Boy oh boy, sometimes I don't know where the heck the days... weeks... months go, but life just seems to be rushing by, LOL. I'm always really busy, but I'm not sure what the heck I've been doing! Of course Christmas and New Years were full of activities with family and friends... and there's always year end business stuff that needs to be done (closing off old files / accounts, setting up new ones). I still seem to be coming across things I forgot about.

We've also taken some time to get together with family and friends we didn't have time to see over the holidays, and spent a lovely (but long!) day, driving out to see one of my BFF's from high school, then stopping for dinner with my DH's cousins in Smith Falls on the way home. We made a pit stop at Tim Horton's in our travels, and I discovered a sea salt donut that is just yummy! Fortunately they don't have them at my local Timmy's or my diet would be shot every time I went to town, LOL.

I try not to talk shop here, but I will mention that I have been busy lining up the events we're going to participate in this year... and boy, am I going to be busy! Here's a peek at the list so far... 4 On-Line Shows; 2 Creativ Festivals (these include classes and / or lectures and Make-It-Take-Its); a guild event in Muskoka; Quilt Canada; our Studio Tour; another guild event in Kingston; ANOTHER guild event in Toronto, LOL... and that's just what I've confirmed so far! Details will be posted in my newsletter as they become available...Whew, LOL... I'm tired just thinking about all that work!

Of course we're still piddling away at the house (sigh). Not much got done over Christmas, but while he was home in January, Bill did cut temporary wood countertop for the latest version of our kitchen, and we're going to live with that until the summer to be sure we're finally settled on how we're going to keep the kitchen! I need to get a plumber in to install the sink counter, then all our lower cabinets are installed. We're looking for some black "floating shelves" for down either side of the cabinet above the countertop stove (Ikea has the ones we want, but were out of stock when we were in Toronto, so we'll probably order them on line, now that we've seen exactly what we want).

Hey while we were in Toronto (attending POTTED POTTER, a theatre production I gave Bill tickets for at Christmas), we also did some shopping, and I found the most adorable whimsical reindeer to stand at the top of my stairs, LOL. His legs are extendable, so you can pose him short, or tall, or short in the front with his butt in the air, ROFLOL. Too cute - and half price!

We went down the day before, as it was an early matinee performance, so had lots of time to stop as the fancy hit us, and browse. You can spend a whole day just at Ikea - it's huge, and easy to get lost in there too! We do enjoy theatre, and also have tickets for a Murder Mystery Dinner closer to home, for Valentine's day, so next month I'll tell you how it was!

And I just spent some money at Amazon, ordering in some of the books we didn't receive or find over Christmas - Bill and I don't always have the same taste in books, but are both reading J. D. Robb's IN DEATH series (you won't believe it, but there are 56 books (including a few novelettes) in this series - so far!). She is SUCH a prolific writer, and her stories are so hard to put down! I'll find myself staying up to 3 a.m. because I'm almost done, LOL. As one of his Christmas gifts, I gave Bill 7-8 of the ones we were missing from near the beginning of the series, and just ordered a few we were missing to give us the first 20 (we have about half the rest, but there are gaps, so every month I'll order in a few more). I even managed to find one at our local secondhand bookstore before Bill left to go back to work last week, and he picked up the latest one while he was travelling, so we're getting there, ROFLOL.

Did I tell you Bill gave me $100 gift certificate to the bookstore as one of my Christmas presents? It's about half gone already - so you can see why we need a 2-storey library (wink). He also gave me some lovely jewelry, the entire DOWNTON ABBEY series, the first 3 seasons of the original MISSION IMPOSSIBLE series (funnily enough, I gave him all 5 of the new MI movies, with Tom Cruise, LOL), and the first season of CALL THE MIDWIFE (which I adore - makes me cry almost every week), among other goodies. As you can tell, I am very spoiled, LOL, and I adore books and movies!

Well, I want to start telling you about all the great designs I have in the works for this year, so I better close (wink)... However, I DO think it's a good idea to start telling you what my personal stitching project each month is, and we can compare our progress, LOL. I'm currently finishing up the miniature plaid chair (to go with my miniature table topper / rug), which I had the stitcher return, as I just couldn't wait any longer to see it. My progress report for January is that all the basic stitching is done (the stitcher did have all but one piece stitched), and now I'm going back and doing all the backstitching, as she left it all to the end, so none of the stitched pieces is backstitched. It's going faster than I expected - the final piece is stitched, and I would say the backstitching is about half done. I'm actually looking forward to the assembly part, as that's always a lot of fun for me - although a LOT of stitching on this one, so could take me a while to assemble...

talk to you next month, and happy stitching!

And MERRY CHRISTMAS once again, LOL. If you read my TIP BLOG, then you already received my greetings, but you can never say it enough, LOL. Even my favorite radio station is playing non-stop Christmas music to get us all in the mood!

Like all of you (I'm sure), we're busy getting ready for Christmas (or whatever holiday you may celebrate this time of year). I'm pleased to say that all my shopping is done - though not all wrapped yet - our tree is up, and I've already been to a Christmas party and a Christmas lunch, (GBG). Thursday our guild is having a stitch-in day - a chance to relax from the bustle of the holiday and enjoy stitching with friends!

Bill is home day after tomorrow (so I better get HIS gifts wrapped tomorrow), and we'll have his HUGE family Christmas gathering on Sunday - which means I'll spend all day Saturday baking homemade buns (mmmmm LOL). I not only make enough for the meal, but a dozen EACH for my MIL, two SIL's, and a couple nieces - and I better not show up w/o them (GBG).

On Christmas Eve I'll make a few more dozen buns for our own dinner, as well as gifts for our minister and church pianist. Our oldest will be home in time to make our famous family trifle (another MMMM, layers of chocolate pudding, bananas and crushed chocolate cookies, with a layer of cherry pie filling in the very middle, and whipped topping and chocolate bar shavings on top). Boy oh boy! LOL Good thing we only make this once a year, or we'd all be big as houses.

I'm going in to the church office this week and do up the final 2 bulletins for the year, so I can have the next couple weeks off to spend with my family (did I mention I'm the church secretary? It's a part time position, only a few hours a week). One of my favorite traditions is the whole family attending the Christmas Eve Service at our church... and if I'm lucky it will be a candlelight service! So nice to sing the old carols, listen to beautiful music, and enjoy a quiet time with family and friends in the midst of the hectic activity that too often surrounds this time of year.

Usually I put the turkey in the oven late on Christmas Eve, to cook slowly over night, but I get a break this year, as Mom has decided she's cooking the turkey (and if we're lucky, she'll make her yummy cocoa cakes - white cake cut into cubes, frosted with chocolate icing and rolled in crushed peanuts - (another goodie we only get at Christmas). My sis is making pies, so all I have to do (besides the buns) is veggies... so I'll do the Christmas breakfast as well - French toast with strawberries...a family favorite. Though since it's Christmas I'll probably do up some bacon on the side as well *wink*. Can you tell that food is a big part of the celebration for our gang, ()GBG)?

As I mentioned earlier, our oldest will be home for Christmas, and my sis and BIL will come and spend the night on Christmas Eve, which means we'll all be together to open gifts on Christmas morning. You may remember that our youngest lives in England, but we will skype while we open gifts, so she and her family can share in the fun. We even do up a gift bag for Miss Mollee (our dog), and it's such a hoot to watch her pull out the tissue paper and discover a stuffy she can carry around and pull the stuffing out of while we open gifts, LOL.

I'm trying to find time to work on new designs (oops, sorry, LOL, that's biz talk!), but there's so much going on each day, I don't seem to be making much headway (sigh). Ah well, it's lovely this time of year just to get out and see the lights, and watch the people so busy, but still smiling and sharing holiday greetings with strangers... Please take some time to relax and enjoy this festive time of year, to get together with friends and family, and from my family to yours, all the best wishes for a wonderful holiday season! Happy stitching, and I'll talk to you next year!

Well, after a busy and productive couple of months - with lots of events and tradeshows - my DH took me away for some relaxation in the sunny south. Actually, Bill came in on a plane, I met him in Toronto, and we flew to Florida - he didn't even get to leave the airport!

When we came home, he got to spend two nights in his own bed, then he headed back to work out west! So we invited some family over and put up our Christmas tree on his last night - and it looks great, (GBG). I LOVE Christmas trees.. nothing is better than sitting with no lights but the tree, except maybe a fire in the fireplace, some soft music playing... ah, Christmas bliss, ROFLOL.

Though it's not his best thing, LOL, Bill actually managed to sit on the beach for a whole afternoon this trip, (GBG). He always refuses to wear sun screen, so he got burned pretty bad, and now he's all itchy and peeling! We took walks on the beach at sunset, did a bit of shopping, ate way too much, *wink*, and sat around the firepit at the resort a couple of nights visiting with other guests.

We spent a day wandering around looking for a good bookshop, and found a great second hand bookstore where we went a little nuts, LOL, I'm not sure who bought more books, him or me, 'cause we found several by an author we both like, so we'll share those ones, ROFLOL. Fortunately Bill travels so much he gets TWO suitcases with 50lb limits, and we took half-empty ones with us, but they were sure full when we came back!

We spent half the trip in West Palm Beach, and half at a Waldorf resort in Key West, were we always enjoy walking Duval St and going through all the art galleries to see what's new... just a nice relaxing time, with no rushing, no computer, recharging our batteries and enjoying each other's company. We stayed the last night at the Hilton in Miami, so we didn't have to rush to catch the plane the next day. The Koi there are HUGE - and you gotta love a free happy hour and buffet breakfast, (GBG).

OH, before I forget, I did the most fun thing just before we went away - I spent two days taking a Porcupine Quilling class, taught by a native woman at a nearby pioneer museum ... it was a different technique than I'd seen on tv, but very interesting. She told us how to harvest quills, and the best time to harvest birch bark, LOL, but fortunately she didn't make us do either of those things, but supplied all the materials we used - though she did offer to let us come with her if we ever wanted to try the entire experience.

It was a very nice group, who I enjoyed getting to know as we worked. There were a couple other native women (from Ottwa way) taking the class, and it was very interesting to hear them talk about their experiences growing up native. They even sang us some working chants, and just before we broke up for the weekend, they sang us a travelling song.

And the quill colors! Kim (our teacher) dyes her own quills, and she must have had 20-30 colors for us to choose from. While we used a basically traditional technique, some parts had been updated - like the dyes used for the quills, and the tweezers we used to pull the quills. Really, since the barbs were still on, I can't imagine how they used to pull them! Kim told us that the woman who taught her refused to use bowl of warm water to soften the quills, but kept 2-3 in her mouth till she needed them - ouch! Kim sez she used to use plant based dyes, but they aren't as bright as man-made dyes and fade over time, so people prefer the more modern colors in her work.

Anyway, I took my project on holidays as well, and I have the main quilling design all done, I just have to finish the sweetgrass edging, held in place by sinew. Fortunately, we were also given imitation sinew, not animal parts! Once I get the piece complete, I'll share a picture here, and let you know I've done that. Till next time....

September/October are my favorite months of the year (closely followed by April / May / June). Spring is nice, it starts to get warmer, and for a while the bugs don't bite, LOL, but fall has lovely weather - not to hot, not yet getting cold, again very few bugs... but oh my, the colors!

I am fortunate enough to have a bank of lilacs directly across the road from my kitchen window in the spring, but in the fall there is a tree right beside them that bursts into brilliant orange so rich and deep its practically indescribable. I know other people get to enjoy both of these bits of nature as they come and go getting their mail (the mailboxes are also directly across from my kitchen window), but I often wonder how many of them actually stop and admire... take a moment to enjoy... the beauty just sitting there. Most of the time I feel like it's my own private view, LOL, and I try to pause and enjoy it at least once every day.

But Sept/Oct are also my busiest months, with shows and meetings and Bill on vacation wanting to get work done around the house... and I must say I am actually quite pleased with what we accomplished in Sept, even if we didn't get everything done we had originally planned to do, LOL, but do we ever?

We didn't get all the work done in the kitchen we had planned on, because (as I mentioned last month) we ended up changing the floor plan - again! So we mainly worked on the laundry room, which I am happy to say is almost done (new ceiling; ceramic tile floor; back door; wiring changes; drywall and paint) ... I got the floor grouting all done in there yesterday, and the first pantry put in today, but Bill ran out of days to finish building the other 2 pantries, so will get them done during his next turn home, or possibly in Nov, as he's not home very long this turn.

I also got a new drier this week, as the bearings were going on my old one... so it really does feel like a whole new room!

The cabinets are all pulled out of the kitchen - again - LOL, and I cleaned the slate floor tiles with this special cleaner this week ... then they had to sit for 48 hours before I could put an enhancer on the tile (which I'm doing as I write). You apply enhancer to an area, let it sit for 10 minutes, buff it off, wait 30 min, apply another layer, wait 10 min, buff it off, move to a new area and start again... so it's taking quite a while to do (and I'm writing this blog in between applications, LOL).

Once all THAT is done, the floor has to sit for 8 hours (no walking on it), then be kept VERY clean for 3 days to really soak in and set the slate. Which means it will be Tuesday before I can add the new grout (with special enhancer in the grout too), and I may apply one more layer of enhancer once the grout is cured, just to make sure it all stays beautiful. I think if we'd known how much work slate tile was, we wouldn't have been quite so taken in by the beauty of it, LOL. Fortunately, once all this part is done it seems fairly easy to maintain - in fact, you're only supposed to clean it every 2-3 MONTHS, with a few drops of mild dish soap dissolved in a few cups of hot water!

And then we can start moving cabinets back in... but not sure how much we'll get done of that before Creativ, which is coming up far quicker than I like, ROFLOL. I may also hold off, and not put in too many cabinets before Bill gets home (next Saturday), as we are shifting the countertop stove unit over a bit from our original changed plan (sigh), which means the plug and light switches have to move (again) - and we forgot to put in a plug for the over-stove fan, so that has to be added as well.

And, as if all that wasn't enough, (sigh), when our DD and I were pulling the cabinets out of the kitchen we realized we also put the ceiling light (which is this long beautiful glass and wood enclosed fluorescent light fixture) about 2" too close to the cabinets on one side of the kitchen (the top cabinets on that side are pulled out farther than on the other side of the room, as they are sitting on top of the built in oven unit). So we ALSO has to move the light over a bit. Always something!

Anyway, I think that's all I have to share this month, (GBG). Most of my time is being taken up with the shows and classes this month, and trying to get some new designs out to be stitched so I have something to release in the new year, LOL. Wish me luck - and HAPPY STITCHING!