Little Bit of Jane, GOFT and some Rain

Hello my lovelies!!!

203 Followers!! Wow!!! Thank you all for joining and taking the time to read my posts!! I truly appreciate all of your comments.  I am in the process of deciding what to do for a giveaway and hopefully shall come up with a really good idea in the next couple of days.  

I have had quite the busy week and weekend as usual...not a lot of stitching done! I did, however, manage to get all my DMC threads on bobbins!! Titus enjoyed this process a lot! He loved the dangling threads and more than once, I had to finesse the threads from his mouth and claws!!! Funny how much time it takes to put threads on a bobbin.  It took me over 3 hours to do it! Though it is really satisfying to have the threads organized. 

DMC's ready for Knotgarden!

I've made a bit more progress on Jane, adding a couple of stitches here and there each night. I'm still holding off stitching the satin stitch snake.  I think I'm a bit chicken about attempting it on linen.  I've satin stitched before, but on fabric that wasn't so porous.  Have any of you satin stitched on linen? I feel that it will be hard to keep a smooth line while trying to stitch the curves in the snake.  The pattern suggests using a pencil to lightly draw an outline, but I'm scared to muss up Jane! She's precious to me and I don't want to make any mistakes.  I've thought about getting one of those quilting pens and trying that out instead of a pencil.  What do you think?

Gray, rainy day makes for sad gray photos! It's been raining a lot lately.  A bit of sun on Friday and that's about it....just more rain, and more rain, and rain, ooh, there's some more...will there be more tomorrow? Probably!!

Some of you have been asking about Knotgarden and when will I stitch it.  When I get the kit!! I think the ECC is back logged with orders so it might take a little while longer to get my kit.  Ooooh, having a hard time waiting!!! I am really eager to sink my teeth into a big Chatelaine!! This is bad because I already have two BAPs on the go.  I really should give some TLC to my Tea Bath Fairy.  She hasn't been touched in awhile.  This weekend will be a lot less busy so I will give her some of my love then. 

So today is the last day to get any of the Gift of Stitching magazines for 50%!!!! On Friday, before I went out, I decided to purchase the entire 2009 bundle because there was a Chatelaine design I wanted, plus an Ink Circle design too! It's sad that Kirsten can no longer produce the magazine due to piracy issues.  A great loss to the stitching community.  I think I will go back and order some more back issues today seeing as it didn't cost me much and I got my magazines instantly! There are tons of great designs I want to stitch and loads of lovely articles to read!! You should also check out this great little blog called The Stitching Gift that was started by Jo from Serendipitous Stitching, Denise from Stitching at Grandma's House, Debbie from Needles and Words and  Gillie from Random Thoughts from Abroad. Looking through the Stitching Gift blog had me drooling/wanting past GOFT issues, hence why I bought a bunch!!! I think I have more than enough designs to work with for quite sometime now!!!

This post hasn't been all that exciting, but sometimes that's how it is!! When all else fails, a picture of Titus always seems to be a crowd pleaser!! So here he is from the same "Yoga" batch from last week.  He plans on starting his own Yoga class :D LOL!!!! I think this is the upside down Lotus sprawl...I have no clue about Yoga names!!!

Hugs to all and happy stitching!!

Anne

IHSW and TUSAL

Hello my lovelies!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful stitchy weekend!! I didn't get to hermit Saturday away like I wished, however I did make progress on both Jane and TBF.  Saturday was such a gorgeous day that it was a sin to stay indoors!! I had to be outside soaking in the sun! You never know when we will get it again, so we jump at the chance to soak in the rays...you know to reserve that Vitamin D!! Saturday night, I went to a pre-going away party for two really good friends that are leaving us to go on a cycling adventure in Europe, then live in Montreal for a couple of years.  I am happy and sad at the same time for them.  I'm already saving up money so I can visit them in Montreal, a city I have always wanted to explore. 

So here are my photos of my TUSAL tulip, yes a tulip! I thought it would be cute to put it in the tulip instead of a jar.  There really isn't much in the way of orts seeing as I didn't get a heck of a lot of stitching done this month. 

Oh that Titus always interested in what I'm doing!! As you can see, not a lot of threads!! 

While I was writing this post, I got my package from 123stitch.com!! I ordered a couple of new fabrics.  One is jobelan, which I have never used before, I am quite excited to try it out. It's very soft!! I also received some black lugana.  Never worked with black before! I already have two projects in mind for the black lugana!!! Can't wait to start them!! I also ordered this lovely chart from Carriage House Samplings. I love the bird and the swirly flowers!! Not sure when I will start that project, hopefully sometime this year.  I really love it!

As for the IHSW results, I worked more on Jane than I did on TBF.  I just loved stitching Jane's motifs, especially the big pink flower on the upper left corner.  I worked a bit more on the border and I think I will continue working on the border today.  I ironed out Jane for the picture and when I took her out of the Qsnaps, I am rather happy with my progress. She is such a large sampler and I have a lot more to do, but that means I get to extend and savor every moment of stitching her!!

Titus showing me how he can do a Yoga stretch.  He always does this pose! It's his favourite one!!

Well, that's it for now.  A nice short, stitchy post.  I hope to finish a couple of projects this week, stress on the word "hope!" I will be visiting blogs today to check out everyone's TUSAL's and IHSW results!!

I almost forgot to mention that I've been thinking of doing a giveaway when I reach 200 followers! I only need two more people to join! Thank you for taking an interest in little ol' me and my blog!! I'm not exactly sure what the giveaway will be, but I have a couple of ideas floating in my mind!!

Take care and have a wonderful week!

Hugs

Anne

Христос воскресе!!!!

Indeed He is Risen!!

Христос воскресе means Christ is Risen.  The phonetic pronunciation of the Russian is "Khristos Voskrese!"

Pascha was lovely and hectic all at the same time.  It always is for our family.  Thursday night we read the Passion Gospels, which I enjoy reading.  Then on Friday, we brought out the shroud of Christ, it was a very somber and tearful service.

Then came Holy Saturday.  Usually I go for the morning service where we read a big chunk of the Bible, however, I hadn't been home properly in over a week so I had to manage some things at home.  I went over to my Nana's mid-afternoon to help with dying the eggs.  My Nana already made the Syrnaya Pascha bread  and my mother made the Kulich bread which we eat along with the syrnaya pascha cheese...so rich and tasty!

Syrnaya Pascha

The below photo is not my Mother's Kulich!!!! Unfortunately, one of the Kulich's didn't rise properly nor bake so we only had one which we didn't bother to decorate.  Instead we ate it the next morning for breakfast!! Luckily, it was really tasty and fully cooked through.  Thought I would share a photo of what a proper Kulich is supposed to look like!

Nice, right?!!

I think I gained back the weight I lost during Lent with two slices of Kulich and Syrnaya Pascha!! The Pascha cheese is made with quark cheese, vanilla bean, whipping cream, sugar and something else really fattening....oh ya, butter!

As for the service, the most important part of Lent, we started the service at 11:30.  Then at midnight, that's when the joyous part of the service begins and we shout out "Khristos Voskrese" and "Voistinu Voskrese" as a reply to however shouted out the first part!! We try to do it in a bunch of other languages as well such as Greek, English of course, and some other one I can't remember!! It's a very exciting part of the service.  After the service was finished, it's traditional, for I think Eastern Europeans and Russians, to greet each person in the parish with "Khristos Voskrese" and kiss the cheeks three times.  Fortunately, we have a small parish because usually this takes awhile to get through everyone!

The service ended at 2 am and we feasted and had some wine until 3 am. I was exhausted but exhilarated at the same time. We also have a tradition where we each have an egg and we "war" or "bash" our eggs together and see who's egg will break first.  This involves some much practiced strategy for one person to win and still have their egg uncracked.  I figured out the trick when I was around 13 years old! I won't tell you what the trick is just in case you are invited to do this at some point in the future!! I didn't win this year because others out smarted me and my egg!!

The next day, both my Nana and I worked hard on preparing the dinner for the family.  I actually didn't really get a chance to visit with anyone because I was so busy cooking and cleaning afterwards!!  Here's some photos of the table and our meal.

It was a lovely dinner and a lovely Pascha.  Full of joy and celebration.  I will leave you with a photo of my finished Quaker design, stitched for myself, and some pictures of spring trees and flowers.

Had to include some really cute photos of Titus playing with his mink. Yes, I did type mink.  It is a piece of mink my Nana saved from some old jacket she had.  I thought it would be a good toy.  He loves it!!

He soooo doesn't look happy there!! LOL!!!

Oh right, almost forgot! It's IHSW this weekend!!! If you haven't signed up before, do so! Just click the hermit crab picture and it will take you directly there! I hope to try and work more on Jane and TBF and perhaps start another small...we'll see!!

Thanks for your lovely comments! Hugs to all and Happy Stitching!!!

Anne

Stitching, Lovely Visits and Loads of Photos!!

Hello everyone!

It has been quite some time since I have done a post. I am still working on catching up with emails and blog posts (got it down from over 500 to 350!) Thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post.  Know that each and everyone of them mean a lot to me!

It has been a very busy couple of weeks so I will fill you in on what has been going on in my part of the world.  Last week I worked with a lovely group of grade 3's and 4's.  Split classes are quite difficult to manage but the teacher I worked for has her class set up perfectly.  There was one day during the week I didn't work, so we took advantage of the semi-nice day and took a long bike ride all over the city.  We traveled to North Vancouver by Seabus, then decided to go up to Grouse Mountain, where the school I work for is located.  I have actually never been up to the top of the mountain before so I was glad to get the chance to enjoy it.  Wow, the air is so fresh up there!! We also visited the Cleveland Dam and I have to say I as a bit of a chicken trying to take a photo of the dam.  I'm not too keen on heights! After the damn, we had the immense thrill of  cycling down the mountain! We even cycled over the Lion's Gate Bridge! Bit scary, but I'm proud to proclaim I have conquered the bridge. Needless to say, I was extremely sore for the next couple of days, particularly my upper back! I suppose going down a mountain you need a lot of upper body strength, something I'm sorely lacking in. Here are some photos of our 8 hour long trip!

My chicken shot of the dam through the bars

Lion's Gate Bridge view of Georgia Straight

So then on Friday, I met up with a fellow blogger for tea! Melissa, from Words and Blooms, is a most wonderful, sweet lady who I have enjoyed getting to know.  She stitches the most beautiful Blackbird Design pieces and samplers and was one of the first blogs I followed.  Both her sampler stitching and Margaret's, inspired me to stitch a sampler of my own!! She is always so generous and brought me the most beautiful frog, linens and a cute cat pin cushion! I stitched her a design from Nan's Threadwork Primitives but hadn't found the perfect fabric, or time, to finish it! I'm on the hunt Melissa!! Be sure of that!! Look at the beautiful frog she got me!

Isn't it beautiful?!

I LOVE his little bag of fish!!!

Lovely linens!!

Threadwork Primitives freebie I stitched for Melissa

A new Quaker small using one of Melissa's linens!

This past weekend was so beautiful here in Vancouver.  We had sunshine!!! AND MY MOM VISITED ME!!! I was so happy to have her stay over, even if it was just for one night, it was fun. We watched a foreign film that was really slow moving, but okay. In the morning, we chatted, looked at loads of your blogs, ooh'd and ahh'd over samplers, Chatelaine's, cute ornaments, HAED's, everything!  It was a great morning! Then we did my taxes. Bleh. However, we are getting quite a bit back from the government so a BIG happy dance going on here!!!! After that, we took a long walk along the Quay and enjoyed a lunch/dinner at the PaddleWheeler Pub.  Unfortunately we didn't have anytime to do any sewing but she may stay a bit longer and come over again...I sure hope so!!

I love that last photo of a kid's bike caked with the mud from the river.  The tide was out so we could see what sorts of things lay at the bottom of the river!

Sorry if this is taking awhile. I hope you had some tea or coffee to enjoy this post...I am nearly finished!!

Even though I have had a crazy couple of weeks, I have managed to put in some stitches here and there.  I have added a lot of little motifs and bit more of the border in Jane. I put in a couple of stitches in TBF too. I know Margaret has been antsy for an update.  I should probably mention that Margaret was the other recipient of my RAK and I'm happy to report that she loved the little gift! It seems that both Mia (Margaret's cat) and Clarisse (Lynn's cat) were VERY interested in the pillows too! I think they smelt Titus' scent on the pillows!I do try to keep him away but he likes to be in the midst of my stitching and sewing!!

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Easter! I hope you all had a wonderful time with your family and friends.  We will be celebrating our Pascha this weekend and boy am I looking forward to it! It is the most important time of the year for Christians: the resurrection of Christ!! I will do a separate post after Pascha to share with you some of our traditions.

Sunshine, my cousins' bunny

If you read down to here you made it!! I hope you enjoyed my post and I am looking forward to spending some time reading all of your posts today.  It's nice to finally have a relaxing day to read, stitch and enjoy some good tea!

Hugs to you all!

Anne