i hardly know where to begin, it’s all so good

I played hooky yesterday. I went to Harmien’s house with Annemarie and Rachael and we had so much fun. I didn’t take a million pictures in Harmien’s house - even though I was sorely tempted to do so - because I thought that might be a little rude. But wow, guys, you really should all make a point of going to her house because it is absolutely chockablock full of the coolest stitching I have ever seen in one place. I mean … wow, what a variety of talent! Not just Harmien’s, but also from stitchers from all over the world who’ve sent her goodies. You know what? I’m sitting here now just kicking myself in the butt that I didn’t take pictures all over the place. Rude or not … sheesh! Harmien, can I come back??? Luckily, Harmien has shared a few photos of our day there, and I’m shamelessly using them here.

So what did the four of us get up to for an entire afternoon? It was a Stitch & Bitch, but honestly not a whole lot of either got done. LOL. We all had lots of catching up to do in the beginning. It was the first time that Rachael and I had met Harmien, and it was the first time in waaaayyyy too long that I’ve seen Annemarie.  Then we had to show off some stitching we’re working on, and I did take this picture of Annemarie holding her Blue Lady. This is such an incredible project IRL.

Another Fremme project she’s working on is similar to this little one that I’ve been hiding away in my drawer. Hers is designed by Ida Winckler and mine is from the 1986 Fremme calender, designed by Edith Hansen. The two women are two of my favorite Danish designers.

Rachael brought sock yarn and the teeniest knitting needles I’ve ever seen. I thought they were mini kabob sticks. And Harmien was working on the gorgeous, the stunning Cirque des Triangles … which again, I’m kicking myself for not photographing, but which does make a cameo appearance in one of Harmien’s photos. The linen is much richer IRL, full of plums and steel, reds, and all sort of deep colors. I told her she needs to send a picture to Tracy for her Gallery page.

I pulled out my Fair, Kind, True project by Midsummer Night Designs to put a few stitches into. It’s “this” close to being done.

But the best stitching piece of the day? Well, sit down ladies and gentlemen! Here is my Neighborhood Round Robin. Can you even believe how gorgeous it is? Annemarie hasn’t quite finished her block, but I’ve brought it home to stitch the names and dates and add a simple border. I am so excited, you can’t even guess!

Oh, there was a little bit of other stitching, too, but that was of the done & finished variety. The reason I have not been able to post any stitching pictures is because I was a little bit busy making gifts for Harmien, An, and Rachael. I actually put the last whipstitches in Harmien’s on the train to her house, so I didn’t take a photo of it but Harmien has come to the rescue and sent me pictures she took in her garden. I used two designs from primitivebetty - 1817, a special-release design, and 1836 Spring Thyme Sampler (I only used parts of this one, due to space constraints. Harmien’s is stitched on tea-dyed 36 or 40 count linen, one thread over two, and stuffed with lavender to create a fragrant-smelling floss fob.

Annemarie’s was the easiest for me, as I’ve “known” her the longest. Okay, we only knew each other via Cyberstitchers and then through emails for a long time, but we have also had the good fortune to meet up IRL 3 or 4 times over the years. An has a pinkeep (thanks again for those pins, Anne!) featuring The Little Sampler by The Goode Huswife on the front side and a piece of heavy cotton with a cutout of antique lace on the backside. I changed the colorway from drab browns to what I think of as a rhapsody of blues because that’s her favorite color. Given all of the changes going on her life and her recent … obsession … with pumpkin plants, the verse on this was just too perfect. “Girls do not cook & scrub and scour until you have no time to plant a tree or vine or flower.” This has four different blues, and the prim look has been heightened by using one thread here, two there, three there; and I’ve stitched it on abusively distressed coffee-stained linen.

Keeping in the schoolgirl-style sampler vein, I chose The Star Sampler by Blackbird Designs for Rachael’s gift. I had such a good time with this, once I got it going on linen of the correct size. LOL. The four-sided stitch is quite simple, and looks absolutely lovely on the backside. I changed the colorway from the called-for gray on red to tones of pink on Legacy linen because I know how very fond Rachael is of pink. The pillow has a dark pink linen back and the front side is finished using antique lace and some lacy black ric-rak that I bought with Rachael in Muenster.

Thanks so much for putting up with such a long post, and with so many previous posts that didn’t have any stitching!!

wahoo - a happy dance - and some other good stuff

Last night I finished Karen’s Quaker sampler and it looks fabulous! Karen, I have to say again what a treat it was to work with the Gloriana silk and that lovely linen. And everyone in the Quaker Friendship group - thank you for a very happy round robin experience! I’ll have my finished sampler framed sometime early in the new year.

While doing my usual round of blog-reading before bed last night, I saw a link to a fun new SAL group over on Ruth’s blog and promptly asked Sweet Pea if I could join, too. It looks like a very fun group - those interested, go take a peek here.

I decided to jump start my missing mojo by placing a wee order (ahem!) with Vikki Clayton for some new silks. I’ve been sucked right in by her Examplar line … envisioning all sorts of lovely stuff stitched up with these stunning color combinations. A moderate dose of retail therapy seems to have worked, as I not only finished Karen’s Quaker, but also found myself eager to get Cathy’s Seasonal exchange finish-finished. I got up early today and pinned that together for sewing into a stitcher’s pocket. That leaves only the lottery piece to finish-finish, and I’ve started that process. I’m trying something totally new for me - nothing like putting something off till the 11th hour and then going for an untried method! Speaking of the lottery, are we supposed to show a picture of it fully finished, or is it supposed to remain a secret until the winner is known? Becky’s original directions say we’re to post a picture before the 31st, but no one has done so ….

And on the subject of untried finishing methods, here is my one and only tin finish, which has arrived in South Africa as a gift for the beautiful new daughter of Ruth - a very talented craftswoman. From the picture, the tin looks pretty good (if I do say so myself) but I have to admit to you that I goofed somehow and the top does not fit properly anymore. I was so mad! But I loved how the design looked, so I went ahead and mailed it. And now that I’ve had a few weeks to cool off, I’ve decided I do want to try another tin finish - but for myself this time, so if I mess it up again, it doesn’t matter.

Christmas cards have begun to trickle in, and I’ve heard that mine are also arriving at their destinations. Seems like the postal system is treating me a bit more nicely this year. Last year I mailed my cards on December 1st, but many didn’t arrive until well after New Year’s Day.

My mysterious reaction to the fish we had for dinner last night was, thankfully, short-lived and very mild. My subconscious, however, was not so easily pacified and I spent much of the night waking up to make sure I could still feel Arden moving around in there. When at 5:30, he refused to respond to any of my prodding, I got up and enjoyed a very quiet early morning period behind the computer. Other than driving, that’s his absolute least favorite position, so I was pretty sure that if anything would rouse him into activity, that would do the trick. Before I had kids, I used to be a very early riser … comes of having parents who consider the day half gone by 8 am.  Since having kids, I will gladly sleep as much as anyone allows me. But I do miss the peace and quiet of those very early hours and console myself with the fact that I’ll have them back again somewhere around retirement age. LOL!

Wishing you a wonderful day filled with happiness.

unauthorized vacation

So what do you do when your mojo and your muse take off together on an unauthorized vacation? And when you can’t seem to count above 2 without making an error…. Sigh. Wherever they are (my muse and mojo), I sure hope they’re having fun.

I took Karen’s Quaker RR out today - I’m worried about not having it done in time, but I also worry about making some awful mistake on it. I’m slowly making my way now through the final motif. It doesn’t help that this motif was actually charted wrong in the leaflet, but when in doubt, I refer to my finished sampler (which Nicki returned to me a little while ago). So far … well, we’ll see! I do love the colors, though, and that Gloriana silk is such a delight. (Btw, I know Anne put a correction up for this part, but my printer and PC are not talking to each other … thus my workaround.)

Tonight Niek made ray, or skate as I believe it’s more commonly called, for dinner. Niether of us have ever tried this, and it was delicious. But I appear to have some sort of mild allergy to it. My hands began breaking out in an itchy rash and it felt like I had pins under my skin. Yuck. Apparently this is a kind of hives, according to my very quick online research. It’s slowly going away, but it had me scared (on account of being pregnant). Since it’s going away, and since hives themselves don’t seem to be dangerous for a pregnancy, I’ll not over-react. Really.

We’ve enjoyed a pretty lazy day here - with this kind of weather, there’s not really much else to do but to hunker down and make your own fun. Right now, the kids are cuddled up watching Honey, I Shrunk the Kids with their daddy. What a picture of domestic tranquility, huh? I hope your weekend, whatever the weather, is full of homey comforts!

blowing away the cobwebs

I’ve been commiserating a bit with Tanya about my absent-minded condition … which I seriously hope will return to normal after Arden’s birth. Normal absent-mindedness sounds really good compared to the failed-lobotomy condition I seem to be walking around in now.

Anyway, in an attempt to blow away the cobwebs, I finally got one of the work-related documents done and submitted (and thank heavens, it was what they wanted!) and I unstitched the small part on Karen’s Quaker that was off so I could stitch it correctly. Here’s a terrible picture (due to poor lighting) of where I left off this afternoon. Unfortunately, it seemed that the better my brain was functioning, the worse I felt overall. One of those days when I wondered if I should call the doctor or not … I decided not to, and Arden seems to have settled down a bit - but only after making me wonder if he’d managed to actually rearrange any of my internal bits.

In addition to the joy of discovering that my gray cells can still function, at least for a limited period, it was a fantastic mail day. My Stacy Nash kit arrived. I have to admit that I purchased this with the thought that it might be a gift, but after looking at it … it’s mine, all mine! Hahahaha!!!

My hospital-read also came in - I ordered Sepulchre by Kate Mosse. Hopefully at nearly 600 pages, it will fill up any empty time I have during the 3 to 4 day stay after the C-section. No, I’m not taking any stitching with me. Accompanying the novel was a new Christmas CD full of oldies-but-goodies sung by some golden crooners. There’s another on the way sung by Disney characters that I ordered for the kids. Niek’ll just love that - LOL! (I’m making a joke at his expense - as great a daddy as he is, kids’ music is worse than nails on a chalkboard in his opinion.)

The afternoon was spent - or should I say lost to - running around to accomodate my boys’ busy social lives. Nicky had a playdate and Max had swimming, a playdate, and volleyball. Rowen didn’t want to be left out of the fun, so she got her own personal trip to the library to pick out some new books. I’m beginning to understand certain muttered comments my mom made during my youth as she chauffered me to basketball and softball games …

Speaking of Mom, she woke up to approximately 18 inches of the white stuff this morning and it was still coming down. Anyone out there in snowy areas - take care with driving, and stay warm! This is a picture of her office building and (in the background) her home. Brrr!!

taking stock

Once again, Annemarie has inspired me in my stitching endeavors. She’s a marvel, huh? :)  In her last post, she was talking about stitching for herself and clearing out her stack of UFOs and WIPs … brilliant idea, isn’t it? I know 100% for certain that I couldn’t stick to stitching only for the family, even though I should make that a priority, but the WIP/UFO comment really hit home. Mine have been gnawing away at me - if I weren’t having pregnancy anxiety dreams, no doubt I’d be dreaming about being buried in partially-completed stitching projects!

So I sat down before bed and made a list of my current UFOs (projects I haven’t touched for at least a month) and WIPs (those that I have touched, LOL) and roughly grouped them by those I felt compelled to finish, felt obligated to finish, and doubted I would finish even if I had nothing else to do for the rest of my days.

Here are my WIPS - you’ll see that the stitching is actually done on two of these, but they haven’t been finished. My finishing muse ran off on me, leaving me as empty of ideas as a bowl of oatmeal porridge. (Is there anything less inspiring than cooked oatmeal porridge?)

And here is my UFO stack. There are 15 projects here ranging from about 5% done to about 60% done. Four are projects that fall into the ‘must finish’ category because they’re either gifts or are projects that I really like. Seven fall under the ‘ought to’ category either because they’re so far along or because I promised them to someone. And four fall under the ‘why bother’ category because I’ve made a serious mistake, no longer like the colors, or am dismayed by the stitching itself.

There are also a few projects that are currently in progress: Karen’s Quaker sampler and Cardinal Blessings. Here are pictures of them as they stand at this minute. Karen’s needs frogging - that last ‘ram’s head’ is off by one row. I frogged a few rows from Cardinal Blessings yesterday before giving up in disgust - this is not a project that combines well with Play-Doh/tea parties and inquisitive children. (Note to myself: Though it’s not here, I also have to include my Lottery project in this group!)

When I gave up on stitching yesterday, I turned my frustrated energy to cleaning - something I’ve done precious little of because of the horrible effect it has on my pulled muscle, weak back, and other pregnancy-related ailments. (Sorry to sound like such a whiner!) I did about 5 loads of laundry (it’s just scary to realize that we even own that much stuff) and totally tore the nursery apart and reassembled it in a clean & tidy fashion. I’ll spare you the laundry shots, but here’s a very quick peek into Nicky and Rowen’s room. Sure, it may not look like much to anyone who hasn’t seen it in the past two months, but you have to imagine that you couldn’t see the chair, floor, or bureau for all the toys and clothes flung wildly hither & yon. Embarassing? You can’t even begin to guess … but I paid the price when I tried to lay down last night and cried  like a baby because everything hurt so much. It was worth it though, when the kids got up and Nicky said, “My room looks so nice,  Mum, that I’m going to pick up all my toys in the living room while you make breakfast.” And he did!

There are documents to write today, so I doubt any stitching will be done. I am now holding myself accountable for these WIPs and UFOs, though! There will be more on them in the weeks to come - you’ve been warned!

Thank you for your incredibly kind comments about the gifties that have begun arriving at their rightful destinations. Those post office trips may be little forays into one of Dante’s outer rings, but it’s so nice to surprise dear friends across the globe. I hope your Monday is off to a great start, full of sunshine (the real kind or the metaphorical kind!) and that you have a happy week stretching out before you!

stitchy goodness to share

Hello everyone! I hope there are no day-after turkey bellies out there. LOL! Though we did  not celebrate in the traditional manner, I made a big batch of pancakes for the kids to enjoy for dinner (with help from the kids) and the smells and the delight of the children really brought some happy childhood memories alive. The fact that the pancakes turned out perfectly didn’t hurt matters, either! I had a great time talking with my mom and dad, and hopefully I’ll catch up with my father and brother over the weekend - there’s a heck of a time difference between western Europe and the US Southwest that makes phone calls difficult to arrange.

The kids have a free day from school today due to a teachers’ study day, so we’re having fun with Play-Doh at the moment.  Sinterklaas arrives in Gouda tomorrow,  so it’s nice to have a play day here at home. The younger two kids are not quite old enough to get wild about the mere thought of Sinterklaas, and Max is a little too old, so it’s a restful year. Next year, though … A couple of people have asked about the Sinterklaas tradition here in the Netherlands, and I’ll be happy to fill in some blanks during the upcoming weeks.  To get you started:

A brief introduction to Sinterklaas 

During the year, Sinterklaas (based on a Catholic saint) lives in Spain with his helpers, who are zwarte Pieten (black Petes). Not exactly racially PC, the zwarte Pieten are dressed in Moorish costume with blackface - they’re mostly very comical, though ‘back in the old days’ they would also carry naughty children back to Spain in a burlap sack or would punish the children with bundled sticks. Yikes! Glad I arrived on the scene after that part of the legend was toned down! Anyway, about a month before pakjesavond (December 5th), Sinterklaas and his helpers start over from Spain to the Netherlands in a steam boat. The kids have a chance to start getting wound up good and early! Each year, the good Saint arrives in a different town or city and there’s a huge celebration to mark the beginning of the Sinterklaas holiday period, which culminates in a sort of kids’ party on the evening of December 5th. Our kids have to wait for the day that Sinterklaas arrives in our town before they’re allowed to set their shoes out for a gift - otherwise, there’s a full  month of begging and whining. We generally only allow the shoes to be set out on weekends, too, to further curtail the gimmies. Anyway, once Sinterklaas arrives, the kids can set out a shoe at bedtime; during the night, Sinterklaas or one of the zwarte Pieten will set a treat in the shoe that the kids will find upon waking. The gifts are traditionally small, and candy or chocolate (particularly a chocolate initial for your name) is pretty popular. If I don’t forget my brains tomorrow, I’ll be sure to bring the camera tomorrow and share plenty of pictures of the big arrival here in Gouda.

Back to stitching!

I was beginning to think I was seriously cursed when it came to my ONS orders. Not only did I never receive a reply regarding the floss that was held out of my order, but I also received a half meter of linen in the wrong count from another ONS and then a partial order without explanation from yet another ONS. I was ready to throw in the towel!! But yesterday, even though it was a holiday, I received a very friendly reply from ABC Stitch Therapy regarding the linen, and Despina, from Daisy Stitches, searched down some missing orders of charts she’d never received from designers. I just want to say thank you very much to both businesses for their commitment to their customers! And without further ado, here is an embarassing shot of the stash I’ve received this month - be prepared to drool!

Now that you’re all softened up with your own case of the gimmies I must remind you that today is the BIG DAY to order from Jenna’s ONS if you want to take advantage of a whopping 25% off everything! Jenna’s customer service is in a class all its own - she makes each order feel like a personal gift, she keeps shipping prices reasonable, and she’s fast!

To continue with the stitchy goodness, I have also received my completed Quaker RR and I’m just amazed. It’s gorgeous. It’s so much lovelier than I’d ever guessed it would be. I’m definately going to frame this and hang it somewhere where everyone can admire it. I chose Carrie’s Threads and went with a one-over-two on 40 count (or perhaps 36 ct - it’s a mystery piece from Niek’s grandmother) antique white linen. There are a few small motifs that are two-over-two to make it look more antique and irregular and just add to the overall charm. This was such a wonderful group to be part of - thank you all so very much!!! (Please click for the enlargement!)

I did work on Karen’s Quaker RR last night, but realized that I was off by a row somewhere in the last section I was doing - fortunately it’s a very small area that’s affected - but I need to figure out where I went off and do a bit of frogging. You’ll have to wait for a progress picture on it, but trust me when I say it’s a gorgeous piece. I really love Karen’s warm choice of colors. All the Quakers were so fun to work on, and all so different from each other!

The kids have drifted away from the Play-Doh and my stomach is telling me that lunchtime nears, so I’ll leave you for now. Thanks so much for coming to visit with me here - I hope your day is tops, and that you have a wonderful weekend stretching before you!

how fast does time pass?

I thought, in the back of my mind, that the daily posting this month might slow time down a bit (or give the feeling of time passing more slowly, to be more accurate) but here we suddenly are at Wednesday again. It put me in mind of something Rowen recently said when we told her it was bedtime: She stood over in front of the clock - to double-check us, we thought - and then turned around with an exasperated sigh and said, “That thing doesn’t work - it just goes round and round all day!”

Anyway, Wednesdays are ‘kid days’ from noontime on, and I worked like a dog to finish the editing of a very messy document from 8 till noontime, so I think we could count the stitches I’ve put into Karen’s Quaker round robin without seriously straining the little gray cells. Nonetheless, here’s my progress picture.

During the one hour I had for stitching, the kids were busy ’artsing and craftsing’ (as I think of it). Nicky made me a rocket ship diamond that I can pin to my shirt, perhaps drawing attention away from my hippo-sized belly. Rowen made a mess and didn’t mind anyone calling it that. LOL. Max put that new box of crayons to great use and colored this for Sinterklaas, the Dutch Christmas-type celebration that culminates in a gift-giving party the evening of December 5th.  

Though the editing was painful in the extreme - there is a very good reason I got out of technical editing as fast as I could - it’ll help slide those bank figures from red to black again. Though I try to space my Christmas shopping out over much of the year, my poor bank account always takes a hard hit around now. If only I could convince Arden to give me a bit more time behind the PC …

Thank you so much for your input regarding my lighting situation. There are a lot of happy Ott light consumers out there, but also a lot of practically-minded people who’ve discovered perfectly satisfactory workarounds. My current setup with the halogen light gives me plenty of wattage to see what I’m doing, but as I mentioned, the light gets hot and you can totally forget any sort of accuracy with colors. I’ve also been looking for some sort of magnification solution for about a year now because I love higher count linens and don’t particularly like stitching on white or off-white. So some sort of daylight-lamp (with a magnifier) that stays cool seemed like the answer to all those stitchy prayers.   I’ve been watching the sale at Joanne’s, and if I lived in the US, I wouldn’t think twice about ordering right now - not only are the lights on sale, but the shipping is free. WOW! Unfortunately, shipping to Europe is considerable. I haven’t made my mind up yet, but thank you all very much for your comments! When I finally do make a decision, I’ll be sure to let you know. LOL!

friends and more friends

Max’s best friend has been coming to play at our house every Thursday for years now - Nicky and Rowen always look forward to it, and so do I. His best friend has become an extended part of the family, even accompanying us to my birthday dinner last year. Here are the two peas in a pod, easily confused for brothers:

And today marked the big developmental milestone of Nicky going to play over at a schoolmate’s house for the first time. Oh my goodness … can he already be getting so old? Rowen did a fair amount of complaining that she was big enough to have big friends now, too, but otherwise has accepted the inevitable with a reasonable amount of grace. I’m trying to emulate her.

On the warm & fuzzy subject of friends, Karen V’s Quaker sampler arrived today from Nicki. I was beginning to wonder if it had taken the scenic route. Actually, I’ve been wondering if the postal carrier was avoiding our house, but I’m prone to fits of paranoia on that subject. Sorry for the wrinkles, but it literally just arrived and I had to take a look at it immediately. Karen’s chosen a really gorgeous and warm color scheme that I’ve been looking forward to working on. Given the high linen count and dark silk, I’m pretty sure this will be a daytime project. We might not get much sunlight in November, but it is at least lighter than nighttime stitching.

Here’s my  new nighttime project - I just started it last night and you’ll probably immediately recognize it as Angel of Tulips by The Goode Huswife. This one has called out to me for awhile, but my better half is not a fan of tombstone angels. We’re working on that, as I love them. But when looking for just the right something for a special somebody, this pattern leapt right into my hands around 10 pm last night. As our money tree in the backyard remains stubbornly ornamental, I don’t have the NPI silks it calls for and am stitching it one-over-two (40 ct tea-dyed linen) using some very lovely Vicki Clayton silks from my stash.

I joined a bookmark exchange over at Crafty Daisies and was assigned a partner that had me really scratching my head in confusion at what to make for her until I came across her interest in Douglas Adams’ fiction. Niek burst out laughing when he saw this because the first handmade gift I gave him - our first Christmas together, when he impulsively ‘followed’ me to Maine to meet my family - was a small towel with DON’T PANIC stitched across it. Fans of the Adams’ series will get the reference, and it’s remained a sort of family joke over the years. ;)  I’ll send this to its new home tomorrow with the stack of post I need to get out the door.

My little brood of ducklings are all home and we’re very cozy despite the stormy November evening outside our windows. I hope your day has been blessed by the special sunlight of friendship today, too!

slow & easy autumn days

It’s the kids’ autumn vacation from school, so most of my time has been happily spent doing things with/for them and my stitching time has dropped off a bit. I’m enjoying some extra time with them, and really delighting in how each seems to be taking giant steps forward in his/her development - Max with his stitching, Nick with his sudden empathy for other people (though this doesn’t yet translate into less physical behavior with his siblings!), and Rowen with her determination to master (mistress?) her letters. They’re growing physically, too. Max will tower over me by the time he’s 11, I’m sure. Neither Nicky nor Rowen look like they’ll ever be particularly tall, but Rowen is doing her best to catch up to Nicky’s height and she frequently raids his part of the closet. (I tried to do this with my brother, but he’s about 8 inches taller than me and doesn’t cast a shadow if he stands sideways - LOL!)

I stayed up a bit too late last night so I could finish Becky’s Quaker round robin - it is such a relief to have this mailed out in a timely fashion (for a change!). Becky, your choice of colors is so warm and was an absolute delight to work with. I can’t believe that we are already moving on to the final round of this … it went by so fast!

Yesterday, the kids and I hit the town … Max had finished his second cross stitch project and needed frames. We finally had an excuse to go to a new-to-us antique store that caught our eye back when Jim and Gaby were here. The lady who ran the shop, rather than groaning when she saw me come in with three young children, was remarkably friendly and even dug up a box of Lego blocks for Nicky and Rowen to play with. Although Max didn’t find a frame he liked, I found a series of mono-color charts by Heidi Poet that I really liked and snapped them up. I’ve never heard of Heidi Poet before, but she was producing various sorts of designs back in the late 70’s/early 80’s. I also bought a smallish tin to cover for a gift … and discovered that I do not like this finishing method!! Ugh!! Finally got everything on the darn tin, and the cover won’t fit properly anymore. Groan. I’ll tinker with it some more another day. I also sat down and immediately began stitching one of the new charts, but when I looked at my unusual color scheme today, I decided to stop where I was. It’s intended as a gift, and I don’t want to subject others to my … ahem … unconventional choice in color too often. Today I started a Prairie Schooler design instead and although I again meddled with the recommended colors, it works much better. LOL! You’ll have to wait for pics on that one, though.

I can share a picture of two recent eBay wins of charts by The Goode Huswife. I had very little luck landing anything I wanted by Mary Garry, but I am very pleased with these wins. Some day I will have a wonderful collection of stitched cat primitives …. But that will be after my Maine wall, which still exists primarily in my imagination.

As an aside, I’ve  noticed that although more people subscribe to my blog, fewer people comment. It has me puzzled, I’ll admit. Actually comments dropped off back in the early summer. If anyone has any suggestions, do clue me in!  Have I gone all dull?

And now for a spot of silly fun.

Meme instructions, as stolen shamelessly from Jenna:

1) Go to Wikipedia
2) In the search box, type your birth month and day but not the year.
3) List three events that happened on your birthday.
4) List two important birthdays and one death.
5) One holiday or observance (if any).

Three events:
Friar John Cor records the first known batch of scotch whisky.
Anne Boleyn crowned queen.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono record “Give Peace a Chance”, the first single recorded by a solo Beatle, from their hotel bed.

Two birthdays and a death:
1926 - Marilyn Monroe, American actress (d. 1962)  
1953 - David Berkowitz, American serial killer, a.k.a. The Son of Sam
1968 - Helen Keller, American humanitarian (b. 1880)

Holiday:
Children’s Day in some countries.

aaahhh … sunday

A quiet, sunny autumn Sunday … with stitching. Surely there’s nothing better.

Yesterday was a busy - though fun! - day filled with family activities. Niek’s grandmother came over for a few hours and as if it weren’t special enough to see her, she also brought two handmade sweaters apiece for the kids. I think the biggest compliment you can get for handmade clothing is when the giftee strips off what s/he has on in favor of wearing the gift, which is exactly what both Nicky and Rowen did. Max had already carefully chosen his clothes and by changing his sweater he’d have to change everything else, so he stuck with a very appreciative “thank you”. After a few hours with Oma, we all headed over to Uncle Frank’s house (one of Niek’s brothers) to celebrate the 10th birthday of cousin Mick. Whew! What a houseful! What fun! The Dutch have a wonderful word, gezellig, that means a situation that is social and cozy and interesting and all-around pleasant. It was a very gezellig gathering of friends and family. We stayed until dinnertime, at which point I could feel that muscle was going to go from somewhat painful to agonizing, so we headed home for some of Niek’s delicious cooking. We noticed that by bedtime everyone was experiencing either sniffles or a scratchy throat or some other cold symptom, so we were prepared for a very laid-back Sunday.

And today has been very laid-back! I actually went back to bed after breakfast for a long nap, and after I got up it was Niek’s turn to lay down. Thank heavens we have kids who let us get away with this kind of behavior! (I cannot imagine my brother and I being considerate enough to let our parents catch a weekend nap when we were kids!) Max has finished his Mary Kirby project and is whizzing his way through a new one that features a bunny with a ball. Dianne had commented about how neat male stitchers tend to be, but I fear that Max would not fall under this category - LOL! - however, he is having such a wonderful time that I’m restricting myself to offering advice/support only when directly asked.

I managed to put in a few stitches on Becky’s Quaker RR today - the middle-sized Q-Snap fits comfortably on top of my belly when I sit in the position recommended by the haptonoom therapist. Hooray! Of course, I can’t see the pattern from this rather strange, sprawling position but one can’t have everything. Since snapping this picture, I’ve completed this section and now have only the lower-left corner motif to do before sending it on to Karen. What a relief to realize I won’t be late!

I’ve seen a number of blogs discussing the big thread storage question, which I find incredibly interesting (oh, middle age!) and I felt compelled to add my two cents, even though I’m not an SBQ member. I started off winding my thread onto bobbins and storing them in the little DMC boxes made for that purpose. However, when I’d come near the end of a bobbin, it really irritated me how kinked-up the thread was. And by the time I got up to four boxes, I was also feeling irritable about all these little boxes that seemed to keep disappearing on me. So I bought some large, transparent Ikea storage boxes and now I store my thread in those, seperated by big Ziplock bags. The DMC is sorted by numerical code and fills two of these boxes. The silks are sorted by distributor and, in the case of Vikki Clayton’s silks, further subdivided by project/intended use and they fill a third box. The final box holds my overdyed stranded cottons, seperated by distributor and, in the case of the GAST fibers, by color family. This box is actually overly full, but I’m too embarassed to buy a fifth box. The storage boxes plus my binders of freebies fits perfectly in the corner beside my stash bureau. I try to keep the corner tidy, but sometimes it gets away from me. I think the small storage boxes may eventually go to Max, if he continues with stitching so enthusiastically.

We’re unwinding here at Chateau Chaos by watching The Polar Express. I managed to complete almost all of my (immediate family) gift buying on Friday, and even made a good start with the wrapping. I know it’s early, but something tells me I may not be up to doing much closer to the holidays.

Oh, and thanks for all the great book tips! Wow, I was surprised! I’m happily reading through Inversions and will pick up Excession (also by Banks) next, based on the enthusiastic suggestions to do so. We have it upstairs in Niek’s part of the library. After nearly 7 years together, I still haven’t managed to read all his books….