I'm back....

And happy to be home :). The week at my father was both lovely and stressing, but we both did our best to cope with small conflicts ;-). When two strong personalities meet and on top of that they are both so similar (after all, I'm my father's daughter, no doubt about that LOL!)... He expects me to obey to all his request right now, on the spot, and I resist... especially when each of the things he asks me for can be done in a little while. I really don't have to walk the dog when I'm cooking lunch or bring wood for the fireplace when I fix stuff on his computer etc. etc. Sounds like I am socially difficult but really not LOL! My father is so used to giving orders and being obeyed... He knows he can be difficult and he has a fantastic sense of humor so all is fine in the end but yes, sometimes I felt I wanted to strangle the first living creature I see! ;-)

Unexpectedly he said he would like to have a serious talk with me, it was about how money/material things are to be dealt with after he leaves one day and this stuff wasn't easy for me. Not because of having to listen to his will, because I strongly believe that if someone (of whatever age) feels for saying something of that type at any moment in life, this should be listened to with respect. It's just that these are very sad, annoying, disturbing things for me related to dividing stuff once he's not there, because his wife, well, has decided to make it difficult for me and my brother. I won't say more in this public space but it is beyond me how people can be greedy, greedy, greedy. And it is somehow beyond me why despite all this greediness and [...], my father chooses not to fight for mine and my brother's rights and prefers peace... What he asks me to do is so beyond my ethical rules and what I am as a person. And how his wife can pretend to be family and be all smiles while doing so much behind our backs... Anyway, I was careful not to say anything that could hurt my father and I am very proud of the friendship and trust he puts in me, of the mature way we talk about all this stuff. It's weird but I am so happy about the way we talk about uneasy aspects of life. Oh well, I won't treat his wife differently since she doesn't know I know anything, but I told my father I won't have any more "family" emotions to her - and he said he doesn't ask me to. Phew. Anyway, the most important is that she takes good care of him and that he has a happy life, that's all I care about.
We went to the movies, had two good meals out, I cooked a couple of my favorite lunches/dinners too, such as a Chinese chicken curry wok or caramel dessert. He loved it :)

Back home, I found two envelopes waiting for me: one with older leaflets I got on ebay and one bigger order from Amy . Plenty of goodies to stitch for the next months. I am awaiting another order from Theresa with threads and then I hope I will resist the urge to buy stash till after the summer :). I certainly need fabric and threads though.

Soooooo. Cross-stitch... where am I at?

I finished my Prairie Schooler Spring exchange for Susan S.
Just need to wash it and iron and pack goodies into an envelope. This is all you'll see from it till Susan receives it :)

I need to do the needle case now. I want it to be super nice so it'll take time :). This will be the first I will make and the first I will receive. I really have only a few stitched gifts and I cherish them...

I also stitched the Easter piece for the French swap. Again, I can only show a tiny bit:

... but I am sure some of you will recognize it, or at least the designer :)
Then... I also finished the Easter yellow eggs napkin for my Aunt. Will post a photo when it's ironed.
Among the older leaflets I got, there is an old one with birds of all kinds... which I loved! See the two little cuties below. And an older sampler that won't be prioritary, but will be stitched, for sure. And an older Cricket Collection with this adorable spring pillow :)



While in a bookstore last week, I couldn't resist buying Ricamare, an Italian cross-stitch magazine, only for these charming pillows... I immediately fell in love with them, aren't they lovely?! The bad quality of the photo doesn't show how cute they are :)

I'll end here (time to work!) with a photo of the supplies I got yesterday to do the finishing part on the French Easter piece. No, I won't use all of them LOL! but I wasn't sure which ones will be the right color or even structure once I have the piece mounted on styrofoam (most probably), so I prefered to buy enough of different ones to have a choice at the right moment. All or mostly pink... my favorite color... not baby pink, pastel pink, but a nicely intense pink, raspberry pink, indian pink... :)