Retreat!!!

I have lots to share, so grab a coffee or tea, settle in and I hope you enjoy this picture filled post, full of lots of stitching amoungst some other neat things. :)

First off, the retreat was amazing. I loved sitting around with everyone and just stitching for three days! There was a lovely group of ladies that took me under their wing and really made me feel at home. The pieces people are working on are just stunning. It's so great to see so many different techniques, fabrics and all the rest.

Of course, I did a lot of stitching while I was out there. I had a finish! This is Little House Needlworks Ornament #1 (in their series of 12 this year) called Fa La La. Stitched on Cafe 28 ct linen. (I substituted a some colours b/c I wanted more than just red and green in mine.)

Wanna see where I stitched this all up? This is a pic of my 'work' station at the retreat: (I do not have any other photos of the building or people as I want to ensure privacy is kept for everyone)

They also gave us the awesomest name tags! I will cherish mine forever. :)

And then there were classes! I took two classes. One on making bracelets with wire. The technique is eyelets and not that hard at all actually, perhaps hard to get perfect, but to just do up it wasn't too bad. I also took one on making a cute little ring. This was my first foray into wire work with jewelry, and I now have a plier set on order to make more! Here they are:

And more and more stitching. I worked on my HAED Rose SK as part of the SAL on the BB. Here she is so far:

There were also giveaways!! Our welcome package was this cute bag with some bonus little extras in it:
(there were also lots of free patterns and other little things through the weekend as well)

And then I won this awesome scissor fob that I will have to put together. More beading. Looks like I will need to learn how to do it all! :)

Who could let a weekend go by without buying stuff?! I got this pattern from Glendon Place called Sleepy Hollow. The fabric is just divine. The B/F also liked this pattern so it may get moved up on the list to be stitched soon.

Last, but certainly not least. Dragons. I have spent a lot of time with Dragons lately. I know I haven't shared them too much this month, but here they are. I am very close to a page finish and should be on par to get this page done by end of Sept, which is my goal, and then have the next row complete by end of the year. (at this rate it will only take three more years to finish, lol). Page to date:

Full piece to date:

Thank you so much for visiting and reading this far!
I am going to be catching up on BB's, groups and blogs over the weekend.

Fa La La Start & A Gift

I started Fa La La by LNH last week on holidays. I have changed the colour in the first girls dress from green to purple (just wanted to give it some more colours). It's stitched on Cafe 28ct Linen.  Here it is so far (this is a sad pic, sorry I was tired when I took it):

I got a lovely surprise in the mail the other day. Becka who won one of my giveaways last months sent me the cutest cross stitched card and a few skeins of DMC. THank you so much Becka!!! Here is a pic of what she sent:

I did not take dragons out yesterday as it was BF's birthday and we have so much going on with a dear friend of mine permanently moving to Europe at the end of the week. So I may have to wait until after retreat on the weekend to update you on Dragons. But if I get a chance I will see about updating Thursday before I go.
I can't wait!! I am taking a bracelet class at the retreat, hopefully it turns out good. I also need to kit up my autumn/fall ornament for the ILCS Yahoo exchange that I enrolled in. So lots to come for sure!


Thanks for visiting and all your kind words on Cherly's Bouquet and my holiday pics.
I am terribly behind on commenting and checking out blogs. My apologies, I will try to get around in the next few days.

Holidays & Stitching

We are back from holidays. This update has mostly holiday pics but will also have an update on Cheryl's Bouquet at the end. (so those who just want stitching just scroll down).

We had a great time in Panorama. It is a secluded mountain village just outside of Invermere. We were in a condo (that we got for uber cheap, so awesome). It was sunny and beautiful. We hung around the pool, had great food and enjoyed a short hike at the top of the sightseeing lift. Here are a few pics. (keep in mind these are in the BC Rockies so less impressive, if you will, than the Canadian Rockies that are near our home, but still mountains, just less pointy) ;)
This shot is from the bridge just behind our condo. You can see the building where we stayed on the side of the river (it's taken at dusk so the colour is off, my apologies).

This next shot is from the top of the sightseeing lift. You can see the resort below There is a bit more to the resort than you see, but this is the main area with the pools and such.

From the top of the sightseeing lift this is the gorgeous view. This is more than 5000ft above sea level.
Very high! This is from the downhill World Cup route that is an open clearing on the hike we went on.

We went into Invermere, another resort style town (they have a big lake) for an afternoon and found this huge Inukshuk. So here is me pretending to also be an Inukshuk. ;)

 We had dinner in Invermere at this great place called Ray Ray's on the beachfront. This fountain was also just next to it. (can you see the rainbow?)

On the stitching front I worked on Cheryl's Bouquet last weekend and made great progress:

I started on Fa La La ornament from the LNH 12 ornaments series. But didn't take a pic yet. I know bad me. So a pic of that, and an update of dragons will be due in the next few days (and trying to finish up on the bellpull for Hummingbirds, so will share that when it's done). It's a bit crazy this coming weekend/week as my best friend is moving to the Netherlands and we are doing lots of stuff for her before she goes. BF's b-day on Monday and then retreat next weekend. Whew, and I gotta go back to work. lol. So lots coming up to share in the next few weeks.
I will also be holding another giveaway later in the month, likely a Halloween/Fall theme as it's my favourite time of year! (I just signed up for the ornament exchange for Fall on ILCS Yahoo Group... so gotta get cracking on that too). Wow, I've exhausted myself just typing all the things I have to do.

Thanks for visiting and for all your comments. :)