Birthday Celebrations, Shopping, Pinterest Pages, Jackie's Meditation Moment

 Order of business from the last post, Beth's cake was officially a Chocolate Filled Kahlua Tiramisu Cake from Rock Recipes. This cake is delicious and surprisingly light. 

Tony's birthday celebrations continued Saturday night. It included a wonderful and fun limo ride to Quebec. We did the same thing for his 80th, some of you may remember. We enjoyed oysters and the four course Table d'hote meal at the Gatineau Sterling and it was delicious. Here is the Salmon Tartare. Most of our main dish, steaks, came home with us.

I gave myself a haircut the day before. It didn't take long. And I figure it couldn't be worse than the last one to cut it...the sad professional. And I want to show you my summer dress I wore to the dinner. Very light and loose (a must for me these days) with a lining. It is the Coral Pattern Ruffle Midi Dress from online Northern Reflections and was half price...still available HERE. I should figure out how to properly take selfies!

I wore Mom's charm bracelet..oh, how she loved jewelry and these kinds of outings so much. So I had her with me, so to speak.

I'm happy and grateful to be continuing my summer fitness regime, I guess you could call it. Several have asked how it is going these days. This summer it includes the elliptical trainer in the basement. I go down first thing in the morning and listen to music on my ipad. I aim for 20  minutes but have to take breaks, not because of my breath, but my leg muscles burn. I usually use just the left arm to give it a workout too. Then I get a little swim in late afternoon before supper. It feels so refreshing and of all the fitness type things I do, swimming is my favourite. Not that I'm a great swimmer; I'm not... don't do the front crawl just the breast stroke. Somewhere in late morning I take Ned out for his walk before it gets too hot. In summer this is less than brisk, let's say. It's more of an amble and we stop to smell (and sometimes photograph) the flowers. I hate heat and humidity and have so much respect for you folks who work, exercise, play, etc. in it. The only two things that are constants in my fitness...I like to change up the method of exercising to keep me motivated and certainly never overdo. Lol

Here is Ned at the top of our driveway; he'd been smelling the swath of wild flowers Tony kept there for the bees. Now fading.

Three Pinterest Pages to Note

I enjoy looking through this Pinterest page collated by Marci Patch...Quilts By Cheri.  Cheri Payne was a wonderful improv primitive quilter. There is a photo of her sitting on the floor surrounded by piles of fabric scraps. In front of her is a design she is creating, literally making order of chaos. I've stitched a couple of Cheri's fall/Halloween designs.

Sheila Barfield Quilting Ideas Pinterest page is full of wonderful patterns, many free and lots of eye candy. If ever stuck for an idea, have a look and you will find inspiration for sure. 

Alejandra's Embroidery page is full of embroidery ideas, patterns and techniques. I keep saying I'm going to try Sashiko stitching for instance. On my bucket list, I guess you could say. 

Below is one of my favourite Flosstubers, Jackie, whose channel is called Comfort Stitching. She has a lovely voice and offers a short stitcher's meditation at the end of her episodes. It's been so popular she made a video of just that and I've returned often to listen and take a quiet moment to slow the breathing, ease the thoughts, etc. I invite you to give it a try if there is a time when you need a "moment" to calm yourself. 

Project updates next time. And summer news too. Hope your week is off to a wonderful start!