Hello. It's me. Again.

It's a Saturday evening post, not my usual Sunday morning
update. DH and I are going to be away for most of the day
tomorrow so I won't have any time to up date my blog.
And next week is first of the month, which will likely mean
long hours at work and little time in the evening to blog, and
few brain cells left over that will be capable of stringing two
sentences together in a logical and comprehensive manner.


Here is this weeks update of My Needle's Work. Hmmmm...
This picture looks a bit washed out for some reason. I used
my scanner to get this photo which usually does a pretty
good job of reproducing the image. Ah well. You get the
idea anyways. I've been working away at the greenery around
the girl and am now putting the flowers in. Slow but steady
progress.


So, I spent some time this afternoon working on
November Window. There are branches in the tree over
the house on the left, and the verse is about half way done.
I changed one of the thread colours that I'm using for the
verse, going for the redder DMC 3777 instead of DMC 3857.
I like the redder colour (is there such a word as "redder"??).
I think it POP's more.

Um...the picture above makes it look even more red then it is
actually. So, since you all probably have a skein of DMC 3777
in your stashes you can go check it out in person against the
other colour to see what I mean if you like. Or see the red
fruit in the bottom area of the design in the picture for a better
idea of the true colour. Or just ignore me babbling here and
move on to the next topic of conversation.


And speaking of babbling....

Beatrice nominated myself and four other gals for the
above award. Thank you Beatrice. Since I was,
disappointingly, unable to walk away with an academy
award last weekend this award has been a welcome
pick me up. So I'd like to thank the members of the
academy....

Actually, I suspect that I'm getting this award more
for my tendency to rattle on and on when I comment.
I seem unable to keep my comments brief and to the
point when I leave a comment. In short, I "talk" too
much. But in my own defense I have to say that when
I see all the lovely stitching and crafting being done on
all your blogs not to mention all the other fun things
you get up to, I find it hard to just say "hey, that's great"
and move on. So in other words....it's all YOUR fault!!

I'm meant to pass this award on to five others who
tend to leave awesome comments on my blog. Well,
let's see....

Sandra - Sampler Lovers Blog
Sue W - Stitcher W.
Cathey - Pumpkin Patch and Co.
Briggitte - At Briggitte's Place
Sharon - One Life to Live

I don't know how to do links within my post here,
so just check out the blog list on the right hand
side of my blog and go visit these wonderful gals.
Not only do they engage in sparkling conversations,
they also stitch wondrously well. And so much
more besides.


I started reading The Tea Rose on Monday and am
about a third of the way through it as of now. It's a
wonderful love story and a rag to riches story, with
murder and revenge thrown in as well. It takes place
in Victorian England around the time of Jack the
Ripper and is full of life, colour and excitement
and the characters, major and minor, are given
equal attention and care to detail that makes
them come alive on the page.

I saw this book mentioned on other book lovers
blogs, liked the sound of it and made a note to
pick it up. If you like Rosamunde Pilcher or
Barbara Taylor Bradford then this book is right
up your alley. I have the sequel The Winter Rose
to read after this, and after that one the third book,
The Wild Rose, is coming out in April. These are
nice big books too, which I love. And don't you
just love the cover on this one??? Very elegant and
it sets just the right tone for the story inside.

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

I stayed up until the very end of the Academy
Awards last Sunday. Did you??? I haven't
done that for a number of years now, mostly
because I've found that the guest hosts have
not been able to bring much to the party in
the way of entertainment or even humor.
So what did I like about this year's show
that kept me up until midnight on a work
night???

1) Hugh Jackman was amazing. He did
the humor with out sounding strained or
desperate, he did the singing and dancing
with skill and enthusiasm. And he looked
like he was enjoying himself, instead of
like he was wishing himself far, far away.

2) Anne Hathaway was a lovely addition to the
opening number and I was surprised to
find out that she could really sing. There
ought to be a law against someone like her
who's so beautiful, can act and can sing too!

3) Was glad to see Kate Winslet win her best
actress oscar at last.

4) and was moved by Heath Leger's family
accepting his award.

5) I really liked the way that they had five previous
winners presenting the nominations for
each of the acting awards. That was very
powerful and moving to watch.

6) The screenwriter who won for Milk (if I
remember correctly) who gave an eloquent
and moving speech about gay rights, the legislation
allowing gay marriages in California and for
acceptance and tollerance of gay people. (He
expressed it much better then I can type it).

I spent the rest of last week making up for the lost
sleep on Sunday night. I can't work on five and a
half hours of sleep like I use to when I was ... um ....
a bit younger then I am now.

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

It was hard going back to work after my lovely
week off, but we didn't have a share in that
huge lottery jackpot that was given out last
weekend so it was back to the old routine instead.

Thank you for all your great comments about
the library (and it's muli coloured shelves). It's
a dream come true for me to have all those books
and a place to keep them in. It's the most
relaxing room in the house for me.

Well, it's getting late and we have to be up in
good time tomorrow. So thanks for stopping
by. Have a great week and hope you get lots
of time to stitch.

Cheers!

Good day, good evening, hello! It's Sunday morning and I'm
settling in for my weekly blog post. This post will feature
books at the beginning, but further down we'll get into cross
stitching, so if you're more interested in stitching then books
do feel free to scroll down a ways to that section. Note: I
think all pictures are clickable for closer looks. Here we go....

The library has been set up with the new book cases and the
books arranged as best I can manage. To start, the wall on
the right hand side of the room as you enter. The first three
sections are an older set of bookcases which holds fantasy
and science fiction. The lighter two sections after that
are new and hold more fantasy and biographies. The final
two sections way down at the end hold general fiction and
mysteries.


Close up of sections with fantasies, biographies, general
fiction and mysteries. Again, the lighter shelves are new.


Left hand wall as you enter the room. One bookcase at extreme
left hand edge of picture is mostly cut off but I couldn't help that.
In this section we added one more short bookcase, and added
extensions to all three short bookcases. That is to say, Ikea sells
a box shape which you can attach to the top of any of their book
cases to make the tops of them into another shelf. So a three
shelf bookcase becomes a four shelf bookcase. Am I explaining
okay??

This section holds paperbacks (bookcase partially hidden behind
lamp and chair) and my coffee table books about anything that
catches my interest, some childrens/teens books, and more paper
backs, and smaller books in general fiction and biography.


So here's a close up of the new book case and the extensions,
all lighter in colour to the older ones. And in case you're
wondering....I goofed and bought bookcases in the wrong
colour. What can I say??? I'm a idiot at times. And we
weren't about to turn around and drive an hour back to
Ikea to switch them, and then an hour home again. So
we have a multi coloured library. I can live with it. At
least you can see the extensions and get perhaps a
better idea of how they work then I can explain.


And this is the back wall with bookcases that I've had for
as long as we've lived here, and these books are all fiction.
As you can see by these pictures I now have a bit more
room to add books, which is a good thing because at least
four of my favourite authors have new books coming out
shortly. (Insert eye rolling here).

I'm very happy with the final layout and having the books
spread out a bit more, at least for the time being. Unfort-
unately since this is the basement of the house this room
does get quite cool during the winter. Someday we hope
to add an electric fireplace to help add warmth when I
want to sit here and read. It'll have to be built into the
ceiling I guess, since floor space is at a premium now,
or perhaps a fire pit in the centre of the room??? Right
now if I want to sit down there I carry the portable
heater down with me and set it at my feet while I'm
sitting reading.


Moving on....I have a couple of thank you's to add here.
Cindy and Maren, thank you so very much for nominating
me for the Friends award. I'm very touched and delighted
that you would think of me. There are so many incredible
bloggers out there, and I've made so many wonderful
friends in the past three years, it's hard to pick out just a
few to mention. If you visit here I am delighted you came,
if you leave a comment as well you make my day, if you
are a Chatty Cathy when you comment that's awesome!!!


Being on vacation this week I've been able to stitch a lot more
then normal, and I chose to concentrate my attentions on this
piece. November Window is getting pretty close to a finish now
and I couldn't be happier. I LOVE this design. I just have the
branches on the trees to backstitch on, and the verse to add, and
it'll be done. I decided to keep My Needle's Work as a travel
piece, even though it's getting pretty close to a finish. After a
weeks absence from it I'm looking forward to getting back to it
this week.


Ebay! Got two wins to show here. Firstly all the alphabet
series from Prairie Schooler in one win!! Oh my!! Pretty,
pretty, pretty. I wanna do that one, an' that one, an' that
one, an' that one too.....ohhhh, and that one!!!


The rest of the alphabet books, plus my second win. A Prairie
Year II!!! I've wanted this one for ages. Love all the designs
on it, but my favourite is the Bee Skep design. I've wanted to
stitch that for ages. And now I can.


Saw the new designs from Prairie Schooler, and I love April
the most. July is great too, but a little inappropriate for a
Canadian stitcher I guess. But April is so sweet and pretty,
(love the bunnies!!) so it'll go on my wish list. I borrowed
the above picture from Stitching Bit's and Bobs website.

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

My week's vacation was blissful. I spent mornings cleaning
the house, and afternoons with needle and thread, music or
talk radio, and the cats. I also read a bit since my latest issue
of Victoria arrived in the mail and I love to settle down with
a cup of tea and this beautiful magazine and drift away in
it's pages.

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

Was very sorry to read on another blog that Mary Engelbreit's
Home Companion is no longer publishing. I adore this
magazine and have been collecting it since it first came out.
I understand that they're looking for another publisher, but
who knows if that'll happen or not. I read that Country
Home magazine is gone too, and Country Living is teetering
on the edge.

I use to buy so many magazines years ago, including Country
Living and Country Home, but had to cut back due to expense
and space restrictions. I'm sadden to hear that these wonderful
magazines, who have given pleasure and inspiration to so many
people over the years, are not going to be around anymore.

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

I had a huge and wonderful surprise thanks to Facebook last
week. I'm on Faceback as Judy Hattey-McClure, but I am
not an avid visitor there. I prefer spending my time blogging.
But the other day I got a message from a friend from high
school who'd just joined Facebook and was searching for
old friends there. I haven't spoken to or seen Neilina for 30
years, although I'd been keeping an eye out for her through
the internet and various sites. Yesterday I phoned her and
we spend two and a half hours on the phone catching up and
saying....remember when???? What a happy, happy
surprise this was. Thank you Facebook.

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

I spent Monday visiting my Mom at the residence and we
had a lovely time. I took her my currant cross stitch projects
so she could see my progress on them, and we had a nice
lunch together in the dinning room, and we worked on a jigsaw
puzzle, along with her friend Flora. We are all jigsaw puzzle
fantatics. Mom is doing very well now and is so very happy
to be back home again.

On Thursday they had a mock wedding at the residence, with
one of the residents as the bride (wearing a donated wedding
gown) getting "married" to a member of the waiting staff. The
owner of the residence was the "minister" and staff and residents
alike all got dressed up for the occasion. Oh yes, and the guest of
honour was President and Mrs Obama, who were a great hit with
all concerned. A special, fancy dinner was prepared and an
entertainer was hired to come in and play piano and sing after-
words. Mom tells me that everyone had lots of fun, lots of
laughs and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Even the President
and First Lady, who looked very elegant in her evening gown.
(Juliet is a nurse at the residence and is very beautiful, in a
gown or in work cloths)

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

Watched the visit of President Obama to Ottawa this week
too. Guess he stopped in there on his way to the "wedding"
here in Georgetown. Lol!!


No, we don't have a new cat. Phoebe wouldn't allow that. But
I do have an old and very dear friend who lives up the road from
us and he is the most affectionate guy you could ever meet. We
named him Smudge because of the smudge of black under his
nose, but I understand that his real name is Nosey.

Smudge is about 9 years old, and he loves people. If I pass his
house when coming home from work he walks me home and we
chat. He goes around the neighbourhood and "visits" people.
He's quite the Bon Vivant and I'm always delighted when he stops
by to say hello and get scratched. This is the first time I've been able
to take pictures of him and I had the dickens of a time doing it
because he would not hold still!! He was rolling around on the
ground, meowing and rubbing against my legs. I came in the
house covered in white fur. Phoebe was not amused.

I guess that I should end this epic post and get on with the last
day of my vacation (sniff...sobbbbb!!!). I'm going to do laundry
and stitch and this evening I'll watch a bit of the Academy Awards
just to see Hugh Jackman in a tux.....SIGH!!!


The snow was mostly gone at the beginning of last week
except for a few lingering, very sad looking mounds at the
end of the driveways. Then we had some snow on
Wednesday, and more during last night and this morning.
Only one more month until Spring arrives. Hurry...hurry!

Take care everyone. Thanks for stopping by and plowing
through this very verbose (long winded) post. Have a great
week.

Cheers!!!

The border is done, and so is the girl. It's always a relief
when both ends of the border meet exactly where they're
suppose to when you are stitching, isn't it? I always love
LHN borders. Simple, but pretty and a perfect compliment
to the design contained within. Now to finish the flowers
on either side of the girl, and then the heading and then
I'll be done.

Oh yes, and remember the thread that I was worried about
running out of?? I finished stitching the last thing on the
design that required that colour (the border) and had two
strands of the floss left over.

But this week week I'm off work for four days, added to the
provincial holiday tomorrow, so I'll probably stitch on my
home projects during that time. But you never know. I
haven't had the satisfaction or the pleasure of a finish for
awhile now so maybe I'll work on this one a bit too. We'll
see how the mood hits me. I've stitched a bit more on
November window but not enough to share a progress
picture.


Another Ebay win. I've loved these four designs for awhile
now so when they came up together on Ebay I had to try and
win them. And win them I did!! Yippee!! Love seasonal
design sets. Wait till you see what I won last week. Oh boy!!


I also received the final chart that was from an order
from Stitching Bits and Bobs from awhile ago. I've been
admiring the Barbara Ana designs stitched by Carla,
including several models, on her blog and when this one
came up on the sales page at Bits and Bobs I ordered it.
The design is lovely but I don't like the fabric that it's
stitched on in the photo at all. But that's easy to change.
These designs are stitched in such vibrant, rich and fun
colours aren't they?


Well, yesterday I finished the final book in the Inkheart
trilogy, and it was a fantastic finish. These books got
better and better as I read them. They had lots of exciting
action, but the author also made sure that the relation-
ships between the characters was also given an equal
amount of attention. And Cornelia Funke is great at
creating her characters, both major and minor, with
exquisite detail. They literally come alive on the pages,
which, given the subject of this story line, is only fitting.
These are books that celebrate the love of books that
avid readers share and delight in. They are wonderful!!



Of course yesterday was Valentine's Day, and I hope
that all of you had a wonderful day with your sweet-
hearts. It was an early day for us, which was hard
because on Saturday mornings it's nice to sleep in
after getting up for work before the crack of dawn
during the week. DH belongs to a Men's breakfast
club at church which meets once a month to cook
a big breakfast and share fellowship afterwords.
For Valentine's Day the guys volunteered to cook
breakfast for the ladies of the church, plus they put
on a bit of a show, singing a half dozen or so songs
suitable for the day. DH and I were at the church at
7:30 so that he could help set things up. I sat down
in a place that was out of their way and stitched until
it was time for the ladies to arrive an hour later.

The tables were laid with white linen and there was a
rose and a chocolate heart at each place setting. There
were centerpieces with sparkly red hearts on each table
too, and red confetti hearts scattered across the table.
It was very nicely done. There were about 46 women in
total that came out for the festivities. The men all came
dressed in black slacks, white shirts and red bow ties
which suited both the choir singing part and the food
serving parts of the event well.

After the singing breakfast was served, and what a
treat we ladies had. Fresh, home made from scratch,
Belgian waffles, with strawberries and whipped cream
on top, and jugs of maple syrup on the tables to add as
we wished. Tea and coffee and orange juice were offered
as beverages. Oh, it was delicious!

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

We spent Saturday afternoon, in part, rearranging the
library and putting the new bookcases together and in
place. This required unloading the old bookcases and
shifting them to make room for the new, and while we
were at it we vacuumed behind the old cases, cleaning
away years of dust, cobwebs (UGH!!! EWWW!!) and
crumbled stucco off of the walls. The new bookcases,
plus the six boxes of books that I donated to the
Humane Society thrift store last weekend gives me
lots of room to spread out, at least for a few more years.
I still have cleaning and rearranging to do down there
but once that's done I'll take some pictures to show you.

Driving me to Ikea to buy the bookcases, putting the
bookcases and the extensions together, moving the
furniture and vacuuming behind the bookcases
(because his wife is afraid of spiders and other creepy
crawlies) and not complaining or grousing during any
of it. Who needs roses (that die) and jewelery when
your DH does things like this for you??

Last night I took DH to our favourite pub for a delicious
dinner and his favourite brew, Guinness. Today he's
going to put his feet up and relax. He deserves it.

I'm so glad we had this big desk built into the computer
room. It gives me so much room to spread out and ......
it gives the cats so much room to spread out and snooze
while I perch the keyboard on the edge of the desk and
try not to shift it while typing. Everyone wants under
the desk lamp because of the heat that it puts out when
its turned on you see.

Last week Spring put in an early appearance around here.
The temperature rose all the way to +9 celsius and we had
some really heavy rains and wind, all of which helped to
melt away a lot of the snow that we've been blessed with
this Winter. After several days of dark and dreary the
sun came out and we've had a few days of bright sun-
shine now, although the temperatures are back to more
seasonable numbers. It looks as though we're in for
some nasty weather on Wednesday, which will serve
to remind us that it's still February and Spring isn't due
to arrive for another month. Sigh!!!!

If anybody south of us has signs of Spring (for real)
in your area how about posting some pictures to give
the rest of us some hope that Winter will end......
eventually.


My favourite designs coming out of Nashville remain
Blue Ribbon Designs series, including the above beauty
It's Cold Outside. I love the Brittercup monthly series
too, with those delightful cats.

It's time to bring this weeks post to a close and get
started on laundry and cleaning the library. Hopefully
I can keep from opening each and every book as I
dust it which really slows the cleaning process down.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week, with lots of
quality stitching time. Thanks very visiting.

Cheers!

Good Sunday morning to you, or Monday afternoon, or
Wednesday evening, or whenever you may happen to be
dropping by for a visit. Welcome.

It's time to updated my progress for this week on My
Needle's Work, and to confess another mental lapse
on my part. I've carried the border to the top and
now know the exact height of this piece. I know it
tells us on the package what size the finished piece
is suppose to be, but there's always that nagging little
voice of doubt at the back of my mind that worries
that they might have made a mistake, and it'll be half
again as long/wide as they claim and I'll run out of
fabric. So, we're good there. All is as it should be
for border size.

Unfortunately, not so much for the girl's clothes.
I picked up needle and thread one day at work
and merrily began to stitch an arm. Got to the
chest area and was stitching that when I suddenly
awoke to the fact that I was stitching with Wild
Berries, when I should have been using Almost
Auburn. Nuts!!! As you can see from the above
picture I didn't rip it out. At least her under
skirt has stripes of this same colour running
through it which, I'm arguing, allows the
blouse (not dress now, but blouse and skirt)
to be the same colour. What can I say??? I
happen to love burgundy and rose and pink
and red. So my fingers tend to just gravitate
to those colours when stitching.

Meanwhile, I'm a bit worried that I'm running
low on the thread for the border and the girl's
hair which is called Hickory Sticks. Can anyone
out there who's already stitched this design tell
me if you came close to running out of this
colour too?? I think I have more in my stash
so that's okay, but I was just wondering if any-
one else ran short too.


I don't do rotations. I'm not that disciplined. But when
a project starts yelling (see previous posts on that subject)
I tend to listen. Last week November Window decided
that it had been ignored long enough and deserved some
of my time. I haven't stitched on this since I started it
during my holiday week in November (appropriately
enough) when I spent that whole week stitching on it.
So a few evenings this week I spent some time finishing
the bottom border and getting started on framing out the
top. I love the size of this, and the colours are rich and
warming to look at. We'll see if I stick with it this week
as well.


Killing two birds with one stone (Ewww! What an awful
expression!) here is a progress picture of Wayward Garden
plus my latest bundle of Bits, eleven more Crescent Colours
to add to my collection.


The final book in my renewal order from the Folio
Society arrived this week. It's Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Beautiful cover, fine pen and ink sketches inside, and
that wonderful new book smell. What do you think
Michelle?? I love it! Book pretty. Nice book.


I finished reading Inkspell on Thursday and am now well
into Inkdeath, the final book in the trilogy. I really loved
this one. Where the first book takes place in the "real"
world, the second book takes place almost entirely in the
Inkworld. That and the fact that my favourite character,
Dustfinger, has a much larger role in this chapter of the
story may be the reason why I really enjoyed this book
more then the first one. Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy
the first book mind you.

Just a note to add, nothing in this book looks anything
like what's in the preview for the Inkheart movie. Did
they just take the premise of the books and make up
more or less their own story??? Still haven't found time
to get to the theatre to see the movie. Since the reviews
weren't overwhelming in their praise for the movie, and
it hasn't been drawing in the crowds at the threatres, I
don't imagine that it'll be available on the big screen for
long. I will get the DVD, whether I see it in the theatre
or not, so I will see the movie, eventually.

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

Mom is doing great being back home at the retirement
residence. Everyday people are coming up to her and
welcoming her back and exclaiming about how wonderful
she looks, even better then before she left. Residents,
staff and volunteers are all making her feel better each
and every day about being back. She's gone back to
Bingo (and won four games on the first day), Yarn and
Yack and morning peach juice breaks with a friend in the
cafe. She's doing well, and is beyond thrilled with being
home again.

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

Yesterday DH and I did a bit of running around. The
basement library is full to overflowing and needed to be
cleaned up, re-arranged, thinned out (!!) and dusted.
First step, thinning. I filled a half dozen boxes with
books and yesterday we took them to the Humane
Society thrift store down the road from us to donate.
In the afternoon we went back with an old desk that
I've had since I was in my early teens (only a few years
ago...cough! cough!!!). That freed up space for a few
more bookcases. So we then drove to Ikea and picked
out three large and one small bookcase, plus extenders
for three small Ikea bookcases. Next step will be
putting those bookcases together, putting them in
place and then rearranging the books. I'm on a weeks
vacation starting next weekend so hopefully DH will
be able to put the bookcases together for me and I can
start messing around down there. Pictures to follow
when it's all done. I'll probably be getting rid of other
"stuff" down there too since I've got the bug to declutter.

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

Getting the desk in the car (a Jetta) to drive it the short
distance to the thrift store was a bit dicey. DH perched
it in the trunk, more sticking out then in, and then tied
it all down with rope. We got it to it's destination
safely but it was a good thing we only drove a block and
a half that way. Then the boxes from Ikea also didn't
quite fit completely in the car, even with the back seats
folded down. So the trunk was open a bit all the way
home from the Ikea in Burlington, and the rope was
once again put to use holding the lid down.

Fortunately we lucked out with the weather yesterday.
After -20 celsius temperatures last week, yesterday
the temperature rose to + 9 which was incredible.
It seemed to threaten rain for much of the day, but
in the end we didn't get any, which was great because
of the open trunk when we were transporting stuff.

It looks as though it'll remain unusually warm for
much of next week so alot of the snow we've had will
melt away. But it's only the beginning of February
so much as it may seem like the start of Spring the
reality is that we will in all likelyhood get more snow
and more frigid temperatures before the end of this
month.

I don't suppose I need to mention to any of you that
this is Nashville weekend once again. I know we're all
waiting with baited breath for the new releases.
We'll wish, we'll sigh, we'll hesitate, and then we'll
either turn off the computer and firm up our resolve
to be good, or we'll blow the wad and consequences
be damned.

Well, I should be off to do chores and stuff. My
desk top here is buried in clutter and needs to be
cleaned up and sorted. So I have more room to
clutter up again. Hope all of you are well and
have a great week.

And to any readers from Australia who visit...
hope you and your families are all well and safe.
It is heartbreaking to see the devistation that those
fires have caused, and the lives lost. Hope it ends
soon.

Cheers!

She's Home!!!!!

We picked Mom up from the rehab facility at 10:00 am on
Saturday morning. We just had to put a few things in the
suitcase, load everything on a cart, bid the nurses a final
farewell, exchange phone numbers with one or two of the
other temporary residents, and then we were on our way.
Here she is in the front entrance hall, waiting for the guys
to load the cars with her stuff. Does this woman look
happy???

Our friends Pete and Terry brought their car and took
some of the stuff home for us since our car wouldn't
have been able to carry it all. The help and extra trunk
space was greatly appreciated.


A half hour drive north and we were back to Mountainview
Residence in Georgetown. Mom got out of the car without
assistance, took her walker and walked right into the place
without hesitation or faltering. And then we began to meet
people. Friends who knew she was coming back that day
were there to greet her. Others who didn't know that she
was coming back greeted her with double looks, expressions
of astonishment and cries of delight. All agreed that she
looked incredible. The sign in the window of her room was
another warm welcome home.

Fridays and Saturdays there is a hair stylist who comes in
to do the residents hair. Mom is a weekly customer who
loves nothing more then to have her hair done. It's something
she really missed and fretted over when she was away. When
Elaine (the hairdresser) heard that Mom was due back on
Saturday she left word that she'd wait for her and would
do her hair for her if she wanted it done and wasn't too
tired. Mom dumped her stuff in her room and went right
back out to the salon that's set up in the residence.


And here she is afterwords! This is my Mother!!!

After getting her hair washed, cut and styled it was
time for lunch. Was Mom too weary to go to the
dinning room for lunch??? Oh no! We went in,
greeting people all over, and were seated at a
reserved table where Mom ate a good lunch and
didn't stop beaming throughout.

After lunch, with one of her closest friends joining
us, we went back to Mom's room where we unpacked
and set things to rights for her. Then DH and I went
to the grocery store to pick up a few little things for her
while she and her friend Flora chatted and caught
up with news and time lost. They've missed each
other terribly. We left her around 4:00 to relax and
rest in her room before dinner and returned home,
tired ourselves but very, very happy.



Stitching news is light this week. I made a bit more
progress on My Needle's Work which includes
stitching my very first Rooster. Handsome fella.
I also worked on the border for Wayward Garden,
and am beginning to enjoy it without fretting about
it's size, it's complexity or it's potentially far distant
completion date. Your encouragement and your
enthusiasm have really helped me to ignore, if not
conquer my reservations about this project. After
all, we're doing this ultimately for fun and relaxation.


I had two Ebay wins arrive in the post this week, both of
which are Prairie Schooler designs. I love both of these
and am thrilled to have them added to my collection.
Now if I could just win Prairie Schooler's A Prairie
Year II, book #23, I would be dancing indeed. I've
been wanting that one for ages. I'm watching one on
Ebay now. Fingers crossed.


I was awarded two (!!) blogging awards this week and am
very grateful for both. Nice to know that my often long
winded posts don't scare you away. Thanks to Rowyn for
this award. And back at you my friend.


And thanks to Lynn for this award, which also comes with
a request to list my addictions. Where to start???

1) Books 2) X-stitch 3) cats 4) chocolate 5) blogging

I am suppose to nominate five other bloggers for each of
these awards, which is really, really hard to do. How on
earth do you choose??? Everyone on my blog list on the
right is special to me, and I have a list of other blogs tagged
that I visit regularly too, but don't comment on. There's
just not enough time in the day/week/month/year to
talk to everyone. At least not until I retire...in 15 years or so.
So I'm nominating everyone who's blogs I read, whether
you know I do or not. I've said it before and I'll undoubtedly
say it again....you guys are AWESOME!!!


Did I mention my number one addiction was to books???
Do you require proof??? May I present exhibit A.


And exhibit B. Please note that right now I am blushing and
grinning sheepishly. Oh heck. You all know me by now. I
just can't help myself. Some of these were on sale, and all of
them have been on my wish list at Chapters for ages. Aren't
they pretty??? Does anybody else out there hug their books??
Oh. No one??

I'm reading Inkspell (the sequel to Inkheart) at the moment
and I'm loving it. But it's a bigger book then the first was,
and that one was pretty big too, so it may take me awhile to
get through. And then there is Inkdeath, the final book in the
series, which is also an enormous tome. I really do need to
retire. Darn work is wasting valuable time that I need to
dedicate to all my addictions. But then of course I wouldn't
be able to afford my addictions, would I?? So frustrating.


It's been cold, frigid, freezing, breathtaking, and down
right nippy outside these days. And we had more snow
last week and yesterday. The piles at the end of the
driveway are higher then DH's head and it's getting
harder to toss the new snow on top of the old. Note
the snow fort on the left side of the drive which was
built by the neighbourhood kids last week. They put
in a lot of time and effort on that thing and are very
proud of it. And now we can't throw snow on top of
that side of the drive because of the fort and therefore
must drag it to the other side and heave it up there.

Has anyone else seen the new designs from Blue
Ribbon Designs which are being released next week
during Nashville?? Anybody else loosing their hearts
(and minds) over them?? I love the winter one, and
the bookmark one. And I've been hoping to get
Peppermint Twist since it came out late last year.
Oh shoot. Guess I've gotta keep working. Wonder
what else will be coming out from Nashville next
week.

To D. Wright who keeps leaving comments here
about Jan Karon and her website. Hi. Thanks
for stopping by. It's always nice to hear from
fellow book lovers here too. I do visit Ms Karon's
website every once in awhile and enjoy it very much.

Well, it's time to go and do some chores. Hope you
are all well and having a great weekend. Thanks for
visiting. Cheers!