Wednesday, November 18, 2015

An Ornament a Week: Week 2

Hello! I have found a minute or two! Hello! Hello!

Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to wish me Happy Birthday yesterday. I have officially reached the mid forties and it feels pretty good. This is the age my grandmother said she felt when she was 90 so I better enjoy it as it's an enviable age amongst the elders!

DH made a gorgeous cheese cake (my favourite and I'm lucky to usually get one for my birthday) and I would have taken a picture of it but I barely paused long enough to blow out the candles before diving into it let alone had time for a picture. There's one piece left and it's mine, all mine.

I've remained vigilant to my ornament challenge (how are you doing, K in Winterpeg?). Here is ornament number two based on the tutorial in the link below. It is an excellent tutorial by the way. I really enjoyed making this ornament and have thoughts about making more. It's all hand stitched and each time I do any handwork I'm reminded of how much I love it.

Sew, love, live blog

I wandered outside in the cold and the wind and the sleet a couple of days ago to take pictures. These were the best I could get in the wind which made for an uncooperative ornament.

Front

Back

Back

Front
It's hung on my little white spray painted branches on the step landing at the moment. When I have that section of the house prepared for a holiday vignette, I will post all about it!


Wednesday, November 11, 2015

An Ornament a Week Challenge: Week 1

Wow! A week since my last post on the button. That week went quickly!

I have to admit I've gotten a little crazy with this challenge and have already made, ahem, four of the eight ornaments. But, that's okay because some weeks I won't have a chance to make either one so I'm hoping this initial surplus will work out well in the long run.

Here is the ornament I decided to work on first from my Pinterest folder entitled 'Ornaments':

http://vechernie-posidelki.blogspot.nl
And here is my interpretation. At the beginning, I was anticipating making a heart ornament like the one above but my design skills need work and the heart shape well, wasn't so heart like when I sewed it up. More wrinkled mushroom like, actually. So, I improvised.


When the heart shape didn't work out, I salvaged the smallest bit of the cross stitched linen (from IKEA - thanks L in Edmonton!) and quilted a square around it. The linen provided another learning curve. Even weave linen made for embroidery? Worth its weight in gold. Regular linen is very difficult to stitch evenly when you're used to the good stuff.


I had decided that the ornament should be scented and used dried spruce needles. The ornament reeks of Christmas!


Not a bad interpretation but I'm still upset with it giving me so much grief. I still want a heart shaped ornament so I'm going to revamp my heart design and try this one again. Later.



It is pretty, no?

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

An Ornament a Week

How about another challenge? I LOVE making Christmas ornaments so I decided to pick eight favourites from my Ravelry and Pinterest lists to make because it's eight weeks until Christmas. Want to join me?

Here's my list. It was so hard to stick with just eight: My criteria included cheap patterns (aka free) because I might have to buy something to make these ornaments. They also needed to be reasonably quick and cute. Here they are in no particular order:


From the Mojimojidesign blog

From: the Petals to Picot blog

From the Party Planning Centre blog

From the Sew, Love, Live blog

From the wonderful Attic24 blog
The following pattern does not come with a cross stitch chart but I think I can figure it out...


Idea from this blog

From the Better Homes and Gardens blog
And last but not least:

A surprise ornament designed by me!

Who wants to play along? Feel free to come up with your own ornament ideas, I'd love to see them!

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Crazy About Cowls

Cowls are the new scarves for me this year. Here is the completed cowl I was working on.


I just love the look of that seed stitch.


Washed and drying.


And another one on the needles. This one for a very special lady and I'm using the last cute cowl pattern from Sourcherries' post here


Can you get a more gorgeous colour?


Sunday, November 1, 2015

Cape Spear

It feels a little strange not to be numbering my posts but as it's November 1st, it's time to go back to normal. We had a gorgeous fall day here today. Cool and crisp, bright and sunny. My favourite kind of day. We got up late thanks to the time change and I cooked a big breakfast (even managed to make pancakes without eggs from scratch as we are out of eggs!) then went for a long walk by myself. I've been trying to walk at least four times a week in the mornings. I find if I don't exercise before the rhythm of the day starts, I just don't get out at all.

After lunch, we met up with Baldy Brother, our nephew and their family's exchange student to hike around Cape Spear. I made sure the boys were bundled in their winter coats because at 6 degrees C and a strong wind, it can get pretty cold out on the Cape.

Imagine our surprise when we got there and there was NO wind. Neither Baldy Brother nor I could remember the last time we visited Cape Spear and there not being a strong wind even in the summer. It was glorious and a little warm in our winter wear!

I love the colours of Autumn in the bushes and grasses.



Toby the dog came with us too.






We were plesantly surprised to find ourselves munching on a lot of lovely and ripe (and very late) blueberries. We must have stopped and snacked for 20 minutes or more.

It was a gorgeous day with wonderful company. 

Day Thirty-One: Happy Halloween and The End

Happy Halloween! It's the end of the month which means I MET MY CHALLENGE GOALS!!! I am so proud of myself! It's been fun, a little pressed for interesting subject matter but, I kept on typing. So proud.

What a fun day. I love doing craft markets and it's all about meeting and chatting with new people for me. Naturally, I like talking about tea but, to be frank and those who know me know this, I'll chat about pretty much anything and get such energy from meeting new people.


Unlike other years, this year I did not put Halloween treats on my table. I didn't want the temptation and I wanted the focus to be on tea and not for any children to be trick or treating at the table. Too many breakable objects for that. I got to meet lots of new wonderful people who share a love of tea and introduce a few people to the wonders of matcha so it was a great day followed by a great evening.

As you can imagine, excitement was high by the time I got home. DH had a lovely supper made but it was still hard to get any real food into the boys before they went out trick or treating.


Because I was gone all day, DH also looked after the last minute Halloween decorating and pumpkin carving. I think he did a grand job.


Nice to have a fake rat versus real ones.
Buddy needs some treats. Badly.
The boys LOVE putting out these creepy crawlies. They creep me out.
Despite the fact that DH couldn't find the pumpkin carving kit that I've lost somewhere in this mess of a house, the pumpkins turned out great.




I love this little ornament I picked up in Florida years and years ago when we went with our friends and god-children.



And here's is the loot from just our street from just ONE bag! Our neighbours are so generous and the boys had a wonderful time.


Happy belated Halloween to everyone because, yes, my last post of the challenge is late. I fell asleep on the couch after the last trick or treater left the front steps. It has been a great month and I can't thank you enough for joining in with me.

Now I'm onto another writing challenge. Check out NaNoWriMo. I'll be working towards 50,000 words this month. Wish me luck!

Friday, October 30, 2015

Day Thirty: Rain and Wind

What a morning! Pouring rain and windy as anything. Blustery we called it - Newfoundland and Labradorians being masters of understatement. Eldest said that he could have flown if his sleeves were bigger and, after he donned his black cape for his Darth Sidious costume for his school party, he almost did fly, it was that windy. 

This is a difficult time for me. I'm trying to lose weight and the chocolate has finally arrived at the house. And I've gotten into it.

This year we didn't purchase our treats until today. I have a craft fair all day tomorrow so we needed them before the 31st but not so early I could make myself sick on them (says she feeling sick as she types). Maybe I'll stop now. And I have after not eating near my usual binge so I feel that's progress.

I am almost finished my cowl. I hope to show you it in its finished form in the next day or two. For now, I've got to run. I'm still prepping for the Torbay Community Market tomorrow and it's an early rise and set up!

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Day Twenty-Nine: A Large Day

Twenty nine days in and I'm struggling with content again. It's certainly been a month of crafting, sharing, revealing, and laughing - most days;)! I've really enjoyed the daily chat with you and wish so many of you could drop by for a cup of tea with me! Seeing as a lot of you are some ways away, consider this blog our little chat room and please continue to let me know what you think of it and any suggestions you have for future posts (yes, M, the bottle tree!) or improvements.

Today was a large day as far as the boys are concerned. The stuff of every boy child's (big and small) dreams was delivered early this morning.


Time to get serious about the back yard garden. Yes, we know that it's fall. Yes, we know that we've already had two hard frosts but, there are some jobs that you Just. Want. Done.


The triangular apparatus is DH's soil sifter. This is a pre-excavator picture.


Despite, the frosts, Angel Face is STILL blooming!


DH got right to work. He and the delivery dude decided that he should have requested a tractor/bucket combo versus the excavator but, it was too late by then so he started at it anyways. 



I thought that the fact he could move it forwards and backwards was pretty impressive. The fact that he had bucket control too? Amazing! 


He mainly used the excavator as a giant sifting assistant which saved him and his back weeks of doing it himself (not to mention two seasons).



And post excavation. Houston, we have a mess. Naturally, all four boys are delighted!