Happy Hallowe'en or Happy Samhain!
Here's the two DS' with this year's pumpkin carvings - they design their own, Daddy helps carve: 
And for the best Hallowe'en treat ever, go here. Isn't he darling?
Off to an emergency bulb planting session! (more on that another time!)
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Creativ Festival - Days 1 & 2
I'm back to the land of the living after spending 5 days in my version of stitching heaven. I stitched, I visited, I attempted to walk the show floor..... In short, it was wonderful.
Here's a review (and picture intensive post) of my first two days at the show.
Day 1 - Class: Solitary Flight
Instructor: Anna-Marie Winter
This was a full-day class (6 hours of instruction) and a wonderful way to start the show. I fell in love with this kimono in the show brochure. It's even more lovely in real life. Here's a picture of the cover picture for the graph:
And here's my progress on it when class was over:
It's difficult to get much done on this piece in class since the entire background must be stitched before placing the dragonfly and the grasses can be stitched. The background is stitched in Silk Mori (which I love) and the dragonfly and grasses done in a variety of golds from Kreinik. I can't wait to return to work on this one more. Did I mention I love working with silk?After class was over I attended a welcome reception put on by the show. It wasn't really great or anything worthy of note, beyond the fact that door prizes were awarded (I didn't win a thing, naturally) and Anna-Marie gave a great (and short) lecture of cyber classes at NeedleArtWorks and awarded some $50 gift certificates for a cyber class (which I also didn't win :-( ).
Day 2 - Class: Triangulations
Instructor: Anna-Marie Winter
This was a half-day class again with Anna-Marie. The model for this class had many of us drooling as it's simply stunning. The fibres are just yummy to play with (again, more silk - did I mention I love silk????) and the overall size of the piece isn't too large. This will likely be one of the first projects I return to once the bleedin' models are finished.
Here's a picture of the graph:
And here's how far I got in class - although I admit to not adding any of the metallics in class because I'd rather save them for the very end. I find the metallics can mess up the silk, so I'd rather wait until I won't be working with the silks any more on the piece.
The dark blue is Silk Mori and the lighter blue is Silk Serica. It's so pretty in real life. It uses silks. I like silks a lot. Did I mention that already?
Day 2 - Class: Jade Dragon
Instructor: Laura from Enchanting Lair
The afternoon of Day 2 brought me to another short class, but this time from Enchanting Lair. I love little dragons and this one is done in some yummier than yummy silks again. I think I'm working up to an obsession with silks. But I digress.....
The piece uses Northern Lights, Caron Waterlilies and a bunch of Kreiniks. We didn't get a whole lot done in class as Laura was giving us great instructions, but I did get to play with the Northern Lights silks which are new to me. They were lovely. I'm still stroking one skein every now and then.
Here's the graph picture:
Sorry the picture isn't great - I'm no photographer! Go check out Enchanting Lair's site for a better shot. Here's all I got stitched in class:
I didn't get much done because I was listening more than stitching. Well, okay, I was playing with the silks a bit too. They're so pretty. And soft. And they glide through fabric like a hot knife through butter. Silk. ahhhhhhhhh............
I enjoyed this class thoroughly and enjoyed sharing ideas with Laura and talking about next year and some potential classes. That's all I'm saying.
The show floor wasn't yet open, so no shopping yet. After my class I went to the chatter about dolls given by Elinor Peace Bailey. It was an interesting chat and her dolls are simply stunning - they're so expressive and so far beyond my skills that it's humbling. Elinor is a very funny lady and although doll making doesn't appeal to me, I enjoyed the lecture.
I think that's all for today - I'm sure I've made a few web browsers weep and I apologise if the pictures were too much.
Just wait until you hear about my other classes, the banquet and the unintentional driving tour I had of Toronto.........
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Tis the season....
To change blogger templates. Or at least it seems that way. I think I've caught the change-template-itis that seems to be going about at the moment. I've been eyeing a 3-bar template for some time now and finally found one I like. I'll miss my big blue rose though. Maybe it'll visit again sometime...
My ankle is getting better although more slowly than I'd like. I'm off the crutches now as the swelling has gone down to the point where I can do two important things:
I'm still sore and limping heavily, but life is much easier when you've got two working feet. I saw the dr. on Monday and she had more blood work done. I feel like a pincushion but hopefully all this poking and prodding will tell us what is going on. I go back to the dr. on Monday.
In other news, I'm still working on my current model, but am seriously dreading having to use DMC metallic. If it weren't a model I'd replace it with some Rainbow Gallery Petite Treasure Braid, but sadly the choice isn't mine. If you hear any swearing, it's just me.
I'm so far behind on SBQs that it's almost laughable. Here's a few for catch-up:
July (gasp!) 19, 2007:
Which project (finished or in progress) are you most proud of? Explain why.
This is a difficult one to answer because I'm proud of every project and it's hard to select just one as the one I'm most proud of. They've all been challenges either for their sheer size or the complexity of stitches. I'm proud of all of them.
And yes, that's a wimpy answer.
July 28, 2007:
Have you ever thought of getting a rider on your household insurance to properly cover your stash (some of us have quite an extensive stash that an average household policy wouldn't fully cover) in the case of some sort of damage to your house that would destroy/ruin charts, fabrics, floss, etc?
Um, well, I think I've gone beyond the thinking about it stage. I actually have one. It's rather embarassing but I have numerous OOP patterns and an astonishing quantity of fabrics and fibres. DH has been told that if something were to happen to me that he needs to get someone from the LNS to come here and evaluate it all before selling it. I'm a dreadful collector of stitching stuff.
September 6, 2007:
Would you ever stitch one of your BAPs a second time? (This does not include starting over because of mistakes, bad fabric, etc., rather stitching something from the first stitch for a second time.)
Maybe, maybe not. I know I will likely stitch Celtic Christmas again for myself because I like it so darn much. I doubt that there are any other BAPs I'd ever stitch again. I can say with some assurance that there isn't a model BAP that I'd ever stitch twice. Once is more than enough for those! (some of the smaller model pieces I've done I would do again for myself, but the big ones - no way!)
I'll catch up on more SBQs later. Don't want to bore anyone to tears here......
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I've had this piece kitted up for months and it's been calling to me softly, but persistently since then. I finally gave in and started it. It's the Bouquet for Cheryl freebie from Ink Circles. I'm stitching it on a really sparkly Silkweaver fabric whose name has escaped me with the varigated DMC whose number also escapes me. It's all upstairs, I'm in the basement and my knee is bothering me too much to dash up and down the stairs to get the right info! Suffice it to say it looks beautiful so far (at least to *me* it does) and I'm really enjoying just threading up a needle and stitching until I get to the end of the strand. Hence why the first quarter has been finished in record time. :-)
Sorry for the dim and dreary photos - it was a dreary day today and I had to photograph indoors.....
And in more exciting news - I finally got my hands on the latest JCS ornie issue today. I admit to having read a few review of this issue in various blogs and I was worried I was setting myself up for a let down. However, I'm happy to say that I've already made a list of over a dozen ornaments I really want to stitch. I can understand some folks viewpoints on some of the ornaments, but I've found plenty to stitch and am having trouble deciding what to stitch first. I'm glad to say that I'm not disappointed in this issue at all and I think it's another great issue in a collection of issues.
Well, it's late and I'm tired. I did my grocery run tonight for Thanksgiving (we Canucks celebrate Thanksgiving this coming Monday, Oct. 8). I'm hosting this year and have the big bird to prove it. Thank heavens for my convection oven!
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Long time, no blog....
Life sometimes just gets in the way, doesn't it? I've managed to get myself thoroughly tied up with DS#2's school fundraiser this year and I've practically been living at school for the last few weeks. My house is a mess, the cat's litterbox needs attention and the hamster needs fresh water. Ain't fundraising grand?
I probably shouldn't have gotten so involved with this project, but I couldn't help myself - this fundraiser really caught my eye because it isn't the school doing fundraising or parents doing fundraising. This is a totally student-driven initiative. Our school doesn't have any outdoor play structures at all. All we have is a big grassy field. No soccer posts even. Nothing.
So, the kids decided they wanted to raise money for 2 new play structures - one for the Grade 1 - 5 students and another (smaller) one for the Kindergarteners. It's going to take 3 years (at least) and about $45,000 but they're determined. How could I not be a part of that?
I have been stitching too and I have some finishes to post, but haven't got time to get them uploaded right this minute. I'll try and add those later today. Stitching is my winddown time after spending the day surrounded by choclates and money! :-)
Off to visit the local back-cracker (i.e. Chiropractor!)
The Spooks Are Out! Copyright © Waxing Moon Designs
Stitched on 32-count Natural Belfast Linen with recommended DMC threads
I started this piece back when we were camping this summer. The picture is a bit wavy because I really need to iron it! :-) I think I'll make this into a tuck-away pillow and hang it in my front entry-way to greet visitors as we approach Samhain.
I'm feeling excited because after many months of working, asking, begging, pleading, being annoying and so on, DS#2's school is finally going to get additional landscaping at the front of the school. It's taken months of work, but it looks now like it will happen. It's going to mean spending this coming weekend shoveling dirt to get the planting beds ready, but I'm willing to spend the time. Better news is that the school itself is willing to pay for the dirt, so it won't come out of the limited budget the parent volunteers have. Yipee!
The only downer to my week has been the newly invoked and equally newly revoked adoption record laws in Ontario. I'm an adoptee, so this affects me personally. Since around 1927 (but my dates could be totally wrong here, so don't quote me on that!) adoption records in Ontario have been sealed - meaning neither Adoptees nor Birth Parents could access anything but the most generic information about each other. For instance, I could find out that my birthmother was a nurse and was 23 when she had me, but little else.
Sometime in the 70s or 80s (again, I'm not sure of dates here), the government established the Adoption Disclosure Registry. Adoptees and Birth Parents could register in a passive registry, meaning that if an adoptee registers and his/her birth parent registers, then they would be matched up and could meet and find out about each other. Additionally one could request a search for birth family or adoptees. I registered for a search in 1993. At that time, searches took between 7 and 10 years (yes, that's years folks) to commence. I was contacted in 2000 to indicate that my search was about to begin. It was completed in 2001 with the location of my birthmother. This would be great, except for the fact that my birthmother passed away in 1999.
In 2005 the Ontario government finally passed a law that would open Adoption records for adoptees and birth parents. It would allow adoptees to access their original birth certificates and birth parents to access their child's amended birth certificate. Identifying information all around. This is good. The law came into affect Sept. 17. More good.
Sept. 19th a judge heard a challenge to the new law and struck it down. This challenge was brought about by 4 people - 3 adoptees and one birth parent. 4 people out of the thousands of adoptees and birth parents in Ontario. They felt the law violated their constituitional rights and freedoms.
An appeal is being launched and I imagine this will eventually end up in the Supreme Court of Canada, but I am left feeling unspeakably sad that yet again I am denied that most basic of information - my name and the name of the people who created me. I am one of the lucky few who does actually know this information already, but I would still like to have my original birth certificate. It's not fair to all those who haven't been so lucky to date.
I hope this law will come back into affect and soon. All adoptees and birth parents in Ontario have been denied this information for far too long.
If you're interested, you can read more about the judgement here.
Read more...Surfacing.....
I finally came up for air today, looked around and realized it's been almost 2 weeks since I've posted anything. Ack!
What have I been up to? Stitching. Lots and lots of stitching. Sadly, I can't show you what I've been stitching though.... I've been frantically working to finish the one remaining model that I have kicking around - only to have the designer push back the release date, so I didn't need to work so frantically. I'm not unhappy though - I'm really far ahead now and can take a little break from the project to...................pick up another model. How do I get myself into these things???? :-) Luckily this model is quite small and it'll be finished within the next day or two.
I do have a stitching picture that I can post though! I finished one ornament I stitched earlier this year into an actual ornament:
This is the Merry Christmas Ornament from Glory Bee. I know the picture is a bit yellow, but it was late at night and I barely remembered to take a picture before it was packaged up.
You see, I had forgotten that DH's annual family golf tournament and Christmas gift exchange was coming up the weekend before last....... The gift exchange is just something small - we spend about $10 - $15 and I've gotten into the habit of putting a small Christmas ornament with my gift..... I had a real 'uh-oh' moment at around 10PM the night before the tournament when I remembered that I had stitched some ornaments, but couldn't remember actually making them into ornaments...... I dug through my stitching basket and what popped out but this ornament all made up with cording attatched and everything. Clearly the stitching guardians were watching over me!
As for the golf tournament, we had a good time as always. The younger kids (and their moms) usually play mini-golf while the older kids and all of DH's uncles go play a round of golf. This has been going on for over 20 years now and there are even trophies for mini-golf and regular golf. The trophy has 3 categories - Low Gross Score, Low Net Score and Most Honest Golfer. I'm pleased to say Cameron won Low Gross Score for mini-golf this year. It's his second year in a row to win Low Gross.... He was quite pleased with himself:
Cameron receiving the trophy for Low Gross Score in Mini-Putt from his Great Uncle Terry
Beyond that we're mostly settling into our new fall schedule with school, Scouts, Cubs and so on. It's always a bit crazy the first couple of weeks as we adjust to the new routine. Cameron is now attending middle school and has to ride the bus every day. School is good, apparently, but the bus thing has had some hiccups - late pick-ups, strange driving behaviour, extra early pick-ups, etc. I think it's sorted out now though as the driver has been coming mostly on-time last week. Today is a day off school for the kids as the school re-organizes, meaning they re-adjust classes and kids.
I'm off to make some lunch - the boys are hungry and I need to put the kitchen back together as I had it apart to wash the floor this morning!
Back to reality.........
It's been almost a month since I've posted here - and what a month it's been! I feel like I've run from one end of the province to another, but then again, to a point, I did.
We spent the first week of our vacation camping at a place called the Pinery - it's about a 3 hour drive from our house. We camped with DH's family - his parents, sister & brother and their respective families. It made for a total of 16 of us. The kids ranged in age from 11 down to 1 (there's 8 of them). It was busy. It was noisy. It was soooo much fun! I didn't realize it but I failed to get a picture of everyone. Although with that many of us, I doubt there would be a good one anyway!
We returned home to do laundry, unpack some things, buy groceries and then drive up to my parent's cottage for another week. Unfortunately the weather didn't co-operate with us much as it poured rain for the first 4 days we were there. So the boys watched movies (when the power wasn't out) and played together. The last few days were lovely though and we were off to the beach to build sand castles and play in the water.
Returning home we found we had a lot of laundry, a lot of mail and a lot of cleaning up and putting away to do. Then the spectre of back-to-school shopping hit and we were off to buy new shoes, lunch bags and other sundries so necessary for a new school year.
This year does mark a big change for our family as DS#1 heads off to middle school for the first time. It involves riding a bus every day but we're really lucky that the bus picks him up and drops him off directly in front of our house. We're also lucky that he's the last one on the bus and the first one off, so he shouldn't be on the bus for more than a half-hour per day. I can't wait until he gets home to hear all about his first day at his new school!
DS#2 happily returned to our primary school for Grade 3. I really like his teacher (I've known her for a few years now) and I think he'll have a really great school year. Most of the renovations to our primary school are finished - they put on a 2 storey addition that has (at least temporarily) left us without portables. I imagine that as class sizes go down again (as legislated by our government), our need for portables will re-appear as there aren't enough classrooms for all the kids. But for now, we're portable free!
I did manage to stitch while on holiday, although not much. Many times the light was too bad or we had no electricity to power my OTT-lite. I did get some work done on one of my models and have since picked up another model (am I nuts?).....
Here's the non-model stitching I did:
These are two of the tooth-fairy pillows that I'm working on for DS#2 and two of my nephews. I couldn't find some DMC819 to finish the space-man, so I need to run to Michaels to pick that up. I don't know how I have 2 full sets of DMC, yet can never find one colour for any given project. Just how does that happen, anyway???
I also started a freebie from Waxing Moon called 'The Spooks Are Out':
I doubt I'll get much done on either of the above pieces for a while yet now as the models are just going to keep me too busy. One is so close to being done that I can almost taste it! :-)
Time to go enjoy a cup of tea and then go pick up DS#2 at school.....
Read more...I just couldn't resist this...
Ow.
That about sums up my visit with the radiologist last week. My knee got blown up like a balloon (I swear by the time it was done my knee was 3 times the size it was....), then I got to perform contortions worthy of any acrobat in order to get 360 degree films of my knee.
The good news - the radiologist couldn't see an obvious tear in my cartilege. The bad news - the radiologist couldn't see an obvious tear in my cartilege. The long and short of it is that we still don't know why my knee is causing me so much pain. I have to admit to feeling a little better now, but am still finding it difficult to sleep and if I stand for too long it hurts. We went for a relatively long drive over the weekend (a good 2 hours anyway) and I found that by the half way point I was just about ready to reach out and strangle DH as I was sure he was finding every single bump and pot hole in the road just so I could whimper in pain. More ice.
Now I wait until I can get an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon - likely won't happen until September now at the earliest. Wonder what tortures he has in store for me. *sigh*
I've been stitching on my model whilst sitting with my ice bag on my knee. It's coming along well and I'm really hoping I'll finish it early in September - maybe even by the end of August if I get more fibres from the designer. This piece eats perle cotton for breakfast! :-)
I did also pick up a piece I started for myself back in May for a little while as I've hardly worked on it at all. It's a large piece and I don't want to get too lost in it as the model work comes first. Here's the progress to date:
Any idea what the grey blob is? No? Okay, I'll give in. It's the beginnings of L&L's Nantucket Rose. I've literally had the linen for this piece for years and finally decided I needed to stitch it. But as I said, it's not getting much needle time as the model is my top priority.
The other big event in our family has been this:
DS#1 celebrated his 11th birthday over the weekend. It's amazing to think that he's 11 already. Time flies when you're having fun!
We're off camping on Saturday for a bit, then off to the cottage for a bit longer so I may not be around much until the end of August!
And the pain continues..................
My trip to the doctor last week has proven fruitful to a point, I guess. I've been referred to an orthopedic surgeon. I've also been sent to have a knee arthrogram (you can read all about the tortures of it here.). It involves needles - that's good. Sadly, they're all going into my knee. All I can say is ow. I imagine I will find some more inventive words tomorrow around 1PM EST. Perhaps I should bring a gag???
*whimper*
In an effort to not think about the tortures of tomorrow I've been stitching a fair amount. When you consider that standing, sitting and walking all cause pain in various forms, it's impressive that any stitching has occurred. Then again, when I sit, I can sit with my handy ice pack on my knee. This is a very good thing.
For the most part I've been motoring on my last remaining model which I naturally can't show pictures of.... However, I did have some wait around time and hence finished one travelling project and made amazing headroads on another....
Here's the one I finished:
This is the last of a series of 4 ornaments that I've been working on for the last wee bit. It's from the June 2007 issue of the Cross Stitcher. I used good old DMC 310 and the same 32-count platinum belfast linen that I used for the other 3. I really like how these 4 ornaments turned out. I plan to finish the above one with some gold lame (can't find my French character to spell that correctly)-like fabric I've got and make cording in black and gold. I think it'll look quite stunning when all is said and done.
Next is what I'm working on now during those hurry-up-and-wait moments:
This is one of my Hybrid Tea roses - Chrysler Imperial. Last year I had a really bad case of black spot on my roses but so far this year they are remaining spot-free and they're blooming quite well, all things considered. This rosebush has at least 4 other buds working their way towards a full bloom. My other Hybrid Tea rose is called Tropicana which was my grandmother's favorite rose. It'll be blooming in another day or two.
Off to get some things done!
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I sure hope that my van remembers that just because it's visiting it's favorite mechanic that there's no reason to bankrupt me with repairs...... :-(
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News, views and a brief change of locale!
Well it's been a typically busy time in my little corner of the world. Now that the boys are home from school for the summer, I spend most of my time prying them away from the computer (Mom needs time on the computer too), video games and TV and re-directing their energy to more fun stuff like large Lego project building, bike riding and playing in the great outdoors when it's not too hot..... My youngest DS is taking swimming lessons daily, so that gets us out of the house in the morning and often gives us an opportunity to head to the park for a picnic and some playtime in the afternoon, although it's been dreadfully hot and humid in the last few days, so we've been house bound, but not bored really.
I have managed to put in a little stitching time - mostly in the evenings after the boys are in bed. I'm working primarily on my models - one is almost done! I'll likely finish it in the next week. I did finish one more little ornament in the series of Damask ornaments that I've been working on - whilst watching DS#2's swimming lessons....
And here's the current SBQ!
Suggested by The Wagon (http://thewagon.yuku.com/):
SBQ Catch Up
Well, since blogger is presently accepting posts from me, I think it's time I caught up on some SBQs. I've fallen dreadfully behind!
So, why does blogger hate me?
I know I'm not the best blogger in the world. I'm not even funny. Or entertaining. Just plain old boring me.
So why is it when I have a chatty post full of lovely pictures, blogger decides that I'm just not worth having around?
I've been trying to post for over a week. I give up. Uncle!
Maybe another time blogger will let me post pretty pictures. Until then - I have been stitching. Really. Stop laughing.
My Mom and Dad (in an almost great picture of them - they don't photograph well! :-) )
Cameron receiving his certificate from his principal. His teacher is at the podium with fellow classmates behind him.
Today I sent the boys off to school for the last time this year with gifts and flowers for their teachers. I can't believe that next year I will only be walking one of my boys to school everyday as my oldest will be bussed to a nearby school. I don't think it has hit me yet. I'm so proud of both of my boys - they've had a wonderful school year.
The first one is School Treats from the Trilogy which I have finished into a flat-fold for DS#2's teacher. I found this really cool brick-patterned fabric for the flat fold which looks amazing with this piece. Made the cording too and found the ribbon for the sides floating around in my massive box of ribbons (someday I'll take a picture to illustrate just how bad my addiction to ribbon really is).
The second picture is Friendship Blooms by Lizzie*Kate that I stitched a while back. I have no clue what I'm going to do with it now that it's finished, but maybe something will come up. I made the cording myself for this too.
Silly me forgot to sandwich the ribbon for the sides in my flat-fold instead of gluing it to the inside.... I remembered - just not until after I had all the pieces of the flat fold glued together. Sometimes I am such a dolt! Oh well, with a bit of luck no one will notice but me! :-) (well, now, of course *you* will notice it since I just pointed it out, but maybe you won't tell on me????)
Off to scrub a toilet or two or three...... *sigh*
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