Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Well I've finally gotten around to writing this post. It's been a busy couple of days and to say I was in no mood to spend any more time on the computer than I ABSOLUTELY had to would be a huge understatement.

But I've missed you all soooo much. I don't think I've been able to take in all your lovely blogs for almost a week now!!! YIKES!

As you can probably guess the weekend was just a touch busy too ;) But what a GREAT weekend! And of course I have some awesome pictures to show you!

First order of business... BBQ!!!!! Yup we're hard core, grilling it up on the smallest BBQ you've ever seen in -10. The boyfriend did an awesome job I have to say :)

Steaks anyone?

Then a LOVELY most DELICIOUS surprise from my friend. THE best cake I've ever had in my life! I mean it - the icing was so light and creamy... the cake so moist and fluffy... not to mention the Ferrero Rocher! It was to die for!!!

The next day was just as beautiful. Especially when you wake up to toutons, eggs and bacon. Oh and did I mention toutons fried in bacon fat. Certainly not a heart healthy meal but probably the tastiest morning after the birthday breakfast one could ever ask for. 

YUMMMMM! These girls are amazing touton makers!!!

After a little downtime post breakfast it was time to pack up and get ready to go home. With a storm on the way there was NO WAY I was going to stuck in a cabin with no running water that we had to walk into because of the snow. I was sad to leave because I enjoy the cabin so much, but there'll be a next time!

Shot of the lake in front of my cabin. Gotta love the winter landscape!

On the way home the gang and I decided to make a little detour to Brigus South. You might recognize some of the scenery because I had pictures up of this very same place during the summer. But don't be mistaken... it was WAY colder this time around. The pictures however were beautiful none-the-less.

Me and my friends, complete with big puffy coats. Ca Ca coooooold!

Beautiful! Brigus South is another one of my favourite communities on the Island. It's such a picturesque fishing village and is the epitome of Rural Newfoundland. 

Now onto the big news!!! We have a winner! And itsssss *drumroll*

CONGRATULATIONS Tammy! I'll be in touch soon :)

And thanks to everyone who participated! 

Well that is all from me for now,

Have a great week everyone!

Melissa

HI ALL!

I've encountered a little delay and will hopefully be posting my giveaway winner tonight or tomorrow! Sorry for the wait!!!!

Melissa

Happy Thursday everyone!

Welcome to all my new followers Annnnnd Happy Valentines Day! :)

I've never been a huge Valentines Day celebrator. BUT I'm certainly not a hater! I mean come onnnnn a day all about love - how could anyone hate that!? Even if you don't have a significant other, it doesn't mean you can show how you feel about someone whether it be your husband/wife, mom/dad or even brother/sister! But this year I do have a special someone to think about :) I feel like I should recognize the day by making sure to spend time with the one I love at the very least. But as for big boxes of chocolate, extravagant dinners and huge bouquets of roses, v-day cards - well I was never a fan. Just show me that you love me and I'll be a happy woman! Of course a little bit of this 'I don't do Big Valentines Day' mentality went totally down the drain when I saw this on my bed: 

I nearly cried! No joke. I've never gotten roses before...

Such a sweet gesture and he even got one of my favourite teas. Yup, suffice it to say I was thoroughly surprised! I've defiantly got myself a keeper ;)

Now onto the stitchy stuff!

I've been merrily stitching away on 'Old Nantucket' over the last week or so and I've got a fair bit done. I stopped last night after having completed the word 'sails'.

Since it was (and still is...) billowing out I thought the word to be very poignant. I for one wouldn't want to open any sails in the wind we've been having lately! I might as well not even do my hair before I leave the house because between the winter hat and the wind... well lets face it... there's no hope. I've been longing for the spring for what seems like forever now and winter is hardly over yet - AT LEAST another month or so to go yet. 

So I think my stitching chair is where I'll likely spend the rest of these winter days. I just have no interest in the outside. It'd be ok if we had a couple of days of decent weather without the wind so that I could get out and enjoy the snow... BUT NOOOOOOOO it's either snow and wind or just plain old freezing nippy wind. It just makes me want to retreat. AS. FAST. AS. POSSIBLE. Even the thought of having to go out to my car makes me cringe. Nope, I don't want to have to battle the elements when I step out the door!

Hopefully mother nature gives me a little break on the weekend because I'm heading up to the cabin on Saturday!!! Snowmobile, crackling fires and good friends await! To say I'm counting down the days is an understatement haha.

I suspect my next post will reveal my Giveaway winner! Make to leave a comment here if you'd like to participate! Ends on Sunday February 17, 2013 :)

Until next time,

Melissa

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Well actually I'm kinda down in the dumps as it were... Not that anything life altering has happened... but I guess it is a little life altering for a stitcher.

I went on my favourite online cross stitch store this morning only to nearly have heart failure when I saw the shipping costs. Puzzled, I messaged the owner. Apparently the US postal service has pretty well doubled shipping prices internationally (I live in Canada) - we're talking $8-10 instead of the $4 I used to pay. This has resulted in my utter devastation. I order things fairly regularly online due to the fact that I don't have a Local Needleshop I can raid every now and then. Before, it was fairly economical for me to order only one or two charts per order and still feel like I'm getting my moneys worth. Now that's all changed. Knowing that online shopping is my only option I think I'll now have to wait until I have a fairly substantial order built up before I can justify purchasing anything... period. 

This just breaks my heart... I honestly feel jipped. Just last week I made an order of a couple charts and now it's double. And because I don't have a huge selection of charts in my stash I think this will probably mean that I will not be able to participate things like SALs with monthly charts and Exchanges.

I don't even want to think about what this might do to all those lovely online stores either! 

Ugggggghhhhhh I'm feeling such a mixture of frustration and disappointment, especially knowing that there is nothing I can do about this. 

What else can I say??? OH MY!

Melissa

Happy Monday everyone and welcome to all my new followers!

Before we get rolling I want to thank everyone for your sweet and gracious comments on my last post. This is precisely why I love blogland so much :) 

My hand has been steadily getting better but with some off days. However I have been crafting it up since I got home Friday and managed to put in some serious stitching time on Poinsettia Place by CCN. 

Forgive the wrinkly fabric. I'm hesitant to iron it out just yet because of the button and because it'll have to go into storage until I have stitched the entire series (which should be finished ohhhhh in another 10-11 months). 

I had such fun stitching this one up. I'd even say I liked it better than Santa's house. I just think the design is beautiful along with the specialty floss that was called for. The Shutter Green that you can see on the front of the house is my absolute favourite and I'm very happy to have LOTS left over ;)

Although you can't really see it, the fabric is opalescent which gives the piece a very festive feel. I like to think of the sparkle as mini snowflakes... but I just might be crazy haha. I also positioned the Cardinal so that its beak was tilted skywards a bit, as if it was singing or something. I really like this rather than just popping on the button straight. I like to think it gives it a little bit of character.  

I also started LHN's "Old Nantucket" over the weekend. I've had this chart with fabric and floss all kitted up and ready to go for some time now so it's needless to say I was PUMPED to hall it out of the 'to-do' pile. 

But unbeknownst to me there were some issues I'd have to sort out first. When I was taking stock of all my floss I noticed that I only had one skein of Blue floss. "That's weird" I thought to myself. You see by the looks of the model picture much of the chart seems to be stitched in blue (the house and the ocean primarily).

This is the model picture of the chart. 

I loved the blue grey! 

WELL - first off the house colour is not that beautiful pale blue you see in the model picture. More accuratly  it's a pebble colour. As in a dank grey purple. I even looked at the DMC conversion provided with the chart and this is what the house colour is actually suppose to be. I was fine to leave this be for the time being and would figure out the house colour later... So I get set to stitch the ocean... SURPRISE another crazy colour... The chart calls for the ocean to be stitched in Barrel Cactus!!! WHAT-THE???? So I had to absolutely check what LHN was saying about this colour 'weirdness'. Apparently something went awry with the photo taking and that the model was actually stitched in the colours given in the chart... When I read this I immediately thought 'Yup that's NOT going to happen'. You see I had fallen in love the model picture... I also find this camera mishap argument to be a little bit hard to believe. Now mind you, I know how finicky camera's are when it comes to displaying the true colour of things so I know it can happen. AND on close inspection of the model picture, the house colour does look a little wonky with hints of the pebble colour it 'should have been.

Still not convinced about the ocean colour, I checked the DMC conversion once again on the chart and the ocean should actually be stitched in 927/926. You can see the difference between the two flosses below. 

Yup I'd say that's a pretty big colour difference, wouldn't you? So I caved and headed out to Michaels - the only craft store in town - SLIM PICKIN's for Local Needle shops here people! I ended up picking out DMC 926 for the ocean and may go with 927 (or 928) for the house. 

SO after all this, I finally started this project at 8pm last night. I have to say the large-ness of this piece has thrown me for a loop. The chart is so small it's hard to believe that it's going to take up a full piece of 18x16!!! It never dawned on me that it would ever have been that large. But I'm sooo excited to get going and have completely over come my initial disappointment.

Oh and I should add that by heading out to Michael's yesterday I stumbled upon some Pom Pom yarn that was on sale for more than half off!!! Not being able to deny a good deal I ended up with several rolls of the stuff and even made a little start on a scarf :)

Oh it is ever so glorious to touch. I just want to bury my face into these little pom poms and never come up!

That's all for now folks! Toodles!

Melissa