Finally a new blog.

I cannot believe it has been four months since I last posted here.  I knew it was a few but not that many.  But a lot has happened since then.  Leon was in hospital three times, for a total of 32 days altogether from mid-May to now, but he is home now.   :)  Half the summer is gone already.  

I finished the little project I mentioned last time - A Snowman in Canada. 

I also started and finished a Lizzie*Kate design, Getting Old Isn't for Sissies, which seemed appropriate while Leon was in hospital the second time.  

And I finished the scarf I was doing for our Creative Fingers group; it will be turned in when we start up again in September. 

Now I am more than halfway through Happy Everything, an Imaginating chart.  I began in the middle, which means stitching Everything first and then adding the little motifs.  I am pretty close to adding the Happy and its bits and pieces as well. 

We had a brief but very intense thunderstorm in the early hours this morning.   It has actually been quite warm here the past while, about which I am not complaining because winter will be upon us before we know it.  

Since we did the new room last fall, with its lovely siding, we now had to fix the rest of the unit to match so that was done the past couple of months.   We now have the front and south-facing side done and will do the other side and back next year when we have the tax return.  That side is not seen much so it can wait.   It looks so much better than it did originally and we are very happy with it.   Unfortunately with Leon in hospital and the contractor walking all over everything, it means no gardening got done except for what was already planted.  The two hardy roses are doing well and one lily plant has bloomed.    But I am hoping that I can finally get some fall bulbs planted and will have tulips next spring. 

This is what the front looked like when we moved in back in 2006.  The little add-on that you see on the left is now gone and a new, larger room was built with the stairs outside instead of inside.  

This is what the new add-on looked like after it was finished last fall.  You can see the difference in the siding.    

 

 

And this is the front now.  The unit faces east so we get the morning sun and then the afternoon/evening sun comes through the nice big windows in our new room.  

 

 

 

And this is what is on the wall, leading from the new room into the kitchen.  :) 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally Done

Well I finally finished Rocky Mountain Christmas last week.  It only took a lot longer than it should have but there were many months, even years, when I did not even look at it.   But now it is finally finished, washed, ironed and the frame bought for it. 

 

I then decided to reward myself and start something small so am now working on A Snowman in Canada, a Mayberry Designs chart. 

 

I think spring may finally be not far away; temps have been in the plus range for a few days and look to stay that way, at least for the next week.  Still minus at night though.  The snow pile is receding gradually as well.   

 

I am finding that I cannot upload from Firefox; the sign in button does not show itself and I have to go to IE to find it.   Does anyone know why this is?   

Rocky Mountain Christmas started July 1998, finished March 18, 2013, a photo by CanadianxStitcher on Flickr.

Nearing the End

I got a fair bit of progress on RMC this month and can see the end.   Hopefully when March is done I will have finished the stitching and will just have the backstitching to do.  There is not a lot of it but I am going to take a break between finishing the stitching and doing the backstitching and will pull out something small to stitch. This is the progress as of last night. 

Leon has been busy framing a lot of my older pieces. 

 

I did not stitch this last one, O Canada; it was stitched for me by a pen pal I used to have, Lisa, who lives in Georgia.   It has been waiting to be framed for several years now.   The fabric is really a much darker colour than the picture shows.  

Wolf Moon - January

I really should blog more often; do think about it but somehow just do not get to it.  

I feel as though I am falling apart, with all the tests I had this month.  First the knee x-ray, then a bone density test, and today ultrasound and x-ray on my shoulder.  The knee and shoulder have been giving me a lot of trouble the past few months and it will be a relief to find out just why, although I expect I will hear it is "just" arthritis and to live with it. 

I have made good progress on A New Day, even if I did stitch a lot of it twice.  The bottom half is done except for the little designs in the border.   I will continue with it until the end of the month and then go back to RMC. 

 

At the beginning of last year I had three scarves in progress, a yellow one, blue one and this one.   I finished both the yellow and blue ones and have just this one left.  I do have another ball of the same yarn when this one runs out, as it will before the scarf is long enough.   Because my shoulder is so painful I find it difficult to knit and can just do a little at a time. 

 

 

A week into the new year

Here it is the 6th of January already.  I finished the WIPocalypse challenge for 2012 and signed up again for 2013.   We shall see how well I do this time.  

I started A New Day on the 1st, just managed a couple of letters to say it was actually begun. :)   It is a design by My Big Toe and I am stitching it on 32ct antique white Belfast linen, using Weeks threads.   This is progress to date.   Then it will be back to Rocky Mountain Christmas, which I am determined to finish this year.   I just have about half a page left to do.