Hello, my lovely crafty friends! Can you believe how fast this year is flying by? I’m just barely keeping up. The past few months have been a blend of calm and chaos, and we even managed to squeeze in a quick getaway to New York for a little adventure.

The Brooklyn Bridge, as viewed from Pier 16 in New York City.

For some reason, I didn’t take many photos in New York, but we did see a lot. We visited Times Square, of course, although it was the afternoon before a major boxing match, so the crowds were intense. We saw the Statue of Liberty (from a distance), visited Ground Zero, saw a few other touristy spots. We were only there for a couple of days, and the main goal was to catch up with family who lives there for work.

It was my first time visiting New York. I enjoyed it, but the city was surprisingly noisy and dirty. I’ve spent time in many large cities and even lived in Toronto for several years, so I’m familiar with city life. Still, New York has a personality that’s truly its own… And the honking!! I swear I can still hear it.

Mona Lisa, designed by DMC

A good portion of my stitching time for the past few months has been spent on the Mona Lisa kit from DMC that I purchased at the Louvre back in March. Up close she looks a bit… blobby, but from a distance she looks amazing! Take a step back from your screen and you’ll see the magic at work!

Year with Ghosts, by Living on the Rainbow

I’ve been keeping up with A Year with Ghosts as well. Stitching on black fabric hasn’t been as difficult as I expected with my aging eyes thanks to my magnifying light. I’ve enjoyed it so much that I’ve already stitched three other small designs on black, and I have a few more planned. Pictures coming soon—seriously.

I’ve also been working hard to finish up scrapbooking and card making classes from last year. It feels so satisfying to complete a kit and tidy everything away. I’m really hoping Canada Post doesn’t strike again this year so I can actually send out Christmas cards.

And perhaps most surprisingly, I’ve started attending stitching events again. I went to the Kimat Stitch Days in June and the Peel Stitch In in July. I’m also planning to be at Stitch North in October. After that, I think I’ll need a long break. That’s more than enough socializing for one year!

Happy March, stitchy friends! It has been a little bit of a busy month, but I’m surviving. We spent almost two weeks in Europe earlier this month (Switzerland and France), and after our return home I had to deal with all sorts of sinus weirdness (never fly with weird sinuses, especially five flights close-ish together), but I’m finally doing well enough again to get by.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to visit Sajou while in Versailles, but I did visit an absolutely lovely store called Le Bonheur de Dames in Paris. I’ll share a little bit about it in a day or two, once I find all my photos.

Today I’m sharing the March ghost from Living on the Rainbow’s A Year with Ghosts.

March Ghost from A Year With Ghosts

I live in Southern Ontario, just a tiny bit north of Toronto. Spring birds have started to make their return, but the snow is still hanging around. In fact, there is a light covering of snow over my backyard right now. But, it will be 14C on Sunday. We like to joke about First Spring, Second Winter, Second Spring, etc. We’ve had First Spring already and right now is Second Winter. I suspect we may still eke out Third Winter this year given how the plants look. But who knows!

I’m hard at work stitching another design which I hope will be finished and ready to share by the weekend. After that, well, my stash feels like it is endless, so who knows.