Merry Christmas!!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas. Has been hectic with the reno finishing up and Christmas preparations but wonderful time . We have so much to be thankful for .

I will be back soon with some stitching pics.I see I have gone from Halloween to Christmas without posting but have been enjoying all the inspiring stitching from everyones blogs as usual. All the best for a stitchy 2012, Jennifer

Happy Halloween

As usual haven't posted in awhile. Reno still going on . We are so very close but today not a soul arrived to do anything. Painting started but now at a standstill . Dust is cleaned up only to come again . Have been very patient and it won't be too much longer. Finally took a picture of a cross stitch finish to be framed and hung in the new part of the kitchen . Little house needleworks 'Garden Fresh'. Loved stitching this and the colours are great.Not a great pic , as I didn't iron it yet but will prepare it for framing and show the finish hopefully soon. Also wanted to show you two little Halloween gingerbread houses I bought at a recent craft fair. Aren't they cute?

Hope to show some reno pics soon . Hard to believe it will be November 1st tomorrow. Will show my progress on Lizzie Kate's 'Christmas Rules' soon . Thanks for stopping by!

My cat

Still haven't taken any pics of my latest stitching so would like to show you a recent picture of our cat Emerald (Emmy). The sun is shining, I had my first ballet class of the year and blundered through with old and new friends and feel stretched out and taller and a bit more relaxed.

Dear daughter is staying for her first after school choir practice . She is so excited . I get a bit more time in my day . Dinner is ready for when she comes home . I won't even talk about the reno as the only progress is electrical which I think is great but it is a bit behind. Not going to let it bother me though , it will get finished and all will be well. Hope to blog again soon to show some pics of stitching which I haven't been doing much of and can't wait to do some.Have enjoyed viewing all the fall stitching that is being done.

Reno so far

Just a quick update on how things are going with the reno . Still have to post some stitching and I have a lot to gather up to show so hope to do that soon . We have plumbing and electrical almost done so I suspect when that is completed the drywall will go up . Currently choosing all the plumbing accessories so that the bathroom will be accessible . We have windows so that is exciting ! So here it is so far. Thank you for your kind comments on the last post and thanks for stopping by!

What I've been up to

Happy Summer everyone! It has been awhile . I would like to say thank you to everyone for the kind words since my Grandmother's passing . It means so much . So thankful we have such wonderful memories of great times with her. While I have been reading all your blog updates I haven't been commenting as much as usual as I have been busy all winter preparing for our home's new addtion. Cleaning out the basement and the backroom that was torn off to make room for beautiful daughters accessible bathroom and bedroom .This commenced the first week in June. Here is the progress so far.Next will be the roof and if any of you have gone through the reno process you soon learn that there are a lot of lulls. Holidays for staff, waiting for the next trade to come by and finish their part of the job is all part of the process. We've been fortunate so far that the only "problem" has been 3 different episodes of a couple of days without cable tv and internet service and this mostly happened when school was out so no one needed to do a search for history class or something else. Also so far all the work has been outside so that is good . Not for long though. Exciting for dear daughter but handsome son lost his 'band practice ' room . He is very understanding and knows the additional room will benefit all. He may end up taking over her upstairs bedroom ( what I now intend for a guest room) Not sure how the band will like the purple and pink decor !!

Here is a lovely I stitched for a friend who is a tea lover like myself for her birthday awhile back . It is a Sweetheart Tree design . It's always a pleasure stitching gifts for friends. Please excuse the poor photo lighting.I can't seem to get the photos to place properly but you will get the idea .I am more than halfway through Lizzie Kate's 'Christmas Rules' and just finished Little House Needleworks' Farm Fresh' which will look great in our kitchen when the reno is complete. I will show those as soon as I get some pics.

Picking up my daughter from camp tomorrow . Where does 10 days go? !! We all hope she had a wonderful time. I won't be so long in posting the next time! Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer .

Happy New Year!!

A fine New Year it is! We are one city without snow but where we spent Christmas in Sault Ste. Marie we did have a white one.

Our holiday started on a

sad note as my Grandma, Cora Smith passed away on December 21st. The funeral was held on the 24th in Sundridge Ontario where she had resided for the past 31yrs. Grandma was 98yrs young, still living

in her own home with macular degeneration.She shared her home with her trusty friend Minny the cat whom we all thought should be called Maxi! She was so big. In the past few months she started getting meals on wheels

again as the first time she wasn't too fond of them . My children are so fortunate to have spent many Christmases with Grandma as it was just the past 3 yrs that she didn't travel on to the Sault with us to spend Christmas there.Once a year we would take her to the casino and she lost a lot of my husbands quarters there on those nights. He said he could hear us laughing all over the casino!We sure enjoyed those nights out. Her bag was all packed to spend Christmas in North Bay with my cousin but she passed in her sleep. Here is a picture of her taken the last Christmas we were all together.She will be missed.

This is the first Christmas I have stitched some ornament gifts. I stitched the ornament on the left for my blogging friend Judy , the other for a family friend who just moved into a new house and is now collecting ornaments for her tree. I stitched one for my Mom but didn't get it put together so will have to do that and send it to her .I really liked the backing fabric . It had a bit of glisten in the weave and the penguins were cute!

So sorry the picture placement is a bit off but it gives you and idea of what I've done . My new blog header is a finished Pine Mountain . I love snowmen so thought it was appropriate for January.

There are a quite a few of you participating in Crazy January Challenges. Unfortunately I didn't start on Jan 1st as I was working at the hospital for New Years but have quite a few projects to show this year that I will hopefully finish off.

I just finished a great book called 'Secret Daughter ' by Shilpi Somaya Gowda which I highly recommend. I couldn't put it down.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog everyone !