It's Sunday evening and thus I am a bit late posting my weekly
blog entry. But we weren't moving too quickly this morning
after a long day out yesterday, and a late night getting home
after a party at a friend's house. We're not able to party
hearty as much now as we use to when we were young and
foolish.

So here is this weeks progress on Gate With Lantern. A tree is
slowly growing in the backyard, and the spaces where the lantern
and the gate's arch will be stitched in are showing, if you look
carefully. I'm not getting as much stitching time in as I might
have expected considering we're on holidays, but then again
that tree has lots of different shades of green to sort through
and stitch. We'll see what the next week brings.


The latest issue of Victoria magazine arrived in the mail box
last week, and was warmly welcomed. Especially since the
previous issue never arrived. I sent an email to the company
to let them know, and they answered a few days later to say
that they'll be sending me a replacement. We'll see if they
really do or not. It'll probably take awhile to get here.

This issue features articles on Quebec city, which is
celebrating it's 400th birthday this year, and Montreal.
I've not yet been to either city, but perhaps someday.
The streets of old Quebec city are breathtakingly
beautiful, as is the province of Quebec itself.


And there is a tribute in the magazine to the late, and much
beloved, author and artist Tasha Tudor. Above is a copy of
the cover of one of the many books available detailing the
life, and lifestyle of this extraordinary woman. I have so
many books about Tasha, and I've been a great admirer of
hers for many years, after learning about her through the
pages of the old Victoria magazine. I was deeply saddened
to learn of her passing in July, though she lived to a good
age (92) and was in her home in Vermont with her family
when she died. If ever someone could be called an great
inspiration, especially to young women, I would certainly
count Tasha Tudor as one of them.


This week the mailman was especially good to me. Guess
why. I had several stash orders come in. I know, I know,
so what else is new?? I think I've mentioned before here,
I'm weak. So what!! I also have fun!! So....

I placed my first order with Sassy's Fabbys a while ago, and
it arrived this week. Six cuts of 13 x 18 fabric, in different
colours. The blue and the pink will be used to stitch a couple
of Debbie Draper designs that I have. The others will no
doubt come in handy for other projects. These are cool
colours, and the fabric seems nice to handle, so we'll see
how I like them when it comes time to stitch. The picture
sort of looks like a slice of battenburg cake, doesn't it??


And part two (or was it three???) of an order from Mary
Kathryn (you remember??? E I E I O??) also arrived this
week including the lovely chart and thread above, and a
new needle keeper.


And these four charts, a couple of which were on sale. I
know there's a SAL going on for Little House Neighbourhood
and the design looks gorgeous!! Nicole at Carolina Dreams
is one of the participants, and she's a stitcher of LHN and CCN
designs with incredible talent, and her piece is so gorgeous!!
Linda at Litla Skvis is also stitching that design.


And here's a very bad picture of this months Bit's n Bobs
delivery from the store of the same name. I think you'll
have to take my word for it....the thread colours are
fantastic!


The party that DH and I went to yesterday was for our
friends 25th wedding anniversary, and was an open house
with a pool party afterwards for the younger guests. It was
a great day weather wise, which was a big relief for them
considering the weather that we've been having lately. We
had a nice thunderstorm roar through here Friday night
around dinner time which had the lights flickering....but I
digress.

Our friends (Pete and Terry) have a wonderful
backyard, which overlooks a ravine and has a large in
ground pool. Terry loves to put her plants in unusual
containers and also places all kinds of whimsical ornaments
around the yard. It's so much fun walking around, trying
to see everything she's done. In the above picture the
stripped plant container is actually an old ceramic kleenex
box cover turned upside down. She also has old cookie
jars, tea pots and pots and mugs with flowers and plants
growing in them.


And Terry collects Barbie dolls. The fancy ones, as well as
the regular dolls and their accessories. Pete has just about
finished decorating a room of their home, which is now the
Barbie room.

The walls are a rich, deep dark red, which required at least
eight coats before it looked right, and just about drove poor
Pete around the bend in frustration. The cupboard door in
the room is black, and that cupboard is stuffed full of Barbies.
Terry is slowly buying these cabinets from Ikea and will
use them to display as much of her collection as she can.
There were tours going upstairs all the time during the
party because everyone had to see the Barbie room. The
women were ooohhhing and ahhhing, while the men just
shook their heads in amazement.

**************************************************

Last week we took a day to drive down to Simcoe Ontario
to get new white wall tires for the old Buick. It was a two
hour drive there, and two hours back, with a stop for
lunch while we waited for the new tires to be fitted on the
Buicks rims. We didn't drive the Buick down there though
because DH didn't trust the old tires he had on her to make
the trip safely, so we just took the old tires on the rims.
The weather was sunny for the trip down, but we got
rained on (of course) during the trip home, and it was
quite a downpour, so it was a good thing we didn't take
the old Buick.

**************************************************

Update on that horrible propane explosion of last weekend.
Sadly one employee of the company died in the blast.
Even sadder, while working behind the scenes with the
equipment one of the firefighters, a thirty year veteran who
had turned up at the fire even though he was supposed to be
on his vacation, was found dead of what was probably a
heart attack.

Cause of the blast is still not known, and there's not much
left of the depot for the experts to pick through. Some
homes near the propane business were severely damaged
from the incredible shock wave caused by the blast, and clean
up of the area is going to take some time.

**************************************************

Some finishes of note that I saw last week during my blog
travels: Staci (Snippets and Stash) had a pin keep finish for
a Brightneedle design, and another finish as a long tasseled
pillow which is a Carriage House Samplings design. Staci
is an amazing finisher. And Glenda (Life, the Universe and
Stitching) finished an incredible blackwork design called
Elegant Ironwork, which is just beautiful.

And go visit Cathey at Pumpkin Patch & Co. and answer
the question she's posted there for her latest post. I
think it's a great way to get to know who's reading
your blog. And folks, Cathey's a sweetheart. Go see!

So I'm going to go post on her blog, and here's your chance
to do the same on mine. Pass it on!!

1) As a comment on this post, leave one memory that you and I have had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember! And if we've never met, leave me a comment about your favourite post that I wrote and why it was your favourite.

2) Next, re-post these instructions on your Blog (if you have one) and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your Blog and leave one about you :o)

Have a really terrific week everyone. I'm so glad you took
the time to visit here. Happy stitching!!

Cheers!!!