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

Spring Has Sprung!!

Hello my lovelies!!

This is just a quick post to let you all know that I am still here!! I've been extremely busy again.  Working everyday, church all weekend, then back to work all next week.  Next weekend I will have a bit more time to do a better post and some stitching, which I've been missing like crazy!!! I have added a few stitches in Jane here and there but nothing worthy enough to post about.  So here are some photos I took of the one day of sunshine we had last weekend.  Yup, it's been raining all week and this weekend is not looking much better.  But, I do see the cherry blossoms are starting to come out and the magnolia blossom buds are getting ready to open!! So excited for that to happen!!! I'll take some photos of my Nana's magnolia trees to share with you all!!

Also, my mom is in the city and I'm so happy to have her here. I want her to come over and help me with some of my sewing projects and have a nice visit with me! Lent is also coming to an end in a couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to having cream in my coffee again!!! I can't wait!!!

This photo I think was taken about two years ago but it's one of my favourites of my mom and me!  LOVE YOU MOM!!!

Oooh, Titus is trying to jump up onto my stitching/sewing desk!! He's being so naughty lately really getting into my stitching!!! Here's a photo of my disorganized desk.  OOOH! He did it while I was typing this! I think my big "OFF" voice scared him away!! What a little monkey!!

So that's my disorganized, cluttered area! There is really no other place for anything.  The drawers in the desk is full of other stuff not related to stitching.  We have storage issues in this apartment!! Anywho, just thought I would share that with you since I have no stitching photos to share!!

Love the mist that is down coming from the mountain tops at the school I have been working at all week! Isn't it majestic?!

I miss reading/commenting on all of your blogs and was starting to try and work through the massive numbers in google reader this morning, but now it's already 11:00 am and I still need to get ready to go uptown and get some more dark chocolate to make those vegan cookies for church. Really what I want to do all day is stitch!!! My fingers are itching to stitch!!!!

I spy loads of lovely posts and stitching and wonderful photos and I'm looking forward to spending some quality time enjoying all of your posts, even if it's weeks late!!! I really miss all of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to my new followers!!

Big hugs to all!!


Anne