The First Snow Storm

We woke up this morning to this, the first snowstorm of the year.   The snowflakes were huge and the landscape looked so pretty.  By early afternoon, the sun was out and the snow melting rapidly.  Tomorrow, its supposed to rain.






For Christmas, I made 10 placemats out of the leftover fabric from the roman blinds (it hardly put a dent in the leftover fabric).  I also made 10 napkin holders.  So I have 10 placemats, 10 napkin holders, 10 chairs and 10 plates.  So if anyone else shows up, they will have to bring their own chair and plate.

The napkin holders are free standing lace and the placemats have a matching embroidery motif.  I embroidered the first one directly onto the placemat but that was really fussy, trying to position it just so.  So the rest of them I did like the FSL and then used Charlotte's Web to fuse them to the placemat and finished by stitching them to the placemat with invisible thread.  I'm very pleased with how they turned out although I don't think any two of the placemats are the same size.

I now have lots of starch.  This is a tip from my friend Judy E.  Save the water from washing out the water soluble stabilizer and use it as starch.  It works very well.

Life in Cape Breton

Life has been very busy.  I try to go to yoga every morning; after yoga  I usually go up to my parents to make lunch and help out with tidying the house.  Then its back home to take the dogs for a walk and try to get a few things done around my house.  My dad seems to have rallied and is better than he was a few weeks ago.  He did experience a sudden hearing loss but thanks to my good friend Monica who sent us her dad's hearing aids, he is able to hear again.

I finished the quilt for my mom and she just loves it.  Here it is - the front and back.

The installation of the hearth and woodstove is complete.  The tiles were laid this past week and today we went and pick out some weathered wood for the mantle.  We should have it this week.

The next big event is Christmas.  The family wants to have a traditional Christmas here with turkey dinner and a tree and all that stuff.  I haven't put up a tree in 20 years so needless to say I don't have any decorations.  I picked out the tree last week and Paul will cut it down when the time comes. Decorations have been purchased and tons of lights, both indoor and outdoor.  I have also been working on a Christmas tree wall hanging - its almost done but I won't show you a picture till its complete.  Its approximately 80" high and close to 30" wide.  I'm thinking of entering it in the local "Festival of Trees" but I'm not sure it will be finished in time.   Monday I will pick up some supplies to make wreaths for the doors.

We had a very sad event a couple of weeks ago.  I think most of you already know that Ralphie went to the Rainbow Bridge.  He had an internal bleeding episode that just could not be brought under control so we had to let him go.  Many tears have been shed.  The house is so quiet, too quiet without him.  He has left a huge hole in our hearts.  The only one who doesn't seem to mind is Pearl as she never really liked him very much but she is much clingier than she was.  Here is one of the last pictures we have of them both running on the beach.

I went on a quilting retreat in October and had a blast.  It took place at St. Ann's Gaelic College, which is not far from Baddeck.  We arrived on Friday afternoon and left Sunday after lunch.  I took a workshop with Kathy Tidswell on thread painting and learned a lot from this very talented lady.  I enjoyed every minute of the retreat which was very well organized.  There were around 36 or 34 women from all over the province and one lady who actually drove down from Ontario.  There were little presents for each person at each meal and door prizes.  On Friday evening, we had a "pajama party" with games and many prizes and laughs followed by some show and tell.  On Saturday night there was some live musical entertainment.  I met many women with similar interests and not all as traditional as I thought they would be.  There was also a fabric sale on Saturday with attendees having brought fabric from their stashes and a vendor on site who had beautiful landscape fabrics at very reasonable prices.  One of the ladies had been collecting silk garments for quite some time and had a big shopping bag full of silk which she no longer wanted.  I was able to buy it for $10.00 and then proceeded to spend approximately $150 on other fabrics.

While at the retreat, I started talking to the lady from Ontario and it turns out she also had a puppy from the breeder that Pearl comes from.  It is such a small world.  I was happy to learn that Bob was back in business after having been very sick for many months; I had been trying to get in touch with him for so long as I wanted to see him before we moved.  When I was involved with doing westie rescue, Bob was my best helper.  I was finally able to talk to him last week and he will put our name on a spring puppy.  All going well, I will be coming to Guelph to pick it up in April or May.

While I'm out most days, Paul has been keeping himself busy doing outside and inside work and taking care of the house.  We are also on the organizing committee for the Seaside Lobster Festival taking place next July and ,although, we are not too busy with that yet, I'm sure that will change after the holidays. 

Well that's it for now.  I hope everyone is well.  I'm sure everyone is starting to gear up for the holidays.  Don't forget to breathe and have a glass of wine.

Brigitte