Happy Monday!

I think the best word to describe what I've been doing lately is "waiting".

Waiting for some long awaited stash to arrive (checking the mail box obsessively everyday!!!). Waiting for job uncertainty to pass. Waiting for  Christmas. Waiting to see people I haven't seen in forever. Waiting to move out of my parents place. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. I hate it. I've never been good with Change but I suddenly cannot wait any longer. I've had it with waiting and I want answers now!

I don't want to make you think I'm dissatisfied with my life, because this is the furthest thing from the truth. I love my life right now! I guess I just have a lot of questions that need answering that are so far outside of my control that it just frustrates me. Alas, I don't think I'm going to be able to ever see into the future to calm my poor mind and soul. I suppose I should just accept that all questions will be answered with time... which ironically involves MORE waiting. See what I'm doing here - going around and around in circles! Ahhh how the mind works. 

Thankfully I only have another 2 weeks before I have nice long break from having to think at all and my only worry being how I'm going to be able to fit another mouthful of turkey into a very full tummy. I took Christmas off from work and I'll get roughly 10days off in total! Sooooooo looking forward to this. All my gifts are wrapped and ready to go, safely tucked away from some very anxious hands :) I literally had to fend off my brother the other day haha. 

I heard this song on the radio the other day and thought I just had to share it! It's a traditional Newfoundland song that depicts the tradition of Mummering in Newfoundland. Have a listen :)

Forgive the poor quality video but this song is near 30+ years old at this point hehe. 

Mummering has been a tradition in NL for many many many years. Mummers go around during the 12 days of Christmas to celebrate the season invading kitchens or living rooms to play jokes and preform a jig or two. Really it's just a big impromptu Kitchen Party. The residents of the unsuspecting home are suppose to host these mummers and try and guess who they might be - thus the funny looking costumes. I've never had the privileged to witness a mummers gathering outside of the city's Mummers Parade as it really is a dying tradition... at least in the city anyway. I've heard people still practice it in our rural communities however! Either way, people here love the idea of mummers. There are songs, stories and even ornaments  honouring this bygone tradition.

Introducing Ambrose the Mummer!

While there's lots of things that 'say' Christmas to me, funnily enough nothing screams Christmas more to me than hearing the Mummering song and thinking of people made up like this little fellow above. Kinda looks a little like a ghost doesn't it!? 

If you'd like to learn a little more about Mummering I found a Wikipedia article that can sum it up much better than I can - Click Here.

As for some personal Christmas traditions, our family's ULTIMATE Christmas tradition it to play Whoville-opoly and eat our Christmas ham at just before midnight on Christmas Eve! Even though we're all grown up and rarely ever play board games anymore this is the one night a year that we all get together and play away to our hearts content. Having two brothers makes this a very competitive event by the way ;) It's monopoly Grinchified! All about getting as many trees and presents you can... and it lasts for HOURS! But I love every minute and it certainly makes those slow Christmas Eve hours slip by. 

I couldn't think of a better way to spend Christmas Eve.

Ciao for now my lovelies!

Melissa

Happy Friday!

In celebration of the season I've changed my blog theme!!! Tres belle no?

I even added a bit of wintery snow just to get everyone in the wintery mood if you're not already haha. Not that I need it. Since my last post, mother nature decided to take away all our crunchy snow in favour of some rain and soggyness... then lo and behold - I wake up this morning to find that everything has frozen over once again and the snow is coming down... again. Make up your mind mother nature!!!!

My moose-y WIP is about to get a dusting of the white stuff next too! Here's where I was at last night:

I made a little bitty boo boo in the neck by skipping an entire row but I think I'll just work without it instead of having to rip everything out. Looks ok right???

I also won a giveaway back in November by Tricia over at A Stamper's Stitches that I've been waiting to post about until I got the package in the mail. And yesterday it finally arrived!!! 

3 little mini charts, one of which is the sweetest little card! As you can see, there's also a little tree chart too which will not be waiting too long to be stitched :)  The card Tricia sent was so cute and special. I love it! Thanks for your generosity Tricia!

While I was snapping my pictures last night I had a lazy on looker - prepare yourselves!

Leia.... She was not so subtly telling me to get my big beautiful arse into bed during the photoshoot just below her... especially when she started pawing me in the head. "Like come on missus - why on earth are you taking pictures when you could be curled up in bed with me????". I know Leia - you're just a big sook - I'm just your personal pillow!

Joking aside, I'm surprised she was able to keep her eyes open when I took this little snap-shot hehe. 

Have a great weekend everyone!!! Almost 2 weeks to Christmas!!!!!

Just thought I'd give everyone a friendly reminder to panic :)

Melissa

Happy Tuesday Folks!

Well Old Man Winter brought us a good dose of snow over the past few days. The weather went from somewhat mild to down-right freezing in record time. Sunday was a gorgeous yet cold day so I thought I would take a few photos to share. 

Glassy looking beach rocks on the fringe of our Koy Pond.

I remember, as a child, as soon as I found an icicle I would crack it off and eat it! Not particularly sanitary - but naturally I never even thought of that before devouring one of these things.  I've seen icicles more than a foot long at times, especially common on older houses where poor insulation lets heat escape out the roof - thus melting the snow on the roof and making icicles!!! Don't ask how I know this...

One of my favourite things after a snow storm is seeing the evergreens drooping with the weight of the snow. I was a little too late this time to capture it on camera but I loved how the mid-day sun had begun to melt just a little bit of the snow on this branch!

The holly is VERY vibrant against the snowy backdrop don't you think? Every time I see the holly bush I think of the song "The Holly and the Ivy"...and now it's totally stuck in my head!!!

"The Holly and the Ivy,

When they are both full grown

Of all the trees that are in the wood

The holly bears the crown..."

YOUR TURN TO HAVE IT STUCK IN YOUR HEAD! HA!

And then of course Leia snuck out the door as I was coming in from outdoors. She's been wanting to go out every 5 minutes since the snow came down... utterly annoying but so cute. So you can imagine how hard it was to entice her to come back inside once she escaped! Irish Setters I think have this thing where they freeze when you're calling to them but play deaf and continue on their merry way... Like you're not running after them screaming "treat treat" in the least. 

She looks quite mischievous here, I can just imagine what she's thinking "I see your lips moving but I hear nothing missus!". 

Surprisingly enough, there's a little resemblance between my current WIP and Leia's picture don't you think?

Except this is going to be a moose... eventually. It's "Merry Moose Wishes" from the 2012 JCS Christmas Ornaments mag. I'm stitching this on 28ct blue-ish grey opalescent lugana. I love the fabric... but not the count. So I decided to stitch over 1... I have one word to describe stitching over 1... HARD! But it's looking great and I hope to put a few stitches in tonight. This will be for my brother's girlfriend - who is obsessed with these massive creatures. 

Moose are a dime a dozen here - in fact I remember I was once driving up my street, driving somewhat slowly because my dog was in the back and the window was stuck rolled down... when a big fricken moose comes out behind a house and plants itself solidly in the middle of the road. I stop the car, praying that my dog would not go crazy and jump out at it when I see too little calves cross the road. Only when they were up the embankment on the other side of the road did the mother leave. Very cool and something I will likely remember for the rest of my life!

Oh and I should tell you I've made the switch to Q-snaps! I felt a little guilty leaving my hoops behind at first but as soon as I realized the tension on the fabric lasted a whole lot longer on the Q-snaps I was fully converted! Originally I had decided to try out Q-snaps because of the dirty hoop ring that was starting to make an appearance on cross-stitches. I was none to happy about this development - especially since I'm practically religious about washing my hands period. This problem is practically non-existent now and I love how easy it is to hold!!! Love love love!

Have a great week guys!

Melissa

Happy Thursday Everyone!!!

Well the parents have flown the coop! They're off to Germany this week to experience the loveliness of Christmas time in Europe!!!! They'll be flying for quite sometime (many connections to get off this Island of mine) but this is what they have waiting for them on the other side of the Atlantic:

Excuse me while I go die of jealousy! This kind of picture makes my heart ache because it reminds me of my time in Europe and specifically of my trip to Brussels during this exact time of year 2 years ago. 

That's me in Grand Place in Brussels! Oh goodness... now I'm getting emotional! And what makes it worse is that one of my very best friends (from my university days in Italy  lives in Germany and they are going to get to see her!!! Let another bout of jealousy begin! But I am happy that they will get to see her because I got to send her some things for Christmas that I wouldn't normally get to. I wish I was going to be there to see her face when she opens it but ohhhhh well :) I keep telling myself that one day soon I will get over to Europe to see her again!

While doing up her gift I decided to polish of a cross stitch finish I had from a while ago. You remember this don't you?

Well I turned it into this!!!

A nice little ornament for her to hang on her Christmas tree! She loves Canada and has been here a couple of times prior to me meeting here. So I thought some Canadiana would be a great little addition to her goodies. I used some fabric I had in my stash for the backing and trimmed it with a little chenille I had gotten from an exchange. Sewing the heart shape proved to be very challenging but I got it done. I didn't particularly like my finishing job as the heart shape wasn't all that great and I found it tugged in some places and didn't finish even along the seam. But the chenille covered it all up and made it look GREAT! So much so I'm thinking of ordering some for future projects :)

I've also been very busy stitching up some other Christmas pieces for a couple of exchanges (1 sent and 1 more to go :) ) I cannot wait to show you what I made - it's killing me to keep it in! Let's just say I am VERY proud of myself.

Well folks, time for me to go huddle up in my stitching chair... in for our first big snowfall for the year... the day before I'm suppose to get my winter tires on... I have one thing to say .... Murphy's Law. It loves me. 

Oh but before I go I want to share some pictures I just took. This is Leia's first snow she'll really remember. While we got her when there was still snow on the ground I doubt she remembers because she was so young at the time. Enjoy :)

What's this White Stuff?

O…M…G!!!!! IT'S FLUFFY!!!

JOY TO THE WORLD!!!!

Ciao for now :)

Melissa

Happy Saturday Everyone!

I found out about a week ago that Sarah from over at Sarah in Stitches had honoured me with the Liebster Blog Award. This is not my first time having been awarded with such recognition! I remember the first time I received this award was wayyyyy back in April when I first started blogging. Back then, it was awesome to receive such an award so early on in my blogging hobby! It gave me the motivation to keep blogging knowing that people REALLY were visiting my little corner of the blogosphere, connected me with others and allowed me to spread the recognition - what more can blogging and this community be more about ?!?! 

It was a surprise then and it's just as an honour and surprise now too! 

And now it's my turn to spread the word about some favourite bloggers of mine with 200 followers or less! Just like so many of you, these bloggers put so much into what they write and into what they create. Time to celebrate all of whom you know just like these amazing peeps!

1. McKenna at Chic Crafting

2. Bonnie at Bonnie's World

3. Cami at Stitching n Bits

4. Vicky at A Stitcher's Story

5. Chris at Tot Hill Farm Stitches

I hope everyone is sufficiently filled with turkey and ready for Christmas!!!!


Have a great weekend!

Melissa