One more thing....

Just Because

Everyone Should Have a Goal!!!

Like I said...

I've been taking some pictures with every intention of passing some of them on to you, my blog viewers. Today I will recap some of my most recent files for your viewing pleasure.
Here is some creeping vine type of flora, from our property, in the fall.

Again, I have other shots at varying distances and angles; anyone interested?

Have a look at this!

This is from our friend's back deck overlooking their horse barn. I love it when I catch the sun's rays from behind a cloud. I had this as my desktop background for a few weeks....until I found free Knitting wallpaper downloads from Knitpicks. hehe

Next, we actually have yarn content...

I don't think I've shown you this before, but here is the scarf I made as a donation for a Silent Auction in support of Doane House Hospice. ~~~~~~~~~It sparkled~~~~~~~~~

On Saturday we had a lovely (I gotta get a new word) fall day and while my daughter was supposed to be cutting grass (she ran out of gas) she joined me for a little bit of a walk in the woods. It was a good thing actually, I got a little disoriented. The dog found her way out and so my girl went looking for me---she knows the area much better than I do.

There was no danger involved here; it's not the 'get lost and spend the night in the woods and call in Rescue Heros', kind of lost; just a, 'mmmm, this doesn't seem to be the right path and just keep moving toward the sounds of motors' kind of lost...really, 'lost' is too strong a word!

Turns out she has a pretty good eye for 'nature shots'. She pointed out how the branches curved over top of the path here; so I waited for her to get under it (called the dog back) and got this nice 'memory of our walk in the woods' shot.

An even more recent photo is from last night! Many of my friends joined me for the 13th Annual Wine and Food Celebration to raise funds for Doane House Hospice last evening at Madsen's Gardens Banquet Hall and Wedding Chapel. Several local restaurants and wineries donate time, food and staff to this event. We enjoyed a wide variety of foods and beverages...

There was a Surprise Live Auction thanks to a last minute huge donation!

There was the Silent Auction with over 50 items to bid on, including Artwork and passes to select events.

There were raffle tickets for the Centre pieces!

And this?

This is what it looks like to win the GRAND PRIZE!!!

And yes!! That's a Red Hot Mama that won!! WoooHoooo!!!

As always, a good time was had by all. (That's something we say in our family) All the behind the scenes work really paid off and I'm sure that it was again, a very successful fundraiser!

Well, I won't be posting for a 'wee while' (another familyism) as I've got some things to take care of that will keep me away from the computer for awhile.

I hope all of you truly experience.......

the quiet of the changing seasons,

the joy of creativity,

the excitement of new possibilities,

the bliss of what is happening right now,

and the power that just stopping to breathe,

just one long, deep breath....can give you.

I'll write as soon as I'm able....Take Care of yourselves.

Good Intentions

You know, I take a good number of photos. I set up for the "photo shoot", I plan the story for the blog, I download the pictures, and then?
Well, later turns into tomorrow; turns into the day after; turns into next week and this time around it turned into next month!!
It's late, I'm tired (not sleeping that great lately), but I want to get something new out there for anybody to look at.
1) I submitted 3 blocks for Northcott's Quilt For the Cure challenge. And here they are:

Doane House for Barb. Appliqued using Steam-a-Seam, with machine stitch detailing. This was a lot of fun! Very fiddly and time consuming, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.
Camera of Hope with Yellow Tulips for Hayley (sorry you need to look sideways at it). Again, a design of my own. I used a spray glue on the fabric and then machine appliqued around all the edges. I really enjoyed this one too, however I would use Steam-a-Seam over the spray if I were to do another.

Sadly, Hayley lost her battle with Breast cancer at the end of August. She is dearly missed.

Lone Star for Mary. This pattern is usually done on a much larger scale and that detail proved a little more challenging than I expected, but Mary showed us her Lone Star quilt and I was inspired by that AND her determination to 'just keep going'!

There are more shots of these squares if anybody's interested, leave a comment and I'll give you the full image, or the close up, whichever is called for.

2)Some of the other story lines I've been percolating...

I bought some Knitting Needles; just because they're pretty.

I don't often use straights, but it's nice to know that these are here if I need them. They're just soooooo beautiful; kinda makes ya want to use straight needles again.

3)Sooooo, I talked with my friend Christine the other day (o.k. last month; a week, or maybe two ago) and we were talking about dog toys----doesn't everybody? And I remembered that I had seen this toy somewhere that a Pit Bull's, or some other incredibly strong jawed dog's, owner said was the "best ever"! A mini tire that stood up to the jaws of steel, where so many others became shreds of nothing in no time flat!

So, while I'm out getting, yet more, cat food, I remember this tire idea and find one. Bring it home and after about a dozen action shots, finally capture this:

Now that, my friends, is a picture of pure, unadulterated, joy.

FYI---the tire now has a hole in it. Jaws of Steel? No, just perseverance!

Shout Out to all the Lovelies!!

First, let me send a shout out to GW!! How could I possibly forget the lady that saved me with a loan of yarn and needles?!

The socks got started, but sadly, remain only partially complete.

You have not experienced any kind of senior moment; I was negligent in not returning your needles to you in a timely manner...

(I've had a few glasses of a lovely Shiraz with pizza for dinner; hence the colourful way I'm writing tonight!)

I have located and 'rounded' up your needles and will get them in the mail tomorrow (or Monday). Thanks again for your help; no one understands a knitter's needs like another knitter. :-)

O.K. so here was one of my finds at the KW Fair. Sock yarn with Stirling Silver!! It's new!! I don't know why I thought I should have it, but I know it's mine!

A lovely black/navy clolourway, with a hint of shine, named Midnight (as you can see on the label---duh)---love it!

Now for something that doesn't need to be knit!

This lovely lady? This is Agnes. Isn't she lovely?

'Lovely' seems to be the word of the evening.

Anyway, Agnes came home with me from the last Creative Festival; just because she's so special!

While in Kitchener I met up with the lovely (again) people at BLACK SHEEP AND EWE and met Dorothy.

I love her sweater and still dream of making one very similar!

I also found....

Jack.

I love Jack.

Jack is a sweetheart and someday I hope to go to his wedding.



That, however, is another story!

And We're Back!

The computer is all updated, restarted and apparently happy enough to be here and allow me to post some pictures of one of the best days of my life!!



It was an early start for a Saturday morning for a few of the Cast Offs! We were on the road complete with coffee in hand, and Daniel our trusted (well along with a Mapquest Map) GPS guide, by 7:50 am. I generally don't even get dressed by that time in the morning, never mind out driving and picking up people; but then, this was for yarn.

We arrived in Kitchener (without a single wrong turn---thanks Daniel) around 9:15 (doors open at 9:30) to this:

An ever growing lineup!! Who cares if the skies were to open and deluge us with 100mm of rain? Is it just me, but why wouldn't it be reported as 10cm? Does that sound worse or something? Anyway, why the sock? I'm so glad you asked. Due to an unfortunate Knitting injury one of our Cast Offs was unable to attend the Kitchener Waterloo Knitters Fair. She is also unable to knit---due to too much knitting (without sufficient wine breaks to aid in lubrication of the joints!)---and this is a sock she was working on with a completion date of Oct. 4; I offered to complete the sock and decided that even if Ruth couldn't make it to the Fair, then her sock would! Unfortunately, this is the only photo of said sock until I got home; blame it on the Yarn Fumes!



O.K. we get in the door and then have to decide which room to go to first?! I went with the one I was closest to after we hit the ladies room and also Debbie New was knitting at the doorway---divine intervention I believe.
So, common knowledge that I don't need yarn. Probably just as common knowledge that that very fact has never stopped me before, but this time? This time it was going to be different!

Stop laughing.

My first purchases were not yarn.

Definitely yarn and knitting related (hello? Knitters fair!).

See? Not yarn.

I'm doin' good. I'm o.k. I have lots of beautiful yarn at home and not nearly enough time to knit it all.

And then? Then I saw this.

Isn't that striking? It looks like a lot of fun....someday.

And once I got warmed up...

So yea, I bought some more yarn. See the happy sock in the middle of it all?

You know, I get out to these kind of sales/events as often as I can and am known to consistently Enhance the Stash on these occasions, but I gotta tell you...I did show restraint and after I added up how much I spent (I rarely do that) I spent virtually the same amount as I did the first time that I went to the Creative Festival down in Toronto in 2000! Now, take inflation into account, and I'm sure that I spent far less this time around!

I've now been to the Knitter's Frolic twice and yes, this was my first time to the KW Fair; so I think I've come up with a reasonable plan (we all know about me and my plans! sheez) ! I will (attempt) to budget for those two sales each year. One in the spring and one in the fall. Fabulous!! And maybe as a treat I'll get to a Stitches Event (or two) every(year) now and then.

And now a reminder from the medical community.

To your health!

LATER!!

Somewhere out there in blog photo land there are double copies of the things that I wanted to show you from the KW Knitters Fair on Saturday. Apparently, this isn't the time that I am supposed to do this. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that my computer wants to do a restart for updates and I keep telling it LATER!!
Well, I guess it's a 'right back at ya sista' from the ole keyboard. So I'll post this little teaser, to let you know that you are on my mind, set up a link for another blog that I like to visit. Turns out this lady was also at KW and you can have a look at her photos. Go to Knitting to Stay Sane.
I will try again later, after I've given in to my laptop and let her shut down...
I know how she feels.
Bye for now or rather,
Later!

Well, There went THAT summer!

Yup! Bye, bye Summer '08!
It was a very hectic and rainy summer---as if nobody's mentioned that at least a thousand times! There was, however, a lot of beauty to be thankful for amongst all that Canadian weather!
Here, we see yet, another storm rolling in.

My intention was to enter this picture in my parent's local fall fair, but once again life's just didn't have that in store for me this time around. What was memorable about taking this picture though, was that as I climbed down the hill (and across the road) to get to the dock area of the cottage we rented, my son looked up from putting the cover on the boat (yet again) to see what I was taking a picture of.

"Cool!"

He wouldn't have stopped to notice the beauty or just how much contrast we were lucky to observe as the clouds came rolling in, had I not wanted to win a prize at the fair. You know, I think I'll remember that moment more than if I had won a second or third. (My mom would get 1st; it's just a given!) My hope is that he remembers it too.

The Dear Flies were horrendous, but the dog needed to be walked! So out comes my collection of hats (and a rain coat that I bought the first day up there!) and various landmarkes were set up to give the children some idea of how far they were to take the dog. ie. Not just to the end of the driveway and then say, "She didn't do anything!"

One of the closests landmarks was, 'Debby's cottage'. We were lucky to have friends rent a cottage just two down from us; so that was a short, in a hurry walk. The BIG walk landmark was to go check on the boat trailer; to make sure that it was still chained to the tree at the launch area. To the north this was the landmark that I chose.

I was having such a good time fiddling around with the settings on my camera and I've always enjoyed Thistles (I guess it's in the blood) and finally took a decent photo of one. I hope to implement my Thistle ideas in some of my knitting projects. (sooner rather than later!)

As the end of our cottage time loomed closer, I took to getting as much peaceful time on the dock as the weather permitted (not much!); this is what that looks like.

Like the hat?