It's beginning to look a lot like .... well, you know. With deepest
apologies to everyone, I've been a slacker blogger for the past two
weeks. I'm sorry, but it's been a busy time, and I've been a
little uninspired when visiting blog land. I've read many, many
blogs, usually with Phoebe purring in my arms, which also makes
typing awkward to say the least. But no commenting. And I'm
working on a stitching project that I cannot show, so that's
keeping me mum too. But it's Sunday morning and that's my
usual time to type up my blog for the week, so here I am.

I had a wonderful vacation, during the week of November 12th
to the 16th. The highlights....

I had to work on the Tuesday, so Wednesday morning you'd
think, knowing me, that I'd sleep in. So would I. But I woke
up when DH's alarm beeped at 5:30, and after laying in bed
for 10 minutes I realized that I was wide awake. So I got up.
DH just about fell off of his chair when I came into the
kitchen. I made myself some breakfast, and tea for the both
of us. He left for work around 6:45. I cleared up the dishes.
Now what?? I'm on holidays, right? I can do what I want,
right??

So up to the computer room I went. Phoebe following
close behind. I got the computer going, set it to my
favourite talk radio station (CFRB), got out my stitching,
settled in my chair and stitched. It was wonderful!!!
I stitched the morning away. I almost did the same for
the afternoon. Around 1:00 I decided that I really
ought to get dressed (I was still in my jammies, house
coat and slippers at this point).

After a refreshing shower and dressing I had a bite of
lunch, and then, since it was a gorgeous day outside, I
went for a walk. Half an hour through the subdivision
where I live. It was warm enough that all I needed was
a light jacket over my clothes. The sun was shinning,
and the air smelled of wood smoke and falling leaves.
Don'tcha just love it?? I visited with my neighbour
and her kids, gave them a craft pattern that I'd been
promising to lend them forever and kept forgetting,
and they sent me home with homemade applesauce.
I spent the rest of the afternoon stitching.


Oh, and I got a delivery of some books that I'd ordered. Some
Christmas presents, and some for me. Of the four for me, only one
was a full price book. All the others were on sale for under $10.00.
I got book two in the Dublin series by Edward Rutherfurd. I have
all of his books, and they're wonderful historical fiction. I read the
first book in this series and wanted to get the second before it sold
out. It's been out for over a year now. I also got Sue Grafton's
S is for Silence, which has also been out for over a year, and which
had finally gone on sale thanks to the release of her next book, T
is for.... whatever it's for.


While exploring the Indigo/Chapters online book site I searched for
some Victoria magazine books that might be available and on sale.
I found these two to add to my collection. Both under $10.00. What
a steal!! Okay, I'm not technically a mother, but I have a mother,
some of my best friends are mothers, and I mother my cats....so I
got this little book. The bigger book is full of Victoria's trademark
gorgeous photography, and lots of handy, dandy decorating tips.
I now have a dozen Victoria books, which are getting harder to find
as they sell out of them at the book stores and are no longer available.
Second hand they can be quite expensive too so that's not always
an option. And here is my latest reading finish. I read Kim Harrison's
first book Dead Witch Walking last year (I think) and decided
to get the whole series. Supernatural - romance - mystery.
Fast paced, sexy, a nice detailed background history as well
as set rules for magic use, gives this series of fantasy books
a real life feel. I am now reading the sequel to this one, which
is Every Which way but Dead. Kim Harrison has written her
books with wit and imagination and I love them.

Rachel Morgan is an earth witch and a bounty hunter.
A former runner for the I.S. (Interland Security) she now
runs her own investigation agency with her partners Jenks,
a pixie, and Ivy, a living vampire. Rachel is hired,
unofficially, by FIB (Federal Interland Bureau) to hunt a
nasty killer who is targeting witches who use ley line magic.
She suspects the killer to be successful, mysterious
businessman Trent Kalamack, but has to find solid proof before
FIB will act. All while dealing with potentially grave
complications in her relationship with her tormented vamp
partner Ivy, and trying to outwit a demon who's marked her
for his own. Rachel has to try to stay alive and hang on to her
soul and find a killer, who may be targeting her next!!

Darlene (long suffering) was here last weekend to help with
the monumental task of decorating this house for Christmas.
It's a two day job, but this year I made things a bit easier by
spending one day of my holiday packing away the Autumn/
Thanksgiving/Halloween decorations, and also finding places
to hide/store the regular all year decorations to make room
for the Xmas stuff. What a chore. I warned DH to be careful
how he opens closet doors, pulls open dresser drawers, and
reaches into kitchen cupboards. He's liable to be bonked on
the head, or have an overfilled drawer drop on his foot if he's
not careful.

Should be interesting in January, when we're packing the
Xmas decorations away and I have to go looking for all the
hidden all-season decorations to put them out again. Last
Christmas I put one thing away somewhere, and spent
seven months looking for it afterwards. I finally found it
by accident in August while poking around the top shelf of
one of my kitchen cupboards looking for something else!

The Friday of my holidays my SIL and I went to a Christmas
decorating show at the convention centre out by the airport.
There was other, non Christmasy, crafty stuff and home
entertaining things for sale as well. We walked around for
a few hours and bought some neat things. We also went to
Michael's, where I stocked up on DMC thread, looked into
having Faith framed there (and nearly went into cardiac
arrest when they gave me the price to frame it!!) and
picked up some Xmas related trim.

Question: I've seen by the postings of bloggers in the States
that your Walmart's sell DMC thread. Ours in Canada do
not!! Why???? It's most annoying.

I've been spending the evenings during the past week working
on my Christmas cards. Averaging about a dozen a day. I
usually make up between 60 and 70 a year. Didn't realize we
knew that many people. Once the cards are done the next
thing on the list to tackle will be baking!!!! Maybe I should
hire Shannon (blog: This, that, the other) to do this for me.
She's the Christmas Baking Queen for sure!!!

On a sad note, this week my DH's great aunt Elsa passed
away. She was an incredible lady, who possessed a strong
love of family, a phenomenal memory, and a lot of spunk all
crammed into a tiny package. She was orphaned at an early
age, went into foster care and was separated from her three
siblings for many years because of this. She worked hard all
her life, and when she retired she started her own business
selling her crocheting work. She lived in Peterborough in her
own apartment until around the age of 96 and then moved in
with her son and his wife. We tried to visit her at least once a
year, taking her out for dinner and fighting her for the bill
afterwards. She always won. DH loved her homemade
shortbread. She was 101 years old when she died!!!
We'll miss her.

And this is what it looks like when I'm on the computer at
night. I can just barely move my wrist and hand to work the
mouse.

Well, it's time to finish off this posting and get on with my day.
Thanks for all your encouragement regarding the Snowflake
piece. I will finish it. I will. Once I've finished the secret
stitching. I want to get that done, and mailed off.

Sandra, still no sign of my first issue of Victoria. If it's not
here by the first week in December I'll email again. I'm
getting a bit annoyed with them, to say the least.

If you've read to the end of this posting I'd say that you
deserve a medal. Cheers all!!!! I'll be back commenting
to your wonderful blogs this week.