Still stitching

Since my last cross-stitch progress post was over three years ago, I figure we're about due for another one! I just finished stitching a piece (can't post online at them moment ...) so I am ready for a new rotation. Despite the long time between updates, I have not given up stitching (I finally finished Village Skaters!! It's not framed, but still ...). Schoolwork often took precedence, but now that we are settled in our new house and Peter is working several night shifts a month, my stitching progress has picked up once again.

The last piece I finished I kept careful track of the hours I spent working on it. I really liked being able to go back and see how long it took me to complete. My new rotation is going to be based on the number of hours worked. I think 6 hours is a good amount of time to work on one project before switching to the next. On an average stitching night I will get around 2 hours in, while on a good stitching night I could manage 3. If I am close to 6 hours on one project when I sit down to stitch for a full evening I will go on to the next one and leave the last 15 minutes for the next round of the rotation. Confused yet? I made up a cool spreadsheet to help me keep track.

For my rotation I plan to have four projects (I think these are my only WIPs ... is that possible?). They are:

Carousel (Theresa Wentzler)
Started: January 2007 (estimated at 170 hours completed)

The original plan for this picture was to go in the nursery, but when Nathan turned out to be a boy I thought the picture was a bit girl-y for a boy's room (still do!). I think it's perfect for a little girl's room, though, so once it is finished it will go in Hannah's room.

Celtic Summer (Lavender & Lace)
Started: Unknown but later than Feb. 2007 (no time estimate)

For the longest time I was missing one of the specialty threads for this picture. It was on backorder and still hasn't arrived. Somehow in the past year I've managed to procure the missing thread (I don't remember getting it, but I have it now), so I am much more happy to work on it. I hate having to skip sections because of a missing thread. I finished Celtic Christmas a few years ago and can't wait to have the whole series for my wall! They are such a fun stitch.

Nativity - Centre Panel (Marbek)
Started: unknown but later than Feb. 2007 (no time estimate)

This is the centre panel of the large, 5-panel, Nativity scene by Marbek. I imagine it will be finished about the time the kids leave home. And then of course it will have to be framed. Oh well, it will be beautiful. Working with the metallic Kreiniks just might kill me, though.

Dance of the Roses (Lavender & Lace)
Started: Feb. 2007 (no time estimate)

I think this picture is very pretty, but I've kind of fallen out of love with it. We'll see if my sentiments change before I finish it. It's an easy stitch so I don't mind working on it, I just don't see it on my wall in the future.

And that's it for my progress pictures and my rotation schedule. Happy stitching!

Springtime fun

The past few days have been absolutely beautiful, if a bit windy. Despite the wind, we've spent time outside with the kids the past few days. Peter is on his 6-shift stretch of nights. That makes for lots of family time.

Yesterday we played for a while in the backyard. Hannah sat on her mats ... until the wind picked up one side and blew it on top of her head! Then she sat in the stroller for awhile. Nathan played in his sandbox while Peter worked on organizing his workshop and I 'played' in the garden (basically just breaking up the soil - trying to get it to dry faster?). After that he and Nathan played some backyard hockey. I'm going to try putting a video in this post for the first time ... wish me luck!




Today after the kids' rest time / naps we took them to a playground nearby. I think this was one of Hannah's first times on a swing. She seemed to really enjoy it. Nathan liked the slide the best. What a difference between last summer and this spring - he is so much less timid on the equipment.

Here are a couple of my favourites from the day. Many more can be found on my flickr site.

Renovations - Day 1

When we looked at this house, we knew that the basement needed a lot of work. The bathroom was absolutely disgusting and we planned to completely re-do it as our first step toward a usable basement. Today we got started. We had some grand ideas to turn the fixtures around and combine a storage room with the bathroom to make it bigger. Here are a few pictures of what the looked like this morning (the shower was sooooo gross!)


Would you want to shower in that? Plus, the shower was super short. We were curious as to why ...

After half a day of ripping out fixtures and paneling, the bathroom now looks like this ...

Much better :) Now we can start to figure out how we're going to put it back together. Because of those drain pipes in the wall that go through the concrete, our idea of combining the bathroom with the storage area won't work, but the bathroom is still an ok size.

Another glitch we have to sort out is that the people who originally plumbed the bathroom decided that instead of putting pipes through the floor joists they would simply run them under the floor joists and lower the ceiling in the bathroom. We would like those pipes moved up.

The last concern (so far) is that we think the drain for the shower is too close to the corner to fit a regular shower. The original shower was up off the floor and had an S-shaped piece of pipe to move the drain to the right place. We have heard that the drain may be in the correct place for a tub, which is fine with us. There is space in the room for a tub to be put in instead of a shower, so if that would work we'll do that. If not, we're open to suggestions!

One last picture of Daddy and his little helper ...

Next step is to contact a plumber to see what they can tell us about moving pipes around ...

Hannah's 1st birthday party!

Today was the day we celebrated Hannah's 1st birthday with friends. Her birthday isn't technically until Thursday, but since Peter works nights all week we thought this would work better.

Here is a picture before everyone arrived (Peter bought her the cute headband):


After everyone arrived (4 couples and 7 kids in addition to ours :) ), we brought out the cake:


Yes, she was a little scared of it.

And ... after eating it:


I don't like posting pictures of other peoples' kids, so I won't post any others of the party. Suffice it to say that a good time was had by all the kids! They played with balloons, coloured hard-boiled eggs, and of course had cake and juice. It was really kind of all our new friends to come celebrate with us and it was great to get to have some time to visit with them. People here have been so welcoming.

Here's a picture of the cake just after I finished decorating it:


And ... a picture I couldn't resist taking the other day when I woke the birthday girl from her nap. This is the first time I've ever seen her sleep on her side.

Beginning a vegetable garden

Between all the work of building our last house and getting some grass in, I did not have a chance to plant a vegetable garden, although I always wanted to. Now that we've moved to a house that is basically finished, although renovations are in progress I decided that this is the year to give it a shot.

After googling tons, talking to a few local people who have grown successful gardens, soliciting tips on facebook, and chatting with my Mom to clear up a few things that had me confused, I finally got to get my hands dirty today (March 22nd). Yes, it is still way, way too early to be thinking about planting outside here in Saskatchewan, but today Nathan and I planted peppers and tomatoes in peat pots. I also want to start a small indoor herb garden (it is impossible to find fresh chives anywhere within a hundred miles of here!), so we also planted rosemary, parsley, and chives. I haven't had much luck with plants in the past so hopefully I can be more diligent with these.

Nathan helped me with the planting. He had a blast!

I have figured out what I want to plant in the garden (other than tomatoes and peppers) and have planned the layout. The plot I plan to use is 5 1/2' x 30' so I will put an aisle down the middle and have a 2' wide row on each side of it. There seems to be about 4" of good soil in the bed already but the soil under that is really hard so I will be building it up (How much?? Any ideas?? I was thinking if I had 12" - 15" it might be good)

The part of gardening I find most confusing is how to improve the soil before planting, so I am very open to suggestions. A local gardener here said to use equal parts of peat moss and (composted) manure ... and I think for the size of the garden I need just under 15 cubic feet of each. Does that sound right to anyone who's gardened in the past??

I'm sure there will be many more posts on this topic in the future. Here's a picture of our little greenhouse.

Pregnancy Summary - Week 12

Yes, this is my bump at just 12 weeks ... compare with this one when I was 20 weeks pregnant with Nathan. Kind of scary!

I went to the doctor for my 12-week appointment on Tuesday. She said I'm actually measuring at 14 weeks and that it is probably because this is my third baby within a relatively short time period (she also mentioned the possibility of twins, but I'm determined not to worry about that until the ultrasound!). I have a history of measuring large after 24 weeks, but this is the first time it's been so early. It made me feel a bit better, though, since at least some of the bump is baby - it's not all fat.

(I actually managed to make it to my second weight loss goal that I mentioned after Hannah was born. I'm glad I did that before I got pregnant again - should make it easier to lose the weight after this one again!)

I've been on Diclectin for morning sickness the past few weeks. What a difference it has made! There were days before I went on it that I couldn't get off the couch. Once I started taking it I feel almost normal. There are a few things that still set me off, but nothing like what it was before. Now to figure out when it is safe to wean myself off of it!

Other than that things seem to be progressing well. I can't believe the first trimester is over. With my previous two pregnancies the first 3 months seemed to drag by and I was so worried about miscarriage. This one has passed in a flash and my stress levels have been much lower. I'm not sure if that's because this baby is a surprise or if it's because I have two other little ones to run around after so I don't have time to be stressed!

Hopefully sometime within the next 4 or 5 weeks I'll get to feel the baby move. Very exciting!

The blog with 9 lives ...

So I disappeared for another 9 months, but who's counting? The six months that Peter was away were very rough on me. I was in a funk for pretty much the whole time and didn't feel much like chronicling those difficult days (maybe I should have anyway, but I just couldn't bring myself to do much except take care of the kids and get through my schoolwork).

Quick summary - I finished my coursework for my BEd (still have a 15 week practicum to complete in the future), Peter finished his training, we sold our house the day before he graduated, we moved to a small town in Saskatchewan just before Christmas, and we have baby #3 on the way ... due on October 7th, 2010. Yep, we are expecting again (totally not planned ... at all ... but very thankful regardless).

Hannah turns 1 on April 1st, so plans are in the works to celebrate that milestone. Nathan is in the midst of potty training. We are planning to renovate the basement of our house and plant a vegetable garden this spring. Lots of fun!

Since we are now so far away from our family I am going to try really hard to keep up with this blog. There will be lots of anecdotes and pictures of the kids to help the grandparents and other interested parties get their fix, as well as to chronicle this very busy time in our lives. Keep me honest ;) If I disappear again, feel free to (politely) ask me where I am!

One other note - since I am kind of a 'feast or famine' blogger, some of my posts may be written at one time and set to post later. When that happens I will try and remember to make a note of what date the event actually happened.

Testing ...

I'm looking at reviving this blog (post to come in a couple of hours) but want to test a way to link this blog with my facebook profile ...