PS spring exchange # 5

The final project is the one I made for Ela... Adapted from:

Prairie Schooler - leaflet # 118 - Farm fresh

PS spring exchange # 4

Next one is the piece I made for Sharon... I adapted it from:

Prairie Schooler - leaflet # 107 - Just hatched

PS spring exchange # 3

Here is the rabbit I made for Donna, same design as below both different colors. For both, I used silks and WDW/GAST threads and Moda fabric on the back, sewed to the linen with tiny colorful stitches.

PS spring exchange # 2

Here is what I stitched and sent to Cheryl:

Prairie Schooler - leaflet # 13 - A prairie year

Prairie Schooler fob exchange

Here is the lovely fob I received from Milly within the fob exchange organized by Lynne in our Prairie Schooler group!

Mine left today for the US, hope Milly likes it too.

PS spring exchange from Sharon

Sharon sent me not one, but two lovely pieces! I adore the bookmark and the biscornu is so cute :) I am unsure of the name of the leaflet for the biscornu, so Sharon, if you let me know, I'll update it. I know that Sharon updated the design a bit to make it more "spring"!
I also received threads, an absolutely cute Easter egg, a wonderfully smelling candle which also has a colour I just love and spreads its perfume in the room as I type, and some rick-rack banding which will come super handy for spring designs, all this in a lovely Easter bag!
Thank you so much Sharon, I so enjoyed this exchange with you.

Better picture of...

... Tanya's new freebie

Irish Home Blessing, for Will

by Tanya Anderson, The Sampler Girl

downloadable HERE.

Stitched over 1 on 40 ct

Easter photos

(some pictures can be clicked on and enlarged, some not - I never understood how Blogger works, if you understand it, please let me know, I think it might be a codes problem when they are uploaded and in the way they are placed)

Easter brakfast - starters...

The Old town square in my hometown. I decided to show H. a fantastically restored cathedral and do the swieconka there. Shamelessly I'll copy a description from Wikipedia below:

Święconka (pronounced [ɕvʲɛnˈtsɔnka]), meaning "the blessing of the Easter baskets," is one of the most enduring and beloved Polish traditions on Holy Saturday.
Baskets containing a sampling of Easter foods are brought to church to be blessed on Holy Saturday. The basket is traditionally lined with a white linen or lace napkin and decorated with sprigs of boxwood (bukszpan), the typical Easter evergreen. Poles take special pride in preparing a decorative and tasteful basket with crisp linens, occasionally embroidered for the occasion, and boxwood and ribbon woven through the handle. Observing the creativity of other parishioners is one of the special joys of the event.

In the basket, we put a piece of bread, salt, boiled eggs, a piece of sausage, a sheep made of butter, a piece of ham - that's the basic version which some expand to their liking.

As a proof of the bad weather, the old town square was desert... at 1 pm...

The Fara cathedral - too bad I can't show nor find pictures online of the renovated interiors. They are amazing - dark, deep purple, pink and reds in gorgeous shades and styles.

More pictures from the Old Town

One of the symbols of Bydgoszcz, the monument for the victims of the II World War - a major point of my childhood. I used to visit the old town regularly with my grandparents on my tiny tiny feet, feed the pigeons, observe the fire burning...

In the background, the Town Hall.

A new attraction, Twardowski showing himself each to people gathered at 1:10 pm

Again, from Wikipedia:

According to an old legend, Twardowski was a nobleman (szlachcic) who lived in Kraków in the 16th century. He sold his soul to the devil in exchange for great knowledge and magical powers. However, Twardowski wanted to outwit the devil by including a special clause in the contract, stating that the devil could only take Twardowski's soul to Hell during his visit to Rome – a place the sorcerer never intended to go. Other variants of the story have Twardowski being sold to the devil as a child by his father.
With the devil's aid, Twardowski quickly rose to wealth and fame, eventually becoming a courtier of King Sigismund Augustus, who sought consolation in magic and astrology after the death of his beloved wife, Barbara Radziwiłł. He was said to have summoned the ghost of the late queen to comfort the grieving king, using a magic mirror. The sorcerer also wrote two books, both dictated to him by the devil – a book on magic and an encyclopedia.
After years of evading his fate, Twardowski was eventually abducted by the devil at an inn called Rzym – the Polish name of Rome. However, while being spirited away, Twardowski started to pray to the Virgin Mary, who made the devil drop his victim midway to Hell. Twardowski fell on the Moon where he lives to this day. His only companion is his sidekick whom he once turned into a spider; from time to time Twardowski lets the spider descend to Earth on a thread and bring him news from the world below.

The new attraction is especially popular among kids - first music is played, then Twardowski appears and bows to the public, then he hides while a terrible laughter is heard (the Devil)

'Bydgoszcz little Venice" - an absolutely charming part of the town, loved by all, with the river winding its way betwen a large park and old houses built 'on the river'. Still nice when I was a kid and used to have walks there with my grandparents, then left to abandon and devastared, then finally the new mayor decided to use EU and town funds to start restoring this gem. Of course i took pictures on a grey day and bad day and probably the charm is not immediately visible if at all for someone not from my town :)



A visit to my mother's, grandparents' and uncles's graves... (not shown on pictures). I meant to show all the flowers people bring for Easter...

My father and wife took 2 dogs from the local shelter last year. The 4 years old female is just the most beautiful mix breed I've every seen and she's just as sweet!

We took their 2 dogs and Happy on a long walk.... see the tangled leashes, we had so much fun!

Each headed of course in a different direction...


Streets around my father's...

Back home finally!

Oh, that was a busy Easter! And a delightul one! Where do I start, from the beginning? :)

I will be uploading many things to show today so please come back for several updates!

I received a gorgeous PS exchange from Sharon and a very cute PS fob from Milly!

And to top the good news, Nath in France got back the PS exchange she sent me some weeks ago - the number for my appartment was missing and our regular mailman is on a long sick leave, the one who replaces him does a very lousy job (basically, he delivers only a fragment of parcels and half the mail has to be picked up at the post office) and he (or anyone else who sent back the parcel from Nath) just didn't bother checking or asking where this 'name' lives. Nath is sending it back - and I am delighted it didn't get lost!

Also, a big order from the US that was undelivered during Christmas (again, I did not receive the first notice and when the second was delivred, I was in Norway) found its way back to the US after 2 months and I should receive it within the next 2 weeks. Double happy!

Post-surgery news: I am feeling super fine, no problems at all. Next week I have more tests and doctors to visit but all in all, enf of April I should have all the answers, diagnosis and decisions about how to solve this and that.
The day in hospital was so enjoyable, if I might say so, that I do not fear more surgeries if needed - small ones, I hasten to add! :) :)

For the bad news, this week my cousin's wife had a spreading spot removed under general anesthesia and while she will get the official result in more than a week, the oncologist/surgeon already informed yes that yes, it is melanoma. She's taking it fine as we all are despite the stressed thoughts we all have - we're waiting for the results and well, we cross fingers this will be treated and won't present a major problem.

Easter - well, it was an Easter in snow, ice pellets, strong winds, snow tempests. Unbelievable! We had -4 Celsius some nights. Next Monday, they're announcing +18 Celsius, so don't tell me that the weather hasn't gone absolutely nuts in Europe! :)

The stay at my father + wife was very lovely despite all the traditional preparations in the kitchen and all the dish washing. His wife has a stunning tendancy to use five times more the amount of dishes - well, she wants it elegant, but if you ask me, since half of it has to be washed by hand.... I've had more relaxing Easters :)

Judy, you asked about traditional dishes - well, this year everyone helped me and my diet and we didn't have huge amounts of food as it always was. I of course made stuffed eggs, different fresh dips and sauces, cheese balls in herbs and lots more. My father made lots of good main meals, pastry wrapped ham, some chicken specialties etc.

We took dog and cat with us for our travels. Kitty became sick after 5 min on the way to my hometown - I will spare you the smell in the car till we found a gas station, bought toilet paper, water wahed her sherpa and cleaned it well... we traveled almost 5 hours in car and she was sick most of the way. She looked so poor that I was in pain for her... She had saliva hanging from her mouth.... poor round, watery eyes... she didn't sleep one minute. Happy the dog was, as usual, happy or at least fine. I am not sure what stressed her that much. She's used to travelling - she takes the plane to Norway and back regularly without a shadow of a problem. It must have been a bad day - or she didn't do her "things" before we left home - but how do you force a cat, heh? ;-)

From my father we drove 2,5 h to my aunt and grandma - my paradise on Earth, as I always say. Grandma was 99 in January and now the changes start to be visible, while she still looks at least 15 years younger. But comparing to the last time I saw her before Christmas, she walks much more difficultly and needs a helping hand to put steps, her stick is not enough anymore. But she stills has good memory and I enjoy talks with her - when she feels for talking. It's easy to see that being that old is not funny for her.

Tosca was amazingly fine with all the cats (5) at my aunt. 18 months before she stayed there 3 months and made life hell for them. Now she let in peace the two oldest females which she used to hunt - and concentrated her efforts on the young one. One night we didnt sleep much at all with H. because the small one didn't want to leave our room and decided to go to war with Tosca. After the eventual loud meeting LOL! it was more silent till the morning.
The biiig dog had to be put to sleep last month and Happy was perfectly fine with the small female. He even started understanding that he should bark when someone is at the door!

Then, trip in car back to Warsaw, 5 hours... then we discovered that my 18 years old TV, a really good ol' friend, died of natural deaths... We went to bed at 1:30 am, got up at 7, were at the store at 8:30 am (I never bought any electronic equipment at this hour! LOL but I found ONE shop downtown that opens at 8), H. connected the TV set and a new DVD recorder (I love it!) within minutes, took a shower - 3 minutes, had breakfast - 10 minutes and at 11:00 we were already at the airport. Don't ask me how we did it!!!!

So it's been a very busy 10 days but it was such a good one. H. helped me so much so I could take it slow at times. And we had such a good, smiling, time together, laughing, enjoying the time together... :)

Watch this space for more updates today!