Golf vs. Stitching??

Well here's one thing I never thought I'd be doing over stitching GOLFING! Especially where my son routinely beat me at mini golf at age 4! Matt hasn't had as much luck finding people to golf with this summer and my company was having a tournament. He didn't want to go where he didn't know anyone, so I offered to go to (secretly hoping if I tried golf then he'd try stitching ;)) So believe it or not, I'll be golfing tonight!

Yesterday's 'meeting' was a learning experience, it's hard to know what you little trivial information is just not coming back to you as quickly as you thought until you sit down and write a test, or how frustrating it can be to have someone asking you questions in your second language which you COMPLETELY understand however your tongue isn't cooperating in getting the answers out. Now I'll feel better prepped for any future 'meetings', the more I think about it the position wasn't really what I was looking for.

When I got home last night I baked some cabbage rolls and then headed downstairs after DS went to bed and stitched on an afghan for my cousin's babyshower in two weeks, it was just too hot upstairs to stitch on an afghan. Last night I finished the lettering "Bless this baby with love and laughter" and now it's ready for the bears and lambs to be stitched. After I finished the lettering I read over the weight watchers literature that I have and have been trying to figure out some smarter menu plans to slim down :)

Nerves

Darn this ring, I think it's made me emotionally vulnerable. I don't remember being this nervous for a 'meeting' before ;) Last night was a stitchless night although Giggles is begging me to take a wedding/baby afghan break and stitch him tonight.

I rushed home as Matt had softball and wanted some food warmed up for pick up on his way past the house, being used to relaxed supper times from vacation I went out and finished mowing the back lawn. The one disadvantage of living with someone from the landscaping world is that they take pride in how thick and long they can grow their grass, so it hadn't been mowed since a week before I went on vacation. The two lawns usually take about 2.5 hours to do, this week they took at least 5 they were so thick!! (boring stuff huh??) When I came into the house to make some zoodles for Alex as our grocery trip was disrupted by the need to get Matt's supper ready I could not find my small sauce pan. I looked all over and couldn't find it. After softball I found out Matt had managed to burn one my super duper matching tfal set small pot, by forgetting it on the stove, even managing to burn the handle! I needed to go for a drive as I was bound with my nerves for this mornings meeting to blow things WAY out of proportion. First leaving my good cutlery at work (when there is a specific for work set), leaving numerous containers at work, including my good Tupperware brand divided dish now my good pot set (I'm a kitchenaid kind of girl, and take great pride in quality kitchen tools and matching too boot). The stove incident was just unsafe and he knew that so me going off on a tear wasn't going to help, although I did slip in a suggestion that he stick to microwave cooking ;)

D'oh I was hoping my blogging would get rid of my 'meeting' nerves. The meeting is concerning a bilingual openning, which shouldn't be a problem but my french is rusty, although we've gone into boot camp mode at home trying to bring my confidence in using it up to par. I can sit through someone speaking to me or reading literature no problem ;)

Well...here goes nothing...

Presenting Secret Santa

Here he is, a little crooked picture wise but to avoid glare it's the best we could do ;)  Framing compliments of Elite Framing Moncton (now on the HIGHLY recommend list)

All Good Things Must End

Well today is my last official full day on the Miramichi...sigh! Relaxing is so nice! Yesterday I got a couples stitches into The Wedding but we did do some running around town quite a bit so there wasn't too much of that. We took Alex to market for lunch, I had the yummy seafood casserole from one vendor (I look forward to it every time I'm down on a Friday, skipping my traditional Kurt's sausage that I'd have at the Fredericton market) and Alex had some honey garlic meatballs, ever since we bought him Sesame Street's Kids Favorite Songs Two with a rendition of "On top of spaghetti" he's been obsessed with meatballs. We'll also be wrapping up reading The Bad Beginning tonight, I tried finding Matilda in the basement, came up empty but did find Judy Blume's Freckle Juice and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing...potentials for tomorrow night (my search for The Witches at the local book shop was fruitless). In other news Matt called last night to let me know that I'd received some feedback from some of the competitions I sent in forms for...now to prepare myself for the big 'meeting' ;) Last night mom and I also sat down and scrapbooked before watching Finding Neverland.

On Thursday we headed to Escuminac, New Brunswick's best kept secret for beach bums!! What an improvement since it went private, espececially the board walk, no more treking through the sand dunes. The coast line and tides have changed a bit since I was there last 3 years ago, now there are really cool waves! Alex LOVED playing in them. I spent a third of the time in the water, another third sleeping on the soft sand and the last burying both Alex and Pappy in the sand. Thankfully the digital camera was on the wrong setting so the pictures of me in a bathing suit did not turn out ;) Although here's the boys in action...

The Ring's The Thing

For those wondering about the ring here it is, keep in mind I'm trying to juggle a big camera which didn't want to focus so really, my hand doesn't look this bad!!! ;)

Maxing and Relaxing

Well this week has been pretty restful :) The shopping trip to Moncton was the most jam packed ever. I'm soo happy with my Secret Santa, Elite framing truly went above and beyond my expectations (so much that I'm actually going to enter him in the FREX this year). I did most of Alex's back to school shopping while I was there, finding him an Incredibles lunch bag and a Roots back pack at the Costco. I don't believe in spending money on junky character book bags so I thought the Incredibles lunch bag from the Disney store was a compromise. We headed over to Betty Rubin's which was a huge disappointment, half the dresses were dirty!! I remember once upon a time that was THE store to go to. I did some dress searching on line and will be getting some quotes from Matt's aunt as I see she carries them in her bridal boutique.

We then headed for a quick trip to BYC and I picked up the fabric for Fiddlestitch Cottage's up coming Autumn Teapot and the Fabric for Heart In Hand's Christmas Medley. I also showed off Secret Santa and everyone agreed it's much better than the picture on the pattern. Then it was off to Carsand Moesher to check out stamps and scrapbooking supplies for invitations, as well as Atlantic Fabrics and Michaels. Unfortunately none of them had the Sizzix dies I was looking for and Michael's dies are ungodly priced, the only good Sizzix prices are on their Sizzlits letter sets when they're on sale. We also headed to Old Navy and I actually bought clothing for me, did our trip to Costco and I got my Kelly Clarkson CD which now has my three song limit and was disappointed when we went to HomeDepot and they didn't have the bathroom light fixture I was hoping to pick up. We wrapped up the evening at the Lonestar where I had some yummy fajitas and the best strawberry marg in the world ;)

I came home and stitched for a bit, the train is really staring to come along on the wedding, I hope to have that done tomorrow and take a break from the white and plug away abit at the flower girl. Today was pretty relaxed...made a quick trip to Walmart to pick up some necessities for Alex for the school year, I've never seen someone so excited in the underwear aisle as he was when he discovered they made Star Wars boxer briefs ;). After the rain let up we took Alex to the outdoor pool and swam for over an hour and then after getting him in bed we headed up for an hour and a half pre wedding work out. I have Matt checking into his works Weight Watchers plan to see if I can get some of that subsidized as so many people I know have had such good luck on it. I wish we could get out for longer walks in the evening or if there was a walking group in my area, I'd really like doing that at night (I was so tiny from all the times I had to walk up and down the hill in university not so long ago). Well, should go get settled in with The Wedding and watch Meet the Fockers :)

Happy New Brunswick Day

Having a long weekend is sooo nice, it definitely let me recouperate from our reunion evening Saturday. I plugged away Saturday at The Wedding and was just about to start working on it again Sunday when the phone rang. Apparently I have a baby shower to go to in 3 weeks so I needed to at least get the ladder lacing done on the afghan I had hoped to have until October to complete. Baby showers aren't as much fun without a big belly to show off. So I spend sunday prepping the afghan (I don't have the pattern I want to do home and did all of the ladder lacing I wanted to do as a border.

Tomorrow we're heading for our annual mother-daughter shopping trip to Moncton. I thought we had enough stops already with the craft shops (and I need to pick up my framed Secret Santa) but now we've got wedding shopping to do ;) Mom is already surfing the net on Mother of the Bride duties, she secretly likes the acronym M.O.B. I'd also like to put my scrapbooking talents to work and make my own invitations. I thought after 6 and a half years the news of an engagement might not be as exciting, I'm pleased to report that was way wrong ;) Now to get back to stitching all the white on The Wedding...

An Accidental Suprise!

Tonight started off pretty lack luster, Alex had a mini meltdown so I didn't get to enjoy the roast or scalloped potatoes I'd prepared (they were only done cooking by the time we had to go out the door), after a quesadilla we hopped in the car and headed to soccer practice (usually we walk but we were running LATE). I stitched a bit on Giggles before he has to go away for a bit, more on that later. Anyway, I came home and Matt had gone out for some errands he had to run (going to the bank machine). Anyway, mom arrived and we were chatting when Matt came in. He looked really upset (and a bit guilty with a Future Shop bag in his hands). Apparently while at the intersection he'd had an accident, he'd been over the stop line when a car made a sharp turn and clipped the car. All his fault apparently. Knowing I'm the self appointed legal expert he wanted me to take a look at the damages on the drivers side. The lights were in tact so I looked hard at the drivers side for any new bumps when I notice he was down on one knee with a diamond ring in his hand, I just about died!! He'd actually fooled me, and I was one happy fool :) I've now pulled out my L&L The Wedding and hope to work that up by Christmas :). I should really head to bed, I don't normally blog this late but I was just too excited to sleep!!!

Let It Rain

Well, yesterday I popped in my Amanda Marshall CD and listened to Let It Rain, and sure enough, AFTER I got the steaks on the BBQ the sky openned up and drenched everything ;) Last night I puttered around the house getting everything ready for vacation, picked up groceries for Matt, did the laundry, got the suitcases out, organized stash (most important) and gave Alex a good scrubbing (he really needs a hair cut while we're away). I even picked myself up a NEW bathing suit last night...good thing as I thought there might be a possibility I'd have to swim to the car the way it was raining last night.

I settled into my little nest and stitched on Giggles last night, he now has boots!! I should definitely be finished or very close to being so after next weeks vacation. Yippee! Matt came home early as his softball was rained out so we watched the Battlestar Gallactica tapes he'd borrowed from a friend. Today the sun was shining bright and early, I'll probably mow one of the lawns at lunch and attempt to do the other around soccer practice. Then it'll be tidying up some more and awaiting mom's arrival as she has Alex tomorrow. Only one more sleep until vacation!!

Time For a Change

I'm ready for a change! So much so that I've started circulating my very long list of work experience around town. I'm ready for anything, I'll learn whatever anyone wants. Beef up my oracle, I'd do it, on my own time (helps when you live with the master developer ;)) The closer I get to 30 the more I realize how short I've sold myself since our family grew unexpectedly 5 years ago and really believe I'm worth more than my current asking price, or the measly 12 days vacation I have this year. I always did extremely well with my Coop placements, racking up between 5 and 7 offers a term and always was kept on as a private contractor while completing my degree so I think that should say alot. I want to be the best techie and best model stitcher ;)

Speaking of stitching last night was a bit slow. I found out I needed to frog a section of giggles, thankfully only part of a boot. Then it was onto blends, blah...Give me french knots anyday (especially since Jennifer recommended the colonnial, my godsend) I'm really hoping to wrap him over my vacation :) We'll see!

A Rainy Kind of Day

Sure enough, after I finally get around to watering my plants and shrubs the heavens openned up, I can't win. Last night was a quiet sort of night. Matt's ball game was rained out so we all just vegged around the house. I worked on my Mistletoe Kitty and it's almost done, yippee!! Although one of the bead packs is missing so I've been rumaging through my other mill hill kits to find some of the missing colours. Matt was busy trying to get ahold of neighborhood watch to see if anyone had any information on who vandalized our mailbox Saturday night, why us?? Of course it was the one Saturday night where Matt went to bed early, usually he's up in the computer room with the window open until at least 2 am, now we have two beautiful fist marks in either side of it.

Today is shaping up to be another slack day, I'm getting so anxious to hear from the three provincial positions that I applied to over the weekend even though the competitions don't close for atleast another week...sigh...

Weekend Recap

We truly had a nice weekend this weekend. On Saturday we headed to Oromocto lake for a family picnic put on by the VP at DH's work. We had ALOT of fun. Alex and I went for a boat ride which he loved. After lunch we headed to the VP's Christmas tree farm for a treasure hunt, Alex and two other little boys lead the way on the 1 km treck through the woods. It was really neat to see the Christmas trees growing from seed all the way up to ones ready for sale, and as anyone knows I LOVE christmas trees, I can't wait to have a REAL tree this year. After the hunt we cooled off with a dip in the lake, Alex swam away in his supersuit and practiced his floats. After supper, and some stitching on another mill hill 'travel' kit we headed back home and we were all in bed by 9:30.

Sunday was another relaxing day. I headed to CT to get some supplies for planting the rhodedendrons I'd bought a week ago and then filled the wading pool and spent a couple hours out there on the blanket while Alex played between there, the sandbox and the swingset, stitching away at the Imagination Creation until it was complete. After another day in the sun what did I do?? Nap! What a nice rest. Matt took us out for supper and Alex had another big boy milestone...peeing standing up!! After Alex was bathed and in bed I popped in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (my personal favorite) and vegged on the couch...now back to reality ;)

Imagination Creation Happy Dance

And Presenting my latest happy dance...

Imagination Creation on 28ct Blue Spruce

Getting Prepped for a Happy Dance!

The Imagination Creation is really coming along, I just have one little spot of stitching to do in the wings now and then I can complete the backstitching. After watching Cold Case Files I was too chicken to go downstairs and look for the floss I needed. I did however get the tail backstitched before bed. Once it's done I'll be back on finishing up Giggles which I'm hoping will only take a week or two (especially where I have vacation coming up really soon it should be more that obtainable goal).

Last night Alex passed his depth perception retest with flying colours, even getting the bonus box. Yippee!! After not completing it twice I was getting worried, the first time the test was administred after 45 minutes of eye and ear tests which I didn't expect him to complete and after all that at age 3 screening clinic and the test the dr the second time ended up running late and into the time that he usually winds down for bed. Although before the appointment Alex was concerned that he didn't have Xray vision. He was the first kid ever to offer the doctor one of the treats he'd received as a reward for doing well in his test...I was so proud. Then of course at soccer he just did NOT want to listen at all and I had to follow him out on the field a couple times which was REALLY embarassing. Although he loves soccer practice it's one of the rare occasions that you can really tell he's an only child (for the next couple years anyway).

Tonight we need to do a little shopping for our day at Oromocto Lake. I'll also have to have an employment talk with DH tonight, we found out this morning that one of our friends is moving to Nova Scotia and his current position would be right up DH's alley...It would be really nice to have both of us working in town when Alex starts school in the fall.

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week

Have you ever done a color conversion? If so, what did you think about your results and would you do it again? If not, would you like to try someday?

I have done one small colour conversion and that was in my Precious Moments Bless This House, I changed the colour of the girls hair to red so we could imagine it being Matt and I building the sand castle, until he pointed out after framing that I hadn't changed the colour of the boy's eyes to hazel!!

I did like it, mind you I didn't think up the colours on my own. I don't change the colours too often, but will be using someone's conversions for Celtic Autumn, purple is just not an autumn colour for me. I'm much rather content playing with the fabric colours things are stitched on.

Friends That Count

Last night was our monthly Friends That Count get together. It was soooo nice to stitch in airconditioned comfort. Faith Ann had her Celtic Christmas in which was truly breath taking. We also got a sneak peek at the new Fiddlestitch Cottage Autumn teapot and I LOVE the colours. I finally gave my Imagination Creation some spririt and she now has eyes!! She was really beginning to creep me out. I had planned on stitching on Giggles half the night but I had borrowed one of the spools of Kreinik from Cathey (where mine is missing) and that took me to half time so I didn't actually have to take it home. Lucy had some new Canterbury Cross fabric swatches in as well, I may have to order more than my Flax afghan that just came in ;) Overall it was just a really fun night and it felt really good to get out. When I arrived home the house had cooled off upstairs, I thought we might be downstairs last night but everything was ambient upstairs. We've grappled with the thought of an airconditioner but it's soo hard to justify spending that kind of money when it's so nice downstairs and there are two bedrooms waiting for us to use. I have no idea why the lower lever of the house is so cool but I'm not complaining, at least not this summer... :)

He Has Arrived

Harry and his Thunderbolt, or whatever he's flying these days as I'm back on the Goblet of Fire has arrived at the house, yippee!! I'm sure Matt will be holed up in the basement when I get back from stitching night. I went for a walk at lunch hour and my goodness it was hot, it's a good thing I put the pork out to defrost so we can lay it on the grill and not heat up the entire house. I wonder if any other goodies arrived in the mail today :)

A Creation in Need of a Spirit

Last night after Alex went to bed Matt and I hooked up the Xbox to the little TV down in the playroom, blew up the airmattress and popped in The Last Samurai. It was nice to stitch downstairs. Although after looking at the Imagination Creation last night I realized he needs some eyes, he kind of looks soulless and hollow at the moment. I don't usually leave the eyes until last (well in this project DMC wise). Thinking about this made me look at my own soul and spirit a little which was feeling a little bruised yesterday. I was surprised at how an off the cuff comment about pro active people made by a friend could hurt so much. It probably wasn't even meant as a personal dig but it hurt none the less. I don't look down on people that don't speak up, doing so is more of a calling and in some cases, especially my own, an unwanted one. Anytime I have spoken up over issues in my heart it has been an honest attempt to leave the world a better place than I entered it, I was hoping for silent support from those around me, although I seem more than singled out for being pro active sometimes and I guess it hurts. Thankfully I have a wonderful little family who listens and understands sometimes, and I think actually seeing my vulnerable side reminds them that even though I can have a strong voice and resolve that it doesn't necessarily mean that I have strong 'skin'.

I also have a great circle of friends, and the power to heal, forgive and forget. I don't know what I'd do without my friends at work or stitching. Speaking of whom I can't wait to get out to stitch with them in an air conditioned room tonight! I'm really interested to see what everyone is stitching these days, plug away a little at Giggles and then maybe get back to adding some spirit in my Imagination Creation, he deserves the gift of sight.

Still No Harry

Well I was a little disappointed last night when Harry wasn't in the mailbox! Oh well...it's not like I was going to be the one in the family reading it first. Last night we took Alex to Charlie and the The Chocolate Factory. I've never seen him so enthralled in a movie before. I spent the first 20 minutes wiping the occasional tear out of my eye as the depiction of the Bucket Family was truly touching. We also made the quickest bathroom trip in history as Alex didn't want to miss a second of the movie (after 15 minutes of crossing and uncrossing his little legs). I was impressed on it's interpretation of the book and how the back story that was created didn't take away from the original magic of the book. My sole disappointment was after the movie when we went across the hall to the book store and the only Roald Dahl books that they had were Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and ones we already owned...I was hoping to pick up the Witches which they had three copies of last month.

After returning home and putting to bed one excited but exhausted monkey I sat and worked on my Dragon Dreams Imagination Creation until bedtime. I knew that there was a small erratum in the chart but couldn't remember which colour, although I found I was out of one colour, the one that was the problem but Matt already had the computer tied up so there was no checking online for the correction for me...sigh. Tonight's shaping up to be a fairly quiet night after groceries, I'm hoping to finish the DMC's in the pattern by the end of the night and be ready to work on some of the specialty fibres as of tomorrow. I can't wait!

The Road Life Chooses

Sometimes it's nice to sit back and reflect on the road that life chooses to lead you on. I was once very naive to think that I actually had a choice ;) Having a friend have another baby has made me reflect on the life altering experience that was having Alex and the completely different road it led me on. Before him I was a happy go lucky academic force to be reckonned with, I rarely had a complaint as I'd solely focussed on getting the answers right and not wrong. I had a list a mile long on what I would and wouldn't do when I did have children and assumed that everything I'd conquer everything as I'd always done before. HAH!!!!! I woke up to the real world the day Alex was born and I experienced one nurse who regarded marital status higher than intellectual. Little did I know what path she was leading me on. After 24 hours of being a human soother for Alex either by pinkie or breast my utmost objections to a soother were broken down. At 4 weeks discovering that there are people that can be so linguistically discriminatory that they can justify neglecting an infact in dire need of medical attention who hasn't even learned to speak the english his mother had yet, molded a mother with no voice into one who wasn't afraid to be heard (but still has a hard time calling the doctor for an appointment ;)) And it's still changing, preparing Alex to be a participant in the anti bullying movement and wanting him to speak up if he sees something wrong has led me to seriously consider the role model that I set for him and again speak up when I see things that are wrong. How can I expect him to do something that I in turn won't? As I look back I still wonder who on earth was that girl holed up in the engineering library by day and living a healthy active social life at night five years ago. Mind you I'd be very happy if life just provided me with a survey but seeing as I've surrendered and acknowledged it's control I'm slowly accepting the role it's dealt.

Sunday...A Day of Rest

Sunday was truly a day to unwind. We didn't do too much around the house. I had planned on mowing the lawn but it was just too hot and humid, cutting it in all that heat isn't good for it anyway. So after lunch and after having a little down time with Alex I headed in for a nap. After a couple interruptions by the boys (why am I the only one who knows where everything is located??) I got up and stitched some on my Dragon Dreams Imagination Creation until we headed out for a picnic at the lake. It was our first trip to the lake the summer and it was really nice to unwind there. Alex had a great time attempting to swim, Matt attempted to nap and learned that sign language isn't so silent, the group next to us was signing away and apparently there was quite a bit of slapping and grunting. He should have been in with us anyway ;) When he did come in we soaked him good ;) Now it's back to stitching in front of the fan, I can't wait to see this creation come to life!!

June's Ornament Finish

Holly Days Stocking Completed!!

A Tea With The Dragon

Saturday was an official girls day out. We all piled in to Cathey's car and made the pilgrimage to Moncton aka shopping mecca of New Brunswick. Our first stop was Barbara Ann's to pick up some stash from her closing sale. We all chipped in to get her the Willow Tree Angel of Courage (thanks Cathey for the great idea) and she was truly touched, there were some tears when we left the store for the last time. One less stop on our pre-retreat shopping trip.

Our next stop was Elite framing, we've heard such great things about Sandi and Coral Cathey and I knew that they were the only ones that were going to handle our Secret Santa and The Quiltmaker. If they're good enough to frame all of Jennifer's models surely our projects are in good hands. :) I didn't realize that Santa was going to be sooo difficult to find a mat for, trying to bring out the colour in the tree (a needlepaint) yielded alot of teals as any greens clashed with the hue. Finally we found a gorgeous velour matt that was perfect.

Then we were off to lunch at the mall and made a quick stop into Because You Count to pick up some more stash. At the CNSS Jennifer unveiled her Dragon of the Deeps which is truly amazing, I can't wait until mine arrives in the mail sometime in the next couple of weeks!!!!! Tea with the Dragon was awesome and very informative!! We also got a sneak peek of To Trim a Tree which is DEFINITELY going on the to stitch pretty much when it comes out list (Will Guardian Angel ever see the light of day???).

The boys survived their day without mom with flying colours and the house was in tip top shape, I was truly impressed. When we drove in there was also a big brown bunny under the deck, maybe he's the one that's been knawing on my perennials?? Matt is eagerly awaiting the new Harry Potter to arrive at the doorstep. I preordered just so I wouldn't have to drive to the store (gas is expensive), why drive when you can have it shipped for free.

Today is the Dragon Dreams stitch along day over on the Needle and Thread bulletin board, I'm hoping to work on something between mowing the lawn and hopefully having a picnic supper at the lake :)

It's A BOY!

Jackson Elliott Ryan arrived sometime over the noon hour today, I pretty much jumped out of my seat at work when my phone rang!! It's a really good thing I told Eleni that I have a no holds barred naming process before she named him as if we ever have another boy my heart is pretty much set on the name Jack. Matt comes from a big family and trying to avoid names was just too out out of control, besides, how many times do you actually get to name a child, you might as well do what YOU want to do. Mind you when we do have another we're going with the no spilling the name until the birth policy, so if my mother happens to be reading this pretend to be surprised if you ever have a grandson called Jack!!!!!

I've been just too excited to sit still eventhough we did attend the strawberry supper at my grandmother's church tonight. I've been bouncing around the house ever since, my mind missed the message that it should be resting. I beaded the teddy bear for my mill hill stocking ornament, I'm hoping to finish that up tomorrow night. I didn't get any of my reading in although we did get another chapter of Alex's book in. And after 40 minutes of tossing and turning here I am blogging away WAY passed my bedtime as I'm just too excited to sleep :)

A LONG Wait

I'm just generally excited about the birth of my dear friends second child, which should have taken place about two hours ago and am still anxiously sitting by the phone, hoping she's feeling well enough to call before I head to pick up Alex for supper at my grandmother's church :) I think Matt'll be a bit relieved after this year as I think I've been driving him batty were alot of my friends are adding to their families, who wouldn't want a chance to have another and truly enjoy it after learning from all the mistakes one made the first time around (lesson number one encase the phone in cement and bury it in the back yard for a year and lesson two, the house will not self destruct and killer dust bunnies will not attack your baby while you sleep, so get some!). Having an excuse to stitch some baby designs would also be fun too!!!

Deck Demo Is Looking Good

After scraping aimlessly and missing valuable stitching time I've decided that if I had the extra money I'd really start from scratch on the deck, maybe I can live with an opaque stain for a couple more years. I think I'll look into what it'll cost to replace the top planking of the deck over the weekend and decide where to go from there. Opaque stain was just not made for a northern climate where people have to shovel off their decks!!! There that's my rant for the night.

Stitching wise nada today although I did make a wee bit of progress on giggles and my stocking last night, tonight has just been in limbo. Between groceries and talking to a dear friend hours before she delivers baby #2 (I'm soo jealous ;)) things are just off of their usual schedule although change is good.

Tonight Alex and I started Lemony Snicket's The Bad Beginning, he really enjoyed the way it was written (and I thought it was kind of neat as every so often when there was a big word (for him anyway) it would kind of give a more familiar word in a very off hand manner. We've gone through my on hand stock of Roal Dahl books (I'd love to know where my copy of Matilda is hiding) so I thought I'd try one of these books to give us a change of pace. And if Alex decides it isn't for him by then I'll have had a chance to get to the bookstore and pick up The Witches or Judy Blume's Fudge. It just amazes me how he's changed from reading board books to asking to be read to from a chapter book every night. I wasn't a book worm until my third grade teacher introduced us to the works of Roald Dahl, Judy Blume and Beverly Clearly. I think of applied more of the things I learned in that year of school to life in general than all of my years in university.

I'm getting really anxious for the stitching show, even if it isn't that great. I've put alot of work into fixing up the outside of the house and I could use a change of scenery for the day. Tea with the Dragon should be a blast!! Well I should shower and read another chapter of the book before it gets too late....I can't wait to learn more about Baby Ryan (yes that's a last name I know nothing more than he or she is healthy and ready to meet the world)!!

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week

Q : What do you do when you have some sort of obligation stitching to do,but don't want to do it?

I don't really do too much obligation stitching, if I decide to stitch something for a birthday or Christmas I give myself plenty of time, choose a smaller scale project or have a back up plan should it not get done on time. Stitching for me is something I do to relieve stress, not generate it ;)

How To Drive A Standard...According to DS

Today when we arrived home in the reliable rust mobile and parked beside the nice Corolla which I can't drive (standard) Alex looks at me and says "Mommy, I'll teach you to drive Daddy's car!" I was mildly intrigued by this so I asked him to continue...and here are THE RULES
RULE #1 (and yes he's saying Rule Number 1) Don't Crash The Car
RULE #2 Don't Kill Anybody
RULE #3 If someone tries to crash your car honk your horn
RULE #4 Don't Open Your Car Doors On Daddy's Car
RULE #5 Don't Hurt Daddy's Car At All

Good Grief...

Way to Go Ontario/Progress

Way to go Ontario, It's nice to see that at least one province has some common sense concerning vehicle safety. Bets anyone on how long it will take New Brunswick to follow suit with similar legislation, 5-10 years and another what 10-20 before it's enforced (considering how long I've been filing statements on the other mother at daycare who has kept her daughter up in the front seat/beltless since she was about 8 months when there's a perfectly good carseat in the back)

Last night I'd fully intended to read alot of Potter but when I clicked on A&E there was an episode of Cold Case Files on at 8 so I picked up the nearest thing to stitch and met the goal I'd set for myself on the weekend so now I can get back to Giggles...


Charmed Stocking progess

Do any Giggles stitchers know what is supposed to go in his right mitten where I've left a one square hole?? The pattern has a really bright pink but I think that's a mistake. Here's how far I got with Giggles before moving to the small beading project above (darn when the instructions ask you to cross stitch the petit beads, I zoom through the half stitched beads, plus the greens looked very similar so it took having my bead bowl under the light, not my usual stitching position)


Giggles Progress

Oh back to Potter, I did get a chapter read last night, considering it was 20+ pages I consider that pretty good, it was really hard to put the book down and go to bed at a decent hour. I think Alex and I'll be starting the first book in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events or maybe I can stall him long enough until we go to the mall Sunday for Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and pick up a new Roald Dahl book then, I guess we'll play it by ear!

A Change of Procedure?

I just got off the phone after another productive, not, call to Royal Bank. I inquired as to when they paid my tax account as the letter I received from them claims they paid the correct amount. They paid May 25th! It was corrected by the province March 28th and the corrected balance has been public since that date at SNB online. I received notice of them changing my payments in late June after they'd already taken one with the extra 100+ missing. The response I receive 'well this is the way we do things', if I worked on 2 month old statistical data I think I'd be fired!! Royal Bank, kindly change your procedures!!!!

Book Worm

I think the book worm is back! All weekend I had a hard time concentrating on stitching so I decided to pick up Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire which I've just had a hard time getting into (and need to finish up before the movie). Well, I'm now almost half way through. I think stitching might be on the back burner for a little bit. The book is finally picking up. The first 200 pages were kind of boggy, the first chapter was very promising and then I got lost in quidditch, my least favorite part of the book. I used to read alot before we had Alex but back when we were in the apartment it was just too noisy and there were too many distractions to get much quality reading time in so stitching took over. Now with the house and Alex content to play for hours on end with his action figures (which I'll never understand) there is now time for a good read. I can't wait!! I've really missed my VC Andrews book and poor Kinsey Millhone is stuck a J is for Judgement :) Now to convince Matt to buy me a lounge chair for outside....

It's Has To Look Worse Before It Looks Better

I'm beginning to accept this in reference to refinishing the deck. I managed to get some of the aweful teal stain off of the floor today, although finding my scrub brush OR owning a pressure washer would have been a HUGE help! Matt has yet to take a crow bar to pry off the post tops with really need to be replaced, the previous owner nailed them in place and lowered their life expectancy immensely.

Today's been a ho hum kind of day. Alex let us sleep in until 10...wow (I really needed it as my shoulder was kinked up half the night not letting me have any sort of quality sleep) and then I worked on a mill hill kit that I'd started on the drive to Grand Falls last week. I'd like to have the beading on the stocking portion of the kit done before I work on Giggle's boots.

On the family front Matt had wonderful news Friday, a very large raise!! I'm glad to see him appreciated for all the hard work that he does, if only my own employer showed that much respect for it's employees, or mainly just me, any policy change they've done has for lack of better words 'screwed' me over. I do have a code issue to bring up with my supervisor and I'll probably bring up a salary issue that's been ticking me off for awhile now off the records. Alex has also finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! On Friday, it was so cute, Alex decided to try to read to a little girl in the stands. He grabbed the book out of my bag and started "Once upon a time there was a little boy named Charlie Bucket..." It amazes me how he went right from board books and Dr Seuss right to novels!

A Sleepy Kind of Saturday

I guess the Scott-Côté's needed some R&R after travelling and fixing up the house!! We slept in until 9 (yes, when you have a 5 year old this is considered sleeping in), then after putting the laundry in and getting some stitching in on Giggles I walked with my new McCain's pedometer to the Esso to drop off some old clothes to the Community Living bin (gas @102.9 and the pedometer program at Matt's work made that decision pretty easy). I then took the long way home. After stitching a bit longer I made lunch for the boys and then felt like laying down...they sooon joined and we got up at about 5:00! Sometimes it's good to have a lazy kind of day.

Soccer Night in Canada

Last night was Alex's first official practice in the Hanwell recreational soccer league. I was amazed at how well he did when he they were kicking the balls around. After registering last week Matt and I spent about an hour down in the play room kicking the ball around and noting how we weren't using our hands and looking ahead and not at the ball...and there he was last night doing it, I was soo proud :) The kindergarten kids had a little game which was hilarious to watch (I'm so kicking myself for not bringing the camera. Alex got to throw the ball in, only he walked half way out onto the field to do it. Then my friends daughter was in the opposing teams net and she spent most of the time with her back to the game talking to people behind her. When she wasn't doing that she had the net on her head dancing around with it...what a smart goalie, don't try to make the perfect save, just make shooting impossible.The field isn't too far from our house so we walked over and back lugging Alex in the wagon. At 99.8 cents a litre we're a bit more savvy of how we use up our gas.

After getting Alex ready for bed I headed down to the craft room and made a 'quilted' pumpkin with my sizzix machine for Alex's pumpkin scrapbook page...I'm sooo far behind. As soon as 9 rolled around though I was upstairs catching this weeks episode of Veronica Mars and stitching away at the boy's touque in Giggles...I wasn't really in a cross stitching mood, until I started and I made myself stop at 10 and get a good night's rest.

Still no baby news from the Ryan's, it was fun to get out for lunch yesterday on E's last mommy only day and vent, plus it's about the first time in 2 years I've had a bowl of Tim Horton's chili all to myself, usually I have Alex in tow and he insists when ordering that he doesn't like chili but then eats half my bowl!!!! I also got a nice little sale item when grocery shopping this week. While waiting in the coop checkout they had oshkosh clothes on clearance and I saw a pair of jeans and wondered what they'd cost....now Alex has a new pair of brand name jeans for 13$$! I don't think I could get no name and definitely not as stylish jeans at Walmart/Zellers for that much, yippee!!

Stitching Blogger's Question Of the Week

Q : Do you think that you stitch neater on Evenweave than you do on Aidacloth? If so, why?

A : There's no doubt about it, my evenweave stitching looks much better than my aida stitching. I'd chalk it up to experience, the more you stitch the better your tension and your stitches usually lay much better. I don't think it hurts either that 3/4 stitches are much more uniform on evenweave.

Quiet Night

Last night was a fairly quiet one out on 'the range'. After getting groceries and bbq'ing some steak (yay it's official Alex LOVES steak) Matt was out the door for softball and Alex and I had a quiet evening to ourselves. After Alex went to bed I even had some company for about an hour, which was nice as everyone we know seems to be as busy as us to finding visiting time is at a premium. I didn't get too much stitching in which was ok, I wasn't really in the mood last night for some reason. Matt arrived home just as Dancing With The Stars was starting, our summer's guilty pleasure, and after that it was off to bed.

Tonight will probably be another quiet night on the stitching front, Alex has soccer this evening and I'll probably be going to bed early to make up for staying up until 11 watching Dancing (thankfully it's over so I have no reason to stay up past 10 anymore)

I purchased my tickets for Tea With The Dragon yesterday afternoon, I'm soo excited to be going to the CNSS next Saturday!! A girls day in Moncton is just what the doctor prescribed, and hopefully we can get into Elite Framing so Secret Santa can stop residing rolled up in the craft room :)

Sizzix Wishlist

To compliment my cross stitching wishlist here is my wishlist of sizzix products for scrapbooking

-Sizzlits Fruit Smoothie Letters
-Sizzlits Graffiti Letters
-Sizzlits Girls are Weird Letters
-Sizzix Bitty Body
-Sizzix Bitty Boy Hair
-Sizzix Bitty Doll Shoes
-Sizzix Bitty Shorts And Top
-Sizzix Bat
-Sizzix Ghosts
-Sizzix Pocket
-Sizzix Die Tag Scallop
-Sizzix Die Tag Sets

~I REALLY NEED TO WIN THE LOTTO~

Banking Frustration

Well yesterday Royal Bank came this close to being given it's walking papers. For over a week now I've been trying to find out what to do about THEIR mistake with my tax account, they overpaid it by over 1000$. Two phone calls to their mortgage department couldn't tell me jack about how to proceed, yesterday I finally got a letter in the mail telling ME to go to SNB file paper work, wait for a refund then bring the money back to THEM, in the mean time they'll keep taking an extra 100$ biweekly out of my account to recoup THEIR losses, no talk of compensation, no talk of when they were going to straighten out my mortgage payments, and I have to do all of the leg work for THEIR mistake. They paid long after my tax credit was applied to the account and never bothered to recheck the total, grrr... Anyway, I escalated my complaint to customer service (the second woman in mortgages I talked to was EATING on the phone, gross), she's given mortgages a day to respond again before filing a full departmental complaint. What a disaster. I'm really upset as this really puts our vacation plans on hold, losing 200$ a month out of your Me money really for lack of a better word sucks, by the time I plan on going on vacation in August I'll be out 400$ and there's no guarentee that this will be straightend out by then either.

So after fighting with the bank, again, I headed out to prune the lilacs. Poor shrubs didn't stand a chance ;) At least they should be in fine blooming shape for next season. After bathing Alex and reading one of our last chapters of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I settled into my nest and worked on Giggles. He now has a face (even if it isn't backstitched)


He now has a head!!

Today we woke up to some much needed rain. After a wet summer last year and a spring that left us wondering if we should build an ark the rain was still appreciated, at least by us. Alot of the lawns around town are looking a bit dry, including a small patch on ours. We definitely need a longer hose to reach that spot to water ourselves. There's a section near the front of the lot that has some large rocks near the surface and with the roots of the grass being more shallow they require more frequent watering. It looks kind of odd having this one yellow patch when the rest of the lawn is sooo lush. I could also use the rain to wash away the bird do-do.Ever since I started refinishing the bench and arbour they've been marking it, in the same spot!! The robins are getting right up there with crows on my annoyance list ;)

Now to go purchase my tickets for Tea with the Dragon at the Needle Arts Festival in Moncton the weekend of the 15-17!!

My Stitching Wish List

Maybe if I keep a wish list I can be prepared a bit better for sales ;)
-P03 Beware of Cat! Pocketbook Kit Lizzie Kate
-Fairy Roses Mirabilia
-Shepherd's Bush Yuletide Sampler
-Shepherd's Bush Wintertide Sampler
-Ottawa Sampler Jeanette Douglas
-Christmas Spool Tree Sue Hillis
-Dragon Virtures Dragon Dreams

This of course isn't including all the hand dyed fabrics I like but it's a start ;)

Giggles Update

Giggles In The Snow Progress

Tonight was a relatively relaxed night, Matt was out at poker night so I finished staining the arbour (yay one less eye sore on the property) and after a run in the sprinkler with Alex and a chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I nested in the stitching area and worked on Giggles.

Today mom had Alex as it was one of the rare day his sitter takes a day for herself, I think they had fun and I hope mom isn't too played out!

It's Good To Be Home!

The weekend went by with little incident. I get very stressed out about going up to the inlaws, sometimes things go fine, othertimes they are a complete disaster. Alex slept with us all weekend which meant we didn't get too much sleep, eventhough he had is Hot Wheels BYOB, the sleeping bag on it makes alot of noise when he moves which is alot, and I have a hard time sleeping with a night light on. Alex was very well behaved at the John Caldwell breakfast (Matt's old high school) and ate all of the ham he'd received. I was worried that he woudln't eat his breakfast as he usually eats it with Mustard, ewww, which I knew probably wasn't on hand. Apparently applesauce on his ham was sufficient. Matt and I snuck away Saturday night to see War of the Worlds, what a delight it was to go to a theatre that had REAL BUTTER instead of that immitation flavored oil that the Empire theatre chain has adopted (yuck). I really liked the movie although I think the news stations hyped the scary factor up just a bit too much, I don't think I illicited one of the blood curdling screams I did in Signs.

Alot of Sunday was spent on the phone trying to get ahold of the RCMP. Sunday morning we took the new divided highway up to the Irving Big Stop when we saw a car coming in the wrong direction!!!! We honked and motioned for the driver to stop and U turn but the lady kept on her merry old way. When we arrived at the big stop it was full so we headed to another restaurant over looking the falls, on our way there we saw the lady again in a parking lot so I got her license plate number and told Matt we should report it, we were debating reporting it at the light when she flew past us making a left on a red light, that solidified my argument for reporting it. After Matt calling 911, being forwarded to the local police and then to the RCMP who were 'unavailable' and we were given a 1-800 number which we couldn't get through to for over 4 hours. Part of that time was spent at the potato festival parade though.

We then headed back home. I debated finishing the staining on the arbour for a long time but knew I was tired so I put my pj pants on so I wouldn't go outside. Later in the evening mom arrived as she has Alex for the day so it was nice to have someone around who watched 'my shows' with me.

As for stitching I've made a little headway in Giggles, he now has the coloured part of his scarf and undercoat stitched and his arms are almost finished. On the trip to Grand Falls I worked on a charmed stocking kit by mill hill but didn't pull it out on the way home, I was just too tired. Hopefully this evening will be a bit more productive!!

Stitching Question of the Week

When starting a new project, do you start in the middle? If you do, once you've worked down to the bottom, do you turn your chart and fabric around so that you are stitching the top section downwards again or do you just stitch upwards from the middle?

I start in the middle, however the rest of my travels are usually pretty random depending on what colours I use. I'm a vertical stitcher (unless working with hand dyed threads) which has me usually working to the left first and then working part of the right side with the chart upside down...which I should be doing tonight now that I'm back on Giggles :)

I Have Willpower

Oh my, it's been proven, I have willpower. When I was making my last pilgrimage to the local LNS I saw they had stocked Petal Fairy, I put it in my basket. Then I put it back. For once it was a good price and it kind of haunted me. I was going to go today when I realized that I won't be stitching it anytime soon and by then surely one of the INS or the PNS (provincial Needle Shop) would have it cheaper and I'd rather patronize a store that wasn't packing up and heading to Montreal, either stay local or I'll take my business elsewhere that's reliable. What an empowering revelation, as I usually cave.

Nothing overly big on the work radar today. My grandfather's cousin and best friend passed away this morning, he was like a surrogate uncle to my mom and great uncle to us growing up. We looked forward to our special silver dollars in our christmas cards every year that he'd send. It was a great honour to have someone take such interest in our lives. Passing away at the age of 95 however I don't feel the sense of tragedy and loss as much as the other losses I've experienced, it's more of a chapter in life's diary that can be closed and look back at fondly.

Tonight after mowning the back lawn and treating Alex to his favorite supper of tacos (the boy could eat one for every year of his life) and reading another Chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Alex I headed down to the basement and did some scrapbooking. I love to scrapbook but my inspiration for pages can sometimes be fleeting. I finished up a page of Alex trick or treating for the album club at compupro. Then I did a little stitching on my SB ornament to say that I did actually stitch tonight and here I am, I've confiscated Matt's laptop while he plugs away at his game on the family pc, going wireless internet has really helped ;)

A Little Rant

It has been over 6 months since I initally reported a mother/grandmother duo who refuse to put their daughter and granddaughter in a car seat, and when I talked to them in the fall it had already been going on for 6 months. I've reported it, given statements to the police, had promises of a patrol car being sent to catch them and nada! No ticket nothing. What's worse is there is a high end carseat in the back, but they insist on sitting the now 28month old up in the front, at least the occasionally use a seatbelt. Shame on the police for not doing something!!

Stitchless Sunday, So Far...

Today I learned never to underestimate the scope of an outdoor project ;) Case in point when we moved in last year there was a rotten looking bench in the front of the house and ditto for an arbour outback. On Saturday I decided to see what deck scrub would do to the state of the bench before wasting time on the arbour. What an improvement. No more grey wood!! The bench went by pretty quick, the arbour however took most of today, but at least they have be salvaged. Staining will have to wait until another weekend, but at least I picked it up. Needless to say I didn't get nearly as much stitching in as I had anticipated but here's my progress to date (hoping to stitch something tonight).


Giggles Progress week 1

Stitching Question of the Week

Are there any types of designs that you won’t stitch?

I probably won't stitch anything that is simply floral, mind you if there were beads involved or specialty stitches/fibres I'd consider it. Mind you had someone asked me this before I met the local stitching group I would have had band samplers on there (which I collect with reckless abandon now) and hardanger looked too hard (and now I find it relaxing). I'd rather do a large design with shading that 'draws' the character than a small design that relies on backstitching.

The Mailbox Overfloweth

Oh little Happy Dance, the parcel from JJ's had finally arrived. They shipped it promptly, CanadaPost however wasn't quite as speedy. I was soo excited, although I don't think Matt was nearly as excited to see all of my new watercolours and WDW spread out on the love seat.

After a late supper we headed down to the Wilmot wading pool with Alex. I really noticed how much he'd grown in the last year when his head was comfortably above the water in the deep section. I remember taking him as a toddler in his little inflatable boats and letting him paddle around, no need for my assistance anymore. Although that doesn't mean we don't have a close eye on him, I don't understand how some parents can just dump their kids off at a pool and not watch them. We had one little guy shoving Alex, once even on the throat at shove number 4. At that point I kicked off my shoes as Alex was trying to get away and intervened. I told Alex to stay away from the boy who couldn't behave quite loudly and not a single reaction anywhere (where on earth was this kid's parent??) and reminded the boy gently that shoving was not friendly and that no one wants to play with a bully and I actually didn't see him rough housing for the rest of the night.

When we returned home we put a purple Alex (he'd have stayed in the pool until it froze over) to bed and watched Veronica Mars while stitching on Giggles. I started stitching the light blue section of the coat first and have since branched out with the medium blue color. I now have the outside borders of the coat stitched, now to fill it in (progress pic to come soon Faith Ann ;)). I had intended on throwing it on the scanner until Alex required some assistance picking out his clothes (poor monkey was also a bit too sleepy to dress himself this morning).

Nothing too much planned this weekend. At 99.8 cents a litre we won't be going too far at all. Matt has a ball game at 6 which Alex and I'll probably go to after we grab a bite to eat at home. The field where Matt's games are scheduled has some playground equipment and is connected to the walking trails should Alex get bored, but hopefully where it's nice out there will be some other kids watching their daddys :)

Giggles

Last night I finally got a good start on Giggles in the Snow by Mirabilia. Mind you I stayed up a little past my bedtime, I started watching Dancing With the Stars (just wanted to catch a glimpse of my favorite NKOTB) and Matt actually came out and started watching it with me. I love to watch dancing.

We had a fairly quiet evening. Alex (bubble mower) and I mowed the front lawn while we waited for Matt to get home (what kind of sadist schedules a meeting at 4:30 with someone that they know commutes I have no idea). While waiting I also made up a list of little things that need to be done by Matt around the house, door stops installed, reorganizing the surround sound system, etc. He's going to be so thrilled when I show him it, not.

I also got a good news/bad news phone call last night. Apparently Barbara Ann's Cottage in Riverview is closing so there's a sale on the cross stitch supplies (must remember to reorder the SB button I was ordering through them elsewhere). It's not a big surprise, although a very successful store she's had a really rough two years family (health) wise. I'll miss her store on our bi-annual pre-retreat shopping trips. I love both Moncton area stores as the two seem to compliment each other more than compete. Now to see what I need to order from there before she closes.

Still no sign of the Potting Shed, hopefully it'll show up before the weekend, along with the threads I need for my SB ornament so I can actually do something SB related on the SB elf night (lately it's all been DD ornaments ;)).

Snail Mail Finally Delivers

In my haze induced by lack of sleep I forgot to mention that Canada Post FINALLY delivered two of my three parcels that I've been expecting. Now I can finish a patch on my cross stitch bag and do a little more scrapbooking ;) Now if they'd only bring my parcel with The Potting Shed in it and my WDW for my SB ornament!!

Not a Creature was Stirring

I had a little happy dance last night finishing Not a Creature was Stirring from the 2001 JCS ornament issue on SMF Golden Turret. This allowed me to also get started on Giggles in the Snow while watching a Sarah McLaghlan documentary ;)


Dragon Dreams: Not A Creature Was Stirring

Unfortunately there were creatures stirring in our house last night. Some time in the middle of the night the old cordless in our room started beeping like crazy, sometimes the old battery decides to go on the fritz, so I grumbled for Matt to pull it out when he let me know we had no power. My land did it ever get warm quick! Matt went to investigate, even with the security system I think when he's woken up from the dead of sleep he's convinced there's a robber in the house... When he came back then the little creature across the hall started whimpering 'I can't see...I can't see...'. Poor little guy inherited mommy's fear of the dark, until I realized how much more sleep I got when the room was black in my teens. We brought him into our room so he wouldn't be soo scared. At that point I asked if Matt had called NBPower, nope. So I trudged off into the dark and found the phone book, confiscated the flashlight and headed downstairs to use the phone as upstairs is completely cordless. I'd finally gotten back to sleep when the truck pulled up in front of the house and was working on the box inbetween our house and the neighbors, half an hour later the power was back, Alex was back in his own bed and I was finally getting some shut eye!

It's only Tuesday?

Sigh, it feels like it should be Friday already. Matt was out playing ball last night so I had the night chores all to myself. It was good to see him get out, but doing all the cleaning on my own was not.

I had hope to finish my Not A Creature Was Stirring ornament last night in time to enter it in the SMF Sugar Shack Gallery but I didn't make it. I knew as soon as Matt walked in the door I wouldn't have access to the scanner should I have finished it until at least this morning so I headed to bed.

I did do a little happy dance last night though, although not stitching related. My car's window went back up (after two weeks of noisey plastic). Every June it seems to do this, I'll have the back window down all the way, shut off the car and when I go to put it up again it's dead. Then when it gets warm again and dries out it's fine. I'll have to put a sticker on the button reminding me which of the back windows not to open. One of these years I'm going to learn to drive the stick which is our other much newer vehicle....

Father's Day

Father's Day went over well at the house ;) My back was acting up but some Advil kept the pain in check enough to cook Matt's father's day brunch, a batch of his favorite muffins, a german chocolate cake and roast a chicken. The sun finally came out after a week of rain and while Matt mowed (he just sharpened the blades and wanted to do it himself) so I had the opportunity to weed my gardens and do some of the pruning on the lilacs. 80% of the flowers are gone and I didn't have the heart to prune off where there were still blossoms. While pruning I found a caterpillar, myself, I'm a fraidy cat when it comes to bus but they facinate Alex. I called him over and for 6 hours he lugged that caterpillar lovingly dubbed 'catapilly' as his pet, he was very sad when he had to release it back into nature, although he did so in my garden so hopefully he won't stray too far.

I completely forgot about the DD SAL on Sunday until I read about it Sunday morning. So much for finishing off Baby Bug Ball on the weekend. I'm hoping to finish up the DD ornament I started yesterday before posting my progress (Not a Creature was Stirring on 28ct golden turret by SMF). I did a little bit of sanding around the craft room but not as much as I'd hoped, the back just wasn't cooperating this weekend. Matt's off to softball tonight so I'll have some quiet stitching time tonight. Thankfully his games start at Alex's bedtime so he doesn't miss to much Alex-time :)

Life is Short

June always seems to be a reminder of how fragile life can truly be. It begins with the lilacs, a reminder of a friend lost when rushing across the road to pick more for her mother 20 years ago. With Alex's birthday comes the reminder that we almost lost him only 4 weeks later due to pyloric stenosis, and knowing deep down as he was wheeled into surgery something else was off, and finding out 2 weeks later that my beloved dog had passed away the same day but all were too fearful to tell me due to the stress I was already under with a sick baby. Father's day was no different, a simple call home with father's day wishes yielded the news that one of the members of our church middle school youth group had passed away in an accidental drowning, 29 just seems so young. How odd it is getting news like that about someone you'd really grown apart from over 15 years ago all in the same week that you track down a dear friend from 10 years ago just to say hello and that you valued their friendship.

Friday, finally!

Well it's finally Friday. What a long week it's turned out to be. My back is feeling a bit better today, not bad enough to consider taking two consecutive sick days ;)

I've been making some progress tracking down an old high school friend this week, what a difference a couple changes to your yahoo or google search can make, and a couple e-mails. I lost touch with alot of my high school friends when my high school sweetie and I split up, mostly my doing as I wanted a fresh start.

Tomorrow I'm finally getting the mop chopped again. I chickened out of getting more highlights, I'm actually liking being back to my original colour for a little while. This next hair cut will probably cut out at least one set of highlights from a year or two ago so I'll see if I can 'adapt' to the darker look. I enjoy changing it up a little every so often.

On the homefront all is going well. Although poor Matt has been on vacation all week but I think he's put in more work hours than he has resting hours. Today was the first day in a week that Alex hasn't asked about death, a subject that I just don't think I'm capable of explaining fully without sending him into a complete panic about the mortality of his parents and grandparents.

Besides the hair cut and planning a father's day feast I don't have much in terms of plans for the weekend. Maybe some more crack filling in the craft room but definitely some stitching. I'd like to be close to finishing Baby Bug Ball by the end of the weekend so I can start up Giggles in the Snow (I really need to get my stitching priorities on track, stitching snow in the summer, I'm nuts).

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week

Q : Do you feel the need to stitch a design from a specific designer just to say that you've experienced stitching one of their designs?

A : No, not really. After stitching Alex's Noah's Ark that measured 2 feet squared I have nothing left to prove and just have fun with my stitching. My tastes range from itty bitty (although I doubt I'd ever stitch on 40ct like a friend of mine is, I'd go blind) to large projects, from DMC specialty stitching less designs to beaded masterpieces.

A Day of Rest

I think I managed to pull a back muscle coughing last night as I was out of commission today. It was really odd taking a sick day over a sore back and cough but I really needed a day of laying down. I gave up on 'martyr mom' syndrome for once, usually I feel that if I can get Alex off for school then there's no excuse not to go to work but maybe I'm finally getting older and wiser and listening when my body says 'give me a break'. Although I didn't move too far (besides to kit up Giggles in the Snow) my arms and nimble fingers were able to move around and stitch for a bit without giving my back too much grief.

Matt's been on vacation and surprised me with a movie and pizza at lunch hour, he even gave up the couch so I could lie down flat (I'm usually on the love seat). With Alex at daycare it was nice to have the house to ourselves, even if I was laid up.

Here's an updated photo of my Guardian Angel that my dear stitching friend took for me last night (as it's too big to fit on the scanner), thanks again ;)


Progress to date on Mirabilia's Guardian Angel

It's definitely time to hit the ibuprofen and then the sack for some much needed zzz's!

Kids Say The Darndest Things

Talking to Matt tonight and telling him that Alex has been sad that mom and dad's tree 'died' reminded me of the cutest thing Alex said this weekend. On Sunday Alex was looking up at the fridge at a picture of Oreo, my brother's late guinea pig. Alex always got a big kick out of Oreo when he was a toddler whenever we'd visit the Miramichi or the pig would come up for a visit. Anyway, he turned to mom and asked "When's Oreo coming back to life??" to which mom replied "I'm sorry sweetie, Oreo can't come back, he's dead". Without missing a beat he replied "Well if God can come back to life so can Oreo". I think he took everyone off guard with that. If only death weren't so final.

Tonight was stitching night which was really fun. I was really looking forward to getting out tonight as I've been feeling rotten (back acting up) and work has been a bit stressful. When I started working I was assigned a pet project that eventual bloomed into a very useful tool that was picked up in other apps across the company. Unfortunately it was designed under the product I'm assigned to and other groups requesting changes sometimes gets into a 'well who's in control here?' match and poor developer moi gets stuck in the middle, I'm looking forward to when ISO certification goes in this year.

Back to stitching, I pulled out my Joy ornament to work on only to find that I was missing the WDW I needed, and when I went to stitch in the Pine that was required for the border I hadn't realized that it was not a WDW but a GAST, sigh. I then pulled out my Spring Teapot which I'd located the last floss colours for only to find the pattern was at home. It must have been fate's way of telling me to work on SB's Baby Bug Ball. How I ever love working with silks. I really can't wait for my The Potting Shed to come in.

Speaking of which mail is still dreadfully slow. I ordered from two memorial day sales and nada. Ditto for the Sizzix letters I won on ebay. sigh...

Dance of Joy!

Joy by Dragon Dreams

It feels good to have a little finish, especially with a large project on the go. Now I have 3 dragon dreams ornaments down and 4 to go, excluding the christmyths which I only have one of completed. It's kind of odd that I have so few of them done where the 2002 ornament caught my eye in the first JCS ornament issue I ever purchased, many DD patterns were to follow but I only got the Peace on Earth Dragon stitched this year! I can't wait to to have them up on the tree this year (will definitely require a REAL tree this year to have enough room for ornaments).

Last night was pretty laid back, I was feeling pretty worn out yesterday so I puttered around but at least the floors are swept now and some of the crack filling I'd done monday night is sanded. After reading about the Oompa-Loompas to Alex I put my feet up and finished stitching Joy.

Tonight is the Friends that Count stitching night and I can't wait to go. With the weather being as miserable as it has the last several days, it'll be nice to get out with some cheery friends and see what everyone is up to these days. The new Summer Teapot by Fiddlestitch Cottage may be available early at the meeting (as opposed to the first day of summer) so I'm hoping to pick up my copy :)

Trip Excitement!

Well after driving through high winds and lots of lightening we arrived at mom and dad's to this:

Checking out a near miss! 

We had an excellent time visiting, it was so nice to be 'home' for a weekend. I'm the homesick variety that loves visiting my old stomping grounds. I did get a little stitching in and a trip up to the LNS (yay, an excellent supply of kreinik ribbon awaited for some of the ornaments I'd like to do from JCS). Alex even got to the beach for a swim (he's a die hard swimming enthusiast)


DS's first trek to the beach for this summer with Pappy in tow 

Sunday, Alex let us all sleep in. Apparently he likes his inflatable hotwheels bed in the computer room much better than bunking in the boys old room which we've tried when either of my brother's hasn't been home visiting too. Matt came to pick us up later in the day, although first we went to Mr. & Mrs. Smith which was awesome, while Pappy took Alex up to the city pool where he swam for 2 hours. The drive back was fairly quiet, Alex slept and Steven and I were pretty zonked too, it's a good thing Matt met up with every local along the 'highway' to keep him awake ;)

Getting Excited!

Well it's T-minus 4 hours 'til quitting time and I'm getting really antsy to get on the road. Poor Alex thought I was only dropping the cheque off at the sitters today as he thought we were going straight to Grammie and Pappy's, not that he doesn't love his sitter, but there aren't too many people that Alex would rather hang out with than his Pappy.

I went scrapbooking last night and it was fun, I was the only one there so Tracy and I played with my Sizzix machine (she'd never seen one). I also got to see her Legends of the Dragons all framed, my goodness Elite did an amazing job! I think I'll take my Secret Santa there this summer. I worked on some pages of Alex's birthday party, I can't wait to put the title on it and finish the journalling.

This morning I wrapped up packing for our weekend excursion, I didn't have time before the school busses started arriving (we try to be on the road before they start going) to get any flosses together for the Dragon Dreams ornament I wanted to start but pulled out a mill hill kit (although coming to think of it I could grab my pre-sorted slightly started Baby Bug Ball to stitch down at the beach ;) I'm hoping we get some good weather. In other excitement, one of our stitchers from SJ who usually attends our workshops and retreat with the Fredericton stitchers had her baby girl last night :) I was sooo certain she was having a boy, which is odd as I'm usually never off. Welcome Quinn Marion!!

Yippee A Miramichi Weekend!!

Sometimes juggling a 40 hour work week with mom's nursing schedule is to say the least tough. Throw in holidays and it's near impossible to get home for a visit. In our morning e-mail yesterday I asked what would be a good weekend, and until the middle of July the only ones really available were father's day and the Canada day weekend, both of which Matt had plans for, sigh. My brother was going home Friday and taking the bus back here Sunday which meant if we went (I still can't drive our standard) we'd be bussing, added expense yes but I really wanted to go for a visit and head the the LNS up there. When I got home I discussed this with Matt and he offered to pick us up Sunday, yippee!!!

In stitching news I made an executive decision last night, I'm not entering the Guardian Angel in this years exhibition. I'm going to put in Just Nan's Gingham Christmas instead in a smaller size category (you can only enter one of the 4 size categories). She'll probably be finished in time but I'd like the leisure of starting whatever I want over the summer, maybe stitching some ornaments here and there and not being stressed out over a deadline, after all I can always enter her next year. Also, the large category is going to be completely saturated this year if those who plan on entering do, stressing myself out over a category with alot of competition is just not what I want to do. Now I can work on Baby Bug ball again and get some of the baby afghans I need to do for November ladder laced at least ;)

Tonight's agenda consists soleley of scrapbooking though, it's the last Creative Memories workshop before the summer and where my cutting tools are mostly in Miramichi it'll be nice to be able to work on some pages. I've been in the mood to scrapbook for a little while now and have layouts thought up in my head, now I get to translate them onto pages, yippee! I also enjoy our girls night out immensely, sometimes a mom just needs to get away for a couple hours to remember what she's like as an individual when the rest of your time is so involved in making everyone else happy and healthy :)

The Lady Slippers are Back!

One of the biggest surprises we had when we moved into the house last year were two clusters of lady slippers growing just along the fence between our lawn and our small forrest. Matt didn't notice them and almost threw a bunch of dead branches on them last year, good grief. I was pleasantly suprised to see them back when I was mowing the lawn last night, I almost did a happy dance with the mower. I'd let out a little yippee everytime I went by (my son must think I'm nuts).

I just finished the lawn and bbq'ing the steaks when the thunder storm hit, my goodness it's loud up at the house. I don't know if the altitude of the house has anything to do with it or what! Due to the lightening Alex didn't hop in the tub, but he had been out for a swim in the wading pool so I didn't feel too bad. After reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I plugged away at my angel. I stitched in one strand of white and worked on the scattered pink at the bottom in the flowers. I'll do that and a green that's down there and then I'll be leaving the waterlillies until last, there is ALOT of white on the piece so I want to leave the option of washing wide open.

I just received e-mail from my brother who's hiking around Peru, what an adventure. We're so different, I'm more of the put money into the house person where he's the globe trotter, I can't believe how much he's seen and he's only 25. Wow...

I Stand Corrected

I arrived home at lunch time to find not one but two cards in the mail for Alex...maybe someone at Canada Post is secretly reading my blog. I managed to get the front lawn mowed just in time to head back to work, big lawn, who's idea was that?? Mind you I do like the space between our house and the neighbors ;)

Well I've made a decision about making a decision on the Guardian Angel. Should I finish the flowers at the girl's feet AND one angel wing by the end of June I should be able to get it framed in time for the exhibition. Mind you I could put it in the unframed category should I finish it later than August 1st. Here's hoping!...

Still No Mail

Talk about snail mail! Mom and dad accidentally took two of Alex's birthday cards back with them to the Miramichi instead of dropping them off when they visited on the 29th, they were mailed bright and early on the 30th, last monday from Miramichi which is only a two hour drive away, it's a good thing Alex loves getting mail, no matter how late...thanks Canada Post!

Last night was a fairly quiet evening around the house due to the rain, I sat and stitched, caugh In a Fix and had a good laugh at the husband lamenting that the car was in a Fix when his wife switched from reverse to third too quickly. I can just see my dad or Matt with the same expressions on their faces. I finally got the angel's face backstitched so she's not so scary looking! I went to the LNS yesterday to get the colours I needed only to find both of them when I got home already on the bobbin, where were they when I needed them?? Sometimes I think I have a house elf playing tricks on me ;)

With the sun out and me forgetting my lunch I think I'll sneak home and mow the front lawn, between it being a week since the last time it was mowed, having it fertilized and then rain I do believe the lawn swallowed up a robin this morning, which isn't such a bad thing as I believe it's the robin that has issues with my pagoda lamps and keeps rotating one of them...sigh...nature...

Relaxing evening

Sunday went by without too much commotion, besides us sleeping in and missing church. I'd even made the squares for the picnic, sigh. Usually DS lets us sleep until 8 or so before looking for us but Sunday morning I woke up on my own at 9:30...the time that we usually leave the house for church. We watched Ladder 49 instead as we were too tired to watch it the night before. After a brunch I headed out to the LNS which is closing which also has scrapbooking supplies and treated myself to an embossing gun. Then I picked up a pretty butterfly blue perennial for my flower bed and some annuals, my feeble attempts to revive the poor flowerbeds. I think previous owners wife #1 was the gardenner ;)

I did get some stitching in on my Guardian Angel, I was stitching poolside when DH's cousin and husband showed up for a visit, we've been living in the same subdivision for 6 months now and this is the first we've run into them. DH finally was able to give them their wedding gift that's been sitting in the computer room closet for 6 months now. After DS's bedtime I got back to stitching the Guardian Angel and finished her halo, although I noticed when I went to finish her face that I'm missing a DMC colour, time for another trip to the LNS after work!!

Stitchin' Poolside!

Well, it might not be an infiniti pool or anything worth insuring, in fact its just DS's birthday gift this year...a wading pool but it was nice on a +28 day to lounge out by it. I had to rearrange my seating a couple of times as DS figured out how to get maximum splashing...tidal wave actually when sliding in. It was nice to dip my feet in the cold pool and stitch away at my Guardian angel, although I think I'll put the original pattern in a ziploc tomorrow should it not rain.

This morning DS and I headed out bright an early to get his hair cut, although he'd put in his new Star Wars DVD 40 minutes before and did not want to leave it, he wanted 'aloneness'. I was going to head to market after but there was a bridal party at the hair dressers and that usually puts me in a foul mood, my non upgrade from common law status is a very sore spot. After getting home and finding DH working away remotely I decided to call up my grandmother and see if we could borrow her van to pick up DS's pool, which was more than ok (DH was supposed to pick it up Friday when his dad was down with his truck to spray our lawn). I really wanted DS to get a chance to be outside today but where the lawn was off limits a pool on the deck would rock ;) We had a really nice visit with my grandmother and as usual there were a whole bunch of little luncheon foods ready when we arrived.

Tonight I plugged away at the Guardian Angels halo, poolside again and then on the couch until I ended up making some squares for the church familiy picnic tomorrow. It was just too hot earlier in the day to fire up the oven. In craft room news I finally picked out a color today after picking up some swatches from benjamin moore, herbes de province is going to look soo good in there, now to pick up some crack fill and primer...Go Habs go will be going alright ;)

Cakes, Presents and One Very Special Birthday Boy

Wednesday night I decided to decorate a 3D Carebear cake for DS, BIG MISTAKE in 30 degree weather! Decorating a regular formed caked woudn't have been a problem but gravity and warm frosting just was not cutting it. DH was playing softball so I went to see if DS had fallen asleep yet which he hasn't which meant road trip ;) We stopped by Sobey's and found a purple dinosaur cake that he was happy with and then went to the ball field to catch the last 3 innings of DH's game. Normally I don't let DS stay up anywhere where I did Wednesday but it was nice to play in the field under the stars just once. The boys were staying home from work/daycare so they had the liberty of sleeping in.

DS's birtday was a blast, we went to Boston Pizza for lunch although they no longer have the desperado pizza, sigh. Then after work we did the cake and presents, DS was thrilled with a new trainset from his Pappy and Grammie but wondered why there was no 'super suit' in his Incredibles suitcase that he received. He even received a phone call from my brother with birthday greetings, all the way from Peru! We then packed ourselves into the car and headed out to see Madagascar (although DS is still fuming over our decision not to let him see Star Wars before we can forward over some scenes when it comes out on DVD). He was soo tired by the time we got home that he didn't even ask to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and was asleep before I even got his door closed ;)

As for stitching I've gotten a little bit more stitching in on my Angel Stitchin' Joy ornament, although when working with hand dyed threads I always seem to underestimate how much longer it takes to stitch, that was on Monday Elf Night on the SB board, then Tuesday I made some progress on my Guardian Angels face, it should definitely be done tonight and hopefully she'll have some hair as well ;) The boys are home again today as the FIL is coming over to spray our lawn (I served notice to the ants that I battled last year ;)) last night as I was planting some more perennials. I can't wait to have them under control, it's not like we have alot, 4 hills on an acre isn't too bad but they irritate me, especially when they go near my flowers ;)

Tomorrow we're hoping to check out the festivities for the IWK here in town, I know DS had a blast at it last year. With the house tidied up I should have plenty of stitching time as well when we're not there, a welcome relief after a hectic birthday week!!

Party Time

DS's first little kids birthday party went on without a hitch Saturday, I can't believe my little guy will be turning 5 this week. He even had some surprise guests. We were just lighting the candles when I saw a silver honda pull in the McDonalds parking lot, then I saw the hometown honda label on the back and knew mom and dad had arrived :) I wondered why she was asking what time his part went from last week. DS has some very generous friends and I hope that they had a good time. One little guy couldn't contain his excitement about his gift and pulled out one of the bad guys from Power Rangers S(something something something) before DS had a chance to open it. DS was super excited as he knows that's about the only way one would sneak it's way into the house as I won't buy them.

Sunday was pretty good, although I spent most of the morning looking out the window at my flower garden that still needs to be hoed so I can get my remaining 3 perennials in but the rain just wouldn't go away. After lunch I proceeded downstairs and tidied up the craft room. Now that the door is up on the closet it actually looks clean, before no matter how much was in the closet it still looked messy because you could see it all sitting there. Now to pick out some paint and some mouldings. I love having a craft room, eventhough from time to time my crafting supplies seem to sneak upstairs and collect near the love seat ;)

There's actually some blue sky out this afternoon, it seems like it's been raining forever. I guess I'll be mowing again as soon as I get home. It seems like there's only enough sunlight to finish mowing the lawn and then it's back to rain lately, sigh. Hopefully DH will offer to do the back lawn so I can get some stitching time in.

25 Most Asked Stitching Questions:

I saw this on Dani's Blog and lifted it because I thought they were
neat questions.

1. How old were you when you started cross stitching?
Eighteen (one month off being 19)

2. Who taught you to cross stitch?
Myself, I'd wanted to learn for over a year but the couple people
that I knew that stitched never found the time to show me, so I read
the instructions in the kit I bought and the rest is history

3. What inspired you to begin cross stitching?
The long story: I always admired needlework and at the time had a
line of needleworking role moms all the way up to my great
grandmother, each with their own niche and cross stitch hadn't been
taken yet ;)
The short story: Was in the process of splitting with my high school
sweetie and needed something to do.

4. What has been your most difficult cross stitch piece?
A toss up between the border by TW on my elemental dragons and my
Witches of Booville by Stoney Creek, neight of which are done.

5. Do you have friends that stitch?
I think I only have one friend who doesn't

6. What is your favorite stitched piece?
My Peace And Quiet Please Dragon managest to trump even my Mirabilias

7. What is your favorite fabric?
Any sparkling evenweave, preferably 32 ct

8. What is your favorite fiber?
Rainbow Gallery Petit treasure braid, the metallic I find that
behaves the best with little effort.

9. What is your favorite needle?
Piecemaker 28's

10. Do you prefer black & white or colored charts?
Black and white.

11. How many Works In Progress do you have at this time?
Normally a big project and an ornament but lately I've had more
starts than finishes

12. How many UFO's do you have at this time?
3 Elemental Dragons & Witches of Boovile and The Wedding

13. How many cross stitch charts/kits/mags do you own?
Too many to count! I'm a serious chart collector!

14. How much fabric do you have in stock at this time?
One shelf of the craft closet is dedicated to it.

15. Where is your favorite place to stitch?
In my living room, on the couch under my mock-Ott Lite.

16. What is your favorite time of day to stitch?
Any time of day as long as I'm stitching is a good time of day!

17. How many pieces have you stitched in your lifetime?
My guess is too many to count! Just under 100 if you count all the
small projects and ornaments.

18. Do you give your stitched pieces away?
In exchanges and mostly to my mother and grandmother, although I did
do one for the MIL this christmas...brownie points ;)

19. How many different fibers do you have in stock at this time?
This may be a long list...
DMC (complete set)
GAST
WDW
Caron Waterlillies/Wildflowers/WaterColours
Gloriana Silks
Silk N' Colors
Dinky Dyes
Rainbow Galleries treasure braid, fuzzy stuff, wisper, splendor
Kreinik braid, ribbon, silk mori
Needle necessities
WDW and DMC perle cottons
Cresent Colours
Olde Willow Stitchery
Six Strand Sweets

I'm sure I've forgotten some too!

20. How many pairs of scissors do you own?
One but I really should invest in another and allocate them to
hardanger.

21. Do you use stitching enhancers (lights, scroll frames...etc)?
Just a mock-Ott Lite, I like the feel of the fabric in my hands too
much to do anything else

22. How many pieces that have been stitched but not yet framed or
finished off in some other way do you have at this time?
About 10, mostly ornaments, only big one left to frame is Secret
Santa

23. Do you have a craft/stitching room?
Why yes I do and we'd need to have three more kids for me to lose
it, and I think I'd lose my marbles before I lost my craft room ;)

24. Why do you stitch?
a)I like having something to show for my time,
b)Stress relief+++
c)The stitching friends
d)Heart felt gifts

25. What is your most memorable time related to cross stitching?
It's a toss up between the number of detours we made on our second
trip to retreat and almost heading to Nova Scotia or hearing about
the 'Victoria's Secret' retreat around the dinner table at retreat.

No Surgery...What a Relief!

Well after 5 months of wondering yesterday we found out that surgery wouldn't be necessary on DS's bump on his scar, the ultrasound couldn't find a hole indicating a hernia so it's been deemed a lump of scar tissue. Yippee!!

We had a very productive weekend around the house even with DH down with the cold I had earlier in the week, even if it came on the sad news of DH's cousin's daughter passing away at 20 months of complications due to TTTS. Over the weekend when DS and I weren't finishing up George's Marvelous Medicine I made quite a bit of headway on my Mirabilia Guardian Angel, now if only I had a digital camera to update my progress. While out for groceries/market I picked up a bleeding heart (FIL killed mine last year by accident) and PJM Rhododendrum, thank goodness for coop money at the pumps to soften the blow of buying yet another shrub ;)

On Monday I put together DH's workbench that he received for his birthday and proceded to install the closet door in my craft room (which looks much easier than it was ;)). After a family bowling trip I also put up my hummingbird feeder, it's amazing how much more we're getting done this year now that all of our stuff is unpacked in the house. Last night DH dug up a quadrant of an old flower bed (I think the previous owners first wife was a gardener and not the second) and I finally planted some perennials, although I'll miss them in the morning as they were sitting on my sunny kitchen window ledge for a couple of weeks now. After scrubbing all the dirt off my fingers it was safe to go back to stitching white on the angel. I thought I'd reward myself and take a little break after an hour and stitch on a Shepherd's Bush ornament that I'd started Monday night but it appears the one I chose is the only one that has colours different than the other 4 ornaments so I now have to order 4 Weeks Dye Works, sigh....

Post Episode III Day

Getting to Star Wars yesterday was great, I was really happy with the movie and am hoping to go back to digest everything. Today's kind of a let down knowing the story is over, sigh... When Return of the King came out it wasn't as bad, there were only three years aloted to covering the whole trilogy in theatres, for the six years for the Star Wars prequels really leaves a little void in my entertainment world. But my Thursday night's have recovered post Friends-era so I'm sure in time it will pass ;) If the ending wasn't so sad, well as sad as any sci-fi movie can get I'm sure this would be a bit easier ;)

When I got home my mother, who is in town to cover for ds's sitter who is taking a well deserved vacation, and I headed off to scrapbooking. It was neat watching her scrapbook for the first time. Originally she was the one that had talked about scrapbooking and I just caught her enthusiasm and tried it first. We had fun at Tracy's and got a sneak preview of her new Fiddlestitch Cottage teapot coming out the first day of summer.

When we arrived back at the house I started ladder lacing an afghan/throw while catching the end of the season finale of CSI. Instead of the gym today I went home to see how DS and mom were making out and had lunch with them which was nice. It's nice to see DS during non evening hours.

Hopefully this weekend will see a big improvement in the Guardian Angel and maybe a finish on my Dragon Drams Christmas ornament. With Monday being a holiday I'm really hoping to also get the ladder lacing done on that afghan/throw...

Stitching Night Recap

Last night was the monthly Friends That Count get together. I really look forward to a little mommy time, especially where I've been doing alot of running for DS pre-surgery appointments. We had a new stitcher last night who had the most beautiful Blossom Harvest I have ever seen, it's such a shame the Mirabilia pictures just don't do them justice. We were also lamenting about the local sewing shop closing it's doors at the end of June. With whatever issues we've had with the store over the year (definitely not the staff though), we'll be pretty much up a creek when it comes to beads and specialty flosses, guess I'll be calling the shops in Miramichi and Moncton a bit more now...sigh.

Back to stitching, I made some more head way on Mirabilia's Guardian Angel, I started stitching in the grey/blue that is at the bottom of her form. Towards the end of the night, when I was getting tired of the colour, I pulled out my creamy white afghan material, divided it into two for baby throws and put my fringe lines and trenches in for ladder lacing. Hopefully I can get them done before some of my friends have their babies this year. What a baby boom!

Today is pretty exciting, DH and I will be heading out to Star Wars at 3:15. That meant alot of extra time put in here and there for the last three days but it'll be soo worth it. Tonight we have my mother visiting as she's taking care of DS tomorrow, I'll be introducing her to scrapbooking at our bi-weekly Creative Memories get together. I can't wait!!