Good morning, and good week everyone. It's a dreary Sunday
morning here in Georgetown, with freezing rain warnings out,
and rain forecast for this afternoon as temperatures rise to
4 degrees Celsius. A good day to stay indoors.

It's been quite cold here for much of this week, and we've had
another snow storm. But we've been having so many snow
storms, in every week this season, they're all sort of just running
into one another in our minds. It's hard to remember which
incident happened during which storm. Suffice it to say that
we're quite ready for Spring to arrive. Please!!

Thought I'd post a picture of the book that I'm taking my
latest stitching project from. This isn't the best picture,
(the colour is off) but at least you get an idea of what it
looks like. There are some terrific projects in here, and
they correspond to the four seasons. Very colourful,
and great for stitching onto clothing, as well as the more
traditional uses.

And here is where I am today. I've finished the bunny
and stitched the topiary, although it still needs some red
beads or colonial knots for flowers, to be added. I added
a bee to the flower section but that was taken from
another design in the book. I'm quite pleased with how
it turned out, although it was fiddlie with a lot of quarter
stitches.
And here's a close up of the section that I've been
working on. I might add another bee once I've finished
stitching the bee hive, and then I'll consider adding a
boarder or not. There are other motifs in this design
that I love but I don't think I'll add anything more
after the bee hive.

I'm on holidays this week, which has me in an
excellent mood, as you can imagine. Tomorrow is
a province wide holiday.....our very first Family
Day. We've been wanting a holiday in February
for ages, and one of the Premier of Ontario's first
acts after being re-elected last year was to
declare a holiday on the third Monday of February.
I think it's the first campaign promise that he's
ever kept in all of his years in office.....okay, I'm
exaggerating....a little.

I received a couple of packages in the mail this week,
which is always a cause for excitement and rejoicing.
The first was from Mary Kathryn, and her most
excellent on line LNS, and service. This is a part of
what I ordered. Stocking up on thread for projects,
and a piece of fabric for a Stitchy Kitty design.

And last weekend I made my first order from the
Etsy handcrafts site. I saw some of the things that
Monique (at http://mymarkdesigns.wordpress.com/)
had posted in her Etsy shop and I was so charmed by
them that I had to visit, and then register and place
an order. I ordered a thread holder, which you can
just see in the upper left corner of the picture, a
zipper fob with the prettiest blue bead, white tassel
and lacy gold flower charm, and a LHN scripture
series package. I was astonished when this package
arrived on Thursday because I wasn't expecting to
see it so soon.

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Since I had a dentist appointment on Thursday (yes,
a dentist appointment on Valentine's Day...I'm such
an incurable romantic) the arrival of this little
package was a great pick me up. Not having any
cavities was also a great pick me up. The lovely card
that DH gave me that morning wasn't too shabby
either.

We celebrated Valentine's Day last evening with a
visit to the pub and a nice dinner. It was cozy and
warm, with a fire going in the fireplace, and great
food and a warm welcome from our friends Brenda
and her daughter Tracey. We've been going to the
Copper Kettle Pub in Glen Williams since moving
here 16 years ago and it's the place we go to for
celebrations.

Last night's treat was the desert platter that they
make up for Valentine's Day. Selections of deserts,
from Cheesecake to Lava Cake....little tarts to a
piece of caramel torte....a mound of whipped cream
and a scoop of lemon sorbet...and mixed berries
scattered around the platter....oh, and chocolate
dipped Strawberries too!!! One platter, two spoons.
It was heavenly!!!

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DH deserved a treat after spending yesterday
afternoon patiently putting the new tv together.
It was delivered early yesterday morning, while
he was out at the monthly men's breakfast at the
church, and so when he got home from that he
started unpacking everything.

I left him to it because I just don't have the patience,
or the brain, for such work. He had to hook up the
new DVD player, the VCR, the surround sound, the
Nintendo player, and the cable. He read the instruction
booklets (Simple Instructions for Installing Your New
Home Theatre.....Yeah, uh huh....whatever!!!) and went
at it. There were wires, cables, nuts and bolts and
hand held converters everywhere. It looked like he
was training for a job with the shuttle crew to build
new sections of the space station.

Everything was working last night, except for the
surround sound. That part has him stumped. There
is sound coming out of the tv itself, but all the little
speakers scattered around the room are silent.
He's going to speak to some of the tech savy people
at church this morning to see if any of them can give
him some advice/help. Failing that I suppose there's
always thirteen year old Dakota across the street.

Monique: a 42 inch tv is cool, but it is by far so not
the biggest tv available. I think you might say it's
one of the mid-sized tv's that are available. For the
size of the room that we have it in, and the stand that
it's on, it's the biggest we could accommodate. Our
friends just got a tv that's a 58 inch model. It's huge!!
You don't need to go to the movie theatre anymore
with a tv that size in your family room.

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I finished reading Atonement last Tuesday, and if I
hadn't been at work at the time, on lunch, I think I
might have shed a few tears at the outcome. What
a sad, tragic story. As I mentioned before, I didn't
find it easy to get into at first, but I persevered and
there were parts of the story, such as when Robbie
was in France, and when Briony was doing her
hospital training, that I just lost myself in the
narrative. Author Ian McEwan gave vivid, detailed
descriptions of that era during WWII, so that the
experiences of the characters were as clear to my
mind's eye as if I were watching a television program.

I haven't seen the movie yet Cathey, but I certainly
want to now after reading the book. I'm always
curious to see how a book is translated into a movie
or tv series. Usually, unfortunately, the movie
doesn't seem to do the book justice.

Here's a question for all of you book and movie
lovers out there, if you care to think about it.

What book that you love would you like to see turned
into a movie or tv mini-series??

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I haven't seen many designs out of Nashville that
have got me champing at the bit to order and stitch.
I rather like the new LHN Heart of America, but I'm
not sure that I'd stitch it since....well.....I'm not
American.

What do you think my dear fellow Canadian stitchers
and everyone else for that matter. Would the fact that
a design is geared towards a country other then your
own stop you from stitching it and hanging it
(or whatever) in your home???

Hmmm.....And I was wondering what I was going
to type about this morning. If you've lasted
through all of the blather above....good for you.
Hope you all have a wonderful week. Have a
great stitchy time. And take care.

Cheers.