Brentwood 2014 Part 1 - Twiggy

Our annual Cross Stitch Retreat to Brentwood on the Beach with The Stitching Sisters is the highlight of our year.  We cannot wait to spend our 4 days together with our nonstop gabbing, stitching, laughing and sharing time with our wonderful friends we met a few short years ago.  

This year we had a new visitor; ‘VISITOR’ being the key word here.   In case you’ve forgotten our silly tag line of ‘You Can Visit, But You Can’t Join!’, just click on the link so you can read about it.   Thanks to Jody’s sister Holly for helping to provide us with this phrase as it has gotten a lot of mileage, laughs and shocking responses.  

Jody immediately fell in love with a turtle from the Scentsy collection that Anita’s daughter sells;  Jacinda has recently taken up cross stitching and is often reminds us... ‘I know, I know – I can visit, but I can’t join!’ -- Well -- this year Jody decided to bring Twiggy to Brentwood so he could sit with us and we could enjoy his scented sachet turtle shell.   Twiggy was promptly set in place as we sat down to stitch, but something just wasn’t right.  Jody realized he needed something to stitch too, so she remedied that quickly and just when we thought we were ready to settle in to stitching, Anita realized that Twiggy needed to borrow her glasses.  So she remedied That quickly too. 

Just when we thought we were ready to settle in to stitching again, Jody said, “Wait!  We have to get his picture!”  Anita put her things down and took the picture.  And just when we thought we were ready to settle in to stitching again, Jody said, “Wait! Anita – you have to send the picture to Jacinda to show her Twiggy is stitching!”   Anita uploaded the picture.  And just when we thought we were ready to send the photo Jody said, “WAIT!  You have to tell Jacinda ‘LOOK WHO GOT TO JOIN’!!” (laughter upon laughter)  Picture Sent!   And just when we thought we were ready to start stitching again, the reply from Jacinda came in, “He can VISIT!!  He only gets to VISIT.”   Stitching … still on hold until we could compose ourselves. 

If Twiggy had any reservations about joining visiting that weekend, they were soon gone once he realized there was much more to do than sit around stitching and with a bunch of ladies.  

Hey mom!  I found some new friends.

Hey mom!  I bet you can't find me ....

Hey mom!  Stop stitching and come and find me again.

Hey mom!  You'll never find me this time.
mmmmm Werthers.
I wonder how many I can eat before she finds me.

Hey mom!  I found my very own hammock.

Hey look mom!  I found my own wrecking ball.
Hey mom... can we make a video of me if I
promise to leave my clothes shell on?

Hey look mom!  Anita made this really pretty blanket and it kind of looks like my shell.
Do you think if I ask her really nice she will make me
a winter coat that looks just like this?
ahhhhhhhh I think I'll take a nap.

Hey mom!  Look at these Lily of the Valley flowers
that Bonnie brought.
They smell really nice, Just Like ME.

Hey mom!  Is it time for dinner yet?
I'm huuunnnggrrryyyy.

Hey mom!  Can I check my email?

Hey mom look!
!!PHOTO BOMB!!

Hey mom!  Did you know Brentwood wrote a book?

Hey mom!  What does pleasure mean and why does it ride a bus?
I heard dad say something before about a pleasure ride, but I didn't know it rode a bus.
I thought only kids rode a bus to school.  I know...
I'll ask my brothers when I get home.

Hey mom!  I found some shells.
Can I try on a new shell? 
Can I?  Huh?  Can I?

ummm MOM!  HELLLLP!
This shell is too heavy.  Mommmm - it's squishin' me.
Mom?  Mommm?

Hey mom!  Do you want to play a game with me?
How can you resist my adorable smile?
Can we send this picture to Jacinda too?

Hey mom! 
They got lots of neat games here we can play.
huh?  What do you mean you came here to stitch?

Hey mom!  Can I have some candy?
Wow! Look at this giant bag of M&Ms. It's almost as big as me.

Hey mom!  I"m going to hang outside for awhile and get some sun.

Hey mom! 
Look, I can slide down the banister all my myself!

Ahhhh thanks Mom!
 Thanks for taking off my shell...
That feels better.

Hey mom!
Trish is going to teach us how to make her famous
1-2-3-4 Biscuits. YUMMY!
Now you can make these at home ALL the time.

Wow Mom.  We've only been here an hour and
I can't believe all the things there are to do. 
Thanks for letting me join visit.
Hey mom, I like watching you stitch.

Hey mom!
I found my very own pool with a fountain and Everything.

Hey mom! 
I found this really big bed and there's even a place for my shell.

Four days later....

Hey Mom!  Can I drive home?
No Twiggy.
awwwwwww !!

Hey Mom!  Can I hang out the window on the way home?
No Twiggy.
awwwww !!!!
I Never get to do anything I want!

Hey Mom!
Are we there yet?

As you can see Twiggy had a pretty good time during his visit to Brentwood. I wonder if Jody will be taking this little rascal to all the cross stitch outings.  We do after all have another one coming up in a few weeks.....

Stay tuned for more from Brentwood.

Bonnie

Goodbye Trees :-(

I love trees. One of the best features of my property when I bought this house was the numerous trees in the yard.  They canopy the entire back yard and make it feel so cozy.  So cozy we had my daughter’s wedding in the back yard and it was just beautiful.  We’ll save that post for another day. 

Sadly, I had to have 4 diseased trees removed this past November. During the process one of the large trees tangled in the fall and took down the tree right next to it that was planted to replace the one being removed.  These trees provided a massive amount of shade on the west side of my house which means I’m really going to notice the temperature difference in the house this year; not to mention the fact that I have to rearrange some gardens to compensate for the extra sunshine. 

The tree removal company doesn’t remove the stump waste, so I am left with two massive piles of tree stump bark to displace throughout the gardens. At first I was hesitant to use the bark from diseased trees  in my gardens, but after some research this winter I discovered that it would be fine.  So I thought, ok – I’ll get some extra help and we’ll just cover over the existing bark in the gardens.  Then it hit me.  It’s not just bark – it is dirt AND bark mixed together. So now I’m faced with ‘sifting’ the dirt and bark from each other or else I’m just going to be weeding bark; so what’s the point.  It’s been a time consuming project because I’m shifting the gardens around at the same time, but it’s coming along. 

This picture is a little dark, but I wanted to emphasize the height of the trees. I actually had to stand in my neighbour's yard in order to be able to capture all the trees in the picture. Sooooooo tall !   These three trees at the corner of the garage helped to shade the west side of my house.

In the picture below, between the garage and the house, you can see the large diseased tree. When we moved into this house the tree had a small hole in it;  27 years later, this you could see out the other side of the hole and the tree was hollow 12 feet up into the tree.  Sadly - Time to come down. This tree was the tallest tree on the street and provided a massive amount of shade to the yard and house as well as protection against rain coming in my bedroom windows.  The picture following this shows the top view of the tree to give you an indication of the height. 

For 26 years all I heard from people was, "You know... that tree is going to have to come down."  So when my daughter decided she wanted to have her wedding in the yard, I was dearly tempted to nail a sign onto the tree that said: 'YES, I Know the tree is going to have to come down!'

Instead....I got creative.

Niki and Shawn's wedding was in October and a friend of mine called me and said she was cleaning out her gardens for fall and was digging up some flowering cabbage and would I like it to put in my gardens for the wedding.  I knew right away what I wanted to do with it ! 

 

Sadly the day came that they all had to be removed. The following pictures are a little dark because it was late November and I had just got home from work and I had to take the pictures right away as the remainder of the trees would be removed the next day when I was gone to work. Also in the bottom picture, note the inside of the trunk - that was 10 feet of several honey bee hives in the hollow of the tree.

Snowflakes or Orbs - you decide. 

Ok, so the trees were felled, the winter was cold, harsh and very long; spring finally arrived late and it was time for me to get rid of the piles of dirt and bark.  Pile 1 below.

Now, Pile 2 has a bit of a story.  When I went outside to take the pictures of the piles of bark there was a little 'winter' surprise waiting for me that made me chuckle right out loud.

This friendly little Frosty the Snowman has been passed back and forth for many years between my friend Diane and I.  It started out when I was sorting through some Christmas decorations and I decided to take 12 of my decorations and drop them off at my friends door step for each of the 12 days of Christmas.  Frosty was the last one.   And then one day Frosty turned up at my house the next spring and he's been going back and forth now for several years.  Had we known this was going to carry on for so long and bring so much enjoyment, we would have taken more pictures a long time ago.  This was one of my favourite 'finds' to discover Frosty in the bark, but one of my other favourites was one year when I walked out to my garage and discovered him in this garden.... 

Diane's favourite discovery was waking up Christmas morning and looking out her kitchen window that overlooks the neighbour's garage roof and Frosty was sitting on the roof peeking in at her.  One day I noticed Di outside cleaning the car and when she went into the house for a moment I took the opportunity to quickly run over and buckle Frosty into the front seat.  I could hear her laughing from my place when she came back outside to finish cleaning the car.  Frosty also made it to Diane's daughter's Stag and Doe. 

So back to the dirt and bark..... at present I am about 65% finished and as I progress - the robins just love me.  Each time I go out to work, they are right there as they have learned who is providing them with their take out meals for the day.  All they needed to do was show up and discover what I had left tossed out for them on the tarp. 

Not only did the birds enjoy being fed - they loved it when it rained hard enough to fill the ruts in the ground from the trucks and they enjoyed a warm spring bath.

I dearly miss my trees already.  This past week we had a huge thunderstorm and the wind and rain came into my bedroom window and got my bed wet before I could get to the window fast enough to close them.  The protection of the trees often allowed me to keep the windows open through most all thunderstorms.  Oh well.... what can I do? 

I am so grateful to have had so many years of enjoyment from the trees and thankful that none of the spring or winter storms over the past 27 years ever toppled any of the trees over onto the house, particularly while I was asleep in my bed. 

 .... and of course grateful I was able to feed so many baby robins this spring. 

Bonnie

Fellow Bloggers Can You HELP?

We are Bonnie and Tracey, and are administrators to this blog.  For some reason Bonnie cannot log into the blog to create posts because the ‘sign in’, ‘design’, 'New Post' etc. buttons are missing from the top right hand corner of the page.  All other editing buttons to the posts, add ins, gadgets, etc. are showing and will allow Bonnie to access it and make title changes.

·   Tracey checked the admin page and it appears that no settings have changed

·   Bonnie has tried the help forum/center (located on her profile page), but it continually circles back to the same links with no solution for the problem

If anyone has any suggestions / solutions it would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much,

Tracey and Bonnie

Craving Colour

Things are finally starting to green up in our neck of the woods and plants are poking through the earth.  Not much in the way of colour yet, so to satisfy my craving, I've been in full swing knitting Spring coloured dishcloths the past few weeks.

L to R:  Fruit Punch, Sky Blue & Key Lime Pie

I started off just wanting to knit up a few to give to Bonnie for her birthday, but I as got going, I just couldn't stop!  My yarn stash also grew by leaps and bounds, because every time I had to make a trip to Walmart I'd have to have a peek... and there would be another colour calling my name.

Speaking of names, what a fun job it would be coming up with names for all of the beautiful colours out there!  Every once and a while Bernat comes up with a new line of "themed" yarns that are a lot of fun.  Vintage Quilt is the latest one I've seen, and 2 balls from that collection ended up in my cart. 

L to R: Calico & Meadow

I almost get as excited buying new yarn, as I do discovering interesting new patterns out there from the world of Pinterest and Ravelry.  The newest pattern I've fallen in love with is called "The Almost Lost Washcloth Pattern" from the blog Simply Notable (the one pictured above in "Key Lime Pie").  Such a sweet story too, as to how she obtained the pattern.  

Now, up to this point, I have never knit anything but square dishcloths, so I thought it would be fun to go a different route and I was up for the challenge.  What a pleasant surprise!  Even though this shape looks complicated, it was so easy and a great way for me to try my hand at knitting short rows.  All you need to know is how to do regular old knit stitch and how to cast off, and you're good to go.  A really fast knit too!   

I also found that this pattern looks great when knit with variegated yarn.  A lot of the patterns out there get "lost" when knit with something other than a solid.  With this one the shape is what it's all about. 

Don't worry... I will get back to my cross stitching... someday.  Right now, I'm having too much fun with my friends, Robin's Nest, Queen Ann's Lace and the rest of the Bernat Gang!!

Happy Easter, everyone!!  Thank for stopping by...

Tracey

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Naked.  6AM.  Standing in the shower - I start thinking about work.   Whyyyy?  

Why do I start remembering all the things I need to do at work while I’m naked?  At the office that day I mentioned this to my co-worker and said, “There’s something just not right if I’m reminded of a co-worker in the shower.”  Her response, “Especially if they aren’t ‘bangable’ !”  

What I discovered was that: 

• When I was at home, I found myself thinking about things I needed to do at work.
•  When I was at work, I found myself thinking about things I needed to do at home.

Whether I was at home or work, I would think of things I needed to pick up at the store and by the time I got there, I couldn’t remember what I needed.  And while we can all attest to that at times, I found it to be happening far too regularly.    In knew I needed to find a way to organize things to better manage this. 

One day at my local Dollar Store, I found a nifty little journal that had multiple dividers.

When I opened it up, I discovered that the dividers were actually plastic sleeves with pockets.  Cool!  I immediately had an idea.  

I decided to label each tab:  HOME, WORK, ERRANDS.   Then I committed to keeping this journal in my purse, this way no matter where I was I would always have it.

• If I was at work and thought of something for home, I wrote it down in the home tab
• If I was at home and thought of something for work, I wrote it down in the work tab
• The errands tab is self explanatory
• The plastic sleeve with pockets came in very handy to hold any type of receipt:
• The ERRANDS sleeve safely held gift or store receipts
• The WORK sleeve safely held payslips or drug plan receipts
• The HOME sleeve held gas slips to put with my income tax papers at home

Nothing got lost within my purse now.    

This practice worked well for me and I wanted to share this with others, so I decided to make some to give to Anita, Tracey and Jody at the next Cross-Stitch meeting. And now I want to share it with you too.  

Since the journal is actually protected with an additional plastic cover, this holds up well in my rough and tumble purse.  But I also had an idea to personalize the journals for Anita, Jody and Tracey.   I knew I wouldn't have time to cross stitch a little token, so I just searched for an image of a cross stitch to place on the outside cover to hide the 'Journal, 180 pages etc'.  

I came across this design and I loved it.  I had just watched "Saving Mr. Banks", the new Disney movie - the story of the making of Mary Poppins.  (One day I hope to actually stitch this project.)  When everyone received their journals, at first they thought I actually did stitch the piece that was on the front cover.

 

What I liked about the "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" was that it seems like a scrambled up word, but now it is made to look pretty and tidy.  

Fitting because this is my goal; to take the scrambled up mess from my head and tidy it up!  For some reason though... I'm craving a spoonful of sugar.

So - let's get - and STAY organized!!  I hope that this little tip helps you too. I'm especially happy to hear ideas from you too and any organizing tips you would like to share. 

Bonnie