Another year a coming!

Well I missed on wishing you all a very Merry Christmas with your family and friends! I just slipped up I guess and working two jobs kinda quashed the festive cheer too. So being off for two days I've time to comtemplate things and hope to start the new year off on the right foot.

Happy New Year to you all and hope your future is full of your heart's desire!

Sister's cats!

Ooops I forgot about these critters!!! This is the second set of "babies" for Florence and Wayne and it don't matter what you want - they rule the roost that is for sure! LOL! Even to the length of the cold shoulder when left at home while they go away for the weekend - funny! And they even get a catsitter for them, sometimes even me!

Meet Blackjack, who's gotta help out with the wrapping, but also the unwrapping too!!! Also last year when younger crawled up the tree trunk and dared Daddy to come get him! He might not be crawling up the tree trunk this year but those decorations are still very tempting! LOL!

And Toffey (Daddy's girl) is a real tease too, who many a time gets Blackjack in trouble for initiating the rough stuff. She hightails it whenever visitors arrive or that dreaded vaccuum.

I overheard my sister informing them that Auntie is slow on the draw as the tree still does not have their pictures made into ornaments hung on the tree like the first three cats had. Hmmm guess another WISP to concentrate on!

Christmas and CQ pics

Howdy and gosh it looks a lot like Christmas out there!!! I worked 6 hours today and came out to 2" of heavy wet snow on my car and everywhere! Talk about a skating rink on the roads too. Good thing I'm staying put tomorrow and probably Monday too.

Okay here are some of the family pics from Christmas. Here are the "three kitchenteers" as they are always in charge of whatever family function being put together with Elsie (in red)tossing orders left, right and centre to the rest of us.



And here are a few of the BILs, naturally sitting and waiting for the food!

And here's dear Dad in his rearranged LR with the borrowed banquet table semi-set - waiting too!

Carollers have arrived! Elsie's son and his family arrived after supper for a visit and also sang a Christmas carol for "Gigi" - that sure brought smiles to everyone's faces!

And here is a 12.5" cq'd block I've received (Dec. 22nd) from my dear friend "dragonfly" - basically a private swap planned like two years ago and she's beat me to finish too! I'm very pleased with the gift!

And here is my block for "dragonfly", but it's not finished yet!!! I've still some more embellishing to go yet, but hope to get it finished and off to her in the near future. You can't see my spider web or the fancy purple beaded spider just to the left of the Abalone Angel. Hope to get another better picture or the block when finished.

Okay, back to my chair and relax as I'm beat or maybe coming down with something!

Hardanger gift

WOW I'm jumping for joy as I was at my LNS (Mrs. Twitchett's Eye) and they had 35% off on books and I picked up the two Janice Love books "Hardanger Fundamentals made Fancy" and "Hardanger Basics and Beyond" - WOW! My Dad gave me $50 for Christmas so I decided instead of putting it to bills I was buying these much needed learning tools. Now I'm set with whatever web freebie pattern I pick and can't complete!

There is also on Nordic Needle a Collectors Angel pattern I want for myself and it's on sale right now so hopefully it's still there when I finally get around to ordering it.

Well I'm working on finishing a 2-year WISP for a friend and thoroughly enjoyed the embroidery and beading last night (4-day withdrawal), so hope to get to more tonight. I'll be taking some pics soon but I need new batteries first or I'll loose what I have in there now if I push to the limit.

Okay, back to stitching and hockey!

Post Christmas

Christmas greetings! Well I had a lovely visit with Dad and family and even surprised him with my sister and BIL from Ontario arriving unannounced. We had lovely mild weather (some brisk winds) for travelling and now I'm back home - well not quite as my PC is at the techie Dr so I'm borrowing another's to check emails before going home to relax and maybe stitch. Gosh I didn't take any stitching home and I think I'm in withdrawal.

I did take my digital camera home and took a "few" pictures but can't upload as yet, patience, it'll be soon, cause I'm anxious to upload myself!!!! LOL! My youngest sister was a GM in February and as yet Rylan has not travelled the 200 miles to Dauphin to visit them, it's always the GPs travelling to Winnipeg. So apparently they arrived this afternoon and my sister is just FLYING high and has toys and more toys yet for him to open up and I'm sure A/Us also have some for him too! Florence did say she was taking him over to visit with my Dad for a bit and well I too wish I could have stayed another day to visit too - but they've a full house now.

Well guess I'll go and maybe get into some stitching and hockey if it's on! That too I was in withdrawal for!!! LO!L

Aurora Christmas

Oh yes, I also "ditto" someone's asking to have the Christmas gatherings in the future at the church rather than a restaurant. Gosh we had so much food we could have fed another dozen easily, never mind the dessertssssss (and I was not up to cooking this time) and Linda did not think two chickens would be enough for us all. And to boot all the freedom to shout across or down the table (at times it got quite rowdy - me included), get up and visit, stitch if we wanted to, have an awesome show and tell and to play games too, without trying to keep the noise level down. Also not having others not in our group sometimes letting us know they did not care for our comaraderie (in a restaurant). So Thank You very much to everyone for such a lovely dinner and naturally all your smiling faces and so very sorry that some of you were under the weather or working or other commitments and could not meet with us. Maybe another year! Take Care and a Merry Christmas to all!

And I can tell you I was VERY VERY VERY glad I had booked off the whole day as I sure needed it. Not cause I was so tired like Judith (poor gal) from all the comings and goings, but more like the last unload of dishes out of that !@#$% commercial dishwasher did me in! This is telling how much it hurt, I couldn't even scream or cry or stomp my feet to commisserate my pain, I just gritted my teeth, finished up and left to cry at home. I know it was stupid to rush but I felt that the gals were waiting for me to finish up to lock the doors as I honestly am paranoid about leaving it opened or not locked properly. See I had left the dishwasher door down and the tray out instead of hauling it up and closing the door and then emptying the tray! Nooooooo, Rose Anne thought she can just work around the door and empty as is - well I missed the corner and clipped the inner top calf inside my left knee on the very very sharp corner, didn't cut my pants (how I don't know), but have this white/red () where it connected and now a massive blue purple bruise surrounding the mark.

My Chiro on Tuesday is just gonna shake his head with these incidents. LOL! Yeah I can chuckle now but yesterday I just about lost my lovely dinner from the pain. I'd take a picture of it but don't feel like shaving my legs so you're spared that at least. Sheesh first my shoulder was black, blue and swollen for a good week (slipping off a step stool at work backwards into the desk) and now my knee is bruised and swollen! I don't even think bubble wrap would have helped on this one girls - it probably would have burst to boot!!!

Sewing day with Linda

Oh my, me thinks me had a taste of retirement yesterday and wants more! LOL! Thank you so much Linda! Gonna have to plan more such getaway days next year.

See Linda M's hubby is away working and she asked if I can take a vacation day and come sew with her. Well I managed an afternoon and joined her around 2:00 pm after mailing off my Christmas cards and picking up my stuff. I got to use Bijou (her retreat machine) - not her fancier ones that is for sure - and stitched up four 12.5" blocks for a charity quilt. Linda was working on placemats from a class she had just completed and I loved the colours she had chosen. But I must say having that laptop smack dab in the middle of the sewing machines was mighty distracting especially with all the dinging that mail has arrived! LOL!

Then she fed me chicken divan on rice for supper - YUMMY - and green and yellow beans for the veggies - my favourites!

Then back up to the sewing room and I switched over to trying to stitch up some kleenex box covers - not so successfully but okay. I borrowed my ex-bosses bought one and my sister did the planning and I'm off to the races sewing them with no instructions - see my delimma. I'm sure there is a commercial pattern somewhere but heck I've enough bills/patterns I don't need to buy another one when there are more intricate ones I would like to have instead. Well I finished off the one and Linda graciously gave me two gold ball buttons and VOILA it's finished - sorry no pic either - maybe next week.

Then I assisted Linda in attaching binding the easy way and gosh I could slap myself up one side and down the other for doing mine the hard way all these years!!! This is so easy but you have to allow at least 12" play room as Linda found out, but we were trying to eliminate two joins just about side by side. It worked and I think she's stitched it in place today - if I read her email correctly.

I even was serrenaded(? ) by Jonathan practicing his flute and I was much appreciative and told him so even though he was reluctant to do so. On Sunday is my great nephew's piano recital and this will be the first one I'm missing and was quite put out about it. I passed on my hoorahs with Pat and was told he is feeling stage fright this year. I told him to just play for his own enjoyment and maybe it'll be okay - I hope so as he's pretty good and I love when he plays for me when I'm over there. Not that I'd know if he's following the music sheets but if I recognize the song I know when he slips up. And he gets a charge out of seeing Auntie with tears and smiles - heck what can I say, I'm a softie!!!

Tonight is guild meeting night and tomorrow evening I work. Then Saturday I have off for our satellite Christmas party and then Sunday I work. BUT inbetween and maybe during I'm working on crocheting the tops of the kitchen towels and also have my friend's crazy patched block to finish embellishing. She's already completed mine and it's probably in the mail already so I've got to get moving on it! I definitely need another 4-6 "free" hours added onto my evenings - there just is not enough time in my day!

OMGG I can do it!!!!

First off I have to say THANK YOU to Janet for this gift, I've thoroughly enjoyed this last hour reading the manual and experimenting with it! Oh what demons have you set free?

My heartbeat is just a racing but I'm smiling to beat the band! See I decided to make the time and read this manual and take a few pics and upload them if I could from the HP photosmart 320 digital camera my former boss gave me last night. WELLLLLLL (tonque in cheek) I just might have moved up into the realm of digital photography!!! LOL!

So here goes my first pics! These are of my phalaenopsis in spike and a fuzzy closeup too (gotta practice holding my breath and arm steady):

And now here is the Christmas stocking I received in the CdnQuiltSwappers Royal Treatment Swap from Joyce Hawkes - it was filled with much crazy patch fabrics and goodies along with angel ornaments, chocolates (just about gone now) and other nick nacks.

And here is a craft I made a few years ago from the office coffee cans and yes under the hat is the plastic lid and you can actually store things in there too - or hide pressies! Isn't he cute? I have one donated to the office too. This guy is mine and is on display all year round.


And next are three of the oil paintings that I've done under my sister Sylvia's very detailed tutelage and there's one set of three at the office (will take the camera to work and get them too). I think the poppies were first or the seals next but not sure and then the daisies along the fence and lastly the winter creek which needed much assistance when it came to the rocks - just too much for me to create.





Ooopsie, I forgot to post pics of the Singer Christmas ornaments that my sister Sylvia had painted for me.

Oh GOSH was this ever easy! And here I've been so petrified in buying myself a digital camera and spending money I don't have and then not learning how to use it! GO FIGURE!!!! No I'm not taking a picture of my goofy face from realizing my silliness on this adventure. LOL!

The Prize I Won!

Okay, here's what I won from the store Mrs. Twitchett's Eye birthday draw last week.

Jazlyn 28ct ColorScapes Hand-dyed fabric (very soft pink with sparkles) (18 X 26") http://www.picturet hisplus.com
Dusty rose oval and white molded rose Needle Minder by http://KelmscottDes igns.com
Kreinik Metallics 1/8" ribbon #195 (should be awesome for my embellishments)
Kreinik Mettalics Tapestry #12 Braid in a Fushia (also for my embellishments)
Needle Necessities Pearl #5 Overdyed cotton # 51471 (varigated earthy tones with soft pink and purple)
Weeks Dye Works Floss #2247 Flamingo (shades of pink)
Lizzie Kate pattern Merry, Friends - Santa '03 (5.5 X 5.5" counted cross stitch)
The Gentle Art counted thread embroidery #9 Rabbit Hop
Simply Old-Fashioned counted cross stitch WW 1320 Knitten' Kitten
Jeannette Douglas Designs canvas needlework Mini Topiary Sampler/Needleroll #4
Indigo Rose needlework pattern My Daughter

WOW, there's a lot of pricey things in here (but heck what's with the shades of pink???) but some I may never do but who knows. The threads, canvas and magnetic needle holder I'll definitely use and the Santa pattern I just might stitch up one day and the canvas sampler looks interesting too. Who knows.

By the way, I leant the correct way to cut away Hardanger ornaments and how to make tassels and my own twisted hangers and how to make up a pocket ornament also. Now just to finish off all my ornaments so they can be enjoyed at Christmas.

BUT you gotta hear about my other surprise of the evening!!! I had gone over to my former bosses' place to pass on a baby gift for their daughter's first born with them as they are flying down to Florida to visit them this week through to Christmas. I couldn't chat long as she was going to play tennis and naturally I had my last Hardanger class tonight too. She had told me she had some "film" to give me as they don't use it anymore as their camera broke plus they use the digital always. WELLLLLLL, on top of the film she also gave me their HP photosmart 320 a 2.1 MP 4x digital zoom camera with connecting cord and software CD!!! She remembered I still didn't have one and since they'd gotten a newer one and weren't going to bother to sell this one she gave it to me until I can buy my own with more bells and whistles!

PHEW first Ada Betty let me have her first 1 mp digital to try out but I just haven't had a chance to check to see if it is compatible with my PC yet (might have to buy some $20 reader part) and now Janet gives me her's that she had been using till just recently on their PC. So will have to see if it works as is on mine and then decide which to keep or that I can work it probably is the operative word! LOL! I've got to find some time to check things out but when?????

Gosh I just can't believe how fortunate I feel lately!

I WON something!!!!

OMGG why did I have to work today!!!! I just sat in my armchair to watch more hockey and do some crocheting and thought I'd better check my phone for messages!!! WELL, lo and behold there was a message and from Mrs. Twitchett's Eye and apparently I've won one of two prizes drawn this last week from purchases made. Now I have to wait until Tuesday (my last Hardanger class) to collect my prize and find out what is inside. Hmmm unless it is on their website - will have to check it out and let you know - whenever I find out! OHHHH yummy!

More Pics

Okay here are more postcards received from my PC Cottage group:

from Carol L, ON, Canada, rec'd Nov. 21/06

from Linda M, MB, Canada, rec'd Nov. 22/06

from Carolyn J, BC, Canada, rec'd Nov. 30/06

And here is what I sent out to these three gals:

New Pics

Okay, a big thank you to Linda M for taking my pics for me! I really appreciate it.

Well here is my Hardanger Angel ornament that I had lots of problems with and had to ditch the first attempt as I messed up on my Klosters. This second one turned out great except for those dratted picots which a fellow classmate told me to skip totally and also there was to be a kloster star flower in the centre but the instructions were not clear so she suggested I stick to the stitches I had just learnt. Yep, it looks lovely! Hope it's new owner loves her too!

Here are all my CQ Friends Holiday Postcards I've received - thank you so very very much ladies for such wonderful embroidered items:

from Sandie W, Australia, rec'd Nov. 15/06

from Maureen B, Australie, rec'd Nov. 16/06

from Julia C, Australia, rec'd Nov. 16/06

from Maureen C, Australia, rec'd Nov. 23/06

from Katie B, USA, rec'd Nov. 30/06

And here is what I sent out to Sandie W, Ulla F, Margaret P, Julia C, and Maureen C (pic from Sandie W):

Okay, guess I'll save this before I loose it and have to start all over again!

Undivided Attention!

WOW was it ever neato to have a One-on-One with the teacher for undivided attention on my Hardanger ornaments the other night. See those that were there knew those stitches and just went ahead working on their pieces etc. WHILE Rose Anne here, even after reading it through, found it all "Dutch" (which brought on some laughter and comments about maybe another nationality etc), but still I was lost. So up I went and Carolyn demonstrated on my pieces each of the new stitches and gosh darn was that ever easy once shown how - now will I remember. I really think I'm one of those hands on type of people rather than learning on my own. I just about finished all the new stitches in class except for the larger ornament which was slightly behind - but I think now I've caught up and just have to do the new stitches on it. Then I'll be ready again for the last class which is the finishing and adding the crystals to each one too! Ohhhh can't wait to see the results. But then the fun will be over and I'll have to wait till I think February for the next Hardanger class!!!! There is even a one-day class on repairs which I'm definitely taking as I've already snipped the wrong thread and it needed patching. LOL!

Oh well, nothing says I can't make duplicates or try an online freebie - getting ready for gift giving for 2007!!!!