Nov 25/09

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!

Aug 28/09

The first of my Ebay purchases has arrived. My mother likes Nativity scenes so I would like to stitch this one up for her some day. There is one more booklet called "The Shepherds" which has a shepherd, some sheep and the angel who calls them to Bethlehem.


Still working away at the Teresa Wentzler booklet of celtic knot bookmarks. Here are 2 more of them that I finished as recently as last night.

Another gorgeous day here! Yesterday I had lunch at the Vintage Bistro here in Hampton and then toured Credo project which is a memorial to John Peters Humphrey, the man who wrote the UN Declaration of Human Rights. It was a very fitting place to visit as over lunch Victoria, a past Rotary exchange student from France, and I were talking about human rights issues in countries that we have each visited. We are so fortunate to live in peace and freedom here in Canada. So fortunate.

Aug 22/09

The other night while I was sitting out on my deck, enjoying the summer weather that has finally come to this region of the country, I looked down to see this:


She freaks me out when she lays like this because I always have to check to make sure that she is still breathing as I think that she looks dead!

Once I ascertained that the cat was still alive, I tucked into this:


The tomatoes are the result of my first foray into vegetable gardening. I am inordinately proud of them as they are my first produce. As I chowed down, I thought about where I can grow more vegetables next year in my yard. Variables I have to consider: areas that get full sun that are not under the two clotheslines that cut across the corner of my property, that are not likely to be trampled by the neighbours kids (we do not have fences so 5 yards all open onto each other) and what I would to grow!

I have been working on some more bookmarks by Teresa Wentzler in the evenings because I would like to finish that set of projects. One of my little obsessions is to clear things out so when it comes to cross-stitch, that means using up as much thread as I can. I know that this sounds weird, but I actually get excited when I finish a skein while working on a project and have to go fish another one out of my enormous skein stash. Eight years ago or so, the drugstore I work at was clearing out the inventory from its venture into craft supplies so I bought up the DMC floss. Hey! It cost me about 20 cents a skein so at $1 000 later you can well imagine how many skeins I have in my craft room......I have made a dent in the stash over the years in between friends needing a skein, giving bags of skeins away to charity auctions and all of the stitching I do. Part of my obsessiveness stems from the fact that I am mulling over the idea of building a small cottage style house on my country property and all of my stuff has to fit into that house along with my three cats and the dog that I want to have when I move there. This little side line is related to the TW introductory sentence in that I have used up several skeins of thread in stitching all of the bookmarks in the booklet and a couple of pieces of fabric from my fabric stash!

June 9/09

With three cats ruling the shack, one never knows where one might find one! Penelope was making my wardrobe selections that day!


So many of my friends are putting in vegetable gardens these days. Part of it is probably a reaction to industrial agriculture and the generic-ness of our food these days and part of the movement is to recapture the memories of our youth. Most everyone around here in rural New Brunswick had vegetable gardens when I was a kid thirty or so years ago. These tomato plants are the extent of my efforts this year since I will be away to Mongolia for 3 weeks.


Finally, but definitely not least, I have finished the stitching portion of three Teresa Wentzler bookmarks. The finishing will have to wait until I get home later this summer.

May 28/09

Nothing too exciting to post about at the moment besides the usual craziness of my life. I have my tickets booked to Mongolia in June and am now trying to finalize all the rest of the details for the trip. There are some personal things that are in great flux for me at the moment. Who knows what the next few months will bring for me!
My next big cross stitch project is going to be QS Iris. I recently repainted my living room with Benjamin Moore's Desert Mauve so a few accessories that used to match Louisbourg Green do not go so well with the new colour, one of them being a mirror with a green leafy designed frame. In its place, I plan to hang the new cross stitch when I finish it in the next 6 months or so. The colours of the threads are so beautiful that I can not wait to start working on it, but I need to finish the Teresa Wentzler bookmarks I started as I have a golden rule to only work on one stitching project at a time.