I just have to share this..

John Cleese (from the Monty Python) was hired to play in a TV commercial for a bank loan. Controversial for some, absolutely loved by most! The TV campaign has just started here. Watch till the very end :)

Thursday blogging...

See what I found this week in my LNS! I so love tins, boxes etc... especially vintage. I always admire altoids on others' blogs and always wanted one. I was so surprised to discover these two metal tins! They contained 4 spools of sewing threads each, but of course they will be used to store something else.




Whether you understand French or not, do see this blog... wonderful work and superb pictures of Kiev (Ukraine) almost daily. I didn't know this city could be shown in such an interesting way... If you're curious of what life looks like there and love quilting, you'll be spoiled.


Earlier this week, I receives this cute chart from Ela, my Polish stitching buddy in France... Ela has a heart of gold and she surprises me so often by her kindness!!

Other than that, I am working on the finishing on Nath's exchange piece.... :) Nath's package still hasn't arrived and now I really start to worry... but not much yet!

Pictures from Sweden

I tought I'd share a few pictures H. sent me today. He drove to (or rather had his car driven to) Sweden on Monday for a major car repair. One of his friends owns a car towing place so that was a big help. Why Sweden? Because the repair place is just 3 hours away, in Karlstad and the repair will cost soooooo much less than in Norway. Lots and lots of Norwegians do that.

It all started at 3am so they could deliver the car at 7am...

I was pretty amazed by the standard of the local backpacker's hostel... A normal hotel room if you ask me, just that the bathroom ++ was shared and H. had to hire the bed clothes. When he found out he has to stay overnight I helped him find a place to stay - I could go online while he was stranded in a big mall drinking coffee after coffee waiting for the car which eventually wasn't ready the same day. Karlstad is no big place and the hotel prices horrendous - Scandinavian horrendous. Youth hostels aren't cheap either comparing to the rest of Europe but still, about half the price. And honestly, when I saw what he got, I started to wonder why we haven't tried such places before in Norway. But maybe they're not all the same standard as this one below. They have single rooms, double rooms, 6 persons rooms etc.

Old caserns around the place with the hostel... now transformed and used as regular appartments. Though I'm sure the big square place in front of it must have been used by the military for the usual training purposes etc. judging by the way it looks.

More former caserns...

The building with the hostel.


To read more about Karlstad, click HERE.

I can't say for who it is and I can't say what is is, though many of you will immediately recognize it and some will even see it in one of my yahoo groups ;)

I'll uncover it some time next week when it reaches one nice person!

And nah, it's not one of the exchange pieces. The design is too small, just 36x36.

Quiet evening...

I'm stitching on some Shhhhh!!... projects so I can't blog about them for some days and/or weeks, but they look very promising! This w/e I plan to do the finishing on my privat exchange PS pieces and then stitch my PS group fob exchange for Milly. If you know Milly you know what the theme will be, LOL!

Mary Kathryn received the belated birthday giftie I sent her, mail is soooo slow these weeks... And 10 days later, still no sign of the package from Nath. You'd think it should be able to hop across just two borders in two days, yes it should!

Major update!

I am sorry I didn't write things clearly in my previous blog post - the kidney problem is just a small one, the main issue (the surgery in March) is located somewhere else :(. Thanks so much for your support, Donna! :)

I finally found my camera, it had fallen on the floor under an open drawer, in which kittie loves to lay. As all cats she likes to rest where she just shouldn't! LOL

So I got up too late today to catch good daylight for the pictures and if I took time to iron my stitching the light would be totally gone, so I made pictures as good as they could be at that hour. My windows are from the east which means that by 11 am the sun has already moved and pictures show lousy. I know lots of people want to have their bedroom on the east but I definitely would prefer them to the west. In the summer I have direct sun and a real sauna in the room from 5 am, aaargh!

My PS exchange from Nath' hasn;t arrived yet, 8 days after it was sent. I often wonder why I get French mail sooooo awfully late most times! It's like with Skype, all voice connections are great except for France, but that might have an easy explanation like where the servers are located and how the connections go through. I just recalled this morning that the last package from Nath' took a whole two weeks to arrive, so I might just as well work on my patience and virtually ask President Sarkozy to work a bit on that too! LOL

How is everyone doing with their PS exchange? :) I am done with all 5 pieces except for the finishing. However, I didn't like the way one looked so this week-end, I am stitching another one. I will be able to send all before the end of the month. The size of all is not big except for maybe one, so I plan to do a nice finishing, but as I wrote earlier they will all be different :)

On St. Valentine's Day, I started stitching this beautiful design by Tanya Marie Anderson and finished it yesterday. It is the Litterary little #4 called My Everything (W.H. Auden). You can see and buy it here. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. Can there be a more romantic chart? I planned to finish it similarly to the way it is shown on the leafler, but eventually I will have it framed in an adequate shade of dark pink or red frame. Will see to it on Monday, one framer I like is just near the clinic I need to visit.

I chose to stitch it with one thread over one on 32 ct hand-dyed linen (possibly LL, I misplaced the label). My eyes didn't thank me for that but I just love the way it looks, what do you think? I'll show it again once framed.




Now I'll move to some older finishes. First, some I stitched during Christmas. Don't have the inspiration to do the finishing, but they'll become little pillows like the one I sent to Ela back then. This is from the Red Letter Ornaments by Blue ribbon Designs. I just love this leaflet and would like to have the Green... as well. The colors are not as muted in real as they show on this picture.


Garden Pleasures by LHN; I have already applied thermoflieseline on both the stitched piece and the backing fabric (shown in the upper part of the picture) but still need to sew it all into a pillow. I think I chose the right fabric though :)
Stitched on Lakeside Linens, in real the fabric is more green, very light celadon.

And now a big favorite of mine, Haste Ye Back by Sheepish Designs. This one is very dear to me... I so wanted to stitch it and Mary Kathryn sent it to me for my birthday last year, she saw it in my wishlist. I need one skein more for the bottom and I already ordered it. I also hope to make a much, much better picture of it because this one below just doesn't do it justice! :)

A current WIP - Wedding Topiary by Knotted Tree Needleart. Stitched with silks (one color) on LL.

Another piece by The Sampler Girl, Dash Away All. Tana offered it as a kit (DMC floss, linen, chart, the backing fabric - superbly matched, and even the tiny white star you can see on the picture and a beading needle. Tanya has an etsy shop here and regularly offers special kits and other items such as book bags, blankets etc.
I'll finish here today with a picture of Toska sleeping on my fax machine. No, I don't know why she sometimes choses the most uncomfortable spots. I just can't understand why she loves the fax - it's not on, so it's not warm, I'd say it has hard surface and all - but for several weeks she loved to go and sleep on it.

Yeahh... One more. I am sorting papers etc. and thought I'd put those I don't want to throw but which still need to go into different folders and boxes - into one big box. Of course, Toska *has to* sleep in it, chew on it, scratch it, sharpen her nails on it. I took this picture last week. By now, the box is just a big piece of garbage paper.... sigh... I need to find a different one... or sort the papers out ASAP. But how can anyone be angry at those eyes... :)

There's more stitching to show but it has chosen to hide somewhere :)

So beautiful...

And so overpriced... see this little heart kit. I wish I'd put my hands on it... but I honestly think some items come very overpriced recently... Sigh.

Some pictures

Very late, I know, but here are some pictures I uploaded end on January and forgot to post!

Norway, view from the living-room window, we got sooooo much snow before I left. A couple of days later it was all gone and then returned, creating big havoc at the airport as I read in the Norwegian newspapers I follow.


Will you let me out or not? I said I do NOT mind snow!
(I brought her back with me but don't let her speak here, she'll tell you she misses the big house, the garden and all she can think about now is summer, 'cause summer is when she returns to Norway!, at least these are the current plans)

Here is the awesome Christmas giftie I received from Nath ! I stitched the Tournicoton biscornu last week-end and it's certainly one of the most delicate finished of mine. I haven't assembled it yet because I can't yet decide whether I want to add buttons or not. It looks super even without them! Nath' even included the skein of NN silk the chart called for, how thoughtful is that! MERCI encore une fois, Nath' !!!

Oh I just have to show you this candle holder I received from Linda H. I just can't find words to say how much I love it. I will always, always cherish and exhibit him during the Christmas period!!! Linda also sent cucumber/minth candles... what a lovely smell! I so regret you don't write a blog Linda... you're among my very special friends...


Yup, H. wraps the gifties we offer to our furry "kids"... :) It's part of the fun for him! Here's Toska and her Christmas giftie... she needed a little help to open it though :)

See that paw digging in? It's too funny!

After Christmas, it's not the best period to go stash shopping but I squeezed my walled, went deaf at my credit card crying loud and got some spring items, having in mind the PS exchange I planned to do :)
- Hey, it's really high time you let me in!

Hi everyone! I've been missing in action for a month but here I reappear. Sometimes blogging is less important than other life things. As a shortcut I'll just say I'm still seeing doctor after doctor, making different tests and checks and I'll go on with that for the next months, till a certain issue is found out. Others have been discovered, so apart from more checks to do and a treatment to be ordered (kidney "sand", a lighter form of stones), I will undergo a surgery on March 18 to get something removed and tested. I try not to chicken out, but it's 20 years soon since I last have stayed in hospital and I got unused to having anything done to or in my body. The good (I won't know what's happening!) and bad (always that fear of not waking up...) thing is they'll make me sleep for the duration of the op' and if no complications, I should be home in the late evening or the next day. Hopefully the endoscopic procedure will be enough and they won't have to cut in the usual way. So, here's the big news in my current life. I was told I will have to rest a lot for 5-7 days and will probably feel pain, but what are pain killers for if not that? :) Anyway, I try not to stress too much even if the whole thing is a bit, well, uneasy. I'll remind you to cross your busy fingers for me that day!
H. will be here to take care of my stress, walk Happy and cuddle Toska :)

I've been sorting a lot at home and my camera just can't be found! It's decided to hide somewhere under a random bit of paper and it drives me nuts. Hopefull I'll find it today because I have lots to show!

A short stitching update:

- I'm almost done stitching the 5th of my PS private exchange and then I'll finish all of them off in one batch. Mind you, each of them will be finished differently and each is different from the others in colors and shape :) I used silks and overdyes and they look very cute even unfinished :)
- Nath' already sent me her piece and I'm expecting it to arrive tomorrow. I just can;t wait because if you know Nath', you know she is an awesome stitcher!
- I finished several samplers and other pieces. Two: The Blessing (Examplar) and Haste Ye Back need an additional skein of WDW to finish the background but otherwise they are done. I finished the recent reinder (Dash Away All) by Tanya Anderson (sorry I forgot the name, need to check) and today I received two more charts bought at her etsy shop. I was hoping for H. to receive one of them stitched and all for St. Valentine's but it's one of those cases when the mail plays tricks on you and it took 3 weeks to arrive. So I will stitch it today, finish tomorrow, this way I will still feel St. Valentine'ish tomorrow :) and offer it to him nicely packed in March. Hah!
- One of my PS pieces is highly experimental in colors so I thought I'd ask, in alphabetical order: Cheryl, Donna, Ela, Nath, Sharon - is there one of you who likes bright, bright colors? If not I might keep it for me. It definitely is a PS chart but it doesn't look PS too much now! I mean, PS colors are very much muted, at least the older designs.
Hoping I'll find my camera ASAP, I'll leave you here now and start digging it from under the many piles on my desk, sorted but yet not put in the right boxes!