Happy Halloween to all who celebrate it
or just like this tradition!

Dull Saturday

I didn't do anything today. I went to bed extremely late, woke up extremely late and I've been extremely lazy since then. It's already Sunday here on the old continent and I'm heading to bed. Tomorrow I plan to get up at a more normal hour and go on with sorting/packing/throwing old stuff and books in an efficient way. I want my flat sparkling clean and much more empty in time for Christmas. Yay, looks like H. might be spending it in Poland this time!!! I can't remember now, but it must be 3 Christmases now that we spent apart. One time he wanted to stay in Norway so that his mother wouldn't be alone, then there was the heart operation, and then neither of us wanted her to stay alone. I am still undecided... on one hand I feel it's going to be another partly sad Christmas for me, it just isn't the same when he's not here, but on the other hand now that I know his mother well and we get along so well - I just don't like the idea of her being alone on this special evening. It's not easy the way we have it, my father in Poland and his mother in Norway. Impossible to make everyone happy. Tomorrow probably we'll make decisions and buy tickets. Still unclear if I'll fly to Norway for his birthday in 2 weeks or not. Money is a big issue this year.
XSTITCH: I've decided to keep the .... ornament I stitched for the PS exchange. I used gorgeous Gloriana Lorikeet silks but there's something I am not fond about - either it's the colors (too sad) or the chart, or both. I am already half done with the new ornament I picked - and that one starts to look quite nice :-) Can't upload a progress photo though because Linda might be lurking here! LOL

And here's just to show what a pet owner's life can be. I changed my bed clothes, sat at the computer and soon I watched Toska occupying my pillow, later replaced by Happy. Pets! :)

Progress on the Spring Thaw Afghan

So here's as far as I am as today. I'm putting the FAS aside as I will not be able to complete it in time for H's birthday anyway (will try for Chrismas - I can always dream, right? LOL).

This is where I stopped working on it on my last day in Norway in the middle of September.

Now that my PS exchange ornament for Linda McM is stitched (just need to do the finishing part), I will work very fast on the afghan, and I should have it finished within a week or so. If I'm fast, that is ;-)

2,5 squares more in the last row visible and one more row down from that to do.

Today's freebie find...

For sampler fans :
http://www.pcbdijon.com/accueil/TMP1072434954.htm

I especially like the little "A" chart in the second row from the bottom.

Prairie Schooler crow

Here's a crow I stitched early this summer but was too lazy to post ;-)




Pattern name: Crow from Garden Birds (Prairie Schooler leaflet #56)

Threads: my choice of overdyes

Fabric: can't remember, will update!

Stitched over one with one thread.

One day I plan to send it to a finisher to make it into a rustic pillow.

Oldies but not goodies! LOL

Okay, so I am still sorting, throwing out and packing into boxes to drive to the storage. In one of the boxes with (very) old stuff which I packed when my father moved from their new house a couple of years ago, I re-discovered my first cross-stitch pieces. Well, I must have been 8 to 11 at the time, and I really really really remember that everyone including me was making those ohs and ahs! over those pieces, but... they are plain ugly!! Except two which might look acceptable once framed and hung somewhere in a dark place :), the rest is awful. H. begged me not to throw them, he's such a garbage-collector, worse than me LOL! So no, I won't throw them and no, I won't exhibit them, at least not until I move into a huge house with a small dark room to put them in. I washed them, didn't iron, and drove to the storage with a bag full of clothes. They'll be safe there and out of sight! ;-)

See some of the horrors I'm talking about:

French Alphabet Sampler (FAS) progress

Fabric: 40 ct linen

Color: Cameo, from Silkweaver

Threads: Gloriana silks

Color: Jacaranda

Stitched with 1 thread over 2.

I finally got to upload my current WIP :)

So here is where I am at now. It goes unbelievably slow, I didn't expect that. But one over two on 40 ct is that - slow, and the chart is big.

On the photo, you can see I've done 1/3 of the pattern. Two more rows like this to do, 2-3 months in the making, I think. I don't have as much time to work on it as I would hope to have.

One day, it's going to be gorgeous when framed. But it's one of those pieces where I am chasing time (Christmas, possibly, to offer it to H.). I am so sad I can't give it to him for his birthday in November, but this order was handled so bad... I am still very upset with the LNS owner. To make the story short, and omitting many elements, she also managed to send it to the wrong address where I got it 2 months later than I should. And she swore so many times she would remember to send it to the correct place, and she was so unhappy when I reminded her a couple of times, and still she did it wrong. Vrrr.... just the thought makes me angry! :(

The whole plan was to give it to H. for his 50th birthday...

For the moment, what you can see hidden in the sampler is his birth date, my initials and his father's first name. Soon more will show! :)

Whaaaaat?

Just discovered that in our main newspaper. An Austrian businessman has been ordered to remove "these" from the opera in Vienna, because it was hurting feelings. I don't want to hurt yours, so if you want to see, you'll have to click LOL!
see here

And here I thought I've seen everything ;-)

New freebie from The Sampler Girl!

If you haven't seen it yet, here it is!

Tanya also announces:

*Coming in 2007...
The Sampler Girl designs a sampler for The Gift of
Stitching Magazine ~ to be in their March issue! If you haven't already
signed up for this wonderful online publication, you are missing out.
Kirsten, the Editor, does a beautiful job bringing this monthly magazine to
online format.

Can't wait to see it!

I have a subscription to TGOSM and I can only encourage everyone to do the same, it's a great magazine which you download directly from Internet (click on the magazine photo in my blog header to go to the TGSOM website).

166 wishlist items!!!

YAY! How can that be? I rearranged my webshots pictures and folders tonight, finally got inspired enough to do it after many months of laziness, and yes! My easy-to-find wishlist includes 166 items!! As an excuse, I must say this must be the list of *all* the charts I am really after.

Would you like to have a look if there's an item you have and don't mind exchanging, selling, whatever? :)

Here is the direct link to the album.

I don't mind if the chart is slightly damaged but useable!

I thought I'd share a photo of my grandma I took last month. She'll be in her 99th "spring" (as we say here) in January 2007. She's amazing - doesn't read much anymore, but she participates normally in conversations, watches TV, has short walks, leads a pretty normal life and she's... well, amazing, as I said! :)

And below she is (last month as well) making traditional Polish pierogis (yummy yummy yummy LOL!). After many years of practising by her side mine as almost as good as hers, almost! :)

Gorgeous freebies

Serious warning: if you're a sampler girl like me, you're lost!

http://users.skynet.be/bk236098/CARINNE/g-pggrillesgratuites.htm

The site is in French (which I know well) but it's pretty easy to browse.

On this sub-page http://users.skynet.be/bk236098/CARINNE/G_surprise.htm
I found the most beautiful scissor case and needle pin keep... I've never done one but these will be those I will stitch as my first. I just can't keep my eyes off them!

Important: bottom of some pages, it says "Suite Free" etc. If you click on the thread-thing (what's the name in English?), you'll be transfered to a page with more of the freebies from the same cathegory.

Happy browsing!

Still haven't felt inspired to take photos of current WIPS and finishes, the few of them, but the day will come soon! LOL

So this post will be not cross-stitch related again, sorry for that. I've only worked a little bit more on the FAS sampler, oh my, that one will take forever to finish.



On Saturday I moved the first things to the storage surface I rented and signed the contract. I just love the place! Not cheap though, but clean, safe, and generally I am so enthusiastic about it. Now it's just to sort, pack and repack, and move old papers/clothes/stuff from my small flat to the storage place. It'll take me some weeks but it's well worth it. Already without the air conditioning unit and Happy's plane transporter it looks like the flat is a lot more empty.

Here's a photo of the small hall where my storage is located (door to the left):


Apart from that, the bad period continues but I won't extend on that. Nah.

Looking for the perfect time waster?

You'll love this one! Try to make the hill too steep or unconnected... LOL!
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40255643/?offset=10

(BLOGGER ATE HAlF AN HOUR OF WRITING, HEY, BETA VERSION, ARE YOU OKAY???) :(
.......

storage surface and now it's just to move many boxes of older stuff in there. Expensive, but the best idea I'vehad in a while. Soon I won't recognize my "new" flat! :) :) :)

I've been too ill to stitch on the FAS, the 40ct is too small to feel comfortable when your eyes are swollen and your nose is running LOL! and generally, I just so hate working on it... But I am pushing myself so that if I can manage, H. could get it for Christmas. In the meantime, I need 10 days of work to finish his afghan for his birthday. Speaking of which, we're still not sure if we can meet here or there... We're talking about it daily but this end of year is very difficult to plan wisely, there's his birthday, 10 days later the concert in Zurich, 4 days later the 10th anniversary of our meeting and less than 3 weeks later, Christmas! We just can't do it all, who could? ;-) Ah, that's the joys in living in two separate countries, heh!

Time to upload some xstitch photos, I will try to find time for it during the next days.

By the way, is anyone reading this blog at all lately? Please let me know, it just feels like talking to myself... :)

The world's smallest horse

Poor little thing :(. Hope she gets lots of love from whoever takes care of her!

See here for the full story.

---

As for me, I go on working on the FAS. Even done with 1 thread over 2 on 40ct, it is enormous! Not sure I like this "feature" of it.

And I am down with a cold

Not much work this week, so when I'm feeling better I go through paper stuff, and when I feel for relaxing, I relax LOL!

Wonderful freebies

http://www.bodilbroderi.dk/

I especially love the 2003 Angel on one of the pages.

Enjoy!

Want a good laugh?

See the Executive Coloring Book.

The comments are just hilarious!

http://commercial-archive.com/791e47b7f09c3ef030d7a29989118702/2006/tebc/theexecutivecoloringbook.html

This is just so true :)

Subject: How to make a woman happy

It's not difficult to make a woman happy. A man only needs to be:

1. a friend
2. a companion
3. a lover
4. a brother
5. a father
6. a master
7. a chef
8. an electrician
9. a carpenter
10. a plumber
11. a mechanic
12. a decorator
13. a stylist
14. a sexologist
15. a gynecologist
16. a psychologist
17. a pest exterminator
18. a psychiatrist
19. a healer
20. a good listener
21. an organizer
22. a good father
23. very clean
24. sympathetic
25. athletic
26. warm
27. attentive
28. gallant
29. intelligent
30. funny
31. creative
32. tender
33. strong
34. understanding
35. tolerant
36. prudent
37. ambitious
38. capable
39. courageous
40. determined
41. true
42. dependable
43. passionate
44. compassionate

WITHOUT FORGETTING TO:
45. give her compliments regularly
46. love shopping
47. be honest
48. be very rich
49. not stress her out
50. not look at other girls

AND AT THE SAME TIME, YOU MUST ALSO:
51. give her lots of attention
52. give her lots of time, especially time for herself
53. give her lots of space, never worrying about where
she goes

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT:
54. Never to forget:
* birthdays
* anniversaries
* arrangements she makes



HOW TO MAKE A MAN HAPPY
1. Show up naked
2. Bring food

Paper art

Have a look here, the guy is amazing :)

http://www.oncotton.co.uk/peter/index.html

Prairie Schooler witch

Here is the piece I stitched and finished for my partner in the PS group last month, oops, time flies by, it was in August. I am so delayed in posting my recent finishes and WIPs.
I loved that piece. I used a LE fabric from Silkweaver and my choice of overdyes, and the finishing was done using a piece of styrofoam and hand-dyed hemp string. It took me a whole evening to assemble it but I was very proud of the result.
In return, I received the most adorable little cube from Teresa D. with a PS owl. The cube is a real sweetie and a joy to look at! I`ll post a photo tomorrow, it is now too dark to get a good shot. Other than this, I am back to Warsaw after my > two Norwegian months and unhappy. Last week-end I travelled to attend my aunt's 70th birthday, she invited about 20 persons of family and closest friends for lunch+coffee to a nearby restaurant, the food was great, the atmosphere relaxing. I brought back Toska the cat queen, the 3h trip in train with her went very well.

When it comes to my WIPs: I just need to do about 6 squares (I think) on the afghan for H. I stopped working on it when I left Norway. I am now working on the French Alphabet Sampler - I finally received it, the store owner sent it to Poland despite swearing 1) she would remember to send to Norway back in July 2) that she did not send to Poland. She did. I am so upset by the way she handled this order. Also, when I asked for help thinking she could get another copy from the designer (because we assumed the one she had sent had got lost), she promised help but I never heard from her since. Beware if you ever plan to order this expensive sampler, make extra sure this is handled better than it went with me.
Thus, I won't able to finish it in time for H's 50th birthday in November. No way. It is 411x411, and I chose to do it 1 over 2 on a SW 40 ct. linen (Cameo is the color). It goes extremely slow.
If I had known, I wouldn't have ordered it this year. I'm trying very hard to work fast on it, so I am not stitching anything else.

You'll notice this post is unhappy, it just shows the way I feel recently. Everything is just plain wrong around, in all possible aspects in my life, and for the first time in my life, I just don't see a way out. Some things have gone too far, and I can't get help from anywhere, anyone. I feel terribly lonely these days. Most of the week I have sleep problems, oh well, hopefully one day this will solved somehow.

H.'s birthday is in 6 weeks, I still have no idea if I'll go, for money reasons. On the other hand, we'll maybe spend Christmas together away from the families this year.

You know. Families can be great. But sometimes they aren't. And today also brought an unexpected quarrel on the phone with my brother over the last family issue. I know I am oversensitive and I shouldn't feel guilty even when he tried to make me feel bad. But in the middle of that particular family problem, I am upset that instead of offering help and understanding, once again all he does it making it all so much, much worse for me. Okay, fine, I am so tired of all these conflicts that I took the plunge and made a decision: no, we won't go and visit them in Switzerland next month if we attend the concert in Zurich. At my age I am tired of feeling guilty all the time, I want to react and do things the way I feel they should be handled.

The only reason I am not deleting what I wrote, even it it sounds so upsetting, is that I want to remember this week and all last month.

I'll cross my own fingers for a better period... Sometimes I just don't feel for living, and knowing me and my optimistic nature, this is pretty serious LOL!