Happy New Year!!!

To all xstitch fans and friends, I would like to wish a wonderful 2007, filled with stitching, laughter and warmth!

(me and my dad's wife)

I am back from Christmas at my father's and back from the airport, H. is now on his plane to Oslo. Christmas was nice, really, just that both my father and his wife had a bad cold so the main topic was illness, coughing and running noses, doubled with sinusitis and fiever ;-) and well, yes, despite all protective measures I and H. got it too. With the zillions of bacterias flying in the air there we knew it would happen. We spent the last 3 days in bed, the greatest part of the day, but it didn't help. Today is the worst (hopefully, I mean, I really wish this won't continue), I cough with bad sounds, my nose is like a leaking pipe, oh well, you know how the story goes. We've been taking medicines since many days so we hope this will end soon.

Christmas... well. No snow, no hopes of snow, and up till +6 Celsius. Warm. It did NOT feel like Christmas and I almost have the feeling there was no Christmas :(. My brother, wife and kid couldn't come this year from Switzerland because my SIL couldn't get days off around Christmas and they only arrive tomorrow for a week. Somehow I got used to having Christmas with my 4,5 y.o. nephew, with the laughter, joy and all the Santa-seriousness. And I think for my father it just isn't the same when he doesn't have his both kids around, and now also his grandkid. But don't get me wrong, it was a lovely time, very relaxing.

H. spent a lot of time installing Windows XP on my father's computer, we also drove to buy him a new HP cheap printer and he got a Skype phone and a bigger hard drive from us - and he's thrilled. He immediately started calling acquaintances in various part of the world. And he is sooooo happy to have his computer modernized!!!

Their doggie is not going to live much longer, his heart is very bad now and he was out of breath and coughing terribly....

During H.'s stay, we threw out my new couch :( from last year. It was an expensive one and really beautiful but the system didn't work well for extending it daily, I think it just wasn't meant for such an intense use and some wooden elements broke, making it very hard to extend. We drove to Ikea and got a new one and I just looooooooove it! My cat and dog love it too LOL!

H. also helped me to sort what seems almost the last batch of old stuff, I threw some and we drove twice to the storage, where we repacked it all into boxes. H. insisted and pushed me to do that job while he was here, saying it would be so nice, clean and empty in my tiny flat and that I would gain so much space for storing stuff. And it is true :) Now I just need to wash and clean here and there and I can rediscover a neat flat after several years of having it clogged completely. It is such a great feeling! I worked 4 months by bits to get to that result and yes, it was worth the bone aches LOL!

So now I will just go to bed to help my body get rid of that %$#%#%^# cold and in some hours I will upload more pictures+++.

Happy Saturday, everyone! :)

"My first Christmas" ornie

I made this one last night for a friend whose first baby girl was born this summer. A month later they both followed hubby/dad far away to Tahiti so I haven't yet had the opportunity to see the little princess, only on photos - and she definitely is the most beautiful baby girl I've ever seen :)

Anyway, this is for little Helenka (or Hélène, her daddy being French).

The pattern is by Echevette, who creates the most gorgeous freebies and shares them with all the stitching community.

Ah yes, the picture is really bad. It shows a weird pinkish colour while it was a sparkling white. I seem to always take pictures in the evening, when the light is too bad for the digital camera.

Swiss Birdhouse :)

We couldn't resist to this birdhouse :)

We found it at a huge Christmas market in Switzerland, in the town where my brother lives. It was organized in a gardening center and it occupied several buildings! We spent quite some time in there. Unfortunately I had to be reasonable with money this year.

This is a real birdhouse; the seeds are put from the top, by opening the house's roof and down the building, there are little openings on each side where the grains come out. And the little birdies can sit around on the edge and stuff their little yellow Norwegian butts! LOL I can't wait to see it hanging in H's garden.

There were about 5 different such houses to choose from. Oh, and it is quite big, about 35 cm tall.

Busy, busy Tuesday

Can you believe that I spent 7 (yes, SEVEN) hours preparing and packing Christmas gifties for friends abroad? This should be the last batch and I am happy to have it done. I also prepared wrote and packed several Christmas cards for customers and friends. All will leave early tomorrow morning. Still, it is beyond me why it took me such a long time! Luckily, I didn't have work today on my desk.
I also took photos of some finishes (including the secret [...] PS exchange for Suzanne - I am so proud of this one! It is the first time I made a [...] and two more, little .... for ... and ... LOL!). I've uploaded them to a secret folder on webshots where they will wait till they will have reached their destination! :)

Soft trees freebie

I just can't resist sharing this one with you. I just discovered it but apparently it's been popular for a while as confirms this site with photos of some of the trees made by its fans, and the pattern is here.
I fell in love with it the moment I saw the one Elisabeth made and posted to her blog. Yay! I hope I'll find a short moment to make at least one to offer this Christmas! It looks so simple to make and its up to anyone to make her own version. I love it, love it!

Isn't the new Trilogy lovely?

I am on a stash diet for money reasons till at least the New Year, but I love looking at the new designs :) That new one from Trilogy is co cute with its lines of red robins, penguins and mittens... I can already visualize a little pillow or cube with it :)

New 24h Freebie!

Hurry up, Tonia from OakHaven Cs Designs has made it available for one day only.
You need to scroll up till the bottom! It's called Loving Swirly Snow and it's available at http://site.oakhavencsdesigns.com/index.html.

Afghan delivered...

...in good hands! H. got it in Switzerland. And you know what? He appreciated it to its real value, many months of work. Now to see it hanging somewhere... LOL! But he was amazed with the amount of work, the details etc. I managed to fringe it by hand before leaving (that alone took many, many hours, so I think I'll let myself be tempted soon by a sewing machine LOL!) and two squares in the bottom left corner are not done yet, but I'll stitch them fast during a next trip to Norway. It's only a piece of broken tree trunk.
For those who don't know yet the little story.... A few years ago as we were hiking above Zakopane, in the Tatra mountains in Poland, we met a mommy bear with two adorable cubs, just 2,5-3 months old, not more. This was one of THE moments of our relationship... We sat for a moment on broken bits of trees with my old aunt to watch the view, look at the map, and go further after a short moment of relax, and then what do I see? The first baby bear. I don't think I realized the danger, I just pointed at it and said: "Oh look at that!!" with delight. That all happened before I read anything about bears and danger and wilderness - and the outcome of such meetings. It would never occur to me to feel in danger there, so close to civilization. H. and my aunt froze, looked at each other and ordered we pack everything fast, but without panick. The little one was just jumping around. Mommy not in sight. My aunt decided we should go further up - and what do we see? Another little bear rolling in front of our feet, on the path, sort of intentionnally falling from a higher path border made of sand, I think. Now that was scary. We turned back. I still remember the look and the eyes of the second cub - he looked at us so surprised, almost friendly. I think he just couldn't figure what those two-legged creatures were! We didn't see Momma bear. She certainly was *very* close and as we were told later by specialists, she probably didn't attack not because we were 3 humans, but because we behaved perfectly (judging by bear's criteria) and because neither of her kids made a sound. They were too young to be scared, they were just there to play and eat berries, they never met humans before and didn't understand the danger, that is what saved us. We returned fast (very fast, if you ask me) to our car. An unforgettable experience... Since then we've been reading lots of reports about meeting bears and well, there are not many people who met cubs so close and survived.
And when I saw this afghan pattern, I just couldn't believe my eyes: the scene is almost like the one we lived, but maybe a moment after? The bear mom and her two kids dancing around, happy that the humans left LOL! The ones we met were much, much smaller than on the afghan design and I can tell you that no soft toy can reproduce how sweet a real small bear looks! :) Even the view of the mountains is like the one where we were sitting, and the fallen trunks... just the eagle wasn't there, but what do I know?
So many reasons why H. really loved his gift... :) and I was delighted! Though I must say, I am happy to be over with it. I didn't find it very pleasant to work on a biiiig piece of heavy, warm fabric, with a multitude of colors (a whole bag of DMC)... Now to move on to other projects!

Prairie Schooler exchange from Linda McM

Tonight I wanted to share the wonderful Christmas finished ornament exchange I received from Linda McM, the listmom of our Prairie Schooler group, and what a listmom!
Linda sent me not one but two ornaments, one bigger - from the Blackwork Angels leaflet and the second is from Christmas miniatures. I hope I am not making any mistake, but the Angels are done in silks (the gold is shiny Marlitt) and for the small ornie, Linda substituted the recommended DMC : the red is GAST Brick, the green is a Needle Necessities... I love both dearly, but I'll tell you in secret I am madly in love with the little cutie: it is sooooo bright in colors, so intricate, so beautifully finished... This is not to say I don't like the Angels, I love them too! But somehow this little one is a gem.... a real gem.
As I often say, I tend to be pathetically nostalgic at times when it comes to gifts from friends... especially those gifts where the person has put a special care and attention to make it, buy it, suit my tastes, you know what I mean.... This week I was spoiled by Mylene and Linda... Two wonderful persons I only know virtually, but they are one of those special people met on Internet, whose friendship is maybe virtual physically, but very real.
Linda also sent me several leaflets and she picked them right into my tastes, how did she know? :) She chose Heart in Hand's "A Christmas Wish", from A Stitcher's Hand a leaflet named "Needle Station", also "Pear's wreath" by Sisters and Best Friends.... and an out of print leaflet from Prairie Schooler, the sought after "Summer Samplers"!! Thank you so much, Linda!!! :) :) :)
The fact that Linda's mother worked on one of the ornaments gives in a very special value in my heart... Linda described the process in her blog, this was a very touching report (you might have to scroll back a few).

I feel a lucky gal this week... tomorrow I'll post about my trip to Cheeseland.

What a beauty from Mirabilia!

I must say I generally prefer L&L designs to Mirabilia, but this one (the new Christmas Tree) is a real gem. I can't afford it currently but I'll remember it when there is a sale in 2007! In the meantime I'll be watching others' progresses on this one... it looks amazing!

Mill Hill exchange

And here is the lovely MH exchange I received from Mary (Ozark Samplers): 4 skeins of Ozark threads, 1 Vicky Clayton silks, 1 DMC light effects and a MH buttoned and beaded kit from the Christmas Village series. And a piece of lovely pink fabric... I am sooooo spoiled this week!! More to come tomorrow.... a gorgeous Prairie Schooler exchange from Linda McM!!

Moose from Mylene!!

See that handsome moose guy I received from Mylene, am I not lucky? :) I have this thing about moose and reindeer.... and this is such a lovely addition to my home decoration!! I love the fuzzy cording and the ornie is soooo cute, so soft, so everything... Thank you again here, Mylene!!!

I think everyone knows Mylene's cards, she is such a talented card-maker. See the beautiful one she sent me for Christmas!!

I am back!!!

Thank you everyone for your care and crossing fingers, the beginning of the trip was awful! I'll send a detailed report about my trip tomorrow or during the week-end, it's been soooo lovely!

Coming back home, I had several lovely packages waiting for me to open...

I have tons to blog, so watch that space over the next days!!! :) Missed you a lot!!

Here is the new Pine Mountain Tie One Up Christmas pillow, I basically stitched it for H's mother, just waiting for him to tell me if it's okay enough ;-) It was a fast stitch, just two hours yesterday and tucking the pillow was a breeze!

I am in Cheeseland!

Hi everyone, i AM in Switzerland, I am here!!! It "only# took me TWO days!!! I was supposed to leave on Tuesday morning and I arrived to Geneva on Wednesday 21:20 PM!!!!!
Will write more when I can, currently I am typing, H. asking questions, my nephew playing with me with a dinosaur and asking me to scare him, his nanny babbling about men and I am trying to work.... LOL! Can't concentrate on writing anything more clever!!! :) Till soon!

MYLENE! Thanks a zillion for your support!!! I arrived DEAD but I arrived!!! :)))

Anxious Wednesday

Thank you Mylene! Please continue having your fingers crossed :). The smiley is here to force myself to smile as well ;-). I am working on a text overnight (slept some in the evening) and around 7, I'll take a shower and take a taxi to the airport. There is really almost no hope - I just watched the detailed latest weather forecast for Warsaw and Poland in general. The fog is here till Friday. There might be little moments when it will lift a big but I would have to have tons of luck.
I talked to H. and my brother in the evening. It was heart-breaking for me. Must be the enormous stress, but I do miss H. so much at this moment that it is almost physical. Like if an internal clock inside me was counting every minute we're losing of our stay together.
The concert is tomorrow in Zurich. We were supposed to borrow my brother's car, drive to Zurich and back in the night after the concert. If I can't fly to Zurich before tomorrow, I'll have to think of a solution, like staying in Zurich and waiting for H. who'd then take the train to join me, I don't know really. I want to be IN A PLANE today!!!! ^%%^#%#
So they were having nice family time in the evening, great dinner (my brother cooks wonderfully). They told me that my 4,5 years old nephew made a very sad face, he was about to cry when he saw "uncle H." alone. He called me in the evening to comfort me and said: there is no fog tomorrow, auntie, please come tomorrow. It was sooooo sweet :)
We *will* remember that 10th anniversary, oh yes we will... :(

Please cross ALL fingers...

I am back HOME after 8 hours at the airport. In short, it's even worse. Just a few flights departed in the very early morning. All the rest are cancelled. Cancelled. Cancelled. We were already at the gate, full of hope, when we were informed that the plane from Zurich was diverted back to Berlin. The fog is incredible. I can't see the next house. Zero visibility. And that's the second day, so you can imagine the thousands of exhausted/angry passengers in the airport halls. No information. I was smart [...] and with another girl, we rebooked our flight for this evening. I was supposed to be in Geneva before midnight. And no. Again. Still no flights starting or flying in. Cancelled. I have now rebooked for tomorrow morning. The terrible news is that the fog is expected to stay till FRIDAY. H. is already in Geneva. Picked up by my brother. Now enjoying nice family time and all. I am close to crying - it really doesn't look like I'll be able to fly tomorrow either. The concert in Zurich is on Thursday - will we miss that too??? This was supposed to be a short romantic stay to celebrate our 10th anniversary. With every minute, it's getting shorter. I am devastated.... Please cross all fingers for me, I so want to fly tomorrow morning... I have to. I just have to.... H. is there alone with my family and he'll be fine, but it all wasn't supposed to be this way, really not.... :( :( :(

Crisis crisis crisis crisis....

Warsaw airport is not accepting any incoming flights and not releasing any. The reason? We're having today the biggest fog since 1968.... Yep, you read it right. It hasn't lifted since the morning. Want to see the situation? Click here. Want worse? It's supposed to be the same tomorrow. I love it! First I need to board onto my plane to Zurich, which might or not happen tomorrow, then I need to be rebooked on a flight from Zurich to Geneva. Looks like my brother is going to pick up H. alone at the airport, he's taking a direct flight from Oslo. Please cross all available non-stitching fingersfor me!
Not sure if I'll be able to blog from Cheeseland, will try to.
Stitching wise, I machine-washed the afghan for H - still need to iron it. I'll spread it out on a big bed at my brother's and make a picture. It took me *hours* to fringe it [..] by hand. It's missing two blocks in the left corner and I hate it, but at least it will be clean, ironed and really, it looks gorgeous! Great feeling to see it after all these months I spent working on it. Lynne, if you read this - yes, I neeeed a sewing machine!!! LOL
For the travel, I'm taking with me a mysterious project for a quickie exchange for Suzanne from the PS group. Hope to send it next week when I'm back!

On Sunday, I and H. be celebrating our 10 years together... I am all nostalgic about it... I am thankful for each and every day with him... he's the best! :)

Saturday Quick Post

I mentioned the other day in our PS group my first stocking I stitched last year for my nephew. It is a Bent Creek 2005 pattern. I received it too late from the finisher (end of January, two months in the mail) last year but my nephew will get it this year. I was so surprised to find out it's so small. I was expecting to get a biiiig stocking! Also, I sent the template to the finisher but she "cut" the bottom part in a very strange way. If she had followed the pattern, the shape would have been nice and the stocking much bigger. I am not sure why she decided to cut close to the stitches. Now that I think of it, maybe she did something wrong and eventually just had to? The LNS had mentioned she was doing her first stockings. Anyway - I didn't like that finish but my nephew won't care. Probably he won't care much about it at all - though my point was to create a sort of family heirloom he would keep forever.

I am babbling too much tonight! Must be all the work I need to do ;-)

Almost 11 pm here and I haven't found the way to the couch (=relaxing and stitching) yet :(. First I overslept. I did hear the alarm clock but decided to sleep just a little bit more... you know the system. Glad that H. called to ask about something, it was just 3 minutes before my appointment at the hair-dresser. I was able to delay it one hour, so I had a quick shower, a fraction of a breakfast and had a hair "balayage" and this time I told my fav' hair-dresser how to cut the front - it's wonderful this time. I am very satisfied with the result. Then I spent 5 (five) more hours in town, I didn't know that toy shops can be that tiring!!! Especially on a Saturday....

Anyway, I got enough gifts for my nephew to make him very, very, very happy and I also bought little somethings to add to Christmas gifts for friends. And I bought a pair of winter shoes!! Much too expensive for my taste but instead of two pairs (one for jeans and one for skirts - for the one or two times I wear a skirt every winter, but parties can happen! LOL) I found an ideal pair that will be great for both. The price was not ideal... but seeing as time is running and my to-do list seems to elongate constantly, I should say I'm happy. I am just a bit worried because the shoes seem a little bit too loose in the heel zone. Anyway. They're bought and they'll be used. We'll see if they become favorites or not ;-) Here's how they look with the fur cuff down and up.

Missing in action?

Definitely, yep, missing in action, flooded and all the rest. Flooded with work and life. I manage to squeeze in 2-3 hours of sleep each night or during the day and I am by now totally exhausted, so those of you I owe a reply to, please please please forgive my being late, I am really doing my best. Don't ask me when I'll buy a pair of shoes, go to the bank, to the post office, buy gifts, clean the flat, work (still more to do!) or even wash my hair - I am lost. I also have an appointment at the dentist - and I'm taking the plane in 4 days!!! Impossible, I tell you.
When I have a moment and seriously need to stop thinking about homeopathy, yet another legal text or construction details, which my clients generously ask me to process with my head, I work like a rocket on the afghan for H. There is still a tiny, tiny chance I will be able to give it to him on Tuesday, though if I maybe have time to put the last stitches, wash and iron the piece, I won't be able to fringe it. But who cares, heh.
I just can't wait for that week together and unplugging from work (clients allowing, but I am taking my keyboard and most important files). In just a week, one of my biggest dreams will come true! Chris de Burgh's concert in Zurich, I mean. He started the European tournee for his new album last Saturday in Birmingham and from the reviews I read, it's going to be almost 3 hours !!! of pure craziness. I caaaaaaan't wait!!!! I think I'll dissolve on my seat listening to his best songs because yes, he sings a lots of his most beautiful songs this time.
I just need to survive my brother, SIL and nephew for a week, but I'll do my best LOL!
Four days, just FOUR days! Dam di dam di dam!! :)
And yes, I promise to answer to all late mail tomorrow. Sure thing! Just need to get through one more sleepless night and deliver 3 more jobs till Friday noon.

Mill Hill purchases

It's been a loooong time since I bought any Mill Hill kits. I still haven't got the medieval Santas and the Santa clothes from earlier this year, those are on my To Buy list, but that has to wait. I got a couple of pins with some bigger order recently, and yesterday I couldn't resist several older spring pins on ebay, including this one:

I just can't wait to put my hands on it! :)