Finally a finish!

And I'm so glad with the way it looks! Here it is, at last, a 2007 summer finish!

Design/-er: Awake the Dawning Day by Blackbird Designs

Fabric: 30ct Iced Cappucino (R&R Reproductions)

Threads: WDW and GAST

I am a late BD fan. "Their Song" was the first chart I stitched and I really got hooked! I know some people are not so fond of this leaflet and especially of the new one issued (which I am not sure fits my style so I haven't got it yet - I love the colors but not so much the general theme) so I'd really like to say that Awake the Dawning Day is gorgeous. Very beautiful combination of colors on an ideally chosen fabric. The weird thing is that with the previous project, I hated working on R&R fabric (this was also a first time) and I remember telling myself that well, the next time I have to pick something else. This time I just loved it, maybe because of the way the colors played on the shade of the fabric. So if you're not sure if, hesitate, etc., do not, it is really a beautiful piece!

One could also stitch the upper part only and put initials or other lettering in the bottom. This would then look this way:

Saturday update

Most of the days this summer - and I'm talking of the period since June 2nd till August 18th, that is now, here is what I saw out of my bedroom window here:

Rain, rain, rain and more rain. I remember telling H. by the end of July that it just can't rain more than 2 full months, that August would be lovely... yeah right! ;-)

The good side of the bad weather is that I cooked and baked a lot, almost every day. Today I've baked a 4-corns bread and I'm preparing a delicious spicy pasta with chicken, tomato sauce, different types of seeds and more. Looks yummy! :) This week H.'s mother made some "rolls" (that's how my totally cuisine-challenged darling called them and there was no way to get more information out of him LOL!) and don't be put off by the look, they were de-li-cious!! So soft and tasty, I just have to ask her for the recipe and make them myself. I don't think I've ever eathen such type of "rolls" before, they're too sweet to be eaten as bread for breakfast but delicious eaten alone of with something on them...

Shop models for sale

Some are quite cute actually. Stitchesnthings have put some of their shop models for sale, and I really can't understand why this Prairie Schooler gorgeous one still hasn't found a buyer http://www.stitchesnthings.com/detail.cfm?ID=19394
There is also a PS Santa made in specialty floss, one with blackbirds.
Oh, I just love these two pieces of work. But I can't justify the purchase at the moment :)

Norwegian 'souvenirs'

If you really have nothing better, I mean nothing better to do, you can see what are the Top 10 most selling Norwegian souvenirs here. Pure horror but what? This must reflect tourists' tastes, right? There's been a discussion on the media last week based on the general reflection that something has to be done to improve the style, the quality, the nature of what's been sold as "typical of Norway. Not to mention that the same "viking" items are sold as Swedish or Danish across both borders, just that the wording is changed. And that all this is manufactured in China.

I must say, though, that I love Barbie's dress on picture #4. Guess why? :)

Thank you, Mary Kathryn and Cheryl! :)
Nath - Je m'en vais passer tour chez les Helvetes histoire de visiter mon p'tit Suisse de neveu fin aout, mais je serai de retour sur Varsovie tard le 9 septembre ! Je me languis un petit peu de revoir mon minuscule chez moi, va savoir pourquoi ! :)


Indeed not being able to stitch was part of the initial desastrous mood I had LOL! I remember the first evening, I sat down, looked sadly and said to H.: "Heh? What am I going to do? I can't work, I can't stitch, I can't type, I can't help at home, so WHAT am I going to do all these weeks? Heh?" But you know how it is, we humans learn to cope with everything if we have to. A few days later I was typing with 2 fingers of the right hand and the left one, just that work took me three times longer, was much uncomfortable and involved shoulder pain, but so what. I learned how to do most things with the left hand and I swear that if it had to last longer, I'd have learned to work and stitch with the left hand. I even tried once :) but it went too slow to my taste. Once in a while I picked the needle in the right hand and put in a few slow stitches by making lots of weird large movements with the cast in the air. H. looked desperated and asked: - do you reeeeally have to? - yes I do! - was my happy answer. I guess I as a stitcher needed my cross stitch (drug) fix because after a few stitches I went on to house chores with a broad smile! :) But I swear that after seing me stitching with my cast, H. lost the last hope he had that I am normal. You should have seen his face and his rolling eyes! LOL

Now... Now that I can stitch, I intend to do a lot of that :)

Norwegian (the airlines) had a nice 2-day promotion this week for a few destinations which included Oslo, Geneva and Warsaw and we jumped on the occasion. It was a tough job to coordinate all that but within 2 hours I communicated with my brother in Switzerland at his office, H. checked his work obligations in September, and we played fast with the dates which had promotional prices (19 usd! all costs included). We weren't able to get all the segments for that price, of course but all in all, it was a real bargain. So here's how it goes. On August 28th I fly to Geneva for a week and back to Oslo on Sept. 4th, H. stays here to take care of the furry part of the family, then I return to Warsaw on Sept. 9th with The Queen, and H. will do a fast 2 days trip to Warsaw with the rest of my luggage and Happy. I will only be flying with minimum luggage to protect the hand. That'll be a lot of travelling very soon, because as soon as I am back home, I should travel to see my aunt and father, in two different towns, as well. Busy, busy!


Okay, now to stitching. I am almost done with Awake the Dawning Day, just that I received one wrong color of WDW with the kitted chart, so I'm currently waiting just for that skein to finish the two birds. I decided against posting a picture because it will look much nicer once the birds are there :)

I have one Bent Creek project waiting for the finishing part to be done since June, I'm working on it and I'll post details later. Plus several WIPs which I should put the last stitches on but somehow don't feel inspired to right now.

Today I started LHN's "The Sampler Lady". I chose a lovely piece of dusty pink Lakeside Linens in 40ct and I'm so happy with the choice. The original on the cover page was done on Light Examplar but I put the threads on several pieces of fabric and really loved the way they looked on this old' pink. It should take me a week, I think. I'm doing it with one thread over two. Lovely, lovely, lovely this chart! I had to order it as soon as I saw it :) I often wondered why I don't see it being done on many blogs.

Here is the start as of today:

The colors are distorted in artificial light but the general idea is shown :)

Oh, not that that's the news of the millenium, but I forgot to mention I'm in a cooking/baking period of mine and fresh bread is served regularly for breakfast. Here's two I baked yesterday, the left beeing a darker flour variation of the right one. They are soo good! :) Nothing beats a homebaked bread, I tell you!

Yesterday we had coffee after dinner with a Norwegian specialty, lefse and Namdalsgomme, a sort of sugary spread with cinammon which you can also see on the photo.

From Wikipedia: Lefse is a traditional soft Norwegian flatbread made out of potato, milk or cream and flour, and cooked on a griddle. Special tools are available for lefse baking, including long wooden turning sticks and special rolling pins with deep grooves. There are significant regional variations in the way lefse is made and eaten, but it generally resembles a flatbread, although in many parts of Norway, especially Valdres, it is far thinner.

If you want to read more, click here.

And here's what Happy meant to say about it:

And today I baked a yummy banana bread per Mary Kathryn's recipe. H. is not so fond of cakes in general and when your man swallows one slice after another like he did today, it sure makes you smile, doesn't it? :) Anyway, one hour later over half of it was gone! My version looked different from MaryK's photo, it was brownish in color but what do I care? It was YUMMY and that's all that counts. I had to work a bit on the cup to metric conversions but it worked. The main problem was when I asked H. to get me a pack of baking soda one day after work with the daily shopping. A pack of what? Baking soda. Whazzat? (sigh) You don't know what baking soda is? No. I think I heard about it but I am not sure. Okay, right. Baking soda is baking soda, right? :) Multiple dictionaries later I was able to tell him that baking soda is 'natron' according to the wise authors and success! The next day I found 'natronpulver' in the shopping bag, proudly brought in by a very smiling H.. He deserved his treat today, me says! :)

Back to blogging

Your favorite Polish stitcher is back to blogging! :) Mylene sent me an email last week to kick my b-tt out and it worked, thank you Mylene!

The cast is off. It was indeed unexpectedly a real, first-time-in-my-life fracture. I broke the trapezium bone in the wrist/hand, it is located sort of at the base of the thumb, so what hurt was the thumb and not the hand or wrist as such. I was lucky - what broke was not the bone itself, in which case the cast would have had to be on for a double period (iiiiick!) but a sort of tubercule this bone has in its upper part - so I had the cast for about a month, I think. After the MRI, the blue version was replaced by a red version of my choice (there were 6 colors to choose from :)) which freed my thumb ans was thus a little lighter. I had a lot of work during this period and my work involves typing all day so I certainly appreciated a little less weight to carry, my shoulder was really hurting at times. With this version I could type with 4 fingers of the right hand, which was neat but of course I had to be careful, so I only typed what was related to work or otherwise urgent. Don't ask me why the thumb was freed, the orthopedist said that the lenght of the cast provided enough support for the wrist and indeed it did. It felt weird however and I had to be much more careful in not hurting it.

Now, what more. As of now I'm back to stitching, though not as much as I use to, also due to lack of time. H. had two weeks off work but we didn't have a summer vacation as such. In a way, it was a good thing, because anything we would have planned would have been a loss of money this year. It rained in Norway for eight full weeks - morning till evening and evening till morning, and now the sun is back but it also rains daily. We managed to do some trips in the region and boat trips on the Oslofjord though. I hear that the rest of Europe didn't have a good summer either this year.

I walk a lot with Happy in the surrounding forests, and we so enjoy these moments. Sometimes it is one hour daily, sometimes I make longer 3 h expeditions when clients don't keep me busy. I've walked in all directions around here and "explored" new tracks and walking possibilities. Norway is all up and down bigger and smaller hills, so I'm really tired and happy to return to the base - home :)

I'm about to buy my flight ticket back tonight. I plan to return to Warsaw late on Sept. 3, which just the hand luggage (laptop/cables/work necessities), Toska-the-cat and one smaller luggage. Hakon will fly in a little later for a week-end with Happy and the other biiiig piece of luggage. He suggested so because of my right hand.

I'll be updating the blog regularly now and should post a lot in the next days, however due to the limited stitching I did in the last time the posts won't be much related to that. Only usual rubbish and pictures from the region/Oslo.

I've rewared myself and ordered a couple of kitted charts, among which Barrick's new Fraktur Flower and the rest I just can't remember at this moment :)

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer (uuuuuh, more than I did mine!! LOL)

Biscornu frebies

You biscornu lovers, you just have to see this one:
http://kissycross.twoday.net/20070712/

Isn'it is just amazingly beautiful? I have yet to make a biscornu myself and I only own one (thank you Mylene!!) ... they sort of intimidate me. I know, I should try my hands on one. However, inspiration is lacking for the moment. But if I ever try to make biscornus, I will surely remember this one. Oh you know, you see a cross-stitched piece and you just know you have to... :) I am just stunned by the beauty of this one!


There's a simple blue one here too and lots more:
http://misst.canalblog.com/

Norwegian hytter

"Norwegians love to escape to their holiday homes and cabins known as hytter. Not to be confused with "huts," the holiday getaways have grown increasingly comfortable and spacious over the years"...

Read more and see pictures here for an insight on Norway:
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/bildeserier/article1884655.ece?start=1

Also, Norway's westernmost 'hytte':
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/bildeserier/article1884520.ece

We've spent holidays at a large number of hytter over the years and most were very memorable days. We so enjoy being in the nature.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Waiting to know more

(edited with note to myself: shouldn't blog when having a "down" moment!)

Hi everyone,

Thank you so very much for your words of support here and in private. They mean so much to me!
[deleted]
The magnetic resonance check is scheduled for next Wedneday in 3 days and then I should see the doctor on the same day or the next. [deleted] That's when I'll know how long a regular white cast is needed, if I have to return to Poland to have the hand operated etc.
In that context stitching is something I miss a lot BUT... so many more serious things are more important currently.
I'm already planning which projects I will reward myself with once I CAN stitch! though! LOL I swear I'm going to be good to myself!!

On another note, it hasn't stopped raining day and night since 5 weeks, can you believe? I follow the Norwegian style of life and don't care :) I'm having (almost) daily long walks with Happy. Nature is all around here, just a 5 mn walk to the nearest small lake, forests etc. I just love it here.
On my daily walk:



H. is almost finished with the new sitting place outside. The wooden terrace is ready since a month or so but he's doing works around it and I've been planting flowers (via his hands) :)

Hand in cast!

(you will excuse the uglybackground, it's a room we haven't renovated yet and the house belonged, well, to a lovely but older person, H's mother)

Just a quick hello to explain my disappearance. I made a bad fall 8 days ago in the garden and well, I finally made xrays today at the emergency in Oslo. The xray didn't show any fracture but the doctor suspects that the scaphoid bone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaphoid) might be broken, in which case I will have a cast for 8 (EIGHT) weeks. I have to undergo a magnetic resonance check this week, it can only be seen there. Otherwise the hand is just twisted. Anyway, for the first time in my life, I have something put in a cast, from the fingers up to the elbow, and it's the right hand. Not, not, not funny! They decided to immobilize it while I do the MR, maximum 2 weeks. That's be two LONG weeks, if you ask me. I can't even lace my shoes so H. does it for me in the morning before leaving for work - just so I can walk the dog etc. It's too cold for open shoes.
So, silence from me it will be till I can type faster and better. I am able to type very slowly but it is SLOW with the left hand and some fingers on the right hand, painful (strains the right hand that has to carry the cast) and NOT funny because my work involves typing all day etc.
Plus I have to cover all costs myself but that's a whole different story.

So I just have to say sorry! to anyone I should have written to. I'll be back when things are better.
Oh what a bad summer.

Need I say more? No stitching for me till who knows when. Bleeeeeh.

Hmppffff!

Please scroll down to Sunday posts below or click here to see my gifts from Irene and Mylene (this time in alphabetical order) - I had created a draft post on Sunday and though I edited it now, instead of posting it with today's date, it is mixed with older ones. Bleeeeeh Blogger.

Late birthday post (1)

My birthday was three weeks ago, where does time fly?? Soon it will be time to start Christmas projects :) Thank you everyone for your wishes, I was so surprised to receive many lovely messages and cards by e-mail! They were so important this year. As I mentioned before, this year I didn't celebrate because I was flying to Norway just a few days later. H. invited me for dinner in our favorite restaurant by a lake. This is one of the most beautiful places on Earth to have a dinner and yet it is not expensive. I mean, it is Norwegian expensive, but the prices don't affect the location. I need to find photos from last year, I didn't feel for taking the same ones, so I'll just post the two I took now; however they don't show much.

Still in Warsaw, a funny thing happened. This year my father forgot about my b-day LOL! And I was vicious, oh sooooo vicious, that I only jokingly mentioned it to him 2-3 days later when he called me to say wishes because of the Day of the Child - he still considers it a point of honor to call me every year and always says I'm still his child even if I'm grown up :) I am not sure if this day is celebrated elsewhere, but at least in Poland it is meant more for persons a bit younger than me :) Point is, this time he called me one day early! LOL Then I almost regretted reminding him about my b-day (but one day he found find it out himself and then think I was hurt by his silence) because he went into a sort of hysterical reaction, so unusual of him. He kept repeating "How did that happen? How could I let this happen? My memory fails me, I am getting old!" so I took all the time and care of the world to reassure him that it *really didn't matter* because I knew he wishes me well and it was just a birthday! I heard him shouting to his wife "Do you know what happened? I can't believe this is possible! We forgot about Ania's birthday!" and he was so shocked... Anyway, I did what I could. But the following day, someone rang at the door. I thought it was the mail man with a package Donna announced but when I opened, it was a messenger with a gift basket. I was so surprised! I didn't get that many in my life LOL! My first thought was that it's from H. and the second why he would do that one day before my flight to Norway. The flower would die during the summer... Then I read the card that was attached and... it was a small gift basket from my father. He must have asked to have it prepared for the Day of the Child because except the bottle of egg liquor, the basket was filled up with sweets :) It was such a surprise. We don't usually do gift baskets in the family!

Inspected by The Queen herself :

Food, Norwegians and Sweden

What do they have in common?

See description of the Svinesund bridge from Wikipedia: Svinesund is a sound separating the Swedish municipality of Strömstad in the province of Bohuslän in the county of Västra Götaland from the Norwegian municipality of Halden in the county of Østfold.
Two bridges, the old and new Svinesund Bridge (no:Svinesundsbroen sv:Svinesundsbron), span the sound. The Swedish side is extremely popular with Norwegians who flock to buy cheaply in Sweden, where a large shopping area can be found immediately after crossing the sound. Following the erection of the new bridge in 2005, road taxes must be paid to drive into Norway using either bridge, and to drive into Sweden using the new bridge.

Today we were among the cars crossing the bridge. H. left work a bit earlier, was home around 3pm to pick me up with Happy and we drove to Sweden, about 1h-1,5 h by car depending on the traffic - or much much more. There are road works since I don't remember when and it slows down the traffic a lot.

I'm sure you know Norway is THE most expensive country of the world. My brother lives in Switzerland (which I don't consider a cheap country) and he often says it sounds impossible, but Norway is MUCH much more expensive.

So, what the Norwegians do, is that they drive accross the border to Sweden and fill trunks with as much as they can put into. Customs limitations don't let them buy whole trucks of food, otherwise they (we) would. Today we bought 20 kgs of meat, mostly chicken, which we love, and other needed stuff such as washing powder, pet food, cosmetics, spices, etc. Trust me, the difference in price makes it worth to drive there for shopping. Just a minute or two after crossing the border, an artificial village of big halls awaits - all built for the Norwegian!

It is not possible to stop on the Svinesund bridge, so this is all I could get as a photo today for you, which I always regret, because the fjord is so beautiful there. On one side - Norway, on the other - Sweden. Oh, and I realize these pictures don't show anything. They're just here for the record ;-)

(view to the old bridge)

Late birthday post... (2)

See that beautiful present I received from Mylene!! I was doubly thrilled because I have never done neither received a biscornu before... It's my first and it's GORGEOUS! I was soooo happy to discover it after opening the envelope. Mylene does such beautiful work (and beware, I hear that she's joined the quilting world recently!). I think the cording is made with the same thread as used for the pattern on thebiscornu. And you know what? The little button has "For You" written on it. How suiting!! And the giftie was accompanied by one of Mylene's worlwide famous hand-made cards, which I am now lucky to have more than one! :)

Now, my birthday surprise from Irene for the 2007 exchange within the Stitching Bloggers Birthday/Christmas Club ran by Becky. See all the neat goodies I received! Irene sent it to me directly to Norway and was it a lovely package to unpack! She sent me the cat/mouse Workbasket chart (from my wishlist, thanks so much, Irene!), the Norway heart from The Victoria Sampler, and here is a decription from their website:

Norway - "Tweed Stitch and Hardangersom"

Official Flower: Purple Heather

National Animal: Elk

National Bird: The Dipper

National Symbol: Milk

The Tweed Stitch, right under the Dipper bird, symbolizes dark green trees and deep fjords this country is known for. The Hardanger Heart, represents the specialty stitch technique we know and love, which has it's origins in this northern country. This geometrical drawn thread work takes its name from a town on the southwestern coast of Norway on the Hardanger Fjord. The technique is still used for parts of the festive folk costumes, and bridal wear, as well as household linens.

What else? A beautiful needle minder from Kelmscott Designs, which I always wanted to have, three different skeins in pink, my favorite color! and an extremely cute little tin box with Canadian chocolates, that vanished in a short time! They were delicious.

Irene took such visible care in picking the right items for me that I was particularly touched... thanks so much!

Again, Mylene and Irene, I am sorry for taking so long to show off these wonderful presents!

Pillow for Cheryl

I posted a link to Cheryl's blog before, but just for the record, here it is. I absolutely love the color combination. I picked an odd piece of Lakeside Linens 40 ct. linen - and my eyes didn't thank me for that LOL! and a skein of a color named Melon from The Dye Shop that alas doesn't exist anymore.

Next giftie will be for the ten thousandth reader, but that's a long way to go :)

Design: Pique et Pique (France)

Fabric: Lakeside Linens 40 ct

Threads: The Dye Shop (color -Melon)

The Queen...

Thank you...

...for your numerous messages on and off this blog! It's such a warm feeling to get in contact with you all again, thanks so much for your comments :) I've already sent many late e-mails out, some still wait in the queue :) Today was a bit windy here though sunny and I don't have much work for Monday, so I am sitting at my laptop most of the day and catching up... Watch this space this week-end :)
PETRA - I had a big broad smile when I read your comment :) Actually I had told H. to have his camera ready for when I exit to the arrival hall. Even my aunt kept telling me I am trying to do Mission Impossible. With 3 pieces of luggage and 2 transporters with pets, I wondered myself. What the picture doesn't show well is that one of the suitcases is huge, the other not so enormous, plus hand-luggage and Happy's transporter biiiig. I chose a bigger model than I had to wen I bought it last year because I wanted him to have loads of space inside. I decided not to stress though, chose a very early flight when I had to be at the airport at 5 am (!!!) because I figured there wouldn't be many planes cheking out and that - most importantly - whatever I do, however I behave, whatever ridiculous I and it might all look - at 5 am most people try to fight sleepy eyes and simply won't care. True! I didn't stress too much but I must say that if not for a wonderful family (a father with 3 grown-up daughters) it would have been much harder. They offered to help, carried my luggage, helped at the x-ray stand (pets had to be taken out, their transporters x-rayed and then put again in) etc. I was sooo thankful.
When it comes to photos from here, I'm afraid they might be very local this summer. Money is on the low side and we have tons of expenses related to works in and around the house, so we might not move much from home except for trips in the nature around. We've travelled so much and I've seen most of Norway already, which is not nothing if you look at its lenght and of course I LOVE to see, experience and discover, but it might be so that I won't have that many spectacular pictures to share this time. I realize that people expect to see perfect beauty and fjords when they hear 'Norway'...
SHARON - I am not 'back' LOL, I am here till late August or early September :) And I am so enjoying being here.
NATH - Merci pour ton gentil message ! Dieu que j'envie tes talents multiples ! Le sac est absolument génial :)
ELA - alez oczywiscie, wklej prosze :) Gdanska chyba nie zalicze tego lata, ale co sie odwlecze... :)
When it comes

In Norway!

I'm in Norway already, since 10 days and I haven't updated my blog in a looong while.

First, I would like to ask forgiveness to *anyone* who I haven't replied to yet - especially Donna, Mylene, Linda, MaryK and many others. I feel extremely guilty but I just have to say the last period was pure madness, so if you read this, PLEASE forgive me, I am terribly sorry, I am not ignoring anyone or nor caring, definitely not, I just wasn't able to cope with everything! During some periods days should last 48 h.

I'll update the blog with photos later but now I just wanted to write a quickie to say hei! (the Norwegian way) to everyone and first reply by e-mail before I go on here.

The last period in Warsaw was hot in all ways - weather, work and packing :)

The trip by plane went super fine:

You can only see Happy's tongue but he really is there in the lower transporter. Actually things went excatly the opposite way to what I expected. Toska (aka The Queen) - I thought she would be extremely stressed and need a long week of time to recover, but all the trip (airport, plane, drive home) didn't seem to impress her at all. She was CALM!!! like I don't know what. She amazed me totally. On the other hand, Happy had a great trip last year but this time he was extremely stressed and made sounds from the moment I got the transporter with him at the airport till the moment he could finally go out outside the airport building, and he asked with his paw that I finally open the damn prison, and cried and cried. He's such a calm dog normally so I was really sorry for him this time. The procedure at the customs went super fine. I have to go through the red section (goods to declare plus live animals) and some of you might know that the veterinary procedure to "import" pets into Norway is of the toughest ones. The customs officer was very careful in checking all official stamps, writings etc. but all had been prepared in the smallest details by me and it went fine. I was first a little bit anxious because the man was so "official" and not smiling, but I know they have to be so - and Norwegians often are that way anyway - but usually a big honest smile follows and that's what happened this time too.

H. was waiting for us and we drove home making just a small stop at our fav' pet shop to buy a thing or two more. My darling had bought everything himself the previous day: dog and cat food, litter and litter box, scoop, bowls etc. It was the first time The Queen was about to visit Norway :)

Since then I had tons of work and deadlines (also known as dead lions among translators) to face and many were the days I worked most of the day and night.

I'll continue later but I'll just add I'm making long walks in the nature with Happy, we work in the garden planting trees and flowers, and I only picked my needle yesterday.

I was actually about to reappear here on Monday, but on Monday... Happy escaped and I don't have to tell you what trying to find a lost dog involves. Police, other services, driving around till the wee hours of the night, and FINALLY getting him back a day later. I'll make a seperate post about that to describe how efficient and amazing the Norwegian can be!! Anyway Happy is back, but it's easy to see the whole thing was a huge stress. He slept all the evening and during the night, he hugged to me with his nose on mine, and he was just a ppoooooor little doggie all too happy to be with those he loves - and who love him. Dearly, as would say H., as we had to fork out over 200 usd!! to have him back. Yikes. But all the world knows Norway IS expensive. To those who haven't yet experienced Norway's expensiveness, I'll say: try to imagine it, multiply by nine, raise your hair, say Holy cow!, raise your hair and you might be close :)

Nath from France has received her little surprise and she already stitched one piece :)

Cheryl received the pillow I made for her as a giftie for being the 5000th to visit my blog and I am more than delighted to read the comments :) I loved the result myself and I am so glad she liked it!!!

I just love making new friends through this blog!! :) Thank you so much for enriching my life!

(toldya we all enjoy our time here!)

Away...

I know I disappeared :) But after a week filled with stress and too much thinking, I had taken the decision to just pack and leave for some days at my family - and I had such a great time that the stay elongated to almost 12 days :) During that period I really didn't feel for blogging... just had too much of a nice time :) To those who might think I was on vacation, I hasten to add - nope! I took my laptop with me and worked normally. My free-lance status means I can do excatly the same job as at home, anywhere there is an Internet connection. I am sure I don't have to convince you that working in the garden here, surrounded with gorgeous flowers in full bloom is just heaven comparing to working in my tiny flat in the center of a big town. Hah! I enjoyed every minute spent with my family. Gradma is slowing down with every day passing but she's just amazing. At 98,5 she's in better shape than most 80 years old people I know. Both my cousins with families live close to my aunt and visit very often. And the 4 cats and 2 dogs provide additional fun :)

The GREAT news is that despite a non-celebrated :( birthday next week, I have my plane tickets bought and ready for June 2nd, which is Saturday in more or less two weeks - I'll be leaving for my summer in Norway and I just can't wait!!! Now I need to fulfill the last steps of the veterinary procedure for both Happy and The Queen which means the next 10 days will be VERY busy. Happy has already taken the plane last year to Oslo but it'll be a first time for The Queen. And H. flew with me that day so it all wasn't that terrible despite the obvious stress. This time I'm facing taking a taxi to the airport with a) two big suitcases b) hand-luggage reduced to laptop in a hand-bag c) one big transporter with a dog d) one smaller transporter with a cat e) me and myself f) my STRESS, hey, I just have two hands!! I don't have the smallest clue how I'm going to cope with all that, kicking luggage with my feet while talking gently to my pets and holding tickets etc. in my hands. Well, I'll tell you. If I manage to do it, I'll be a proud gal. I keep telling myself that this is doable. The problem was that there weren't any cheap tickets left and the cost of H. flying back of worth to pick me up from Warsaw and help with the logistics was really prohibitive. Ya all know how travelling can be costly.

So, I've promised to live my birthday like it's just another day in the year and SMILE because in just a few days, I'll be flying to Norway! Waaahoo!!

Donna, I know I've been tagged, will reply asap! I'll be back home tomorrow. It's awfully HOT and my cousin and wife are going to Warsaw by car tomorrow so I'll travel with them instead of taking the train.

To the little giftie I promised - only Mylene posted a comment that day and I had promised Cheryl to put her name in the "hat" as well, resulting in her "winning", so if you see this, Cheryl, please send me your snail mail addy to fjordgirl at gmail dot com :) Mylene signed up for a PIF form me so a giftie will fly to Holland in due time :)

I've finished Their Song and started working on another piece. Pictures - soon.

I'm just sending this quickie as midnight approaches and I need to get up in just 5 hours, so I'll post more pictures tomorrow, if time allows.