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 !

Merry Christmas

It's been awhile! I 've been reading everyone's blog and drooling over your autumn and Christmas decor and creations. Not sure why I haven't posted but here I am. I finished a few projects over the past few months. I am all finished 'Winter Greens' by LHN and the four pieces for my kitchen , cake, cupcake, tart and pie from CCN . I just have to find the right frames or wait for a frame sale! I have finished two ornaments for gifts which I will show in an upcoming post when the recipients receive them . The blog header that I am now showing is very special . About 6 weeks ago we received an email from Easter Seals saying out of 12 entries my daughter won a contest for designing a Christmas card for the CEO of Bruce Power.She designed this at camp this summer . She received her prize yesterday , an art kit and a beautiful framed picture of the original design and the card back and front. Her picture is on the back and a description of where she attends school etc.

I won a contest on the LHN blog . I got to choose a current chart and I chose 'Be Merry , Belle Pepper ' I had wanted to purchase this chart so it came as a wonderful treat.

Here is a picture of my two favorite people that I included in our Christmas card this year .

My daughter is now in grade 9 and it has been an adjustment . Especially since the elevator/lift has been broken 3x!! It failed again this week. Some of her classes can move downstairs but not all. Hopefully 2011 will run more smoothly for her. My son is now driving . Has what is called in Ontario a G2 license. Can drive himself to guitar and basketball practice so that is a big help.

.One of my stitching goals is to finally finish 'Lo' as I have been doing some work on it . I still really love it .

Also I purchased 'Christmas Rules by Lizzie Kate and got the fabric but it wasn't wide enough so am waiting for some more fabric.

In November I had a wonderful day spent with fellow stitcher Judy . She posted on her blog about our visit. We actually got to stitch in my living room for a bit so it was fun . That is where I discovered that 'Christmas Rules' wasn't going to work on my fabric with Judy's help. I really love that design. Well I will be back with some pics of my Christmas ornament gifties.

I wish all my blogger friends and their families a wonderful Christmas and all the best in 2011!

Part 3 finale!

Having another heatwave in the Toronto area but not as hot as it was on my trip to Santa Fe New Mexico! We started out on July 10th and flew to L.A. for two days and then drove to San Diego California. Before we left L.A. we had a stop at Elisabeth's fav.store where she stocked up on outfits for her dolls. In San Diego we stayed in Del Mar and the beach was beautiful ( insert your most dreamy beach scene here!) We visited the San Diego zoo and saw every animal you could ever think of . My personal favs were the mother panda and her 18month old baby . Luckily we were there at lunch to see them out and not asleep. After frying ourselves at the zoo we headed back to our lovely hotel Hilton that was across from a race track started up by Jimmy Durante, Lucille Ball and others. It was the biggest race track I had ever seen. After 4 days in San Diego we drove back to L. A. and flew to Denver stayed a night and drove the next day to Santa Fe, New Mexico whose daily temps of over 100degrees didn't really agree with my children but they managed to enjoy themselves. We stayed at the Big Thunder resort and casino( casino unbeknownst to my husband who booked it all online! ) Beautiful place. On the last day I spent $5.94 in the 1 cent slot and won $ 69. 06 and promptly walked out ! Able to buy everyone lunch at least. Elisabeth bought moccasins that were made in Canada! and Nicholas bought a cool hat . I bought a t shirt . The drive to Santa Fe from Denver is spectacular . We took in the Albuqurque Isotopes baseball game . Luckily in the shade at 102 degrees at 6pm when the game started and 82 degrees when it ended after 8 pm in a thunderstorm . All in all it was a wonderful family trip. Had my parents here for this past weekend as we attended a beautiful wedding in Toronto at the Steam Whistle Brewery. My cousin's daughter was married. They had some fun touches, a box of flip flops if you had sore feet from your high heels, a candy table for favours, a soapbox photo booth where you could dress up and have your pic taken . some of the dressups were hilarious, horns, funny glasses, and sparklers on the patio when it got dark for the bride and groom to go thru and get their picture taken . A really fun time!

Now tomorrow I pick up Elisabeth at Easter Seals camp where she has been for 10 days. Where the time went I have no clue. They don't start back to school till Sept 7th so hope we can still have some more fun . Going to have a quiet stitching evening as I have to get up early to drive 2 hrs to pick her up . The boys are taking in 'The Black Keys' concert in Toronto tonight . So that will be a nice evening out for them. Hope to have some more finishes to show in the very near future.Thanks for visiting!

Part 3 (a)

Back to what my blog was originally about! Have a finish to share. Totally finished 'cake ' from CCN . Only have one more to go and then I will frame them for my kitchen which was painted on the Canadian long weekend. So my bare wall needs filling.

Now for my 'Christmas in July 'piece. I saw this on the ABC needlework therapy retreat header finished as a decorated cube and couldn't wait to make one myself. I just love the soft fabric that is flecked with gold.Excuse the dark picture. Since I took the pic I have stitched some more so will update later in the week.

Can never seem to place my pics right like so many other bloggers can . Lastly I stitched these Christmas silverware holders years ago for my Mom and am going to change George to Grampa and Mom to Elisabeth to fill in the missing holders as I haven't seen these around in years.

So that is my stitching finally to show.I hope to stitch on 'Lo' this week too as Lee is finished her sampler ( for weeks now!)

Part 2

Well when I last left off I had been to Montreal with the grade 8 class. The following weekend we attended my brother Peter's wedding to Aimee in Windsor Ontario. It started off with a family dinner at the Tecumseh Roadhouse where we got to meet a lot of Aimee's family that we didn't know . I will never trust mapquest again as we got lost with their directions and had to phone for help . Anyhow all went well and the wedding was held in Aimee's parents beautiful backyard and then on to the reception at a local restaurant.

Here we all are. Aimee has two sons Josh 19

and Jonah 14 who also has special needs.I am the one in the black dress. I had hoped to find a more colourful dress for this lovely occasion but was unsuccessful .

So after that lovely day we headed back home the next day to prepare for June 28th , Elisabeth's grade 8 graduation. What can I say , I thought she looked just beautiful and the whole ceremony and evening was great. She received the special education advisory commitee award from our school board. The speech that the lady from the board read was the longest one of the night and Elisabeth was thrilled. She has

done a lot to mentor two younger girls in the school with special needs so this was the icing on the cake for all her accomplishments at the school for the last three yrs.Now she goes on to high school and she can hardly wait even though she will miss everyone at elementary school .We got her dress in Tuscon AZ when we were there at March break . So as of June 25th my little whippersnapper is at Easter Seals camp outside of London Ontario. She waited all year to go to this wonderful camp and was the driving force to get there . Lots of tears when I left though so I have spent the last two nights a bit sleepless. Just got a call from the camp that she is having a wonderful time and has signed up for sledge hockey to try it out . Go girl!! So I can rest easy tonight. Will post part 3 to tell you about our trip away from July 10-21 and then finally will have some Christmas in July stitching to show and a find! Thanks for visiting!