It is again a freebie by Echevette, who had this great idea after reading that someone was afraid to admit to some people that she stitches. The idea is to stitch it so you can make new friends... Read more on Echevette's blog (the text about this freebie is here also in English, scroll down) and enjoy stitching it :)
Freebie: Opération je brode, et vous? by Echevette
Threads: DMC (I lost the color tag)
Fabric: 18ct Aida Rustic Oatmeal
Chart: Prairie Schooler, adapted from leaflet 'Garden Gloves'
Threads used: WDW Saffron, Emeral, Bluecoat blue, Sweet Potato and I can't remember the red one.
Shame on you, PS girls! ;-) The pattern was from PS leaflet Garden Gloves. I was itching to do a luggage tag since a long time, and this week I needed to find a one evening quickie to stitch, so here it is. I had to adapt the chart so it has the right shape in the luggage tag, and I think I managed to do it nicely. The other side has a ready-made address label where I wrote the relevant info. Mind you, I won't ever attach it onto a bag/suitcase that travels in the luggage compartment in a plane as I don't want to risk having it stolen. It'll be perfect for hand luggage!
Not sure if I ever mentioned it here but in December the central lock in my Samsonite suitcase was broken and someone stole an expensive perfume I had in it. Swiss (the airline) behaved great and reimbursed me 300 CHF for both, which maybe doesn't cover the full price of a new luggage and perfume, but quite a big part of it. I *was* lucky and it covers how great they are.
It was the first time I stitched on vinyl paper. I think I like it much more than regular perforated paper.
... ou plutôt au secours, à l'aide, il faut que je mette la main dessus! :) :)
J'explique : je viens de voir le nouveau Mains et merveilles No 13 Spécial Marquoirs sur le site de Isa V. et... bon, vous connaissez ces frémissements des doigts, cette impatience, cette nervosité, je le veux !!! :)
Pourriez-vous me dire s'il est possible de se le procurer en ligne ? Sinon, une gentille brodeuse (visualisez ce sourire timide...) accepterait-elle de me l'envoyer contre remboursement total des frais ? J'utilise Paypal. Merci d'avance !
Just celebrating the end of the working week :)
I'm pooped and a new job is coming in, so there's more work in perspective for the w/e, but so far it's the end of Friday, hah! I've only slept 2-3 hours last night but I've delivered everything in time.
This evening I've been invited by girl (a girl? she's over 40, I need to grow up fast! but she really is more a girl than a 'lady' to me!!) from my building to chat a bit about different stuff related to neighbors etc. She talks so much and so fast and is so uninterested in hearing what others have to say that I think I'll shorten my visit this time ;) She's nice though, really, and part of the administration of the building, so there's always something 'secret' I can learn about what's going on LOL!
It hasn't snowed since two days but the view is so nice when the sun settles down... Warning: I never said that Warsaw is beautiful. I always tell foreigners to skip the capital when visiting Poland, there are so many gorgeous, interesting towns. But you need to bear in mind that it was almost entirely rebuilt by our Big Brother from the East after the Germans burnt it and bombed it in 99%. Yes, really, 99%. As for the socialist style in architecture... see for yourself. The view I have from my flat is great, though, it was one of the reasons why I bought this flat and not others. The way the light changes during the day, when it rains, snows, I so enjoy the different ways the town looks.
Have you heard about the boy that screamed and killed hundreds of chickens?
For the first time ever, by Annette :)
The rules: Each player of this game starts with the "6 weird things about you." People who get tagged need to write in their blog of 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names.
Not an easy task! I do have some weird sides but to recall them immediately is not easy, so what I list won't necessarily be most characteristical of me ;-)
1. Over the years, I see I have developed a liking for pink color and a hatred for blue. I can't imagine what my reaction would be if I were given a blue hotel room, I think I would feel very unconfortable till the next morning LOL! Pink seems to have some soothing effect on me. I'm not talking about baby pink or paster pink, but intense shades, raspberry, etc. I also do like to wear such colors because I look nice in them :)
2. I was brought up till the age of 15 in North Africa; my partner is Norwegian. And despite longing from my childhood country, I much prefer snow and cold to warm and heat!!
3. I love washing up dishes in hand, how weird is that! LOL (but I hate dusting off)
4. I can get extremely anxious inside in the wild nature. That started after meeting mummy bear with cubs several years ago. Now when I'm alone or with just a couple of persons in a wild spot in the mountains, I have the feeling there's an angry moose or bear or whatever else waiting to chew me behind the next tree!
5. I have a genuine genius brother but my own math skills are much less famous, well... I know how much 2+2 is) LOL
6. I am the only one to have green eyes in both sides of the family. But I do have so much physical resemblance to my parents that I don't have weird thought because of that!
Now.... my turn to pick up some victims... You've been tagged, ladies!
- Linda McM (oh, I am sure I'll enjoy what you'll write!! LOL)
- Mylene
- Elisabeth
- Michele W.
- Irene
- Mary Kathryn
And here is princess Hélène for whom I stitched it (she is the most beautiful baby girl I've seen):
If you don't know them yet - have a look at the 2007 series (started last month with the January sewing bird) The Meri Wanderer is kindly offering to stitchers... Lovely :)
Nothing to say, nothing really happened, no work on my desk, a plain boring nothing day. But cold! Cold finally arrived. They're announcing -1 but felt like -20, and we're supposed to dress for -20 as well (all Celsius, of course). The good side of a free-lance job is working from home and not having to go out except for the traditional dog walks. However if it's cold and *nice* tomorrow, I'd like to have a brisk 40 min. walk with Happy. Despite following a diet, I am not losing weight and it starts to be upsetting. I decided to kill those %$#%^#%$ kgs by moving, moving, moving this year! With my new Ipod, fast walks have become so pleasant. I've downloaded music (let's call that so...) for workouts, running etc. with a special heart beat programme. It's great but it will be greater the day I start running.
Anyway, when I wake up in the morning, I'm supposed to see SNOW, tons of snow. Why not? The last thin layer was back in early November. Even in Oslo... H. told me he started the engine of the snow removing machine for the first time this past Sunday. When he called me tonight at 9 pm the temperature had already dropped to -18 C.
So... since I am too lazy (and honestly, freezing, something must be wrong with the heating system in my flat) to post any xstitch pictures, though I have some :), here is the result of playing with my photo editing software. Miss Toska in all her sleeping glory! 
Tonight I finished the new Easter 2007 freebie from Echevette's blog. I hope she doesn't mind I didn't stitch the text in the center and instead replaced it with a wooden "charm". Actually I am not so fond of having stitched pieces at home with the year on it. Somehow I have the feeling they've gone old and lose their charm... Hey, nobody's perfect! LOL
It was such a pleasure to stitch it!!
Chart: 2007 Easter freebie from Echevette
Fabric: 28ct Jazzlyn, Spring Maiden from Silkweaver
Threads: GAST Holly Berry, GAST Spring Grass
(how funny, both the chart and one of the threads have "spring" in the name!)
See Lune d'automne's blog here for a lovely February heart freebie, easy and fast to do!
I'm just back from my daily long evening dog walk - what a weather! My umbrella was closing every minute and I was afraid it would break. Good thing that with my Ipod kept me entertained with some French podcasts (Stéphane Bern's Le fou du Roi and Bouvard's les Grosses Têtes) but I think Happy thought his owner had gone nuts. Indeed, he hates rain!!! Recently I discovered he doesn't have an inner layer of "fur" (my first dog that way!) and that must be the reason why he is so sentitive to water and cold. Brrrr....
The week has been sooooo busy but I managed to squeeze in some stitching. I worked till 6pm today, sent the job and still have to work a little bit more on the last part for tomorrow morning. I wish I could head to bed! I might stitch a bit though and get up at 5am to finish the job.
Here's yesterday's finish. My fingers were itching to do that one since some time and here it is. I think I'll send it to a finisher so it becomes a pillow. Love that one!
Four fat friends
Freebie by The Drawn Thread
Fabric: 25ct Sand Jobelan (Silkweaver)
Threads: my choice of WDW (Kudzu is ideal for tree leaves, I have to remember that!)
I had to work all night and by 3am, Tosca the Devil decided it's high time to reorganize part of my stash. See how busy she was!
I finished stitching the French freebie (picture tomorrow) and I am very satisfied with the result. Done some more on writing back emails to several persons. Need to do more!
I have to work overnight on a tough legal and banking text for 7am as my brain didn't cooperate during the day. I am sipping a new cup of coffee and typing away... boring stuff.
I just exchanged a few words with my neighbor's sister whom I met as she was about to take the lift and I had opened the door to the mailman. My neighbor had a small embolism but I need to call her sister to learn more. Crossing all fingers for the little lively lady...
I've always wondered about it during my stays in Norway. Does this exist in other countries? If so, what would be the French (ideal) or English name???
See today's article in Aftenposten for a description.
I'm tobacco challenged but very curious! :)
I just need to put the latest stitches on the French freebie I've been working on during the week-end and should be able to post a finished picture tomorrow. Then I just need to finish it!
And second, LHN's Coffee Menu, which I adored stitching! Going to the framer as priority! :)
Stitched over 2 on 40ct Cameo linen from Silkweaver with my choice of GAST/WDW.
I guess I should start my post today with a 
but it's not even that... It's been strange days... I am watching a show on French TV with guests such as Jimmy Sommerville and now Kim Wilde singing Kids in America, it's a nice evening basically, but...
I've been feeling low on energy since Thursday and I thought it's just me, you know, it sometimes happen ;-) but then my father said the air pressure is loooooow. Okay, so it's the pressure. Then his wife told me on the phone she's been continually feeling for sleeping. Okay, all is normal then. Then my soon 99 y.o. grandma didn't want to dress up on Thursday morning and spent all morning in bed till lunch. That never happens, so my aunt worried. On Friday grandma got up fine but said "she would have liked to go to the doctor". Of course my aunt told her she doesn't have to go anywhere, that she'll call and have the doctor come home, and so she did. The doc said grandma is super fine, better than ever (yeah, we also have the feeling she started to get younger lately LOL!), it's just the weather. Fine, okay. Grandma is amazing anyways.
Then Friday around 5pm I heard knocking on my door and it was my neighbor's sister all shaked up (my neighbor's door is just next to mine so we basically live only meters from each other though the building is so well built that I *never* hear a single sound from the neighbors, a great feature. At this occasion I'll mention it was built in 1960 as an experimental top-of-the-notch technology building, a marvel designed by the Warsaw Polytechnical School which is just accross the street. I already knew that it's close to impossible to put any "nails" in the walls because they are stone hard and one of the professors living in my building told me that the whole structure is supposed to withstand the blow of an eventual atomic bomb. What about the contaminated air infiltrating through the numerous crackings, I thought...). Anyway, I digress. My neighbor's sister lives just one floor up, very close and has the keys to my neighbor, who is over 82 but is a lively strong woman and I've always felt "close" to her. She's always been alone, participated in the Warsaw uprising in the 1944 as a young girl, was a journalist and kept being involved in everything related to the Second World War and is regularly meeting those of her friends from that time who are still alive. And on Friday, her sister worried that her phone kept ringing busy for a long time, opened her flat and found her laying on the floor, alive but not okay, not understanding much. Obviously, she had been laying there for several hours unable to ask for help. And that disturbed me immensely, the thought that I had been at home all the time and that she was laying there, needing help, so close to me... She was taken to the emergency and did not respond to basic tests such as reaching her nose with a finger and was talking ununderstandably. My father's wife (the doc') said it could be a small stroke. But then her sister told me she had been staying in bed a lot lately and that the repairs on the front of the building made her very tired... I hate worrying about her.... Since her sister can't see well after a cancer op' last year, she asked me to find toiled stuff, pijamas, such stuff. It was the weirdest feeling having to open someone else's closets and bathroom to try to find where everything is... I felt like violating her territory. Just a bit, of course, because I knew I was doing the right thing. Everything so clean, so well packed, sorted, like if such an old person knows she should prepare for leaving one day... I didn't want to disturb her sister today but will call tomorrow to ask how things are. Passing her door today was tough. I hope she is still alive..
So when I say that these past days have been weird.... all this wind blowing and things happening... A falling branch even killed a nun on the streets in Cracow...
Stitching wise, I hope to finish the first cottage of the French SAL tonight. It will have taken me 4 evenings because I chose to stitch it over one. It *is* cute :)
Tomorrow I plan to start and finish another project, but hush till tomorrow!
Have a great week-end, everyone! I'm just staying in doing a lot of my fav' occupation, nothing! LOL
I finished Coffee Menu a few days ago and yesterday I started and am half way through the 1st cottage (January) of the French SAL. Today was *busy* with work and I need to prepare papers++ for my accountant tomorrow.
We used to spend a week skiing in the same ski resort in the mountains above Lillehammer, which has over 630 kms of ski tracks. And the Winter Olympics left it with plenty other winter sports infrastructures in the whole region. There's no snow this year in Noway.... can you believe? Booo-ooo-oooh... :(
First from top of page, there's a new little cottages 2007 SAL just starting and if you ask me, it's gorgeous. Much nicer than the usual Bent Creeks!
http://wideo.gazeta.pl/wideo/0,0,3837601.html
See this! The poor horse was rejected by his mother when he was born, saved by his owners and brought up with two labradors... so he thinks he is a doggie... by the end of the movie you can see how he brings freesbies, drinks from a dog's bowl and follows his owners and runs just like a doggie. They say however they want now him to understand he is a *horse* because once he grows up to full size, the dogs will treat him differently...
After delivering a bigger job after a sleepless night and a day of work, I slept 2-3 hours and got up tired and in need of procrastinating online a bit.
I've been thinking about the next project to start. Somehow the French Alphabet Sampler (WIP) doesn't appeal to me recently and now that I've finished Coffee Menu (will post a picture tomorrow) I wonder what to pick up next. I have tons of charts I wanted to do in my stash but those I want to stitch most are not yet kitted with the silks they call for. And some are big and I don't have the right fabric in such one big piece. Ah, money. I think I'll pick several medium-sized projects from my favs' pile, alternate them with small charts and just go with what I feel for otherwise.
I recently discovered the Scarlet Letter designs by following a link of someone's blog (Mary Kathryn's?) and I spent again a couple of hours dreaming on their website. I am going to order one of them (the name escapes me right now), money or not money, just need to take a decision of the kit has to come with cotton threads or silks = double price.
In 2007, I would also like to do a Mill Hill kit or pin regularly, some Prairie Schooler charts, and go back to making table runners again. Now that I wrote it, this reminds me I should pick up an Easter project for my aunt ASAP! I am so happy! I will be spending Easter with her, 99 y.o. grandma and my cousins, their wifes and kids again, just like last year. And for me, that means pa-ra-di-se. My paradise on earth! My father insisted I fly to Switzerland with them to my brother's for Easter but I resisted... can you believe I prefer to be with my aunt.... All this traditional Polish Easter cooking, laughter, joy, warmth, I just LOVE to be with them for Easter and if I could, I'd go there for Christmas as well but I can't do this to my father [...]. My aunt's house and garden are the same since I was born, and this is what I consider to be my basis in life. Everything there relates to good moments. My aunt is the model of what I'd like to be as a woman as well and I do my best to learn a maximum from her and call her almost daily. I don't think there's one person on Earth who doesn't like her and she looks much younger than 70. But then that's a common feature in our family. 99 y.o. grandma looks 75 at most :) I wish I lived in the same town, actually I always wanted to live there, but at 18 I chose to study and settle in Warsaw, 3-4 hours of train/car from all branches of my family, and now it would be too hard to relocate. I think. Who knows, though!
But I digress. I have a thing for small and big samplers with bird and trees so I decided to start a Drawn Thread's freebie, it's small enough to have it done in one evening. If it were for me, I'd only stitch bird samplers LOL!
Fabric: 40 ct linen
Color: Cameo, from Silkweaver
Threads: my choice of GAST/WDW
Stitched with 2 thread over 2.
Here is as far as I am now with LHN's Coffee Menu which I received recently from Suzanne. Bad girl as I am I was too impatient to wait and order the recommended threads so I made my own conversion to GAST/WDW, which also means I converted the recommended DMC to overdyes. So far it looks very lovely, this is going to be a fav'! Though on 40ct, it goes slooooow! :)
See all the goodies, charts, threads she sent me off my wishlist and see that gorgeous PS piece she adapted for me!!! The envelope was more like a treasure chest LOL! After reading about all the trouble I had trying to take my plane to Geneva to see my darling, she wanted to make it especially smiley and it is that! So joyful, so bright, so warm, I am just so fond of that beautiful piece! And yes, she framed it herself! Thanks soooo much again, Suzanne!!!! I've been keeping it on my desk just to look at it but time has come to hang it on my stitching wall :). First I want to find the right spot so I can look at it every morning and start the day with a smile :) Now I can just wish my exchange package will also bring a smile far, far away from here ;-)I forgot to add smthg about stitching... This week-end I started LHN's Coffee Menu on a piece of SW hand-dyed fabric in 40ct, it goes slow but I find it so enjoyable to work on it :). One day I should order and stitch the Chocolate chart as well. I decided to do my own conversion to GAST/WDW and silks and I am anxious to see if I chose my colors well :)
Not a very happy one, but I go on. I did some accounting and the situation is worse than I thought, I can only hope the social insurance authorities wait a month more till I get the money to pay the late stuff. If January brings lots of work, I should be soon over the worst period but boy is this month scary.
Next thing, I had the feeling I added weight lately... ohhhh yes I did. After seeing photos H. took during Christmas dinner it was clear and stepping on the scale confirmed the sad state of things. I added 6kgs since November, ruining a big part of the work I did last year. However I am determined to be much thinner by the end of the year. This time it *is* going to happen. I was on diet and yoyoing since May 1st 2006, and I now know where I go wrong, where my biggest downfalls are. Time to plan the wedding too... and I will not make any plans towards it till I look acceptable. So, diet plan started today, with a plan to move a whole lot more as well. Let's see how succesful I am with that one! It is supposed to bring a slow but steady weight loss, I guess I'm over with my wishful thinking of losing a lot quickly. Never happened, so this time I'll go slow - but in the right direction. You're most welcome to cross all human and furry fingers this year!
H. went to see his doctor last night and was put off work till next week. Good! Today he made his weekly blood test and the blood was too thick which we think was caused by the medecines I made him take against the cold. After his heart op' he has to be extremely careful. Today's doc revised the dosage of his heart pills and he also got an injection in the belly to thin the blood. He's also supposed to make the same injection himself the next days (what a scary thought, brrrr!) but he says it's pretty easy and the thingie is already loaded with medicine.
Anyways the doc confirmed yesterday that what he/we has/have is a viral infection. He's already much better but needs to relax in bed and I am well, a bit better. Unfortunately I have tons of work for tomorrow and next Monday. The text for tomorrow is a major pain in the --- and after fighting with a pile of administrative stuff I think I'll just have a short nap and work afterwards, all night if need be. Have to have it delivered tomorrow by 2pm.
I also put an online order at a supermarket (the French chain Leclerc) for all the goodies I need for my diet over the next 2 weeks and I'm waiting to have it delivered.
And Mylene surprised me with a new copy of UK's Cross Stitcher which I looooved to browse through!!
Here is a wonderful little suprise I received from Linda H., a lovely friend from a group I left earlier in 2006. It is a holiday bayberry candle - I forgot to take a picture of the glass 'container' Linda sent me with it, the paper text is taped on it. She and her sister have a tradition of making such candles every year... I loved lighting it!! And it was packed so nicely like a frosty winter candy!
