August Smalls and a Muskoka visit

I'm ahead of the game this month with two small finishes. Both involve flowers since I have very few summer smalls to display around the house. The first is designed by Teresa Murgida of Primitive Acorns and is called Wild Camomille. I love the bee in this one!

The second finish is designed by Esub Rosa and is simply called Summer Pincushion.

This will be a pincushion once I get a finishing day underway.

 I haven't had much time for anything other than the smalls this month. I will post a progess report on my larger WIP at the end of the week. Hopefully I'll have added to them by then. Vacation has taken up most of my time this month. We visited our beloved Muskoka region for the first time in two years. We didn't book our usual cottage because it's on an island and we weren't sure how well I'd be able to get in and out of the boat with my new knee and hip. However the new joints performed admirably and we hope to return to the island next year. Instead we booked a cottage in the Torrance region on Lake Muskoka.
Here a just a few pics of our lakeside visit.

 The view from the dock

 Our rental

 A lovely wooden launch

 Muskoka sunset

 A dinner cruise aboard SS Segwun

 Port Carling - hub of the 3 big lakes

 One of the many boathouses seen on the lake

Dockside stitching

 The Segwun steamship entering the narrows on Lake Muskoka

 The Segwun is the longest operating steamship in North America

 There's a seat by the lake just waiting for you!

See you all soon!

Feeling the itch......

To start something new, that is. My stitching is moving along quite smoothly over the past few days and as Turkey Love is nearing a completion, I feel that all familiar urge. Should it be a Halloween ornie, some smalls for fall or another big project? Time will tell as I sift through my stash. In the meantime, here's the updated pic of Turkey Love.

I am still really loving these colours. So rich and so appropriate as autumn approaches. I can't wait until this one is finished, framed and hung!

As for Birds of a Feather, I'm ready to move on to the border now. First I have to stitch the box framing around all of the centre stitching and then I can move on to the border. 

It doesn't seem to "pop" all that much when it's photographed so the picture never does it justice. It looks too washed out.
The floss that was called for on the stems of the flowers ended up being far too close to the colour of the hill and consequently the stems blended right in. So I frogged them, replacing the colour with a DMC from my stash.

So many of you have commented on the so called "cottages" that frequent Muskoka. Many of the locals and our friends have commented on all the construction and they're not too happy about it. Here's one example which just floored me.
Last year we spotted an older cottage and single slip boathouse for sale. 

It still looks like more than just a cottage to me but it wasn't one of the newer monsters. The boathouse had just been added or recently renovated, I can't remember which. 
This year when we were boating in the area, Bob commented to me that he didn't see that cottage anymore. "It just can't up and walk away. It's got to be there.", was my response. So we took another swing by the spot again and here's what we found.

It looks somewhat similar, but in fact it's a brand new cottage and boathouse. What a waste! It had all been torn down. As far as I'm concerned, there was nothing wrong with the previous cottage and that boathouse was practically new. But I guess it wasn't good enough! Now it's up for sale for more than double than the previous place. That's how the real estate moguls make a quick buck.

Further on our journey, we pass by another place that has a boathouse that looks familiar.

"Hey, isn't that the boathouse from the cottage that was torn down?", I asked my hubby.
Sure enough, it turns out that one of the contractors working on the site of that new cottage found out that they were going to tear down the boathouse and said that he'd take it. He had 24 hrs to get it out of there. So they got a barge and floated the boathouse down the lake to his own cottage. What a deal!
Okay, so the boathouse was saved but the cottage was still wasted as far as I'm concerned.
Somehow I think our wilderness paradise is eventually going to be nothing more than a lakeside suburb of Toronto, if it isn't already. Things are getting way out of control.

So that's my ranting for today! Now I'm off to see what new start I can come up with. It's almost as much fun as stitching it!

Lakeside Stitching

My holidays for this summer have sadly come to an end. We returned this week from an absolutely wonderful 11 days spent cottaging in the Muskokas. For Bob and me, this is our most favourite spot on earth. Nowhere else do we feel so relaxed and at peace. 

Before I bore you with more pics from our vacation, I'll show you what stitching I managed to accomplish by the shore.

Following the completion of Magic Garden Sampler, I decided to allow myself a new start. I wanted to stitch something for the upcoming autumn season so I chose Plum Street Samplers Turkey Love.

 

I do love those long legged turkeys! The colours are wonderful and after such a warm summer this is giving me a taste of the cooler autumn to come. Some of the evenings at the cottage also gave us a taste of what's to come.
This is really fun to stitch!

After several days spent with the turkeys I thought it best to start putting in some more stitches on my Birds of a Feather Mystery Sampler. I concentrated on the area with the bird and tree to the left as well as the house and the sheep.

I definitely made some progress with this one and I'm continuing on with it now that I've arrived at home.

The view at the cottage was absolutely heavenly for stitching.

My only complaint was that when we retired indoors for the evening, I couldn't find a comfortable stitching chair. I'm having a lot of difficulties with arthritis pain in my hip and lower back which just makes some chairs too uncomfortable. Consequently I spent most of my evenings reading rather than stitching or by playing a good game of cribbage with my hubby.

I found that I rose quite early each morning at the lake. That's when I would take photos such as the one above.  Most mornings I was up by six, partly due to the haunting calls of the loons. We had a family of three residing around our parts - mom, dad and their adolescent. The adolescent's feathers haven't changed yet and are still grey in colour rather than black.

Most days we saw the mom and her chick while dad swam a short distance away. Here's a shot I managed to get of the dad as we passed by in the boat.

This year we cottaged at a new location on Bala Park Island so our only mode of transportation was by boat. Consequently we didn't venture too far from our spot this year. However there were some activities taking place that we were able to get to by boat. Whenever I'm there, I love checking out the antique shops in Port Carling. I also found another shop not far from the boat landing in Torrance close to where our cottage was located. I came home with two small purchases which I was thrilled to have found. The first will come in very handy for my stitching finishes. It's a box of buttons and the price was right - $5!

My second purchase was a tapestry change purse. Apparently it's quite old but is in fabulous condition. The picture doesn't show it but the tapestry has some lovely gold floss throughout it, similar to a Kreinik thread.

I love the handle and clasp on this too!

During our stay at the cottage we met up with two of Bob's choir members who have a family cottage not far from where we were staying. Peter and Faye took us our for a ride on their Dippy. Dippy is short for Disappearing Propeller. Follow the link to find out more about these boats. Apparently there are only a little more than a hundred left in existence on the lakes.

We dropped Bob off at the shore so he could get a few pics of this lovely boat. BTW, its top speed is 9 km/hr! It definitely wouldn't win any races.

Many of you know that one of my favourite activities on our boat rides is checking out the boathouses on the shores. These boathouses have massive "cottages" that go along with them. Most have at least 6 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms! I've always said that they can keep the house, all I want is their boathouse. Here's the latest addition to the landscape at the north end of Lake Muskoka in Whiteside Bay. If you click on the picture to enlarge it you can see a small portion of the cottage in the trees. Remember, this boathouse is only the "guest house"!

This particular point of land is right around the corner from where my husband grew up cottaging at his grandfather's place. The addition of this cottage and boathouse has changed the landscape for all the locals. Here's a pic of the boathouse that used to reside there. Quite the difference!

We are so fortunate that many of Bob's childhood friends and acquaintances still spend their summers at the lake and welcome us into their homes.

All good things must come to an end however and we are home once more, preparing for the upcoming fall season. Bob returns to directing all his choirs following the Labour Day weekend. I look forward to returning to my stitching get togethers. It's been many weeks since I've seen any of the Tuesday group. 
I'm going to give a try to something new this fall. One of my local Wednesday crafters does incredible quilting and applique work. She has offered to start teaching me applique on Friday afternoons at the same location where we gather on Wednesdays. I can hardly wait to get started!

For those of you who have read this far, thank you! I look forward once again to being able to drop by your blogs and leave a comment. First I have to get through all the many posts written in my absence. Be patient with me, I will be back!

Launches, Lizards & Loons at the Lake

It's hard to believe that a week has already passed since our arrival at the cottage. And what a week iIt's hard to believe that a week has already passed since our arrival at the cottage. And what a week it's been! As the title may indicate, we've seen a lot.

As for the launches in the area, they're varied.....from rowboats, canoes and kayaks to sailboats, motorboats and seadoos.This year however was the first time we'd ever seen a motorized raft. I couldn't believe what I was seeing the first time it passed by. I'm not sure if those chairs are anchored down or not but it would be a bit of a rough ride if they're not!

Then there was the boat that passed whose horn emitted a mooing sound. Turns out it was the local butcher who makes his rounds on the lake. The boat is equipped with a freezer and they carry just about any cut of meat that you can think of. If you click to enlarge the pic you can see the butcher's name on the rear banner.




Our jaunts on the lake have found some lovely wooden boats as well as a sailing regatta which we came upon this afternoon.

However my DH feels there is nothing better than a spin in his own boat, nicknamed HAPIS (Happy as a pig in sh....)

Of course with any lakeside vacation there are always loons to be found. We both love the sound of the loons calling to one another and are fortunate in that there are a couple who reside in our area of the bay. I managed to capture this photo as we pulled in at the dock today.


Oh yes and the lizard! Well we just happened to come upon Spike, as he's known, as we were leaving Don's bakery in the nearby town of Bala. He was out for an afternoon stroll with his family if you can imagine that.

And yes, my vacation is including stitching! I've already spent many lovely hours on the deck of our boathouse cottage, taking in the sights as I stitch away. I'll have a picture of my progress on Their Song next post. I suddenly realized this morning that I was stitching away on some of the cherries in the design as I munched away on fresh cherries we'd picked up the day before. I think you can spy them on the table if you look hard enough.

Update: As of this evening I've completed everything I can on Their Song. I managed to run out of the WDW Havana which is used for the lettering just three words short of a finish. Tomorrow I'll press it and take a picture to show you. I'm a little disappointed and wish that they would state in the pattern whether more than one skein is needed. I nearly ran out of the Moss green as well.

I guess this means it's time for another start. Yippee! I'll dig it out tomorrow. I've brought LHN Acorn Hill figuring it was just about time for a fall start.

I'll also have a picture on my next post of a lovely, old sampler that I discovered in one of the local antique shops. I need your help in deciphering some of the lettering on it.

It's hot and sticky here tonight. So sticky that you just hate to even move. This might call for a midnight swim! Enjoy your weekend!

A finish and cottage bound

I held a stitching marathon this week to try and finish up the Wedding Sampler before leaving on holidays. It resulted in a serious case of numb bum!!  I was headed to the home stretch on Tuesday when I realized that I was out by a row on the right side and the two sides would not meet properly in the center. Drat! ( That's not exactly the word I used).  So I entertained the frogs for the remainder of the afternoon, removing about one third of the stitching on the right border. Wednesday I set about restitching the works, praying that I didn't run out of floss in the process. Besides what I was stitching with, I had one remaining skein of the gold however it appeared to be from a different lot and was much lighter than what I'd been using. I was very careful and managed to get everything completed. Then it was on to the beading. I spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning stitching the beads on,  picking myself with the needle on several occasions. That's what happens when you rush!

After the final touches I hopped in the car and rode into Ottawa to leave the sampler at the framers. That way it will be complete when we return from holidays and I can get it mailed to the bride-to-be.  I posted another pic here as well with a closeup of the beads. Originally I wasn't sure if I'd add them but they did make a difference. 

I feel much better now knowing that this is completed. I'm quite pleased with it and hope the newlyweds will be pleased as well.

That completed, I spent a small amount of time stitching on Their Song. This one will accompany me to the cottage  where I'll have much more time to spend with it.  I've kitted up Maple Leaf by Alessandra Adelaide which arrived this week. However since it's being stitched on white I'm hesitant to start it until we return from the cottage. I'm afraid it will end up soiled. So very shortly I'm browsing through my stash looking for some smaller stitches to take along with me.

We are cottage bound tomorrow morning and can hardly wait until we are seated on the dock overlooking Lake Muskoka. This is the weekend of our 10th wedding anniversary  and we spent our honeymoon in Muskoka so we intend to celebrate once we're there with a sunset dinner cruise of the lake on the Segwun steamship. It's a fantastic tour of the lake and a view of some of the lovely cottages not seen otherwise.
Here are some photos from our wedding 10 yrs ago. These were not taken digitally and we didn't have  professional photographer so the quality is not as good as the ones taken today.

  Jeff (center) and Dan (right) haven't changed all that much but boy oh boy has Chris ever changed!  I've posted another pic of them today with me taken during our recent spring get together.

As you can see, he likes to play with his hair colour. Mmmm, maybe he got that idea from someone else!

Since we're heading out tomorrow for 2 weeks I may not be online as much as usual. I am taking my lap top with me and do plan on posting at least once but I know I won't be commenting on your blogs as usual. I'll peek in once in awhile when time permits.

See you soon!