yet. I also haven't done the finishing on it yet. I'll have to get that done this weekend. 

After finishing that last night, I kitted up another quick ornament to stitch. Here it is in progress, while Hunter was having a little lap time today. 

This of course was a super quick stitch so it quickly became a Happy Dance!

Is It Christmas Yet?

Tiny Tidings IV

c1999 Lizzie Kate

Stitched over one on 25ct sand/gold lugana

Stitched with: Waterlillies Emerald, Silk n' Colors In the burgundy, #4 braid 002v

This evening I worked on a project I picked up earlier this month, and it's a fundraiser for the Ottawa Valley Guild of Stitchery. Zeus seems to be an evening lap kitty. 

I happened to finish it off tonight as well!  It should of all been done in black, but I liked the idea of putting the word Ottawa in red. 

Blackwork Bag

c Claire Todd - OVGS

Stitched on 32ct antique white lugana

Stitched with DMC 310 and Carrie's Creations Colonial Red

It was nice to get a few things done. 

IHSW Review

Hunter was enjoying the beautiful evening tonight

 

I'm a little behind in my IHSW report which was this past weekend.  It was a long weekend, I was off Saturday-Monday.  Which allowed for a lot of stitching time!

I didn't hermit too much, once again as I had stitching friends over Friday-Sunday.  My main focus this past weekend was to finish up an exchange piece, which I did Sunday morning.  Of course I can't share it with you just yet.  Sadly no pictures of this HD just yet.

???

Stitched on: 28ct Antique Green Jazlyn

Stitched with: DMC 75

Sunday afternoon I started working on my ornament for the month of May.  I really should of posted my progress of this piece on Monday night, which by that time I was just over 1/2 way stitched up.  But, I didn't I kept stitching away and look, its now a HD!  Sadly I have no information for this piece as its a printout from a few years ago with no information on it.

Letter D

Rosewood Manor

Stitched on: 14ct Aida

Stitched with: DMC

I have a second HD to share with you, this I stitched up tonight.  Its an initial block, for the friendship quilt I'm having put together.  I found out the other day we needed one more stitched block so an initial block it is.

I took a few other great pictures on the weekend I wanted to share with you.

 Ferns almost all unfurled!

Dwarf Irises have bloomed

 

 Bleeding hearts

Caught this bumble bee in action

PhotoHunt - Bliss

This week's theme is "bliss"

This is my cat Hunter and there is an absolute look of kitty-bliss on his face as he enjoys a patch of warm sunshine on a winters afternoon.  Oh to have the life of a cat!

Things Could Be Better Than This

Well my body did hang in until just after Christmas and earlier this week I woke up with a sore throat, I've been sick ever since.  Today is day 4 of being sick!  Yesterday we did go out and have lunch with Christin and do a little post-Christmas shopping... if you ask me there weren't a lot of great deals out there.  I don't know if that's just a sign of the times or the fact that we didn't hit the stores until Thursday when Boxing Day sales started on Monday.  Going out yesterday just did me in!  Lunch and 4 shops later and I was exhausted!

Since I've kept a low profile while on my Christmas Break (yay sick!) I have been stitching away when I haven't been sleeping.  I did finally finish the over one back stitch on Enchantment of Winter and I've proceeded to the right hand side of the Egg.  Still lots to go!

I don't know why my pictures came out so blue, its not really *that* blue, the full picture is more of a true sense of the colours of this piece.

Before I've let myself pick up EOW I've been completing 10x10 on my BAP, The Accolade.  Right now the page I'm working on is mainly 3371, talk about exciting!  Actually after working on the golds in EOW there's something therapeutic about working with one colour and its only for a short while each day so its not really driving me that batty... yet.

I hope you stitchers out there are ready for the start of 2012!  I know there are ort jars to be emptied, SALs to start!  There are challenges out there like the Crazy Challenge (see previous post) or WIPocalypse 2012!  Hopefully its enough to keep everyone motivated, stitching and blogging the whole year through.

I was looking forward to starting Ink Circles Four Seasons Mandalas in person with Rebbecca at midnight on the 1st of January.  However, between this cold and the weather man calling for freezing rain, we've cancelled this year's road trip down to Kingston!  This is the first time in about 4 years we haven't gotten together on New Year's even to stitch the New Year in.  Of course I also don't want to get her or her little boys sick!

So the Treadmill Saga continues : the part needed to fix the broke foot wouldn't be in stock until January 31st 2012 so they have finally agreed to order us a brand spanking new treadmill.  That should be arriving sometime on/after January 4th, that will be a full month after we paid for the damned thing!  This one will be delivered (again) free of cost and they're taking the assembled one away.

On Christmas Eve we went out and bought a new washing machine, as I type the delivery guy is pulling into our driveway!  Yay!  We're actually going to be getting a brand new one off of the floor because the new one that would of come from the warehouse didn't arrive on time because they got snowed in earlier in the week and deliveries couldn't go out.  The price had also dropped on the washer on Boxing Day and was going to be in effect until the 27th.  Since we knew the store was closed on Monday Todd made the trip out on Tuesday to get our price adjustment... turns out they decided to be closed for an extra day!  What the heck!!!  So I called the national customer service center and a cheque is now in the mail to us, a savings of $169.00.  I feel like every major purchase we've made lately has gone sideways.  Hopefully this purchase won't give us any problems once its in and installed!

I'm going to leave you with some adorable pictures of Hunter, he was enjoying a lovely patch of sunshine yesterday!

Its A Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

I'd like to wish all my fellow Canadians a very Happy Thanksgiving!  What a Thanksgiving weekend we're going to have here in the Ottawa Valley, the weather forecast is spectacular, sun and hot, hot, hot!  So it doesn't feel like Thanksgiving weekend at all.  Since my Mum still isn't strong enough to put on the full holiday meal I offered to put on a roast chicken dinner for my family tomorrow.  We don't do turkey or ham in this family so I'm going to cook three chickens, and to make my life easier I've cooked the first of three tonight and I'll cook the other two tomorrow.  So the house is clean and I've got as much food prepped as possible.  Tonight's roast chicken is actually my first!  That's right, and it looks so yummy!  I mean why would I cook a whole chicken for just Todd and me?

I started off the long weekend with making it an extra long weekend.  I took today off of work, and I put it to good use!  I spent hours cleaning the house and prepping food.  I've been so busy doing this and that today, that I've had a hard time settling down into my stitching.  I did stop and take a picture of my Prarie Schooler WIP before I picked it up today.  I'll show you what progress I do make this long weekend, sometime Monday night.

Check out the look on Hunter's face, he is trying to look so innocent!

I think the cats have just loved it having me home today!  Oh boy they were entertaining.  When I first brought Zeus home there was a lot of growling and spitting on Hunter's part... also the odd swat.  Hunter was not pleased.  Now that Zeus has been here for almost seven months, I see moments where they're "getting along".  Also usually the trouble maker is Zeus, but I'm seeing moments where Hunter is being the instigator.

This only lasted for about ten minutes... both of them on the back of my stitching chair.

I hope if you're Canadian you enjoy the holiday with family and friends, and if you're not I hope you enjoy it whatever your plans may be!

My GPS Made Me Do It...

I had a lovely couple of days visiting and stitching with Ann of Knowledge and Needles.  I also had a great Thursday afternoon with the Thursday Stitchers then the same again the next day with the Friday Stitchers.  I don't have any pictures from my visit, it just didn't seem to be one of those ones where you're taking pics.

Next Saturday there will be LOTS of pictures Ann is hosting her Annual Open House and any and all stitchers a welcome and non-stitchers too.  There's going to be food galore, as visitors are asked to bring something for the potluck lunch/snacks/dinner... really we eat all day!  There is also a huge and wonderful array of stitching on display as we all bring with us everything we've finished during the last year!  There's lots of visiting, laughing, hugs, and some stitching going on as well.  Oh yeah, and there's shopping too.  Buying stuff at Ann's shop Knowledge and Needles isn't a requirement but its a nice bonus, if you're a stash collector.  Ann mentioned to me that her kits (Michael Powell and more) and Victoria Sampler charts/charpacks will be going on sale.  She is also thinking about putting Jeannette Douglas items on sale too, but hasn't decided yet.  I can also tell you that she's got a huge variety of fabrics, colours, counts pre-cut and in stock!

Speaking of stash, it was a little hard to leave Ann's on Saturday without buying some myself.  I also know that next Saturday will be a busy day and I'll be helping Ann in the shop so I may not get a chance to shop and well I got a pick of the good stuff ahead of the crowd ;-)  I bought some charts, some threads and a piece of fabric I just couldn't let get nabbed up by someone else... what I'll do with it I don't have a clue (as usual)?

Zeus as usual must check out all recent acquisitions

Carrie's Threads, the blues are for a wedding sampler I will start next week

Rosewood Manor's Spring Quakers with Valdani Threads needed

 Its probably hard to see but this fabric has a gorgeous, subtle swirl to it.

32ct Vintage Belfast in Stormy Cloud.  This actually could work quite nicely for Spring Quakers

Two of the latest JBW's I just love having these in my stash!

After a productive couple of days stitching for both Ann and I, I packed up my stuff and started to make my way home.  Todd and I recently purchased a GPS to share (we'll see how long that lasts) and though I knew how to get home I let the "Bitch In The Box" (as we kindly call her) guide me.  I have to say she took me on a route I never expected, it was gorgeous, past many lakes and through hilly/curvy roads (which I just love... would of been a blast in Dan's Corvette or on a motorcycle!).  It took me through the very picturesque Merrickville (which I've never been to before), if the town hadn't been so busy with tourists/day trippers I might have stopped, and through Perth.  It was in Perth where I blame my GPS for this part of the day, it happened to take me right past the Naturalizer Shoe Factory Outlet Store.  I just couldn't drive past!  Once upon a time Naturalizer shoes where considered quited homely/dowdy old lady and nurse shoes.  Today they're sexy and oh so comfortable!  I came home with THREE new pairs of shoes, all for $90 normally these would of cost me over $200!

I had spotted these at another Naturalizer Store a few weeks ago but they didn't have my size!

These will be great for work and a change from my usual black shoes!

Must have red shoes!

I think I'm going to have to take this route again, but take the time to stop and take pictures along the way its very picturesque!

Sadly tomorrow is my LAST day of my summer vacation!  I'll have to face the hard reality on Tuesday morning that I can't sleep in to 8:30 am anymore and stitch all day!

Poor Hunter was feeling left out from the photo shoot so he showed up in time for some solo shots!

TUSAL for April

Well, here's my TUSAL for April, it really is a crappy picture but I've got a lot of blogging to catch up on but I'd rather be stitching right now but I realize I'm long overdue for an update.

I realize I didn't say on my last post when I'd be picking my two draw winners.  Well I don't feel like doing that tonight so you have at least one more day to enter if you haven't done so... maybe more!

Why haven't I blogged since last weekend?  Well I had a migraine Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday...not fun.  When I wasn't suffering I was darned busy or stitching away on Art Deco Spirits.  I'll do a stitching update sometime this week (lets hope right?  I've got a poor blogging track record for March).  I suppose I also owe you my stitching goals too... hmmm another blog entry "sometime" this week I suppose.

Zeus is doing well and is nicely settled in.  Him and Hunter seem to have reached some sort of agreement.

1,501!!!

1,501 yup! This is post 1,501!!!!  I didn't realize that yesterday's post was 1,500.  I think this is a cause for celebration!  Also tomorrow is my 35th Birthday, a double reason to celebrate!  There's not better way to celebrate than with a draw!  Seeing as I have two reasons to celebrate I will pick two winners!!!  What will you win?  Who knows, at least something stitched by me. 

Can you tell this isn't well thought out but has kinda come out as I'm typing.  So if you want to enter my 1,501/Birthday draw please leave a comment.  If you don't have an e-mail address attached to your blogger profile or not a blogger member please be sure to leave me your e-mail address on your comment.

Thursday night I got myself an early Birthday present

Isn't he adorable!  Todd and I agreed right away that when Cuddles was no longer with us that when we were ready we'd get a new kitten.  I met this adorable little guy (I hope its hard to tell he's so small!) on Thursday night and fell in love, aren't his markings gorgeous?  He still doesn't have a name yet, we've thrown a few around but nothing has stuck yet.

Now as for Hunter, I think he's sulking a bit.  There's been posturing, hissing, growling, and a few clawless swats at the kitten.  He is still talking to me and Todd, so that's good.  We've been giving him lots of love an attention.

How about a little stitching finally?  I bet you've all been dying to see Enchantment of Winter!  I'm just absolutely loving this piece and its a joy to stitch.  The purple silks are just so vibrant.

While flying to and from the DR and Arizona I worked on my Quilt Blocks on aida.  There's over 40 of these buggers to do, but I do have some stitching friends lined up to help me out a few blocks at a time!!

I'm looking forward to a pretty quiet Birthday weekend.  The girls at work had a cake and card for me yesterday.  Tonight its dinner with the family, and tomorrow the big day itself nothing is happening.  I'm looking forward to settling in the new kitten and stitching.