Friday, July 25, 2008

Awards



Dani awarded me this honour and here is what I am to do...



1 Put the logo on your blog
2 Add a link to the person who awarded you
3 Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4 Add links to those blogs on yours
5 Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.


So here are my nominees...

Anne of Feather Stitching because I enjoy reading her blog about her adventures around Australia. Her stitching is great also but since I lived in Australia for 11 months many years ago and I have not had the opportunity to return, it is just lovely to read about the places I have been to, seen through other eyes and to hear about new places that I may someday see when I am lucky enough to go back to Oz.

Christine of Coffee cup Thoughts was one of the original stitchers who came to my house/shop to visit and stitch a number of years ago. Unfortunately for us she and her husband and two delightful little girls moved to New Brunswick a year or two ago and we miss her!

Edgar of Blacksheep ...you don't even know me, nor have I ever posted a comment on your blog. I guess you could say I am a lurker there. I like to see what you are stitching and to hear about your beautiful city and the interesting movies you recommend. I have not been there but hope to visit...as you can tell by my remarks about Anne in Sydney...I seem to do my travelling via blogs these days

Joanne is another Aussie stitcher ... I really want to go back to Australia...can you tell? anyway if you look at Joanne's blog you will see the most amazing pirate cake she made for her son...I was very impressed!



Well Dani...I have given out 4 awards...and would also have included Beatrice, Kathy, and Rebecca if you hadn't beat me to them.
Now I had better let my recipients know that an honour has been bestowed upon them.



Wednesday, July 23, 2008

You know that commercial???

Do you know that commercial where a tour guide suggests to a group of insurance people that it will be fun for swim with the fish, as he throws more bait into the shark infested waters, or the one where he tells the insurance people to go "engage with the big cats"...everyone I know finds these commercials oddly funny...Insurance companies are no one's favourite, it seems.
I feel the same way. Yesterday the new insurer or my house told me I could no longer sell to the United States... apparently the Insurance company thinks Americans are too quick to sue and since I have a small business in the house (this appears to be a sticking point with them), they fear some stitcher will someday sue me.

For the life of me I have been racking my brain to come up with a scenario where a stitcher would sue me for anything I could have sent them in the mail.... for slipping on the driveway perhaps, or being licked excessively or drooled upon by my overfriendly dogs, or being hit by a gravel truck while exiting the driveway, or tripping on the rug in the shop...but for getting something like a chart or fabric in the mail...oh...maybe she could injure herself while opening a bubble pack of needles...but come on....get sued ...I don't think so.

At any rate I am not going to mess with the insurance company ...so if any American stitchers want something from my shop, they will have to get a Canadian friend to buy it for them...what a pain that will be...

However there has been a story in our local paper recently about a couple who lost their home to fire during the winter. I can only feel for them as watching your home burn to the ground must be a devastating experience but now they are being jerked around by their insurer because the fire burned so hot that they cannot determine the point of origin and all their insurance papers also burned so they are having to fight with the company to get the money to replace their house...after paying for years and years for protection..they are being screwed by the very people they were paying to protect them....

So I will not be doing anything to annoy my insurers and if that means putting American customers in touch with Canadian bloggers or friends who will purchase the merchandise for them, then so be it. Stitchers are very generous with their time that way.

On to a happier note...here is a pic taken last week with our first pepper and potatoes from the famous garden. I am so impressed with our success...we have been eating beans and peas galore and have had a few more peppers since this photo was taken but the thing that awes me the most is being able to dig into the soil and find potaotes. I find this miraculous.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Silver Lining Cactus

This is the Silver Lining pattern which I stitched for our friend Luci for Christmas last year. She got it framed and sent me this photo. ...turned out great didn't it?
Dan and I spent the weekend selling 50/50 tickects at the rodeo in Holstein Ontario. Our friend Bill is the chairperson of the rodeo for the Optimist Club which sponsors it. Man has he turned it into a weekend event! The rodeo runs Friday evening, all day Saturday and most of Sunday...in addition he had Shane Yellowbird performing Friday night, Mike Callaghan and Doc Walker performing Saturday night...free camping for competitors and tenter/RVers...what a crowd! Everyone had a fabulous time in spite of the torrential downpour at noon on Saturday!
Dan and I sold $6000 worth of tickets...each day there was a draw and three people won, $967, $1250, and $1005 respectively. An equivalent amount went back to the Optimist club which will donate it to some Children's charity...last year $2000 went to Sick Kids Hospital in London , ON. Apparently the club votes on where it will go each year...but it is pretty much assured that it will help kids. Also all the money they made at the rodeo will be plowed back into the community. We are tired but feel good to have been able to help out.
Of course I got no stitching done at all!!!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Kaleidoscope Pillow

I finally sewed my Ink Circles Kaleidoscope into a pillow and I am very happy with the result.Back in April at the Cataraqui Guild Needle Arts Fair, Dani convinced me that my plan to back it with plain black was pretty boring so we found this great fabric for the back. It reminds me of the Northern Lights, although I don't know why because I have never seen the Northern Lights in colour but apparently, according to pictures I have seen, they do look like this. I have seen white Northern Lights dancing across the sky and can only imagine how fabulous the sight must be when they are coloured. Our garden continues to be a delight. We have peppers and tomatoes growing daily. I can hardly wait till they are ready to eat! The beans and peas have not sprouted into recognizable vegetables yet and of course I can't see the potatoes or onions but I have faith that they too will produce!

I have the new Lizzie Kate Christmas flip-its chart in...well the first two charts ...and the WDW thread that is called for...I am looking forward to starting it...perhaps with the Piecemaker needles that the shop also now has is stock...

Friday, July 4, 2008

Nan's lighthouse

This beautiful lighthouse at Peggy's Cove was stitched by Nan, one of the Thursday stitchers. Nan sits quietly and stitches on Thursdays. She is not at all loud and raucous like the rest of us. Obviously steady and quiet wins the race, or at least gets things finished! I finished this little bib for Marina last week. Marina is the first child of some friends of Dans. She was a little early and weighed in at only 4 pounds but is since up to 4 and a half and should be going home to her anxious parents soon we hope.
I am stitching this colourful piece on a Charles Craft bag for my friend Yvonne. She wants it for her grand daughter's birthday later this month. I had to take the side seams out of the bag for ease of stitching but Betty assures me that she can serge them up again good as new when I finish the stitching. I am good at ripping out seams...not so good at sewing them back together , at least not sewing them back together straight!
The pattern came with the bag and calls for 6 of the flourescent DMC colours. They are like rayon, so are slippery to work with but the fabulous colours make the extra effort worthwhile.