Wow!

Well, It's been over a year since the last time I posted anything and almost a year and a half since I was posting regularly. I have no excuse. I'm lazy and I should be shot. Ok, that last one is taking things a bit far, but seriously I used to love reading blogs and posting to mine, but I can't even remember the last blog I read. Oh wait, I lie. I was looking at Christine's blog yesterday for the first time in forever after getting a notification on facebook from her. But other than that I can't remember the last time I checked one of my fave blogs....

Oh well, here's one post and here's hoping that I can get back into the swing of things with both reading and posting.

I won't go into long boring details of my life in the last year, because I'd end up writing too much, then I'd get bored and never finish the post. Instead I'll tell you about my year in point form. Too bad I don't have time or I'd do a powerpoint presentation and load it up..... heyyy..... that's an idea! No, No, Bad Christine. If I do this in point form I might actually finish it.

• Olivia started kindergarten last September. She loved it for all of one day before she started asking if she could sleep for "just 5 more minutes". Though she does still love school, she just hates getting up.
  
• I started working in mid September as a teller at the Bank in my town. (no names mentioned here) I've been there for 10 months and I don't hate it yet. I think that's a record for me. :)
  
• I haven't stitched more than a few dozen stitches since I last posted an update on my stitching. I seem to have lost my stitching mojo.
  
• I have been making more cakes lately and I'm really enjoying that.
  
• We finally got Rachel potty trained after many many MANY months of false starts. She had no desire for the longest time and I'd have to force her to sit on the toilet, but she's finally good, though we still use pullups at bedtime. We're not completely done with diapers yet. Soon hopefully.
  
• Rachel is finally old enough (3) to farm her out to the grandparents for sleepovers! (Can I get a 'Booyah' here? - Sorry, too much Kim Possible!) and she's had a few of them recently.
  
• I've been to the funeral home twice for two different people in the last week, so it's been a fairly sad week overall.
  
• My DH, Jason lost over 50 pounds in the past year. He even came in first place in a "biggest loser" weight loss competition at his work and ended up winning $500.00 in gift cards.
  
• We used the $500.00 to go towards a big swingset/Jungle jym for the kids.
  
• We had a bear in the yard a few weeks ago, now I'm scared to let the kids go out to play on their new swingset.
  
• I, unfortunately, haven't lost 50 pounds. I haven't even lost 5 pounds. :(
  
• I'm very excited that Torchwood will be airing in Britian starting next week and I'm looking forward to watching the new adventures of Captain Jack Harkness and his band of merry men, (god I'm such a geek. lol) even if it is only 5 episodes.
  
• I think I actually cried when I found out David Tennant will be leaving Doctor Who. *sobs*
• We got a new kitty at the Fredericton SPCA a few months ago. He's doing great. He has to be the most patient cat in the world to put up with my kids. He's a big Orange Long Haired tabby. The kids named him Fluffy, though Rachel couldn't remember that for a while and kept calling him Fuzzy instead.

I'm reaching at this point to think of anything else, so I think I'll end with a few pictures of some of the cakes I've done since I last posted some.

Olivia's "Totally Spooktacular" 5th Birthday Cake

October 2008

We had a dressup Halloween party for Olivia's 5th birthday since she's so close to Halloween and she decided she wanted a "Witch Barbie" cake. I ended up having to special order the Barbie off of Ebay because apparently Mattel only makes the Halloween Witch Barbie for "Target" each year at Halloween ... So, since there are no Target stores in Canada I paid WAY too much for the doll on Ebay.

Here is the second cake I made for Olivia's birthday. We rented the Bowling Alley and invited pretty much the entire class to the party and I didn't know for sure how many would show up so I made a second cake in case the first one wasn't enough for all the kids and parents who were there. I ended up taking 3/4 of it home. lol.

Rachel's "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" 3rd Birthday Cake

April 2009

This was Rachel's 3rd Birthday cake. She wanted a "Somewhere over the Rainbow" party. Do you know how freaking hard it is to do "Somewhere over the Rainbow" that has nothing to do with Wizard of Oz? HARD!

I managed to find items in rainbow colours instead of actual rainbow stuff for the most part. The rainbow on the cake is made of Royal Icing made several days in advance, the border is Smarties. (I had a huge bowl of pink and brown ones left over afterwards.) The rest of the cake is just blue buttercream icing and white buttercream icing.

But then look what the inside looks like!

This was pretty neat. Find the tutorial here.

I had taken the rainbow off the top of the cake when I was cutting it and I put it back on to take this picture of the inside. I didn't realize until later that day that it was on backwards with the broken side of the rainbow showing instead of the good side.

Johnny's "John Deere" 60th Birthday Cake

June 2009

My most recent cake was a John Deere cake for my Father-in-Law's 60th Birthday. This one is just plain Buttercream and a printed John Deere logo that I cut out and traced onto the white buttercream with a toothpick. I then filled it in with a #16 star tip and yellow and green buttercream icing I coloured myself. It came out pretty good except for the little wow in the front of the cake where it's not quite even.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully this won't be the last you hear from me for another year.

(Side note: it's been over a year and I see Blogger still has the freaky formatting problems that drive me completely batty. I've already had to stop myself three times from throwing my mouse against the wall when trying to get the post looking right after I uploaded my pictures.)

Welcome 2008

Well, Happy New Year for those of you who still check my Blog periodically. I rarely post anymore and I blame it all on the addiction that is Fanfiction. I've been stuck on a site (Twisting the Hellmouth - A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Crossover Fanfic site) for several months now. I've been giving less attention to my husband and kids (to some extent), my housework and most of all my stitching. DH and DD's and my housework have been getting a little less attention than normal, but my stitching has been almost completely non existant since that site started sucking up all my free time.

Here's a Family Picture that we had done in early December by a local Fredericton Photographer. We got them done just barely in time to go out with our Christmas Cards.

I've decided to run down my "To Do List" that I posted at the end of last year and see which ones have been accomplished and which ones have not. I commented after each item on whether it was a success or not. Blue text means I was successful with that item for 2007 and red text means I wasn't successful.

2007 To Do List

1. Play with and read to my kids more - Yes, for a good part of the year until my Fanfic addiction took hold the last few months I was doing good with this.
2. Try to keep up with my housework (or at least a little more than usual) - HA, not likely.
3. Post on my blog at least once a week - This might have happened for the first month or so, but definitely a failure if we look at it long term.
4. Post more to the email lists I belong to (no more lurking!) - I think I did good with this one for a while as well, but I haven't even CHECKED my email on that account for at least 6 months! A Dismal failure on that one ;)
5. Comment more on other's blogs. - I always complain that no one (or rather very few people) comment on my blog, but I'm guilty of reading and running as well. But not anymore! - Again, I did well for a while but fell off the wagon early.
6. Try and stitch at least two nights per week (EVERY week) - Nope
7. Finish "Waiting" - YES YES YES!
8. Start "Summer Blooms" (It's the second picture in this post) - Yep
9. Finish "Summer Blooms" - Nope
10. Start "Fairy Moon" - Yep
11. Finish "Fairy Moon" (though not likely!) - Nope (though as you can see I wasn't really expecting to)
12. Stitch "Quilt" (a DMC freebie I picked up online. See the pic here) and make it into a needlebook - Yep, though I never did finish stitching around the outside edge after finishing the needlebook
13. Stitch and "finish" 3 new Christmas Ornaments for 2007 - HA. I never even got one finished. I stitched it and it sat there for a month waiting for me to put the beads on it. Never got to it yet.
14. "finish" 3rd Ornament from 2006 (Blackwork Noel) - Nope... damn I'm lazy when it comes to finishing.
15. Get started on a scrapbook for Rachel. - I got a few pages done, but never went further... though since I only said get "STARTED" on a scrapbook I guess this is a success *Woohoo*
16. Make a monthly "to do" list each month to help keep me on track. - teeheehee... Nope, I think I did this in January and maybe one other month... 2 out of 12 - a success? I think not.
    

Ok, I think we can all agree that there is substantially more red than blue on the list, which means I need to either a) be more realistic in my goals or b) get off my tush and actually work on the things I WANT to accomplish and not assume that they're just going to happen on their own.

That being said, here are a few things I want to accomplish in 2008.

General Goals

1. Spend more time playing with my kids and NOT sit on my butt in front of the computer while Olivia asks me to play with her. There's only so long when your kids actually WANT to be with you and be seen with you. I want to take advantage of those short years as much as possible.
2. Walk on the treadmill at least 3 times a week. I got a treadmill in the late spring and I need to use it more
3. Lose 20 lbs. (this kind of goes with #2)
4. Reconnect with some of my Fredericton friends that I've lost touch with over the past year and a half - Most of whom I only hear about second hand through my friend Bridget.
5. Write one multi-chapter Fanfic at TtH, instead of just lurking and reading all the wonderful (and in some cases - not so wonderful) stories.

Stitching Goals

1. Finish Olivia's Dream Sampler - I'm nearly done now as it is.
2. Finish Summer Blooms
3. Finish (or at least make substantial progress on) Fairy Moon
4. Start Mother's Tree (Lavender & Lace) (deciding on the fabric to stitch this on should be one task all on it's own)
5. Start a second Dream Sampler for Rachel (again, once I figure out which fabric to use)
6. Start Romantic Stitcher (Passione Ricamo)
7. Start my Peace Snowglobe
8. Finish my Peace Snowglobe
9. Start Fairy Celebration 2
10. Finish Fairy Celebration 2
11. Have one Ornament weekend each month where I try to stitch one ornament a month -- If I don't get 12 made, I'd settle for one "finished" ornament for each of us. (As well as finishing the ones that I didn't from previous years.)

Heh, talk about being unrealistic. lol

I'll try to remember to post again tomorrow and put up a couple of pics from the holidays. If I just save this as a draft and attempt to add to it later when I have time I may NEVER get this one posted. At least this way I've posted something!

Not much going on

Life's been pretty tame in small town New Brunswick lately. I haven't done much other than watch the tube and play with the kids... oh, other than nearly break my big toe the other day.


For some of you who know, we've got a wood furnace and the other night (Sunday) I went downstairs to throw a few logs in the fire and managed to drop one on my big toe. I don't think it would have been nearly as bad if I had actually been holding it and dropped it, but instead it slipped from my grip before I even had it off the top of the wood pile. Our small wood room in the basement has 9ft ceilings and the wood is piled in three tiers over 7ft tall... (I have to get on my tiptoes to get the wood at the very top) So, a log around 18" long and probably 9" in diameter when whole (it was split in half) fell 7 ft and landed on my big toe... needless to say I couldn't walk well for the next couple of days. Yesterday was the first day that I was actually walking without pain most of the time, though it was also the first day my toe turned purple, and an awfully pretty shade it was!



I haven't been doing much stitching lately. I managed to finish the John Deere Tractor I was stitching for my FIL. It was supposed to have text at the bottom telling the year of the tractor, but I left them off because his old John Deere tractor looks very similar to the pattern, but is a different year. I considered putting something like "Nothing Runs like a Deere" or just "John Deere" at the bottom, but honestly... I doubt he'll mistake it for anything else, so I just left it as it is, very simple.



I started working on Christmas Ornies for this year. I know, I know...I'm cutting it kind of close, but I just don't get the urge to work on Christmas stuff until nearly Christmas. I'm starting with the one I'm doing for Jason and I. (I plan on doing 3 each year -- one for each girl and one for Jason and I) It's the Joy ornament by Sweetheart Tree that's in the 2006 JCS Ornament Issue. I should be done in a day or two (it's not very big) and I'll post a pic then.



Two Christmas presents arrived last week, We ordered a new computer desk for ourselves as a Christmas present for all of us. Right now we've just got a cheap "student" style desk. Everything is open and no drawers etc... not the best thing with a very grabby baby in the house, so we ordered this one from Staples and it arrived the next day. (Note to Future Shop. Please please PLEASE take some lessons on home delivery from Staples!!) It's got a hutch on the top to keep things up high and away from curious little hands. It also has doors in several places to store all our junk that looks so cluttered and messy sitting out in the open right now. I tell you it'll be so nice to be a little more organized than we are now. And it's so hard not to just set it up and be done with it now, but it IS a Christmas present so Jason's adamant that it stay in the box until Christmas Day.



The other present that arrived was one I ordered for myself from Ebay. I've wanted to stitch Mother's Tree for a while now, and found it on Ebay for only a few dollars (including shipping I think I paid around $6.00.) So I thought it would be a good present for the girls to give to me. I won't be stitching it until sometime in the spring. I want to get substantially further in my rotation before I take on another big project. I think I'd get too scattered with another big one right now -- Medium one, maybe... but not a biggun. Unfortunately, blogger won't let me upload a picture now, if you don't know the pattern and want to take a peek, here it is. And if you want to see a gorgeous one that I found online, check this post out! She doesn't post much, but I LOVE her version of this pattern. Strangely enough when I did the research on my family tree on Ancestry.com I found that we actually have the first two ancestors on her tree in common. Neat!



Last of all, I realized that I never posted any Halloween Pictures of the kids but blogger is not cooperating on the photo front, so I'll try to remember to do a seperate post later.

A new look

I was sitting in front of the computer today and started playing with making a titlebar for my page... well that half hour job turned into an entire evening picking and plucking away at my page. Colours, fonts, widgets, etc etc etc...

Anyhow, here's what I came up with... hope you like it.

Mmmmmm.... Sweets!

Well, guess what I did last night. I made my very first ever Apple Pie. I used a "just add water" pie crust mix and a bunch of August Whites (or Yellow Transparents as Jason calls them) that he picked from the huge apple tree in his dad's back yard. What to call them is actually a bit of a bone of contention between us. *lol* You know that our marriage has to be just horrible if that's normally our worst fight. *grin*

Anyway, I threw it all together with a mound of sliced apples, a cup of sugar and a sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg (more than a sprinkle, actually... a fair amount), then after baking for half an hour at 400 I took it out and spread some melted butter on top, then sprinkled it with sugar and put the pie back in for another half an hour. Mmmmmm.... Yummy.

The mini-pie I made for Olivia didn't turn out quite as well. It looks great in the picture, but the bottom crust wasn't quite cooked. I found several recipes that called from anywhere from 20 minutes to 45 minutes cooking. I left it in for 35, but apparently it's not quite enough. I plan on trying to make a few more either later tonight or tomorrow. I told Olivia she could help me make some mini apple pies tomorrow if she was good.

This is what I was sitting down with when I was about to start my post this evening. Jason also got a huge bunch of blueberries at his dad's place and decided to make blueberry muffins today. They are amazing muffins. In case you're interested the recipe can be found here. Definitely worth it.

I still haven't been doing much of anything for stitching lately. I've been spending much of my extra time reading. I've been ordering in some of the Anita Blake - Vampire Hunter books (by Laurell K Hamilton) at my local library. I've only got 4 books left in the series so I guess I'll be reading a bit more for the next while. I get two books in at a time since I'm a fast reader (I usually read both books in 2-3 days) so I usually end up waiting for quite a while for the next ones to come in.

Anyway, I should take off. Big Brother just started and I don't want to miss anything! God, I'm such an addict!

It's a bird, it's a plane...

No! It's Super Olivia!

There is a Children's Bicycle parade this Saturday and Olivia decided she wanted to be a super hero riding her scooter, so I went searching on the web for ideas and found a cute little cape pattern here. If you use a felt or something like that it can be a completely no-sew project, which is normally the kind of thing I go for since I'm not great with the sewing machine. But unfortunately I couldn't find pink felt (only blues, reds blacks and whites) so I ended up getting some pink flannel instead. I had to sew the edges to make sure it didn't fray, but even with my limited skills it only took about 10 minutes at the sewing machine to do this one for Olivia and another little one for Rachel that matches. (Can I get a collective "Awwwww")

I found a bunch of downloads on this site for the mask she's wearing, wrist bands and belt buckles all in matching superhero looks. There were some pink ones on there so I printed them out and then glued them on a white sheet of foam, then cut them out the next day and let Olivia decorate them with glitter glue. She's not wearing the belt and wrist bands yet, but you get the idea.

I took a few pictures and told Olivia to "pose". She gets down on one knee like this and then says "Mommy, is this posing?" I laughed and told her it was a perfect Superhero pose and snaapped a few pictures. What a cutie.

Last night Olivia had a sleepover at a friend's house for the very first time. She's had a friend over one time and she's had a sleep over at her Nannie's house, but never at another friend her own age before. It was nice to put Rachel down to bed and not have to fight with Olivia for an hour or more to go to sleep. It reminds me what it was like only having one child again. I hardly remember what I did with all my free time. lol.

No stitching progress to report. I'm still in my stitching slump. Hopefully I'll get back into it after this weekend. I'll be busy most of the weekend with stuff at the Fair. We're taking Olivia and Rachel out to the rides tomorrow and I'll be working the Figure Skating booth tonight and tomorrow night selling tickets on a Diamond Ring. Here, take a look. This is the picture of the ring that I downloaded from the Crescent website. They donated the ring for our fundraising efforts! Thank you Crescent Gold & Diamonds!!!

Guess what we did yesterday!

We bought a new minivan! Woohoo!!! I've been asking for one for a while now.

We got a 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan. It's Light Blue in colour and is loaded up with all the bells and whistles. It's got the integrated DVD player in it so Olivia can watch a movie when we go somewhere long. We can still listen to the radio or CDs on the regular car stereo while she watches "Snow White" and listens to it on the Wireless headphones!!... cause you know, there's only so many times a person can hear the "Hi ho Hi ho" song without going completely mental. ;)

One of the things we really wanted was the quad seating as opposed to the bench for the middle row, so the kids can have their own space. It'll be really nice when they get older and are fighting all the time, but even at this age Rachel loves to reach over and pull out handfulls of Olivia's hair when she's not looking. Having them slightly separate will definitely make for a quieter ride.

Here are a few pictures of our new Grand Caravan. The pics are from the dealer website, we don't have it yet. Jason's going to pick it up on Thursday. They need a day or so to get all the paperwork finished, and I'm going to be in Fredericton on Wednesday for an appointment, so he'll be travelling to Quispamsis on Thursday to get everything finalized.

Yaaaayyyy!!

It's been a while

since I last posted. May 31st to be exact. Almost a month ago since I last blogged. God I'm pathetic. lol. It' snot like my life has been so full of amazing goings on that I don't have the time to sit at the computer and write a short post... I'm just a bit lazy and I'm a LOT of a procrastinator. I tend to put things off till later, and then never get around to them. I think I have about 4 or 5 months worth of SBQs to catch up on... and I keep saying next week, next week... now I've got so many piled up in my inbox that it's just such a daunting task to get around to them all.

I have a little bit of "Doctor Who" fever again now that season 3 is starting to air... (or season 29, depending on who you talk to) I really like his new companion Freema Agyeman as "Martha". I wasn't sure if I was going to take a shine to her or not because, it's hard when you're replacing a popular character... (Billie Piper as Rose) People always have some expectations on what the new character will be like. I had the same bit of anticipation when David Tennant replaced Christopher Eccleston at the end of season 1, but I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE David in the roll. I adored Chris also, and they both are wonderful as the Doctor even though they both play him very different. They're both very likable and fun and funny. Of course, the funny part is a huge testament to the writers of the show, but they just have the certain way of delivering lines that is just perfect. I think the thing I like best is they're both quite "cheeky" in the roll. I think it's perfect for the character... Mind you, this was my first experience with the Doctor. I never watch any of the original series, so I didn't really have any preconcieved ideas on how the Doctor should act. Anyway, enough about Doctor Who for now... that's for tonight when the new episode airs on CBC *grin* Now it's time for a bit of a stitchy update.

I guess I'll first mention a little bit about the rotation I'm doing. I've decided that sometimes 10 hours just isn't enough. There are some times I can get 10 hours in 2-3 days if I'm having a really good go, so I decided to do a "10 hours or a week" rotation, which ever takes longer to get to... Basically if I am stitching a lot and get done my 10 hours in a few days then I'll keep stitching till I've stitched on it for a week, but if I'm having a time where I'm not doing much stitching, then I don't switch projects until I've got at least 10 hours done... that way I am always guaranteed to get the 10 hours in.

So, the first one I started this with was Summer Blooms by Marie Barber. Here's what it looks like when I put it down after the 10 hours to start Dream Sampler. When I pick it back up I'll fill in the little spots (they're just white stitches, so it'll look a lot like the empty places do now, and then backstitch the flowers before moving on to the lower areas.

After I finished this I moved on to FINALLY start Dream Sampler. I'm stitching it on 32ct Opalescant Lugana from Silkweaver in Iris Garden. There's a bit of a story here. After I got it I placed an order for the specialty fibres that it calls for from an online store. You may remember that post, it wasn't all that long ago. Anyhow I finally got the order, with a few extra GAST freebies thrown in for good measure. (Thank you Despina! BTW , GAST stands for Gentle Arts Sampler Threads for those of you not into that kind of thing.) When I opened the package up I saw the threads and was boggled. How am I supposed to stitch with such a HUGE piece of thread!! I had ordered the Caron Watercolors instead of the Caron Waterlillies. I mistakenly thought that even though the watercolors were cotton and the waterlilies were silk, they would be approximately the same size anyway. I guess I was expecting the watercolors to be the same size as a standard DMC/Anchor/Whatever cotton thread. Well, they're not. They've only got3 srands per thread and the thread is probably twice the size of a regular one. You can see them in the picture just above. The watercolors are the ones on the bobbins and the waterlilies is the one still in the twist.

At first I never clued in and I did start stitching with them, I was having a really hard time with the stitches. The thread was so big and full, and the holes were so small (32 count, you know) Everything was puckering and pulling strangely. It just didn't look nice. If you click on the pic to the left you can see a little better. The swirls are done in the watercolors, the overdyed portion of her skirt are the watercolors and the backstitch around her wings are the watercolors. Funny thing. The skirt is actually done with HALF stitches. The thread was so thick that I couldn't fit whole stitches in there, it was just too crowded, so I did half stitches instead and it didn't turn out half bad. If it weren't for the backstitching part then I might have kept going with it, but I find the backstitching just looks horrible.

Anyway, I was in Moncton this Saturday to take the kids to the Zoo with some of the kids and parents from the local drop in play group, and after leaving the zoo I took a quick trip down to "Because You Count" to ask about the waterlilies. I had never worked with, or even seen silks before and really wasn't sure how much of a difference they were in size. Well... you can see in the first picture that the skein of thread is about the same size as DMC threads, but there's 12, count 'em 12 strands per thread, not 6!! So they're even smaller than regular floss. So, I had to throw down the money and get them. Can you believe $8.40 per skein of silk thread!! That's almost criminal. I can't believe how expensive they are. I mean, I know that going to a brick and mortar store, it tends to cost a little more because of the higher overhead, and that I consider worth it, but still... By the time I got all 3 threads and paid tax, it was over $28!! for 3 threads!!! I had wanted to look around and get a bit more at first, but the only other thing I ended up picking up were some Piecemaker needles. Everyone I talk to and read blogs from seems to be completely nuts about these needles. So I took the plunge and picked up a few. They weren't too expensive. $3.30 for 6 needles. The cheapo Anchor ones I usually buy at Walmart are around $1.50 for 4, so a bit more money, but not horrible.

Well, it's too late to make a long story short, but the punch line is that I'm now waiting for the store to get two of the three threads in that I bought -- only one was in stock. They're going to mail them to me as soon as they arrive -- at no extra cost since I already paid for them, but I'm still waiting!! Oh well, I'll survive. It's not like I don't have other things to stitch. Besides, I now have to pull out all that backstitching and half stitches that I stitched with the watercolors... All hail to the frog queen, coming for a visit. Hopefully it's a short one.

In other news I had myself a yard sale last weekend and made around $250, then I badgered my dh until he got me a treadmill -- which the $250 is going towards. Apparently I've got high blood pressure. I have since I had Rachel, but my doctor told me "oh don't worry about it, it'll go down in a while." Well, apparently it didn't. So, now I'm trying to lose weight and exercise more to see if that will help enough that I don't need meds. That's why the tread mill. I'm a bit of a bugaphobe, if that's really a word, and I'm also terrified of dogs, so walking in a rural area with dogs in every 2nd or third yard during the summer when you live with the woods all around you doesn't work all that well for me... The good thing is that I know myself pretty well in this respect and I know I could tell the doctor that I'd walk each and every day faithfully, but it just wouldn't happen. Luckily Jason knows this about me too, which is why he didn't fight me too much on the treadmill issue.

Well, that's probably a long enough post for now. I'll try and remember to post a few zoo pictures tomorrow.

Happy Mothers Day

A great big "Happy Mother's Day" to all of you Moms, Grandmas and Moms-to-be!

Life and Wildlife

My blogging has been woefully absent of late, but blame it on the life altering internet revolution called Facebook, or as some call it "Crackbook" becasue it's (apparently) as addicting as crack.

I wouldn't know about the crack part, but Facebook is damn addicting I will admit that. Most of my internet browsing time has been taken up with searching around Facebook randomly. Checking out who is friends with who etc etc. But I was reminded today about my lack of posting on the blog when I was talking to my Aunt C on the phone. She reminded me that I haven't posted since April 6th, so I thought I'd better get my chubby little butt in gear and do a post.

I'm sick... again. We're all sick in fact. Everyone except Jason. Lucky bugger has dodged the flu/cold every time it hit our house this winter. Mind you it might be because he's the only one in the house who had a flu shot, but I gloss over that fact when I'm complaining about always being sick this winter. lol Hey, I'm a woman it's my perogerative. :)

Rachel's (and my) birthday party is coming up Sunday and Olivia has a Dance rehearsal and recital on Friday and Saturday respectively, so it's going to be a damn busy weekend. Not like this week leading up to it will be any less stressful. I'm making hand made Royal Icing decorations for Rachel's cake as well as the cake itself, and possibly some cookies too. We'll be cleaning and decorating for a first birthday, and to top it all off we've decided to paint the kitchen this week. As if we don't have enough else to do. lol. All this while Mommy and the two kidlets are sick! Not a fun time, let me tell you.

Yesterday I saw something I've never seen before. I've seen pictures, but never in person. Living quite close by our house is an Albino deer! They were in our backyard yesterday morning and I got a few shots through the window, but they mostly sucked because I've only got a 3x zoom on my camera and it was just far enough away in the woods that I couldn't focus very well on it. There was the Albino and 3 or 4 other "normal" deer wandering around looking for food.

At first I just assumed that they were just wandering by because we've never really seen a lot of deer in our area before. I mean I live with the woods all around me, so I know there's probably a few in there, but I just assumed because (not far) behind our house are a bunch of old clear cut coal mines, that the deer had gone to "greener pastures" so to speak. But today, just around dusk, Jason came to me and said that all the deer, including the Albino, were back. They were standing in our front yard looking for food when he opened the door to put out a garbage bag and they all took off running. I opened the living room blinds and one of the other deer was still there eating the little bit of our lawn stayed green(ish) over the winter. So off I ran to get my trusty (sucky) camera. I went to the side door, where I could easily see him and opened the window on the door to get a better shot. I set up my tripod and turned off the flash and got a couple of pretty good shots. Not professional by any means, but not bad.

Here they are:

The top two pictures are yesterday morning. You can see a white blur with some brown spots on it, That my friends is an Albino deer! and just to the right of it is another deer behind the tree.

The next four pictures are tonight out my side window. When I came to the window, he/she stood and stared right at me for a few minutes before (s)he went back to business. There's a few pictures of him/her grazing away in our front yard not 50 feet from our car. Then the last picture is one of it darting off into the bushes when an especially loud transport truck drove by our house. Hopefully they come back and I can get a few good pictures of the Albino to show.

No Fabrics yet.

It's been a pretty slow few days. No stitching going on, no Scrapbooking either. Just a whole lotta couch potatoing. Is that even a word? Well, it is now!


We did get to Fredericton on Monday. We had to go to the bank to sign the papers to increase our mortgate. We're going to consolidate our line of credit and visa directly into our mortgate. We figured it out and we'll be paying $17 per month LESS than our current payments, and right now we're only paying our interest on our line of credit. Yes, it's going to take us 25 years to pay everything off, but at this rate (paying interest only) we're NEVER going to get rid of our line of credit.


You'd think when you go in to consolidate all your debts, they'd tell you "Your loan will be paid off next week when the paperwork comes through.". But no, they tell you instead, "You'll get the money deposited directly into your account next week." They don't care if you pay off the debts or not. In fact, I'm pretty sure they hope you go crazy and spend it all... that way you're still stuck paying on a line of credit for the rest of your life.


Jason was going to hit her up for "no fees for a year" if we signed back on with them, but forgot. I told him to call back and ask about it, but he wouldn't. He figures now that we've already signed, there's no way they'll give anything else. I figure as long as you've got a mortgage with a bank, you shouldn't have to pay a cent in monthly user fees with them. It's awful, as much as we pay each month in interest alone, and they're still trying to nickel and dime you to death.


Of course a trip to Fredericton wouldn't be complete without a stop at Walmart. But we went to the new one on the North Side instead of the one at the mall. Holy smokes, what a big improvement the new walmart is over the old one. Everything looks so much more inviting. I heard mention of the "colour change" in the paper and honestly didn't know what to expect, but I guess unlike the fast food colour schemes, Walmart is trying to get the shopper to stay longer, because the longer you stay, the more you spend. The only thing I didn't like about the new Walmart is the horribly small craft section... But I guess they figured with a Michaels coming this spring, it was a waste of time to use a lot of space on crafts... However their fabric selection is almost abysmal.


Speaking of Walmart, here's a funny tshirt design i found at the T Shirt Hell website. (Warning this site is not for the faint of heart, some designs are pretty adult oriented)

Puppies, puppies and more puppies!

Well, it's almost spring and that means for many it's either Car trading or Moving "season", but for me spring brings around a different kind of urge. It's puppy season!

No, I'm not hunting puppies. I'm hunting FOR puppies... Ever since our Maggie got hit by a car 5 years ago, I've been asking for another puppy almost every spring. Don't get me wrong -- I ask other times too, but spring time just tends to bring out the worst in me when it comes to wanting a puppy. In the winter I can talk myself out of it, because who really wants to have a new puppy to wait outside with in the middle of the night in a snow storm? But, once the weather starts warming up and the birdies start re-appearing, I start looking at breeders web sites and at the Snookums Pets site. Jason usually tries and tries to distract me from my mission and usually manages to talk some sense into me before too long but this time I just don't know...

I've recently found this puppy at Snookums Pets and desperately want him. He's a Sheltie-Poodle cross. I had been looking at Shelties for quite a long time. They're very intelligent, easy to train and not very big. Perfect as far as I'm concerned. So, once I saw this little guy I nearly went nuts. The main thing that's stopping me right now is the cost. I know what dogs cost now a days, but I still can't get over it. A MIXED breed dog and they're selling it for $399! Plus Tax, Plus delivery. Yes, delivery. Snookums delivers in a climate controlled van once a week anywhere in Atlantic Canada for only $39. So, I figured it out, once we add tax and the delivery fee, (and possibly tax on the delivery fee) that's $500. For a mixed breed dog!! Crazy.

The other thing that's really stopping me is the fact that you can't meet the dog first if you're having him delivered. When we got Maggie, we went to the pet store in Fredericton and asked about what dogs he had. He said he had one really good one in right now, and one that he didn't really recommend. I asked why he didn't recommend her and he said "Because she doesn't make up with people. She's very timid. Not a very good pet" Well, I wanted to meet her anyway, she was just too cute not to. He brought her out and she ran up to both Jason and I and started kissing us and jumping on us. She was so excited to meet us. I fell in love with her right then and there and we took her. She made up with both of us right away and was an excellent pet. The store owner wasn't wrong though, she WAS very shy and timid around others -- Mostly men, but with us she was wonderful.

This puppy is gorgeous, but he might not be right for our family and unless we meet him first, we'll really never know. I mentioned taking a day trip over to Charlottetown to visit the store in person but that's not really reasonable. By the time we paid Gas and the Bridge fees to go to PEI and back, plus stopped for lunch we're talking quite a bit more than delivery. Plus we don't have room in our car for two kids in car seats and a puppy crate. So, I guess we'd have to rent a van for the day. That costs even more. I don't know... maybe he will manage to talk me out of it again after all.

100th Meridian... err.. I mean Post!

I can't believe I made it to 100 posts without flaking completely on my blogging. I don't blog as much as I used to, or as much as I had hoped after my "New Years" list, but I'm still going somewhat.

Rachel is now zipping around the house on all fours, so we've had to move into the super clean mode when it comes to our floors. She's steady picking up any little thing she finds and shoving it into her mouth. Having to sweep several times a day really sucks, but I guess it's just one of those things that comes with having a mobile baby around.

I haven't been stitching a lot lately. I had a touch of the flu a while back and spent a few days recouperating, we also spent a day in F'ton and ended up a Leons picking out a new Dining room set. We spent a day, along with Jason's Dad, last weekend moving everything around the house. I was just going to take a few pictures to post, but I just looked around and realized how much popcorn is on the floor right now! (Rachel is sleeping and Olivia is having a little snack -- most of which is scattered around the floor.) So, maybe this evening I'll get a picture taken and I can hopefully post it tomorrow.

Waiting, Cravings and the Weather

It seems like everyone everywhere is posting about the strange weather lately, but we're seeing a lot of strange goings on here in Atlantic Canada especially. I mean, hell, it's January 6th and they're calling for a high of 11 degrees and a low of 1 degree Celcius (That's a high of 52 and a low of 34 degrees F for any American friends reading this.) The regional norms are between -15 and -4 degrees C (between 5 and 25 degrees F) This is CRAZY. We're having a pretty torrential downpour right now and for the past few days it's felt like early spring here! This has got to be one of the mildest winters on record for the area. I actually saw on TV the other day that 10 of the warmest years (worldwide) have occured since 1994 (12 years)... so 10 of the past 12 years have been the warmest years EVER recorded! It really makes you think about the whole Global Warming issue, doesn't it?



Rachel is getting ready to pop a few more teeth. Her two top incisors are starting to push through. You can see her gums are getting whiter as the teeth are getting closer to the surface. It should be any day now and my little one is going to move from 2 to 4 teeth. She's getting so big now, I'm almost getting depressed thinking about it. With Olivia it didn't seem as bad because I always knew I wanted another baby. But now that we have 2, we're pretty much sure we're done having kids. (not 100%, but about 99% sure) And, now that we're pretty sure of this, every new milestone is not only exciting, but saddening becasue this is my LAST baby! This is the last time I'll see one of my babies getting their teeth, learning to crawl, learning to talk etc etc etc. I know there are some (if not many) of you who know exactly what I'm talking about.



I had the chance to get my tubes tied when I went in for surgery on my Ovarian Cysts, but I didn't want to commit to something like that. I'd rather wait a while and go back for another surgery (or send Jason for surgery *lol*) once we're 100% sure we're done... but not until then.





Something weird happend to me yesterday. I was in Rachel's room getting her up after her nap and all of a sudden, out of the blue, I got hit with a VERY STRONG craving for a cigarette! Funny thing is, I quit smoking in June 1997 so it's been almost 10 years! I backslid a few times, afterwards but never for long, mostly just party smoking (I know you understand that Aunt "C"! That and "New Brunswick Smoking" *lol*) and I haven't even had a drag off of a cig in at LEAST 5 years, I'm not sure exactly how long it's been since I had a drag, but I know I've never had one since I've been living in this house. (5 years in May) It just seems weird to hit all of a sudden out of the blue like that. Honestly, it's something I never really expected to have to wrorry about anymore. Not after this long. Strange.



Well, now that I'm done with Christmas ornies and Fairy Celebration, I can finally get back to stitching on Waiting. It's been sitting for quite a long time (sometime in October was the last time I stitched on her) and I finally got my next 10 hours done with. I'm now at 60 hours as of the other night when I took the pictures. In reality I'm at about 64 hours now, but I don't have any pictures for that far yet. I'll have some more at 70. I've finished the lady's arm and have started on the blue scarf on her dress. She's coming along pretty well, hopefully I can stick with her for a while now and get quite a lot done. It shouldn't be too hard now that I'm done all of the "boring" stitching on the drapes. Here's a picture of my progress so far. Click on the picture to see a larger version.

2006 / 2007

Well, the year is at an end. It's about half an hour until we ring in 2007 with a bang and I'm sitting here blogging about it on my computer. lol. What an exciting life I have. The kids are asleep and Jason's watching the 'tube' And me, Well I'm here bragging about having one last final finish in 2006. Yes, you heard right. I finally finished Fairy Celebration!! Woohoo. The only finish this year that didn't involve an ornament. (and only 2 of those!) Needless to say I'm not one of those "power stitchers" out there that stitch an L&L or Mirabilia pattern from start to finish in 2 short months or anything like that. But damn it, when I do get one finished I brag about it to everyone I know. lol

Here's a picture of my newest masterpiece. I plan on finishing it as a wall hanging. I just need to find the perfect material for it. I don't want to get something too busy or it might take away from the amazing fabric it's stitched on. I'd like to get a simple fabric, maybe a single blue or purple with some sparkles in it. When I get that part done I'll post another picture of it then. I should have a little time to look for fabric when I go to town on the 18th.

I've got a doctor's appointment in Fredericton that morning and since my mom is laid off for the winter, I asked her if she'd watch the kids for the day (Thanks Mom!!) to give Jason and I a chance to get out without them. I know, we just got out in December for the day without them, but that was a busy day Christmas Shopping, not much time to just browse around and take our time. We barely stopped the whole time we were away. Still nice to get away from the kids for a few hours, but it's not the same.

Now, on to the part of the post that everyone seems to be posting about the past few days. New Years Resolutions... You know, I hate that term. I REALLY hate it. Everyone breaks their resolution. When people are talking about New Years Resolutions you automatically think Weight Loss, Quit Smoking, Learn Something New, yadda yadda yadda. Nothing new here folks. I gave up making new years resolutions several years ago. Instead, this year I'm making a 2007 To Do list. It's got more on it then a typical resolution, but it's more specific, attainable goals. Not the generalizations that a lot of people usually go with.

So, that being said, here is my 2007 To Do list. Much of which involves stitching. (heh, imagine that.)

1. Play with and read to my kids more
2. Try to keep up with my housework (or at least a little more than usual)
3. Post on my blog at least once a week
4. Post more to the email lists I belong to (no more lurking!)
5. Comment more on other's blogs. - I always complain that no one (or rather very few people) comment on my blog, but I'm guilty of reading and running as well. But not anymore!
6. Try and stitch at least two nights per week (EVERY week)
7. Finish "Waiting"
8. Start "Summer Blooms" (It's the second picture in this post)
9. Finish "Summer Blooms"
10. Start "Fairy Moon"
11. Finish "Fairy Moon" (though not likely!)
12. Stitch "Quilt" (a DMC freebie I picked up online. See the pic here) and make it into a needlebook
13. Stitch and "finish" 3 new Christmas Ornaments for 2007
14. "finish" 3rd Ornament from 2006 (Blackwork Noel)
15. Get started on a scrapbook for Rachel.
16. Make a monthly "to do" list each month to help keep me on track.

So, there it is... I'm done my list and most of them seem pretty attainable. And lookie here there's still 4 minutes to go until midnight. Well, I should go spend the next few minutes with Jason.

(Edit: Well, now that I look back I see one or two generalizations there... play with and read to my kids more? Yeah, it's a good one, but not a very "time specific" - "completable" goal. It's more of a generalization... yeah, you know that thing I was just complaining about... oh well.)

I hope that 2006 treated you well and that you have a wonderful 2007!

Waiting for news

Wanda, a good family friend has been in Ontario for several months now waiting for a lung transplant. She was told several months ago that she only had about 18 months to live if she didn't get the transplant. Well, Jason called this morning from work and informed me that last night when she was talking on the phone to her son (one of Jason's best friends --like a brother) her beeper went off for her transplant. Apparently the opperation was supposed to get underway sometime in the middle of the night and she would be in surgery until sometime this afternoon.

I was so excited when Jason called me this morning to tell me what was going on. All I could think of was what a wonderful Christmas gift someone gave to her.

Organ donation is something that everyone should think long and hard about. No one can make the decision for you, but really... what do you need the organs for once you're gone? Just think that the person who might get your organs could be someone's mother or father, someone's wife or husband, someone's sister or brother. You'd not only be changing that person's life forever, but the lives of their friends and families as well.

I've downloaded the Organ donation card from the gov't of New Brunswick website.
Click on the small picture to see it full size and please please please print it and seriously consider filling it out. Also please talk to your friends and family about your choices. They're the ones who ultimately make the decisions and if they don't know what you want, they may not do anything about it.

If you live outside of NB, please contact your local government office to find out where you can get a card of your own.

Now, I'm off to wait and see how her surgery went. *crosses my fingers, toes and anything else that I can cross* We love you Wanda!!

Rachel's Ornament and other things

I haven't had a lot to say lately, so I haven't been posting much... just a few jokes for the past few days. Life's been fairly slow lately. I haven't even been stitching. I've been a bit tired in the evening and have been spending it laying on the couch in front of the boob tube. I know, I know... if I were stitching I'd be sitting in the same place... It's not like it's a physically draining thing, but I just find that if I'm concentrating, it's still more tiring than just laying there "vegging".

One day last week I fell asleep in front of the TV around 9:30. I got up a few hours later and went straight to bed and slept right through... I think I just needed to catch up a little. I'm normally a night owl and am usually up till midnight or later (sometimes MUCH later) almost every night, then up around 8 with the kids. Olivia hasn't napped since a few months before Rachel was born, so I don't get a chance to catch up during the day like I used to... I guess I just needed a week or so of earlier bed times to catch me up a bit.

I did manage to get Rachel's Ornament finished -- the stitching and beading at least, I still haven't gotten either one "finished" in that it actually makes a real ornament. Right now it's still just a small piece of Aida with some floss and beads on it. I need to get my butt in gear... maybe tonight since there's nothing on TV. lol. I say that like it might actually happen... I've been saying that for a week now and I'm still in the same boat! Here's a picture

I haven't been in much of a Christmassy mood lately. Not a total "Bah Humbug" kind of mood or anything like that. I'm still semi-excited... but I just can't get into that really excited Christmassy mood that usually hits once we get this close to present day *grin*

I got some news from my Mom the other day. My Great-Grandmother is not well. According to mom the doctors have given her anywhere from hours to weeks to live. Her body is just shutting down. Sometimes I feel sad and other times I feel like I should feel more.

There's a bit of a back story to this... For those that don't know me in person, or have just never heard about this. My Grandmother, her only daughter, had Alzheimers Disease and passed away in March of 1998. Several months before Gram died, Grampy asked Nannie (my Great-grandmother) to come home and stay with them. They pretty much knew Gram wasn't doing well and thought it would be good for her to have her mother around. Nannie said no. She wasn't going to move home to New Brunswick. (She lives in Ontario and has for as long as I can remember.) Then a few months after Gram died, I heard through the grapevine (the family) that Nannie had OFFERED to move to Saint John (here in NB) to look after her ex-boyfriend's son because he wasn't well... (BTW, don't let her hear you calling him her BF though... According to her, he was just her "boarder". For 40 years! *wink*) Anyway, after I heard about her offer to move back to NB to take care of Joe's son, I got mad. VERY mad. She can do that for her "boarder's" son, but not her ONLY child!?! I've been hanging onto this anger for a lot of years and I know that even though she's not going to last much longer I'm still having a very hard time letting it go.

To knot or not (SBQ) and other stuff

This week's SBQ asks:
How do you secure your thread when you begin a new one? Specifically, do you or have you ever used a waste knot?

I do use a waste knot form time to time, usually when I feel I'm running low on floss and want to conserve every millimeter of floss for stitching. For a while I used it all the time because I hated trying to "catch" the tail in my stitching. But now I usually just run my needle under some existing stitches nearby when starting a new thread.

The only time I leave a tail and then stitch over it to catch it is when I'm starting a brand new project, or starting in an area where there isn't much stitching already done to run the needle under.


Now, onto the rest of the post. Sorry I haven't been on much lately but the past few days has seen a household full of "sickies" here chez moi. All 4 of us have caught a rather nasty strain of the cold. This is our second go-round in the past few weeks, so I've been spending any extra time that I'm not looking after the kidlets recouperating. Unfortunately that means not much stitching going on either. I've spent much of my time sleeping lately. *grin* Luckily Jason doesn't mind looking after the little ones. I seem to have gotten the worst of it this time around. Last time I only had a stuffy nose for about a day and a half, but I think I more than made up for it this time. It almost feels like half cold/half flu. I've got the cough and stuffy/runny nose of a cold, and the aches and pains and fatigue that go with the flu.

I finally got a little bit of stitching done last night. I started the lettering for the back of the two ornaments on Monday night and last night I finally got Rachel's Ornament finished. I still have to work on the beading tonight so I won't be posting a progress picture until the that is done. After that I'll try and get them finished into ornaments. This is my first time "finishing" a project, so it should be interesting. I found a little tutorial on how to make the braid that goes around the ornament out of floss. I was planning on buying standart white braid to use, but now I think I might try making my own out of the pink and purple shades of floss that I used to stitch the mittens and scarves. I think it would be cute to have all 4 shades in there. Of course that means I'll have to pick up more floss too because I have very little left of most of those colours.

I'm so excited about Saturday. We're going shopping in Moncton. Now this thought usually brings dreadful thoughts of a packed Walmart and trying to find a parking space at the mall without having to walk 10 minutes to get to the front doors dragging screaming kids behind you all the while.

But what is so exciting this time is that Jason and I are going SOLO! Yes, that's right Jason's mom is watching Olivia and Mom is watching Rachel. We've got the whole day to shop without having to stop every 5 minutes for pee breaks, or bottle breaks, or dirty diaper breaks...

We can actually go to lunch somewhere that doesn't give out toys with their meals.

I can actually stop at a craft store and poke around for a minute without worrying whether or not the baby is in the car with Jason screaming her face off the whole time. (something that has actually happened once or twice)

I'm so excited thinking about it that I'm almost ready to get up and dance around the room...

(I know, I know... What's stopping me, right? It is good cardio after all.)

More pics missed from October

I've decided to post a few more pictures that I should have posted in October. (and two from even earlier than that. I wasn't sure if I had posted them before or not and I was too lazy to check *lol*)

April 26: This was taken on Rachel's first day home from the hospital.

August 26: We went out for the day and Rachel needed a little nap. I thought this picture was so cute with her cuddling the cow. We call her "Bessie". (The cow, not Rachel *lol*)

October 1: Olivia has been facinated with making funny faces lately.

October 1: Here's another funny face.

October: Here is a picture of the painting we had done for my grandfather's 75th birthday. It's a painting done of his house by a local artist. Click on the picture to see a larger version and see if you can find the cardinal. (She puts one in every painting she does.)

Here's the original picture (taken last year by my uncle) that the artist worked from for the painting. Isn't she an great artist. BTW, she didn't paint the roof colour wrong. She thought it was grey as it looks like in the picture, but she took a drive out to his house to double check on something and found that it's acutally green.

October 6: Olivia taking a rest on the lawn while playing outside.

October 6: We had my uncle come over and take some pictures hoping to get a good family picture we could put on some Christmas cards. I love this picture, but it wasn't quite focused and it's a bit too blury for printing. Most of the others didn't turn out because, well, any of you with kids know how hard it is to get two of them looking in the same direction at the same time. *lol*

October 7: Olivia bowling for the first time. My cousin had her daughter Josie's birthday party at the local bowling alley. Olivia had a blast!

October 8: Rachel grinning from ear to ear. Get a look at those two pearly whites!

October 11: Roasting marshmallows on a campfire in our back yard. Strangely enough after one marshmallow Olivia didn't want to eat any more. She liked roasting them, but didn't want to eat them... Strange... if I didn't know better I'd wonder if she were really mine. *lol*

October 19: No story behind this picture. I just love her expression.

October 23: Rachel was 6 months old this day and we started feeding her solids.

October 24: Olivia's 3rd birthday and she started figure skating today. She LOVES it!

October 31: It's Halloween and here are Mommy and her girls all dressed up at a Halloween Party that morning.

October 31: Candy Day. As you can tell Olivia is pretty wired. This was our last stop at Nannies house before we went home for the night.

Long time no see...

I know, I know. I've been a baaaad girl lately. I haven't been keeping up with my blogging at all. My last post was about Olivia's birthday and that was 2 1/2 weeks ago.

I've also realized that I haven't been posting as many pictures of the kids as I had intended either, so most of this post will be back pictures of the kids, then if I have time I'll post a bit more... The pictures always take the longest because It takes so long to upload them to blogger.

Here's a few from November.

November 1: Rachel eating her first vegetable. PEAS!!

November 1: After the peas were done. Messy girl!

November 2: Olivia cuddling up on the couch, smiling for the camera.

November 2: Rachel having some "tummy time"

November 5: Here's a picture of Olivia writing a letter to Santa. (Yes it's that time of year already!!) She has decided to ask him for a Scooter for Christmas this year.

November 7: Here's Olivia helping to feed Rachel her baby cereal.

November 7: And here's Rachel after she was done. *lol*

November 12: This final picture was taken this morning. I was getting her cereal ready and I looked over and saw her sucking on her bib. Apparently I wasn't quick enough with her breakfast and she decided to try eating something else. *grin*