Moving along

I had to get some ornaments done, which I can't show unfortunately...but I can share these little guys. They are JBW mittens done over 1 on 25 count. They make pretty little ornies I think. My focus piece in the rotation, this William Morris bag is coming along at a good rate. It is easy to work on and seems to stitch up fairly fast. The trick is finding the time to stitch.

We've been back and forth to the hospital in Mississauga a fair bit lately to see Dan's Dad (who is doing well) and then it was to Niagara Falls on Saturday to David's Race Club Banquet. David placed third in the race standings and as an additional bonus, unbeknownst to all of us, he was awarded the "Sportsman of the Year" award also. It is a prestigious award because the title is voted upon by the club members. Dan was very proud of his son.

We went to Niagara Falls but did not see the Falls and I am a little disappointed since I think they are pretty spectacular at night with the coloured lights on them...but it never crossed my mind until we were home on Sunday, that we should maybe have driven around and had a look!

Green orts

My rotation is working extremely well except for the fact that it seems like I am constantly working with green threads! 470, 471 and 472 to be exact! This William Morris bag is number one in the rotation and as it is the focus piece it is moving along quite quickly.

Number two is my stained glass landscape.

and number three is Fairies in the garden...

Froth and Bubble came home from the framers on Friday and I am thrilled with the result.

Rotation

I decided that it was time to go back to some sort of a rotation. There are too many WIPs in my bag and too many things I am itching to start, so a little discipline is in order.
It is encouraging that the first WIP I pulled out was close to being finished and so I have a finish to show. It was started in 2006! Cirque des Cercles done on 36 count linen with Waterlilies Eggplant. Don't know what I am going to do with it but the stitching is done.

Having a finish of course necessitated a new start. This is the William Morris bag that was featured in a recent Cross Stitcher Magazine (UK) and it is very enjoyable to work on.Yesterday, today and tomorrow I will work on my stained glass landscape, which alas is far from being finished..

Halloween Treat

I finished this Lizzie Kate Merry Christmas banner a few days ago. Around the same time a customer and friend Janice came to the shop to show me her banner...finish finished. Mine of course was just stitched ... but look at how Janice finish finished it for me!!! I know if I waited to get moving and either (a) do it myself ... yeah right! or (b) get someone else to do it...it would be next Christmas before it saw the light of day. As it turned out Janice took it on Wednesday and brought it back in all its lovely finishedness today! On Wednesday when Janice came by she brought me this little Halloween tree. It is a gift from Trish ,who I have not met in person...but who is obviously a lovely and generous person! She sent the tree to Janice to give to me. So first thing this morning I headed over to Belleville to G & G and bought a couple of packages of Halloween buttons which I threaded up and installed on the tree. Isn't it great. The purple sparkles!!! Thank you so much Trish!!! and Janice the messenger!

I managed to finish page 7 of Jeannette Douglas's My Stitching album and I think this one, Rhodes Rhapsody...is my favourite so far. I got a little more adventurous with my colour choices and what a shame that I waited till the second last page to get colourful! Bright colours are fun!

Finally back to some stitching

Look at what has finally resurfaced! Yes I am attempting a bit of a rotation and here is Cirque des Cercles. It has not been around much lately but now that I am back at it I am enjoying it. It is Eggplant Waterlilies on 36 ct linen. Here is my completed Lizzie Kate Merry Christmas by the letter, including buttons although you probably cannot see the buttons on the pic. It was fun to stitch. DMC thread on Natural 32 ct linen.

And page 7 of Jeannette Douglas' My Stitching Album. This page is really cool with all those Rhodes stitches in different shapes and sizes. My choice of colours ... waterlilies, a skien of WDW, and the rest are mostly Carrie's Creations and one GAST on 32 ct black lugana.

No stitching

We had our grandsons visiting for 4 days this week hence absolutely no stitching got done. Actually not much of anything got done except dog walking, some crafts, some skateboarding, some cupcake baking...you get the picture...

We did have some early morning visitors last week and here they are on the front yard.

And also last week we replaced our poor battered mailbox. The old one was involved in a couple of weekend tournaments of "Mailbox baseball" and obviously lost all the games.The new one is made of steel and will put up a better fight in the next round of play.

I am hoping to have some stitching pictures in the near future.

Great mini holiday

Dan needed a bit of a break before he gets started on a couple of big jobs that will take him to Christmas , so we drove to our friends' place in Vineland and had a wonderful two days playing tourist in our own province.
Not too much guesswork involved in where we went!
All 4 of us had been to Niagara Falls on numerous occasions but none had ever ridden on the Maid of the Mist.

Here we are still dry before the boat ride. After an awesome ride where you are virtually surrounded by the magnificent falls Dan and Bruce are very wet. We expected to get somewhat wet...afterall they give you these raincoats...but we were not prepared for how wet we actually got! Fortunately it was a glorious day and we soon dried off. I would recommend the Maid of the Mist ride to anyone and would do it again!...but don't do it on a cold day!

Lunch with a view...well Luci and I enjoyed the spectacular scenery. Bruce and Dan looked at us!

Next we rode on the Sky Wheel and got some more spectacular views of the Falls.

No trip to Niagara Falls can be without a walk on the touristy side.

We were just nicely drying off when we walked back to the Horseshoe Falls, where we again got soaked and went down to the Journey under the falls...This is a view from one of the portals under the Falls...actually all you can see from in there is spray.

But this walk out to the falls is what makes the Journey under the Falls worthwhile. Of course we got soaking wet again but I am in awe (as I always am when visiting there) of the sheer power and beauty of this natural wonder.

We had a fabulous dinner out on Thursday and spent Friday in Niagara-on-the-lake. I did not take any picutres there as we were all too busy shopping!

On Saturday we came home and immediately left again for Kingston where we had dinner out with my three brothers and their wives.

All in all it was a super mini holiday!