This week I had Monday off for Remembrance Day

and after watching the memorial service from Ottawa

on TV I spent part of the afternoon packing up all of

the Fall decorations plus stowing away the rest of the

nick knacks that are usually out throughout most of the

year, all to make room for the Christmas decorations

that we're putting out this weekend.

Every year my friend Darlene comes for the weekend

that we consider the official beginning of the Christmas

season.    You see this is the weekend that Santa comes

to town.   He arrives in Georgetown tonight in a night

time parade and he arrives in Toronto tomorrow in the

109th annual Toronto Santa Claus parade.

We'll make busy like Santa's elves decorating the 

trees and the house while Christmas music plays

on the stereo and egg nog cools in the fridge.  DH's role

is to haul the boxes of decorations out of storage and

bring them upstairs for us.  He'll also brings the tree

up and sets it up for us.   Then he leaves us to get

to work.

It'll take Darlene and I all afternoon to decorate the

main tree and put most of the decorations around

the house.   On Sunday we'll be decorating the

small tree and putting the finishing touches all over.

Tonight we'll head to the pub for dinner and some

Christmas cheer.   

Summer memories.

We've had some fairly chilly weather at times this

week ... cold enough to force me to dig out my 

long johns and my warmer scarf and mitts.  I walk

a lot around town and getting from point A to point

B can be unpleasant when your legs are freezing.

It's times like that (Tuesday night -  walking home from

Loblaws - freezing) that inspires memories of the past 

summer and some of the fun things that we did ... in 

the warm weather.  Sigh. Such as when we went on a 

dinner cruise around Toronto Island and Toronto 

harbour in August.  The cruise was arranged by DH's 

work and we had a fabulous time.  The above picture 

is of the boat that we sailed on.

And here is DH and I on board the ship as it made

it's way around the Toronto Islands.   The cruise

ship left the dock around 6:30 and we got back to

our starting point at 10:30.   

This picture was taken at Crawford Lake

Conservation area ... also in August.

I am missing green, growing things

already.   But soon Christmas lights

and decorations will be popping up,

and some can even be seen in some store

front windows right now, and that will 

help a bit.

This is a short post this week because of

time constraints due to the start of all of the 

traditional Christmas decorating which 

will be followed by the traditional vacuuming 

of all of the Christmas glitter and dust coming off 

of the ornaments and the boxes that they've 

been stored in all year.   

Let the season begin!!!!

Cheers!

Do you find that although you've lived

in a place for a very long time, if not 

your entire life, you've rarely taken the

time to visit the beautiful places that may

exist within an hours drive from your 

front door step??   

DH and I have lived in our house for

22 years now but in all that time we

have never visited any of the 

beautiful conservation areas that

are within an hour's drive of us.

Until this summer.

In August we visited no fewer then

three conservation areas because I

wanted to explore the greenbelt of

the Niagara Escarpment which 

surrounds our region of Halton

Hills.   Walking the trails and

making a visual record with my

camera of the natural beauty that

we're so lucky to have on offer.

These two photos were taken at the Hilton

Falls conservation area which is a half

hours car drive from us.   My DH, our

friend Darlene and I packed up the car 

with picnic supplies and water and headed

out for a day of hiking and site seeing.

Hilton Falls conservation area has not only

the falls .... seen in the very first picture ....

but also a reservoir which can be glimpsed

in the second picture.   We're standing on 

top of the escarpment and that stream is

heading to a precipice from which it 

drops to the reservoir below.   

We walked for hours through the forest,

following trails and taking pictures.  Some

of the trails were easy to walk being level

and well maintained but we also followed

a portion of the Bruce Trail which required

some climbing skills and some care in how

you moved.  

This picture illustrates my point.

Another view of the reservoir from the Bruce

Trail.   

The only thing that marred this day was when

Darlene and I were walking through a picnic

area looking all around us and chatting and

not watching where we were putting our feet.

I managed to put one foot into a slight indentation

in the ground and got it caught there while the

rest of me kept going.

I ended up on hands and knees and wondering

how I got there.   I got up carefully and there

didn't seem to be any obvious damage except

to my dignity .... (waves at the picnickers who

watched my pratfall with interest) so we kept

on walking .... for another three hours.

Well, all was fine until we loaded up the car

to head for home and I sat down for the first

time since my "trip".  Within ten minutes my

left leg was stiffening up and swelling and,

well, it wasn't pleasant.   A trip to the 

emergency room for a check over was 

deemed prudent that evening but thankfully

there was not any serious harm.  Probably

shouldn't have kept hiking for three more

hours and the leg needed to rest for a few

days etc etc.   A few Ibuprofen for the

soreness and the swelling and things 

improved drastically.

No lasting damage.

Another project on the go at the moment in my

renewed enthusiasm for stitching.  LHN Snow

White stitched in red.    Not really much left

to do on this one but I'm sort of concentrating

my time and efforts on the Lizzie Kate project

this week.    

Received the Just Cross Stitch Halloween and

Christmas ornaments issues from Stitching

Bits and Bobs this week and have been 

happily going through them and picking

out favourites.   The Halloween issue is 

especially rich in fun stuff.

Another of my mandalas to show off.

And this design which uses patterns that are ment

for Henna drawn designs for hands, arms and

feet.  

And since one can't have too many hobbies ....

can one?? .... Here are the K&Co. Smash books that

I've been making this year.

These books can be used for so many things but

I'm using them as a combination of journal,

scrapbook and an introduction to scrapbooking.

Some of the pages.   

I've had so much fun working on these books and it's 

encouraged me to always take my camera with me 

and to take lots of pictures of any event or

occasion or happy day that we have had.

I've stuffed these books so much with all kinds

of stuff they don't lay flat any more.   These 

books come filled with fancy or quirky papers

but when those pages don't suit my taste I 

just stick my own choices over top and keep

going.

Collecting wise my scrapbooking supplies are 

giving my stitching supplies a run for their money

.... God help me. 

Ah well, you know what they say ...

The one who dies with the most stash wins!!!

We won't talk about the book stash.

Thank you.

Cheers!

The first weekend of November 2013 ... does

anyone know what happened to October???

It seems to have passed by in a flash which is

frustrating to me because it's my favourite 

month. The fact that  there are two major 

holidays in October probably has something 

to do with it.    Thanksgiving and 

Halloween.   

November came in like a lion with strong

winds and heavy rain although the temperatures

were quite mild, thank goodness.   There

was concern that Halloween would be 

spoiled by the weather and indeed it wasn't

the most pleasant of nights out but the 

heaviest rain and the strongest winds did not

occur until much later in the night so the

kids were able to get out and do their 

trick or treating without too much hardship.

Whether the parents who accompanied them

would agree to that observation or not I can't 

say.   Many of them stood on the sidewalk 

in front of our house huddled under an 

umbrella, sometimes clutching a cup of 

some sort of hot beverage and trying to

be patient as their offspring went from

door to door.   

We had about 50 kids come to our door

between 6:30 and 8:00 which is about

normal for us.    We handed out the

mini chocolate bars by the hand full

and I'm very proud of the fact that I

did not eat a single one (or multiples)

of those delicious morsels.   We had

lots left over because I tend to err on

the side of caution when it comes to

preparing for special occasions such

as this so on Friday morning the 

caldron went to work with DH and 

it returned home that night empty!!!!

Thank you for the kind words about

my zentangles Rowyn and Vonna.

I've been filling small sketch books

with my practice pages as well as 

 finished pages such as these here.

I do use a protractor .... is that the

right term? ... a compass?? ... for

the mandala designs since I cannot

draw a decent circle to save my life.

Here is a great site for finding zentangle

patterns and instructions on how to

make them. 

http://tanglepatterns.com/tag/zentangle

.

And needless to say I have a few (cough,

cough) books on the subjects too.   These

are some of my favourites.   I love the Designs

Originals publications.  

These three books are smallish in size but are

jam packed with instructions and ideas.  I refer

to them all the time. 

Just a warning .... these things are crazy addictive.

Once you start, you might not be able to stop.

You've been warned!

And since one cannot indulge in too many

hobbies here is another of my (our) favourites.

I began a Lizzie Kate Christmas design this

week and am enjoying it so much. 

Whenever I have some spare time I sit at my

desk stitching and listening to talk radio on

my computer.   I'm stitching this one in 

hand ... without use of any kind of frame ...

which is something that I haven't done for a

long time.   For these smaller projects at least

it works just fine.  I have to use a table magnifier

and an Ott-Lite as well to see properly.

This is being stitched on 32 count Lugana in 

Light Taupe ... which doesn't translate well

in either of these pictures.  

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

Toronto has been in a tizzy for the past

few days thanks to some unexpected and 

astonishing revelations about the city's

mayor Rob Ford.   Allegations of the mayor's 

drug and alcohol abuse, rumoured and hinted 

about for months, plus reports of a video 

showing the mayor posing with suspected 

drug dealers whilst smoking from a crack pipe

have been rampant for half the year but

the mayor has strenuously denied everything

and angrily heaped abuse and scorn at anyone 

(newspaper reporters) who claimed any of it 

was true.  

On Thursday Toronto's police chief 

announced that the alleged video had

been found in the deleted files of a 

computer and the police had a copy of

it.   Oops!

Cries for the mayor to step down and get

help for his problems are coming loudly

from all quarters but he is still denying

all of it and refusing to quit.   

So it's been an interesting time for sitting

and stitching and listening to talk radio.

Note:    I am not at all fond of the mayor

in any case.   Although he does seem to

have done some good work in the early

part of his term in office he is also - to me -

an obnoxious, overbearing bully who 

has been systematically alienating both

allies and opponents in his push to 

implement all his plans for the city and 

he is definitely not a suitable representative

of the city to the rest of Canada and the

world.

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

Time to get back to the stitching and the

talk radio.   Have a great week all.

Cheers!

Fall is ...

Fall is my most favourite time of the year.   The cooler 

weather suits me a great deal better then the heat and 

(especially) the humidity of the summer season.  And

I love the decorations that can be put out on display to

celebrate all things Fall.    When I began hauling out

my Fall decorations I realized that I couldn't remember

just exactly where I'd put each item the previous year.

Well of course not .... everyone knows how short my

memory is.   So I winged it and just put things where

they felt right to be.   And then I took a picture so 

that next year I'll have a visual reminder of where 

everything goes .... as long as I remember that I

took a picture.

Today is one of those dull, dreary, pitching down

rain Fall days that inevitably appear at the end of

October.   Colder temperatures and a brisk wind

make it rather unpleasant to be outside today and

this morning we had the first scattered flakes of

.... gulp!!!!! .... SNOW mixed in with the rain.

(Taking deep breaths here)  And yet we also have

had some brilliant sunshine to tease and entice

us to venture outside for a while to enjoy the

fresh air and the waning garden.  DH did just

that, planning to do a bit of gardening work,

and got caught in the inevitable return of the

rain.

And still I love the Fall.

Not a lot of cross stitching going on 

around here, although the urge has 

hit me strong and I may just pick

up needle and thread pretty soon.

Meanwhile this year I've become 

enamoured with Zentangling ....

or Zendoodling and have been 

making tentative attempts at my 

own creations.

The above is more of a doodle and 

represents an afternoon on the deck

in August with pens and paper in hand.

A zendoodle for sure.   I'm learning

all the various patterns ... and there

are lots and lots of them being 

created all the time .... and some

are easier then others.   I like adding

colour to mine with markers since I

am not too great at adding shading

for depth

And here is a Zentangle mandala 

that I made.    

There are a ton of great blogs and

websites on the net with Zentangle 

patterns to see and tutorials on 

how to draw them.   

I received a lovely Halloween treat in 

the mail on Friday from Paula in Portugal

who stitched this terrific Prairie Schooler

design for me.     Love it!!    Thank you

dear Paula for your thoughtful gift.

A year or so ago I read Sarah's Key

by Tatiana De Rosnay.   A tragic

story, so incredibly sad and disturbing

but very well written for all that.  So

last week I read another book by the

same author and enjoyed it as well.

A bittersweet story about a man's 

search for the truth about his mother's

death when he was a child.

Oh look, the sun is back out again.

Cheeky thing. 

Cheers!  

   

Belated addition to the tributes posted a few weeks ago 

celebrating Cathey's blog anniversary.  

Tonight I read that Cathey passed away last week.   My

 heart breaks over and over for her, for her husband Paul, 

and for her sweet little boy.  

A very special lady.  

 

Hello everyone and welcome.  Hope you're

comfortably seated and have a nice cup of

tea or any other beverage which appeals to

you close to hand because there's lots here 

in this post to share.   

There's equal parts book news and stitching

news to report plus some reno updates so

I'd best get right into it.

I collect Folio Society books which is a

company in England who publishes

illustrated, beautifully bound editions

of classic books.   Modern classics as

well as those from the past.  Fiction,

history, poetry, short stories, biographies

and so on.   The Folio Society covers

it all.

Over the years I've collected a fair number

of these books but they are costly and so

it's not something I do often.  Perhaps 

once a year or so, especially when they

are offering good deals.

Last Tuesday I was walking home from the

train station on what turned out to be the

hottest day of the year ... thus far.  

It was brutal walking in that heat let me 

tell you!!   I got three quarters of the way

home and didn't think I was going to

make it any further.   So I popped into

a little thrift store that's a few blocks 

from my house to poke around in their

book section and to recover a little in

their air conditioning.

I wandered around and checked out the

main book section but didn't find anything

too earth shattering there.  So I headed 

back to the front of the shop to check a

couple of shelves where they keep the

more valuable or in demand books.

I was giving those two shelves a 

cursory look through when one

book caught my eye.  Life On The

Mississippi by Mark Twain ... a

Folio Society book!!  Then I 

realized that the book next to it 

was also a Folio book ... and so was

the one next to that!!

In all look what I found ....

The six books to the left of The Greek

Myths were in the thrift store.  All of 

them in mint condition in their boxes.

 for $10.00 each.   I started frantically

snatching books off that shelf, six of

them in all!!!   The total of those six 

books is what one of them would 

normally cost!!!  I had to haul 

them the rest of the way home in

the heat but somehow that didn't

seem like much of a hardship.

Friday night, on my way home from

working out at Curves I stopped at

The White Rabbit second hand book

store just to do a quick (yeah, right!!)

browse through to see what might 

be there.  Got chatting with the 

owner and mentioned my incredible

Folio haul from a few days previously.

Guess what!!   He mentioned that 

they had received a few Folio 

Society books to sell as well and would

I care to see them??   

They had three books or book sets

and I had a hard time deciding which

one to buy.   The folks at The White

Rabbit had a better idea of what the

books were worth so they'd priced 

theirs accordingly.   But still, the

Greek Myths by Robert Graves 

that I chose was still a third of the

price I would have paid from the

Folio Society themselves.  Plus

no shipping charges to add to that.

(Same for the books from the thrift

store for that matter!!)

I am a very happy camper today!!!!

I have bought a few newly published books 

recently too including the sequel to A

Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

which I am desperate to get into as soon as

I finish my currant read.  I've heard good

things about The Chaperone so am curious

to read that soon and Seraphina is a young

adult fantasy that sounds really, really good.

And then last Saturday I hit a couple of garage sales

during my morning walk and came home with this

lot.    I'm halfway through the Bob Hope book.

It's hilarious!!!

I have no idea where I'm going to put all these 

new books.   Well, the Folios will go on the

shelves of the new built in bookcase in the 

living room with the rest of my Folio collection

 but the others???    The library shelves 

downstairs are full to bursting ... again.   It 

might be time to do some culling ... again.

Last Sunday the last touch was added to our

main floor renovation.  The two area rugs

arrived.   We set them in place and were

then able to celebrate the official conclusion

to our reno!!    Started mid February and 

finished the beginning of July.   Not too bad.

And the best part???

Phil and I are still married!!

Above is a picture of the dining room all

decked out.

And here is the living room.  I think we'll

designate the single chair to the right of 

the photo (next to the book shelves) as

my downstairs stitching chair.

Speaking of stitching ... a few updates

are in order here.   Finished the square

and added a bit more border to my

P.S. Summer Sampler.

Close up!!!

I've put a few stitches into a project that

was abandoned for a year which I 

suppose makes it a UFO?   Drawn 

Thread's Game Sampler which I'm

suppose to be stitching with Maggie.

This thing is going to be huge (if I ever get

around to actually finishing it).  Every time

I work on it I wonder what the heck I'm

going to do with it when it's done.  It

would cost a fortune to frame and it's a

bit too big for a pin keep ....

I don't think that I've ever shared anything

about this project.   Another rather big design

which I pick up once in awhile to put a few

more stitches in.

Here's the chart.

Here's what it's suppose to look like when

(ever) it's done.   I love My Big Toe designs

and this one is gorgeous!!!   

Must not dwell on the guilt of not getting

these stitched up in a timely fashion.  Must

remember to just sit back and enjoy the 

process ... which is all that matters.

Another long post.   If Blogger ever puts

a limit on the size of the posts you can 

make I'll be in big trouble.

Thanks for dropping by.   

Cheers!

Big news people!!!   I've been stitching!!!

I know ... it's hard to believe but it's true.

Last Monday was the Canada Day holiday

and I plunked myself down in a chair on our

deck in the afternoon and stitched away on

my PS Summer sampler.   The square is

almost done.  Just some blue sky and border

to stitch.  I'm quite pleased with my 

choice out of the four possibilities offered

which is a relief.   I dithered and fretted over

which of the squares would suit me before

committing to the butterfly square.

A close up of the square.   It was so nice

to just sit outside with the birds chirping,

the sun shining ... and our neighbour's

air conditioner roaring in the background.

I haven't concentrated on a stitching

project for that length of time (an entire

afternoon) in ages.   I need to do it more

often.  

This week was a tough one at work.  It was

first of the month which is our busiest time

but this month's first was the busiest that we've

been in a long time.  Both Wednesday and

Thursday we worked late, although I don't

work as late as the others in my department

because it takes me too long to get home from

work.   

And it was stinkin' hot this week too which

made any time spent out of doors a real

ordeal.   Walking home from the train 

station was not pleasant in that heat and

especially so when it included a pretty

steep hill to hike up.   

So when I arrived home one night and found

a package waiting for me it gave me such an

energy boost.   Last month  I was the lucky

winner of a gift certificate to 123 Stitch

curtesy of the delightful and generous 

Mary Ann of Just Stitching to celebrate 

her birthday.   Now usually when it's your

birthday you're suppose to receive gifts

not give them out.  However, as I said,

Mary Ann is a generous soul and she

gave the readers of her blog the opportunity

to win a shopping spree at a fabulous

online store.   I still can't believe that I

won.

I decided on two charts from Silver Creek

Samplers, including Dandy Dreams which

I first saw on Maggie's blog a while ago.

Her's stitched up so beautifully and looked

so sweet when it was framed I just couldn't

get it out of my mind.   So now I can 

stitch my own pretty sampler whenever I

am ready to do so.   

I also ordered a few K&Co. scrap booking

embellishment packs since 123 Stitch also 

sells some scrap booking stuff.  So I

managed to cover my two crafting 

obsessions with one gift certificate!!  

Many thanks to Mary Ann for making

my week easier to bear!

I took a stroll around the deck and garden 

today and snapped some pictures of our

many pots to share with you.  And also

to keep as a record for reference when 

next Spring rolls around again and I'm

trying to remember what flowers worked

best in which pots or planters the previous

summer.

Martha Washington geraniums are so pretty, aren't

they???   

Chippy was hanging around last weekend when

DH and I sat out on the deck for dinner.  Guess

he was hoping for a handout or something.  Since

he's figured out how to   a) climb the pole to the

bird feeders to help himself to the seed there  plus

b) he's found a way to get into the shed where 

the seed bags are stored, even when the door is

shut and locked and he's helping himself to that

bounty as well.  Cheeky nuisance.   Good

thing he's cute!! 

More shots of the newly decorated living room.

The built in storage and display area with 

drawers for linens and cupboards for other

stuff plus nice deep shelves above for the

displaying of the nicer things.  

And of course there is now a built in bookcase

for my collection of Folio Society books and

my National Geographic books.  Storage 

below for CDs and photo albums.  I love

it so much!!   Note new hard wood floors.

No more carpet.   Which means the 

fur from our two cats has free range and 

tumbles across the floor like tumbleweeds

in the desert ...followed by an annoyed me 

 with the vacum cleaner hose!!!   

All that fur rolling across my floors.  I

keep checking the cats to see if they're 

cold because they surely must have lost all 

their fur and are lying around the house 

naked!!!

Nope,  just lying there ... growing 

more fur!!!!

Another view of the corner next to the

window.   Looky ... we have crown

molding!!!!    Nifty!!    

Hope all you folks down in the States

where the temperatures are much 

worse then they were here are keeping

cool as you can under the circumstances.

Take care!!

Thanks for visiting!!

Cheers!