Sunday news...

See the lovely Prairie Schooler Santa Valerie sent me for HOE's Christmas in July exchange! I love this chart and I have stitched it for myself, but seriously, I could have a whole tree of them so I was delighted to see it when I opened the package :) And it's finished super nicely with tiny green beads all around - such a joy to look at!


But that wasn't all! Valerie stitched a little floss tag - how adorable!!! I am unsure which chart/designer it is taken from, but it's so very cute!! I love the colors and everything about it. Oh, now I see I forgot to take pictures of the back of both pieces, I'll update later. The two skeins in Christmas colors came with the tag :)

Valerie also sent two charts including one from my wishslist, a piece of fabric in xmas colors which I actually plan to use to finish an ornament I just finished and a big pack of American 100% natural, old fashioned hard lemon drops - so good! I had the pack open while we watched a movie with H. last night and I knew he's doesn't care much about lemon taste like I do, but since it seemed to be the only polite thing to do, I offered him one to try - and minutes later, he said "hmmm, they are actually crazy good!, did you get them today?" So I told him where and who I got them from :)

I haven't written much about stitching lately - but I did stitch quite a lot, just that I can't show the result as of yet. One is a piece for Nath's birthday - which I am delighted about, it turned very beautiful, one is the ornament for HOE's christmas in July exchange, and one is for the year-long birthday exchange Edgar organizes. The last one is not urgent, but I got the perfect chart and felt inspired to stitch it in advance :)
Now, if there is one I can call my summer 2009 project, it is the one below. You know how it is with some charts. You see them, you know you have to have them, it's an immediate story of love between you and the picture you see. And so it was with The Victoria's Sampler cyberclass for the chart "Tea Party Sampler". But it was a lot of money and the timing never was right. Then in May I read that they were taking it off the cyberclasses and only one more would be organized, so I splurged the money and even managed to have my friend Ela get the kit. Now, since last week it is available in normal sale, you can see it HERE. They're now showing it also as a framed piece, but the original idea was the one that I fell in love with, it's the teapot finishing. I drink a lot of different teas and collect china tea cups and sets, so I just love it.
Here's what I stitched till now - 2 installments out of 4, I'm working on the 3rd.
If I managed to make you love it and you plan to stitch it, beware - it is tedious work. Not much cross-stitch at all - it's composed of many, many specialty stitches which you need to either learn, or you know them from before. Most techniques I haven't heard of or tried before, so it goes slow and I will be most glad when it's done and finished and I can start another bigger project (not ornaments, I mean, which I stitch in the meantime). BUT, because there is a BUT, the result is absolutely so beautiful, that I can only encourage anyone with a bit of patience and time to stitch it. This will certainly be the most ambitious and most gorgeous piece I'd have done :)

It is raining almost continuously these days but when it rains not, I bike with Happy and sometimes H comes too :)
Here are some photos from yesterday. I biked from Siggerud to home, passing the post office on the way back to pick my exchange from Valerie.
The great thing here (it is valid for most of the most populated regions in Norway, I think), that villages and towns are interconnected with bike paths, which become country skiing paths during winter, provided there is enough snow. Now that I've built enough courage and muscles to try longer trips (I mean, really not long, but longer that directly in the nature around the village here), I'll be trying more ambitious and longer paths :) Since it is difficult to bike a round trip, I often ask H. to drive me somewhere and I bike home or the opposite, he picks me up from somewhere on his way back and he is a real love to want to do that, because most of the time, he adapts his driving directions and time so he can do that. He so likes when I do my "expeditions" in the nature that he'd do almost anything to help, I think :) Unfortunately, he has a hip problem and he can't come with us every time - plus, of course, I can be out during the working day, because I can adapt more or less when I work, while he works regular office hours ;-)
Yesterday, I was surprised to see how well the biking track is prepared between the two villages - making it so easy to bike. It goes in the woods but it very well maintained and quite wide also.



At home here, we're gradually adding more thuya trees on along
the border to H's uncle, and that meant we needed to get more good soil. And since we plan to add more fruit bushes etc., this would mean buying too many expensive packs of soil, so H. opted for ordering a whole truck of it, which was delivered by the farmer last week. Then H. borrowed a funny machine from a friend, to move soil - it doesn't "dig", but it lifts it from the ground and puts it in the container, then dumps it where you want once it's completely full. It's proved very useful here - the house is on a small hill (a huge rock) and H suffers a lot with his hip when walking up and down and around the garden, especially when he has to carry or push loads, so he smiled a lot :)

Happy, of course, was mostly interested in the perfume he could smell all around - the cow sh-t contained in the soil! LOL

Here you can see the small thuya trees H. put in and some dead ones he digged out. On the upper part the thuyas are very high now, then there are medium ones planted a year after, and then smaller ones... and then the number 4 thuyas as I call them, the youngest ones from last week.
You can also see the sweet cherry tree we planted two years ago. The first summer we got SIX cherries, then a little bit more, then quite some more now :) It's my favorite fruit so I can't wait till it grows and delivers a lot more. And we'll plant more :)