mundane musings by me

Jan 13/12

2012-01-13T13:25:00.000-04:00

Once I finished the Christmas ornament mania, I took a look at a project that was kitted up by the sister of a friend and then given to me by that friend. Her sister was going through a family crisis last and was needing to downsize her belongings so I was the lucky recipient! The parcel I received included the pattern, the fabric and the floss so all I have to do is stitch it. This design is called "Billede" from Oehlenshlager Design. The finished design is 39 x 63cm.

I was going to post the picture from the front of the design package, but decided to leave you all in suspense and post as I stitch. This little snippet already reveals the subject. The picture on the pattern reminds me of a book I absolutely adored as a child, "Misty of Chincoteague".

No stitching will get done here for the next few weeks as I am heading to Africa for a few weeks. I am keen to check out Burkinabe textiles and to soak up the culture. Perhaps a small project might get tucked into my bag at the last minute to stitch on the flights.

Dec 21/11

2011-12-21T16:59:00.000-04:00

These little stockings were also found in the January 2012 Cross Stitch and Needlework. I added little poinsettia buttons that I found at Fabricville the other day, displayed nicely by the fabric cutting table for the impulse shopper. The buttons are not easy to see in this photo but they are helping to secure the hanging ribbons.

My fascination with Lizzie Kate continues. My corners are not the cleanest and I was reminded once again that I can not see the holes on black fabric as I tried to do the finishing on this ornament which resulted in the not so square corners.

I doubt that I will get any more finishes in between now and Christmas. My NY resolution will be to get back into the swing of stitching and blogging again. This past year or so has been a challenging year for me on so many levels, but there are signs that things are turning around. Now to concentrate on delivering gifts and holiday wishes!!

Dec 19/11

2011-12-20T01:26:00.000-04:00

The great ornament giveaway of 2011 has begun at work. Here they are on my dining room table without a cat looking them over. Cooper, my youngest darling cat, has claimed the table as hers recently so she has been seen jumping up on the table and sailing across because she landed on some felt or an ornament that acted as a skate.

Someday I will figure out how to better manipulate photos on here. You get the general idea though.

For the bird ornaments, I found a starched felt at Joann's in Bangor that I just love for the backing because there is no fuss or muss. Just cut to size, glue, hold in place with clothespins and trim. My kind of easy finish!

Dec 12/11

2011-12-12T00:30:00.000-04:00

And here we have the finished version of some of my ornaments. My eye was immediately drawn to the backing fabric when I was wandering through Fabricville the other day looking for backing fabric for my ornaments. They were having an pre-inventory sale so I got the fabric for 30% off of $14.99/m. Two of the ornaments pictured here have been given to two of my co-workers at the the two work Christmas parties I went to this weekend. There is a big pile of stitching, backing fabric, stuffing, ribbons and cardboard all piled around my couch as my fingers fly through the last minute assembly mania that I go through every year. Some year I will learn. 2011 was not it.

Nov 29/11

2011-11-29T18:19:00.001-04:00

The Christmas wreath hit the front door on Sunday after it was purchased at a local craft sale that afternoon. The mixed green wreaths are so much more beautiful than the ones decorated with ribbons, bows and ornaments in my opinion. Then again, I am not really a Christmas decorating kind of person and with this wreath, my decorating is about 50% done. Only the removing the Charlie Brown tree from its box remains and that is not done until a gift actually arrives because the feline contingent get all bent out of shape when I co-opt their end table that conveniently sits in front of the window that they like to sit in on sunny days.

On a stitching note, I have stitched up these two stockings from the Crosstitch and Needlework Jan 2012 edition as well. I used up some more of the threads that were left over from the bird ornaments I stitched both this year and last year and the fabric is a white 14 count Aida.

I am not sure in what way these will be finished and gifted in the upcoming flurry of gift giving during the month of December.

At the same time as I am getting ready for Christmas, I am also getting ready for a trip to Burkina Faso in January. Where is that you ask? Well, it is here in green:
The country was known as Upper Volta when I first studied geography in school. Why am I going? My cousin moved there two years ago for several convoluted reasons so I want to see where she is living and why. Plus, I will get to add a stamp from an African country to my passport! A handful of my French-speaking customers are helping me get ready for the trip by speaking to me in French when they are in the store, one of them being from the Congo so I am learning a bit about the French African accent which sounds rather different than the French Canadian accent I hear here.

So yeah, things are busy here but good for the most part. Well, beyond the usual family and work BS, but heck, life is not perfect!

Nov 23/11

2011-11-23T12:52:00.000-04:00

Oh my heavens, there has actually been some stitching going on in this house! The January 2012 edition of Cross Stitch and Needlework had this adorable pattern so I just had to stitch it up immediately. I am a little behind in my Christmas stitch and mail schedule so a quick and easy pattern like this was perfect for my time line of already having missed the international mail deadlines. The first variation was done with threads from my mystery box and the colours are fairly true to those used in the model version in the magazine. The pattern is stitched on 28 count fabric (I forget the brand) that has a sparkly thread woven into it.

For this version, I decided to use some of my Light Effects threads to add a little more sparkle. I think that if I use them again, I will combine them with regular floss because this version looks a little flat to me.

This last piece was stitched up for a friend of mine who lives in the US. I love lighthouses and I wanted something to represent the region where I live so finding this pattern when I was cleaning up my craft room was a perfect find. The card was purchased from Michaels. The pattern was stitched on a piece of scrap 14 count Aida and the threads are, you guessed it, from the mystery box!

Oct 30/11

2011-10-30T17:38:00.000-03:00

I finished this Dimensions kit the other day and framed it up very quickly to give to a friend of mine yesterday in celebration of her 40th birthday. The party was a complete surprise planned by her mother and it was a thrill to be part of it. Afterwards, my friend and I went out to dinner for the mother of all gab fests.
Yay for good friends!

Sept 19/11

2011-09-19T21:27:00.000-03:00

For the first time since I bought the property, I have managed to get out to my country property to actually see most of the apples on the trees. I even managed to pick a small bagful of them to bring home with the intention of making an apple crisp. The trees have not been tended to for many (30? 40?) years so most of the apples are up too high for me to safely pick and many apples are scabby and/or wormy. The deer do not seem as fussy as this human because there is much evidence on the ground of their gnawing at the apples.

So, this colander of apples has been partially turned into

this apple crisp whose recipe can be found here at Betty Crocker.

I took this pan to my mom's house for Sunday Dinner and it was pretty much licked clean when I left. I was a little worried about how the apples would turn out because I have never eaten or cooked with them before, but my family assured me as they wolfed down their share that it was delicious.

My stitching has been slowed a bit because I have strained part of my hand at the base of my middle finger on my right hand. To help with the discomfort, I tape my two middle fingers together if I am going to stitch for a few hours or if I have been at work for a few days (opening vials aggravates the hand as well).

The 10th anniversary of Sept 11

2011-09-06T15:10:00.003-03:00

With the upcoming tenth anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks, I find myself thinking back to that time. I was in Sweden visiting with friends while on a 2 week vacation. I had arrived on Sept 7th, a Friday, and was a little jetlagged as well as having some side effects from a recent yellow fever vaccine. Nevertheless, I set out for the pub with my friend Therese's cousin (I was staying with T. but she had a work function so poor Hakan was asked to take me out) and got a little drunk. Well, alot maybe because I forgot how to speak English, but that is not the point of this little story.

During the course of the evening, I was introduced to several of Hakan's friends at the pub. He is in the Swedish navy so I met several guys from both the military navy and the merchant navy who were based in Karlskrona. One guy in particular was not so intimidated by having to speak English with me so we ended up hanging out together. At one point, Jana looked at me and said, "You are so beautiful". That brought me up short. I did not know how to respond beyond a stunned, "Um, thank you?".

At that time in my life, I was in the grips of a depressive episode that had been finally recognized and diagnosed five years before but had been going on for years before that. Looking back now, there is no doubt in my mind that it had been going on for at least 15 years at that point. I spent many years just taking one day at a time because there were so many things going on around me that I had no control over and I was so overwhelmed that it was all I could do to see life through to the next midterm, the next class, the next court date of my parents' divorce. To compensate, I wore a brave face and carried an armour of bravado that hid (or at least I thought it did) alot of stuff. My cousin once told me that she was amazed at my ability to just ignore an issue if there was nothing I could do about it. In university, I was one of those girls who could walk through a bar and take it for granted that several heads would turn, that drinks would be bought for me and that I was not sitting to one side hoping that a guy would ask me to dance.

After university, I dove into my career as a pharmacist and volunteer activities. I was busy, busy, busy. What people did not know was that if I was not at work or wherever, I was curled up in bed with the blankets over my head. It was not until I happened to be reading a professional development article on depression and I checked "yes" on every line of a screening tool that I realized something was REALLY wrong. I was numb to feeling, I was numb to life and everything was grey to me.

So, there I was in Sweden, unsure how to react when a guy said to me that I was beautiful. I was sad that I was so numb and sad that I had lost my joie de vivre/bravado. A few days later, I sat in stunned silence like the rest of the world as the images of planes crashing into the World Trade Centre looped constantly on CNN. I participated in moments of silence in Sweden in between spending hours watching the coverage while Therese was at work. Flights to North America were not flying so my return home on Sept 21th was up in the air. Therese's family made it clear that I was welcome to stay with them as long as necessary. I loved them for their generousity but I really wanted to get home as soon as possible. Yes, I am sure that I could have found work there as a pharmacist, learned the language and settled in quite nicely as I love Sweden, but I wanted to be home with my family.

In the meantime, Jana and I hung out a few more times, including my last night in Sweden. He asked me to stay and/or return to Sweden because he had never met another woman like me and wanted to marry me. By then I had realized that I still had a lot of healing to do and told him that he needed to forget about me because I was so miserable with myself that I would make him miserable. In retrospect, I still believe that, but I am thankful to him for that emotional kick in the pants. It still took several years to fully free myself from that depressive cycle, but he made me see how numb I had become.

Sept 11 was a wake up call that no country is immune to terrorism and violence and is the "Where were you when?" of this era as well as my own personal wake up call. There have been a couple of other depressive episodes in between and I am just coming out of another one now. So many of you have very kindly complimented me on my new thumbnail. That photo is a true reflection of how I feel these days. I am standing strong, face to the sun, hopeful and full of life. The loss and violence of the events that day are not far from my mind as we near that anniversary and so are the thoughts of a Swedish man who unknowingly changed my life in a moment.

This entry was originally posted in a social networking blog that I also belong to. Here is the photo I am referring to as my thumbnail:

Aug 14/11

2011-08-14T15:16:00.000-03:00

And again, long time no posting. I have been stitching but not as much as usual. Being away so much has had a lot to do with that. There was the trip to the Dominican Republic in January, a trip to Guatemala in May and a two week stint as a chaperone for a Rotary Exchange student program in June/July. Then there was an unexpected trip this past week to southeastern British Columbia to attend the funeral for my Uncle Dave.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some photos to sum up the past six months or so. I can't seem to get them to load in order and given my current technical difficulties all around (over 2 weeks without internet access at home, I am giving up trying!). Guatemala, Canada, and me!

Feb 12/11

2011-02-12T11:56:00.000-04:00

Oh my! It has been a while since I last made a post. My life has been a whirlwind what with the return of one brother from Afghanistan on Dec 4 and the engagement of the other brother that same night, holiday mania and getting ready for my most recent trip to the Dominican Republic. Nope, not your typical resort vacation although we were housed at Casa de Campo near the city of La Romana.

My Rotary district had partnered with the Rotary Club of La Romana Incorporado in a clean water project so 13 of us traveled there to help install water filters in the bateys. A batey is a village out in the sugar cane fields where the Haitian sugar cane cutters are housed by Central Romana, the sugar company. The filters consist of a large blue pail, two layers of gravel, a layer of sand and a layer of biologicals at the top that kill of pathogenic bacteria.

Here I am post-installation of a filter in one of the homes with the mother of the house, her son and Wascar, one of the young men who work with the project in La Romana. Most times, the water being used for drinking and bathing at the bateys is piped from a nearby river with no treatment whatsoever. Diarrhea and skin infections are not uncommon as a result and it has been found that these filters significantly reduce the incidence of these maladies.

When not installing filters, my time was taken up with the children of the bateys. I uploaded 837 pictures upon my return and probably 600 of the pictures are of the children like these three little amigas who held my hand while we walked around when they were not making funny faces at my camera!

The weather was amazing in the DR, especially compared to the snowstorms that were battering the East Coast while I was away. Having a tan made shoveling my driveway a little more bearable when I came home, but only just a little!

Dec 28/10

2010-12-28T20:47:00.000-04:00

These ornaments were given to the ladies who take my money at the parking garage where I work. The finish job is rather crappy as it was the night before Christmas Eve and I was tired beyond words as well as sick with a migraine. Hope you are having a lovely Holiday season!

Dec 21/10

2010-12-21T11:48:00.000-04:00

My living room at the moment. I sit nestled in with the black cat on the back of my neck and the white cat snuggled up beside me. Not the most comfortable way to sit and stitch sometimes, but it is hard to convince a madly purring Gabby that being all hunched over is not so comfortable for me.

Some more ornaments that have emerged from the mess above!

If you look closely at the "Santa Claus" ornies, you can see the "Meow" ribbon that I used! My ribbon bucket is filled with random ribbon like that because I just never know when it might come in handy.

Now I am busy adding up exactly how many I need to finish as I may be one or two short. I have not mailed any yet so I may be stitching like a mad person on Boxing Day to get my gifts ready for overseas. Yeah, yeah, most people do that BEFORE Christmas but I am not known for that.

Dec 19/10

2010-12-19T11:33:00.000-04:00

The result of last night's efforts and a gratuitous cat picture all in one! Tree by Charlie Brown, ornaments by Vee and Gabby the cat! I forget the name of the designer, but I do remember that this design is called a postage design and is found in the 2010 JCS ornament edition.

Dec 18/10

2010-12-18T13:37:00.000-04:00

A week before Christmas and Santa's work shop, stitching and finishing division, has exploded in my living room. These four ornaments were finished last night despite my cats' best efforts to eat ribbon and snuggle in to me in ways that they were comfortable, but I was finding it hard to cut, sew and stuff!

On the other upside of my handiwork, I found the scissors that I lost a week ago while talking on the phone. I had searched all over the house because I had been wandering around with them in my hand. In the end, I found them in the couch when I was looking for a needle that I had dropped in there last night. I also painfully found 4 more needles that had been dropped in there long enough that they had a non-scrape-able layer of gunk on them so they went into the trash.

Next up is my darling Cooper the other day, desperate to get inside because her paws were cold. We have been having crazy weather here with lots of swings in the weather. One day it can be well above zero with several (150 or so) mm of rain and other days we get snow. It was not really cold out this day that the photo was taken. I think she was mad at me because I was laughing so hard at her that it was taking forever to take the photo before I let her in. Penelope is behind her and unfortunately I did not capture the bemused expression on her face as she watched Cooper at the door. The expression definitely said, "Lightweight!".

Dec 14/10

2010-12-14T11:49:00.000-04:00

Proof that I have not fallen off the planet or stopped stitching:

The Dimension ornament series is complete, in duplicate. My photos of the entire series are not great so here is a little peek. Instead of making my owning cording because that is another thing I dislike doing, I chose to use a holiday themed ribbon that I found at Michael's one of the many times I have been there checking out their bargain bins. I had toyed with attaching snowflake embellishments and bells, but in the end thought that the ornaments were complete on their own.

I usually do not bother with a Christmas tree because I am usually lacking in the Christmas spirit after working amongst Christmas stuff since Hallowe'en and with 3 cats, a tree is a dicey activity. Well, during my vacation, I wandered into an Urban Outfitters in Boston. I was browsing away when I came across a display of Charlie Brown trees. The fact that I burst into laughter told me that I just HAD to buy one.

So far it has survived, but I have dared to put it on the table that the cats use to access the window sill as you can see by the crazily hanging blinds. I have moved the tree back into the centre of the table a few times already.

Penelope can not bear to be left out of any activity in the house. Here is my house insurance policy that she thought required a little kitty creativity:

I no longer have idea what my policy number might be and I hope that if needed, my broker will be more than understanding when presented with this masterpiece.

Well, back to getting stuff done before heading into retail hell for the evening......

Nov 22/10

2010-11-22T20:36:00.000-04:00

Wow! It has been a few weeks since I last posted and weeks before that since I posted anything stitchy. My apologies as I have been stitching away during my 3 week vacation that took me to Boston (see the firefighter photo) for a few days.

My stitching has been focused on the Dimensions bird and postage series that I bought earlier this year. The cross stitching is complete on all 6 of the designs of which I bought two of each. Now I am doing the backstitching and finishing stitches on all them before doing the final finish work. These photos are of the stitched ones so far:

I did make a couple of changes. For instance, in the "Goodwill" one, the ribbon is supposed to have yellow overstitching to add depth, but I disliked the colour combination so I used the main pink colour to make the ribbon look more velvety. The lettering is supposed to be done with the couching stitch and I did do one ornament that way, but the needles and threads get tangled and I get frustrated so the rest are being done in a running stitch instead. The effect of the running stitch is not as pretty, but the stitcher is calmer.

Nov 2/10

2010-11-02T12:29:00.001-03:00

There was a false alarm last night at the inn where I am staying in Boston. The firefighters were so nice about getting their photo taken with me especially after I told them that my brother is a firefighter back home. Hopefully this is the craziest thing that will have happened to me on my vacation!

Oct 27/10

2010-10-27T17:44:00.000-03:00

Postcard from Afghanistan! What a fantastic item to find in my mailbox today after work! Then I turned on the computer to see that my brother will be home in December and posted to CFB Gagetown. CFB Gagetown is about an hour away from where the rest of the family lives so we are very excited considering some of the alternatives like Edmonton.

Oct 21/10

2010-10-21T12:04:00.000-03:00

There has been some stitching going on here, I promise! Nothing is finished enough to photograph just yet so instead I present my carrot muffins that I made last night. My best friend has a huge vegetable garden and she gave me a big bag of carrots last week to have for Thanksgiving. Several of my co-workers took home some of the carrots while these ones:

became these last night:

I used a basic muffin recipe from my trusty Fanny Farmer cookbook but added a little more sugar and oil because of the shredded carrots that I added to the recipe. Straight out of the oven with a little butter made a little piece of heaven here last night!

Oct 17/10

2010-10-17T16:40:00.000-03:00

I have finally been doing some thinking about the house I would like to build on the 10 acre property I have in the country. At the moment, this one is the front runner:

It is a pre-fab cottage built by a local company. There is one bedroom and bathroom at the back with an open kitchen, living room and dining room at the front which you are looking at right now. The view from my lot is a stunning view of the Kennebecasis River. When I was touring this cottage, I could so see myself sitting on the couch on the left side of the house with a fire in the fireplace, taking in the beauty of the sun setting behind the hills that form the valley. My bedroom would be the loft on the second level (you can see the windows of the loft through the upper triangular windows). How lovely it will be to lay in bed and to be able to look out across the valley.

The only problem is as I see it is that there are a few things that I would like that I need to ask the builder about because where it is pre-fab, I do not know how much lee-way I have in getting things like in-floor radiant heat instead of electric baseboard heaters and a on-demand water heater instead of the traditional tank. Oh well, if one does not ask, one will not know!

Oct 9/10

2010-10-09T23:53:00.000-03:00

So, the other day I decided to do a little exploring in my own back yard because I am so so so guilty of having travelled far and wide, but not close by. All of my friends and family were at work on Wednesday so I hopped in the car and drove to Alma, NB which is on the edge of Fundy National Park. Here are some photos from my stroll on the beach:

I was watching my footing because the mud flat/beach varied between muddy and rocky bits as the tide had gone out but the sand was not dry. As I was tripping and squelching along, I spied this little rock. If I had approached it from any other angle, I may never have seen the little face in it.

This picture was taken from the little boardwalk across the street from where I parked my car. The tide was pretty much at its lowest point. It took me close to 15 minutes to walk from this point to as close as I could get to the water's edge without sinking in the mud.

The harbour in Alma:

The view from the restaurant where I had an awesome if somewhat expensive lobster roll:

Me, thinking "Good Gravy! How far am I from the car?". That is Fundy National Park in the background.

Part 2 Oct 3/10

2010-10-03T20:11:00.000-03:00

I was out to my property in the country this afternoon to do some work in and around the apple orchard since it was such a beautiful day here. Most of my time was spent cutting back raspberry canes that were growing around some of the trees. I had just collected up all my bits and pieces when I noticed this little guy scurrying up and down a couple of trees. He stopped to take a long nibble of this apple so I had lots of time to observe and then photograph him while he filled his little belly.

Oct 3/10

2010-10-03T14:34:00.000-03:00

My ort jar is about to over flow so I captured its image for posterity before I wander over to the garbage can to empty it out. The reds that you can see are the result of the many Christmas ornaments that I have been working on! Orts have long been a fascination for me. I like to collect them and used to keep them in a large once-was-a-fish-bowl jar that took years to fill. Then, the decluttering inspiration hit so now I use a smaller jar and take photos before chucking out the contents. I mean really, what was the point of keeping all of those clippings except as a reminder of how much stitching I had been doing?

Oct 2/10

2010-10-02T17:14:00.000-03:00

Some of my co-workers are entered in the Walk for The Cure this weekend so I did this up for them to raffle off:

The pattern comes from the Oct 2009 The Cross Stitcher and I found the frame at Michaels for a sweet 40% off! No mystery threads this time; I actually used the published floss list to stitch this one. I am tempted to go back and pick up a few more frames because I really like the look of this one even if the fancy matte is actually plastic. For $17.99 less 40%, it more than did the trick!

Sept 28/10

2010-09-28T11:43:00.000-03:00

Well, what else to do on a wet and rainy morning besides pay bills and finish several little projects (submitting continuing education tests and fixing my bird feeder)? Oh yes! Update my blog. My needle has been going fast and furious in the evenings these past few weeks:

These first three ornaments are the almost finished versions of the bird stamp Dimension series that I purchased earlier this year. I am doing two at a time because I bought two of each, but have only taken a picture of one of each pair as an example of what I have been up to. The back stitching still needs to be done on all of them so they are far from complete although it is a nice feeling to at least have the main body completed.

I am fascinated with cardinals these days after seeing a couple of them two years ago. They are making an appearance in our region of the country and I was lucky enough to have some of them in my yard. Birds are such amazing creatures and I am also very surprised that any survive in my yard because, yes, I am one of those cat owners who lets her cats out without bells. Before anyone yells at me, no one in my immediate neighbourhood has problems with mice so there are trade-offs. I used to put bells on my cats until the little beggars figured out how to adjust their collars on their necks so the bells did not ring.

And who can resist Lizzie Kate? Not me! I have also been playing around with floss and fabric colours, using whatever I have on hand to stitch up these ornaments. I always keep the pattern photos close by while selecting the floss and stitching so that I remain true to the designer's original ideas in terms of colour and constantly refer back to the photos. These ornaments come from L*K's Tiny Tidings VII and XV.

Last but certainly not least came this beautiful post card from my brother. At first I thought that it was a photo and then I looked at the caption on the back. This picture is titled "A Long Halt" and was painted by Silvia Pecota. You know that our soldiers have been there more than long enough when there are postcards of their missions.......

Sept 17/10

2010-09-17T11:50:00.001-03:00

Stash picure for Christine (and others!). Here is what I managed to limit myself to last weekend when I was at the cross stitch shop, Because You Count, in Moncton. The fabric is even weave odds and ends. The rolls of linen were tempting, but my hands break out after handling linen any length of time.

And here is the result of using one of my new patterns and a piece of the odds and ends:

The threads were taken out of my trusty mystery thread box, of course. I have a couple of co-workers who are as cat-mad as I am so I am thinking about doing this one again, but maybe with a dark grey cat this time.

Well, off to workity work I go so that I can continue to feed both my stitching habit and my cats!

Sept 12/10

2010-09-12T13:32:00.000-03:00

I realized as I was uploading pictures that I have yet to post a picture of Cooper, the most recent feline addition to my house. This picture is one that I took the other night while she was sleeping on the couch beside me as I stitched. It took her at least a month to feel comfortable here, the cool reception by the other 2 cats was part of the issue as was me going away for two weeks shortly after she joined us, but by the way that she is sleeping with a fully exposed belly, I would say that she is comfortable now!

And then there is darling Penelope who makes herself comfortable in the funniest of places:

Apparently, the kids in El Salvador need white cat hair on their school supplies. The hair must make learning easier or more fun or something! When she is not sleeping there, she hides out in the paper recycling basket which is where she just went to because I am not paying enough attention to her.

The 4 zucchini plants in my back yard are still being uber productive. So far this week, I have made a stirfry and spaghetti sauce with zucchini. Here are the muffins I made the other day:

Recipe:
3 cups grated zucchini unpeeled (I put mine in the blender)
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup oil
Mix in large bowl and set aside.

Sift together:
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Add dry ingredients to zucchini mix and blend. Then stir in 2 cups of whole wheat flour (I used all purpose because it was too late to run to the grocery store).
Drop into muffin tins and bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes.

I should post some pictures of the ornaments I am working on and of the stash I bought yesterday. Since I had to drive to Moncton yesterday to get something from my brother's house to mail to him in Afghanistan, I figured that a stop at Because You Count was a just reward for driving 150km to find a SCUBA license. I came away with a couple of Lizzie Kate Christmas ornament patterns and three rolls of odds and ends fabric left over from the cutting table. Again, if I ever stop blogging, just assume that the pile of stash that I have toppled over and that I am buried underneath it! :-)

Sept 6/10

2010-09-06T12:04:00.000-03:00

Another postcard from Afghanistan:

The funny part was that my brother was actually home on leave when it arrived! Both postcards have taken almost 30 days to get here which is not bad considering there is no regular mail bag service out of KAF (they throw a bag on the plane if there is room). On the back he laments the soccer fever that gripped the base during the World Cup, probably amplified somewhat for him as his roommate at the time was from Holland!

And a little produce from my garden. Tomatoes and zucchinis are in abundance in my little garden this year. I am thinking that pasta and some kind of tomato and zucchini dish are in order for supper tonight. The grocery store here in town has some awesome local corn that I have now had 2 nights in a row for supper. Fresh corn, lots of butter, good friends, what more can one ask for?

Sept 3/10

2010-09-03T10:27:00.000-03:00

Yikes! Where did the summer go? Mind you, this heat wave we are in at the moment is making us feel like summer is hanging on even though we are on the cusp of the Labour Day Weekend. I need to make a final inspection of my yard this afternoon to make sure that everything is secured or put away as Hurricane Earl is still expected to be classified as a hurricane when he passes over this region tomorrow. When I was out last night putting away my lawn chairs, I stopped to look at my brook which is really more of a series of stagnant puddles at the moment. I have lived here for over 10 years and have never seen that brook stop moving. The forecast is for several inches of rain tomorrow and we need it! This region is usually so lush and it still is compared to truly dry areas like Adelaide, Australia, but we need rain!

Despite the heat, I have managed to get some stitching done, mostly because it requires so little movement on my part so it was something I could do without sweating up a storm. I have also been on eBay and bought some more patterns because I needed them. If you are a Teresa Wentzler fan like me, a pattern like Diamond in Squares is absolutely irresistible!

Well, I should get going! I have to stop in to the post office to mail off a parcel for a friend in Mongolia and go for a 90 minute deep tissue massage (a treat to myself for all of the extra hours I have been working recently!). Then, who knows what I will get up to!

Aug 24/10

2010-08-24T10:35:00.000-03:00

In my last entry I mentioned that I found some finished pieces so I thought I might post them. This one was done probably about 7 years ago as I stitched the matching quilt for my nephew when he was born:

Then, there was this piece that is reminiscent of what goes on in my house all of the time:

Just exchange the window and cushion for the floor mat in front of the patio door and you get the idea! Recently one poor little songbird was sacrificed to the feline hunting instinct but I did see some more little brave birds eating the berries off of my honeysuckle bush since then.

My current WIPs are the series of Dimension ornaments that feature birds, inspirational words and postmarks. These ones are the second one in a series of six that I have purchased:

And a wee warning before you scroll down further..................................................There are pictures of animal skulls, not something one would normally associate with cross stitching!

I was out clearing brush at the old apple orchard the other day when I almost stepped on this little skull. I found it so fascinating because it was so intact except for a few missing teeth. My lack of wildlife knowledge has me guessing as to what animal it may have been, but I am guessing that it may have been a fox or a similar animal. There was some fresh deer poop in and around the orchard as well, but I did not find that fascinating enough to photograph!

Aug 23/10

2010-08-23T21:07:00.000-03:00

Hint hint hint that I may need to de-clutter this place----last night I found two completely stitched pieces that I had forgotten all about. I was moving some unopened kits around in an attempt to arrange them after some of them had fallen over because I was moving some paperwork that is stacked beside the kits and presto! a mystery bag. I opened the bag and there they were! On the big downside, I was finally getting my mystery thread box under control and now I have a big handful of left over threads to add to it from those two projects.

Clutter is a theme all over my house. I recently reclaimed a corner of my basement after giving away an old microwave that had been sitting in that corner for 2 years and getting rid of a bag of Christmas decorations to the Rotary Club table at the townwide yardsale. This weekend, I tackled my old car and found a bag of mittens that went to the Diabetes donation box and almost $6 in change which came in handy for coffee money today! Honestly! How does the clutter get so far ahead of me?

Aug 16/10

2010-08-16T19:34:00.000-03:00

Not all of my artistic talents are stitching related:

I also do a great camouflage design, but I do not know how to obscure faces nor am I great at editing so I can not show you the sign my nephew and I made for his daddy.

A two week leave is just not long enough. How much longer will this insanity continue? I understand that the Afghan people want peace and stability just as much as anyone else in the world, but what about this little boy who fiercely misses his daddy? Why does he have to pay the price for the decisions made by the politicians and warlords?

Aug 4/10

2010-08-04T23:48:00.000-03:00

Oops! Forgot to photograph this one and upload it! Another Joan Elliott on 28ct Lugana and stitched with mystery threads.

Aug 4/10

2010-08-04T14:35:00.000-03:00

Over the weekend while visiting family and friends in Southern Ontario, I was showing my blog to my cousin's girlfriend so that she could see some of the things that I have stitched as she is into cross-stitch as well. While flipping through the blog, I came across several stash pictures of patterns that I had completely forgotten that I owned but apparently needed at the moment of purchase. Fast forward a few days when I was puttering around the house, I went through the pile of patterns on my book shelf and pulled out several to line up for stitching. If I do not post for a month or more, please come find me under the pile of patterns that has fallen over and suffocated me. Note to self: You really do not need to buy any more patterns. Ever.

July 29/10

2010-07-29T18:42:00.000-03:00

Whenever my brother is away for an extended period of time for training or a deployment I try to send him a letter or a postcard once a week. The Canadian postal service has a sweet program where letters can be sent to armed forces personnel serving overseas without having to pay postage. In return, my brother sent me this post card of the valley where the Taliban destroyed the Buddha statues several years ago. The date stamp says June 30/10 and it arrived today. Not bad for having to travel all the way from Afghanistan through the Canadian military and civilian postal systems.

Another ornament stitched for the Christmas giving season:

This ornament is a Joan Elliott stitched on 28 Lugana and using my mystery thread collection once again! I usually take a quick look at the photos of the finished design to get the general idea of the colour scheme as envisaged by the designer before selecting what I have available to me in my mystery thread box. Every once in a while I do not do so well with my colour choices, but more times than not the design turns out quite well if I do say so myself!

July 25/10

2010-07-25T20:45:00.000-03:00

The screen really distorts the image, but if you squint you can make out the day lilies, the thistles, the bee balm, the daisies and the other flowers for which I do not know their names! This is the view from my computer desk.

July 22/10 Part II

2010-07-23T00:58:00.000-03:00

This post is brought to you first by a Lizzie Kate ornament:

stitched on 28 count Lugana and using mystery threads. I ignored L*K's colour suggestions because it is my ornament dagnamit! I also did a different stitch on the centre of the two-toned blue present. Because I am blissfully ignorant of actual embroidery terms, I can not tell you what it is, but bargello is coming to mind or perhaps a version of satin stitch. Someone help me out here! My brain is fried after only having one day off since a week ago Monday.

These two ornaments are some of the Dimensions series that I purchased from Mary Maxim a few weeks ago:

There are 6 in total and I bought two of each because I give the finished ornaments to my pharmacy assistants and since I work between 3 pharmacies, I have a few assistants to stitch for! So far, I really like these kits in that they are properly supplied and the stitching is pretty although not complicated. If anything, Dimensions has supplied too much floss as I stitched 1.75 ornaments with the floss kit from one kit! The mystery thread box is going to explode if I put much more into it which is why I stitched up the L*K to use some of its contents!

Well, it is off to bed for me as I have an important errand to run tomorrow morning!! Hello Nissan!

July 22/10

2010-07-22T18:58:00.000-03:00

Honestly, there has been some stitching going on around here and one of these days, I will have the camera in the living room to take photos of the ornaments I am working on! In non-stitching news, I will be parking this:

in my drive way tomorrow. Hello to my 2010 Nissan Rogue in Iridium Graphite or purply-grey to those who call a spade a spade. The starter in my 2001 Saturn went two weeks ago and I replace my vehicles when something big like the alternator or the starter goes because I just do not have the patience to keep nursing the vehivle along at that point. I am having trouble admitting to my green eco self that I am buying an SUV, but that same self gets really irritated when the Saturn gets stuck in the street when the snow plough is late coming to clear the street. Also, my darling back is starting to get creaky from too many years of not drinking milk or eating dairy and not following my own professional advice to take calcium supplements so my Saturn is too low for me to easily get out of these days. I keep calling the Rogue a car as in "I am getting a new car!!", but it is an SUV. I shall have to find a way to compensate for my destruction of the planet.

July 17/10

2010-07-17T13:03:00.000-03:00

Don't let the smell put you off! I have just come in from mowing the lawn and adding stuff to the compost bins. The weather is hot and sunny here today so I am rather fragrant after my multi-tasking of exercise and yard work! This summer I am experimenting a bit with the water that comes out of the dehumidifier that is going gangbusters in my basement. Instead of just pouring it down the drain conveniently located next to the dehumidifier, I have been stewing it in my plastic wheelbarrow along with all of the weeds that do not fit into my overflowing compost bins (I have 3). Each time I go out to add kitchen waste to the bin I am adding to, I scoop up some of the water to dampen the contents of each bin. The water is really boggy and smelly, but at least I am not just dumping it down the drain for it to be pumped to the sewage lagoon. I have also used some of that boggy water to water some of my flower beds that were drying out recently.

Well, off to work I go for the evening shift now that I have finished my yard work and showered!

July 11/10

2010-07-11T13:49:00.000-03:00

Here is the Joan Elliot ornament:

Please do not look too closely at my finishing as it really sucked the big one! Somehow I was all thumbs and nothing would go right despite all of my efforts to correct the mess. The ornament is for Elsa and the adorable Robeez booties are for her gorgeous son Luis.

Yesterday, I went to St Andrews to visit with friends who are trailering there for the week. One of our must see shops was Candyland on Main Street. I was re-living my youth with this picture. As a treat since we were not allowed to drink pop that often, my dad would get a case of Pop Shoppe pop every once and a while. Now the stuff is hard to find so I could not resist when I found some in the cooler at Candyland!

Right after my friends had called to invite me to visit with them, I received a message on Facebook from a pharmacy classmate at Dalhousie that she was participating in an event in St Andrews that is raising money for hospice. From the paint brush of the very talented Poppy Balser:

And just for fun, I purchased this cute piece:

I was lucky to get it according to the organizers because if I had not bid the buying bid for it when I saw it, there were plenty of other people who were eager to get their hands on it! There were two other variations with different hair colour, but there was just something about this mermaid that made me smile!

July 10/10

2010-07-10T10:53:00.000-03:00

Whew! It has been hot here these past few days! Yeah, yeah, there are those of you who are living in warmer climates who would scoff at the temperatures that I melt in, but remember I am Canadian where a fine day is 15C.

The heat has slowed down my walking and running somewhat although I did make great use of my treadmill in my lovely and cool basement last night. Another 5km in!

Some stitching has been done. The Joan Elliot rose ornament is finished and waiting to be photographed and mailed to my friend who has promised to deliver it to Elsa in Guatemala for me. I have also started some Christmas ornaments that I purchased as kits from Mary Maxim. Pictures to follow tomorrow as I am off to lovely St Andrews by the Sea for the afternoon to visit with friends who have a trailer at one of the camping parks.

The only other "creative" thing that I have done recently is to sit down with pen and paper to write a letter to my brother who has been deployed to Afghanistan. He probably would be glad to receive an email, but there is something special about getting something that you can hold and feel from home. Whenever he is away for extended periods of time, I try to write letters or send postcards once a week. Perhaps it is more for my sake than anything, but I know that he appreciates the effort.

June 29/10

2010-06-29T11:43:00.000-03:00

The amaryllis is almost done. The cross stitching and the backstitching are complete. Now I am finishing up the border which is a couching stitch. The final stitch is one I can not remember and am too lazy to go get the instructions to find out. That last stitch finishes the stamen (or is it the pistil?). Anyhow, it is the little bit that sticks out of the bloom and bees like to land on it for the pollen.

A closer if somewhat darker look at my couching stitch:

While I do like the final effect, once again I must admit that working with metallic threads does not excite me in the least. The couching stitch does give it a pretty effect but I was in a tangle of needles all of the time despite my best efforts. Maybe it is something that I should not be attempting when I have worked 7 out of 8 days recently. Just maybe.

My garden mostly groweth! The beans and the peas have produced 1 single plant out of all the seeds that I sowed. I should re-seed those rows, but well, you know what they say about good intentions. As it is, I just mowed the lawn after a week and a half so the garden re-seeding has been a little low on the priority list.

In other news, my trip to El Salvador is officially a go! I have a trip code, the flyer is up on the Habitat for Humanity website and now just to get going on the details and recruitment of team members. I can not wait to build again!

June 23/10

2010-06-23T10:55:00.001-03:00

So, here is my progress on the amaryllis:

I have finished most of the full and half stitches, but have stopped working on the project because 1. a group of us are going in on a gift certificate for the couple I had thought about giving this to for their wedding and 2. I got way laid by making this ornament:

I am making this for Elsa, a young mom that I met at the Guatemalan orphanage in May. My friend who organized the mission is taking another team in August and when asked, she said that she would make sure that Elsa and Luis get the parcel I am putting together. I have also bought the cutest little booties for Luis that have little hearts on them. There is a strength and a deep sadness about Elsa that makes me want to reach out to her. No matter what happens to her, I want her to know that a lady from Canada cares what happens to her. The ornament is a Joan Elliot stitched over 1 on a 28 count Lugana scrap that I purchased last week at Because You Count in Moncton. Part of the reason that I chose this particular pattern is that I met Elsa at an orphanage called Rosa de Amor so I decided that the rose theme was fitting, plus I wanted Elsa to have something beautiful to call her own.

A little thinking was going on while I was out walking in the heat yesterday. The other night, a friend's neighbour called me a saint for all of the volunteer stuff I do and that really embarrassed me. I do these things because it is my honour and privilege to go to El Salvador and Guatemala and wherever. I am fortunate as a woman and a person to live in a country where I can be free personally, emotionally, politically and financially. Working alongside the people who I meet along the way is very humbling because they live in very challenging circumstances and yet they make the best of it and have such incredible spirit. I gain so much more personally than I give because my heart and my eyes are widened a little more each time.

The planning has begun for my next Habitat trip which is tentatively slated to be in November 2010......

June 14/10

2010-06-14T12:03:00.001-03:00

My new kicks, bought the other day to inspire me to get my a$$ in gear again. I have not run in so long that I can not remember the last time I went for a jog! My body nearly went into shock yesterday when I put the first 5km of walking and jogging on these shoes. Here I go out the door to add 5km more.......

June 12/10

2010-06-12T11:22:00.000-03:00

A trip to Moncton yesterday resulted in a stop to Because You Count and here is the result:

I usually shop on-line because Michaels is the closest craft supply shop with BYC being the next closest at 1.5 hours away. There is nothing like being in the shop and browsing through everything by being able to actually touch the fabric and patterns. BYC does mail order although they do not have an online catalogue so I have not used them for mail order before. They did give me the website for their pattern supplier with the information that they can get in any of the patterns for me. I purchased a couple of Lizzie Kates, the heron pattern and the fabric before prying myself out the door. The big piece of Lugana has little sparkles in it which will look cool on the Christmas ornaments that I will be stitching this year. The other fabric are odd pieces that will be of use as well for ornaments. I could not resist the "Cat Lessons for People" since my house is over run with three and a half felines (the half refers to my neighbours' cat who spends alot of time in my house as well!) and I am well versed in the life and philosophy of the cat.

June 8/10

2010-06-08T10:52:00.002-03:00

Some stitching has finally been going on around this place! I am trying to stitch this up quickly to give to a friend who is getting married on the first weekend in July. The piece may not be framed in time, but hopefully the last stitch will be put into it before the wedding:

Before starting the current piece above, I had hauled out these little Christmas card inserts and stitched them up both in an effort to get some Christmas stitching done well in advance and to tackle the clutter in my craft room:

Alas, my efforts to de-clutter the craft room have been somewhat offset by the purchase of two new pattern books by Joan Elliott. I saw a review of her book "Cross Stitch Greeting Cards" in one of my cross stitch magazines and purchased it since I had some gift certificates to ChaptersIndigo. Then, once I had read through that book, I went on to buy "Cross Stitch Wit and Wisdom". The designs are cute, fun and look like a relatively quick stitch so they would be good for gift making and cards. With my brother leaving for Afghanistan this weekend, I am looking for lots of ways to divert myself into doing fun things to keep my mood lighter and more positive.

Part 2

2010-05-30T15:48:00.000-03:00

An update. I went out and did the planting. The plants (and seeds) look kind of puny and pathetic at the moment but hopefully they will quickly grow into lush plants full of peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, beans, peas and zucchini! I then mopped the floors and dumped the dirty water along the rows to help with the wilting. A friend has suggested that I spread grass clippings on the garden to help prevent evaporation so that will be a job for this evening after dinner at Mom's. The weeds I can not fit into my overflowing compost bins would probably be good for between the rows. They will be composted and likely throw in there later on so this would be just skipping a step by not putting them in the bins.

May 30/10

2010-05-30T10:09:00.000-03:00

My needle is not getting much of a workout these days sadly. In between the trip to Guatemala, the exchange student from Mexico who is living with me, my new vegetable garden and the fact that my brother is living for Afghanistan on June 13/10 just does not seem to leave much time for stitching! I am working on some Christmas card kits that a friend gave me so that I can have them done (part of my ongoing cleaning out stuff campaign), but that really is it for the moment. Anyone who follows or reads my blog must think that either I no longer blog or stitch!

May 19/10

2010-05-19T12:45:00.000-03:00

Wow! It has been a while since I last posted! I just arrived home yesterday from a 12 day trip to Guatemala where I toured some of the country and spent 4.5 days volunteering at orphanages. There were 23 of us on the team and we had a fabulous time together. Most of us were from the Maritimes with a couple from Quebec, 4 from Ontario and 1 from Michigan.

The orphanages were an experience to say the least! We spent most of our time at Rosa De Amor, cleaning, painting, doing the laundry (imagine doing laundry for 30 children with one regular family sized washer that the home just acquired 6 months ago!), and loving the children. Some of those kids came from most desperate circumstances. One young mother was raped by her grandfather and was threatened with death by her grandmother. Rosita rescued her from the streets just before the police could grab her. Another young mother who was only 12 years old had mental health and development issues. The home has not been able to figure out her story because she is unable to tell them. Another young mother was so withdrawn and depressed that I cried when she kissed me on the cheek when we said good bye.

There were beautiful moments, too. Seeing a withdrawn disabled boy smile when he was cuddled or a young baby learn how to grab at things and put them in her mouth or having a baby trust me enough to fall asleep on my shoulder or seeing a dog patiently enjoy the love of an autistic boy...... As one orphanage director put it, "Orphans in Guatemala are the bottom of the barrel and disabled orphans do not even get the barrel."

I am still recovering from the long trip home which included the red eye flight from Mexico City to Toronto and the discovery in Toronto that my luggage was still in Mexico City. Perhaps in a few days I will be able to better put the experience into words, but for now here are a few photos to help sum it all up.

The team:

Bryan enjoying the love that Charlotte was lavishing on him:

Charlie the tuk tuk driver who offered me his phone number!:

Gen and I staining boards for the enclosed fence:

Two of the young moms, Elsa with Luis on the left and Ana with Rosita on the right. I am going to sponsor Elsa and Luis as Elsa was the one who kissed me and Luis was my laundry buddy one afternoon. He was quite content to sit on my hip as I sorted and loaded laundry into the machine. Plus, he is so adorable in that little Tigger outfit!:

April 21/10

2010-04-21T12:26:00.000-03:00

Not the greatest of photos, but you can see the progress being made on the Jelly bean houses of St John's:

I have almost completed the two strand cross stitches, but as you can see by the weird gap on the bottom that I have run out of yet another colour. That makes three in this kit so far. Fortunately, I have lots of this particular colour in my stash so yet again, not a big deal, but this floss number will be added to my email feedback when I am done with this kit.

And just for fun, introducing Oliver:

I am getting another cat this week, but he is not the one. This little guy lives next door and is really cute and friendly. I leave my patio door open during the day because otherwise I would be getting tendonitis from the continual "in-out" of the cats. Oliver spent a good part of his day here yesterday and went home around 10pm last night when I realized that he was shut into my house! He came back today to check out the facilities, taking a nibble out of the food bowl, a sip out of the water fountain and a long hard sniff of the litter box. My cats are not too crazy about him coming over to visit and it amuses me to listen to them try to scare him and chase him off. He just ignores them and makes himself comfortable!

Apr 18/10

2010-04-18T13:30:00.001-03:00

This weekend has been a crash-out kind of weekend. I could not figure out why I was so exhausted the other day until I counted up all of the balls I have been juggling: an exchange student will be living with me for a couple of months, work has been crazy busy, I am gearing up to go to Guatemala for a couple of weeks, spring has come early so there is lots to do in the yard, and now I am getting another cat. Add that to still moping over the demise of my recent relationship and you have one tired out Vee.

I have been working away on the NONIA kit I bought but do not have a photo to post just yet. When I stitch, one cat curls up beside me and the other sleeps on the back of the couch behind my head. It will be interesting to see where the new cat will snuggle up in the evenings. The new kitty is from a friend of mine whose daughter is moving home from university with a cat, but the stepdad is deathly allergic so they were in need of a home and they know what a soft touch I am!

Well, the groceries are not getting bought by me sitting here in front of the laptop so off I go.......

April 10/10

2010-04-10T12:26:00.001-03:00

I decided to bite the proverbial bullet and stitch up this kit. Seeing it sit there unopened on my ottoman was almost painful as I was/am still going through the grieving stages of the end of the relationship with the guy who was with me when I bought this kit as a souvenir of the trip to Newfoundland. Already hit on one pet peeve of mine with kits-----ran out of one of the threads! Fortunately, the chart gives the DMC number so I pulled the colour of out my stash, but I will be emailing them to let them know that they miscalculated. The jellybean houses of St John's are so beautiful to see in person and it is kind of fun to watch them come alive on the fabric under my needle.

April 3/10

2010-04-03T21:35:00.001-03:00

I can not figure out how to rotate this picture, but am going to post it anyway because it amuses me greatly. The white cat is my Penelope and the black cat is Oliver from next door. I just happened to be walking by the patio door last night when I saw the two of them studiously ignoring each other despite the fact that they get along quite well.

My ort jar has been overflowing for a while despite my best efforts to tamp and squish the threads and scraps down. Perhaps tomorrow I might actually get around to dumping the contents. I love putting those first few threads into the empty jar because it seems like it will take forever to fill the jar again and then all of the sudden I am squishing down the overflow! Even though the contents are garbage, they are tangible proof that I have made something!

I am working this weekend so not a whole lot of stitching has been going on because I am worn out by the time I get home. Holiday weekends are always nuts because we still do the same number of prescriptions per week, but they are crammed into fewer days and/or less hours. The to-be-filled pile of baskets was almost as high as I am tall (5 foot 6) this afternoon at one point and customers just could not believe that *their* little prescription might take an hour. Yeah well, I am a pharmacist, not a miracle worker and chances are it is late afternoon and I have yet to take a break since I zipped up my labcoat this morning.

Mar 31/10

2010-03-31T12:37:00.001-03:00

Making headway on the HAED Iris again:

I find that I can only work on it for so long and then I have to do a quick and fun project like an ornament or two or five! I may start on the kit I bought in Newfoundland for my next HAED break. My ex's mother gave me some good advice yesterday when she said that never let a man hold you back from anything. She and I have been friends for a long time and even though things did not work out with her son, the friendship remains.

A gratuitous cat pciture:

What a great way to spend the afternoon!

Mar 27/10

2010-03-27T13:13:00.001-03:00

A different kind of craft project----destruction by a pissed off ex-girlfriend. These socks were accidently left in my suitcase after the night at the spa hotel and this is how they look now.

Man! That felt good to stuff that mess into an envelope!

Mar 23/10

2010-03-23T12:29:00.000-03:00

To follow up on the little comment I slipped in about things not working out between me and the guy from Newfoundland, I am going to indulge in a little blogging therapy. I was head over heels with this guy and had a fantastic trip to Newfoundland a few weeks ago. There was no indication when I talked to him the last time on the phone that there was anything on his mind about the status of our relationship. Now keep in mind that this guy does not like to talk on the phone or send text messages so you can imagine my surprise on Friday when there was a text message on my phone from him. You can imagine my shock when I read that he thought that things were not going to work out between us because of the distance. There was the usual "you are a great girl" and "sorry", blah blah blah. He then turned off his phone and disappeared to his aunt and uncle's place down around the bay. I could have called their house to talk with him, but I chose to leave a message on his cell phone saying that I was in shock and could he please call me when he got the message. So, the sum of the weekend has been lots of tears and a wicked migraine on my part and no phone call from him nor did he answer his phone on Sunday when he returned to St John's. I stopped trying to reach him when a couple of my wise friends told me that I may never get the explanation that I want and deserve so let it go. No point in torturing myself. This is the way he wants to handle things so this is the way he is going to handle things.

I can actually laugh about it now. Imagine! I, *me* the girl who could not get a date in high school to save her life, was dumped by text message. Another story for the memory bank and to kvetch about over coffee with my girlfriends!

Mar 21/10

2010-03-21T12:32:00.000-03:00

It has been a while since I have blogged! Between work and my trip to Newfoundland, I just have not had the time to update things.

I found this kit in the NONIA shop on Water Street in St John's. The jellybean houses of St John's are a delightful splash of colour that captivated me so I was pretty excited to find this kit by chance as I was about to leave the shop. I am not sure when I will stitch it because the guy I visited in Newfoundland ended things between us the other day and it was painful to even look at the package today to photograph it. Maybe when time has allowed a few wounds to heal......

These four photos are of "Snow Wishes" by Cathy Coombes of The Victoria Sampler-Designs by Cathy Jean found in the 2009 JCS Ornament edition. I used 28 count Monaco and played around with the colours from my mystery thread box. I mimicked the design colours in the first photo and then played around with the combinations on the other three just to see what would turn out. I used beads on the snowflake for the first design and then switched to just using DMC Light Effects E3747 because I like how the blue tint mimics the colour of snow.

March 2/10

2010-03-02T11:24:00.002-04:00

So, over the past few weeks I have been glued to my television watching the Olympics on the 4 different channels that were available to me. Apparently I was not alone as I heard yesterday that 26 million Canadians watched the men's hockey gold medal game on Sunday night! All of that tv time of course meant stitching time and I got a good start on my ornaments for Christmas 2010.

"Peace" by Blackbird Designs was stitched on mystery 14 count Aida with threads from my mystery box. Both designs can be found in JCS 2009 Ornament edition.

Although this photo does not show it well, "Peace" by Homespun Elegance was stitched on a remnant of that 14 count Aida. This ornament was stitched at the Hampton Curling Club during the men's gold medal curling game on Saturday night between Canada and Norway. One of the club members who was there watching the game reminded me of sashiko, a form of Japanese stitching that I remember seeing my grandmother do when I was a child. Unfortunately, my grandmother died when I was 15 years old so she did not get to teach me much about sashiko although I do have a piece that she stitched as a table runner. My mom brought me some sashiko kits from Japan when she was there in 2008 so I should dig those out and try my hand at it.

Three more sleeps before I head to Newfoundland! It is going to be a whirlwind visit, but I am looking forward to meeting Michael's extended family and to seeing a Canadian province that I have never been to before. Michael told me last night that he is not 100% sure how to get to Signal Hill, the one place I really want to see, even though he grew up in the St Johns region so I told him to let me ask for directions because I can get away with more having a mainlander accent!

Feb 27/10

2010-02-27T11:25:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was my day off for working last weekend so I stayed in my pyjamas all day and did some housework in between watching the Olympics. While in front of the television, I worked on finishing these designs so that I can take the all red "Love" and the "Winter" ones to Newfoundland next weekend. Thanks to Vonna at The Twisted Stitcher blog and her finishing tutorials for well laid out directions for flat fold ornaments. I used her technique, including the clothespins, to finish "Winter" and I must say that it turned out very nicely!

Here is another recent finish (as of last night!):

She is from the Dimensions Gold Collection Petites and her name is "Twilight Angel". I did make a counting mistake or two where her sash and skirt meet, but a little jigging around saved me from having to rip out most of her belly area when the mistake was discovered! Stitching this kit is part of my campaign to clear out the clutter in my craft room. I am not sure why I bought this kit beyond I probably thought that it was pretty so I stitched it so that it could move from my to-be-done pile to the completed pile.

In 6 days time, I will be in Newfoundland for a wee holiday! I can not wait!!!!!!!!!!!

Feb 24/10

2010-02-24T10:55:00.001-04:00

Well, it has been a while since I updated this blog! There has been some stitching going on as you can see by this cute little design that I downloaded from Michaels:

The finish will be a flatfold ornament which I hope to do this weekend when I finally have a few days off! The ornament is a hostess gift for a family I will be staying with when I go to Newfoundland next week!

When not stitching, I have been visiting Ebay and purchasing more patterns for one of my next lifetimes:

Honestly, I have more than enough patterns, but I just could not resist! My current interest in patterns is snowmen, probably because we are having a weird winter here. Most of my flower beds and parts of my lawn have no snow cover whatsoever when usually we have mounds and mounds of snow. The funny part about my snowman pattern obsession is that I really am not a winter person! I much prefer the hot and sunny days of summer; I tolerate the cold and snow because this is where my family lives!

Feb 7/10

2010-02-07T14:28:00.002-04:00

A friend of mine was decluttering recently and she found these card kits that her ex-mother-in-law had given her. The friend no longer cross stitches for lack of time (she is a hockey mom) and she never had a good relationship with her ex-MIL so I suspect that giving them away might be a karma thing as well. I am always up for a quick stitch and I de-cluttered an old TV and a candleholder her way so I gladly accepted the kits!

This weekend has been a quiet one chez moi so I have been stitching ALOT! I started the third page of HAED Iris on Friday and look at how far I have come since then:

After I take care of more laundry, visit my treadmill and then visit my Mom's house for supper, I will settle in for a night of movies and stitching. There is something called the Super Bowl on tonight so I will be watching romantic comedies on the W Network instead because I would rather jam my craft scissors in my eye than watch American Football.

And in other news, 26 days until I get to Newfoundland!

Feb 5/10

2010-02-05T11:08:00.005-04:00

Ok, so here is the last variation of Vee's ornament. This one is stitched with DMC 816 on my last scrap of this piece of Aida.

I finished it after curling last night in an attempt to warm up my hands and fingers. The temperatures are hovering around -10C and it is a damp cold so I am freezing all of the time! The curling club was so cold last night out in the ice shed that I did not unzip or remove my curling jacket and I usually find it too warm to even wear it because I play first stone and therefore sweep alot!

Part 2 to this post:
I was reading through my blog list and came across an address for a local design company:
Pine Glen Designs. This company is based out of Campbellton, New Brunswick which is about 5 hours north of here. Maybe it is because there is a lack of cross-stitching community where I live that it pleases me so much to find that there is some activity in our province.

And here is a gratuitous pet photo. What else is there to do on a cold and sunny winter day?

Feb 3/10

2010-02-03T10:17:00.006-04:00

I finished the Dimensions Snow Man at 2am this morning. EEP! When I had sat down to stitch, I had meant to only stitch until 11:30pm, but I was so close to being finished that I kept saying to myself, "Just another half hour". The french knots look pretty good considering the time of night that they were tied!

Remembering the pain from the night before, I put a bandage over the end of my finger before sitting down to stitch so there are no new holes in my needle pushing finger!

Feb 2/10

2010-02-02T14:07:00.002-04:00

Happy Ground Hog Day! I hear that the various ground hogs have seen their respective shadows so it is 6 more weeks of winter. Whatever, I live in Canada where it can snow until May.

I have booked my plane ticket to go see a certain Newfie in March! I am really excited to see him, but also excited to see a bit of Newfoundland, a place I have never visited. He wants to take me to the town where his father was from to meet some of the clan so I will get to spend some time in a fishing village a couple of hours from St John's. St John's sounds really cool as well, but I want to see the real Newfoundland, too! Booking the spa night is not going smoothly as the spa at one place is closed on the night that I want to book and the other place has a staff training night, but they are going to see what they can work out for me.

Almost done the Dimensions Snow Man. The skin on my hands is suffering as we are going through a cold snap of -20 Celsius. There are paper cuts all over the place and I managed to drive the head of my embroidery needle into my pushing finger a couple of times last night. Getting up to get a bandage to protect the pad of my finger would have been brilliant, but I was too lazy so I sit here and complain instead.

Well, off to work I go so that I can continue to afford my travels and my needlework!

Jan 29/10

2010-01-29T10:57:00.003-04:00

I was cruising through my blog list the other day when I saw a design on Vee's (not me, but another Virginia!!) site. Here it is stitched on 18 count Aida and with colour variations courtesy on my mystery thread box:

I am going to take one to Newfoundland with me to give to my guy friend and another to Guatemala to leave with the orphanage I am going to visit in May. These little cuties can be stitched in a few hours if your needles are a-flying!

Jan 26/10 Part Two

2010-01-26T17:04:00.004-04:00

The Lizzie Kate is done and in its frame:

Well worth the half hour I spent wandering through the mats and frames section of Michaels the other night because I just could not find a mat and a frame that suited both the piece and the recipients. Years ago, I used to go to a framer who was also a friend of the family. He always enjoyed working with me because my vision was always so very different than his when it came to framing my pieces. My visits to his shop to get a piece framed were never short and sweet, but the results were always fantastic. Unfortunately he moved to the West Coast about 6 or 7 years ago and then passed away. I have not been able to find a framer who can match both the quality of his work and his infinite patience although the last framer I went to may just be a match for me!

Back to the Lizzie Kate.....
And here is my poor finger that got sliced when I was handling the glass:

In the end, the glass did not fit into the frame after putting in the mat, the stitched piece and the sticky board so now I have to figure out how to dispose of the glass without slicing my fingers any further!

Jan 26/10

2010-01-26T11:55:00.003-04:00

Whee! I was just waking up when my doorbell rang and there was the delivery person with my new natural light bulb!! Yay! Now I will be able to see properly when I stitch and I will no longer need to carry my bedside lamp back and forth from the bedroom.

Can you tell which one has been used almost daily for 8 years and which one has been promptly installed into the lamp? The $19 in postage was well worth getting the bulb replaced although I have since discovered that I could have saved some money by buying it off of eBay.

Once I get off the computer this morning, one of the first things on my to-do list is to frame the Lizzie Kate so I may come back to post another photo later on today.

Jan 24/10

2010-01-24T13:15:00.003-04:00

There has been a fair bit of stitching going on around here even though I am still waiting for my natural light bulb to arrive. One of my cats broke the light bulb in my bedside table lamp that I drag to the livingroom each evening to use to see my stitching. She tried to crawl off the back of the couch and along the arm of the couch but was unsuccessful in her attempt to squeeze between me, the lamp and the needlework that was spread all over the place as I was settling in to stitch while watching "Dr Zhivago". The lamp went flying and the bulb was snapped off at the base so then there was a whole big expedition of retrieving the lamp and its pieces from the floor, unplugging the lamp, unscrewing the broken bulb base, scrounging around in the linen cupboard for a new bulb and properly wrapping the broken bulb for the garbage. Then, I settled back in to stitch and the cat eventually made her way back to the back of the couch where she likes to sleep behind my head.

The Lizzie Kate is stitched and waiting to be ironed and framed before being given to my newly-married friends. The Dimensions Snowman has almost all of the full stitches stitched so perhaps tonight I will get to the rest of them before starting on the half stitching. My craft room needs another decluttering attempt, but the basement needed to be done first as a friend may be renting out my spare room shortly and she would have been up to her ears in chaos when she stepped out of her room if I had not sorted and stored the boxes that were randomly strewn across the basement floor. It is amazing to me how much stuff I accumulate, but now most of it is nicely organized in the storage room, added to the donation pile or waiting for my next trip to the local recycling bins!

Non-stitching-wise, I am in the midst of organizing trips to Guatemala (May), El Salvador (November) and Newfoundland (whenever the work schedules for my boyfriend and myself coincide in such a way that it is worth the price of the flight to get there; he has just moved to NF and started a new job.). I was researching accomodations in St. John's, NF the other day when I came across this one: Monastery Spa. There is a week long package and when I saw that one, I thought, "Hell! Who needs a boyfriend?!". If I went in for a week long spa, I would never be seen again!

Well, time to head to the curling club to help out with the Little Rocks program before going to my Mom's to celebrate the January birthdays of my two brothers. Lovely way to spend a Sunday!

Jan 19/10

2010-01-19T11:20:00.003-04:00

Whew! Where is this month going? Time is just whizzing by me although the blur may have something to do with meeting an amazing guy, working, curling and deciding to go to Guatemala in May. I did start some new stitching projects recently to take a wee break from the intensity of stitching HAED Iris. Not having my daylight lamp makes HAED too difficult to stitch and I need to do some quick and easy projects just to break up the monotony of stitching one huge project.

Lizzie Kate's "Just Married" on 28 count linen with threads from my mystery box. The colour scheme chosen by LK did not fully suit the friends I am stitching this for so I am using my own colour scheme:

This one was actually started before I started the LK in an attempt to declutter my craft room a little bit. Even though I am not a fan of winter, I LOVE to stitch snowmen for some reason. They are just so cute and adorable and this world could use more cute and adorable!

Jan 17/10

2010-01-17T11:00:00.005-04:00

Oops! Gotta' learn how to rotate the photos before I post them! Unfortunately, I have to run to work so the figuring will be for another time. Here is my most recent order from Cross-Canada Stitching:

I love snow men and could not resist these little guys! Plus, friends of mine were married on Jan 2/10 so I plan to whip up the Lizzie Kate for them.

In other news, the light bulb burned out on my stitching lamp. I could not source the bulb locally so I ended up ordering it directly from Verilux in the US. The shipping costs almost as much as the bulb, but at least I know that I will get ALOT of use out of it! :-) In the meantime I am using the lamp from my bedside table which is making me appreciate all the more the bulb that is on its way!

I had a wee stitching accident last night. I am stitching a Dimensions kit and have been using the needle from the kit. When I stitch, I use the middle finger of my right hand to push the needle through and I never realize how much I use that finger to do that until I do something stupid like pierce the finger with a needle and then proceed to hit the same spot umpteen times because I was too lazy to go find a bandage!.....There, I finally got smart and went to find a bandage! Now I am good and prepared for an evening of stitching if I do not fall asleep at this desk first.

Jan 10/10

2010-01-10T18:57:00.002-04:00

I just spent the weekend at the Carleton Curling Club in Saint John and my home club, Hampton. My team finished 8th in a field of 18 at the Pictures Plus Bonspiel and good fun was had by all. We played three closely fought games against several supper women who were fun to curl against and fun to socialize with off-ice. Here is my prize:

the bandstand in Kings Square in Saint John.

After curling all day and hanging out in the wee hours with a great bunch of Newfoundlanders, I dragged myself to my home club to help instruct a group of young curlers. The kids were so awesome! They did not seem to mind that this was the first time that I had done any instructing and I had fun watching them get all excited about screaming "Hard!!" as they encouraged the sweepers when I let them play on a full-sized rink. It was so cool to see them get into a game that I so thoroughly enjoy. One little boy who had been a bit of a challenge during the session, but sorted himself out when I gave him lots of praise, came up to me afterwards and said, "That was awesome!". That compliment made being chilled to the bone worth it.

Jan 5/10

2010-01-05T10:59:00.002-04:00

The new job brought a nice little signing bonus so I FINALLY bought myself a new tv after a year of thumping the floor to adjust the wonky cable connector. You can see the old tv that I bought in 1995 to the right as it has not made it to the basement yet. On the left, you can catch a wee glimpse of my cross stitch pattern collection:

Still stitching away at HAED Iris:

One added bonus of the bigger screen tv is that my eyes are finding it easier to flicker from the Iris piece (being stitched over one and being held quite close to the end of my nose as I stitch) to the tv and back. The old tv had a relatively small screen so my eyes have been taking a few seconds to adjust when I would look up.

Jan 2/10

2010-01-02T12:29:00.002-04:00

Happy New Year plus one day! I hope that everyone has had a great start to the year and is looking forward to bigger and better things. 2009 ended with a break up email and me falling asleep at 11pm before the fireworks while 2010 started with me waking up when my friends came home from the party we had all gone to next door. We stayed up until 4:30am, listening to tunes and laughing until we could laugh no more. Not a bad way to start the year, in my opinion!

Dec 18/09

2009-12-18T10:46:00.004-04:00

Here is my last batch of ornaments for this year. I glued on the felt backs a week ago and attached the cording the other day while I was home adjusting to life without Hayes who always sat with me on the couch when I stitched.

I finally managed to pick up the stitching itself the other night after at least a week and a half of being so emotionally played out that I could not even open the plastic container where I keep my stitching. HAED Iris is slowly coming along.....page 2 is underway!

In other news, I am underway with the initial stages of planning a Habitat for Humanity trip to El Salvador next year. Yay! Dating on the other hand is not quite as successful. Oh well!

Dec 15/09

2009-12-15T16:54:00.002-04:00

Today I said good bye to my cat Hayes. The tumour came back with a roaring vengeance to the point where it was in her sinuses affecting her breathing and back around behind her ear into the lymph nodes there. The vet and her assistant were the same two who have been looking after Hayes since the initial assessment and they treated us so kindly. My heart broke to lay Hayes' lifeless little body into the ground and watch it be covered over, but I know that she is up in Heaven, muscling her way into the kitty food bowl and bossing all of the humans around!

Dec 8/09

2009-12-08T10:27:00.003-04:00

Not much stitching has been going on here because I have been emotionally drained by the time I reach my usual stitching time in the evening. My weekend was filled with being there for my brother while he looked after his best friend and grieving for Jeremy's family. Last night I drove by the accident site and felt compelled to pull over to pray for his family as they go through this terrible time. I know that the old adage is that these things happen for a reason, but I could not understand the reason the other night when I was looking into the eyes of his grief stricken parents and siblings.

On the other hand, the bookmark has been given and he reports that he is already using it! We had a lovely time on Saturday over brunch and driving around the area so that I could show him my home town. Because my life is just one dorky moment after another, one of my neighbours just happened to be delivering Christmas cards as he was walking down the driveway. She kept me on the doorstep for a good 10-15 minutes trying to get information out of me about him. I was both freezing and frustrated because I was standing there without a coat and she had interrupted my happy dance in the kitchen after he had kissed me good bye!

Well, I should get back to the paperwork that I have been avoiding. Once the paperwork is done, then I can tackle the Christmas stuff that has not been done yet. Sigh!

Dec 4/09

2009-12-04T16:52:00.002-04:00

Not sure why God looked down last night and decided to take this young man home to heaven, but it happened. Jeremy is the brother of my brother's best friend and I used to babysit him when I was younger. His family welcomed us when we moved to New Brunswick in 1975 and our brothers have been best of friends ever since. My heart hurts for his family.

Dec 1/09

2009-12-01T11:15:00.004-04:00

My life has been its usual chaos, but I have found a few moments to escape and stitch. The bookmark gift has not been given yet because the recipient and I were not able to match up our schedules last weekend to get together. Well, that is not entirely true. He did stop in to see me at work on Sunday afternoon to bring me a coffee and to pick something for his son. Things are looking better for this coming weekend. I was stressed out to the max when he came in to see because work was hectic beyond belief and one of the customers had just told me to have a "nice f*%king day!" as he walked away. Seeing as it was my father's birthday and I get all sideways on that day even though I have not spoken to the man in almost 20 years, that comment was actually pretty accurate description of my day!

So, here is what I have managed to stitch recently:

The stitches have been done in between blubbering over my cat who curls up beside me when I stitch. I was feeling her eyebrow the other night and her tumour has grown back enough that I felt a goose egg on her eyebrow. My little brother has agreed to go to the vet with me and he would not let me off the phone last night until he was sure that I was okay because I was kind of a big soggy mess at having to ask that favour of him. My brother is my rock with his broad shoulders and his steady disposition. He lets me cry all over him and he knows just what to say and do to get me through whatever I am crying over.

Yikes! This post does sound really sad. I am sad over my Hayes as she has been an integral part of my life for 15 years, but I am grateful for the 15 years of beautiful memories and love that we have shared. I am also grateful for all of my friends and family who are rallying around me as I get ready to say goodbye to my Chumba. My heart is breaking into a million pieces because I do not want to say good bye to my little furry friend, but I do not want to see her little frail body suffer any longer. My selfishness has to be second to her quality of life.

Nov 25/09

2009-11-25T11:58:00.003-04:00

So, the new guy in my life likes to read historical fictional and the red hair betrays his Irish heritage so I thought that this bookmark might be a cool little gift.

It is a Teresa Wentzler stitched on 14 count Aida (not my ideal fabric, but the colour works for the skeins)and backed with a golden raw silk. We are still trying to figure out plans for this weekend so I hope to give it to him either on Friday or Saturday. I know the dating rule books all say to not do last minute planning for dating, but between our work schedules and his visitation schedule with his kids, flexibility is necessary!

Nov 22/09

2009-11-22T12:43:00.002-04:00

Whew! The first week is done at the new job! I am slowly starting to feel comfortable and one of the assistants told me yesterday that she really likes working with me. Dispensing methadone is a new experience for me, but I have already decided that I much prefer dealing with my methadone patients than the non-methadone but drug addicted people like the guy who got in my face the other day because I would not sell him OTC codeine. Week 2 starts tomorrow!

Date 2 went well last night except for a little moment at the car when I knew that he wanted to kiss me good night, but I could not figure out a way to gracefully to say no because I have developed what I suspect is a cold sore. Twas a very awkward moment, but we have since sorted it out by email when I explained what happened. Leave it to me. I am a dork in ALL aspects of my life!

Nov 18/09

2009-11-18T12:46:00.003-04:00

Starting a new job has put a wee dent in my stitching. Last night I was so tired that I was in my pyjamas by 6pm and I do not remember going to bed although I must have because that is where I woke up this morning. There has been so much to learn and I feel so slow when I am used to being Ms. Uber-Efficient at work. The other pharmacists and the assistants seem happy with how quickly I am catching on and jumping in to help get things done so given time, things will be fine. Until then, I will be tired and feeling like my brain is caught under the tire of a transport truck!

My tiredness does not slow down the critters any. I was walking through the kitchen the other night and wondered when I got another appliance.......

Hayes is hanging in there. Her wound was healing well and then this red mark showed up. I am not sure if she scratched herself or was scratched by one of the other cats or whether it is a sign of tumour growth. Her coat is soft and fuzzy so I know that she is getting enough nutrition and she is as demanding and affectionate as ever. Her resilience and ability to adapt amazes me and makes me grateful that I have these days with her.

Oh and just to add to the madness, I have a dinner date on Saturday after work....

Nov 13/09

2009-11-13T17:26:00.002-04:00

The cross stitching is done on the Army crest, thank heavens! The design is big and things like the maple leaves were difficult to count. I get a brain block when counting large areas in a single colour. After struggling through the first two leaves, I did the third one in blocks of ten squares and that greatly reduced my frustration level! The backstitching remains to be done, but I have switched over to stitching a bookmark to give my head a break from this one!

Here is an update photo on my kitty Hayes.

The sutures holding her left eyelids together were removed a week ago and the wound is healing nicely although it looks like she scratched herself recently, causing a little scab to form. So far, she is holding her own and I can feel no signs of the tumour re-growing just yet. She has gained a half pound or so since her visit to the vet last week and she spends her time sleeping and demanding affection, food and water. In other words, life is as usual around here!

Nov 10/09

2009-11-10T12:18:00.004-04:00

The cross-stitching is almost completed on the Army crest. Taking a picture would require picking my sleep deprived butt up off this chair and walking through the house though. For some reason, I thought that a venti Americano at 8pm would be a good idea----I was on a date and obviously not thinking clearly----and the caffeine surged through my system ALL NIGHT LONG!

These little goodies arrived in the mail yesterday courtesy of Cross-Canada Stitching:

My closest LNS is 150km away so I rarely get there even though I try to support the smaller local retailers whenever I can. Michaels supplies me with my DMC skeins and it is only 30km away so my pattern shopping tends to be done on-line, mostly through eBay. Including shipping, my bill at CCS was $37.54 (Canadian) and the service was prompt. I plan to be a repeat customer!

Nov 8/09

2009-11-08T12:58:00.002-04:00

Between it being Sunday and having something do a dance all over my immune system, I am enjoying my coffee and listening to Stuart MacLean on CBC radio. As Wednesday is Remembrance Day here in Canada, Stuart's show was a beautiful reflection on remembrance. As I was listening, I was struck once again at how wonderfully lucky I am that I have never experienced war. The only gunfire I have ever heard is that of hunters out in the woods during duck and deer seasons. My country has not been invaded, I do not live under a dictator, my brothers were not forced to take up arms, I do not experience racial tension or hatred. I live in a country of peace.

My only experiences with war come from books. As a child and teenager, I read extensively on World War II as I tried to understand why my Japanese grandparents were interned. As an adult, I have read on Bosnia to understand why my brother and his fellow soldiers were there as peacekeepers, El Salvador to understand the barbed wire and continued militia-like atmosphere, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq to understand what is taking our Canadian soldiers once again into war and so on.

On Remembrance Day, I will be at the local cenotaph with my family, looking at the stoic faces of the veterans and silently thanking them for their sacrifices. I will be thinking of those families who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan as I look at my brother so handsome in his dress uniform and his son who adores his daddy. I will be thankful that I could have been born anywhere in the world, but circumstance and fate found me here in Canada. I will renew my personal vow to share peace and love in my own way to help make the world a better place.

Nov 7/09

2009-11-07T10:28:00.004-04:00

This morning I was just checking through the list of blogs that I follow and came across a finished version of a breast cancer ribbon project from Ink Circles. Sigh! So many patterns to stitch, so little time in this lifetime!

Hayes had her sutures removed at the vet yesterday and the vet seemed happy with her status. I on the other hand was not overjoyed to see that she only weighs 6.0lbs. This cat has been affectionately known as "Fat Cat" for 14 years by those who know and love her. Now she is known as "Bag of Bones". We stopped into my mom's on the way home from the vet to share our apple pie and Mom did her best to fatten up Hayes by feeding her half a can of tuna. Gramma is not a cat person, but she loves her grand-kitties because her kid does!

My youngest brother is probably still not thrilled with me like I am with him, but he did take my old toilet into the Habitat ReStore yesterday for me. I replaced the toilet a month or more ago because a connector rusted and caused a leak/flood. The old toilet has sat on my lawn for all this time, waiting for him to come pick it up and drop it off while he is in the city for classes at the community college. I did bleach it very thoroughly, but he did not want any "yucky" water to splash into his car trunk. Not that I blame him, but I am thrilled to be one degree less redneck now!! Every time I saw the toilet on the lawn, I could hear Jeff Foxworthy saying, "You might be a redneck if......."

Nov 5/09

2009-11-05T11:58:00.003-04:00

Today's thoughts are brought to you by apple pie:

A friend of mine emailed me last night to say that she wanted to make me an apple pie so who was I to say no! She has been following my Hayes the cat saga on Facebook and as a fellow pet lover she wanted to do something for me. I had been a kind ear for her a couple of years ago when her dog got sick and had to be put down so she is returning the kindness. The pie is yummy and Hayes has been enjoying it as well as last night I mistakenly put the plate where she could reach it and I turned around to see her licking my piece!!

Many people are really anti-Facebook, but at times like this, it has been great comfort to me. Hayes has had good health wishes from friends as far away as New Zealand and Norway and so many people stop me when I am out and about because they are following her story. The same thing happened a few years ago when my mom was critically ill in the hospital. A simple expression of sympathy or good wishes really does go a long way for the receiver!

I did some more stitching on the Iris last night, but my concentration was limited so I did not make a great amount of progress. Being a health care worker, I have been vaccinated up the ying yang this past week. I had the seasonal flu and pneumonia shot on Friday (I am prone to pneumonia and bronchitis) and the H1N1 shot on Tuesday. The icky ache and cough that hit me yesterday could be either side effects from all of the vaccines or the actual H1N1 virus as I know that I was exposed to it at work before I took this time off. I must say though that apple pie is a great method of treatment!

One last thing I want to share today. My cousin was in Moncton the other day for work so my brother and I met up with him for supper. My brother introduced me to a drink called a Monkey's Lunch. Now, you have to know my brother. Picture a George Clooney look-a-like (his nickname is Clooney!)in a Canadian army uniform. I started to laugh when he ordered his drink and instructed the waitress to not bring it to him with an umbrella or in a daiquiri glass. I stopped laughing when he let me have a taste of it. Kahlua, banana liqueur and milk! Yum!

Nov 3/09

2009-11-04T13:06:00.002-04:00

Not the greatest photo as my hands were shaking from too much caffeine, but I thought that the berries on my burning bush were absolutely gorgeous the other day. I am trying to take in all of the beauty around me while I am off work for a couple of weeks, a taking of time to smell the roses as it were.

This photo of Penelope makes me laugh because she is such a funny and affectionate cat.

We had some bad news from the vet yesterday regarding Hayes. The tumour is malignant and aggressive (I forget the exact name of it!) and the vet had not been able to remove it all the other day so we truly are playing a waiting game. The vet and I talked about how many times Hayes can go under anesthetic to keep removing the tumor as it grows back and what things does she need to be monitored for (tumour re-growth, weight loss and liver enzymes). We will just keep taking every day one day at a time and I know that I know when the balance will have tipped between her quality of life and my not wanting to let her go. She on the other hand does not seem to be the least bit fussed by it all as she goes about her usual daily activities of demanding food, water and attention and assuming her spot on the bed at night, curled up against me.

Some more stitches were put into the Iris yesterday after I came home from some retail therapy. Gasp! I bought a Christmas gift yesterday!

Nov 2/09

2009-11-02T12:35:00.004-04:00

My house is in a subdivision that is about 1km from the highway. I often walk the local road as part of my walking routine. I usually walk at night so that I can zone out, but recently I walked during the day and was absolutely enraged at all of the garbage that has been thrown out of vehicles. These bags are full of fast food containers, Tim Hortons cups and beer cans. The sad part is that I have only picked up the garbage on one half of the route from my house to the highway and back.

The two craziest things I have found are a pillow and a chip bag full of vomit. I have also found someone's inhaler and rubber work gloves....

On a more cheerful note, I have made some progress on HAED Iris:

I put the Army crest to one side for a few days because I was taking my stitching to my mom's to work on while I was hanging out and my brother was also there. He does not know about the crest so I had to work on something else! There are a few mistakes in the middle of this Iris section so I am working from the outside in to avoid perpetuating the mistakes and to figure out how to adjust the pattern so that the mistakes fit in!

Today is day 1 of my between-job-vacation. It feels kind of funny to not be at work today and I do feel an occasional twinge of guilt because I know how hard it is to replace a pharmacist, but the guilt it quickly replaced with the memory that nothing was done to and about the employee who made me so miserable for so many years at work. So, I will enjoy this time off to relax and regroup before starting my new job in two weeks time.

Oct 31/09

2009-10-31T16:27:00.003-03:00

FAIR WARNING: PICTURE #2 IS NOT FOR THE FEINT OF HEART!

An update on the Army crest, made more poignant to me after learning that two more Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan. One of them served in 1 CER out of Edmonton, my brother's regiment when he was stationed there. So sad for two more families....

And here we are three days post-surgery:

The swelling has gone done quite a lot since the surgery and less fluid seeps out of the corner of the wound now. She has gained a little bit of weight back now that her nutrient intake is not being usurped by the tumour. My family was amazed last night at how well Hayes is recovering and how lively and full of personality she is still. There has been no change in her personality or physical abilities so I am pretty certain that the tumour had not gone into her brain. I am amazed that she had such a big tumour (the size of my baby finger) removed from her eye area and she has had no need for pain relievers nor has she slowed down any. She is still the first to the food bowl in the morning and she runs around the house like a young cat (she is 15 years old!). The girls at work gave me a Chicken Soup book for cat owners as a good bye gift and I am getting quite a kick out of all of the amazing cat stories.

Well, I am off to visit with my favourite goblin who is trick or treating with his dad tonight while they are visiting with Gramma (my mom). Boo!

Oct 30/09

2009-10-30T21:44:00.003-03:00

It is Friday night and I feel like a truck has driven over me. No wonder! Today was my last day at my current job and I went to my mom's to have supper only to discover that my mother was at the RCMP detachment filing a missing person report on my sister. Hayes the cat is recovering very well and her antics kept the mood lighter at my mom's house as we dealt with the return of my sister. My sister's story is too crazy to even begin to describe here, but this evening has involved my brother being on the phone for almost an hour with one of her friends (J.) as he told J. in no uncertain terms that he thinks J. is full of crap and he worries about J.'s intentions regarding our sister. Hayes kept my mother smiling by chattering away at her and demanding affection from everyone when my poor mom just wanted to scream and throttle my sister. Oh yeah, and I had a seasonal flu shot and a pneumococcal vaccine done today so my head is aching from stress and the vaccines.

Now, I am off for the next two weeks by choice to chill out between jobs. The only 3 things I have to do are get my H1N1 vaccination done on Tuesday, have dinner with my cousin who will be here from Ontario working for the week and take Hayes to the vet to get her sutures taken out 10 days post surgery.

Happy Hallowe'en to all you ghosts, goblins, witches, pranksters and trick or treaters! BOO!

Oct 28/09

2009-10-28T23:51:00.003-03:00

Today has been a very emotional day for me. I took Hayes to the vet this morning to have surgery on her eye. The two courses of antibiotics did nothing so the vet was going to explore the swelling and remove the eyeball. There is an official medical term for this procedure, but the result is "one-eyed kitty" in my parlance. The vet called me this afternoon at work to let me know how the surgery had gone and to discuss what they saw during the procedure. Needless to say, I burst into tears after hanging up and had to leave the dispensary because the terms "carcinoma" and "euthanasia" were part of the discussion. I stopped by the vet office to see how she was doing with coming out of the anesthesia and one of the assistants almost did not let me go into the recovery room in case it upset the other animals in there. The look in my tear filled eyes changed her mind pretty quick so they let me go into see Hayes who was still so out of it that she did not respond to my voice with even an ear twitch.

The vet office called me a couple of hours later to say that Hayes was awake enough to come home so I rushed in to get here. The vet discussed pain relievers and checkups with me before showing me the chunks of tumor that are being sent to Guelph for histology (i.e to determine what kind of cells we are dealing with). Those chunks total the size of my baby finger, causing me to blurt out, "Did you really get all of that out of her head?!" They do not think that she has any other tumors, but the pre-op blood tests did show elevated liver enzymes which could mean her body is starting to shut down or it could be from the 3 weeks of oral antibiotics. Her weight has slipped a bit again as well so I am going to keep a close eye on that during the 10 days before we go back to have the sutures removed from her eyelids which are stitched together.

We spent the evening with Hayes wrapped in a blanket, snuggled into my lap, while I stitched. She was pretty wobbly and shaky when she first came home (think "drunken sailor") so I wanted to keep her quiet and comfortable under the anesthetic wore off. She has already been jumping from furniture to furniture and the purr has returned so things are returning to normal fairly quickly.

My mom said something to me tonight that gives me great comfort. I was telling her what the vet said about the possibility of the tumor growing back and how I figure that I will just take one day at a time until we reach that point that Hayes has a decreased quality of life. Mom said that I should feel good about knowing at that point that I have done everything that I could for Hayes. Hayes has given so much to me in the 15 years that we have been together and we will keep snuggling away as long as we can.

Oct 27/09

2009-10-27T10:49:00.006-03:00

I just heard about Bill C-311 on Friday when I was at the opening event of the AGM for the Council of Canadians. Then, I heard something on the news last night about a scuffle at the Parliament in Ottawa so I thought that I should sit down and read this bill to see what the kerfuffle is about. It did not take long to see why the Conservative government is trying to bury this bill being proposed as a private members' bill by the NDP. This government is notorious for its disregard for environmental and climate change issues. As a Canadian, I am horrified at the fact that we are a laggard state when it comes to agreeing to and meeting the targets laid out in the Kyoto Accord. I am further embarrassed to hear that our government and its representatives plan to continue this agenda at the upcoming Copenhagen meetings in December 2009. Maybe our government is so arrogant because we have such a large land mass that we can ignore our environmental disasters like the Tar Sands because they are so far physically removed from us. Maybe having the largest reserve of fresh water makes us feel we can wantonly destroy it. Maybe because we have the financial resources to adjust to and recover from the effects of climate change, we could care less what happens to those countries who can not afford to do the same. Canada needs to step up when it comes to climate change and cooperate with the other countries of the world because climate change affects every person on this planet. Canada should be leading the way on this issue, not behaving like a spoiled brat.

Oh yeah, I did some stitching and there has been some progress on the Army crest. Also, my cat has been to the vet again and she will be having surgery tomorrow to fix the mess of her left eye. The vet made sure that I understand that I will have a one-eyed cat after tomorrow.....

PS. Editing this post to add that I took my indignant environmental self out for a walk after posting the C-311 link and collected 2 bags of garbage in the 0.5km that I walked from my house and back. My workout was carrying those 2 bags back home. I had thought about leaving them at the end of someone's driveway to wait for garbage pick up, but thought better of it in case the bags started a neighbourhood war about the dumping of garbage. The amount of garbage along the road makes me mad because so much of it goes down into the brooks and then out into the marsh. Several other people walk along the road as part of their daily walking route and I am amazed and saddened by the fact that they blithely ignore the garbage. I am angered by the idiots who chuck it out their vehicle windows.

Oct 25/09

2009-10-25T19:29:00.003-03:00

After spending a good part of the evening at a Trivia Night held by my Rotary Club, I came home and stitched to unwind. The Canadian Army crest is coming along slowly, but surely. The colours and the pattern are very basic compared to most projects I stitch so it is not the most exciting project I have ever stitched. When I stitch, I use a throw pillow as a little desk for my lap to hold the pattern and floss. Now, I have to balance the pattern on Hayes who has taken to sleeping on the aforementioned pillow while I am stitching. Because she is still battling her eye infection, I am allowing her to be a pest like that.

We received over 100mm of rain last night so I am most fortunate to not have been mopping up a wet basement this morning like my mom and many people around town. You know, there were no storm warnings or media hysteria like there was in August and September when a couple of hurricanes swept up the East Coast and yet, the winds and rain were just as bad if not worse last night than with those earlier storms. There are many homes flooded in this region and I heard that at least one road is closed because it is washed out in places. Where were the warnings and the media on this one? Just curious.

Oct 22/09

2009-10-22T12:22:00.002-03:00

Voila! The logo of my new employer. After 8 years of a big personality conflict with one of my pharmacy assistants and an ineffective management team, I have decided to return to Sobeys/Lawtons. The decision was not easy as I currently work in my hometown and I am more than just a pharmacist to my many customers and in turn, they are much more than just customers. I have been there with many of them through some pretty tough times and they have been there for me when I needed a hug or some cheer as well. I will miss the customers, the staff and the local family doctors with whom I have an awesome working relationship as well, but I have hit a brick wall that I refuse to keep banging my head against ad infinitum.

On a cheerier note, I was at a baby shower for one of the family docs last night. She was telling us about some of the cute baby stuff she has seen recently and my favourite is a onesie that says "Did 9 months on the inside. Just got out!". Doesn't that sound adorable!

Oct 19/09

2009-10-19T23:22:00.005-03:00

This lovely little parcel arrived from a little shopping that I did with Barbara in the Netherlands. There are some really interesting designs that I can not wait to get at! She is selling her house and moving back to the US so she was selling off some of her stash.

I decided to take a little break from the HAED design and get a start on one that I have wanted to do for quite a while for one of my brothers:

Here we have the beginning of what is the crest for the Canadian Army. My brother is a communications officer in the Army and I think that he will really like this when I give it to him for his birthday in January. The chart is so old that the instruction sheet was done with a typewriter and not a computer. I intend to do a websearch one of these days to see if Saggitaurus, the design company that produced this kit, is still in operation. If it is no longer in operation, I may have to some digging to find the kits for crests of the CAF bases (I also have the kit for the base where he is stationed at the moment) as my brother transfers around during his career.

Hayes is going to the vet tomorrow. I found myself contemplating the mess of her left eye and was about to lance the swelling above her eyebrow when I came to my senses! We are now past the point of needing professional help for her, professional as in animal doctor instead of the crazy pharmacist (me) who is guessing about the cure. Hayes does not seem too fussed about her eye as she can still run around the house and harass me as she has always done so I am not worried if the eye can no longer be saved, but I do not want the infection and swelling to get any worse!

Oct 18/09

2009-10-18T11:46:00.005-03:00

I realized last night that I have reached the fun point with this piece. The piece is starting to look like something instead of just random thread colours on the fabric:

The evenings are getting darker earlier and colder so I have been spending many hours on the couch stitching with the cats curled up around me and under me. Penelope pulled down the liner on the bottom of the couch last year when she first moved in and now Hayes is crawling in there during the evenings. Curling will be starting soon so my evenings at home to stitch will be reduced a bit for the winter months. Anyhow, I am liking how the HAED Iris piece is coming along so far.

ETA: Just went for a lovely fall walk this afternoon. I am astounded at the amount of garbage that people throw out their car windows. We Canadians are absolute morons when it comes to the environment on the local, national and international levels. We have a beautiful country and we should take better care of it instead of fouling as much as possible.

Oct 15/09

2009-10-15T12:37:00.002-03:00

Here is an update on my HAED Iris project:

When I first started out, I was a little overwhelmed by the pattern as it switches colours frequently and there is just so much pattern! Now that I am underway and can landmark my way as well as count, the stitching of this design is becoming quite fun as it comes alive under my fingers. No, I am not one of those people who do that count and thread grid thing before they start complicated designs. Yes, I make mistakes and do not rip them out unless it is glaringly obvious because part of the challenge to me is how to incorporate the mistakes into the final piece and make it all work. The colours in this piece are rich and gorgeous which also makes it fun for me to stitch.

The demon of depression has let go of me so now I am catching up and grabbing hold of my life again. It is so hard to remain optimistic when in the throes of it even though I know well now that it will pass sooner rather than later and that I just have to hold on to get through the days and weeks of feeling worthless and useless. Now I am enjoying everything about my life again and better able to cope with the every day challenges. Part of the reason why I was stitching ornaments was because I just could not face the challenge of the HAED pattern or any of the stocking projects that I would like to get done for my family. Stitching small projects gives me immediate results and pleasure which is helpful in coping with depression when it grabs hold of me. When discussing some of the issues I have been sorting out recently, one of my closest friends said, "Vee, you always land on your feet somehow." So true. I am blessed with a good network of love around me and somehow I bounce back every time.

Oct 14/09

2009-10-14T20:50:00.003-03:00

Whew! It was only 1.5km, but the walk from work to the garage was tough on the shins! I am such a country kid that walking on sidewalks hurts my shins. Mind you, walking in dress shoes was probably not much help either.... Oh well, I got to add 1.5km to my ticker nonetheless. 1000km really was a lofty goal,but I will keep plugging away nonetheless. I have to, none of my favourite dress pants do up without fancy button fastening manoeuvres. Oh yeah, and my snow tires are now on my car. It snowed a little bit here last night so it was most fortunate that I was already booked into the garage for other reasons and asked them to also do the tires so that I beat the crazy rush that inevitably happens after the first big snowfall.

Some progress has been made on the HAED Iris design. I have picked it up again now that I am finished the stitching part of all of those ornaments. Perhaps tomorrow if I remember, I will post a progress picture. Between work,the general daily needs of the three critters and the specific health needs of one of them, family stuff and drama and my own stuff of laundry, groceries and exercise, my stitching time is uber precious and mindsaving! When I raffled off the "Wreath of All Seasons" at work this past spring, I had so many people tell me that cross stitch stresses them out when they have tried it. I could not understand that because it is so relaxing to me. There is something almost zen about me, some threads and a piece of fabric. I shut out the rest of the world and focus on the stitching, clearing my mind of all the crap of the day.

Speaking of crap, I still smell like bleach from my cleaning job of my old toilet which is sitting in pieces on my side lawn. I scrubbed it down with bleach this afternoon so that I can take it into the Habitat ReStore in Saint John. Besides needing a couple of bolts that rusted out and caused the leak that led to its replacement by a dual-flush toilet, the old one works perfectly well so I am recycling it instead of garbaging it.

So there you have it, snow tires, raffles and toilets. I so live a rock'n'roll lifestyle! NOT!

Oct 13/09

2009-10-13T11:49:00.003-03:00

Just heard the weather forecast and there was that swear word "snow". The forecast did say "a possibility of..", but the fact that we are drawing near to that time of year makes me grouchy! I will have to remember to take the snow tires to the garage tomorrow to have the mechanics put them on after they do the oil change on my car.

I am lucky to still have both eyes today. I dug out my HAED Iris project this weekend which I am stitching over 1 with 2 threads. The needle was a small one so that it would slide easily through the fabric and I was sitting kind of hunched over the piece to see the holes for stitching. All of the sudden last night the needle quite literally exploded into 3 pieces as I tried to pull it through the fabric mid stitch. The poor needle must have had enough of my madness and abuse!

My cats all smell kind of funny today as they run around with flea medication on their heads. Hayes has gained enough weight and is healthy enough now for me to feel comfortable with using the Revolution or Advantage stuff on her. She is polluted with fleas and the other less toxic stuff just put a small dent in the problem. Advantage usually makes my cats act kind of funny for a few days after the application so I try to use it only when absolutely necessary. I once had a vet tell me that there was no way that the cats could have side effects from Advantage because it did not have side effects. The vet was kind of a know-it-all and I just let her continue on in her bubble instead of smacking her down with the fact that I am a pharmacist and I know that it is impossible for a medication to not have any side effects at all. So far the only side effect is that the cats smell funny.