The Longest Day of the Year

I absolutely love the north and our long summer days. Last night I went right around midnight to take some pictures. To tell you the truth I did not go willingly, my mother-in-law made me do it... It is her first summer in the Yukon and she is amazed with northern beauty. Mom has Alzheimer Disease and tries to capture every moment on the picture so she can enjoy these later on when her memory will start to disappear.  So far she is doing extremely well and fights that disease with all her power.

Our sun after sunset stays just below horizon until rises again in a couple of hours:

And really, believe me, it is bright - you can read outside without extra light.

On the stitchy note - I received a beautiful chart from Bianca, our RAK member

 

It's a lovely companion to Computer Catastrophes. I had no choice to pull out my CC and work on them. This is where I left off some time ago:

and today:

For some unknown reason I was very anxious to start something new... In my stash I found a lovely chart by La-D-Da:

If you guess correctly name of this chart, the chart could be yours. Are you up for the challenge?

And finally my Mind Independent and Free. It's going slowly, kind of boring - working for now just with black silk. The second row of alphabet is completed!. Did you noticed that J is missing? I did not make a mistake, this is how it's charted...

So long my friends,
Evalina

Turtle Trot - January

I'm so glad that Claudette is hosting that program again. Maybe this year I will have a little more finishes (smile). So here are my ten projects I will work on

 Guardian Angel

 Computer Catastrophes

 Seagulls and Sails

 Halloween House

 Love ornament

 Songs of the Season

 A Good Marriage

 Halloween Rules

 Jane A.

Shore Patrol

Wow, it looks like I have a lot going on... Thank goodness that some of these projects are very close to the finish.

So long my friends,

Evalina

Stitchy weekend

It was a good stitchy weekend. I worked on Songs of the Season, happy with the progress and even a thought cross my mind that maybe I should finish it for Christmas... until I removed fabric from q-snaps... my happiness vanished in a blink of an eye, my heart stopped and brain froze... I was stitching in a wrong direction of fabric! The fabric was turned 90 degrees!!! And I don't have same size/color spare fabric... so here it is - a feast for frogs. All that you can see on the picture on the right - it must be removed. I decided not to frog at the moment, I'm leaving that for a time when my mind and hands will cooperate together. I turned the fabric and started again, from the bottom left corner this time. Here is my 'new' progress:

Now, I do not think I can finish this project for this Christmas but for sure it will be done for the next one. Even though I have to frog a lot I still love this piece and enjoy every motif in it. Who would think I would love quakers so much? Certainly not me!

In 'the between' I was working on Computer Catastrophes

and all was good there. No surprises...

So long my friends,
Evalina

A whole weekend of stitching...

Yep, I was staying in my cabin, all cozy and warm, and I was stitching a storm! Here is my progress on the Irish Prayer:

It was cold and dark outside

The sun is rising after nine in the morning and the temperatures, well... that's about -17F... The winter definitely is here and it will stay until May or so...

Lately there was so much talking and thinking about HAED projects in my world that I decided to let rest my Irish Prayer and get back to Computer Catastrophes.

My thumb is sore but I'm impressed with the progress. I know I have a very long way to go as what you see is only 4% of the whole... but I'm happy!

So long my friends,
Evalina

Stitchy Sunday

Thank you so much for all kind words about my shoulder. I'm better today and I even slept a little last night. I think it is a pinched nerve because it is taking forever to heal. I hope that one day I will be able to do my hair again. It's pain to do it with one hand only.

Yesterday I was looking for something to stitch... I wanted a new start. And it was the Heart's Secret from Victoria Sampler. Here is my progress:

Heart's Secret originally was a part of my 2012 crazy January challenge, I just couldn't wait that long. Now I must replace it with something else.

Last month I was working on Computer Catastrophes. Not much progress there but every stitch counts!

Now back to my assignment... gosh, after I'm done with these courses I will never look at any textbook again!

So long my friends
Evalina

Pictures!

As promised earlier, here they are!

Frost was busy painting my windows...

I look at the outside thermometer and literally froze

Mind you, the winter didn't start yet... birds didn't mind at all

but I was stitching! Here is my Pirate Santa

and Computer Catastrophes

So long friends,
Evalina

12 days of my birthday - Day 1 & 2

It's that time of the year again - another birthday! I stop counting them a long time ago and seems like every year I'm celebrating it longer and longer...

I started the first day of my birthday (Saturday, July 16) with a glass of Mimosa (champagne with passion fruit liquor). Freddy made a lovely breakfast (and  lunch and supper - it was awesome). This year I decided not to have a birthday party but instead have a "date" all day long. Later I opened a package that was brought to me by Royal Mail from our lovely Graceann. In the package I found a lovely card with kitty on the front who looks just like ZoomZoom!!!

and a gorgeous chart from Passione Ricamo:

Thank you so much Graceann!!!

On the second day of my birthday I was playing with my new camera - I fell in love with it instantly! Here is a few pics from around our cabin, click on it for a better view:

 

fireweed - flowers of Yukon

 

my favorite grass

black spruce with cones

It was a very sad day in our neighbourhood - one of the dogs was run over by a truck. It was a nice dog but had a very bad habit of chasing cars and trucks. I knew that one day accident like this will happen - and the only person to blame for it is the owner...

Topaz never played with Fila, they never were "friends" but she saw the accident and was devastated - even didn't want to pose for my pictures...

Not much happen in my stitching world... I was stitching a little on the art mail for my stitching buddy, I'm done with all the motifs but still have to stitch the lettering. I also stitch a little on the Computer Catastrophes and, guess what? My hand had to go back to the brace! I am so disappointed! I didn't stitch at all last week, this week I will try just 15 minutes at the most and I'll see what happens.

So long friends!

And the winner is...

Emily in NC

Congratulations Emily!!!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

My week was very quiet. Absolutely nothing excited happen... just work, some contemplations and some stitching. I even didn't stitch much because my thumb still sore (I think I over used the joint at the base of the thumb near the wrist). It has been couple of weeks (or maybe more) since the pain started - I think it's time to see a doctor. I stitched Computer Catastrophes, here is the picture of the progress:

So long friends,

New start!

Finally lakes aren't frozen anymore!

Swallows are back to their houses

Seagulls are making nests

Crocuses are replaced by other little smiling flowers

Life is good!


Last Friday I bought new file cabinet. It's small, wooden and looks good in my study/craft room. It came in pieces with numbers... with no help from my man (he stays away from screwdrivers like a devil from holly water) I was on my own to put that thing together.  I think I did a darn good job!

Drawers are sliding smoothly and even lock is working!


You can call me crazy but I've started another piece from Heaven and Earth Designs, Computer Catastrophes. Size in stitches: 450 x 448 (total of 201,600). This time I will be working on 18ct aida with 2 threads of DMC. When done it will be 25" by 25". This is a tribute to my latest laptop that died unexpectedly. And, lucky me, I'm stitching it as a SAL (stitch along) with Cindy and Bea. I'm very happy to be in such great company!

This is how it will look when done:

 
By Saturday night all my floss was winded on bobbins (couldn't have done it without that little gizmo on the side of the box). I like to keep floss for the project organized by the number. Multiple skeins of floss I'm keeping in the ziploc bag.

 
I've also enlarged my working chart. And this is what I have done yesterday:

This time I started in the left bottom corner for a change and so far I like it. My thumb is still giving me a little trouble but I will try to stitch a little every day this week.  Next week I will be back to my Guardian Angel.

I wish everyone a great week!

Until next time,