The Olympic Torch Comes to Visit

With the Vancouver Olympics fast approaching, the Olympic Torch is making its way westwards back to Vancouver. Last night it stopped in my hometown and naturally, we had to go check out all the action.

We met up with two of the mascots (Miga - the black one who is an apparent snowboarder and Quatchi - the big brown furry one who is a hockey player!):


There were some fun little giveaways that the boys were happy to get - tambourines, small little Coke bottles that light up, and some bells that are often rung during luge and skeleton races (and probably bobsleigh as well...):

(DS #1, being a mature 13 year-old, refused to be photographed, so only DS #2 would pose!)

We did run across one of the torchbearers after the torch completed its run and he was kind enough to pose with my guys for a snap:

There was *such* a huge crowd around that I was unable to get our torcherbearer's name, but he was very kind. So, thank you number 192!

We had a great time, despite losing feeling in our toes - it was pretty darned cold! It was an awesome experience and one I hope my boys never forget!

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Pretty things and some BIG news!

I have been pretty busy trying to get ready for Christmas - the tree is up but is lacking decorations. DH managed to get the lights on last night, but nothing else has made it out of the bins just yet. I'm baking like a madwoman - so far I've made 4 batches of fudge (2 peppermint, 1 cookies 'n creme & 1 chocolate orange), 1 batch of pumpkin gingerbread (yielding 2 yummy loaves), 1 batch of pumpkin pecan tassies, 1 batch of chocolate cherry squares, 2 double batches of chocolate pinwheel cookies and there's still more to go.........

Before the baking bonanza began, I did finish a few things off and what's even better - I can actually show pictures of them!

First up, my friend Barbara celebrated her birthday recently. She's a stitcher too, which is why I'm sure we're such buddies. Naturally, I had to stitch something for her birthday, so I took a stab at my very first 15-sided biscornu. I found the patterns from Stitch Creations and knew it would be the perfect thing. So, 15 20-stitch by 20-stitch squares later, I had this:


(sorry for the poor pictures, but the weather has turned cold and gloomy with little sun, so, you get what you get I'm afraid!)

Then came the challenge of cutting them apart and then putting them all back together into something cool. It wasn't as simple as it seemed and the first time I had it put together it looked dreadful. I discovered that there is a way to put it together so it looks right. So after some stitching, frogging and re-stitching, I managed to stuff and put a button on it. Here's a top view:


And from the side:


I still can't believe I managed to pull it off. Despite my error in assembly, it was a simple thing to put together and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. On the up-side, Barbara really liked it.

I also finished a model. I was asked by the folks at BritStitch to stitch up a model for one of the pieces they sell. This piece is already available as it's from another design company, so I can show it now:


(no, it's not your eyes, it's crooked in the picture.... what can I say? I'm no photographer!)

This piece folds up and becomes a really neat looking dimensional piece:


This was a fun, easy stitch. My only complaint was the fact that I ran out of black (DMC 310) and the gold (the evil DMC 5282). I was able to pull from my stash to finish the piece. I have another copy of this kit to stitch for myself. I'll likely do it again at some point, but I'll skip the 'season's greetings' at the bottom and just continue the vine pattern. And I'll toss the 5282 into the nearest trash bin and substitute something that doesn't make me want to tear my hair out.

Now I guess I shouldn't put it off any longer and I had better tell you the BIG news. I'm really quite excited about it. I was asked to help organize something way back in October and I dragged my friend Barbara into this adventure with me. I didn't know if we'd manage it or if it would actually get off the ground. Last week the contract was signed, the flyers have gone out and it's official. Barbara and I are organzing Gitta's Getaway - Gitta's first ever stitching retreat! I started a blog specifically about the Getaway - it'll be a place where I'll post announcements about what we're up to and where stitchers can get info about the getaway itself. We're going to be staying close to the shop for our first retreat (and yes, before you ask, the next one will be moving out of town, but for now, we're a 20 minute walk from the shop!) at the gorgeous, luxurious Waterside Inn. We're planning lots of fun activities and time to stitch and hang out with other stitchers. We've even got some suprises up our sleeves, but I'm not going to give everything away here!

I still can't believe we're doing this - I've waited for years to go to a retreat and now I get to have a hand in making it happen!

In the meantime though, the oven beckons......

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The Big 1-0!

'Tis a happy day in my little part of the world. We're celebrating one of the most special days in our little family's life. Today, my miracle baby turns 10. I look back at what we were looking at 10 years ago today:

I vividly remember looking at my little boy in his oxygen helmet and thinking 'You're alive, little one!' and being so full of joy and relief. I know the night after he was born I didn't sleep. I couldn't. I kept marveling at the fact that he'd beaten so many odds already and he wasn't even 24 hrs. old. I was terrified of what might come as we had no idea just what ordeals his birth defect would cause (7 surgeries later, I know!). I worried that he may have suffered some yet-unseen problem that we wouldn't know about until he was older. I was scared that I'd left him some awful genetic legacy - I'm adopted and at that point, I had not met my birthfamily so I had no clue what kind of genetic roulette I was playing.

Despite all that, it seems the heavens offered me the greatest gift of all. Not just another child to love. Not just someone who would surprise and amaze me at every turn. I've been offered a second child that would grow up just like everyone else - although just a little bit shorter than the rest (he's currently the size of an average 8 year old). What more could a mother ask for?

So today, we're celebrating my newly-minted 10 year old:


I couldn't be happier. The B painted this self-portrait at the beginning of the school year. I think he did a great job. Then again, I *am* his mom!

Happy Birthday little B. You made it! Love you lots!

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Here, there and everywhere....

I've been a terribly absent blogger, but not due to lack of desire - more due to a lack of time. My November working as Scientist Erica has been really, really busy. I've only had the odd day off here and there the whole month and on those rare days off, I've spent them catching up with all the stuff that just accumulates - laundry, groceries, cleaning, etc. All the not-so-fun stuff that comes around when you're a grown-up.

Today I've finally managed to catch a breath and I decided it was time to catch up a bit.

I have been stitching quite a bit, but two of the projects I've been working on I can't show - one is a model and the other is a birthday present (and I'm no longer sure if the recipient reads my blog, so I'm not taking any chances!).... But! I still have pictures:

Once I managed to catch a breath after the Festival, the first thing I had to pick up was Teresa Wentzler's 'Sparkling Hearts'. Once Teresa announced the closing of her business, I felt compelled to stitch one of the last pieces she's produced. Nevermind the fact that I think it's gorgeous. I finished it in a couple of evenings and I've made it into a pin that I wear when I'm working. It's so pretty and sparkly that it's impossible to get a good picture of it, but here's the best one I took of about 10 shots:

Sparkling Hearts
Class from CreativFestival 2009
Designed by Teresa Wentzler of TW Designworks
Stitched on 14-count perforated paper with Magnifica beads and DMC

This piece sparkles and shimmers in whatever light there is. I wish I could capture the beauty of it. Teresa kindly included another pattern with this one that is similar in shape but allows one to put their initials in it. I think I may slowly work away at purchasing the required Magnificas and then stitch it (Magnificas are awfully darned expensive!!!!!).

Other stitching on parade:



This is a freebie by Whispered by the Wind that I started early in October with the hopes of finishing it for this Halloween. Clearly, I didn't quite make it - although there's only the spiderwebs to finish and one band at the bottom. I'm going to be really, really early for next Halloween.... :-)

My other WIP at the moment:
I'm really enjoying Cirque and I'm in no rush to get it finished. It looks so darned pretty. I have to admit though, I was pretty darned excited when I made it down to the bottom and started working my way across...

I've saved the best for last. A couple of weeks ago, I offered to take Heather to Gittas for stitch night. Heather reminds me so much of myself when I was at home with a toddler and had no one around to stitch with. It makes me incredibly happy to be able to offer Heather a way to get out to Gitta's and spend time with some adults (kids are wonderful, but every now and then, don't you just need to have a conversation that doesn't involve bottles or toilet training???). Heather, being the kind and generous person she is, gave me the most wonderful thank-you present (which was totally unnecessary but is most gratefully accepted!):


Isn't that the prettiest Biscornu? I just love it! One can never have too many lucky cats in their life. The lucky cat buttons are just perfect. I feel awfully lucky to own such a pretty thing! Thanks again Heather!

And to top it off, Heather also gave me two charts too:

I didn't own either of these charts and I'm so lucky to get them. It's going to be hard to resist stitching one or the other, but I really do need to work on the other things I've got on the go!

Well, I imagine I've spent enough time playing on the computer and I should probably go and scrub a toilet or two. I only have to work one day next week and then I'm off until January. With a bit of luck I might actually have enough time to get all my Christmas shopping done!

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Samhain Cometh

Happy Halloween to one and all!

Time seems to just be galloping along and here I sit on Halloween finishing off my decorations, carving pumpkins and rejoicing in the coming of a New Year.

The house is decorated:

There's more to be added as we get closer to darkness, but most things are out now. I just need to add everything that lights up!

Callie has found her favourite lap. She's still unsure why she only gets to see Hazel once a year though:

Apparently she makes the perfect lap. Callie is hopeful that eventually Hazel will learn how to scratch her behind the ears, just how she likes. On the up side, Hazel doesn't wriggle or get up to use the loo in the middle of a good nap.

I saw my very last Halloween parade at DS#2's school (he'll be graduating from this school next June!):


He elected to go to school as a wizard although for tonight he'll be a swordsman. He couldn't take is sword to school (against the rules!), so he was a wizard at school.

The boys carved their pumpkins and posed for their annual pumpkin picture:


DS#1 is proving his essential geekiness - I'm so proud! Here's his pumpkin all lit up:

(It's a smiley!)

Here's DS#2's:

I'm told it's a Bionicle - the Mask of Life. I think it looks awesome!

I did finally finish-finish my Halloween piece from La-D-Da too. I decided to try making a Cube-It since I've never done that before. I'm quite happy with the finished product:

I'm really tempted to find some feet for this and put on the bottom, but I won't be going near a store today. Too. Many. People.

Here's the back:

What I'm really impressed about - everything that I used for this project (from the linen and fibres to the styrofoam and fabric) were all pulled from my stash. No purchasing of anything!

And I did finish one other thing from the Festival - my Japanese Stepping Stone Bracelet. I'm really impressed with how this turned out considering I'm no jewelry maker and I felt mostly like a 50-fingered baboon while this was in progress. But, I persevered and I've managed to make a really pretty bracelet that is actually small enough to not fall off my wrist. I have very small wrists and most bracelets that one can purchase fall right off me. It's a novelty to have something just the right size.


Off to take DS#1 to a Halloween party!

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What a Festival!

This past Festival was so eventful for me, I'm not entirely sure just where to begin! When I last posted here the day before the Festival was to begin, I envisioned 5 days of stitching, shopping, relaxing and catching up with friends.

I should have known better.

Did everyone hear that little explosion around 8am on Wednesday, October 14th? No? You didn't hear the screaming and swearing? What about the little earthquake? No? Oh, maybe that was just me.

Silly me decided to check my e-mail before taking DS#2 to school. That's when the world kind of exploded. You see, I had an e-mail from Teresa at 4:27AM titled 'bad news'. Apparently what she had thought was just a bad head cold was, in fact, the flu and she couldn't get on a plane to Toronto. In the shock of the moment, all I could think was 'Waaaaaaa! I'm not going to get to see one of my favourite people!'. Then reality set it in. That's where the swearing came in (good thing the kids were upstairs and out of earshot - the air around me turned blue for a minute or two...). Teresa was teaching classes. She was teaching 6 classes. How in the world was this going to happen? (that was the explosion). Then I realized that I had a good portion of her kits sitting on my living room floor. But I had no idea just what I had. Then I realized that I probably could TEACH HER CLASSES (talk about presumptuous, eh???). That's when the earthquake broke out. Or maybe that's just when I sat and shook violently for a minute or two. I'm not Teresa, nor do I play her on TV. Could I pull it off? Was I crazy to even try?

I loaded all the boxes into my van and went to my first class. It was *really* hard to concentrate since I was so flummoxed about Teresa not coming to Toronto. I think I kept breaking out in the shakes and/or a cold sweat too......

Jennifer finally arrived and I dashed out of class like I was on fire (really, it was plain old panic!). Jen and I got the box and opened it and started pulling things out. We discovered that we had a good number of complete kits for her classes, but no charts and the first two classes she was teaching were missing supplies (had to be the first two, didn't it?). Jen went to call to Teresa and figure out a way to get us charts and I went back to class. I was feeling a little calmer, but not much.

The next morning Jen walked into another class I was attending (a chain mail bracelet class - I'm lucky I didn't stab myself with the pliers!) with 4 charts in hand. Yipee!!!

I figured out what the first class was that I needed to teach (Sparkling Hearts) and that night, after helping set up Enchanting Lair's booth, I took the supplies home and started to figure out just what the *bleep* we were going to be doing the next evening. I had a ton of pretty beads in zipper bags, some perforated paper, some floss and some Kreinik. I sat down with the Mill Hill site and figured out which beads were which - no mean feat (this was a TW class, after all!)! I printed off labels and started to label as many baggies as I could manage. By this point it was almost 12:30 am and I decided I needed some sleep (for me to make it downtown by 9AM on a weekday, I need to leave my home by 7 AM...).....

Friday arrived and I drove downtown and helped Jen with the over-1 Dragon class. Bascially I handed out supplies and helped sort out Teresa's floss. Thankfully it was all snipped but was in bundles, similar to what you get in a purchased kit. The students, with remarkable patience sorted their floss, punched holes into a floss card and recorded which was which.

I had to dash off to work in Enchanting Lair's booth for the afternoon - man was it *BUSY*! I sold lots of stuff, spoke with tons of people and couldn't tell you anything more specific than that if you paid me. I had a perpetual feeling of rising panic - I was about to teach my first solo class of Teresa's. It didn't help that someone came up to me (I don't remember just who) and said 'I hear you're the other Teresa Wentzler!'..... Gak! No! No! No! Remember? I can't draw stick people!!!!!! I'm just a stitcher.

Anyway, I made it to class and had a momentary qualm seeing all those people staring at me. Then I reminded myself that it can't be any harder than wrangling 8 year-olds - heck, I'd wrangled about 140 of them the week previously to no ill affect! The students were remakably kind helping me to label bead packages and hand them out and collect the kit fees and take attendance. It just goes to show that stitchers are the kindest and most helpful and most understanding folks on earth (thanks again to Debbie and Emily and whoever else jumped in to help!)..... We made it through the class relatively unscathed and so far I even had one student e-mail me finished pictures of the piece! Yay!!!!!

Next up on my agenda was the Cutwork Compass Rose class. I took all the materials home with me on Friday night and dumped the lot onto my family room floor so I could start sorting kits and get familiar with just what was what. I realized quite quickly that the best use of the class time would be to dive in and do the teaching cutwork piece that Teresa had provided in the chart (for anyone that took last year's cutwork class of Teresa's they'll recognize the teaching piece!). Saturday morning arrived and I handed out kits and had folks find the extra-special cat hair embellishment packs that my kitties included at no extra cost!

Again, stitchers were kind and patient and took time to say thanks. We worked out way through the teaching piece and I showed everyone my way of cutting threads that eliminates those little nubby things that stick out from the edges of your kloster blocks. I think just about everyone did manage to cut their piece and they even got to wrap some bars and do some dove's eyes. I think it was a fairly successful class, considering that I had no model to show anyone, that I hadn't actually stitched the piece myself and that I barely had a handle on all the materials!

I consider the fact that no one got up and left, nor did they throw sharp objects at me means I did a passable job as a substitute TW.

I'm endlessly grateful to the students in those classes who helped, who understood and who were just so incredibly kind!

Hopefully still being the first to get their claws into Teresa's new charts is sufficient compensation for not having Teresa herself teach the class!

I did manage to squeeze in a little stash shopping:


I picked up some Northern Pine charts and a kit for Blue Bayou. I found a couple little charts over at the Sampler's booth and over at Xs and Ohs I spent some of my model stitcher credit picking up the new Spooky House and The Guardian. For some reason my chart only says Spooky on it, instead of Spooky House.... :-)

Naturally I did my share of damage at Enchanting Lair's booth - lots of new Dinky-Dyes (always a downfall for me!), a pair of the new Dinky-Dye scissors, Mirabilia's Lavender (with the embellishment pack), and of course, lots of Laura's pretty, pretty linens.

I really wanted to spend some time in the knitting booths - I wanted to get an up-close look at Kaffe Fassett's new wools/sock yarns and so on. I glimpsed them briefly during the talk that Kaffe gave on Friday night and really wanted a closer look - the colours were amazing!!!!!!! Oh well, next year, right??? I wanted a shawl kit from sweaterkits too, but maybe it's just as well I didn't get over to their booth. It would probably be a waste of wool in my inept knitter hands anyway..... :-)

I was really blessed as well to have received a special gift from another Festival friend, Gail. Gail comes up from Bahamas (or is it Bermuda? Brain fart! Can't remember!) every year for the show and is one of the nicest people I know. She made this for me:

It's a kumihimo lanyard and it's got some really pretty sparkly fibres in it. I love it and wore it with pride through the whole show. Aren't I lucky?????

Now that I've started to recover from the show and another busy week of being Scientist Erica instead of TWLite(!?!?!?!), I really need to deal with this:


This is all the stuff that needs to be sorted and shipped back to Teresa and Jennifer. Thankfully they're patient people. Next week. Next week.

Cross your fingers and maybe my next post will show some of the work I accomplished in the classes where I actually got to stitch!

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It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Festival...............

The CreativFestival starts on Wednesday (for classes anyway, the retail portion of the Festival doesn't start until Friday)..... My living room presently looks like this:


Why? Well let's see - 3 designers have shipped a variety of things to me and I drive them down to the Festival (since I'm going there anyway, I may as well make myself useful!)..... So, these are their boxes. Haven't I been a good girl? I didn't open any of them, much as I wanted to..... :-)

I think I'll be glad for the mini-van!

Off to pack up *my* stitching stuff!

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Another Blog Giveaway...

This time I'm posting about someone else's blog giveaway. There is a HUGE, over-the-top generous blog giveaway over at Annette's Acre. Do go see her and leave a comment. Below is just one picture of a small portion of the things she's giving away! Go check it out!

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I Have A Confession To Make.....

I hope everyone will forgive me for this. You see, I posted a little bit ago that I had a single copy of the JCS Halloween issue up for grabs. I'm afraid the jig is up, and I have to confess. I lied.

I actually have 5 copies. :-)

So, would the following people, please send me your snail mail address offline (e-mail me at e k i l l i n s @ r o g e r s . c o m - remove all spaces!) and I'll work at getting your magazine off to you as quick as I can.

Congratulations to:

• Arthemise
• Karin
• Rebecca
• mslizca2
• Meari

Hopefully y'all will forgive me for my little deception! ;-)

Have a great day everyone!

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Happy Dancing!

Yes! Finally finished the model and just to celebrate, I finished stitching this too:

Halloween by La-D-Da
from the 2009 Halloween JCS Issue
Stitched on random linen using GAST Raven & Burnt Orange

Shockingly, I didn't have any Belle Soie in my stash, so I just rummaged through the GAST pile and found those two colours. I'm very happy with how it turned out. It still needs ironing and then I'll likely make it into a little hanging ornament. Although maybe it would make a neat little Cube-it.... Hmmm.............

I'm happy to have the model complete ( a good week ahead of deadline no less!) so that I can get back to stitching things for me! I'm dying to get back to Cirque des Cercles. It's hardly seen the light of day for a couple of months now.

I'm off to mail the model to the designer - then it's Pizza Day at DS#2's school, so I'll be smelling of pizza for the afternoon!

Don't forget about the giveaway I've got for the Halloween Issue of JCS. I'll be drawing a name next Wednesday! If you want in, comment on this post.

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Giveaway Alert, Giveaway Alert!

Well, it appears my memory is post-stamp sized and I've found myself with a duplicate copy of this (I guess I really wanted it!):


Since I really don't need two of them, my second copy is up for grabs. Just leave a comment on this post (and only this post) before Wednesday, September 30, 2009. I'll randomly draw a winner on October 1st. I'd appreciate it if you could post something on your own blog too to drag others here.

And you never know what might just join the magazine on its way to its new home..... (don't you just love a surprise???)

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Catching Up....

As usual, I'm running behind and trying frantically to catch up. There's something about back-to-school that just makes it worse - and here we are at the end of the second week of school!

We are all adjusting to having a regular schedule again after a very long summer - 10 weeks of summer vacation was just a little too long somehow. Neither of my boys were completely thrilled to be going back to school (yet DS#2 insists that he wants to be a teacher when he grows up! :-) ), so I decided to prepare a little surprise for them. When they came downstairs for breakfast, they were each greeted with this:



I called it my 'Back To School Survival Kit' and filled it with all kinds of things with little motivational notes attached. It was cute and the kids had fun reading all the notes and finding the treats inside. I don't think it made either of them more eager to go back to school, but at least they enjoyed the surprise!

I've been stitching like a madwoman on the model I've got on the go - the end is in sight now though. I just have to finish the outermost border and put on the beads and that puppy is finished. I'll still have to proofread the chart and write all my pattern notes & corrections, but that's a quick job. This piece just keeps getting prettier and prettier. It'll be nice to show everyone what I've done, but I'd better wait until the designer clears it. :-)

Since I can't post a stitching picture today, I will post a picture of one of my furries. DS#2 snapped this one. My cats aren't allowed outdoors (in our neighbourhood it's a recipe for getting hit by a car!), but it doesn't stop one of them from wishing:


Time to get to back to work on the model!

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What Have I Been Up To?

It's a question I frequently ask myself somedays......

Things have been busy here since we got back from our camping trip. DS#1 left for Scout camp the day after we got back from the family camping trip. It was a challenge to unpack, do his laundry, re-pack the things he'd need for his week away and be out the door the next day, but we did manage. It's a bit of a blur, really.

Since DS#2 was going to be without one of his best playmates for the week, we decided to sign him up for a day camp. He really wanted to do a computer camp this year, so he went to this cool one where he made a bunch of neat animated movies, he filmed his own movie in stop frames (a la Wallace and Gromit-style) with Lego and built a really cool Mars rover out of Lego - it was motorized too. He had lots of fun.

As for me - well, I first decided that I wanted to get back to working out again. My knee has started bothering me again and I know it's because I'm not getting enough exercise, so off I went to the gym like a good girl and renewed my expired membership. A few hours on treadmill and bike later and I'm a bit sore around the edges, but feeling good that I'm making an effort. Maybe I can drop some of the extra poundage I've picked up lately too. If I could just stay out of the Fudgee-o's.... *sigh*

Seeing as the gym wasn't taking up my *entire* day, I finally started on a little project that's been sitting in my garage for a few months (what can I say, sometimes it takes me a while to get going!).... DH and I were lucky enough to receive this old filing cabinet for free from a neighbour of my in-laws - they were throwing it out. Now I can understand why - it's really, really ugly but I just knew I'd think of something to do with it. So, into the garage it went. I spent some time web-surfing and looking for ideas of just what to do with the darned thing and how to go about it properly....

Here it is just as I was beginning its transformation:


I took this just after I finished sanding the exterior. I pulled out all the drawers because I had another plan for them:

You can see better in this picture just how butt-ugly-brown this cabinet was. It was really ugly. (as an aside, why do they make filing cabinets so gosh-darned ugly? Would a little colour and style *kill* them????)

So, step one involved these two handy tools:

Ah, spray primer, how do I love thee? Plus my little trigger-thingy. I discovered many years ago that spraying something without the trigger-thingy (that's the technical term, dontchya know?) causes much elbow pain. Trigger-thingy prevents it entirely. Worth every penny.

Anyhoo, I now had a cabinet that looks like this:

Still pretty ugly, but it couldn't get much worse....... It took me a can and a half of spray primer to get it to this point.....

Next up was the real paint - but oh, what colour to choose? Well, this cabinet is going to live in the basement office - a rather dim and dreary place overall, being that it lacks real windows and has a really bad light in it (DH picked it out without my knowledge or approval - I hate it!)...... Our office furniture is very dark (almost black) and the walls are a non-descript beige colour (again chosen my DH without me - dratted man!), but I do have a bright red drawer system for holding my office supplies. I really like the splash of red - brightens up the place immesurably. So, I picked this can of paint:


Actually I picked this can of paint 4 times. Red doesn't cover that well. Ask me how I know. Go on. You know you want to. Thankfully Home Depot is close by.

And you know what else I learned? If you don't cover yourself properly, you end up looking like you've got a sunburn. Really. Try it. Sunburn without the pain. It'll also make people look at you funny. I can't be entirely sure that's not a normal occurrence in my case, but you never know.....

So, cabinet painted, sunburned-look accomplished and 3 blistered-fingers later, I decided it was time to work on the cabinet drawer fronts. I really didn't want to paint them (take a wild guess at to why!) and I wanted to break up all the red. More web-surfing and inspiration strikes again - fabric! And, one of my ultra-favorite items, Super 77 spray adhesive (now having admitted publicly that I really like this product, it will be promptly discontinued and will vanish from all stores on the planet....):

I fell in love with this fabric and what's better - it was on SALE! So, $20 later I still have enough left to play with for something else.

So, after removing as much hardware as possible from the drawer fronts (okay, I could only take off the handles....), I created a paper template of the front of the drawer - cutting out holes for the latch and the spot where you can insert a label on the drawer (does is have a name?). I transferred the holes to the fabric, cut out holes and sprayed enough glue to last a few lifetimes. We won't talk about just how many hours it took to do this, okay? Nor will we talk about how many times I glued my fingers together, nor about why there is a lone flip-flop in the middle of the garage floor and why it won't move.

With a little help from DH to wrestle the drawers back into the cabinet frame, I was finally able to see the finished product all together:


Ain't it purty? Just funky enough to make it interesting.... I'm quite pleased with the whole thing, although my spray-paint job isn't the best (it's quite streaky in spots). Hopefully with the crappy lighting in the basement, no one will notice???

My in-laws are coming tomorrow (both DS' are off having a mini-holiday with their grandparents), so hopefully DH and my FIL and wrestle the thing down into the basement where it can be filled with all kinds of handy things.

As for stitching (what? This is a stitching blog? Who'd a thunk it?), I have been working away at a model, so I've nothing to show. Model work can be slow sometimes, especially when there is a fair bit of back-and-forth about the design. I'm lucky to be able to have so much input to the design itself and the chart layout and instructions. Hopefully at the end of the day it'll equate into a superior project for both the designer and stitcher.

Off to tidy up a bit after the spray-paint extravaganza!

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Well, it wasn't much of an adventure....

The Traveling Project has returned after another adventure out in the wild. Sadly, this trip didn't really agree with the project overly much. We departed home last Saturday and drove into rain. Lots and lots of rain. It alternately poured and sprinkled, poured and sprinkled the whole way to the campground. It let up for just long enough at the gate for the project to agree to get out and have its picture taken:

After diving back into the van, it began raining again. We were lucky to manage this one shot. So, we set up a tent in the rain. I don't recommend it, especially if your tent (like ours) isn't water-repellant until after the fly has been put on. The project sat in the van and giggled at us putting up a tent in the rain.

The next day the rain had quit but it got really, really, really humid. Like air-thick-enough-to-chew humid. The project didn't want me to stitch on it because I was sweaty and sticky. We went to the beach, but the project then refused to come out because it was too windy and there was too much sand flying around. It wasn't too keen on my sunscreen either.

After dinner back at the campsite, all hell broke loose as the heavens opened yet again. Except this time the rain was set to 'deluge' rather than just 'rain'. Within half an hour, our site was under 5" of water. Don't believe me? Look at this:

That's Bryce and one of my nephews standing in the water shortly after the rain quit. It was over our ankles with lots of floating debris in it. Thankfully the tent did stay dry or well mostly dry - one corner got relatively wet, but at least that night I didn't have to sleep in a puddle. The project remained in the van where it was nice and dry. It reportedly laughed at the silly people wading through the water, but it's unconfirmed.

Thankfully from that point on the weather improved and it was sunny and warm for the rest of our week. We spent most of it either at the beach or riding our bikes or playing at something or other. The kids had a great time.

We rented a hydro-bike:

We practiced(?) canoe-tipping:

We played with some sparklers - or well, at least the kids did:

The project pretty much refused to come out - after the storm it felt it was too muddy and then when it was warm, it felt it was too warm. Picky project.

Still, the rest of us had fun, even if it meant packing up a filthy tent and groundsheet on the last day. Everything is unpacked, washed and put away - thanks mostly to the fact that DS#1 had to be packed and ready for a week-long camping trip with his Scout troupe the day after we returned home!

My favourite shot over the week-long camping trip is of Bryce - I caught him at a quiet moment and couldn't resist taking this picture:

Hopefully our trip to the cottage in a couple of weeks will provide a more interesting adventure for the project!

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