In praise of potatoes

I seem to be going on and on about the garden...but really for a town kid who never had a garden before I must say I am in awe every time I go out there and actually pick food!
The other day I dug up these wonderful red potatoes. The whole experience has been great and while I enjoy the beans we've had and the loads of tomatoes that are slowly ripening, the vegetable that is impressing me the most is the potato! I can dig under the ground and find these nuggets and then we can actually eat them! It's magic. Lest you think my so called stitching blog will never go back to talking about stitching I will now set your mind at rest. I actually have not been stitching very much of late with the holidays and all but finally with a little encouragement from Dani who is visiting this week I have finally got back at some. Below is the beginnings of Stained Glass Landscape (Kappie Originals). It looks better when I get the back stitching done. This time around I will actually backstitch as I go, unlike my usual method of leaving it all till the end and then complaining loudly to anyone who'll listen about all the backstitching! While on vacation I did some work on Cirque des Cercles but at some point I stitched a row over 3 instead of over 2...and well you can imagine...when I found what I had done I was unimpressed that everything below it was now wrong. So a bit of counter stitching (love that term Kathy)
and of course then I put it back in the bag and it has not been out since except for this picture.
Yes I did stitch CDC before but when Barb and I were choosing fabric and colours we could not decide which we liked better so we both ended up starting two versions of CDC. Barb, I believe has finished both of hers..I haven't.

Recently I had two finishes framed...here is Molly from Carriage House Samplings' "The girls series" The other framed piece is Glendon House's "Pretty Pumpkins"...a photo of it will follow at a later date...perhaps when I take a picture of it.
Last item...but not least...yesterday was Beatrice's birthday and the Thursday stitchers enjoyed cake (courtesy of Adriana and Lisa) and rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to you. There is a picture on Dani's blog. I did not take one because we had 11 or 12 stitchers here and it was a little hectic!...not to mention a stressed out panting dog...there was thunder!

Holidaying at Inverhuron

We spent three nights last week at Inverhuron Provincial Park on the shores of Lake Huron. It was quite idyllic. They were also the only three days in a row all summer when it did not rain.
We chose this park partly because it is close to Sauble Beach where we were going for Saturday and Sunday nights and because they advertised that they had a dog beach.

As you can see from the above pictures Dan and the dogs enjoyed the dog beach. Unfortunately on the Friday afternoon a Park Warden came up to us and said he was sorry but the dogs had to be on a leash. We had always kept them on the leash in the park but this was the dog beach. Turns out...dog beach means that dogs are allowed to be there ...on a leash...which he admitted makes it hard for them to swim... Anyway we had had them in the water a lot before we were told this rule and we were leaving the next day anyway so ... back on the leashes they went and we confined ourselves to walking the rest of the time.

Between the swimming and the walking we had two exhausted dogs....here we are in the messy RV...they were so tired they barely lifed their heads for a couple of days.

We spent two nights at the race track where inspite of doing very little racing this year...David managed a first in his heat race on Sunday and a 4th in the main event. I don't remember how he did on Saturday night but whatever it was Sunday made up for it.

We are now home and my next order of business is to get ready for the stitching retreat/potluck/bring and brag/enable your friends / eat and laugh day next Saturday, the 16th of August. Any stitchers in the Brighton neighbourhood is more than welcome to stop by and see some amazing stitchers and their beautiful inspiring work. It all starts around noon.
I will try to remember to take pictures of the retreat to share with you after it is over.

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.

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.

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!!!

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...

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.