Mainely Stitching

outta here

2007-01-09T13:18:00.000+01:00

Remember I said one of my resolutions this year was to procrastinate less? After Karen kindly answered bunches of questions and generally quelled my concerns, I've also made the move to WordPress. I've just now 'ported my blog over there, so the place is still kind of new and impersonal, but I'll work on that as I steal a little more time from kids, homework, work and all that other stuff that interferes with cross stitching and blogging. In the meantime, you'll find me at the new Mainely Stitching. Hope to see you there!

just what the doctor ordered

2007-01-08T22:53:00.000+01:00

Wow, what a wonderful weekend away! Niek booked us a vacation house in Emmen for the weekend and it was wonderful. As if the getaway weren't great enough, he spoiled me further by doing the cooking and shopping as well. Boy, did I ever luck out!

We arrived rather later Friday afternoon than planned and it was already getting dark so we just tucked up and enjoyed the house. On Saturday we went to the Noorder Dierenpark, a very unique zoo where a number of the animals actually wander around free. They also have a butterfly house - if I lived anywhere nearby, I'd go to that daily for a dose of magic. Those butterflies flitting around, jewel-bright, are like tiny fairies. Incredible. We saw crocodiles that actually moved, armadillos, elephants, and so much more. On Sunday, we took the kids to the indoor play area at the vacation park and they had a blast jumping into the balls, climbing ropes, sailing ships, and telling the other kids what to do. They aren't shy children ...

We wrapped the weekend up with a stop at McDonalds where all three kids got a Furby in their Happy Meal, which seemed like the crowning glory. They all slept with their little French fry-smelling critters and snuck them off to daycare and school today.

Today I went back to work and tonight I could finally resume fitness. My foot is still sensitive, but I managed to get through most of my routine and tonight it only hurts a little bit. Hard to believe that such a silly thing can be a bother for such a long time.

Not too much stitching done, but lots of fun has been had. I hope the same is true for you (the fun part, not the lack of stitching! LOL!).

These pictures are clickable. :)

that's it, no more, and this time I mean it!

2007-01-04T20:39:00.000+01:00

Did I scare you? Nah, I'm not going to quit blogging or cross stitching or anything extreme like that. But I've given up on trying to complete X number of projects before buying any more stash. It's like quitting smoking - you either go cold turkey or you're chewing Nicodent forever.

So, I placed an order with Stitching Bits and Bobs during their Christmas sale for a number of charts that I plan to give away for upcoming exchanges and the birthday club and stuff (I can only pray that the order actually arrives in time - do you think 6 weeks is enough?). And I placed an order with Stitches N' Things for the DMC flosses I'm missing to complete the set. I was "only" missing about 50 colors, but every time I pick up a project, I'm missing at least one of the colors I need. Floss at my LNS just went up to a staggering 1.50 euro (that's $1.96 USD, folks) and when I had to purchase a skein of 400 for my neighborhood round robin, I said ENOUGH! SNT has it for 30 euro cents (40 cents in US funds), so even with the hefty shipping charges it's a huge savings. And I will finally have a full set. Now I need a place to keep them!

But I digress. Which I do so very easily lately. What I mean to say is, I've quit buying. My New Year's resolutions, such as they were, were to procrastinate less, buy less, and use what I have more. Sort of like Reduce, reuse, recycle but different.

No stitching picures here tonight, but if you wander over to our neighborhood blog in a couple of hours, you may see my house in Su's neighborhood. It's still a WIP, but there's finally enough to make a photo worthwhile.

Tomorrow we're off for a long weekend to say goodbye to the holiday season. It has been so wonderful to get up late and take our time with meals but on the other hand, the kids really miss the structure of our routine and now bicker over anything and everything. So we'll enjoy one last fling before going back to the grind.

ringing in the new year

2007-01-02T20:14:00.000+01:00

I've been trying two days to post this - Internet woes. I hope the wait was worth it! (Regarding the pictures of Nicky - he spilled his fruit juice all over himself; it's not a bloody nose!)

** Edited to add: The pictures are clickable even though they're from Photobucket. Blogger hasn't allowed me to add pictures for some time now, regardless of size. **

I hope everyone's enjoying a wonderful beginning of the New Year. We celebrated as we "always" do - New Year's Eve is one of the few holidays for which we have a very definate tradition, and we all enjoy it very much.

Niek started cooking in the early afternoon. He made oliebollen, apelflappen, and battered banana balls - all of which are traditional Dutch deep-fried bread-like things. You could compare them to doughnuts, but it's not an accurate comparison. Anyway, he makes them all totally from scratch and it's such a treat, even if one (aka me) doesn't normally eat deep-fried anything. LOL! He also makes an amazing salmon salad, which is my particular favorite. We have a special dinner (grilled prawns this year!), which is usually hard to make the kids eat because they only have eyes for the sweets. Each year Niek also adds a few new little tastes and nibbles that change the following year. And of course, a bottle of champagne at midnight is required!

It's also traditional to set off fireworks at midnight. Max was utterly terrified of them for the longest time, so we always buy one of the smallest assortments. This year it poured rain, but Niek got out there in his sailing clothes and put on a respectable pyrotechnics display - he's such a hero! The usual wandering in and out of neighbors' houses was curtailed by the rain - too bad, I really like that. Nicky woke up this year for the first time and came down for about an hour. He loved it! At one point he came over to me with his brown eyes so wide and innocent, looking utterly angelic, and I expected to hear something pricelessly sweet ... when he said, "Mommy, thank you so much for not bringing Rowen downstairs, too." Kids!! LOL! Max got up at 11:30 and stayed up for two hours with us, but he was more asleep than awake in the beginning!

I have been stitching, but when the stitching bug bit me, it seems to have caused a weird infection - I want to start and do everything at once! I'm working on our ongoing neighborhood round robin as my main project, but I'm also trying to simultaneously do two SOLAK squares, two Hurricane Katrina squares, a birthday gift, my Valentine exchange, and my birthday recipient for the year. Even if I could stitch with both hands and both feet, I still wouldn't be able to keep up with myself!

Ash and the boys visited today and we had a great time. It's amazing how much fun our kids have together, and it provides a true mini-hoiday for wearied mothers. While we were chatting away, Ash managed to whip together the most amazing sweater for Joe. It was like magic! And she brought a platter of the most amazing brownies you can possibly imagine - I feel like hoarding them and growling MINE! every time someone comes close!

Top of the New Year to you!!

as New Year's Eve approaches ... this & that

2006-12-30T10:52:00.000+01:00

Last night I was gearing up to take a picture of the quilt square I'm doing for the Hurricane Katrina Quilt Project. It wasn't done, but there was enough to make a decent progress photo. But the piece looked, well, weird. I couldn't tell if I was looking at it upside-down or right-side-up. When suddenly it dawned on me - I'd stithed about half of it one way, and the other half upside-down. It sounds impossible, I know, but someone I actually did not notice what I was doing. So instead of taking a picture, I did a fair bit of frogging. Once that was done, I set it aside. Grrr!

On a happier note, the acupuncture/herbal therapy/massage treatments I've been having have made a difference that Mr. Sceptic, aka my DH, had to reluctantly admit to noticing. I've noticed an improvement since the second treatment but I haven't said a thing to anyone (except my mom) about it. I wanted to wait till someone volunteered some comment like, "Wow, you're looking healthier lately!" or, "Have you lost weight?" or something to that effect. Last night, after five treatments, Niek mumbled something about how I seemed to feel better and look better the past week or two and "does that have to do with the Chinese stuff you've been doing?" LOL. It's also interesting to go through the process from the client's perspective.

We'll be celebrating a pleasant New Year's Eve at home with the kids. I'm looking forward to it - we always have a great time. Everyone - knock wood - is healthy. And I didn't get sick!

I hope that everyone will enjoy a great change of the year - safe, and full of joy!

Saw this over at Jenna's blog and it seemed the perfect sort of fiddly thing to do this morning.

The ABC's of me
A - Available or single?:
Happily married.
B - Best Friend?:
Niek.
C - Cake or pie?:
I’m not crazy about either. Can I choose brownies?
D - Drink of choice?:
Either hot herbal tea or very cold water.
E - Essential item I use every day:
My computer.
F - Favorite color?:
Green.
G - Gummy Bears or Gummy Worms?:
Gummy worms, especially the sour kind!
H - Hometown?:
I’d call Downeast Maine my hometown, I guess.
I - Indulgence?:
Quietly stitching in the evening after the kids are in bed.
J - January or February?:
February, when two of my kids celebrate their birthday.
K - Kids and names?:
Max, Nick and Rowen.
M - Marriage date?:
19 May 2003.
N - Number of siblings?:
One brother, two step-sisters and one step-brother.
O - Oranges or apples:
Oranges during cold weather, apples when it’s warm out.
P - Phobias or fears?:
Hospitals. Ugh.
Q - Favorite quote:
Pretty much any of ee cummings poetry.
R - Reasons to smile:
Gosh, there are lots of reasons … the way the trees look against the sky or how my kids look when they aren’t aware of my observation or figuring out something that was puzzling me or ….
S - Season:
Spring.
T - Tag 3 or 4 people:
Anyone who reads this and wants to try it.
U - Unknown fact about me:
Well if I told, it would hardly be unknown. LOL!
V - Vegetable you don’t like:
Canned veggies. If they’re fresh, I like all vegetables, even tomatoes.
W - Worst habit:
Being impatient. Not seeing the bright side. (It’s a tie, folks.)
X - X-Rays?:
They creep me out, but I’ve had to have some; most recently for my foot.
Y - Your favorite food?:
Shellfish and/or fish.
Z - Zodiac sign?:
Gemini. And how … sigh.

holiday beauty … and germs … abound

2006-12-27T15:43:00.000+01:00

I have to show off the beautiful cards I’ve received this holiday season. We actually ran out of room to display them all in the windows, but here are nearly all of them. Lots from stitching friends the world over – thank you!!!

As for the germy part of this posting, it seems like everyone in the family other than yours truly has succumbed to some middle-of-the-night mystery virus. Max woke up with a pretty high fever, Rowen with a milder one, Niek with a general feeling of being unwell, and even tough little Nicky says he doesn’t feel well. As I type this, Max and Rowen are sleeping upstairs, hopefully getting better. Niek insisted on going to work, and trying to get Nicky to lay down during daylight hours is akin to trying to kiss your own elbow. Ever tried? It’s not possible – I know from experience. But that’s another story.

The list of stitching goodies under the tree is limited, by design. My SIL and baby brother (who towers over me) sent me a unique chart-a-day cross stitch calendar with some fun designs that I’ll enjoy, my father and new step-mother sent me a nice assortment of DMC and some 14 count Aida that I think I’ll use for a surprise gift, and my great Aunt Hattie sent me the Camden Harbor kit that I’d posted on my wish list. I’m really itching to start that one, but there are a few projects with deadlines that must be tended to first. And here's a tiny finish.

I was just looking over my blog entry on this day last year. I can only laugh at the fact that I didn’t do a single thing on my short list for 2006 projects. But that’s not to say I didn’t do a fair amount of stitching – as far as I can figure, I finished about 52 projects this year. Many of these were small projects that broadened my finishing skills (if my humble attempts can be called skill – that’s a bit of a stretch), which was something I really did want to get into this year. From only knowing how to do basic framing, I’ve slowly worked my way up to stitcher’s pockets, needle books, and assorted ornament finishes. Even bought a new sewing machine to help with the projects that aren’t entirely hand done. I’ve also mastered the dreaded French knots and can do a decent job with beading. Hooray! Best of all, though, has been continued contact with my earliest online stitching friends, a deepening of friendships, and making new friends. It’s hard to remember how lonely my stitching hobby used to be, back when I had no one to share it with. I’ve gained so much from you – thank you so very much for your support, ideas, friendship, and laughter.

Who knows what 2007 may bring us? The older I get, the more futile list-making seems to be. Life really is what happens when we’re busy making other plans. So no lists this year, not even a short one! I will give a sneak peek at the two projects I started during the past day or two, though.

May your days be merry and bright!

(Sorry none of the pictures are clickable - no matter how small I reduced them, Blogger refused to accept even one. Bah humbug!)

in spite of myself, a holiday happy dance

2006-12-23T20:13:00.000+01:00

Okay, I decided at the last possible minute to stitch Niek a surprise gift, ignoring the fact that I had pretty much no time to stitch it, let alone finish it. But I just HAD to make this for him. I knew how I wanted it to look when finished and, well, I just had to make it. This morning when he left to run the last pre-Christmas errands and I saw how much more there was to do, I had to admit that it was going to be impossible to finish it today ... unless I abridged the design. So, my apologies to Annemiek for hacking off part of her gorgeous design, but in the end I was able to finish-finish this today and I'm happy with it.

Christmas Reindeer Sampler by The Needle's Content

I tried all sorts of new finishing techniques on this one, and had quite a time with that velvet ribbon. I wanted to ruche it, but I didn't like how it looked when I did this by running a thread through the ribbon and then pulling it tight so I did it by stitching it down and putting the puckers in it as I went along. Took awhile to find the "right" method for doing this, but next time I will be able to do it faster and easier. And hopefully without breaking any more needles! The tassle is purchased, but it went so perfectly with the velvet ribbon that it seemed silly to go home and make one that might not match as well.

I am really happy with how it came out, and the verse (I will honor Christmas in my heart and share my joy with you) is absolutely perfect for what I wanted to say to Niek. Annemiek, thanks for a great design!

The kids are all tucked up for the night, perhaps with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. Our pets are even quiet tonight. It's very dark out and the tree is lit and the kitchen is clean ... all elements of a wonderfully peaceful night. Tomorrow evening, we'll open our gifts, in the tradition of my Gram and Gramps, who opened gifts on Christmas Eve. I would love to be back in their warm, snug living room, each of them in their own special chair, with the babble of my aunts' voices and the anticipation of my cousins and myself .... I miss them most days, but every Christmas Eve, a little part of me gets to go home to them.

Wishing everyone peace through the holidays and the New Year.

longest night of the year

2006-12-21T21:29:00.000+01:00

Another solstice - and from tomorrow on, the days will lengthen. Even if it's impercetible, I'll know it's happening.

Thank you all so much for your well-wishes regarding my foot. I went back to the doctor today because the pain is worse, but she said there was nothing to be done about it. Actually, when I left I said, 'So you want me to continue doing what I've been doing, even though it's not working?' and she said 'Yes.' Can you believe it? But anyway, on to happier things.

I've been stitching a surprise gift for Niek - a truly wonderful design from Annemiek of The Needle's Content. I don't know if I'll have it done in time, but I'm having fun doing it. I love her designs!

Wishing you all the best!

Artwork.

twinkle toes ... not

2006-12-16T16:16:00.000+01:00

Those who've known me for a long time (affectionate wave to Sara in particular) know that I am not a graceful person. I've tried. I've made concerted efforts over the years to at least give the impression that I am not the reluctant owner of two defective left feet. The last attempt was dance lessons. The other people in the class laughed at me. It's just too sad. Anyway, on my way to pick Max up at school Thursday afternoon, my bike, the dog, and myself all attempted to go in different directions. The result may have been comical to onlookers, but was very painful for me. I limped around on Thursday, pretending it didn't really hurt that badly. On Friday I gave in, went to the doctor who thought the foot was probably broken and sent me on to the hospital for X-rays. The two X-rays didn't turn up a break, though they couldn't say what was wrong. The usual advice was given - keep off it, keep it elevated. Which I'm doing with a tremendous amount of grumbling. I did have loads of stitching time in the waiting rooms, however, and have finished off two Christmas ornaments for next year. That's right - I'm too late to make ones for everyone I want to make them for (and I'm just thinking of family - friends require yet another 3 page list!) so I'm getting a leg up on next year (can't resist the pun!). Thanks to Nicki for setting up the monthly ornie SAL, which has me very motivated!

Without further ado, here is Ruth Sparrow's "Be Joyful" (quite changed about from the chart) and Hands to Work's "Christmas Stocking Ornament". Be Joyful is stitched over one and over two using DMC linen threads for a homespun look. Hopefully it doesn't just look like one of the kids did it. LOL. Merry Christmas is stitched over one on 28 ct. wheaten linen using my choice of NPS silks. The green background fabric is also what the stocking has on the flip side.

pretty post from abroad

2006-12-13T22:24:00.000+01:00

Thank you, thank you Veronica! I received this beautiful ornament and a lovely card from Veronica in the mail. It's even prettier IRL. I'm displaying all our handmade gifties together - but when I tried to take a picture of them, they fell down (good thing I'm not a carpenter) and I need to re-attach the line. I'm too impatient to do that right now.

I've also packaged up my blue Quaker exchange to go out in tomorrow's mail. It was my intent to have it done well before the deadline (hopefully in time for Christmas) because my partner is someone I've just been waiting for a chance to spoil. ;> This would've been done earlier, but as I was finishing it up, I admitted to myself that I didn't really like it and I started over.

I'm so in the mood to do Christmas ornaments! It's very hard to get focused on the few charity items I need to do.

Remember to leave yourself time during the hectic holidays to relax and enjoy!

And goofin' around....

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well.
An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly.
You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view.
A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary.

You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

You Belong in 1963

If you scored...

1950 - 1959: You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

1960 - 1969: You are a free spirit with a huge heart. Love, peace, and happiness rule - oh, and drugs too.

1970 - 1979: Bold and brash, you take life by the horns. Whether you're partying or protesting, you give it your all!

1980 - 1989: Wild, over the top, and just a little bit cheesy. You're colorful at night - and successful during the day.

1990 - 1999: With you anything goes! You're grunge one day, ghetto fabulous the next. It's all good!

What Year Do You Belong In?

Your New Year's Resolutions

1) Get a pet iguana

2) Eat more chocolate syrup

3) Travel to Mexico

4) Study urban anthropology

5) Get in shape with naked yoga

What Should Your New Year's Resoluton Be?

(You would be amazed at which of these actually really suit me and which don't!)

productive weekend - yay!

2006-12-10T21:26:00.000+01:00

I enjoyed a great class yesterday (only got one wrong on my quiz!) and today we enjoyed a wonderful time decorating our tree. In between, I finished my big Christmas gift project. I can't show the whole thing because the recipient is a reader, but I can show a little snippet. This is a pattern from Der Feine Faden, and for once I actually used the fibers that were called for (except the sheep - I used GAST for the white ones).

Here's the sneak peek. I finished the linen banding to end in points and sewed some of the lovely Kelmscott thread rings to the top to hang it by. I'm pretty pleased with the results. :)

And now for the really fun pictures: the tree trimming! I love this part of Christmas - it may even be my favorite part of the whole celebration. I think back to childhood years of decorating the tree with my parents and brother, of Christmas trees and family times that I enjoyed years ago. I hope that my kids will remember happy nights like tonight when they're older and at that age where kids seem only to remember the things parents did wrong .... After we finished decorating, we sat around the tree and drank big mugs of homemade cocoa. It was one of those moments where it suddenly all clicks into place and you can simply feel happy in the moment. What a gift - the best holiday gift I could hope for.

pictures!

2006-12-07T17:01:00.000+01:00

You must think I've gone shutterbug crazy with all the pictures I've put in lately. These are all stitchy pics.

First off, a decent shot of the very lovely ornament that Judith sent for the SBEBB ornament exchange. Yesterday's picture didn't do it justice.

And the ornament that I made for the same ornie exchange safely arrived in Elisabeth's home in France. One of her favorite designers is Blackbird Designs, so it wasn't hard for me to find a design I really liked. (It was a bit harder to narrow the choice to only one design.) This is the no-sew finishing method using fusible interfacing.

I finished the last bookmark that I'll be able to do for Cathy's EGA chapter - I wish I could do more but I hit a few days in which needle and thread didn't meet and you know how that slows everything down. This is One Dozen by Bent Creek. My remnant of 32 ct Silkweaver Princess Pink wasn't long enough, so I call it the Lucky Seven Bookmark. LOL

And here is Twinkle The Fairy, a little freebie from Cross Stitch Kits that I will finish as some sort of cute ornament for our neighbor who watches Spin the Cat when we're away. She is an angel in my book!

Guess who bought a Christmas tree and wreath today? wink, wink Hopefully I won't hurt any feelings by doing it without Niek, but otherwise we'd have to wait till Tuesday and I just can't wait that long! Sunday evening, we'll all decorate and drink hot cocoa and listen to carols. I can hardly wait!

seasonal delights

2006-12-06T15:01:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we celebrated Sinterklaas a.k.a. pakjesavond - the evening that Sinterklaas and/or his helpers deliver the kids' gifts, usually with a great deal of noise and excitement, but seldom ever being seen. (Our neighbors are just wonderful at this!) The kids had a lot of fun, and here are a few pictures of everyone except Gilbert and Nachtegaal enjoying their gifts (those two got gifts, too, but I forgot to take pictures of them.)(These first pictures are clickable.)

And now that Sinterklaas is officially over, I can begin putting up Christmas decorations. I'm usually not very good at this, but my Mom really motivated me this year. I made a bunch of miniature stockings to hang around the fireplace, and hung the handmade stockings from Sara above them. (There are also stockings for Niek and I that she made, but I didn't hang them.) So now I can think of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas every time I look at the fireplace. LOL! (These pics aren't clickable - Blogger's not in the mood!)

I also hung the few cards that have arrived - thanks Anne! - and some purchased and handmade ornaments (thanks again, Sara!) in the front window. Also hanging in the front window is my SBEBB exchange ornament from Judith. Thanks, Judi, it's beautiful and exactly to my taste. What floss did you use??

Finally, a funny little picture of the "surprises" I made for the kids. They look a little limp in the picture because they were filled with candy for last night's celebration, but I'll stuff them with cotton and stitch their little 'stuffing holes' shut (Rowen's -the pink bunny - is already done as she insisted on sleeping with it!).

The holidays can be stressful and even depressing for a lot of us. Let's not forget that hugs and smiles are free. ;>

my cup runneth over

2006-11-29T17:02:00.000+01:00

Good thing I'm used to spills. LOL!

Today's post is about batteries, cats & dogs, kids, birds, early nightfall, Sinterklaas, friends, and ... oh yeah ... stitching!

This afternoon I had the crazy idea of taking the kids out for the afternoon. When Max was younger, he was thrilled by lunches at the Hema (for those of you who aren't Dutch, this is sort of like a lunch counter at a department store, with tables instead of a counter) and I haven't tried it with Nicky and Rowen for a long time. The last time was a disaster and it took awhile to recover.

So we all set off at 12:15 when Max got out of school. Rigby in the back of the car, the kids in the backseat, and foolish me up front. The stores were jam-packed for some reason, and trying to steer Rowen and Nicky through the throng without loosing them or having them shoplift anything was a challenge. (Rigby was waiting patiently in the car. Max is old enough to do his own shopping.) Finally, the purchases were made and we could enter the dining area, which was also packed. I settled the kids at a table with strict instructions not to get up, and went to wait in line. And wait. And wait! By the time I could check out, our warm items were cold and our cold items were warm and I was thoroughly out of patience after chasing Nicky down two or three times. We sat down to eat and that wasn't too much of a drama, but then Nicky wanted to play at the play table. It seemed like a good idea, until I saw the balloons around the stage (where Sinterklaas would later appear, which explained the crowds) bobbing up and down in a rather vigorous fashion. A quick scan of the play table confirmed my fears - the child tearing the Sinterklaas background apart was mine. Without thinking, I bellowed, "NICKY!" and received a whole roomful of hostile stares. It wasn't bad enough that my kid was wild, but I reacted like one of those mothers. Groan. Once the kids found out that Sinterklaas was coming, leaving was out of the question. By now, I was envisioning Rigby with his legs crossed and his cheeks turning red ... but I was also seduced by the idea of finally getting a picture of my kids with a Christmas figure. A half an hour later, we were finally done, but Rowen had lost her 'little Rigby' - a stuffed puppy about the size of my thumb. So of course I had to push through the crowds of people still waiting and search the floors and tables for this tiny toy ... to no avail. Rowen was in tears and Nicky was 'asserting his independence' by flatly refusing to leave the store. There was no joy in Mudville as I confirmed everyone's fears of what an unfit parent I was and dragged my screaming children from the store. I may never go back there again.

Once home, everyone was confined to bed for an hour while Mommy got it back under control, and since then things have gone well. I remembered not only to get batteries, but to get rechargable ones and a recharger (on sale!). So here come a lot of pictures to hopefully make up for my verbosity. (Blogger flat out refuses to load even a single picture, so these are all from my Photobucket account.)

Max walked Rigby by himself for the first time. Rigby doesn't really have demon eyes, but nightfall comes very early now and his eyes and reflective collar/leash really picked up on the flash.

Nicky and Rowen insisted they were not tired and didn't need to go to bed, but Rowen fell asleep and both of them are obviously more asleep than awake even now. LOL. They look so innocent, don't they? Little cubs.

Spin is still giving us the hairy eyeball when it comes to Rigby, but it's going better. Slowly.

And Gilbert has decided that he's going to eat till he pops. He was, once upon a time, an undernourished little packet of feathers from the infamous Vogelmarkt in Antwerp. You would never know that to look at him now. His gusto for eating has become rather hazardous and I recieved yet another nip today for my efforts.

And, as promised, a peek at my Christmas project. I've just finished page two and have only one page to do. This is only part of the project, not the entire part that I've stitched.

A few dear friends are going through really difficult periods. Others are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Wherever you are, whoever you are, take a moment to smile at the person next to you. Heaven only knows how badly he/she might need it. Hugs to you all!!!

slow stitching

2006-11-28T21:09:00.000+01:00

Maybe I should rename my blog to Slow Stitching. It sure applies to what I've done (or not done) lately! I continue to work on the Christmas project, and I really enjoy it, but my stitching hours can be counted in minutes and not hit three digits. It's sad. Tonight I thought about making some new cushion covers for a few of our sofa cushions (which look like we've let the dog play with them outdoors, though I assure you that is not the case!). But I lost my nerve. The zippers scare me.

So instead of pulling out my Christmas project, I sat down and started goofing off at the computer. Shame on me! But I did take this quiz and I'm mulling over the result. I've lived all over the US and have picked up a bit of an accent from here, there and everywhere, but during the past 9 years that I've lived here in Holland I've really tried to "lose" my American accent. I've run into an astonishing amount of prejudice, for one thing, but a strong accent just makes it harder for people to understand me and that defeats the whole point of communicating. Most people assume I'm Canadian or British. But according to this, I'm from one of the very few parts of the US that I have never lived in!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
North Central
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
The Midland
The West
Boston
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

I will try to remember to buy batteries for my camera next time I get to the store. Today I at least managed to send out a number of envelopes that have been gathering dust here at home.

i should've bought batteries!

2006-11-26T23:41:00.000+01:00

Okay, I actually picked up batteries at the store the other day, but I set them back down! My camera batteries are dead, so I can't show the progress on my Christmas project. I'm working my way across page two of three pages and by now even Niek says he likes it. His original reaction was something like, "Is it supposed to look like that?" LOL!

We are all recovered from Rowen's virus with the exception of Nicky - but a case of the belly bug has not slowed that boy down one iota! He is unstoppable! Thank you for your well wishes!

Our little family get-together over at Niek's brother's house was really fun. I loved seeing all the cousins playing together. And I really do enjoy family gatherings.

Wishing you all a great week!!

friday the thirteenth

2006-11-25T22:25:00.000+01:00

No, I haven't lost all track of time again (like thinking it's October!), but it's just been a day. You know, one of those days when you wake up at the wrong time and think "Why did I bother getting out of bed?" Yesterday I was sick all day, compliments of Rowen sharing her virus with me, and today I dragged myself off to school only to find that the class has been rescheduled to next week. So I decided I should make my 1 hour drive worthwhile by stopping at Ikea on the way home to pick up some bedding we really needed for the kids. Then I thought that perhaps spending 80 odd euro on bedding wasn't really the wisest thing to do (we won't even discuss the state of my credit card - it'll give you nightmares!). Then I decided to begin our new program of doing one thing each day that we've procrastinated about (both Niek and I are notorious procrastinators). My thing was to finally make the cushions for the dining chairs - something I've put off for over six months. Well, they're done - to the best of my limited ability - and the first thing my dearly beloved said was, "They've got funny floopy things at the back." Yes, well, I haven't figured out how to do zippers but I wanted the covers to come off so they could be washed (our kids think the chairs are actually large napkins), so I made neat seams on the back. But they are indeed rather floopy. Sigh. I should've just done some cross stitching.

Tomorrow is BIL Frank's birthday party. It should be fun to see everyone again, and especially fun to see the cousins all playing together.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

first exchange of this round done

2006-11-22T17:44:00.000+01:00

Here's my Blackbird Designs ornament - I tried a no-sew finishing method that I'm not entirely satisfied with. It looks too lumpy, I think. Hopefully the recipient won't mind. And of course, I'll include some nice gifties to make up for the bit of lumpiness.

Today has been cold and wet and we've spent most of the day indoors. I let the kids have sort of an afternoon party, since we won't be celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow. I went out of my way the first couple of years that we lived here trying to create a memorable Thanksgiving for the kids, but it felt so artificial and created so much stress that I've stopped trying. I really want to spend Thanksgiving with my extended family (parents, siblings, etc.) and trying to create something new with friends just doesn't fill that need. Maybe we'll win the lottery and can fly home for Thanksgiving in the future. LOL

In addition to wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving tomorrow, I want to send get well wishes to Annemarie, Ash, Mollie, and a few other friends who have been ill. You guys take care of yourselves!!

stitching the night away ... well, not really

2006-11-21T23:32:00.000+01:00

My eyeballs feel like it is much later than it is. I've started on one of my exchanges, and since I'm about 99.99% sure that the recipient does not read my blog I think it's safe to post a 'halfway' progress picture. This is an older Blackbird Designs chart that I've wanted to do for some time. And it's the first time that I've actually had all the GAST fibers called for in a project! LOL - that FOTM club from Stitching Bits and Bobs is really paying off!

I had my first night back at my old gym last night. I've been wondering ever since why I ever left - it felt great to be back! Of course I do know the reason why I left (it's bloody expensive!) but it sure is great to be back. Today I've only got some muscle pain in my upper abdomen. Not too bad.

Tonight we were surprised by a home inspection from the Animal Protection League to make sure that Rigby's being well cared for. You could've knocked me over with a leaf, I was so surprised. Other than our French bull, Xavier, I've gotten all my animals from animal shelters and I have never had a surprise home inspection! Luckily, they were not freaked out by the chaotic craziness that descends on our house after the kids are carbed-up and haven't yet been hit by a tranquilizer dart. LOL! They were well pleased with how Rigby looks and acts and how obviously comfortable he is in our family. As for me, I'm really relieved that I cleaned the house before dinner tonight instead of after the kids went to bed (like usual)! And of course I'm very happy that we get to keep Rigby - he's become such a part of our family that I can't imagine not having him.

I'm trying to get serious about Christmas shopping ... and my poor head is a whirl. I think I've got it down, though. Cross your fingers!

everybody loves a parade

2006-11-18T15:55:00.000+01:00

Sinterklaas arrived in Gouda today! Hooray! Though we were later going to the festivities than in years past (due to Max's volleyball match), it actually worked out much better. We had a front row seat (so to speak) to watch the good man pass by. Nicky and Rowen were beside themselves with excitement.

After the parade through town, there is a speech given from atop city hall, shown in this picture. This is where Niek and I were married - it's a gorgeous Gothic building from the 15th century. Rigby was becoming hard to handle at this point, so we all biked home again.

Once home, I finally broke my new sewing machine (70 euros!!) out of the box and completed two charity Christmas items that I hope to get in Monday's mail. It works so much better than the ancient thing I had been using, and actually does thing like button holes and specialty stitches, and it has a zipper foot so perhaps I can finally get around to making some decent pillows for the living room.

Tonight I hope to get a bit more stitching done. Wish me luck!

all will be revealed

2006-11-16T17:09:00.000+01:00

With all the top-secret stitching going on - birthdays, exchanges, Christmas, etc. - it's great to finally be able to post a couple of pictures of projects that I finished at the beginning of the month.

First off is Su's belated birthday gift. I'm going for the "better late than never" approach, and Su has a good sense of humor about it all. I know Su likes sheep, so I found her a great handmade sheepie pot holder (that she tells me Mark has already stolen LOL) and I made her a funny little primitive sheep (freebie templates available here) stuffed with lavender. I included some thread keepers and patterns that were on her wishlist as well. Instead of saying happy birthday again, I'm going to say "Get well soon, Su!" I hope you get your voice back soon!

And Dianne's gift, mailed the same day, also arrived - before her birthday! Wow, the postal service actually working in my favor. That's a Big Event! When I saw this pindoll alphabet by Meridel Abrams, I knew that was what I had to make for Dianne. It just seemed so right for her. I've stitched it on 32 ct. Sterling Silver linen from Silkweaver using VC silks. The design on the back is partly from an issue of au fil des aigille and party from my own imagination. I included some stitchy goodies - finishing fabrics, stitching fabric, and a British xs magazine just for a change of pace. Happy early birthday, Dianne!!

I'm plugging right along on my Christmas project for an unnamed person. Out of the three pages, I'm nearly halfway through page two. It's a simple design and is coming together quickly. A blessing, given my time shortage. Tonight, Max and I will both accompany Rigby to doggie school and by the time I return home, I'll be ready for bed.

Wishing you all the very best today!!

my one-woman war against time

2006-11-16T00:29:00.000+01:00

Buy that girl a calendar and teach her how to use it! The 11th month is November, not October! And losing track of the current month isn’t something I’m allowed to use as an excuse for missed birthday until I pass retirement age. And then there’s the problem with the clocks in this house. They don’t work! I make a lot of jokes about my days only having 16 hours instead of the standard 24, but the truth is that my clocks just stop without any rhyme or reason. I put new batteries in all the battery-operated ones about 2 weeks ago (the last time they all stopped). One worked for about 15 minutes. The other one stopped working this morning. Only the one that is in Max’s room (safely out of my reach) still works. So, new batteries again and now two of the three are working.

Of course, when it comes to time and the necessary attempts to manage it, I am my own worst enemy. With friends like me, I don’t need enemies. On Monday night I didn’t really do any stitching, but Monday is a crazy day (even by my standards), so I gave myself permission to laze around. Last night, however, was a very laid-back Tuesday and instead of finishing off a bookmark while watching CSI Miami, I goofed around behind the computer doing absolutely nothing! Shame on me! And here I have this impossibly long list of things I’d like to stitch. And books I have to study. Or I could’ve even been sensible and simply gone to bed early. Instead, I frittered away the hours till Niek returned from his chess competition and accomplished nothing. Shame on me!

Wednesday is always a half day of school here, unless there’s no school at all, so it’s pretty difficult to get anything done. But there is this evening. Hope springs eternal. Oops, I nearly forgot - I have an appointment at my new gym! So much for evening stitching!

This is the only Christmas gift I stand any chance of finishing, at my current rate. I can’t say who it’s for, but I will say that I like it enormously much. Niek carefully said it’s “different” which is usually a code word for “weird”.

Thank you so much for continuing to visit here and read my ramblings. (((smiles)))

marking time

2006-11-14T23:57:00.000+01:00

Thank you all so much for the compliments on my humble little bookmarks! Anyone who'd like to contribute can contact Cathy for more information. Her guild is making and collecting the bookmarks for an adult literacy drive.

Today I tried for something a little more gender-neutral with a cute little gecko designed by Jenny Rasmussen. I love reptiles, but Niek doesn't ... so we stick to the pets with fur or feathers. LOL. And on the other end of the spectrum, I started a very girly-pink bookmark using Stranded by the Sea overdyed floss. The pattern is One Dozen by Bent Creek. I've pulled one or two other patterns to make bookmarks, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to. Other commitments begin to press in - including some wonderful upcoming SALs, round robins, and more exchange stitching. Yay!

The other really good news today resulted from our conference with Max's teacher. Max is repeating group 4 this year (I guess this would correlate to third grade) and the school year started off rather poorly. Niek and I were more than a little nervous about going in this afternoon. Fortunately, Max has begun to knuckle down and is showing progress in mathematics and penmanship. His reading is still pretty far behind, but he's enjoying it more and tensing up less, so hopefully that will begin to improve. And he's been more outgoing in large group settings, which was great to hear. Basically, it was a half an hour of good news. Phew! While we met with the teacher, Max and the wee beasties played on the playground. When Niek and I went out, we found Rowen running around in her bare feet and without a coat. Nicky couldn't get his coat off, but had managed to free himself of his boots. In October!! They went straight into a warm bath the moment we got home!

Many people are ill with colds, flus, and the like. I hope you're reading this in good health!

rainy days are best for ...

2006-11-12T23:13:00.000+01:00

stitching bookmarks? Well, a few years ago I would've said rainy days are best for reading but obviously my priorities have changed! LOL!

Today I finally made a start on the bookmarks that I want to send to Cathy to go toward her guild's adult literacy drive. I hope to do more, but at least I've managed to complete two. First up we have an older Heart In Hand freebie, "Be Ever Kind". I used my own colors to match the band (a piece I dug out of my stash).

And now for a very funny one from Bizzi Creations - this is also a freebie, "Pigs in a Row". I used some blinding pink silk overdyed floss for the pigs, and a VC for the grass. I hope someone finds it as humorous as I do!

My latest strategy to keep up with my schoolwork is to study a minimum of one hour per day, but it's already bedtime and I've been stitching all day. Think I can get two hours in tomorrow??

Happy birthday, Pepper. We love you.

go, girl, go!

2006-11-08T23:25:00.000+01:00

Can you believe it? Two finishes in one day, and the bulk of my charity stitching is done on time! I'm tempted to be impressed with myself. This little butterfly passed the Rowen Test, so if Hanneke is a tough but very girly girl I can rest assured she'll love it. Rowen kept coming over to check my progress on it this evening and to tell me how pretty it was. :)

Barb mentioned that I'd been rocking through my 50 Challenges (ticker at the bottom of this page), and it does sort of look that way, but ... ahem ... it isn't the whole story. I've set up a temporary blog called Mainely Stashing that gives the naked truth.

Now I can study for the rest of the week, right? LOL!!

Till the next crunch time comes up, color me:

they're warm

2006-11-08T14:07:00.000+01:00

My needles are warm, though not smoking. I don't know if anyone will ever be able to honestly say that I stitch fast, but I did okay on the latest charity square. One more to finish and post before Friday....

Here is Mary's, first of all, made for SOLAK. I tried a new aida (in white instead of ivory) but I neglected to measure the holes to find out how large (or small!) the final project would be. So I selected a chart that was the right number of stitches (for my ivory aida) and started stitching. I was late starting, and rather stressful about it. Well, I got the first cherub done and realized that the new aida is quite a high count. Silly me, I never thought of that. So instead of winding up with a 4 inch design, I had a 2 inch design. I added a double border to make it look bigger. All design elements were taken from De fil en aiguille (one of my mix & match pieces).

And here is what I started last night after finishing Mary's square. I finished it before lunch today. I went back to my usual ivory to make sure the design would come out the right size this time! This is "Happy as a Lark" by Birds of a Feather, but adapted to meet the size and langauge requirements. It says, roughly translated, "I'm as happy as a bird" but it's also a play on words using the Dutch phrase "vogel vrij" which means 'free as a bird'. I thought it was cheerful and fun and I hope it will make Anneke smile when she receives it. Both are done using the color variations DMC floss, which really adds a lot of fun to washable stitching!

And now on to the next one!

Thank you all for your kindness regarding my recent headaches. I fear I'm allergic not only to Spin and Nachtegaal, but also to Rigby. It's not a really serious red-eyes-can't-breathe kind of allergy, but a headachy, sneezy sort of thing.

Today I hope to get a new (cheap!) sewing machine. Cross your fingers - the old one is on its last ... bobbins. LOL!

Feeling a little out of it today, probably because I'm tired.

you've been warned

2006-11-06T23:38:00.000+01:00

So far, only Dianne has signed on for the pay-it-forward fun - if no one else signs up, you better watch out because I might just send you something anyway! You've been warned!!

Today was mostly a lovely day. Great weather - cool and damp in a satisfyingly autumn-ish way. Work went well and then I had fun walking the dogs at the local shelter. Of course Rigby got his walksies, too, and also a couple of bike rides. After upsetting the neighbors yesterday, I didn't dare leave him home alone even for the hour I do dog-walking at the shelter. We biked over to the daycare after dark to pick up Nicky and Rowen, which was just really fun. The Dutch have this great word, gezellig, for situations that are cozy and comforting and all sort of fleecy-feel-good - all of which perfectly captures the mood of biking in the dark with your two favorite babies and your best dog-pal with the smell of woodsmoke and leaves and dampness in the air.

I say the day was mostly lovely because I have a rotten old headache tonight that's keeping me from stitching, which makes me feel stressful because I have three charity deadlines looming over me. Of course feelings stressful makes my headache worse so it's a nasty cycle. One which I plan to end very shortly by taking a pain killer and going to bed, like a sensible person would've done at least an hour ago.

Today, I'm feeling: sore!

and now for something completely different

2006-11-05T22:47:00.000+01:00

Today I tried my first waste canvas stitching project. We were scheduled to go to my MILs birthday celebration at 5 p.m. and I thought how cute it would be if I finally stitched that cute doll pattern on the denim dress my mom bought Rowen. I've meant to do this for an embarassingly long time. So I sat down with the pattern, the dress, and Rowen's choice of floss (DMC color variations 4110), and started stitching. Stitching through denim hurts! And this kind of stitching is even slower than my usual snail's pace. But I finished about half an hour before we had to leave ... only to discover that plucking the waste canvas out of the design takes nearly as long as the stitching! Okay, a slight exaggeration, but it is time consuming, and I had a hard time plucking the canvas threads without pulling the actual stitching. I think Rowen will like it, though. I'll have to think seriously before trying this again, though.

The birthday party was wonderful. My mother in law is a lovely woman who enjoys seeing people have fun - but she's not a lady who's tied to her kitchen. So she came up with the brilliant plan of holding the party at a local restaurant that had room enough for the kids to run around a bit and had a menu sure to please even the picky eaters among us (that would be me with my meat-free thing). Everyone had fun, except Rigby. He had to stay home and the neighbors met us at the door when we came home to kindly inform us that our dog had not stopped whining and barking for the entire 3+ hours we were gone. Oops.

While at dinner, Max's tooth fell out. Last time Max lost a tooth, the tooth fairy actually forgot to come. There, now you all know what a terrible mom I am sometimes. Tonight we were extra careful to make sure that the tooth fairy left him his favorite: two fifty cent pieces. Euro fifty cent pieces are large, heavy coins that look like gold to an 8 year old. He loves them. And I have one more tooth to add to my macabre little collection.

Finally, Judith Romijn started the truly wonderful idea of paying it forward here on our blogs. The way it works is, the first five people who say they want to participate will receive a handmade gift from me (not before Christmas, I fear!). In return, they will post the same action on their blogs and pledge gifts (the gifts obviously don't have to be cross stitch, if you aren't a cross stitcher - for example, I know of a very talented photographer out there who could send photos she's taken herself), to the first five to respond, and so on. I saw it too late on Judith's blog, but managed to sign up when I saw it on Carol's blog. If you are interested, please email me with your snail-mail address where I can send the giftie. I just love this idea, and I'm quite excited to be part of it. I loved the movie and secretly go around trying to do this IRL with mixed success.

Oh, before I forget, there's some more information about Sinterklaas available here. It's a bit of a hodge-podge, but it gives the idea. I'll be glad to take pictures, Cory. We don't set out gifts for the kids every night, like some of Max's classmates do - it's just too expensive with three kids, especially as we do the full Santa treatment, too. We probably set the shoes out 4 times or so for a very humble treat. And then on 'pakjesavond' on December 5th, the kids all get some small treats and one slightly bigger gift. Personally, I like the stockings much better, but it's important that the kids experience both sides of their culture.

a star is born!

2006-11-04T21:05:00.000+01:00

Today was Max's first volleyball competition - wow! This is a kid that until six months ago would pitch a fit if we even asked him to think about joining a sport. Since joining the volleyball team about 5 weeks ago, he's gone from actively avoiding contact with the ball to being able to hit it and to stay where the action is. We're really proud of him! We thought the 3+ hour game sequence might be too much for Rowen, so she and I took Rigby biking and shopping while the boys went to the game. Niek managed to capture a wonderful action shot of Max hitting the ball.

I'd hoped to post a progress picture of the angel I'm stitching for Mary, Jenna's friend, but I haven't had enough time to make any noticeable progress.

I have, however, made decent preparation toward Sinterklaas this year. The good Saint will appear in the Netherlands in a few weeks and the kids will be able to put their shoes out for gifts. It's a great Dutch custom, though with three kids it does get rather expensive. On December 5th, the Saint delivers gifts to all the kids (not unlike Santa Claus on Christmas Eve). That's always a lot of fun. Anyway, every year I am unprepared but this year I'm all set for the 'shoe nights' leading up to the fifth. Hooray!

Well, back to stitching .... I have some great projects coming up for exchanges. I'm really excited about my partners for the blue Quaker and Christmas ornie exchanges!

the gift that arrived on time

2006-11-02T22:34:00.000+01:00

Happy birthday, Annemarie! Wow, has it really been a year already? Last year I made Annemarie a teensy little octopus ornie/fob to keep her mermaids in line.

This year, somehow, the sea theme continued. It wasn't really intentional, but I saw these great fish scissors and had to buy them. Of course I couldn't keep them (though I did take them out and admire them with some regularity) because they were specifically purchased to be a gift. But what should I do to go with them? I don't know if Annemarie actually eats fish, so a culinary gift could backfire. And scissors don't have much to do with edible fish, do they? Obviously I had to stitch something, but I didn't want to do another fob/ornie. Then, inspiration struck! I love the funky alphabet series (which are freebies!) being done by Atelier Fil en Scene and I loved making the Needleworker's Pocket (designed by Ellen Chester) for Aniza in an earlier exchange ... so I made a small scissors' pocket for Annemarie with her initial and stitching implements (taken from various charts in the Tout Rouge issue of De fil en aiguille)on one side and the super-fun fishy mini-sampler on the other side. That gorgeous thread is the other one Isabelle sent me for my birthday. I used what was left to make the cord.

I still get so nervous about stitching gifts for friends. I love doing it! But everyone else's stitching is so lovely and perfect. And their finishing! Wow, I can't imagine how they make it come out so beautifully! My attempts seem so ... awkward... in comparison. But Annemarie has assured me that she really does like this year's gift. And I am still so thrilled that it arrived on time!

Rigby had his second dog course tonight and did very well. We have had him for 15 days now, and I can't imagine life without him. We've managed to overcome the 'dark stranger' problem he had with dark-haired men (at least we've licked it for about 90%). He still gets incredibly nervous and insecure if we leave him for over an hour, so I continue to sneak him into work. Thankfully, I have very laid-back office mates! Now we're trying to help him overcome his insecurity, but the dog trainer says that the only thing truly required is time. And patience, of course, but that's a given.

Nicky and Rowen have transformed our living room into an obstacle course during the past rainy days. It keeps them busy and ensures that I clean behind and under the furniture, which winds up being moved all about the room. Max has his first volleyball game on Saturday and it's hard to say who is more excited: him or me. I am actually so excited and nervous about it that I may not go for fear of embarassing him.

On this rainy autumn evening, with moon getting full and the air full of the scent of fallen leaves, my thoughts go out to a few dear people who've been ill and/or in pain lately. I wish I could do something more than say "I'm thinking of you!" but I don't know what it is. Know that I'm sending hugs and support.

happy happy joy joy

2006-11-01T16:09:00.000+01:00

Oh goodie, I succeeded! Hooray!! Can you feel all the good vibes? Yep, I got those birthday presents mailed in time to arrive for the actual b-day, instead of a month late. Okay, one of them is about a month late, but the thought was there. I've been doing speed stitching and finishing today, and it all paid off!

Thank you all for your incredibly kind comments regarding the pink Quaker exchange. I forgot to give details of the design. The front cover is an older pattern from Thistle Threads. The backside uses the alphabet from Little by Little's "Strawberry Quaker" pattern but the quote is from First Lady Abigail Adams - I thought it very pertinent to the theme of the exchange (breast cancer awareness). It wasn't a pattern in and of itself, just elements I borrowed from here and there. I had no idea how to assemble it, and would lay awake at night doing imaginary finishing in my mind till I came up with a solution. LOL.

Autumn arrived yesterday in the form of our first official autumn windstorm. The trees seemed to be bending nearly double - it was amazing. Rigby has been nervous for much of the day and I suspect it's due to the weather. Our walks have become especially fun with the great piles of leaves to shuffle through.

Tonight, Niek has arranged to take me out for dinner as a belated anniversary celebration. I don't know where, only that I need to dress up a bit more than usual. No jeans, in other words. The kids will get a very kid-friendly dinner (pancakes) in exchange for going to bed a little earlier than usual.

And now, I'm going to gloat a bit more about getting my parcels out!

exchanges exchanged!

2006-10-31T13:54:00.000+01:00

My pink Quaker exchange finally made it to my partner, Susan, in the US. It had me pretty worried! I can share some pictures now - yay! I liked this so much that it was hard to part with. I hope to make something similiar for myself sometime in the future.
Front:

Back:

Inside with threads and needles:

We don't celebrate Halloween here, sadly, but I've received some great e-cards from friends and happy wishes. To everyone in a Halloween-celebrating area, ENJOY!! It was always one of my favorite holidays and I dressed up (though didn't trick-or-treat) halfway through high school. LOL!

this & that

2006-10-29T10:15:00.000+01:00

Thank you all for your anniversary wishes - Niek and I enjoyed a wonderful evening, thanks to him. I was in school all day and we couldn't get a babysitter for the evening, so he prepared a five-course meal for me when I got home! Can you believe that? My mom asked me if I could clone him, and age the clone.... LOL! He's amazing! This anniversary is actually that of our first date - our wedding anniversary isn't till May, but for me, this is the big one. Niek changed my life the first night we met, though more than a year passed (nearly two!) before we actually went out on a date. Neither one of us can remember much of the meal from our first date - just the annoying man at the next table who kept puffing away on his cigar all through the meal. We remember talking ... and talking ... and talking! There must've been a cosmic clicking noise that night, because two people who really belong together finally found each other.

Ahem, on to stitching matters! I finally received my woodland MA exchange. This is my last one, at least with this group. I do love mailart envelopes, but they are very time consuming and the exchanges can be terribly lopsided, so I'll go back to doing them just for fun for special occassions. I received this very pretty envelope from Cici. She also enclosed two skeins of silk from The Thread Gatherer. She hand-dyed this fabric herself, and I just love the color. I didn't photograph the other side of the envelope because there is no stitching there.

I'm worried about my pink Quaker exchange, which was mailed almost two weeks ago and still hasn't reached its recipient in the US. I've not experienced this kind of delay for a small envelope packet. I was so pleased with this project - it will be a huge disappointment if it's gone missing.

School yesterday was an eye-opening experience. I need to really invest a lot more time in studying. It's just so hard to give up any of my stitching time! Especially with the holidays approaching. Sigh.

The sun is out and it is a gorgeous autumn day here. I hope you're enjoying a beautiful day, too!!

i'm it - confessions of a procrastinating tag-ee

2006-10-26T09:57:00.000+02:00

Both Annemarie and Margaret have tagged me, so really I must respond. But my responses require a little bit in the way of introduction.

I'm a procrastinator. I've tried to conceal this, but those who know me best know that it is woefully true. I don't mean to be. I've meant to do something about it. But ... well ... other stuff keeps coming up.

I can't seem to do anything in moderation. You'll notice that my responses to Margaret's book tag are, as often as not, series instead of single books. And for Annemarie's seven-songs tag, I had to supply seven artists. And even that was hard to do - I wanted to supply seven decades of music, or seven genres of musical style ... seven single songs was simply impossible.

So here are a few bookish tidbits from me to you, and seven musical talents who have enriched my life. But there are more and it feels incomplete to supply only part of the picture. But if I were to respond in full, it would require even more thought and time and ... procrastination. So here is a partial picture that's only a little bit late in coming.

1)One book that changed your life:
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint- Exupery
2) One book that you’d read more than once:
I have read most of my books more than once. I love re-reading Edith Wharton.
3) One book you’d want on a deserted island:
Something huge and complex, educational and entertaining … Any suggestions??
4) One ~~book~~ series that made you laugh:
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
5) One ~~book~~ series that made you cry:
The Ender series by Orson Scott Card
6) One book you wish you’d written:
Skinny Legs And All by Tom Robbins
7) One book you wish had never been written:
It is tempting to cite a few books that have been misused … but it’s the people who’ve misused the books, not the books themselves that are wrong.
8) One book you’re currently reading:
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
9) ~~One~~ Two books you’ve been meaning to read:
Oh my … there are many. The Soul’s Code by James Hillman and of course The Foundations of Chinese Medicine by Maciocia (my course book!)
10) Tag five people:
I would be very interested to hear from Ash, Cathy, Carol, Joanna, and Karen but I’m not officially tagging anyone.

Seven ~~songs~~ artists I’m listening to ~~at the moment~~ much of the time:
Madeleine Peyroux
KD Lang
Ilse de Lange
Anouk
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Katie Melua
Ella Fitzgerald

wow!!

2006-10-24T23:15:00.000+02:00

Today just rocks. It's amazing. Okay, I did not study. Fifty lashes. But ... I did finish this!

Our anniversary is Saturday, though we'll celebrate Friday. All I have to do is frame it. Yippee!

And then Ash came with her boys. It is always great fun to get together. I'm amazed at how well our combined five kids play together - even on a rainy, autumn day! While the kids played upstairs, Ash taught me the basics of knitting downstairs, and look what I made!

Eventually this will be a scarf for Max. A huge, huge thanks to Ash for getting me started - I was convinced I was unteachable. And another huge thanks to Sara, who outfitted me with this yarn, the needles, and a beginners book. I couldn't do it without you!!

And while Ash was here, the mailman came with my SBEBB smalls exchange from Rava. Wow, this was really a treat! Rava made me the LHN Watermelon design and finished it as a pinkeep. Did you know how much I love crows? Niek said it looked like something I'd stitch for myself. It's displayed on my needlework chest for everyone to admire. Rava, you did a FABULOUS job stitching and finishing this! And as if that weren't fabulous enough, she also sent the Lucy Fairchild chart from the LHN Dear Diary series with four skeins of Vikki Clayton silks. And she sent a beautiful postcard of Perth and two small (but functional!) boomerangs! Wow!!

And tonight (when I should've been studying), I finished up this lovely little stag from the Prairie Schooler Winter Wind leaflet! Wowsee!!

What a day, what a day! And now, it's time to give Rigby his last walk before bed. My eyelids feel like they weigh about 15 pounds each....

family and fur

2006-10-22T20:22:00.000+02:00

Whew, time flies when you're having fun! I didn't intend to disappear for a few days - I just ran out of hours.

Everything is going great here at Chaos Central. Rigby is a wonderdog. He was top of the class during Thursday's training class and on Friday I taught him to run alongside my bike so I can combine two of my favorite things. He was so good at it that I dared bike Rowen downtown yesterday with Rigby trotting alongside. I also took him to work on Friday, which caused quite a bit of amusement. At the end of the day, a coworker said he'd much rather I bring the dog to work than my kids! LOL. Rigby spent most of the workday snoozing under my desk.

Spin is slowly getting used to Rigby - or should I say he's coming closer to admitting that Rigby is okay. This morning during our walk, Spin again trailed behind us (far enough away to look nonchalent if Rigby noticed him, but close enough to keep an eye on us). Spin didn't realize that he, in turn, was also being trailed by a cat even larger than he was. Suddenly, Spin found himself boxed in - either back up and have to fight the bigger cat, or walk forward and pass by Rigby. Rigby had noticed Spin by now and was staring at him very intently. Spin looked from the cat to the dog and back again, then visibily straightened out, sashayed over to Rigby to touch noses, glanced back at the other cat, and swaggered off. I was laughing so hard I nearly fell over!

Yesterday my boys went off for haircuts so they'd look extra-presentable for Niek's grandmother, who spent the day with us today. I managed to get some good shots of everyone, including Niek's brother Frank with the kids on the couch. Niek's grandma, by the way, is 86 and totally self-suffient despite a recently broken hip!

furbaby fun

2006-10-18T16:27:00.000+02:00

Everyone, please welcome Rigby! This morning at 10 am, I picked him up from the shelter and took him to the dog trainer - he loved the car ride! The dog trainer looked us over for a long time, watching how the kids played with each other and with Rigby, how I reacted, and so on. Then we went for a walk so she could see how he reacted to traffic, other dogs, pedestrians, and so on. In the end, she was quite impressed with his calmness and intelligence and we will start a course tomorrow evening. We've missed the first class, but because he catches on so fast, she thinks we can make up the missed material before class.

The kids are really delighted to have him, but not as much as their mom is. He's just great! Looking over his medical records, I see that we just missed his birthday, which was the 10th of this month. That'll be an easy one to remember!

Spin was a little less sure of our newest family member, but he's already calmed down a lot. He couldn't get any response out of Rigby with his Halloween-cat antics, and actually fell asleep a couple of feet away from him.

So far I haven't done any stitching today but there's always this evening!

a very interesting day

2006-10-17T20:27:00.000+02:00

Today was my first day of biking everywhere, as if I didn't have a car ... and oddly enough, it's my calves & shins that feel it tonight. That bike car I have for the kids is on the heavy side, not to mention the 60 pounds or so of child that is also being hauled around... But the weather was gorgeous and we all enjoyed the wonderful autumn scenery. Hands down, this is the finest autumn of all the 9+ years that I've lived here!

One of our biking trips was over to the animal shelter so Nicky and Rowen could meet the mis-named Rebel (a.k.a. Powderpuff). That meeting was a tremendous success, so I called Niek at work and asked him to come home early so he and Max could also meet the cuddlesome canine. And that meeting was also a great success. Niek and Rebel looked quite the pair, walking through the autumn woods. Too bad I didn't have my camera. I'll bring Rebel home tomorrow morning to meet with a professional dog trainer. I want to start off as I plan to continue, and although I've learned a lot about dogs during the past 2 months I've volunteered at the shelter, I am not an expert. I'm pretty excited about it all! But I really must find another name! Does anyone have any suggestions? Though he is a Rottweiler mix, he's as sweet as a bunny rabbit.

Another high point today was finding my Quaker Pink exchange on my doormat when I came home! Paula sent me this needlebook, scissor fob/jewelry, card, silk floss, and finishing twine. Thank you Paula!

it's been a great day!

2006-10-16T16:41:00.000+02:00

I survived Saturday's class and managed, against all odds and self-imposed obstacles, to get all my reading done. We did have a quiz - as I suspected we would - and I only got 2 of 3 right. But no one got the third question right because the teacher had accidently asked us to describe a theory we haven't had yet. No idea how that one will be graded, but I'm just glad that the first quiz is over with. I haven't had a quiz in ... a very long time. LOL.

On Sunday I immediately finished up Gaby's gift. You may remember that I stitched Dearest Friend, by Brightneedle, for her before we went to the US. I intended to purchase the lavender there and finish it off. But I couldn't find real lavender anywhere until the day before we left! For anyone enjoying a vacation Downeast, I strongly recommend a visit to the Machias Hardware store on Maine Street - they have everything, literally, and they are incredibly friendly! Anyway, I brought the lavender and the unfinished stitching home, set it in a safe place ... and got busy with everything else. It came out very nicely - I mitered my corners this time, and what a difference that makes! Thanks for showing me how to do that, Sara! I also finished the nun stiching on my Quaker exchange, which was supposed to go out on Saturday, but went out first thing this morning instead. I'll show you that once it's been received, but I'm pretty excited about it. By then I was totally in a nun-stitching groove and started nun stitching some linen scraps to make into bookmarks for Cathy's upcoming adult literacy event. I'm not unhappy with the results.

Today I went to work and had a positive exchange with my manager. After work, I walked the dogs at the local dog pound and met Rebel, a Rottweiler/Lab mix that I'm going to introduce to Nicky and Rowen tomorrow to see if there is a good chemistry there. Rebel is misnamed - he should've been called Pussycat because he's just a great big baby. His owner gave him up when she had twin babies herself and no longer had time enough for a big, energetic dog.

Then, when I finally got home, feeling pretty fine about life, I found envelopes from Jenna and Leah - real treat because we usually don't even get mail on Monday! I found the delightfully quirky BoaF Halloween kitty in Leah's envelope - thanks, Leah, I was hoping to make a BoaF for the holiday; it's going to become a tradition! And Jenna totally surprised me with these great little scissors! She said that as a Mainer-at-heart, I'd probably enjoy some red, white & blue - which I do, Jenna! And if anyone around me thinks I'm clinging too much to things American, I can fake them out and say I'm being Dutch-patriotic, because those are also the colors of the Dutch flag! Ha ha! Thank you so much for being so generous and sweet!!

Another good friend who has helped improve my mood a lot is Becky. Thanks so much for thinking of, and setting up, a birthday and Christmas gift blog! I will stop tying myself up in knots over all the gifts I don't have time to make, and concentrate on enjoying those that I can make!

Tonight Max has volleyball and we'll eat later as a result. I'm making falafel, which the kids love because they have no idea it's made of veggies. LOL! I plan to stitch a little bit and I hope to study a little bit, too. But mostly, I plan to go to bed at a decent hour!

I hope you are enjoying a fabulous fall (or spring for those of you in the "other" hemisphere) day!!

ssshhhh ... I'm studying!

2006-10-13T21:56:00.000+02:00

Wow, we had a perfect autumn afternoon today! I finally got my 'sidecar' fixed up so I can once again cart both Nicky & Rowen around on my bike. It's not just an urge to do right by Mother Nature, I also want some extra activity to offset my missed fitness classes (which I had to give up) - if we bike everywhere, I just have to maintain some level of fitness, right? LOL. Anyway, Rowen is in love with the little cart and refused to get out of it after we got home - she sat there till dinnertime!

Stitching time has been nearly non-existent, but here's where I am with my anniversary gift. I love this little project and can't wait to see it framed and hung!

Now if I can just make it through my class tomorrow. I haven't studied enough to pass a quiz unless I get very lucky and he asks us to draw the Chinese symbols for the Five Elements. I also know the diagrams for the various sequences of the Five ELements. But, ahem, that's about it.

Meanwhile, I have not been able to do any stitching for upcoming birthdays. Friends, I am so sorry! Everyone has been so kind and generous and thoughtful with me, and I feel very badly about not returning that same level of friendship. I'd like to comfort myself with thoughts of making it all good for Christmas, but the truth is, I have such a backlog of commitments that I'm really not sure what the final outcome will be.

a day of SALing and sunning

2006-10-12T10:07:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was fun!!

Knowing that I'd meet Ash at the apple orchard in the afternoon and not being sure how late I would return home, I started the day with the Red Desert Scissors Pocket SAL. I love the colors in this project, but I went with a different linen choice. Quite some time ago, Anne sent me a gorgeous piece of coffee bean linen that I've been selfishly saving for a project that I'd keep. I adore deep, rich browns. I was so happy to finally have the right project for this fabric! Here are my supplies before I started stitching.

Stunning, don't you think?

To show the beautiful silks off to their best advantage on the dark linen, I reversed the color scheme, using the lighter color for the design and the darker color for the eyelets. This is as far as I got yesterday. (I didn't have much stitching time.) I'm pleased with how it's coming out!

After picking Max up from school, the kids enjoyed a picnic in the car (LOL) as we drove to the orchard. It was, as always, great to see Ash. And our kids play very well together, which is another big bonus! It was a gorgeous, sunny, warm Indian summer sort of day - perfect for apple picking and fun. Here's a picture of the kids in the orchard. It was a challenge to get them to pose!

As I type this, Rowen is eating one of the apples we picked yesterday and Gilbert, who loves apples and is flying free, is trying to steal it from her. I've tried to take several pictures, but Gil is too fast for me. She's scolding him very strenuously and the whole thing is absolutely hilarious.

Outside, the leaves have begun to fall in earnest. When Nicky stepped out the door, he was overjoyed - "Look, Mama, it's autumn!" he yelled. You'd have thought it was the first snowfall of the season, he was so excited. It was great. It will make the actual leaf cleanup much less of a chore.

And speaking of chores, I was busy earlier this week mucking out our so-called library - which had become nothing more than a depository for all the junk that drifted in - and yesterday morning the kids and I enjoyed using the now-tidy room. While the kids played in there, I did my little bit of stitching on the scissor pocket. It was very cozy and I think we'll really enjoy the room during the upcoming winter months.

Thank you all very much for your kind comments regarding Aniza's needleworker's pocket. It was a lot of fun to do, and I love Ellen's design. I'm a total pushover for any designs with birds, and lately I've really enjoyed doing the monochromatic designs.

I'll leave you all with this priceless picture of Rowen talking to her grammie on the phone. Can you tell that she's going to need a phone of her own once puberty hits? LOL!

a needleworker's pocket

2006-10-10T20:23:00.000+02:00

Aha, I've just seen over on the SBEBB that Aniza has received the exchange that I made for her - so I can finally show you a picture!

This is a design by Ellen Chester. I stitched it on 32 ct ivory linen using DMC flower thread. This was my first pocket, and I loved doing it. Someday, I hope to make one for myself!

a little h.d.

2006-10-09T22:14:00.000+02:00

My woodland creatures MA is finished-finished and ready to go in the post tomorrow (a few days early!). I don't think the recipient reads my blog, but just in case, I'll hold off on showing a picture of the whole envelope and just tease you with this cute little bunny with his fluffy tail. He's done over one on 32 count water lily jobelan, so the tail (which is wool) is tent-stitched. The designer, btw, is Charley Harper.

Now I have to nun stitch around my other exchange, which is otherwise totally finished. And study. Oh yeah.

froggy fun

2006-10-08T22:50:00.000+02:00

It's been a busy but fun weekend. We took the kids and Max's best friend to the circus yesterday. Niek surprised me by springing for ringside seats - what a treat! We could literally touch the animals as they went by. It was incredible! And today we paid a birthday visit to Sven, who is one year old. I always saw that as such a milestone with my own kids.

Tonight I was finally able to pick up my mailart exchange and I think I've finished the stitching on it. I say "think" because I have a terrible tendency to stitch more, but I need to have this in the mail on Friday so I really should stop stitching and start finishing. The theme for this one was woodland creatures and although I can't show the whole thing, I just have to share this little frog.

Otherwise, not much stitching or studying has been done, which is kind of a problem because I have class on Saturday and two exchanges that have to be out on Friday. We will have a very fun mid-week break though, when we go apple-picking with Ash and her boys. Yay!

Oh, for those who have asked, the stash that I showed in my last post was ordered before my 50 Project Challenge. It was a SB&B order and took ages to arrive. I have had so much fun drooling over the patterns!

finally!

2006-10-05T21:10:00.000+02:00

My Stitching Bits and Bobs order arrived today! Hooray!! In addition to the pictured items, there are also a few fibers and a couple of gifties that I didn't include. And, most importantly, the 2006 JCS ornaments issue! Max and I had a great time pouring over that tonight.

I've been poking along with my woodland MA exchange but it's slow-going and I'm not ready to share a progress picture yet. But I did start a little surprise for Niek for our upcoming anniversary that I'll share. This is stitched on 32 ct. Silkweaver Sterling Silver. That is a gorgeous fabric! The pattern is from an old book by Gertie Wandel.

phew!

2006-10-03T21:29:00.000+02:00

Here I am, breathing a huge sigh of relief. Not only did you wonderful friends let me off the hook regarding my second-hand book purchases (oh thank you so much!), but I have finally finished Sam's Harley quilt square. This deceptively simple design took me forever to stitch! Thank you to Battybat for supplying free charts!

On the subject of free charts that are generously supplied online, I'd again like to thank Meri for her wonderful scissor designs! I've tried several times to email her, but our email servers (or something) are incompatible.

Today I visited a couple of friends - my stitching friend Conny lost her mom this past weekend, so that was rather a sad visit. Right afterward I went to Anja's house and met her newborn son, Daniel, which was a very joyous occassion. One of those strange mornings that incorporates both extremes of the human cycle.

Nicky is well, thank you for asking. He's not only well, but seems to have stored up energy during his illness and is now on hyperspeed. The other kids seem to be in good health, knock wood. And Spin is staying out of trouble, too. LOL

Now on to the next stitching deadline!

it doesn't count!!

2006-10-02T10:36:00.000+02:00

After a double birthday party yesterday, I biked downtown with Nicky to the open-air bookfair. I just LOVE poking around old books, and if it's outside, so much the better. I found an inexpensive copy of Gulliver's Travels, which I am embarassed to admit I've never read. There were lots of old children's books in Dutch, but given the many spelling changes over the years, I was afraid that none of us would ever make real use of them. They were tempting, though!! And then I saw them ... I had looked at the Dutch-themed booklet some time ago, but was put off by the high price. The elderly couple running this bookstand wanted only 4 euro for the booklet and patterns, and they also had a cool Peruvian designs book for another 4 euro. And I had to buy them! Now can I just count these as 2nd hand book purchases? Or do I need to start my count to 50 anew?

Last night we bathed all the kids and put them to bed, with everyone in good health. Then around 11 pm, Nicky began crying. Around midnight it came out that his tummy hurt - Nicky never complains about feeling poorly unless he really feels awful, so we took it seriously. Still, what do you do with a tummy ache at midnight? Then around 1 am, he ... got the owie out, as I explained it. Ahem. While Niek helped Nicky, I started scrubbing his room down and changing the bedding. Thankfully he missed the sheep rug, but I think that's all he missed. It was after 2 before we got back to bed, and that 7 am alarm was a very unwelcome noise. So today, Nicky and I are holding down the fort and I have my fingers and toes crossed that no one else will come down with it!

little time for stitching, but ...

2006-09-30T22:38:00.000+02:00

Whew, it's been a busy few days. Work on Friday was like a race - how much could I cram into one day at the office? Amazingly enough, I crammed it all in ... something like 3 days' worth of work. I was pretty wiped out when I got home, though, and by the time the kids were tucked up in bed, my brain had shut down and I couldn't do any stitching. I did, however, finish up Anita Shreve's A Wedding In December. Not one of her best novels, in my opinion, but I enjoyed it.

Today, of course, was given over to school. Wow, what a lot there is to learn! I thought I'd done quite a decent job preparing for class but I obviously need to re-read everything again. But it's an exciting challenge, not an overwhelming one. (So far!) After I returned from school, we dashed over to catch the end of our neighbor's 25th anniversary party. Very fun.

And as soon as we got home, I put the last stitches in my cute little grasshopper so I can post that off on Monday. Isn't he a sweetie?

I hope that you are enjoying a very happy weekend!

Oh, before I forget, Spin received his scratches from one of the neighborhood cats that he was bossing around. He's self-appointed Feline Emperor of the neighborhood! He's laying beside me, purring, as I type this. Without an aida blanket or mattress. LOL!

pictures! and good intentions

2006-09-28T09:30:00.000+02:00

I had intended to update my blog last night, but Niek was busy with the computer till after midnight (by which time I was snoring in bed) so here I am now - with lots of pictures!

First of all, I'm so glad that Becky likes her scissors pocket and fob! As soon as I saw the design on Meri's site (pointed out to me by Maria S. - thanks!), I knew I'd found the right gift to remind Becky of how much she's appreciated. This was my first scissors pocket, but not my last! Becky, thanks again for the October JCS magazine and for all the wonderful things you do to make our stitching community an even more special place!

Secondly, although I am on a stash diet, I did have some outstanding orders that I'm waiting for. Here's what I ordered from Wyndham Needleworks, all from their sales pages. I've really gotten to like Chessie & Me - another example of how my tastes have changed over the past year or two.

Thirdly, I'm making slow but steady progress on the Harley quilt square for Quilts4Kids, but I also started another square for a Dutch-based quilt charity. It's a new quilt request with urgency status, so they need the squares right away. I'm doing the grasshopper from Garden Beasties by Prairie Schooler.

This afternoon I'll be heading toward the Big City (aka Amsterdam) too meet Rachael for the first time. I'm going via Ash's house so we can go in together. Hopefully some of the chocolate chip cookies I baked yesterday will be left for me to share with her wonderful boys (and Brad, of course, who - like my DH - has kindly taken over tonight's bedtime rituals for the kids). Though Rachael and I have spoken frequently on the phone, we've never met IRL and I'm looking forward to it. I'll also meet her friend Cheryl, who is kind enough to share Rachael with other friends.

On a tiny sour note, I am still awaiting my "last" SBB order which includes my JCS ornaments issue. I want to start stitching those Christmas ornies! LOL. Thanks to Becky and Maria S. I have had a preview of the ornaments, but I'm impatient to have the magazine in my hot little hands. Other than eBay purchase that I'll pick up in person from Conny, a wonderful stitcher and seller over near Delft, that's the end of my incoming stash for the foreseeable future. Though I admit to perusing the many ONS sites, it really is something of a relief to be "forbidden" from purchasing anything. The only thing that has seriously tempted me is the Quaker Stamps charts. You can learn more about them at the Yahoo group if you're interested.

Though I can no longer claim autumn as my favorite season, I do love the way the change in weather affects our Spin. In the spring & summer we scarecely see him, but as soon as the days begin to shorten, our wild feline turns into a total Love Kitty. Here he is, keeping me company while I stitched last night.

goofin' around

2006-09-26T23:29:00.000+02:00

Ugh, I caught Rowen's cold-thingie and it's settled in my chest. Two nights without sleep - I keep waking myself up with coughing fits. I should go to bed now, but I'm half-afraid to try.

I haven't done too much stitching, and what little I have done is on the Harley logo, which I hope to pop in the mail to Linde at Quilts4Kids on Friday.

Big news for Thursday - I'm going to Amsterdam with Ash to meet Rachael and Cheryl. I don't actually have any idea who Cheryl is, but she must be a great person to share Rachael with everyone. LOL!

To prove that I've been goofing off shamelessly, here are a bunch of those silly and time-wasting blogthing quizzes that I've done. And now, I am off to bed. Cross your fingers for me!

In honor of Halloween, one of my favorite holidays:

You Are Scary

You even scare scary people sometimes!

How Scary Are You?

This one is funny because I don't "do" meat:

Meatball Pizza

Unusual and uncompromising.
You're usually the first to discover a new trend.
You appreciate a good meal and good company.
You're an interesting blend of traditional and modern.

What's Your Pizza Personality?

Always one of my favorite flavors, ever since childhood:

You Are a Green Apple Jelly Bean

Of all the flavors, you're the most complex and the most real. A little sweet, a little sour, and totally tangy. People can't describe you, but they love you!

What Flavor Jelly Bean Are You?

And as for this one, I could tell you stories ... but I won't:

You Are Lightning

Beautiful yet dangerous
People will stop and watch you when you appear
Even though you're capable of random violence

You are best known for: your power

Your dominant state: performing

What Type of Weather Are You?

it's been a productive weekend - hooray!

2006-09-24T23:06:00.000+02:00

I studied most of the day on Saturday and am reasonably caught up with my coursework. The reading material is interesting, although the parts that are in Dutch had me reaching for my translation dictionary every few moments. It was actually kind of fun to study for a day - it's been a long, long time since my university days, but I was that girl who sat at the library table upstairs by the window for hours & hours on end.

To make up for a total lack of stitching on Saturday, I broke out the turbo needles today and have totally finish-finished my SBEBB smalls exchange. And let me tell you, I am so delighted with the end result that it will truly be a hardship to part with it. I've been going around grinning like an idiot since I cut the linen. Yep, I cut the linen, which means that I successfully excecuted the dreaded Nun's Stitch all the way around this little darling. Thank you so very much for your advice and support!! It was extra important that I become comfortable with this stitch because I'm making bookmarks (soon) to send to Cathy for her adult literacy efforts later this autumn. I'll be working out my stash, and I've decided not to get into lots of extra steps by making backings and stuff for the bookmarks. (It makes them too bulky anyway, in my opinion.) So I'll be doing the Nun Stitch in my sleep by the time it's over!

I can't really show you the completed exchange piece till my partner receives it, but I can't resist giving you a little teeny peek. And if you're in The Hague tomorrow, I just may take it to work with me to admire before I mail it off! (The letters are from a pattern in the October JCS that I just received from Becky - thank you, Becky!)

And, oh yeah, this is the first one off my 50, so only 49 projects to go! LOL!

s-l-o-w

2006-09-22T22:04:00.000+02:00

I haven't fallen off the earth - I've just been embarassed about my slow progress on my Harley logo quilt square. It's kind of monotonous, with only 3 colors, and it's a lot of stitching (no blank canvas!). I've managed to get the middle section done, and here it is:

Max and I paid our Friday afternoon visit to the library today, and while wandering the stacks, I was delighted to discover Merklappen uit de lage landen (Samplers from the Lowlands) by Joke Visser. Though I am a slow reader when it comes to Dutch, I've had a wonderful time reading the histories of the 25 samplers that the book covers. In addition to great color photos of the antique samplers, there are also incredibly clear charts for ten of the samplers. Wow! Max and I both went home as happy campers! I can't find any decent links to this book, so I've taken a couple of pictures to show you how amazing it is. This is my favorite sampler, and can you believe how clear that chart is?

This weekend I won't be doing as much stitching as usual - indeed, I have to face the fact that I won't be doing as much stitching period. My course has a lot of homework involved and I just have to re-prioritize. Less stitching, more studying. Yikes! My first big thing will be to cut down on my deadline stitching. I've been trying to do 2 charity projects per month, and I'll drop that back to one (after I've met my current obligations). I'll also have to be careful about exchanges. It'll take some getting used to, that's for sure!

I hope this finds everyone enjoying the first days of autumn!

maybe I should've been Catholic

2006-09-19T14:30:00.000+02:00

I am, of course, referring to the dreaded Nun's Stitch. Perhaps you remember the debacle in March of this year when I executed this stitch backwards on an ornament that was intended to be a gift? Well now I just don't know - I started doing the stitch on my Quaker exchange, but after a few centimeters, I realized that I really had no idea if I was doing it correctly or doing it backwards again. Are the little "teeth" of the stitch supposed to point inwards toward the stitching, or outwards toward where you'll cut the linen?

The sun is trying to come out this afternoon, but the wind and clouds are doing their best to send it back into hiding. Our Rowen has had a nasty cough for a week so she's having a nap (extremely rare). My sinuses have announced that it's autumn, and that may well be why I can't think straight. Hard to concentrate with what feels like an ice pick stuck through my skull. Nasty things, sinuses.

But there's lots of good stitching to do to keep my mind off my ... well, my mind. Ha ha. Su's neighborhood RR arrived today from Annemarie and it is gorgeous! That's going to be very fun, though I will have to restrain myself from filling the block up the way I usually do. I'm plugging along on Sam's Harley logo quilt square. I still need to work on my smalls exchange, which might be a good idea for this afternoon if the sun is going to stay out. Over-one stitching is so much easier under natural light!

throwing down the gauntlet

Over on Barb's blog, I read of her 50 Projects Challenge. The deal is, you cannot purchase any charts until you have completed 50 (yes, fifty!) projects. This, folks is exactly what I need. We won't talk about how much I've spent on stash during the past 3 months, but it's shameful. I do have several orders out, but since they're already paid for, I can't do anything about those. From this day forward, though, I have to complete 50 projects before I'm allowed any new patterns! You're to give me 50 lashes if I fail!

Today's lovely artwork is lifted from here.

teasing

2006-09-18T00:02:00.000+02:00

I finished a gift set tonight and I would love to show it to you but I can't ... but I can show you a teeny bit of it.

I'm also working on my Quaker exchange, but I'm a bit stymied about how to ensure the linen won't fray when I cut it. I guess I'm going to have to do a Nun stitch around the edges. I was just looking for a lazy way out. Other than that, it's about ready to hit the post. (The picture shows the lovely scissors that Cathy gave me for my birthday - they are fabulous! Thanks again, Cathy!)

Other than the finishing I did today, I haven't been able to pick up a needle this weekend. Yesterday was filled with school (amazingly, I didn't dream anything Chinese last night) and today I visited with Conny, an online friend I met through eBay, and picked Max up. Lots of driving around. :( Mondays are not usually stitching days, with work, walking the dogs at the animal shelter, and an evening fitness class, but I'll see what I can squeeze in.

I can't chew gum and speak Chinese

2006-09-16T21:01:00.000+02:00

Today was my first day of class ... the first step in what will hopefully be a 3-year journey toward my own acupuncture and herbalist practice. This year will be all theory - and with something like 3000 years of written history, there is a lot of Chinese theory to cover! We are also learning Chinese words that are fundamental to TCM (traditional Chinese medicine), and I discovered that it's not possible to speak Chinese with gum in one's mouth. LOL.

I have been stitching away like mad on a surprise, so I'm afraid I can't show you any pictures yet.

Reading: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer.

make hay while the sun shines

2006-09-13T10:35:00.000+02:00

I'm trying to keep on top of my (overdone!) deadline stitching, and so far it's going okay. I finished the first of Sam's quilt squares and have started the second one. I've finished the stitching of the first exchange I'm doing and started the second one. I've also started a piece that will be a Christmas gift ... the chart was so cute I simply had to start it now! I've also received the fabric for the additional two Hurricane Katrina quilt squares I'll be doing. And I've recieved some stash and made "friends" at a couple of new-to-me ONSs that I can recommend. Lastly, this morning, I daringly live-trapped the little brother or sister of the spider in my last post and released it outside. No, I'm not trying out for a spot on one of those Fear Factor TV shows ... Niek's been away on business and there is no one else here to rid the house of scary spiders. (Both spider and I survived the experience none the worse for wear, for any spider fans out there.)

I also want to explain that I've had to change the format of my blog to show only the most current post. Something is wonky with my template (I think) and my blog wasn't loading for most people (myself included). If you'd like to see past posts, just click on month you want to see in the Archives. For some reason, this method works a lot faster.

Okay, on to the pictures! (No spiders this time, so you can proceed without being worried of any ugly surprises!) Here is the first of Sam's squares. His theme is extreme sports, so I made this up myself, using some elements from my Jeanette Crews OmniBook. As usual, it's on 18 ct ivory aida using DMC. I used some of the DMC color variations, which is colorfast.

And here are my current WIPs - Sam's next quilt square and one of my other exchanges. I just realized that I haven't taken a picture of my MA exchange, but you aren't really missing much. I need to pay more attention to that one, and soon! The teensy bunny (or the brown blob, depending on your interpretation) is stitched over one on 36 ct Porcelain Silkweaver using Vikki Clayton silks. Good thing we've had some sunny weather to stitch by!

Edited to include pictures from Photobucket account. Blogger's still being a pain.

For SEX experiences, I've recently received an order from Violarium, after spotting their ad in The Gift of Stitching, and in addition to the choice of different designers, great service, and reasonable shipping rates, they are FAST!! I also received an order from 123 Stitch, which isn't my first order from them, but when Joanne accidently forgot to include a skein of floss, she sent out a replacement the same day - and was considerate enough to not only enclose it in plastic, but to also put it in a bubble-pack envelope (all at her own cost). That's great service! And I can't leave without mentioning once again how very, very happy I am with my Monthly Bits from Stitching Bits and Bobs - the shipping is free, and the selection is always fantastic. Bobbie also includes a current freebie chart or two, which is always terribly exciting for me since I can't get freebies over here. A hearty thank you to these wonderful businesswomen who literally keep me in stitches!

What I'm reading: The Labyrinth, by Kate Mosse.

I want to be stitching!

2006-09-11T21:45:00.000+02:00

Five years ago ... To everyone who lost someone five years ago today, I wish you peace. I don't know what else to say. Words are too little.

Sorry to have disappeared for a few days - it's just been busy with one thing and the other. I've been trying to keep up with my deadlines (so far, so good!) and we've had Niek's birthday party with his family, and various other this & that things going on.

I think I'm safe in showing you one of my exchanges because the recipient is no one I've ever heard of and I'm pretty sure she doesn't read my blog. Even if she does see this picture, it's okay because the gift isn't finished yet and will look different in its final form. This is Miniature Quaker Sampler from Thistle Threads stitched on 32 ct Princess Pink linen from Silkweaver using a fabulous and unusual cotton floss from France that Isabelle sent me.

We had a wonderful time with Niek's family yesterday, celebrating Niek's birthday. The kids had such a blast playing with each other!

I did quite a lot of baking, but I think my oatmeal cookies came out the best. First time I've made them this way, and if you're interested, here's how I did it:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
Cream 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup white sugar, and 1/2 room-temperature butter.

Combine and and beat in till smooth 1 egg, 1 tsp. vanilla, 4 tsp. cold coffee, dash of cinnamon.

Sift together and add to the above ingredients 1 1/4 cup flour, 1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt.

When these have been beaten in smoothly, add 1 cup quick rolled oats, 1/4 cup pine nuts, 1/3 cup raisins. Mix thoroughly.

Roll into balls and bake on baking paper till the edges begin to turn light brown (this took about 12 minutes for a batch of 12 in my oven). Let cool on baking paper on a wire rack.

And for the really big excitement around here, look at the tarantula I found when cleaning before Niek's family arrived! Okay, it wasn't actually a tarantula, but it was some kind of spider as big as my hand. No kidding!! Needless to say, Niek had to come to my rescue.

I got so merry ...

2006-09-06T09:09:00.000+02:00

... I could hardly count the dots on my dominos!

Okay, I can't take credit for that hilariously funny line, it's from Rowan Atkinson in one of the episodes from The Thin Blue Line.

Yesterday was Niek's birthday! Happy day to the man who makes my life a happy place!

The day didn't start off that auspiciously, however, when I actually forgot it was his special day. Niek forgave me, pointing out that he's used to my "brain being in the freezer" (his words!) for the first hour or so that I'm awake. I did finally catch on to his many hints just before he left for work. I felt terrible because he's always so wonderful when it's my birthday. I made up for it, a little bit, by having a huge bouquet of flowers delivered to him at work. He liked it, but said it made him feel "weird" to get flowers at work. LOL.

Before he came home, the kids decorated his chair and made him a birthday crown, both of which are Dutch traditions for children's parties. Keeping in the theme, I called his Mom and got the low-down on his favorite bithday foods and how to make them. In all my nine years here, it's the most (traditional Dutch) cooking I've done! I have to admit that I goofed on the dessert, which was something I'd never made or eaten before, but Niek got the hugest laugh at my expression when I tried a bite that it was worth it. (I'm willing to laugh at myself!)

For his gift this year, I splurged on a leather jacket that I think makes him look better than James Dean. (Is that a selfish gift?)

And today, it's back to stitching! I have a couple of projects that are a little different than my usual subjects. Watch this space...

she's gotta have it

2006-09-03T23:45:00.000+02:00

I don't know what happened to this weekend! I was supposed to have sunshine and leisure time. I did not. It rained or tried to rain all weekend long. Blech. I'm convinced I'm mildewing. And leisure time? Forget it - I've run around so much that I've met myself coming and going. My big stitching plan this weekend was to finish the first of Sam's quilt squares, and although I did manage to do three of the four small designs around the corners, it's not finished. But I was desperate for a finish, so tonight I whipped out a Lizzie Kate freebie and stitched it up. I needed to get some Christmas ornaments done anyway!

I hope that your weekend was full of good things!

PS: If you'd like this freebie, I got my copy by subscribing to the Daisy Stitches newsletter.

as if I didn't have enough

2006-09-01T23:45:00.000+02:00

I'm occassionally frightened by how compulsive chart collecting can be. (We will not talk about fabric and fiber collecting. Thankfully I'm not much into beading and embellishing - yet!) As I mentioned, I have approximately one bazillion projects to do before November. And yet ...

The Cross Stitch Expo is up & running. I wanted to win some free charts, but that meant exposing myself to some new (to me) designers. And they were offering discounts for charts bought through the expo! And I did win several free ones! Am I forgiven?

Then I stumbled across Pam Kellogg's blog. How did I not know she has a blog? Anyway, she has dozens of free charts available on her blog. It takes an eternity to load (I would not even try if I were still stuck with dial-up) but it's well worth the time.

I see that it's nearing the Witching Hour and I'm tired enough to fall asleep sitting up. Why am I still up? I didn't even stitch anything tonight! Speaking of the Witching Hour and stitching, I had such high hopes of doing all kinds of fun Halloween designs this year. Has anyone else had more success than I have?

To end on a very happy note, the weather forecast calls for sun this weekend. This will be the first time since our return that we'll have a sunny day! Yippee!!

committed for commitments?

2006-08-31T10:57:00.000+02:00

Or alternatively titled, I've done it again!

Before I left for Maine, I signed up for two quilt squares for Sam's quilt on Quilts 4 Kids. Sam just really touched me, and it seemed that Linde was having a difficult time getting enough stitchers for his theme. And I'd signed up for a mailart exchange. Then when we returned to Holland, I discovered that I could sign up for the SBEBB, which I've wanted to do for some time now. Naturallly, there were a couple of exchanges there that I wanted to sign up for. Then I read that Kathie from the Hurricane Katherine Quilt Project still hadn't received enough squares for a single quilt, let alone squares enough to do a quilt for each state, so I felt like I had to sign up for a couple of more to send to her. And I'd ignored my borduurquilt group for far too long, so I signed up for two quilt squares. My stitching agenda is full! Max asked me this morning when his bunny would be done - a stitching gift I intended to make him for Easter 2006. I felt reasonably safe when I told him it would be ready for Easter 2007! To make sure I really can get everything done without stressing, I sat down with a calendar and wrote out when to start & finish all the projects - there is time to have them all done by their deadlines!

I love stitching and for some peculiar reason I feel a bit guilty when I do it for myself (or for my family). Has anyone else experienced this?

Regarding the questions I've received about Violette's gift in yesterday's post, it's a Bent Creek design and you can read more about it here.

a sea of smiles

2006-08-30T20:21:00.000+02:00

Yes, it may be raining to the point that a few people are collecting animals two-by-two, but a few smiles brightened up the gray skies around here today!

First off, Ash came with Joe and Seb for the middle part of the day and we had so much fun! The kids played together non-stop, giving Ash & I a chance to check out each other's current stitching and to just talk. "Just talking" with a grownup is such a treat! Next time, we'll be heading over to their home for an afternoon. Everyone's already looking forward to it.

And I received this adorable picture from Isabelle of her dear Violette enjoying a little giftie I made for her. I loved stitching this Bent Creek pattern, and it was wonderful to hear how happy it made both Violette and Isabelle.

Now, back to that mailart envelope ...

And thank you all very much for your kind comments regarding my new look. I wish my Granny were around to see it.

Edited to add Isabelle's word-association tag:
visit - coffee
cake - chocolate
period - end
triumphant smile
screen - wide
neglect - plants (I finally watered them today, only 2 days late)
guitar - Andy (an old friend who is also an excellent musician)
sugar - maple
montage - collection

I won't tag anyone, but if you'd like to do it, jump in!

rain, rain

2006-08-29T22:52:00.000+02:00

Seems like I've seen little but this

since we returned from Maine. Ugh.

So naturally I decided to manipulate the environment that I could. What do you think of the new look? It's not really related to Maine or to stitching, but it's my father's mother's family. That's actually my Granny in the first row, second from the right.

I've been poking along at my mail art and I've signed up for a couple of upcoming exchanges that I'm really looking forward to doing. No pictures yet.

Tomorrow, Ash and her boys are coming over for the day. I'm really looking forward to seeing her. And on Thursday, I'll have five kids for the day - I'm babysitting for a friend, and Max's best pal will also be here. Cross your fingers that we all make it through the day okay!

the best ships are friendships, and may they always be

2006-08-27T17:56:00.000+02:00

Today's title is in honor of my friend Anna, who's Irish and proud of it. We were lucky and got to keep her for the whole weekend during this visit to the Netherlands - what a treat! We went to a wedding on Friday night, stayed up far too late, stumbled over to the children's petting zoo on Saturday morning, and then wandered over to Delft Saturday evening to window shop and eat. Today we just chatted and enjoyed the spectacular rainfall until it was time for her to leave. Though I didn't convert her to cross stitching (grin), she's promised me a meeting with her godmother when I visit in England. Her godmother not only cross stitches, but quilts and knits and crochets and ....

Before Anna left, Niek was kind enough to snap a picture of us in the back garden between rainstorms.

I didn't do any stitching this weekend, but we had a lot of fun together. I hope you've also enjoyed a wonderful weekend!

teensy weensy bunnikins

2006-08-24T21:58:00.000+02:00

I finished my other project today - you'll have to wait till it's received to see pictures - and started my Woodland Mailart. I'm going to do this MA differently than I've done my past ones - getting a little more daring. Instead of lining the envelope with some sort of coordinating fabric, I'm going to basically double the linen so I can stitch the inside, too. This is the inside of the envelope flap.

The color didn't come out (night photos never do), but this is stitched over one on 32 count Jobelan water lily using DMC. The rabbits and tree are from And A Forest Grew, by Karen Kluba. I made the sun up myself.

Today flew by with hours passing like minutes. I managed to muck out the worst of the mess in our spare room in preparation of Anna's arrival tomorrow afternoon. Time flies when you're having fun. LOL

who's that?

2006-08-23T10:23:00.000+02:00

Thanks for your compliments on my new sidebar picture - that adorable little boy on my lap is Sammy, the more "reluctant" twin of my friend Kelli. He is a little slower to warm up than his brother Stephen, but once he decides that you check out, he's a sweetie. Rowen was thrilled to have TWO babies to coo over when we went to visit Kelli. Here is the complete photo that I borrowed from. Kelli is sitting beside me, and her eldest son, Tyler, is beside her. That's little Stevie on Kelli's lap.

I didn't take my digital camera with me and I haven't yet scanned in all the photos we took, but I can share some digital pictures my brother took of the day we spent together.

Here's one of all our kids together that I just love.

And this is a great one of my baby brother Rich and his son, Cameron, checking out the local delicacies.

We met up at Old Orchard Beach, which is a nightmare for parking, but what a great beach! Here we are, playing in the surf. I forgot to bring my bathing suit, but the water was just too inviting for me to stay on the sand!

We had such a great day together. It's hard to cram two years' worth of catching-up into a single day so we didn't even try. It was cool to just hang out together and watch the kids have fun.

The sun is trying to shine today, so I have high hopes for a walk with all three of the kids this afternoon. I hope that wherever you are and whatever you're doing, your heart is singing a happy song.

i did it!

2006-08-22T20:43:00.000+02:00

Yes, by dinnertime tonight I managed to read all the blogs in my sidebar and a few that aren't. If I didn't leave a comment on your blog, it was just because I was green with envy at all the beautiful stitching you managed to accomplish while I was goofing off in Maine. ;>

And I'm going to break down and show you my WIP, which I hope to finish tonight and then finish-finish very soon. My dear friend Anna is arriving in a day or two from Ireland and we'll be kicking up our heels together very soon. We'll all just have to overlook her one small shortcoming - she doesn't cross stitch. Yet...

Seriously, folks, you've created some amazingly beautiful projects during the past month or so! Maybe it's not such a disappointment that I forgot to photograph the couple of things I made (and gave away) during my holiday. They're so tiny in comparison. (But made with love!) I must be one of the slowest stitchers on the planet. Oh well, so long as it continues to keep me on this side of the rooms with padded walls, I mustn't complain.

settling in

2006-08-21T22:42:00.000+02:00

Today was the return to Real Life. Max had his first day of school, which went wonderfully well. Nicky was very upset that he was not also starting school today and pitched quite the fit when he had to go to daycare instead. He had a great day, though. He's Mr. Social, and just loves his playpals there. Rowen also had a wonderful day playing and cooing over a new baby in her group. I actually managed to fully catch up on my workload at the office, and even Niek came home in a fine mood. Hooray!

The kids all wanted their pictures taken yesterday in their finery, and I just have to share these adorable pictures of them. And Gilbert also wanted to show off a bit at Niek's parents, so you can see his beautiful new green feathers that are growing in after his alarming loss of feathers.

I am stitching something very fun, but I can't show you as it's a surprise for a regular reader. Sorry to tease!

Thank you for continuing to visit me here. I'm sorry I haven't yet been able to visit everyone's blog - I am slowly making my way through the ranks. I've missed you all!!

Maine arts (continued from previous post)

2006-08-20T14:00:00.000+02:00

I'm so thrilled with these two bits of Maine that remind me of our happy days spent there this summer!

here i am!

2006-08-20T13:12:00.000+02:00

We actually arrived back in the Netherlands on Friday morning, but that whole day was "lost" in getting re-settled (grocery shopping, unpacking, checking in with neighbors, sorting out mail, etc.). I intended to blog yesterday, but the day flew by. Anyway, here I am!

We had a great flight back - and to anyone flying in or out of Maine, I recommend the Bangor Airport! I've never encountered such friendly, helpful airport staff anywhere else I've flown in the world (and that's taking in 5 countries' worth of airports!!). We are more or less over our jet lag now, too.

I have tons of stories to relate and pictures to share, but I'll start with some cross stitching photos of my stash. I'll be on the wagon till our next trip to the US!!

I had arranged for some Danish charts & booklets to be sent to my mom's address to save on postage, and I'd also pre-ordered some designs by Charley Harper to wait for me at ABC Stitch Therapy. Here are those pictures:

And there were some miscellaneous charts that just had to come home with me, even if that meant chucking some of my clothes out of the suitcase to make room. LOL!

I also bought a lot of DMC - flower thread, linen thread, and regular cotton (I'm trying for a full set of DMC stranded cotton). I got lucky at Marden's and found a lot of flower thread and some linen thread for only 19 cents per skein! Unfortunately, they didn't have "everything" but I sure added to my stash! I'll need those for the Danish patterns, which call for flower thread. Naturally, I had to bring home something Maine-made to keep my goodies in. My Daddy bought me a lovely cedar handmade basket (it smells amazing!) and Niek bought me a beautiful lupin-decorated piece of pottery made by local artist April Adams. Thank you both! These are wonderful keepsakes from Maine.

Sorry! Blogger won't take any more photos and Photobucket is on the fritz, so I'll have to post this picture seperately.

another kind of stitching

2006-08-09T04:07:00.001+02:00

Remember those adorable, if mischievious, kids of mine? Well, the other day Nicky pulled a stunt that will live on in family history.

He's been potty-training for awhile now, and does a good job with the exception of the clean-up afterward. So the other morning I hear his "I'm DONE!" bellow and appear on the scene to do my part of the job. Nicky tilts forward, a little too fast, and winds up on his head on the floor. Initially, this is quite an amusuing sight, but when he cries out, I quickly pick him up and comfort him. I think he's hit his head ... till I see his lap filling up with a little pool of blood. Somehow, in the course of his fall, not all of his parts had fallen at the same rate. Our own little Mr. Mischief now sports 6 stitches in a most sensitive area. He was a trooper during the whole thing - from the madcap rush to the emergency room, through the repeated questioning from the hospital staff ("He tore what?!" "Doing what?!"), and throughout the lengthy process of being stitched up. You'd never know there was a thing wrong with him either - it hasn't slowed him down a bit!

Otherwise, we are having lots of fun and I have done some stitching, but ... I forgot to take pictures! I gave "Thankful for Ewe" to Sara and yesterday I gave a small pillow featuring a lobster boat against a rocky, wooded coastline to my Aunt Kathy and I forgot to take a picture of either one of them! They came out pretty good, but you'll have to take my word for it.

We spent yesterday on Mount Desert Island at my Aunt Kathy & Uncle George's shore-front home. The kids and I had a blast exploring their tidal beach for shrimp, clams, crabs, mussels and other discoveries. I brought home one small stone to add to my tiny collection of special Maine coast stones. Last time we were here, I chose one from Jasper's Beach, a favorite old haunt of mine.

Today we're having coffee with my sister and later heading to the Acadia Zoo with the kids and my aunts. The weather couldn't be better!

Thanks for continuing to read & comment. I try to read a few blogs, but commenting (with this dial up connection), is just impossibly slow. Take care!

having a great time - wish you were here!

2006-08-04T16:06:00.000+02:00

Sorry for my quietness lately - these dial-up Internet connections don't exactly entice me to blog more. And we are having such a great time that I don't want to hover around the computer anyway.

Meeting up with Carol and Patti at ABC Stitch Therapy was wonderful, as you've probably already read on their blogs. I even got to meet Mike, though Cowboy had to stay home. I hope he didn't get into any of Patti's projects while she was gone! We had a great lunch at a golf club across the street, and then Sara and I made the long trek home.

Our stay with Sara and Ken was wonderful. A true rest for the spirit, and joy for the soul. Thank you so much, you guys!

We've been with my Dad and Mary this week and have had a great time toddling around the county. We've been swimming and shopping and sightseeing and I've been working at a little Maine-themed cross stitch project that I really hope to finish today. Daddy and Mary are wonderful and the kids get so excited whenever my Dad gets home from work.

Next week we'll be back at my Mom's, where we'll stay till the end of our vacation. We'll catch up with friends - Nancy & Erik, Kelli and her family, and several others. I also have a few friends to call on the phone - notably, Maria S. I'll catch up with you, don't worry!

Today's the first rainy day we've had since being back in Washington County and the cool air feels pretty good. I hope this finds you all happy & healthy! Thank you for continuing to stop by and read about our adventures.

let the good times roll

2006-07-29T02:02:00.000+02:00

As I type this, the pond below is a brilliant, deep orange from the setting sun. It's awe-inspiring.

We continue to greatly enjoy our time with Sara and Ken. The kids have been swimming every day, to their utter delight. Sara & I went into Portland today and picked up a few goodies here & there. Tomorrow we will make the drive to ABC Stitch Therapy (which is 3 hours away instead of 2 - I goofed) to meet Carol & Patti. We are both very excited. The menfolk are doing great with the kids. When we came home today, I asked Max if he missed me while I was gone and he said, "Not really." LOL.

My Mom's surgery went well. She's having some discomfort, but that's to be expected. Thank you all so much for your well wishes and good thoughts.

Sadly, our time with Sara is nearing an end. She's one of those truly special friends of the heart.

Wishing you the best during these hot & steamy summer days!

sun and sand

2006-07-26T21:30:00.000+02:00

(Grr. Blogger just ate my posting!)

Here we are in south western Maine, just this side of the New Hampshire border, staying with my dear friend Sara. We are very close to where I spent my earlier childhood years (6 - 12) and the scenery looks so familiar and comforting.

We spent yesterday in Old Orchard Beach with my brother and his family, which was very fun. I can't say that OOB would be my choice of a holiday destination, but it is a fun place to catch up with loved ones. Today we went swimming in the Saco River with Sara and Ken, and the kids had so much fun. So did I - I felt like a kid again!

Tomorrow my mom is being operated on to have a steel plate and pins removed from her leg, so please think positive thoughts for her. She asked that we wait till she's recovered before we come see her, so she and the kids can enjoy each other without the strain of being temporarily physically handicapped. I understand her reasoning, but it's hard to stay away.

We are having such a wonderful time. The love and the beauty surrounding us are just impossible to put into words. It's amazing!

Here we are: We are here

2006-07-22T15:02:00.000+02:00

I've read Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham" too many times, I fear. LOL!

So, I'm sitting at my Mom's desk writing this, looking out on an endless vista of green growing things. The kids are playing on the deck because it rained in the night and the grass is still too wet to play in. This is the beginning of our second full day here, and we're having a wonderful time!

The trip over went much better than we expected - in regard to Nicky and Rowen's behavior on the planes and during the layover - but I have to say that the stewardesses on Continental are the most unfriendly, child-disliking stewardesses that I have ever encountered in all the years I've been flying (years which number more than I really want to admit to). I don't intend to start anything by saying that, but I was (and am) just appalled at how rude these women were. Our kids stayed seated the whole time, didn't cry or fight or complain. They did put their window shades up and down and push the call button repeatedly - we asked them to please just ignore it if our call button went on, but that wasn't good enough. Oh well.

This afternoon, my brother and his family will arrive for a Down East lobster feast. I haven't seen them in two years, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Not much on the stitching front - I have stitched the "w" of a LHN design. LOL.

Wishing you all the best!

leavin' on a jetplane

2006-07-19T14:20:00.000+02:00

Wow, it's nearly time! We'll be flying overhead at this time tomorrow. I am just giddy with excitement. Soon I'll be seeing loved ones face-to-face that I've not seen in months (or years!!).

It's a hot one here today - the temps are expected to hit 36 degrees Celsius, which is like a million Farenheit. No, I can't be that lazy ... let me look it up ... it's 96.8 degrees Farenheit. That's pretty darn hot. Max cleaned out the family car and then helped me pack the suitcases (which only made it take twice as long - LOL). Niek took the younger kids to the office to double check that everything was running smoothly on his projects and also surprised everyone with ice cream. What a great way to go out! He didn't bring any back for Max & me, though!

No pretty pictures today, but thanks to Anna for sorting out my problem with yesterday's posting.

Wishing you all well! I will update as possible, and read your blogs when I can. Take care!!

a visual feast

2006-07-18T13:29:00.000+02:00

Lots of pictures to share today. This may be my last regular post in awhile - tomorrow I'll be busy packing, and on Thursday we fly out. Hooray!!

When I came home from a hectic day at work yesterday, I was totally floored to find a birthday package from AnneS! She sent me a lovely card, THREE pieces of linen, and a skein of "Olive Branch" from Crescent Colors that I just love. Thanks AnneS!!! And to keep the birthday spirit going, today I received the two new Blackbird Designs from Su: Flea Market Souvenir and Secret Garden! Wow! (Sorry there's no picture of Su's, but you can click on them to see a picture.) Wow, you guys, thanks so much!!!

I have been stitching, though today I set it aside to do some serious cleaning. I'm making a little fob for Gaby, my new step-mother. It turns out that her birthday falls just before our visit, so I'm making Dearest Friend, by Brightneedle, for her. I'll fill it with lavender. I'm putting our names and the year on the back. I stitched this on a piece of hand-dyed Queen Anne's Lace Jobelan, 28 ct (though it honestly felt and looked more like 32 ct) using Dried Roses silk from The Thread Gatherer. The colors are not quite this hectic IRL but this picture is all I could come up with.

It's been really hot here, which means - in our household anyway - very dirty children. Baths are pretty much a daily affair, and the kids love to all jump in the tub together, no matter how often we say it's too small for all three of them. I couldn't resist taking a picture of Max hamming it up.

Tonight, Max's bunny heads over to Niek's sister and tomorrow our bird will go to Niek's parents. A kind neighbor is going to look after Spin and our house plants. As I mentioned, I've been cleaning today, scaring the daylights out of the spiders and other creepies who thought they could move in permanently. I cleared off my stash chest and took this quick picture of some of my cherished items. That weird, spiky thing is a hedgehog that Nicky made for us. The picture is of my mom and her sisters as childrenn. The tiny bowls are from Niek's sister. The miniature bunny is from Ash, the mailart is from Annemarie, and the "be good" ornie is from KarenV. The pillow is a gift I made for Niek, and the dolly is Rowen's Itty Bitty Pear Doll. In the back are a few of my special cross stitch books. I wish I had a beautiful spot to display more, but with dirty, little hands all over everything, I'm afraid that will have to wait. (There are also beautiful Christmas ornaments from Jenna and Dianne, but they're safely packed away; and stunning hardanger gifts from Von and Cathy, but the kids like those "too much".)

Thank you for your wonderfully kind comments regarding "Sweet Child" - I loved stitching it and am in real Brightneedle mood now! I'm not sure when I'll be able to post, but I'll be thinking of all of you while I'm in Maine. And I'll be meeting some of you - Carol and Patti! Wish I could meet Dianne, too, but she's just a bit too far off. Take care everyone, and enjoy the upcoming dog days of August!

PS: Blogger refuses to accept even one picture today, so I've had to use my Photobucket account again. For some reason, this makes a mess of the template. Argh!

it's done!

2006-07-16T17:16:00.000+02:00

I've just finished Gaby and Jim's wedding gift - hooray! This is "Sweet Child" by Brightneedle, stitched on 32 ct Bo Peep Pink from Silkweaver using Vikki Clayton silks. I used several silks from one of her great grab bags, but the other colors used are Kelp (the lighter green), Brown Rust (the pink flowers), Brown Ale (the baskets), and Walnut (the wording). I am in love with the Walnut, which is so much softer and warmer stitched up than it looks in the skein. I've decided to wait until we get to Maine to have it framed, to avoid problems from any misfortunate handling of my suitcases.

It's very hot today, but the kids have played outside nearly all day. Niek's been off visiting his best friend, who has a birthday today. I've been thinking of all the places I want to go to when we get to Maine while I've been stitching. I can't wait to get there!!

I hope this finds you all having a wonderful weekend!

all shapes & sizes

2006-07-13T22:48:00.000+02:00

I'm still learning how different my kids are from each other. (Parenting is such a humbling job - you never actually learn it all, and it's all on-the-job training.) It's incredible that they're even related. When Max was younger, he needed an incredible amount of structure and sameness in his routine or he'd become very unhappy and difficult. So for years, whenever we've had holiday time, I've tried to keep everything the same and he's been quite happy. Rowen and Nicky, naturally, have turned out to be totally the opposite. Variety, and more of it, are their demands! So I've been trying to balance Max's need for routine with their need for stimulation. I haven't hit the magic combination yet, but I think I'm getting closer.

Yesterday we spent the better part of the day with Ash and her two boys and that was terrific! I tried to get pics of all the kids, but just as I was snapping one of the boys playing in the sand, a very tall boy walked by and blocked Seb. However, here's what I got. My favorite is the one of Nicky and Joe slurping their apple juice.

For today's outing, we visited with Niek's mom, who has just returned from a vacation touring the Baltic States. Now that's a dream vacation, in my opinion, and by the time she'd described what they'd seen & done, I was more than halfway ready to jump in the car and head north! The kids, as always, had a great time visiting with their Oma, and protested more than a little bit when it was time to head home again. (Blogger has had its fill of photos, so I'm switching to Photobucket again.)

With all this traveling, I've not had as much time for stitching as I might like, but I have made a bit of progress with my Brightneedle project. I love the colors so far, and the pattern is a pleasure to stitch (as are all the Brightneedle patterns I've done so far).

And to keep me geared up to finish my current projects, Ash surprised me with the very, very generous gift of these patterns while I was at her home yesterday. Ash, thanks so much! I'll enjoy these tremendously!

And finally, the countdown to Maine is in high gear now: We fly out one week from TODAY!!!

humble pie

2006-07-12T11:10:00.000+02:00

Niek didn't go to chess last night, which meant I had to admit that the cross stitch gift I was making for a gift wasn't getting anywhere because I like the design so much that I wanted to keep it for myself ... I was sabotaging my efforts to have it done on time, so I wouldn't have to give it away. Niek almost wet himself laughing, and teased me mercilessly till bedtime. In my own defense, I did start a new gift - which I really will give away! - and made a decent start on it last night. This is Sweet Child, by Brightneedle, done on 32 count Bo-Peep Pink from Silkweaver using all Vikki Clayton silks.

Here's the floss toss, chart, and the frame I will use when it's finished.

And here is the one I'm keeping. You know I'm pretty crazy about birds, and I've recently become addicted to Danish designers. This is from the 1986 Danish Handwork Calender (designer Edith Hansen), the month of August. The idea is to have one block per season - this is the summer block. I've picked out fall, spring, and winter, too... Since it is now for myself you may have to wait awhile for more progress pics. I'm notoriously slow at finishing my own stuff.

Yesterday was a warm one. The kids and I walked to the kinderboerderij, which I guess is equivalent to a petting zoo (with bunnies, chickens, goats, sheep, etc.), where they got dirty and had fun. After we returned, we went through a whole bag of water balloons. Those were a huge success, as you can see! (Blogger refuses to upload any more pics, so I've switched over to Photobucket.)

Continuing the summer fun, we are heading over to Ash's in just a little while to play with Seb and Joe. I hope I remember to bring my camera....

manual labor

2006-07-11T10:19:00.000+02:00

cross stitcher at work!

Yesterday, on the spur of the moment, I decided to paint the house. Yes, occassionally I can be impulsive. Max is now on summer on vacation, so he was my assistant. Nicky & Rowen were at daycare because Monday is normally an office day for me. We took all the pictures down and did a sort of hasty cleaning to prepare our work area. Here's what it looked like before we opened the paint, as you come in the front door and head up the stairs.

After a pretty full day of painting (and a couple of trips back to the hardware store for more paint) here are the results of our labor, following the same route.

I really like the green. Sadly, I didn't do a perfect job using the decorative roller (to add the green vine/flower to the hallway wall) but I think the family pictures that usually hang there will cover up the few blotches I made. Naturally, the first thing Niek noticed were the imperfections, which took the wind out of my sails. Still, it looks nice & fresh. I plan to continue with the green accent around the bedroom doors upstairs, and the attic stairs (which are not carpeted).

What do you think?

wanna come play at my house?

2006-07-09T22:46:00.000+02:00

Last September, I invited a bunch of cross stitchers to come over to my house for the day ... and I'd really like to do that again this September.

Who would like to come? And do you have any ideas of things you'd like to do? Last year, it was very informal - just a chance to meet cyberfriends IRL.

(Picture lifted from here. Cool, isn't it?)

haloscan works again!

2006-07-09T12:13:00.001+02:00

Thanks very much to Anna and Niek, who spent far too much time working out what the problem was in displaying my Haloscan comments. The old template still shows up for those comments, but that's okay. At least people without Blogger accounts can comment again!

Thank you, Anna and Niek!!!!

it's actually pretty accurate

2006-07-08T23:30:00.001+02:00

I stole this over on Lena-lou's blog, and for once one of these tests seems to describe me pretty accurately (though I guess they could leave out the "a bit" in front of stubborn!).

Your Dosha is Pitta

You have a quick mind, a gift for persuasion, and a sharp sense of humor.
You have both the drive and people skills to be a very successful leader.
Argumentative and a bit stubborn, you have been known to be a little too set in your ways.
But while you may be biased toward your own point of view, you are always honest, fair, and ethical.

With friends: You are outgoing and open to anyone who might want to talk to you

In love: You are picky but passionate

To achieve more balance: Be less judgmental of those around you, and take cool walks in the moonlight.

What's Your Dosha?

Today has been one of those strange days due to being overtired. The kids didn't sleep well at all, and I stayed up too late indulging in the British Detective night on TV (naughty Anneke for mentioning that in her blog!). I haven't really accomplished anything, though I did go to yoga and did pretty well. I finished the Ruth Rendell (The Babes in the Woods) mystery I borrowed from the library yesterday. I also ordered some threads from Stitching Bits and Bobs and had them shipped to my Mom to take advantage of the sale price and the lower shipping charges and the low value of the dollar against the euro. I couldn't resist! LOL. Oh, anyone who hasn't already ordered The Village of Hawk Run Hollow, I found it over at All Stitched Up for only $14.40.

A last call to anyone around here who would like me be on the lookout for any cross stitching supplies while I'm in the US. So far, you've been too polite and said 'no' but that's just silly. I can't guarantee I'll find what you want, but I'm certainly happy to look!

mail for the mailman?

2006-07-07T21:54:00.000+02:00

I think my mailman deserves a thank-you card for today's postal delivery. I received the confirmation for my course (hooray!), a book of herbal charts from an eBay win, and this lovely magnetic bookmark from Dianne!

Today was a day filled with 1001 different things. It was Max's last day of school, and a half-day at that, so in the morning I ran around trying to find a suitable end-of-year gift for his teacher (no chance to cross stitch a gift for her this year), getting my hair cut, finding the mini cassettes required by my mini Sony recorder, etcetera, etcetera. After Max came home and left again, to go to his biological father's, I went to work. And after work there were more errands. It was a very interesting day, but I'm pretty tired tonight. Thankfully, the weather is cooler and we will hopefully have a solid night's sleep.

Mom, my haircut looks pretty good, but it's just a shock how dark my hair has become! I've gone from blonde to light-auburn-brown, to nearly black!

Karen, I did manage to post Country! Hooray!

Dianne, thank you so much for your thoughtful gift. As I said in my earlier email, it's nearly too pretty to use!

Carol and Patti, we'll be meeting in about 2 weeks' time! WOW!

Wishing you all a joy-filled weekend!

PS: I changed my template slightly because I wasn't quite comfortable with my "stolen" picture, so this is the lavender that grows in front of our house.

thanks, Dianne!

2006-07-06T22:12:00.000+02:00

Dianne surprised me with this lovely collage that she made from blog postings I've done over the months. It's lovely, Dianne - thanks so much!!!

Today I called the school that I hope to attend in September - I hadn't heard anything from them since sending in my application nearly two weeks ago. The man I spoke with acknowledged they were behind in their paperwork, but my application had been received and it didn't seem there would be any reason why I wouldn't be accepted. So, if all goes well, in three years' time I will be a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist. It will require some changes in our family life, but Niek assures me he is up to caring for Nicky and Rowen for a full day every other Saturday, and Max's biological father is also willing to adjust his visitation schedule to coincide with the classes. Phew!

Our trip to Maine is getting closer & closer. Hooray! We are all so excited. Nicky said he was going to ride his bike to America after breakfast today. Does it get any cuter?? I will be able to update my blog from my Mom's house, though obviously on a very irregular basis.

I did a little more work on Jim's gift today, but it's just too hot to stitch. My hands feel sweaty, and that's just so unappealing!

Thanks to everyone for your great comments on my new look. I'm very happy with it. Today I managed to get pictures in my sidebar, which was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Still have to work on the Haloscan thing, but I'm sure it will turn out to be something simple in the end.

Take care, all!

new faces

2006-07-05T16:37:00.000+02:00

Yes, I rock! Ahem, I mean to say, I managed to pull my fat out of the fire. This is pretty much how I intended my blog to look when I started monkeying about last night and made a dog's dinner of it (how's that for a bunch of mixed metaphors?).

I wanted a blog header with flowers - herbs, to be more precise - and I wanted a cooler/fresher color because it's so bloody hot here that I can barely breathe. But I made such a mess of things last night! Then this morning I put up a Blogger template, just to have something there, but I really wanted ... well, what I wanted. LOL! My mom raised a stubborn child.

Thanks to Patti, who has a gorgeous new look, I wandered over to the site she credited and I liked the layout of a particular template, but not the colors or the picture. So, I copied the template and started experimenting. No way I could learn all about HTML in one day with four kids here, but I'm not afraid of trial & error! So I owe credit for the backbone to Cristina Calabrese. I owe credit to Mandarin Design for their free tips and their easily-readable layout (which allowed me to scan with one eye and watch the kids with the other). The background is from another free site that you really should check out, Citrus Moon. Finally, I stole the herbal picture without permission (so please don't tell on me!)from a gardening site.

Obviously, I haven't done much more than glance at my stitching in passing. But keeping with the theme of new faces, here is young Sven with my two wee beasties. They had a great day together!

PS: I still haven't figured out how to get my HaloScan comments back on. But I will!

oops

2006-07-05T09:37:00.000+02:00

It was hot last night and my blog colors just looked so warm - too warm, I decided. I want some blue. And some herbs instead of the loon. So I backed up the template done by the wizards at the now-defunct Gemmak Designs and started fooling around. I found some colors I really liked, saved the new template over the old one, and tried it on for size. Didn't like it! Well, no worry, I had made a backup of the old one ... or so I'd thought!! For some reason (some mistake on my part, I should say!) I had not saved the entire template and I could only put my background up - no posts, no comments, nothing. And whenever I tried to tweak the new template, even for something as simple as the font, the whole thing went wonky and wouldn't work. I considered seriously freaking out, but it was too hot and too late at night. Wisely, I decided to go to bed instead and deal with it this morning.

So this morning I checked my email to see if Jane of the sadly-missed Gemmak Designs had responded to my SOS. When she hadn't, I made one last attempt to salvage my well-intended, but sadly failed customized template and when that didn't work, I decided the only solution for now was to take an off-the-shelf Blogger template. I've managed to get my Blogroll back but I still haven't managed to insert my Haloscan comments HTML in the right place so that it works.

It's obviously time to learn HTML for real instead of just messing around! But today we have a visitor for the day - little Sven has come to play today since his mom has a special training course for the day. With three little ones (Sven is 9 months old but can crawl and stand up) to watch, it's not a day for sitting behind the computer!

independence day!

2006-07-04T10:02:00.000+02:00

Happy Independence Day to all Americans, and everyone else, too! Wishing you a day that is independent of strife, illness or unhappiness; a day rich in love, joy, and good health! Wishing us all a future full of peace.

a day at the beach

2006-07-02T22:14:00.000+02:00

Actually, it was only an hour or two in the late afternoon, but it was fun! The weather here has made another erratic zig (or zag) and the past couple of days have been swelteringly hot & humid. The kids played remarkably well in the backyard till mid-afternoon, at which point they'd done everything at least 6 times and were gettingh bored and bicker-y. So we went to the beach at a nearby lake and let them work it off. LOL. They had so much fun. Keeping in the holiday mood, we took them out to eat at McDonalds. Needless to say, they were delighted and are probably now dreaming about it all.

I hope you enjoyed a happy weekend and, for the US stitchers among us, I hope you're looking forward to a safe & fun Fourth of July. (Wish I could join you!)

happy birthday, dear blog

2006-06-30T22:08:00.000+02:00

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, one year ago today a baby blog was born! And just look at it now, all full of words and pictures, with a happy circle of friends around the whole world!

To each and every one of you who come visit me here, I want to say thank you! You've filled an empty spot in my life, cheered me on when I've felt down, encouraged me when I was uncertain, steered me in different directions than I would've otherwise tried - in short, you have become dear friends to me and my life has been made richer through contact with you. Thank you!!!

As a birthday gift to my little blog, I've worked at lightening speed (for me) to get my block on Carol's neighborhood completed so I could post it. This one was tricky for me - Carol has such a beautiful, refined, realistic style that I felt very shy and insecure about my usual giant birds, looming houses, tiny trees ... I've learned a good bit about perspective the past week! Here is a close-up of the orchard. If you would like to see the whole block, please pop over to our neighborhood blog, where you can also see what the rest of us are up to these days.

A good friend asked me today if everything was okay because I hadn't been blogging as much as usual. In truth, I'd begun feeling sort of sad again. But my mom - in that magical way of mothers - seemed to understand exactly what I needed and a couple of days ago, I found this in the post. It's a bracelet with the name I wanted to give our baby. I've worn it every day since I got it and it's given me a lot of comfort. (Blogger won't let me load the photo, so this is from Photobucket.)

On a more positive note, I've applied for a three year course beginning in September. I meet all the requirements, I'm only not sure if I got my application in early enough. I should hear early next week. Cross your fingers for me!

The kids are all doing great - Nicky and Rowen are both at a stage where they seem to develop by leaps & by bounds. Rowen's language has really taken off, and Nicky is ever his forward self. The other day in the supermarket checkout line, he proudly announced that he was a boy and had a penis. I managed to stop him before he proved his point! Max is looking forward to summer holiday, which begins next Friday.

stitchy weekend

2006-06-25T23:40:00.000+02:00

It was a relatively quiet weekend here, so I managed to work on my charity square for a little bit on Saturday and on Carol's neighborhood for a little bit this evening. (This picture is taken at an abrupt leave-off; the funny blue building is a gardening shed - gardens to follow!) The kids had a party at their daycare on Saturday that we also went to, and that was so fun! We stayed for the full two hours. Not too much else to add, but I'll leave you with a couple of progress pictures. And a big thank you for all the nice comments about my "Extreme" design so far.

what are you going to be when you grow up?

2006-06-19T15:23:00.000+02:00

Growing up, I wanted to be everything at one point or another. A trombonist in the Lawrence Welk band (I just loved those bubbles at the end of the show). A running back for the Rams. A famous downhill speed skiier. A vet. A lawyer. A university professor. A novelist/poet/essayist. A potter. Somehow, I wound up becoming a technical writer (after forays into retail, food services, and real estate!) and 8 years later I'm still wondering just what the heck I'm doing in this career. Here in the Netherlands, my education and background sort of limit me - I graduated with an English degree (and about enough psychology credits for a minor). My Dutch has never become what you could call fluent - I can get by, but it's obvious I'm a foreigner. So I needed a job where I could not only write/read in English, but where I could be in a mainly English-speaking environment. Computers! Which is just too funny because I'm the least technical person under 80 that you are likely to meet. I bet there are Amish people out there who are more savvy than I am.

Lately I've begun to wake up and shake loose some of the syrup that my brain has been immersed in and to seriously question: "What now?" The winds of change have been blowing ... Do I want to gamble on returning to Maine (a more difficult undertaking than one might expect, as Max's biological father has blocked our efforts to even vacation in the US in the past)? Do I want to lay down even more permanent roots here by undertaking a new education to launch a new career? Both have very valid pros and cons.

But back to stitching! While I waited for Carol's neighborhood to arrive, I started another charity quilt square. I've designed this one myself - it's for a boy who would do extreme sports if not for his illness, so I'm creating an "extreme" sign in the middle that will look like a Caution road sign. There'll be a square border around the outside edges that pick up the diamond-shape and vibrant colors of the sign. And in the four corners, I'll stitch motifs from different extreme sports, like parachuting and stuff.

However, Carol's NRR arrived today and that will take top priority so I can be sure to finish it and mail it on to Rachael before I leave for Maine next month. And I have no idea what to stitch on this one! It's so lovely, but so different than the patterns I have in my stash! Never fear, I'll start rummaging around this afternoon and no doubt something will appear. Kudos to Carol and Annemarie on their gorgeous stitching. I hope I don't let anyone down!!

(Blogger is again refusing to upload my pictures so I had to use Photobucket. For a clickable picture of Carol's neighborhood, go see Our Neighborhood blog.)

happy father's day!

2006-06-18T11:22:00.000+02:00

To all the wonderful fathers in my life, who fill my days with love and happiness: Niek, Daddy and Jim! And my brother, who is a wonderful father, too!! Here's our little family at the breakfast table this morning when Niek opened and enjoyed his gifts from the kids.

the truth about dogs ... and birds?

2006-06-17T22:19:00.000+02:00

Or alternatively titled: The birds and the dogs...

This morning when I came home from yoga, I found an addition to our family - a very lively little Jack Russell terrier had let herself in to the garden and the house and had promptly taken over. The kids were delighted, and we all enjoyed playing catch with her. Terra, as the doggie turned out to be named, was tremendously curious about Gilbert (and vice versa). Eventually we managed to track down the real owners, who had missed their little girl - but our kids were pretty sad to see her go.

I found a little bit of stitching time on this busy, sunny day to finally finish my Dumbo square for the circus quilt being assembled by Cross Stitching for Charity. I had a hard time with this one and asked myself more than once why I signed up for it. I do not have a single circus-themed pattern to my name. And this is a big square (9 inches square) to fill up! The Dumbo is actually a knitting pattern. The car is from an old DMC booklet. The seal and one clown were from another freebie site, and the final clown is one I made up. I'm pretty relieved to be done, and next time I will be more careful to sign up for projects that I can actually deliver. LOL!

Tomorrow is Father's Day and the kids have made some terrific gifts for their Daddy. We are hoping he'll sleep in a bit, so I can make pancakes for breakfast. I also made reservations at a smoke-free restaurant in Delft for dinner. I love eating out in Delft - or doing anything there. It's a beautiful city. Hopefully we'll also stop in to see some friends who just had a baby girl and also by an eBay seller who had some very nice books for sale that I sort of bought. Oops.

how did she know?

2006-06-15T22:33:00.000+02:00

The mailman surprised me today with an unexpected packet. Very curious, I snapped it up before the kids could get at it and saw Cathy's name on the return address. By now I was very, very curious and quickly opened it up and found much-longed for Gingher scissors and a long-admired chart from The Cat's Whiskers for the Red Desert Scissor Pocket - with Dinky Dyes fibers and button! In her sweet card, Cathy explained this was a late birthday gift. It was also a "pick me up after too many sleepless nights and too many illnesses" gift! Thanks so much, Cathy! But how did you know how much I wanted these two items?? I don't remember ever mentioning it to anyone. You must've been reading my mind!

I've been "gambling" a bit on eBay lately (one of the hazards of listing items is that I spend too much time nosing around on the site) and won two gorgeous calendars from the Danish Handwork Guild. I am so eager to receive them, but the seller still hasn't answered my question about the shipping fee. (A serious pet peeve of mine is sellers who don't respond promptly to questions!) I also snagged a couple of pieces of fabric from Karen, though I missed the patterns I wanted. Now I really need to stay off the site till my own items are ready to ship out!

Max is feeling a lot better and will return to school tomorrow - just in time for me to get back to the office on my regular Friday schedule. Knock on wood, Nicky and Rowen haven't caught whatever he had.

warning: you are entering a sleep-free zone

2006-06-14T13:40:00.000+02:00

Even Niek admits it is beginning to feel like a conspiracy - we can't get any sleep. First, Nicky was having trouble with nightmares and fear of the dark. Then everyone came down with colds and other ailments. Then I came down ill. Then it got too hot to breathe, let alone sleep. Last night we had a thunderstorm and we both thought, "Relief at last!" But Max woke up with pain in his stomach. After some consultation we worried about how much his symptoms seemed like the onset of appendicitis, so at 2 am Niek ran him over to the doctor. It doesn't appear to be appendicitis, but no one is really sure what it is. Max still doesn't feel well, but the pain in his abdomen is much less so we are monitoring the situation. Or at least, I'm trying to keep my eyes open to monitor the situation. Poor Niek had to go to work, where we are undergoing a spot inspection by a big new potential client. Whoopee!

I did manage to make the time to list some stuff on eBay if anyone is interested in looking. I've got to make room for the stuff I know I will buy in the US, and there's just no point in hanging on to charts/kits I know I won't do (or I've done once and won't do again). I haven't listed on eBay in a long time because I felt like I was just giving it away, but this time I'm being very strict with myself. LOL.

that was fun!

2006-06-13T12:54:00.000+02:00

I just finished my block for Annemarie's neighborhood and I just have to tell you all how much fun I've had stitching this. I was just looking over my original rough sketch of what I'd stitch, and I can only laugh. Talk about adding on, and adding on! I like the full, cozy look of the block (especially now that Annemarie has set my mind at ease about the block being overfull). The design is made of borrowings from Carriage House Samplings (Goose, HoHRH house 11), The Goode Huswife (Dutch Strawberries), Elegant Designs (An All American Garden), The Workbasket (Country), Shepherd's Bush (Earth Song), Brightneedle (Four Friends Sampler), and Prairie Moon (EIEIO) - favorites of Annemarie, myself, or the both of us. Annemarie enjoys barns and sheep, and I love birds, so those are pretty key elements. I also had fun "texturizing" this block by using different sorts of fibers and blends. You can read more about it, and see the incredible block that Rachael made on my neighborhood, over at Our Neighborhood blog.

hot & lazy weekend

2006-06-12T09:24:00.000+02:00

Whew, summer arrived in full force this weekend and it's only supposed to get hotter and more humid this week! We took it easy this weekend and had a great time. Nicky is learning how to bike on Max's old bike and both he and Rowen are very excited about this new development. Rowen was very angry that she couldn't use a real bike, too, but now she's insisting that Nicky chauffeur her dolly around on the back of his bike. I snapped this picture of our wee beasties early yesterday morning in the back yard.

I stitched on my charity square, completing Dumbo and beginning the lower half of the design, which is an old-fashioned car and some cavorting clowns. I had hoped to finish it this weekend, but I'm just too slow. I'll have to set it aside to get the last few stitches in Annemarie's NRR so I can post that to Rachael on time. I'm looking forward to receiving Carol's NRR from Annemarie and beginning that one. Carol's has a totally different look, so it will be fun to see what I come up with for a design.

Our Maine vacation is coming ever nearer and we are all terribly excited. It's a major topic around the house. I just can't wait!

those on the wagon, turn aside!

2006-06-10T13:12:00.000+02:00

Remember I mentioned awhile ago that I'd fallen off the wagon with a thud hard enough to make a crater? Well, today the last of my goodies arrived and here are those stash pictures I promised you.

First off, I just joined the SB&B Monthly Bits (GAST fibers) and I wish I'd done that a long time ago. They send a freebie chart or two, the shipping is FREE and the selection is awesome. This month, Bobbie even included a little extra floss on a thread ring. I'd also ordered some thread rings, floss away bags, and the La-D-Da pattern from SB&B. The lovely linen I've laid the GAST fibers on is the piece that Annemarie gave me for my birthday. Also in this picture are the Fine Lines magazine, Pennsylvania Redware pattern, and old JCS issue I ordered from Traditional Stitches. Thanks for the tip, Carol!

Next up are two charts that I ordered from Cross Stitch Art. I've subscribed to their newsletter for awhile, but never ordered till I ran across mention of how good their charts are in someone's blog ... I thought it was Jenna's, but when I now check back, I can't find mention of it. As you can see here, the charts are remarkably clear, and the shipping was very fast.

And finally, I really splurged at Clare's Celtic Cornucopia (and if you are looking to drop a few bucks, I can really recommend this ONS!). Squint a bit at this picture because almost everything here is intended for gifts. That gorgeous dragon will be for Max, of course, though at the speed I'm stitching he may not get it till he goes away to college. LOL! Clare was wonderful to do business with, and I've warned her that she can expect to see me again. (Blogger refuses to accept this picture, so I've had to use Photobucket.)

This weekend, the weather is like summer. It's sunny & warm, the day feels lazy & long. The kids are playing happily. Niek has begun teaching Nicky how to ride Max's old bike with training wheels. Where on earth does the time go? Max just outgrew this bike 2 years ago, and now Nicky is trying to ride it. Rowen is absolutely furious that she is too small to ride it and has been protesting loudly. She has a tricycle, but that's just too babyish compared to a real bike!

I hope that whatever you are doing, and whoever you're doing it with, you're smiling all the while!