Simple Pleasures

Hello my lovelies!

Thank you all for your comments on my last post.  I appreciate every one! These days have been busy full of work and finding pleasure in the simple things of life.  Regardless of how life may sometimes be difficult for us all, it's important to stop and enjoy what's around us: our family, friends, pets, crafts or little day trips around the city. 

Some things I enjoyed this past week and a half:

Crocheting and reading The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton on a hot sunny Sunday.

Day trip to Queen Elizabeth Park with my husband, where we smelled flowers, sat by a fountain, and walked under cherry trees.

 Cycling with my hubby and discovering a new trail.

 Picking flowers along the railroad tracks.

Cycling again. This time to Fort Langley and taking our time looking at everything in the Antique Mall.

Restarting my granny strip blanket without a curl!

Stitching JCS and finally get to the motifs.

My Nana's magnolia tree.

Last but definitely not least, I had two lovely surprises from the mailman/lady this week.  One was unsuspecting, the other an exchange.

From Jo, a little pouch stitched 1 over 1 of Kokopelli, a fertility deity, filled with jelly babies.  A wonderful surprise that I so treasure!!! Thank you Jo!! You are amazing! Hugs!!

The other surprise is from Meari that I just received today.  We did another Easter/Spring mailart exchange since we loved doing the Christmas one so much.  She sent me the most darling mailart.  She hand dyed the linen and added the neatest little details.  Thank you so much Meari! I love it and it's now displayed by my biscornus!!!

I hope you enjoyed the simple pleasures post.  Pascha is this weekend so I will be back on Bright Monday with pictures to show you all.  I also hope to catch up on my blog reading.  I've been trying to read a few in the morning but my comments may be a bit wonky since I'm just waking up so forgive me!!

Hugs to you all!!

Anne

Cherry Blossoms

Hello everyone!

It's been almost two weeks since I've posted and to tell you the truth, I don't have much to show today in the way of stitching.  I've been busy working on Meari's mailart and am almost finished it.  I made some decisions regarding the granny stripe and quilt.  Thank you all for your input and advice.  It's so nice to have others put in their opinions, based from experience, which helped me make an informed decision.  I decided to rip out the granny stripe and redo. Probably will restart this weekend now that there's been some time in between the ripping.  As for the quilt, I will stitch in the ditch for the main parts of the quilt, then hand quilt some sort of leafy, floral design on the red panels with red thread.  That way I will not be taking 8 years, ahem Barb!, to hand quilt my first quilt!! 

Titus trying to help me with quilting...not!

Unraveled yarn, ready for a new start

Pinned and ready to sew the red panels!

 
I made some minute progress on Magic Garden.  Dear Maggee hasn't been very well so I've been trying to put off the finish, which is fine since I have a gazillion other things to do!! I've also worked on JCS a bit and have contemplated starting Sarah Chapple.  I wanted to start her on Spring break but forgot! Oops! 

The peacock is finally DONE!

Magic Gate

My granny square has grown by 5 rounds.  It's taking longer and longer to do each round.  I'm hoping that I'll only have to do another 10 or so.  

Spring is special to all of us.  It brings the prettiest flowers and feelings of hope surging through us. In the Lower Mainland, we are quite blessed with a large number of cherry blossom and magnolia trees.  I tried my best to take photos of my favourite trees however, they didn't capture their true beauty.  Enjoy a few flower photos.

The cherry blossoms were taken at Burrard Station and the Magnolia tree at 22nd skytrain station at night.

The star Magnolia, so fragrant

I couldn't resist buying some pretty daffodils to cheer up the place.  They make me smile.  (I still have St. Patrick's day pillows up since I don't have any spring/Easter pillows!)

I'll leave you with some sleepy Titus photos. I resisted taking another Vampire Titus photo.  It's so funny how when he sleeps like that how much he looks like a vamp!

As for blogger issues, if there are anymore, I might just switch over to Wordpress...but we will see!!

Take care everyone

Anne

We Survived!

Well, it was a crazy, cold camping trip but we did it! My hubby wanted to stay another night but on the second night, I woke up mumbling/complaining about the cold and he heard me so we left the next day.  It was definitely an experience I'll remember...being freezing! I was like a lizard during the day following the sun, trying to get warm.  There was also no water there, which we didn't know about.  Luckily for us, there were some older campers who were very kind and gave us water from their warm motor homes. On the last day though, we had to use creek water, boiled of course, to sustain us until we got back into Sechelt.  The water was very clear and crisp yet one can't take risks and should always boil water in case of parasites.  I managed to get a fire going on the second night which is a small feat considering the damp woods all around us.  I found dry kindling and we sprinkled some fuel to get it going.  I was very proud of my spring fire! We made a good choice in leaving that day for the very next, the coast had a downpour of cold rain.  Phew!! 

The trip over to the Sunshine coast

Sunset at Porpoise Bay

Morning sun at the Estuary

Rising sun

Frosted seaweed

Sea Snake!!

Hairy trees

I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do since my hands were so cold!! Very thankful for warmth now :D

Stitching Stuff and Conundrums    

Since I've been back, I made some progress on my projects however, I'm feeling stuck on my granny stripe.  When reading the instructions for the granny stripe, I found another post of Lucy's stating that it would be good to make the chain loose or use a larger gauge for the starting chain. Hummmmm....that's not what I did and so now, my granny stripe has a slight curve from the chain.  I'm not sure what to do.  Do I rip all my progress out or hold onto hope that the curve will "straighten" itself out?  Calling all crocheters for help!!  It's hard to tell in the photo but there is a definite curve.

I think ripping it out would have to happen now instead of adding more then deciding to rip....it's just so hard to think about counting 240 chains again!! That gave me a headache!

Quilting conundrums...I pulled out my quilt and measured, cut, pinned and sewed the first border the other day.  The second border, which was going to be 4 inches, is now going to be larger in order to cover our bed.  I think I have enough fabric for the border and the back but even if I don't, I'll improvise.  My conundrum is whether to hand quilt or machine quilt.  Machine quilting would mean I could only go in straight lines, which would be okay, but boring.  Hand quilting would allow me to be more creative and do swirls and things....yet it would take an age especially with all my other projects on the go.  I know I'll make the right choice for me in the end however, I can't visualize it at this moment!! The putting the quilt together part is still a bit of a mystery to me...hopefully when I get to that point the mystery will be revealed!

The brown border

The red fabric which will be the border and the back

Stitching, oh how I love you! If problems arise, I always (usually!) know what to do.  Thankfully, with stitching, I haven't had any conundrums...just pure, wonderful stitching.  I am happy to say that all of my little packages arrived to their owners.  I crocheted a little mug cozy for Mouse as a thank you for the 123stitch GC.  These little cozies are so easy to hook up and send on their merry way.  

Photo borrowed from  Mouse!

The little BBD pincushion I stitched for Shirlee arrived safely too.  I stitched it on 40 ct. Linen using a mix of DMC and GAST threads.  It's from the Agnes Platt's Strawberry Sampler book.  It was a fun one to stitch with some specialty stitches sprinkled in for variety.

Photo borrowed from Shirlee although my watermark showed up??

My spring biscornu made it all the way to the UAE!! Sarah loved the package and we both enjoyed doing this private exchange together.  Again I had to borrow photos from her to show you...sigh...next time I'll remember!!

The biscornu design is a spring biscornu freebie from Ancsanaplo.  I used 28ct Baby blue lugana with a mixture of WDW, Dinky Dyes Silk and Carrie's Creations threads. I chose the colours to represent the beautiful tulips of spring. 

Before I sign off, I wanted to show the progress I've made on Knotgarden and...wait for it....TEA BATH FAIRY!! My hubby again said "Why don't you give her some love and stitch on her tonight?"  So I did.  I pulled her out and am slowly filling in all the baby pink in the cup before I complete it with that wonderful stuff called Kreinik...Not!!! You can probably barely tell any difference but there has been about 2-3 hours put in filling in that pink!

Oh, and I got my love birds finally framed.  It's not the best DIY framing job, but it will do.

I feel like I have more to say...I'm sorry if it's been too long of a post! 

I just want to say to all of those who have joined my blog, and to those that I wish to join their blogs...that I CAN'T.  Google/Blogger are at odds and so am I.  For whatever reason, I can no longer join blogs and this is actually a problem for a few people.  You can read about it here. I also don't have any blogs on my reader list for some reason.  When I click on the settings, all of you are there, but not in the feed part.  Feedly is back to working for me so I can add people there...just can't be an actual follower on blogs...very sad and irritating.  

Take care everyone and thank you for taking the time to read this post! I know it's a long one!!


Hugs

Anne