20 Feet of Dog

"20 Feet of Dog!" This is what my husband answered to a neighbour when he asked how the 'dog' situation was going in our house. Yes, there are 20 doggie feet, because there are currently 5 dogs in our house. 'Course I always tell people, all put together probably make up one large dog! We have 2 shih tzu's, one toy poodle, one baby shih-poo, and one schnoodle.


Kelly brought her new puppy Maisie home for a visit and she is really keeping the others on their doggie toes, especially when she decides that a tail makes a better pull/chew toy. It was hilarious to see her actually dragging poor Stu across the living room floor. He wasn't too impressed and has taken to staying in his bed where she forgets about him and decides to play with another tail instead.

Graduation Night

It was Nick's big Grade 8 graduation last night. What great weather we had - a little humid but overall a lovely evening. Big sister Kelly took him out to get a hair cut in the afternoon. And luckily he was able to borrow a suit from JF, which amazingly fit quite well. He looked quite dapper and very grown up! After the ceremony, I had the first dance with Nick, as all the moms danced with their sons and fathers danced with their daughters. The girls all looked incredible with their long gowns and beautiful hairstyles.

After the dance, the grads all met up at a local restaurant and now back to the real world for them...although most are not attending school today. Nick has to get ready for his grad trip to Quebec City next week.

Here is Nick with his 2 sisters.

Noahs Ark Update

A few more animals have joined in! And the new baby has arrived - Scarlett joined her family on June 6, 2006, a very unusual date for a birthday but one that will always be easy to remember! We will get to meet her this Saturday when we have a family get-together at my sister's house. Unfortunately Noah's Ark is not close to being ready, but I have thought about taking it along to show my progress so far. I'm sure Scarlett won't mind waiting a few more weeks for it to be finished.

Its been a busy week in spite of my not having much work this past couple of weeks. Carrie and JF have decided to move back home for a while in order to save some money. Carrie won't be working in September/October as she is studying for her big final exam to become licensed as a radiation therapist. Hopefully she will find work fairly soon after that and be able to put her school days behind her. And they also hope to buy a house in the not too distant future, so this is a great way for them to start working on a downpayment. So we are doing a very needed cleaning out of several year's worth of clutter. Our neighbourhood is having a garage sale this weekend so its good timing ~whatever is worthwhile that we are getting rid of will spend the day in the garage/driveway and then whatever is left will get hauled off or donated.

And my other daughter Kelly and her boyfriend Chris are on their way here now from their home in North Carolina! She will be here for her baby brother's Grade 8 graduation on Thursday evening. Its a long drive - at least 12 hours - and I can't wait to see her! And of course the new puppy Maisie!

So I haven't had a lot of stitching time, which doesn't mean of course that I can't find time for online shopping. Has anyone seen the humongous 40 designer freebie set that was given out at the needlearts show last week? I have been scouring the web trying to find the best place to get my greedy hands on these freebies and I finally settled on Stitching Bits & Bobs. For $2.50, they will send you a CD with all the freebies on them. It looks like it would be a fun project, all the designers have various buildings and houses they have designed. I don't believe they have been shown stitched together yet, so it will be cool to see how different people decide how to work these all into one design.

Village of Hawk Run Hollow

Carriage House Samplings has released a picture of their newest design: Village of Hawk Run Hollow! I absolutely love it. Now I'm going to have to make a mad scramble to get some more work done on my Village of Hawk Run Hollow before the urge to start this one takes over. Luckily I don't think its being released until August, so that gives me a little more time!

I'm doing this one on 40 ct Pearled Barley linen from Lakeside Linens. Its a wonderful colour and this picture really doesn't do it justice.

On Saturday, Carrie and I found some amazing garage sales at the local high schools. The students were fundraising for a trip to France in 2007, so their families were helping out with garage sales. We found some amazing deals - Carrie bought ALL of the Diana Gabaldon books (which she hadn't read yet but was tired of hearing me rave about them), a kit to make garden stones, which I'm hoping to use to mark my various herbs (yes, I actually have planted a small garden this year), a matching set of twin comforters and shams for one of the cottage bedrooms, plus some baked goodies, and my great deal - 40 various Quilting magazines and patterns for 25 cents each!

Here's a pic of a few of them....I love garage sales :-P

Robin's Nest Round Robin

My section is almost finished - just have to add my name and country at the bottom, oh and a couple of stitches left in the border where I ran out of floss. I chose Prairie Schooler Country Seasons for this RR, which works out great since there are 4 of us in the group. And I stitched
'Autumn' which is my favourite season.

I'm playing with the idea of stitching names over one, using a freebie alphabet that I found, so I'm hoping that's okay with my RR buddies. Then it will just be a matter of getting a shipping envelope and packaging up what I want to send along. I think I'll be ready for our July 1st mailing date. Course it will have to be a little earlier here, since that's Canada Day!

Nick's Birthday

It was my youngest's 14th birthday on May 26 - I can't believe it has taken me long to get up any pictures of him from then (not all my fault as hubby had the camera last week and had not downloaded the pics). I measured him that day as I could swear he had grown yet again and I was right - Nick is right on 6'1" - and still growing?!?

For his birthday present to himself, he managed to break his baby finger in 2 places (OUCH!) and is sporting a nice cast. Of course all the girls managed to give him lots of attention over this, so its really not that bad, except he found out that a broken finger also means ~ no bike riding, no skateboarding and no swimming until the beginning of July.

Having grown another 2 inches since last fall also means the suit we bought him for my niece's wedding won't fit, so its another shopping trip so he will look nice for his Grade 8 graduation at the end of June.

Here's a pic with Nick and his friend Shannon.

Noahs Ark Update

Noah's Ark is afloat ~ with 4 animals so far, an elephant, 2 penguins and a giraffe. I got the backstitching on the ark done, mostly that around the windows, and it really added some nice detail.

We're off to the cottage tomorrow and I think I'll be taking my latest PS block to work on ~ F is for Friend.

Have a great weekend!

SBQ

Stitching Blogger's Question, as suggested by Carol:

Do you collect charts by one particular designer, yet have never stitched anything by that designer? If so, which designer and why do you collect the charts but have not yet stitched any of them?

I really collect far too many charts - but isn't that half the fun? And my taste keeps changing to include more and more designers, especially as I see WIP's and finishes posted on message boards and blogs.

I do have several Drawn Thread charts and have yet to stitch one, but of course I have great intentions to. I love the delicate patterns and intricate work on her designs.

I am also in possession of several of the smaller Shepherd's Bush designs, and have never started one of those either. Luckily for my wallet, I have managed to stay away from their kits.

And I am the proud owner of a Chatelaine kit, which is still waiting of me to start - once I get some of my must-do stitching out of the way. Its looking like summer may be a good time to start this one.

The main designer I have collected would be Teresa Wentzler's, and I think I actually have all of the ones I want, since I also have her 3 Best-Of books. I have completed I think 8 of her designs and there are so many more that I want to do ~ 12 Days of Christmas, Byzantine ornaments, Day and Night, 4 Season Faeries.....I could go on for a while!