My own HOE exchange pieces

(a view from the garden in Norway to H's mother's little house)

I just saw on HOE2 that Ellen S. received the biscornu I stitched for her. Really, I took very bad pictures... I loved the result and I am glad that Ellen likes it too!

Winter Berries by CosmicHandmade
(this freebie is now retired but you can request it by writing to Carol)
Stitched 1 over 2 with silks and overdyes on 40 ct. LL

And here is my Prairie Schooler exchange piece for Laurence.

Stitched on WDW fabric with silks, finished with Gloriana silk ribbon

Thank you so much for your visits, it feels really good to be blogging again and return to this friendly community :) Also a warm smile to new visitors, I'll make sure to visit your blogs later tonight :) I am fighting a super boring text for tomorrow morning, and I need to get it off my head before I procrastinate too much, so I'll post many photos of gifties tomorrow, still need to describe them.

HOE biscornu received

Gabi from Australia just spoiled me. We all know: there are exchanges and exchanges, and while most of us will say we love what we receive just the same, regardless of our partner's skills and the goodies... but some packages go straight to your heart, also because of an exceptionally friendly card or letter your partner had joined.
Gabi made me smile with her kindness, the warmth of her message, she made me jump with joy at the goodies she sent :)
See for yourself, this gorgeous biscornu...

Gabi says it's bigger than she expected, but due exactly to that - being sort of more flat and large, it is incredibly original! Oh and the colors, I just love them! It is stitched on Cashel linen with Gloriana silks (my fav'!) with Mill Hill beads added. The colors are so me.... this biscornu will have a very special place in my heart. I just have no words to describe it! The pattern is partly from a Giulia Punti Antichi pattern ("Deruta Christmas ornament"). It just couldn't be more beautiful!

Gabi also sent me TWO charts from my wishlist...

...colorful thread rings (I'd never seen such before!) and a skein of Australian silk in a charming spring color...

... also, two lovely pieces of fabric (again, colors I love!) but that wasn't all...
She also sent me a fantastic lavender soap bar made with lavender from a local farm that delivers to that soap company. I didn't like lavender so much before... always wondered why so many ladies like it... my favorite scents being lilly of the valley, magnolia, peonia, vanilla, lemon, rose... but this bar might make me change my tastes! It is so fragrant, the smell is so delightful... "Hand-made" soap plays a big role in my daily shower routines... to start the day, I need a smell I like on my skin, the more fragrant, the better, and some evenings, after a tiring day, there's nothing better as a reward... well, almost! :) (peanut butter, Mexican food, lemon sorbet, Vietnamese take-away, H's tender smile...)

Gabi, THANK YOU for this exchange, you made it absolutely exceptional.

I've prepared a long post to catch up with many other gifties received during the past two months... stay tuned!
Monday's gone... only 4 days left till the end of the week! :)

Etsy pleasures...

Melissa, I'll answer right away with pleasure.

These fantastic mice are the original work of Anna, a UK gal from Holland. She's created a whole world, a whole dynasty of these mice, and I am just one of many, many people who have a very soft spot for them! I wish I could afford a whole collection. In real, they're even more cute!

When I saw the female (Anna often makes male and female versions) Traveling mouse, shown in my previous post, I just knew it had to be mine. Just like the Traveling Stitcher, the recent LHN chart :)

Then I asked Anna if she could make a cross-stitching mouse! And do you know what? Within a few hours, really, she designed and sewed one for me. She originally wanted to include a hoop, but that proved too difficult, so she asked me if that one could do.

Of course, I loved it!! Isn't she super adorable? My pictures are not very good, I took them at night before leaving, so I'll refer you to the original photos (below).

If you visit The House of Mouse shop, you'll find dozens of the finest, cutest, most intriguing mice, representing different jobs, cultures, hobbies, and what else.
I don't think that the stitching mouse if on regular sale, but tell Anna you come from the Polish girl to whom she sent to Norway last year... And I'm also sure she can make any original mouse after your idea if you ask nicely! :)
I think they make such great gifts also.

Anna's etsy shop is HERE.
You can see the original Traveling mouse HERE
and the Stitching mouse HERE, enjoy!

Can you really resist the birthday mouse? I have to get that one one day. Though I'll probably ask Anna for a different outfit, since one of mine is dressed the same.

At the same time, I'll grab the occasion to show you the necklace that was waiting for me.... I am not sure if I ever mentioned, but I am a jewelery junkie... Never enough necklaces and earings, I say!

which was so nicely packed...

This one is from Susan at sdvintagecollection.

In December, I won a gift certificate from lillyella and here is what I chose...

Nicole has her own original style and I'm the lucky owner of many of her pieces...

I hope visiting these three shops will inspire you!

I'm stitching tonight on CHS' Strawberry blonde... I can't tell how much it is enjoyable. The colors are so well matched, so elegant. Ah, I wish their recent charts were.... different than what they are, really!

Yeah, I know it looks weird.. but the reason I stitched this long vertical strip first is that the chart is in two parts which overlap. And I so hate charts that overlap this way! So, I wanted to have it done and now I'm concentrating on all the left part which is all on one sheet of paper.

Till tomorrow.... lots and lots to show! :) Have a quiet, relaxing week-end, everyone and thanks for stopping by! Remember, if you don't leave me a comment, I can't get to know you :)

I am back!

Your favorite Polish stitcher is back... since a few days. I had to extend my stay due to a tough flu, cancelled planes (snow!) and I am now taking it slow at home, visiting doctors, making some awful tests (you don't want to hear about them!) and trying to cope with an acute medical problem. I was born impossible to diagnose and I guess I'll die the same way too ;-)

But enough of sad things. My stay in Norway was just fantastic... I'll post more pictures in the next days so stay tuned! I also have so many lovely things I received to show... and some of my own stitching. I did stitch - a lot!

In January, we made a short 3-days trip to Poland to celebrate my grandma's 100th birthday. Of course, our flight was cancelled (I'm very lucky this way) and we flew one day late but still in time... I'll come back to this, it was so special...


This year, there were tons of snow in Norway starting from middle January. The nature around looked like a fairytale... I so miss nature here in Warsaw. Almost every day, I walked with Happy and during the week-ends, H. came along... drove us to new places... revisited my favorite tracks, they look so different from the summer!

Just a week ago, we drove to Sørkedalen, a valley north of Oslo, also one of the starting points to hiking and skiing tracks, depending on the season, in the Nordmarka, a huge area of woods north of the town. I haven't been to that valley yet so it was a good occasion to discover and close my winter stay...

Happy was going nuts with smells despite the deep, deep snow. We soon learned why...

We played a lot with him. When I am in Norway in the summer, he has to be kept on the leash, which is less funny for him. There is a law forbidding dogs running loose roughly from the beginning of March till before the end of August. This time, Happy had all the reasons to be... happy! One of our games is that either I or H. hides somewhere far, and he has to find that person. On the picture below, he was told to wait but was so impatient to run and find! :)

Here you can see a little black spot running towards me at full speed!

Ah, another smell... what can that be?

Oh, I just love wintery scenery...

That cabin looked so cosy... but there was noone inside that day.



We met many cross-country skiers... What never ceases to amaze me, it's the people (especially young women) skiing with very heavy backpacks and sleeping bags, sometimes with tents... Most often, they'll spend a night or two in the great outdoors... sometimes, they head towards one of the shelters, attended (where spending the night costs just as much as a good hotel room in town, and mind you, Norwegian hotels are not cheap, not cheap at all) or unattended, where you need to pick up the key beforehand. Me, I still suck at cross-country skiing, so these folks are my true heroes.


We soon learned why Happy was so excited. There were many moose groups walking around. Back at the parking, a man told us he just crossed three, and when we drove back, we spotted one of them...

The pictures are lousy, taken from inside the car. The moose was very close to us and we didn't want to leave the car nor to use the flash. What a majestic, beautiful animal. They look so strong, but had you seen
it in the deep snow, when it started jumping and running... effortless, or so it seemed. When he crossed the road just in front of us, it stopped to observe us...The same evening, there were articles in the media telling drivers to be particularly careful... there are lots of moose on the roads. Because of the high snow, the leave the woods to walk where it's easier to walk... we were lucky to cross some :)

I'll leave you with an old traditional sledge...


A last snowed-in house..

And the ornament I made for Caleb, Cheryl 's newborn...

I knew I have to stitch that chart the moment I saw it. I find the words to be so touching, so sweet. Sharon, the designer, told me she was inspired by Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.
The chart can be found HERE. I stitched it with overdyes on a piece of R&R linen, the words 1 over one. It almost killed me but the result was well worth it!
I am so glad you like it, Cheryl, and many thank yous again to Sharon for that chart... I really have a soft spot for it.

Baking in all ways

I finished the recent LHN design into a hanging pillow - Mylene will recognize the garland cording! :) Oh how it glitters in the evening, how it makes the room feel homey...


In my aunt's old kitchen, I guided two teenagers (one of my cousin's kids) through the meanders of preparing the icing, cutting forms, baking, decorated.... we were very busy for many days! The young lady looked so funny in this apron... I still remember using the same... some twenty years ago!


We created zillions of gingerbread cookies, in all shapes and forms, at all skill and experiences levels...




Those are my very favorite...


Don't they look like small daisies?

After a week, the whole living-room was filled with gingerbread cookies...

Everywhere you looked...


And I'm not even showing the two huge cardboard boxes I brought along to share with friends, to bring to my hometown to my father's, and to Norway... There, I packed my favorite shapes and colors... hush!

Gotta love that serious look on a teenager's face!