An Emotional Weekend...

The last week has been crazy. I mean, everyone has a crazy time at this time of year.. trust me, I know that. But with me and the kids being sick, and party after party, after party... well, it drains you, you know?

Last weekend was L's birthday party. It's amazing seeing my little girl growing up. She and her friends seemed to have a blast. This is the first one where we've actually invited her friends, and not just had a small family gathering. It was actually not that bad considering. The kids only got hyper after the cake, so in future we know that cake comes last. We had the party at Michael's Arts & Crafts Store and while they did an okay job I was pretty disappointed in the procedure. It's one of the less expensive party options out there, because you only pay $50 for the room and the associate to "teach" (I'm using that word loosely.) and you can choose any price craft that you want for the kids to make. Since the kids were still pretty young, we opted for one of the least expensive crafts - some Christmas hand puppets and foam ornaments. One box costs about $15 (we bought 2) and you get 8 puppets per, more than enough for the 12 kids we had there. But what bothers me is this... they say the associate will have the craft set up before the party.... the associate wasn't even in the room when it started, we had to go find her in the store, and nothing was set up. It could have gone so much smoother. And finally, every child ended up getting taught one by one. I did as much helping as the associate did, sometimes more. Maybe I'm just biased... but I worked at Michaels for 3 years. I did this woman's job and I know her job description like the back of my own hand. She could have handled it way better. Oh well. Can't change the past, right?

After we had a small gathering at home with the in-laws and my mom where we had far too much food, and not enough time to do everything. L managed to open her presents, but it was crazy rushed. I was constantly herding people back into the room so we could finish since J and I needed to get ready to leave and go to his work Christmas party! With the downtown traffic, it took us two hours to drive there which was insane, but at least we made it before the dinner started with enough time to socialize a bit. It was a pretty fun night, our table won the trivia game (we were oh so close last year!) and J also won one of the door prizes so we left with a couple $10 gift cards, very helpful around this time of year! We got home around 12:30, and collapsed into bed. How's that for a day?!

To add to that, I had a little bit of a freak-out on Friday night since the party was business casual. Now - I used to work in an office place so I have plenty of business-style clothing... or so I thought. I went into my closet on Friday night, to pull out all my clothing... and nothing fit. I mean NOTHING. I thought about it for a bit... when I was still living at home, pre-babies, pre-marriage. I put on some weight. I went up to size 8 - and I was devastated... (please note, I am only 5'2" so any weight makes me look much larger - I should be around 115 - 120, healthy). I made my mom join a club with me and we lost the extra size. Not that we knew much or how to do it, but we were determined. I went back down to my size 6, and even dropped back to size 3/4 for my wedding. But here's the realization... I am now a size 16. Which, for my height is considered obese. Nothing fits me anymore. Only my t-shirts and stretch pants which I virtually live in. I was fine with that, it only bothered me a bit - until I saw over $2000 worth of clothing in my closet that I had no hope in hell in fitting. I couldn't even start zippers. And I wondered how the hell I'd done this to myself, without even blinking an eye. How did I go from that girl who freaked out over a single size jump, to a woman who put on 50 pounds and countless inches without even noticing she was getting larger and larger. And of course, I know the answer... or both answers, really in my case.

1. Children - two of them, back to back in two years. Couple that with hypertension (your body gets all the food, and baby gets nothing) and gestational diabetes (baby gets all the sugar, and you get nothing), and by the time I finished up, I was already 175. With the diabetic training, I did manage to drop back to 155, but remember, I love to bake, so it's all too easy to put that weight back on again. I no longer have diabetes, but if things continue the way they have, I will in the future.
2.  My husband - he has never eaten extraordinarily healthy, and lately, we've been too lazy to make proper meals - so we end up eating a lot of crap. He's put on as much, if not more than me, but I guess it doesn't bother him as much.  But that's for him to do. I'm not worrying about him because, I've tried to talk to him about losing weight with me, and he - doesn't seem interested. Not sure how to do that but it's the old adage I suppose... you can lead a horse... well we all know the rest.

So after two hours of crying incessantly, and dumping all the clothing I can't fit into a plastic bin to get it out of my closet, (since there is no point in it being in there if I can't wear it!) I came to a decision. I am going to start a workout regime. I am not going to say "tomorrow" anymore. I am going to lose this weight and get somewhere back from a size 16. So I started Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred on Saturday morning before all the parties started. I even deprived myself of having either of my daughter's cakes (either the store bought one, or the one I made) except for a couple small bites. I am bound and determined, I tell you! I will not fail this one! And to report, that first day of working out? I couldn't even finish the 22 minute set. How sad is that? When I was dating my husband we used to rollerblade for 20 km easy, and would only turn around because it got dark. And now, I can't finish a 22 minute work out.

But day two was better, I managed the whole thing. It took me two advil, and a hot bath, but I did it! I'm still hurting, very badly. My legs are the worst. You'd think that me being a newspaper carrier who walks around the whole neighbourhood with almost 100 papers once (used to be twice) a week, my legs would be stronger. You'd be wrong. They hurt. A lot. And my stomach hurts (which I'm actually very happy about.) It's not a hunger pain. It's a "you've worked your core muscles" pain. And since that's what I'm hating most on, thank god! I love you Jillian Michael right now! I've tried a couple workout regimes over the last couple years and none of them has tortured me so much. But it's what I need right now and I hope it does help me to shrink back down. I don't really expect to lose weight, but I need to lose those inches. I need to stand a chance of getting back into the clothing I used to wear. Because I can't face the devastating thought of not wearing it ever again. I used to love some of those outfits.

I haven't managed day three yet, but I will. Once I take some more pain meds. But I did go on a 40 minute walk this morning with my son, and it was still hurting my muscles to walk it. (which is also new, I do this walk all the time, and it never hurts like it did today) I figure couple that with some massive portion control and deprivation of the sweets I so adore (at least for a while!) and I should see some major progress over the coming weeks, even with Christmas looming. I just need to watch out for the chocolate...

Mini Cupcake Trees - So cute!

Today was a long day. And I do mean that literally, because although in some people's minds, it is tomorrow, for me the day is not yet over. I have been cleaning. All. Day. Ughh... It's good though, my house looks amazing. I just hope we can keep it looking this good for the next couple weeks because next weekend I will not have time to clean and do all those lovely weekend things that mommies get to do.

I got up this morning and started on my bedroom. Then I moved to L & G's room. Then the hall. Then the living room. Then the play room... well, you get the picture. I systematically cleaned the entire upper floor of the house. I also did laundry and raked leaves (in the snow - I'm dedicated... not really, but I needed to finish it before the last pick-up, and since it's going to snow again tomorrow, I wanted them up before we get any surprise major dumpings of snow.) Came back in, made dinner for the family, cleaned the bathroom, did more laundry.

And then I get to my fun stuff. I had a great night. Yesterday I started making mini cupcakes for my MIL's Christmas party which is on Sunday. I wanted to show up with a little surprise for them, and this seemed the best way to go about it. So I made up the cupcakes, which since they're minis, cooked surprisingly fast. About 12 minutes or so, and they're perfect!

 Then I decided, well, they need some icing.... (just kidding, I did plan this out in advance, I didn't just go at it for fun!)

But that still wasn't enough and as cute as they were, I felt they needed some more Oomph (is that a word?) But that needed to wait until the first icing set, and besides, it was pretty late by the time I finished the first round of icing. So today, I got to play a little in the kitchen and here's where they start to look really cool. :) I found a standard buttercream icing recipe online, since my vanilla icing recipe just doesn't make enough and I didn't want my chocolate buttercream (although it is my absolute favourite ever - if you don't include my mom's coffee buttercream which I could eat straight out of the bowl until it was gone, regardless of the stomach pains I'd get later!) But I digress... I found the butter cream recipe, coloured it green and Voila!

Aren't these just the cutest things ever? I've gotta say, that whole practice makes perfect thing seems to totally work... who knew that when I was working at Michael's, deciding to peek my head in for the cake decorating classes now and again, I never really expected the information to sink in! And now, having to make at least 4 cakes a year, I have gotten remarkably good with icing!

Alas, there were four innocent little cupcakes left over without trees... (why I must ask are there always 4?... specifically, every time I bake, or do something, there's always 4 left that I just cannot finish because I run out of icing, sugar, etc.)

So I found some little sugar creations that a friend of mine sent from England, shaped like little wreaths and gingerbread men and stuck them on top... not nearly as impressive but still cute. :) I'm sure J, L & G will love them all the same. L was desperate to help me make them, but since she's had a fever for the last couple of days, unfortunately I was without my little helper. Soon enough, it will be Christmas cookie baking season, and I will definitely need her help with that! I still don't know how many I'm going to make this year - but if it's anything like prior years, well.. you'll see!

Wow, have I been slacking...

I know I keep saying this, but I seriously am going to be getting better at this one of these days. I promised to show a picture of Earth Dragon once it finished and I did finish it right before Halloween, but apparently got so busy with all the holidays coming up that my brain stopped working.

Seriously, I think it did. I have not stopped going and right now I even have a horrendous cold which refuses to leave me alone. It's been going strong for over a week now and I just can't shake it. Not to mention, I've discovered the fun that is Pinterest. Yay! A new way to find baking and stitching for me to do! *rolls eyes
LOL, I joke but not. I've done so much baking in the last two months that I've seriously considered stopping eating regular food to keep my waistline small. I can't help it, I love the baking almost as much as I love the eating of sweets. It's been bred into me, I can't help it!

I had so much fun this year decorating the house for Halloween that it was crazy! It does help that J is a sound and lighting technician and every year he brings home professional grade lighting to make our house look cool. And it's great how many things end up looking good when they're lit up well.


 This is my mantle, this year's addition to my collection of decorations. I even changed the family photos to make us look like vampires and zombies! I however wish I'd taken some indoor photos of my spider line - if you stick 300 spiders up to the wall, you really should keep photographic evidence of your hard work!

 This is our hanging skeleton. We set a strobe effect on him every year, and he keeps people from going to the wrong door (with the aid of our Keep Out! door) That one's actually kind of, a funny story, as when I was pregnant with L, I was home for my first day of maternity leave, supposed to be on bed rest. I had wandered through the house to get my music player, and looked outside to see a group of teenage boys walking by to go to the local fast food place. 30 seconds later, a huge bang shakes the house and I screamed, not knowing what happened. Turns out, the teenage boys had decided it would be great fun to kick our front door down (true story!) and when I screamed, it scared them off. I ran through the house to find what the bang was and I eventually went outside to find the door frame broken and the door with a footprint in the middle of it. I called 911 and the cops came out. They did find them, and had me identify the boys I'd seen. I was assured that they faced consequences when I called to enquire, but we had to replace our own door (figures!) and so I got a new front door thanks to that. We saved the old one, and now use it for Halloween décor!

 Here's our other new friend, I had some fun with this set-up. There's a small skeleton in the wheelbarrow, so the story is (although very morbid, really) that Daddy killed the baby and buried it in the wheelbarrow. When mommy found out, she killed him, and put both skeletons on display. He was supposed to have a beer and a baseball hat, but since it was raining, I forgot to add them on Halloween. :)


This is our little graveyard set up, I love it, interspersed with my herb garden.
I need to add some new gravestones one of these days.





Here's my owl - the first year I put him out, people actually thought he was real, and would duck when they walked by. This year, we added the moon light - I rather liked it!






And here's one of my appetisers I made for Halloween. We had some friends coming over to go out with the kids and I, so I wanted to make sure candy wasn't the only thing people had to eat. Although I'm not 100% fond of cheese balls, I actually really liked this one! It was like eating cheesy tacos. :)

L & G had a great time at least, and so did I, so it was definitely worth all the work to get there. But since this post has gotten pretty long, I'll come back tomorrow maybe to post my recent stitching successes. :)

1, 2, 3 and go!

Wow! The last couple weeks have been so busy and also incredibly productive! I'm very proud of how much I have accomplished in the last couple weeks, our family went and picked apples, I've done a ton of baking and I've finished 3 more cross-stitch pieces! Who would have thought I'd get going so well?

Admittedly, two of them were small pieces, but they've been on my WIP list for so long I started to wonder if I'd ever finish them.

My ACNL addiction has waned some (thank god, it's been 4 months of steady gameplay - I need a video game break to let my hands take a break). I still play everyday but it's down from the 8 hours per day plus 3 hours at night, bug-catching on the island. I'm very glad because that has been a huge time drain on me, especially on my stitching time.

Two of the finished patterns are from the Canadian Sewing and Needlework Festival from 2010, which means I've been sitting on them for 2+ years! Crazy

One is the pattern I showed last time, "Treasure them now"

And the other is Jennifer Aikman-Smith's "Cookie Dragon"

And finally, this one is a gift for my mom for Halloween (my favourite holiday!)
"Candy Corn Buddy" from Stoney Creek's Halloween Collection - Fall 2011. So glad to have them off my list!

I'm looking so forward to Halloween this year, L & G have been taught from birth not to fear the ghosts and skeletons, etc. that appear in our house décor for this month. I have a new friend I got from Costco last week - a poseable skeleton who's been sitting in our front hall. G wants him to come with us on Halloween and "protect him". I can't wait to put up our decorations and make our house all spooky. J's job allows us some leeway in decorations and in the past years, had a full light show, and fog machines. I like to move things around so I'm not sure how I'm going to lay everything out this year yet. I was thinking of having my new friend lounging out with a Starbucks coffee after loading a body into a wheelbarrow... :)

Another thing I did last year, is on my Facebook, I did a movie review blog about horror movies, I'd review 1 - 2 movies per day. I have a very LARGE! collection of horror films - over 100 films at last count. Some are recent, some date back to the 50s. I prefer the more recent because the imagery tends to be scarier, but anything from the 80's up is good. I was contemplating doing the same again on here, but I'm not sure - it's a lot of work!

I've been also trying to finish off a piece that's been on my list for years now, "Earth Dragon" by Cross-My-Heart. It's a huge piece, part of a set of four different dragons. Luckily I collected all the patterns before they went out of business (too bad, I loved their designs), but this one's been sitting 1/2 done for years. It takes 74 different thread colours, and each 10x10 square could have up to 20 colours in it. It's a very intensive piece but I'm nearly done!!! I got the bottom of the piece (the top 3/4s has been done for the last 6 months) just last Monday and I'm excited to finally cross it off my WIP list too. It's only been on there for, hmmm, 10 years? That's not that long, is it? :) Hopefully I can post a finished photo soon!

Finally! Some progress!

So, I've been fighting my urges to play ACNL all day and night, and tried to keep myself working and it's finally paid off! I finally finished one of my pieces. It's a Sue Coleman design of two eagle chicks in a nest on top of a totem pole. I've been working on it for over a year now, as it's a gift for J. When we were first married, I stitched him "The Eagle" by Sue Coleman after we completed a falconry course together. He would love to get a bird, but it's just not practical. Especially with how frequently you need to feed it - I don't want/need a baby that will stay that way for 20 years... Ugghh... The prospect is just not thrilling to me, despite that I would love to have a falcon/hawk of my own, that is just too much work for me. But he would like one, so I stitched him a picture of one for now. And since he has two "eagle chicks" now, this picture just seemed... appropriate.

Now that is accomplished, I'm trying to finish off a couple class pieces from last year's CSNF. I'm tired of having a multitude of extra pieces floating around. The one I've started with is a Dragon Dreams design by Jennifer Aiken-Smith with a mother dragon surrounded by babies and the caption says "Treasure them now... or Eat them!" (A sentiment I can often relate to with two pre-schoolers who drive me completely crazy quite frequently.)

It's been a long week otherwise... with the steady ups and downs in the weather, everyone in the house has gotten sick, recovered and then started to get sick again. Here's hoping we don't have another school year like last year and people aren't sick for another 6 months. But that being said...  I should get back to stitching!

Long Time.... No See!

Wow, has it been forever since I last blogged. In my defense I've done very little stitching in the last few months. I'm trying to get back into it, I really have.

But I lost a woman who was very dear to me, and also my mentor and one of my biggest cheerleaders when it came to my designing back in June and I couldn't even pick up a needle for over 2 months. So snowdragon's "stitching's" would have been a very inappropriate title. But that only excuses after June, so prior to that, it was home reno hell.

I'm not kidding... we literally had home renovation hell. I love my father, I truly do. So when he offered to come and re-do my main bathroom, I thought, "well, I'm sure he knows what he's doing, how bad can it be?" Oh... it can be bad... very, very bad... let me tell you. We literally, right after the final piece was put in our kitchen, ripped out our main bathroom right down to the studs. And after we did that, that's when I started getting told that he'd never worked on an older house before. And he'd never put in a tub before, and he'd never cut tiles before and he'd never.... well, you get the idea. I started to freak out - just a little bit.. here I am, with two pre-schoolers and no way to bathe them. And we remained so for nearly two months. TWO MONTHS. L learned to like the shower, however G is still convinced they're a horrific punishment and screams the whole time. In the meantime, our second bathroom started to break down... the drain is leaking more than a little bit, our stand-up shower, leaks out onto the floor - and since it's a raised floor (they don't do that in houses anymore for exactly that reason), who knows what's under there, I'd rather not know, actually. Bugs would be the least of my worries...

If J wasn't working so much to try and cover all those renovation bills, maybe we'd have more time to finish things around here. Oh well, we do finally have our bathroom back now, give or take a couple minor things... such as the light, and mirror and towel rods, etc. But all the actual essentials are in, so it is usable now and I love it. We managed to find a bubble-jet tub on sale for 50% off and it's a deep soaker tub. I would recommend it to anyone, I love it so much. And it's a very peaceful atmosphere in there now. We got rid of the hideous pink flowered wallpaper (see a previous entry about my pink decorating theory) and have painted it all in a royal blue with white tiles up the walls about 4 feet. I could happily sit in there for hours.

Just a little bit of cleaning and my house will be beautiful - well, almost, there's still the multi-pink living/dining room, but I can overlook that with the spectacular kitchen and main bath.


But I'm sure you're all bored of my renovation stories now so I will end this entry and hopefully I will be able to post about stitching next time! Back soon!

Never rains but it pours...

I know, I know, it's been a while now since the last time I posted. My bad, I know. What can I say? Too many recent episodes of Criminal Minds where the victim posted about their lives online? (I joke, but I'm not actually fully kidding...)

Otherwise, it never rains but it pours. Everything in our house has been breaking lately. There is not a day in the last week that I have not had to call for repair people on something. Some of it isn't priority, however the stuff that is, is just annoying to say the least. The last thing I expected is when my kitchen is almost fully complete, to have to call a refrigerator repairman... *rolls eyes*. I love my fridge, I have a giant GE double door fridge with the freezer on the bottom. It's one of those gigantic "entertaining" fridges and is always full in our house, despite that we seldom entertain. The fridge is still only 4 years old, and should not be breaking down yet. It's not a big fix, just that the water dispenser on the door is broken (ice maker still works though, very weird.) And the repairman comes in and before I can say anything, has dragged the fridge (completely full) across our new floor, scratching two gouges in the floor. And thus, another damaged thing in the house - That's the way my week has been going.

Otherwise, I did finish off two of the Mill Hill patterns. One is the snowflake that I showed on here with my last post, and the other is a Halloween Ornament "Love Halloween". So far, I have succeeded in keeping them away from L & G which is nice. They do like to look at them though.

I'm also nearly done the "Beaver" design on my afghan which would give me 4 complete designs of 11. After that, I'm thinking of taking some time to work on a Mirabilia Fairy pattern while I work on a couple of my own designs before I go back to the afghan. I've reached the point in which I never want to actually stitch it, which is usually when I have to switch patterns, otherwise, no stitching will happen, you know?

I was finally able to see "The Hobbit" in theatres, and I do have to say, there are some darn fine looking men in that movie (even made up as dwarves!) I also was thrilled to get "Les Miserables" on DVD. I have always loved that musical, I went to see it twice in the theatre when I was a teen, and the music is spectacular. And surprisingly, the "Hollywood team" didn't completely destroy it (it's supposed to be sung by opera singers, and they had moments where they did butcher some notes. I only notice because I know some of those songs well enough to sing without music.)

And lastly it was Ostara, which is the name my religion gives to the Spring equinox, so celebrating was absolutely necessary. There's not going to be an "egg tree" this year as in previous years however, I decided to make some "Ostara Buns" which are basically Hot Cross Buns without the Crosses. They turned out beautiful and I was very proud (and excited to finally do some baking in my new kitchen!)

Shoe shopping

So here's today's actual post... I've got some actual time tonight since J is working until 6 am (been happening far too often lately as far as I'm concerned...) so I've got some time on my hands. I can't believe it's almost Friday again. Seriously, where does the week go? L has all next week off for March Break... I can't believe she's almost 3/4s of the way through her first school year. It barely feels like it just started, and yet she's grown up so much in that time.

I've been frustrated with all my UFO's lately so I've started a tiny design today in an attempt to keep me stitching (I wasn't able to stitch at all yesterday because I just couldn't bring myself to pick it up) so I'm working on a Mill Hill design of a snowflake. It's only got three thread colours and three types of beads, so I should be done it tonight or tomorrow. I'm hoping that gives me enough of a boost that I can go back to the Beaver without dreading it.

I took L for a mommy/daughter walk today to surprise J and G with an Ice Capp & Smoothie from Timmy's. It also gave me a chance to test out my new rain boots. I picked up some Hunter boots last weekend since my last two pairs of rain boots have holes in them. I was devastated with one pair, as they were Tokidoki boots (designer and very expensive!) but the other was just annoying. My biggest problem with rain boots is, I walk everywhere, always have and so my calf muscles are big comparatively to most women. Most rain boots just don't fit, no matter what I do. But I love my new pair. They have a wider upper leg than most and fit beautifully. It would have been nice to have a prettier colour than dark gray, but I'm still not complaining. Hopefully this pair lasts for a while.

The funny thing is, when I was a teenager, my mother used to fret because all my friends were guys. People used to call us "Sam and the Boys" (lol, that would make a great band name!) since it was always me and at least 5 - 6 guy friends, never any girls than me. My mom desperately wanted me to have some female friends, and to act like a girl. I hated dresses and purses, I wore black and dark colours, refusing pastels and adamently avoided pink at all costs. The funny part is, she never realized that I still had the female appreciation for shoes. I love shoe shopping. I have sworn that I need shoes of every colour of the rainbow. (I still have not achieved this goal!)

Well, when I went shopping for my boots, I found this adorable pair of low heels with rainbow butterflies. What can I say? I couldn't resist, even though the last thing I need is to add to my shoe collection. I now can't wait for spring so I can wear these shoes. Lol.

In regards to the above, I have since grown out of my female rebellion, revoking the bans on purses (I have a purse collection to rival my shoe collection) and I love wearing pastels, especially pink now. I still however will not use pink to decorate. As far as I'm concerned (and please no one take this personally) pink is a decorating colour that is reserved for and should only be used by gay men and old women. Unfortunately though, too much of my house is still random shades of pink from the 1970s. I'm slowly phasing it out, and a lot of my walls are changing to blues and greens. I love decorating with colours from nature.

7 Days and counting....

This past weekend seemed to just fly... I'm starting to wonder where they go. Not to mention, I'm exhausted constantly... can't figure out why. Finally all my packages have arrived and I'm dying to play my game. Still working though so I'm trying to deny myself all but a little bit of time in the evenings.

Yesterday L and G found another one of my UFOs and decided I should work on that. It's a 3D halloween house I've been slowly working away on for years, usually before Halloween. However, they have decided it's a house for them to play with and so are constantly after me to work on it and get it done. However, I'm still trying to work on my afghan so it's a bit of a battle between us. They seem to win though since they're cute.

I've also been working on some new conceptual art for my patterns. I'm loving my Phoenix pattern now that I've put a little more work into it. Hopefully I will get my background fabric soon so I can work on that one... I need to know the background and since it's going to be on a hand-dyed fabric, I want to be sure the colours are right. Also designed a pattern of a blue tit sitting on a watering can (that's been a concept for a while, but I finally drew it out) and it's super cute. Can't wait to convert it to a pattern.

In other news, it's 7 days and counting until I get (most of) my countertop, 8 days until I get my kitchen sink... so excited to have an end in sight. Being that I'm slightly OCD when it comes to cleaning, it's been driving me crazy and I can't wait to be able to be able to function in my kitchen.

BTW, started this on Tuesday however, since I had no photos I've been holding off posting it... well, here it is, photos or not.

Two more completions...

I know, I know, I've gotta work on this blogging thing... I've hopelessly inconsistant lately. In truth, it's been years since I kept a record of my daily actions - the last time I did, I was a teenager and it ceased when my mom found and read my diary and decided to pre-maturely give myself (and my boyfriend - can we up the mortification level to 11 out of 10 please?) the "sex-chat". Ever since, I've had trouble starting up writing about myself, even in a forum where I don't care what people read because I'm not writing anything too personal. But in my defence, I've been pretty sick with a cold lately and who really wants to read a sick and medicated person's ramblings? At least I'm not as bad as the "man-cold" where I cease functioning completely.

So I finished Tatty... this is part of the reason I got as sick as I did. I completely exhausted myself working on him until 3 am last Saturday morning, and then got up in 6 hours, and worked on him again for another 5 straight hours. I was destroyed afterwards, and then I still had to stay awake all day since J's parents came over for a belated birthday celebration. By about 7 pm, I was ready to just crash. My cake I made turned out okay, but my ganache did NOT work. Not sure if that's because my cream was about to expire, or because I over cooked it since I was distracted (and tired!). But it tasted good none the less and J never complains about my cooking. (lol - he is very smart that way...)

In the last week, despite being sick, I also managed to finish a square on another of my UFO's, a Forest Friends afghan from Stoney Creek Cross-Stitch magazine from 1994. I now have 3 of 11 squares complete (a squirrel, fox and possum) and am starting on image #4, which is a beaver. The patterns are definately showing their age though since I've found a couple of discontinued DMC threads which I've had to change since their "replacement" threads were also used in the piece. At least I haven't gotten too far in the piece to really show those colours have changed since the first two squares.

Square #3 - Possum

Other than that, not much to report, I'm one week closer to having part of my kitchen done. I'm hoping to have my counter installed in a week to two weeks now. Unfortunately it will only be done in half my kitchen since we'll be waiting on a cabinet to arrive until the end of march. I'm not impressed about that one, let me tell you. I ended up in a screaming match with the store for about an hour when I found that one out. I was also pretty peeved that they hadn't ordered my counter since I'd be having it installed by now if they had. When you spend 18g on a kitchen, you should be treated properly, not made to wait for 4 months for your kitchen install... just sayin'.

Work and Play

It's finished!! Woo!!

Despite multiple attempts by G to slow me down in my progress, I have finally finished the Pegasus picture. And it's an accomplishment to be proud of because I've been working on it off and on for 2 years. (I do have to stop sometimes and design my own pieces, of course!) But thank goodness another one of my UFOs is crossed off my list.

Only 15 left to go... okay fine, you caught me, 16, but I don't count that one since it's a needlepoint and I will probably go to my grave having it un-finished... I can't stand needlepoint. Not that I have any trouble with the technique, needlepoint itself isn't all that bad. However - printed canvas and I do not get along at all. I can't stand the indecision of it, is that stitch this colour or that colour, is this that green shade or this one... so "Wintry Wolves" by Sunset will probably sit in my UFO bin for the rest of my life. Hopefully the next time I do decide I'm crazy enough to work on it, a silverfish doesn't come running out of the bag at me (yes, this has happened - it's been a UFO for over 12 years now, I started it for J when he and I first started dating!) There is another needlepoint in my list but I'm not sure if I'll finish that one either. I just haven't made that decision yet. It was supposed to be a stocking for J, but I ended up stitching him that other one so I don't have a current purpose for it anymore.

I just started working on a Tatty Teddy piece as well, this one is for a birthday present, but I expect a  complete photo to go up on here shortly so I'm not going to bother taking an in-progress shot. It's working up fast and I might have been done minus that backstitching last night if I hadn't fallen asleep on the couch. (J woke me at quarter to 12 and sent me to bed.... normally I'm awake until 3 but I guess the late nights and early mornings finally caught up with me.)

Otherwise my vice these days has been "Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure". One of the things I asked for at Christmas/ Yule time was a Nintendo 3DS with the new game for "Animal Crossing". A little bit of an addiction for me, but what can I say... I love the cutesy games. Well... the game hasn't come out in North America yet and they keep pushing back the release date... it was supposed to be late January but has now been pushed to May (maybe). But J and my mom decided to get me a 3DS anyways with the promise that when the game does come out, they'll get it for me. And my 3DS came with Super Mario and Spyro's Adventure. I've always liked Spyro, being that he's a cute little dragon (check the name up top...) but I've never been particularly good at the games. But this one, I actually am not too bad at playing... so I really enjoy it.

However - I do have to say. Seriously Nintendo? You're going to release a game, and while you're still selling the game, discontinue the characters that you need to buy to continue to play the game? I mean, this is completely a nerds game - because you have to buy these little collectable figurines which, when you place them on a special pedastal, will be "teleported" into your game as a playable character. Again, I love the dragons. I'm not too into the others but I would love to collect all the cute little dragons... and some of them are darn hard to find since they've been discontinued! I ended up ordering a ton through Amazon after my searches locally turned up with only a couple options. I gave up with the local searches after my local game store told me that the game's been discontinued and that they won't be getting anymore. (Totally depressing!) But you can still buy carrying bags and a new version of the game which only comes with 3 of the characters... not enough to complete the game.

Skylanders Toys

This is my current collection that I've managed to locally acquire, the ones on the right are from the Skylanders: Giants game, which are second edition which means they can (if they're included in the original software) be used for Spyro's Adventure. You can tell the difference because of the line of colour along the bottom. Exclusive Spyro's Adventure ones have green, and Giants 2nd edition have Orange. Giants 1st edition have blue, I think. It's amazing the things you learn. And it's scary how much this game ends up costing... each one of these little figures can cost up to $10. And all this for a free game that came with my 3DS... argh... the way they suck you in is just crazy!

So now I'm patiently waiting for my order to come in from Amazon with the new figurines. It's coming in three parts and 2 have already shipped to me, but when they arrive is the question. So I'm trying to stitch as quickly as I can to get everything done so I have a day or two when my shipments come in to just have some fun...

C'est la vie...

It's been a while since I posted and while I feel bad about that, it's been so busy the last week that I just haven't had time to think much less than try to figure out a post.

On Wednesday, the installer started on my new kitchen. Thank the gods that we have an installer and J isn't installing it all. It would have taken him weeks! And we had a kick-ass installer who was an absolute pro. He did an awesome job, and was very friendly and tolerant of my kids, more so than a lot of workers would have been. Unfortunately my kitchen is still not completed, it's going to take at least another 2 weeks, maybe 3. One of our cabinets was incorrect in size and needs to be changed out, so we need to wait for a new one to be made, and sent from Quebec. One thing I stressed, over everything else, was since my kitchen was so small to begin with, and is such a random shape/size, every available space needed to be filled. Well, this cabinet is only 15 inches wide with a 4 inch spacer to the wall. This was overly cautious because we could have had an 18" cabinet with a 1" spacer, no problem. Since I had stressed that point over and over again, the store will be fixing that, and giving me my 18" cabinet, but unfortunately we need to wait for that. There were also a couple items that were missing, and a couple things that had to be re-negotiated. So when the new items come in, the installer will return for a day to complete the job. However, since my counter is granite, I need to wait 2 - 3 weeks for that anyways, which means I do have the time. The counter measure guys came in on Friday so hopefully it will be 2 - 3 weeks from then and the cabinet will come in before that.

Valentine's day for me this year was a total bust... kinda crappy, but what can you do? J was planning to take me out for dinner and a movie.. however with no one to watch the kids for the night, everyone else being just too busy, I'm just a little S-O-L. The person I normally ask has no interest and the people J always asks aren't available until March 11th. It kind of defeats the purpose to go out a full month later. It's depressing to me because it's the second Valentine's in a row that nothing has happened - and since J and I haven't had a one-on-one date in over a year, I feel like "mom" more than "wife" most days. Not that being "mom" is a bad thing, trust me, I love that, but they always say you're supposed to try to keep the romance alive and the one-on-one is just as important. And in some ways I miss dating J. It's been so long since we spent some time together not talking about the kids. And I was looking forward to seeing the new "Die Hard" movie...

And G did it to me again this weekend... again, he got a hold of my pink highlighter and coloured on my Pegasus cross-stitch piece. He coloured all over the pattern mostly, but in some places he missed and this time, got it on the stitched part too. It cost me almost 6 hours of ripping out, and re-stitching. Again, Tide-to-Go saved my life, I recommend any stitching friends who read this - you need one of these just in case. It even worked on an area where I couldn't rip out the stitching and I prayed that it wouldn't bleach the threads - it didn't. I was so upset though... L tried so hard to make me smile, it was so sweet. I have managed to get a lot accomplished, there is barely any background left to stitch, and the pegasus is only missing a neck and head and a bit of one wing so it's just a matter of time now. It would be nice to be closer but again, c'est la vie. Eventually, right?

Busy, busy, busy!!

So we've been hard at work the last couple days just trying to get finished all the work that needs to be done in our kitchen. It's completely done, except for the final wall, which is the one behind the sink and stove, and the floor. Unfortunately, we need to completely re-run the plumbing and drain, and re-route some electrical for the dishwasher. This is slightly scaring us, because at 5 days until install, that adds a lot of work, and after that, we still have to prime, paint and lay the floor.

Stress for me is a little bit of a killer, I don't handle it very well at all... I have barely eaten in days. I force it on myself, but the desire just isn't there. But at this point I'm just trying to trust in J that he will get it finished. It's way more fun now too because I obviously no longer have a kitchen sink, so I'm washing all our dishes in the bathtub. (Great fun!)



On top of that, I'm so tired of looking at the Pegasus picture that I'm working on it incessantly during the hours we're not working on the kitchen. Tonight is no exception, I'm hard at work, even now working on it, trying to finish off the background and body of the Pegasus. I have other pictures I want to work on, and it's killing me to keep having to work on this one. I have a gift to make for a friend, a gift for another friend that I need done by March, and since it's been so cold, an afghan that's sat on the backburner (another UFO) for years now taken from some Stoney Creek Magazines from 1994. (Yes, I have patterns dating back to when I was 13... do you have a point? I have been stitching since I was 8.) The lower two pictures have already been done, and there is a third, a possum in progress. And of course, there`s my designs to consider as well, designs that I still need to work on. So many patterns, never enough time.


Image 1 from the Afghan

Image 2 from the Afghan

Still, that doesn`t mean there`s no time for other more pleasant pursuits. I`m an avid movie watcher. I love movies. And I mean, that, I adore them. I have a very large movie collection. It`s not huge, but that`s because I`m pretty discerning.



I love epics, like LOTR, Star Wars, etc. I like movies about serial killers, like "From Hell" or "Silence of the Lambs". I like the occasional romantic comedy, but it's not my usual go-to for movies. But I do have to admit that I love the tales from the past. Remember I mentioned in a previous post how I adore anything medieval? Tonight's choice is "Troy". Not only is filled with plenty of male eye-candy in armor, and most of them have long hair (one of my top priorities for a male, one who can pull off long hair and still look like a man.) But it dates back to a time when men were men, they were built the way they were built because their bodies were built for war, trained from childhood for hand-to-hand combat. And a time where, although women were property, they were cherished and treasured for their beauty and feminine skills. Lol, in those times, my talents with needlework and ability to sing would have made me an accomplished mate for a husband. I probably would have been too outspoken for decency though. ;)

I have to admit, that my favourite actor in this movie, is not Brad Pitt, although I have to admit I do think the man is gorgeous, even now.. I don't even like the story of Helen and Paris, no, my favourite character in this movie is Hector for the way he treats his wife. He adores her. He is loyal to her in a time where cheating wasn't even considered cheating unless it was the woman doing it. He actually loves her and his son with all his heart and it's tragic the way he is killed. My heart breaks for his wife who adores him too, when she is forced to watch him die. In my wildest fantasies, I wonder what that would be like, to know that your mate is forced to go off to war and may never come home. It gives me a profound respect for the mates of modern-day soldiers who have to make that kind of sacrifice, and know that kind of feeling. I couldn't imagine how I'd feel if one day J never came home... It's not something I've ever really allowed myself to think about.

But still, it's nice sometimes to escape to another world, to a simpler time where I would miss showers and toilets and electricity, but romanticism and valor and honor were king. Lives were shorter back then, but I think people lived with more passion, with more joie de vivre than anyone nowadays because they knew they had less time to enjoy it.



A crazy weekend.

Well, it's been a few days since I last was able to post because apparently I like to injure myself. Last Wednesday, I was leaving the house and I fell down the steps and injured my right knee and ankle after landing 3 steps down on the side of my foot. Usually I'm pretty agile but I do have a tendency to hurt my ankles on a fairly regular basis. They've been my weak spot since I was a teenager. I have lost count of how many times I've sprained or strained them.

Then on Friday, I was cleaning up around the house and somehow managed to stab the back of my middle finger on my left hand with a very large, industrial box staple. I'm not sure how far in it went, but it was bleeding for a good 25 minutes, so probably pretty far in.

But the best was later that night, I apparently decided that since that finger was injured already, what did I need it for? So I decided to cut 1/3 of the way through with a bread knife. Yes. Sounds gross. It is. And don't worry, I will NOT be posting pictures. So for the last couple days, I could barely type, I couldn't do any heavy lifting, I couldn't even wash my own hair. Since I'm a very independant person, that was torture. And my darling husband had to do all that for me. Thankfully it's now mended enough that a single band-aid wrapped around protects it from damage and allows me to be able to do things again. I still need to be careful but at least it doesn't hurt anymore.

I'm hoping that the third time is a charm and that I'm done now. I can't deal with any more pain right now.

On a brighter note, my kitchen is finally getting installed! Yay! The cabinets arrived today. The installer called last week and asked to push up the install date to wednesday, but it's not doable because we still have to fix the wall behind the sink and let me tell you, it's one disgusting wall. So the install is set for next week, Wednesday. I love my house - when we first moved in, there were rooms after rooms and doors everywhere. But it's an older house, built in the mid 50's, and the biggest problem (or so we thought) was that it had last been decorated in the mid 70's. The walls in most of the rooms were pinks, brown, and yellow.

I mean, seriously? Who paints a room that colour? Blech... That was the first thing to go - the above room. My kitchen wasn't much better, it was a lighter yellow, with a fruit wallpaper border.... but the countertop was bright orange (another who does that? moment) as were all the handles on the cabinets. I am so happy that I'm not going to have to look at an orange counter-top anymore that I almost don't care that I'm not going to have the ability to wash dishes for a couple weeks. I will however get my dishwasher back in 8 days (yay!) so that should at least make it bearable until my new counter is installed. And my new kitchen is way more modern and has no trace of the old 70's colours! Woo! I will have a new kitchen sink which has a plug that works, I will have 12 drawers, not just 5. I will have 27 cabinets, not the 7 that I have been living with for weeks. I will get my bar in my family room with my bar stools that have sat un-used for over 2 years. My heart is starting to race with the excitement of having it all done the way I have wanted... and to finally have it happening... wow.

The other night we were going through pictures of our renovations and to look back, we've done a LOT since we moved in, but there's always more, and it's never done which drives me slightly crazy. I'm a neat freak, in the sense I need everything to be in it's place or I feel unsettled. So when things don't have a place, it drives me nuts. I'm so looking forward to everything having a home.

Highlighter anyone?

So I've been working for the last week or so on an unfinished picture for my daughter L. It's a Dimensions Gold Collection design of a Pegasus in front of a gorgeous background scene.

The background works up so quickly it's almost laughable. However I'm not overly fond of stitching on 18 count fabric. It's not that I have any difficulties seeing the squares, which is the usual complaint, but that even the small size needles aren't small enough. I suppose 18 count fabric is fine - IF and here's the big point - if the designer has stuck to using 2 ply of floss. Unfortunately, I've found that Dimensions isn't one to stick to what is normal or expected. So this designer sometimes uses up to 4 ply of floss and trying to get that through the holes in an 18 count fabric is a nightmare. In some spots by the time you have the 4 corners covered, you have 16 threads through one hole. The thread frays, you break needles every 2 days, etc. I'm a bit of a perfectionist (did I say bit?) so it drives me absolutely crazy. Hence, this piece, albeit a very easy piece in the grand scheme of things has sat on the back burner for almost two years now. Well I finally said, "Enough is enough, I have bigger fish to fry, harder pieces to sit in my UFO bin collecting dust. Let's get this done, shall we?" So I have been working on it with a vengeance for the last week and am starting to show some major progress.

The entire rear end of the Pegasus, the bigger of the two wings and two-thirds of the background are completely finished along with my other arch nemesis - back stitching. Even that has been tackled as I don't particularly feel like getting to the end and still having to stare at it for another 3 days just to finish that. Every afternoon and evening, I plop myself down in my stitching room and try to finish as much as I can for that day. I've even gotten to the point where my arthritis in my hands (yes, I got it early from too many video games and stitching... I started to show signs of it when I was only 19 years old.) has been acting up and I've needed to use the compression gloves to keep my hands functioning.

But that all being said, I got stopped dead in my tracks last weekend by G. I love the kid to death but there are days... On Sunday my mom came over and we were doing some sewing projects that have been on the back burner for a while now. She ran out to the store for a couple minutes and I was doing some ironing. I walked back into my stitching room to find my adorable son, standing there with an open pink highlighter, saying "I colouring, mommy!" I took it away from him and started looking around for what it was he coloured on. Next thing I know, I'm screaming NO - NO - NO!! at the top of my lungs to the point both L and G were terrified. I rip my picture out of the frame and run it to the bathroom sink at top speed. I don't think I moved that fast when I got a 2nd degree burn on my stomach when I was pregnant - that's how upset I was. He had coloured all over the background (un-stitched area - thank god!) of the Pegasus picture with florescent pink highlighter. And in case you don't know - highlighter is permanent ink. It's water soluble, sure, as long as it doesn't dry - but it dries very, very quickly.

Well, once it was under the water, G was sent for a time out and both he and L were in tears. They both knew he had done something wrong but not quite sure what. I calmed her down, and he ended up falling asleep while in time out. I tried everything - and I do mean everything. I tried detergent, soap and water, dish soap, resolve... anything I had in the house as a cleaning product. I posted on Facebook to ask if any of my stitching friends knew what I could use, I even called my local store to ask them if they had any ideas. I googled it, apparently I'm not the first to deal with highlighter but no one else had any answers either. Nothing was working. My hands were numb from being under the cold water for an hour straight and while it had lessened, there were still light pink lines all over my light blue background fabric.

I have to finish this post with my new favourite words. Tide To Go. It ended up bleaching the fabric slightly, I have to admit, but... I'd rather slightly white over pink. Especially since the majority of the background are half-stitches and it's bound to show through at least a little. I am so thrilled that it came out, you have no idea. But I have got to say, the next time G touches my stitching, I may cut off his hands.

Just kidding...

Sorta...

And no, there are no photos of the piece while in it's coloured on state. I was too busy trying to get it clean to think about trying to preserve the evidence of that. And my camera apparently doesn't like taking pictures of Aida cloth. I will remember that for future, although I seldom stitch on aida anymore...

Baking Attempts

Another thing that I love to do, or have in the past is cooking and baking. When I was growing up, my mom loved to bake - so much so that we would always have cakes, pies and cookies in the house, but there were times I would be begging her to make something "savoury".

When I met J, he was the one who started me cooking. Ironically, he also started his brother on that path as well and his brother is now a head chef of a great restaurant in Etobicoke, Ontario. J is part Italian and his father had taught his mother how to cook, so I guess it was only natural for him to try and teach me. I had been banned from cooking in my mom's kitchen for years after I had blown out two microwaves as a teenager (don't ask!). And since my favourite food was always pasta, I was thrilled when he taught me how to make my favourites which were Penne in Rose Sauce and Fettuccine Alfredo. Previously, all my pastas had been the pre-made stuff.

After that, I started watching the food network incessantly and just listening. I wasn't into any recipe in particular but more about techniques, and observing what things were supposed to look like when finished. That way, if I tried to replicate it, I'd know what it was at least supposed to look like.

Fast forward more than a couple years, and I'd like to say my abilities are much better. Not Chef great, I'm still terrible with knives - slow as molasses, and there are some things that still escape me. Pie dough and I don't get along very well, the first working one I managed was only a couple weeks ago and it was a shortbread (sweet) dough. Previously, it was a crumbly mess. My first attempt at it, I was in tears for 4 hours from the failure.

 

Well, last April, J and his parents decided to surprise me after a weekend away by cutting a hole in the brick wall in house to extend the kitchen. It was one of those things that had been planned for sometime, but I was holding us off of doing until we had the funds and time to fix it after. Previously, it was pitifully small and abhorrently decorated. Well - they pushed up the time line on me and in so doing, I lost two counters from my kitchen, leaving me only one, pitifully small counter top which is constantly covered in dishes. My drive to cook/bake evaporated. But now, with the install of my new cabinets only 3 weeks away, I guess I'm getting excited again and my desire came back.

(The Remains of my kitchen)

So last night, I tried to make a lemon souffle. I found the recipe a couple months back and I know, it's an ambitious project. Well, it worked - sort of. The top was beautiful but for some reason the bottom didn't set. I'm not sure if the hot water bath was too high? I left it in for an extra twenty minutes because it kept wiggling. But I had to take it out when the top started browning too much. It was lovely from the top, the knife came out clean and it had risen a full inch. But I left it to cool for 5 minutes and when I came back, it had sunk back down which was the first sign. It still tasted pretty good - kind of like a liquid lemon meringue pie. J at least tried it which is nice. I tried baking it again after just to set the bottom, which sort of worked but it still never rose back up. I will try again one day but after I work up my courage again. For now, I'll stick with easier options.

On another note, I finished the stocking that I mentioned in the first post (Yay!) and am now trying to finish one of my UFO which any stitchers will know of as Un-Finished Objects. It's an image of a Pegasus and it's actually working up a lot faster than I anticipated. So perhaps it will be finished soon too!

A Generic Hello

I figured I'd introduce myself since this is my first attempt at blogging.

It's been years since writing was my forte, so hopefully I don't make much of a mockery of myself with this, so here goes. : )

I'm a 31 year old cross-stitcher/ designer. I recently started my own company selling my patterns called Snow Dragon Designs. I currently have 4 patterns out for sale and I'm working on a couple more right now.  I'm also a married mother of two adorable little children, a 4 year old girl who I'll call L, and a 2 year old boy I'll call G. They tend to keep me pretty busy during the daylight hours, leaving my work relegated to the nighttime. My husband I'll call J. We have your standard, stereo-typical life, apart from the fact my husband is what I call a non-travelling roadie. He works for a media company doing live sound and lights. While he does get to do some awesome shows working with some great artists (he's worked with Shania Twain, Matt Dusk, Blue Rodeo and Bob Dylan, just to name a couple) but for the most part, since he doesn't travel around to follow the bands, he does a lot of political work which keeps him busy for much more than a 9 - 5 job. There are weeks at a time where he's so busy I'm questioning if I have a roommate or a husband. But that being said, he loves his job and since I love him, I'll support it even if I don't always like it. I was raised to believe that you should love what you do, because then you'll actually love to do it, and then will excel at it. Besides, he lets me do what I love so I guess I owe it to him. :)

I love animals, dragons and nature. I'm a trained falconer, however do not currently own a bird since I don't have need of another child who needs food every 6 hours (or less depending on the bird) and since I really like the smaller ones, 3 hours between feedings is too close to having another baby - not my current goal, thank you very much. :) We do have one pet currently though, a very cute little grey chinchilla who's about 8 years old now.

I also have a bit of a video game addiction, but generally to the cute games or role-playing games where there's a story to follow. I'm not fond at all of the shoot-'em up style games. I think the closest I've gotten to that is the Diablo series of computer games, but that's due to my other obsession which has not been fed much lately which is a love of all things Medieval, clothing, armour, weapons, etc. I love reading about the way people used to live, I think it's utterly fascinating the way they dressed, and things they did. Mind you, I'd have been burned at the stake back then for not adhering to the codes of conduct for women, but what the hey, we can all dream of a simpler time every once in a while. I have a couple of medieval dresses, however don't wear them all that often since it a.) freaks people out - most people can't deal with seeing a woman in a medieval dress walking past them in the grocery store, and b.) it's too darn difficult when you're dealing with two little ones who usually have grimy fingers or runny noses just to keep them clean for a day - and they're not easy to clean, let me tell you...

And once I figure out how to upload photos to my blog, I'll start adding pictures in here, but for today, I think I'll end it and going back to finishing up my latest cross-stitch pattern I've been working on, which is a remake of a Sue Coleman design put on to a Christmas stocking for J. I've been working on it since November and I am almost done (thank god!) so I'm hoping to finish before it gets too late tonight.

So a bientot! and I hope to see you all again soon!