Yesterday I, my aunt and grandma made 285 tiny, tiny "uszka" (like pierogis, but much smaller and the shape is different, I'll post a picture in a month) for Christmas dinner's borstsch (red beet soup) and 100 cabbage and mushroom pierogis, also for Christmas dinner. I brought half of that frozen back to Warsaw, and they're now waiting in the freezer till it's Christmas time. My culinary contribution to xmas dinner is thus done! I might bake some sort of xmas cake or cakes at one moment, but all the rest will be done by my father and his wife. Good. I was totally pooped yesterday, we worked from 11am till 6pm in the kitchen.
Today my cousin and his wife arrived with supplies for a nice breakfast, we ate together and had nice chats/laughters later. And then it was time for the 3,5 h trip by train. I spent all evening catching up on my mail and other urgent stuff.
Time is flying... I will be super busy all the next month and I fear I won't be able to do all I've planned. I was hoping (and still am!) to finish H's afghan in time to give it to him in 10 days in Cheeseland, but I got work and I'll be working a lot all next week, so stitching time will be very limited.
I didn't take anything to stitch for the trip, I hate train time so much that I try to half-sleep to survive LOL! and I was right in guessing that I would be to tired yesterday to stitch. Tomorrow I plan to pay a lot of bills, which will take a long time, clean the flat and stitch, so I can work hard from Monday morning.
Isa V has a new freebie on her blog, it is Joyeux Noel shaped as a heart. Happy stitching!
If you're looking for me, I am away till Sunday... change of plans, I decided to visit my aunt [...] this week-end instead of before Christmas....
I'll reply to any emails when I'm back, sorry...
...are from Miss T. Check them out, and if you scroll down, you will find several biscornu patterns which seem to be the rage lately! :)
http://misst.canalblog.com/archives/mes_petites_grilles_gratuites/index.html
Yet a new freebie from Tanya! This time, December-themed, well in time to stitch before Christmas. It is so easy and cute! See here.
(some of you might know I'm nuts about moose and reindeer decorations... here is Christmas reindeer from Angi!)
Yup, Monday procrastination... while working on two texts... I ended buying Blackwork Furry Friends by Tam's Creations, I just loved it! Tam finally has a nice place to sell her designs from. It is nice, because you get the chart directly by email.
And if you want to see the pattern I bought, it is this one :)
Yup, I feel like it's lost, but there'll be a Sunday ;-)
I started working again in the flat in the evening yesterday and decided to pause... at almost 7 am!! I am nuts, I know, but I just have to have the flat neat again. At 4am there were beads, threads, frames, magazines, books, charts and kits, and what have you, *everywhere*!! including my bed, the floor, my keyboard etc. Now most of it is sorted and put into boxes of various kind with really (I amazed myself LOL!) some sort of system. One thing I don't know how to solve is little insects that seem to love fabrics. They are everywhere where I store fabrics in the flat, after they die they leave little dry skins and some sort of miniature coccoons. They drive me nuts! They are even in the closed plastic boxes. I will attemt to put soap (because of the fragrance) and see if that helps.
Now, the floor is still covered with a zillion items but there are walkable "channels" for the furry kids ;-)
Do you ever have moments like this? I discovered I have *dozens* of lovely tuck pillows (I seem to have bought more on ebay last year than I cared to admit), twice the number of Silkweaver hand-dyed fabric packs than I thought (granted, half are not colors I really like for my usual projects, so they were stuck in the back of a big drawer), I have quite many charms and other nice stash. Far from what some ladies have, but I only discovered US stash about 4 years ago... I also prepared a huge pile of charts to sell on ebay. The situation being as it is, I can't afford buying stash still for the next half year, so I decided to sell a lot, making a copy of the occasional pattern I think I will stitch and especially get rid of some precious doubles. Lots of these are samplers and Birds of a Feather patterns, but none of the BOF charts are the expensive OOP found on ebay.
Waking up today, I was thinking what I really need as stash... Scissors, probably. I only have two small pairs received from stitching friends with fobs. Overdyes and silks - I wish I would win the lotto. I am sure I would spend half the sum (however high it would be) on these, much to H's despair! LOL Hand-dyed fabrics, always. Buying some charts/kits from both my wishlists, certainly. Isn't it awful that designers always have new patterns we need to have? :)
So I'm thinking... 2007 will be (decided!) more Mill Hill stitching (especially some samplers from a book I bought earlier this year), more Prairie Schooler and stitching runners and tablecloths again. I must have mentioned earlier that I really miss those. Especially since stoopid me gave all my most beautiful accomplishments to family. I wish I didn't! Except for one which my aunt always proudly exhibits, they are hidden somewhere in closets gathering dust. Not the fate I want for a piece it took me a year to finish.
I'm flying to Switzerland in a little bit than 2 weeks and I need to have H's afghan ready, so I have to talk to myself and quit working on other stuff till then.
Off to start the day at past 5pm (told you it's a lost day :( ). Thank you everyone for emails, comments and other messages in the past few days, I'll do my best to reply this week-end! I only have one small job on my desk for Monday, so Sunday should be free for catching up on email.
Have a nice week-end, everyone!
Fabric: Sunshine Sparkle (Silkweaver), 25ct Lugana
Chart from Cross Stitch Crazy (Christmas 2006 issue) UK magazine
Threads used: my choice of overdyes
Finally finishes I love! I couldn't resist to this little mouse...
Basically, I stitched it for a friend's daughter. Now, please help me - what should I do? I love it so much that I have a hard time parting with it. And no, I won't stitch it again, I know I won't, I never do, there's plenty of other designs I always want to stitch :(. Should I keep it and have it finished or should I send it, what would you do?? And if I keep it, how do I finish it (=I'll have a finisher do it for me)? I'm perplexed though I have some ideas, but the first question is, do I send it, really...
There's a new freebie, have you seen it? It's a little dragon with a pumpkin on his head, too cute :)
I just love DD designs!
...are from Vivapetitmonde.fr
See here, links in the center and archives list in the pink sidebar to the right, including a nice hardanger ABC (Mylene should like that ;-))
Also click directle here.
More freebies here, but they're presented in a way I don't like and which I usually find not that attractive. I found a couple of cute ones though! :)
I don't remember if I ever posted those. Anyway, the scissors cases, for instance, are so beautiful!
And a fall design, two leaves from Ursulaschertz.de.
I just can't take my eyes off the new Janlynn kits (granted, I wouldn't do them on Aida). I especially love the winter piece and the autumn piece, aren't they stunning?
While procrastinating, I'd like to mention the new Spanish Church freebie by Michael Powell at http://www.michaelpowellart.co.uk/ (you need to subscribe to subscribe as member). It is wintery, not too big and certainly nice once finished :)
I stitched the first of several (but not many, I won't have time with my big and exchange projects) small gifties for stitcher-friends. I haven't been able to take a good shot tonight with the digital camera, so I'll upload a much better one once I have it finished - as a small hanging ornie. It is from the Holly and Ivy alphabet published in the UK magazine Cross Stitch Crazy, Christmas 2006.
I so fell in love with this sampler that I stitched it in 3 evenings. I just couldn't wait for the Olde Willow Stitchery Threads so I made my own conversion to overdyes (see below).
Fabric: Silkweaver's linen 32 ct
Color: Sandcastle
Threads used: overdyes and silks
My conversion of the major colors:
OWS Virtue Teal-WDW Kentucky Bluegrass
OWS Yorkshire Blue - Gloriana silks : India Ink for the birds and Charcoal for the windows
OWS American Quaker Gold: WDW Whiskey
OWS Chestnus- GAST Currant
Stitched with 2 threads over 2.
Why, oh why is it that way that I regularly think I will remember a little bit of info, which of course it is impossible to do for a longer period, and why can't I learn to write down that little piece of info somewhere...I'll be blogging less in the end of the year. Decisions are made and plane tickets were bought today - we're flying to Switzerland on Nov. 28 for a well deserved week at my brother's and to attend Chris de Burgh's concert in Zurich. We'll do some traveling in the country as well to discover places we haven't been yet, with mandatory trips to Geneva and Lausanne as well, as I need to find some items related to my work.
I won't be able to describe what that concert means to me, so I won't even try, especially in English. This is simply a dream come true.... I still can't be believe we're going to attend!
It'll be nice to stay at my brother's and spend time with my 4,5 y.o. nephew. It's been a long time since I saw him last... oh my, can it really be a whole year?
And then on Dec. 3rd, we'll celebrate the 10th anniversary of being together... probably with a nice dinner somewhere on the French side.
Still unsure if H. can fly in here for Christmas, that should be solved tomorrow or within the next days. There's hope!
That all means I'll be traveling a lot between the end of November and end of December (Christmas at my father's).
I'm starting to prepare little Xmas packages for several cross stitch friends, I can't make them big this year, so they will just be little somethings to say I think of you during this special period of the year...
In Poland, we do not celebrate Halloween other than as a new fashion imported from the US, but we celebrate All Saints Day on Nov. 1. It's also a day off as well as tomorrow (All Souls Day). The tradition is to light candles and visit the graves of deceased relatives. Everybody, I mean everybody except for people whose condition makes it impossible visits graves - usually at several cementaries during the same day. We visit the graves of all family members, friends, other people we knew, and we light a candle. There are also big crosses where we light a candle for a special 'occasion' - WWII victims, Polish people buried abroad etc. - this is what the picture above shows.
From what I know, this tradition is very similar to how Mexicans celebrate this day. In East Poland, there are regional customs such as bringing food for the dead, singing and rejoycing, but for most people this is a day where we think about those who left...
Graves are decorated with enormous pots of chrysanthema (usually), and the atmosphere in the evening, when it's dark, with all those small red lights everywhere, is just magic. I would recommend people visiting our country to discover this day here, with all its customs...
More photos:
Today's find, hoping you'll like them.
3 sweet French freebies - click here
and more here
A few lovely French designers/companies to discover (beware, they're addicting!):
* http://www.deshistoiresabroder.com/ (click on Broderie, Cartonnage etc.). Incredible beauties!!!
* http://www.craftcorner.be/accueil.html - this one is in Belgium (click on Nos Modèles and follow the links)
* http://www.madame-la-fee.com/index.php?cPath=24_2 (follow the links Kits complets and Fiches, then go further in each cathegory)
* more stunning, colorful samplers also ">here
I just can't take my eyes off that one! (Michele, if you see it... LOL!)
and also these: http://www.accrostitch.com/craftica/craftica_nouv.htm
That'll be all for today.... happy dreams!
Today, I received from Drema a kit she had on sale and which I've wanted sooo badly for quite some time. The kit alone usually costs around 16 usd and I paid in total about 12 usd with the shipping cost to Poland. Additional plus, for a reason unknown to me, I always receive packages from her within 2-3 days. Ah, forgot to mention the name, it's an older knob knocker kit from Sweetheart Tree called 'Dog in, Dog out'. Why do I like it so much? It's because in Norway, the house is big, with a garden, and during my summer stay with Happy H. had to shout several times daily to ask: "Is Happy in or out?" This was because sometimes he wanted to open the door for a longer time and Happy has to be in a special (very) long leash when out in the garden - plus, he's very good at running away if he gets the occasion. Now it's just to finish the knob knocker and have it hanging at the front door! Hah, I am sooo happy! 
While we are at that, Drema offers the small pieces of different fabrics needed for the 2006 JCS ornies, see here. And she always has nice items in her clearance section! :)
