Greetings all!!
Would you believe that I have not one but two finishes to
show off today??? I know. Will wonders never cease.
See, there was a reason for my absence.

Phoebe's sampler came together and was finished off last week.
Well, the stitching part anyways. This is of course a design by
the most incredibly talented Gazette94 and the colors are all
various shades of DMC pinks. Phoebe has informed me that
she quite likes this finish but wonders why her name hasn't
been stitched on it somewhere. Hmmmm....

And then we have Prairie Schooler's Prairie Birds all finished
at last and ready for Christmas. I had to make a trip out to
Michaels to pick up a skein of 520 green thread before I could
finish this, and once I had that there really wasn't all that much
left to do. Actually I was wondering if perhaps I should stitch
some sort of a border around the six squares just to finish it off.
What do you think??? The one square is a bit bigger then the
others (why??? It was designed that way. Again, why??) so
sticks up a bit. Should I leave well enough alone??

I have started a new project after these two finishes. It's a
Christmas design and I'm having a great time working on it.
What is it, you may be asking..... Well, you'll just have to wait
until my next post to see what it is. Hee Hee Hee!!!

A few posts ago I mentioned that one of my favorite of
Blackbird Designs was Their Song, but it was out of
print and didn't seem to show up on Ebay whenever
I checked for it there. Soon after I got an request from
Rowyn (Stitching Under the Southern Cross) to email
her my address because she had something for me.
Well naturally I was curious but Rowyn would say no
more on the subject so I had to wait a little while to
find out what she was up to. An envelope arrived in my
mail box and when I opened it guess what fell out???
How cool is this??? Thank you so much Rowyn for
sending me this wonderful design. I am so looking
forward to stitching this and your RAK really made
my week.

I was lucky enough to win a gift from Andrea (The
Craft Room) recently and in my next post I'll post
a photo of the incredible, beautiful treasure that
she sent to me. Until then, you'll have to wait and
see.

In the plaza located on the outskirts of the subdivision
where we live there is a thrift store run by the Upper
Credit Humane Society. I like to pop in there once a
week or so to see what treasures might be available,
whether it be books or nick knacks or something
totally unexpected. Such as a cross stitch chart. On
Saturday I found the above Mirabilia chart on sale
for a mere 25 cents (Canadian) and my immediate
first thought was "Oh goodie!!! I can have a give
away on my blog for this." When I got home with
my prize and opened the envelope to check on the
chart I discovered a second chart inside, which is
the little freebie from 1996. Bonus!!!

So, you all know the drill for this sort of thing.
Leave a comment letting me know that you would
like to enter the draw for these two charts, and
perhaps one or two other little goodies, and I'll
have a draw on Sunday the 22nd for the winner.

Good luck!!

Books read in the past few weeks:

I picked this book by Ariana Franklin up when it appeared
in the sale bin of my favorite bookstore a while back. When
a hardcover book is being sold for a paperback price, and it
sounds like a really good read, or is a book that I'd been
thinking of buying when it was on for it's full price, then I
get all giddy and happy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. In fact I enjoyed it so much
that I went looking for the rest of the books published in this
series so far and have added two more to my collection. The
story takes place during the rein of Henry II in England. A
combination of historical fiction, mystery and forensics (as
imagined for that time period) with a fascinating heroine and
cast of characters, including a brief, scene stealing cameo by
King Henry II himself, this was a great read.

I love Charlaine Harris and I adore Sookie Stackhouse.
I was two books behind in the series and so rectified
that situation by reading them both back to back.
Both were excellent reads, as usual.

We don't get HBO in our cable package so I've never
seen the TV series True Blood which is based on these
books. But I've heard and read lots of good things
about it and am curious to see for myself how it stacks
up against the books. I'm always leery of movies or
TV shows that are based on books that I love. It's rare
to find an adaption that is worthy of an author's vision.
The best adaptions of a book can bring it to life (hello
Peter Jackson, and thank you) the worst can make you
swear off seeing any other adaptions forever.

I'm going to see if Santa will bring the first season of
True Blood on DVD for under my tree this year.

Our godson Ian went to Fanshawe college for two years
studying acting. Last Friday DH and I went to see him
performing in a play put on by the Georgetown Little
Theatre.

The Mumberley Inheritance is a comedic take
on the old melodramas that were once performed for
audiences in the early 1900's. You know the type. The
villain twirls his moustache and flaunts his black cape,
while the heroine bats her eyelashes, is forced to marry
the villain to save the family estate, and swoons all over
the stage. And the hero's name is Rodney Stoutheart,
a likeable, dim bulb of a hero who saves the day, in spite
of himself, sort of.

The audience's role during these sorts of plays is to boo
and hiss whenever the villain does something rotten
(which is fairly often, seeing as how he's a villain), to
cheer whenever the hero appears and manages not to
trip over his own two feet, and to repeat lines along with
the characters as they are used over and over again
throughout the play to either establish that character's
identity, history or evil plan.

It was a lot of fun to watch, and we were fit to burst with pride
as Ian showed his comedic talents were more then up to the
challenge. He had the audience in stitches with his antics.

We'd seen him performing in plays during his time at Fanshawe
but those were all dramas so this was our first experience seeing
him in a comedy. We had a blast.

Rupert is very fond of boxes, bags and blankets. Anything
he can get into, he will. Which is why I always make it a
point to check the dryer before loading wet clothes into it
just to be sure that it's empty at the time. And really it's
also why I should just make sure that I close the laundry
room door so that this sort of thing doesn't happen. He
won't get out without an argument.

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Weigh in at Weight Watcher's this week was something of a
surprise. For the past couple of months my weight loss has
slowed down, as it tends to do as you get closer to your ideal
weight. But I was content with the one pound or so loss
that I achieved each week (sometimes a bit more, sometimes
a bit less). I've been going to Curves faithfully and find the
workout there to be great for all of me, not just my legs. I
still have a long way to go before I'll be able to work those
machines like a pro but I'm getting style and method and
endurance finessed first and the rest will follow.

So, tonight at Weight Watchers I weighed in expecting my
usual loss, and was told that last week I lost 5 pounds!!!!
This means that I am now past the high end marker for
what I should weigh for my age, height etc and could now
go on maintenance if I wished. But my own goal has been
to get to the weight that I was when I got married, and so
I'm going to keep going a bit longer until I reach that goal.
I just have 3 pounds left to go, but this is the Christmas
season now so my main focus will be to try not to over
indulge too much, and to maintain my current weight.

So as of today I have now lost 67 pounds on the Weight
Watcher's program, and have gone from a size 22 to a
size 10.

Also, last week at Weight Watchers the Georgetown
groups, which meet on Tuesdays at the Superstore,
one in the morning, one at the lunch hour and one in
the evening (which is when I go) rose to the challenge
issued by Weight Watchers and brought in over a
thousand pounds of food for our local food bank.
We're feeling pretty proud of that accomplishment
and we sure surprised the folks from the Food Bank
who had 10 grocery carts full of food to haul out of
the store and to their cars. Weight Watchers will be
making some sort of donation as well to compliment
our donation.

Hopefully I'll find time to post again soon. Until then
thanks for dropping by.

Cheers!!!