ignore the typos, please

Arden’s little “bug” transferred itself to my sinuses, so if I miss a typo or two, please ignore it.
Sinus irrigation and all the usual tricks just aren’t doing it for me this time. Ugh!

But there’s a  lot of good stuff to share!! Nick and Rowen have been in school skits this week and they were so much fun to watch! Nick played a hornet (and I had to make his mask in the 10 minutes or so before he got on the bus that morning – nothing like a bit of excitement!) and Rowen played a girl who’d rather read quietly on the sidelines than play in a group. Both skits were about cooperation and friendship, and the kids made up the skits themselves.

With dear friend Tigger, we tapped our big maple tree out front and have been boiling sap to make our own syrup. Oh my gosh is homemade syrup delicious!! Arden got the first taste, but we all enjoyed it.

I received some fabulous stash from Mary Katherine, thanks to the generosity of dear friend Judy. The goodies arrived in two packets, and I unthinkingly put everything away from the first packet, but here’s what arrived in the second packet. And thank you, Mary Katherine, for the additional Dinky Dyes and needles! It wasn’t necessary, but very appreciated! Thank you Judy for a wonderful Christmas gift that I enjoyed to the hilt! I decided on all floss, hoping the beautiful new colors would whisper to my design muse.

I have done a bit of stitching and finishing. Here’s the end result of my Pink Girl with Swan make-do. I think it came out pretty cute. She’s set in the top of a papier-mâché decorative box that I use for storage of stitching supplies.

And here’s Penny Angel, my contribution to the world-wide SAL paying homage to Lisa and expressing sadness at losing her. She’s a woman who touched so many lives …. the void she’s left is just impossible to comprehend.

I’m going to close with a sweet picture I snapped of Rowen cuddling Flip the other day. It can be difficult to see our kids (or other family members) as people independent of our relationship with them … I hope I always honor and respect my kids for the amazing people they are.

wings

Niek was away for the week so the kids and I had some quiet downtime. It’s been raining, raining, and snowing a little bit.

You wouldn’t believe how slippery it is outside. The chicken coop is downhill from the house, so gathering eggs and caring for the chickens has become quite an exciting sport; on Friday I took a spectacular fall that had me first flying up into the air before landing. Ouch. Luckily the worst ill effects are only a sore hiney, shoulder and wrist. I also fell down walking the dogs, and in the process of getting back up, I fell again – which set me off laughing, so there I sprawled on the front lawn, laughing and slipping like some sort of seizure patient on nitrous oxide. I could’ve used the wings mentioned in the title, but they belong to this adorable creature, Penny Angel:

I’m stitching her as my part in the SAL to commemorate the loss of  Lisa, the genius behind The Primitive Needle. I’m doing her in my own choice of colors but I had to make a couple of switches here and there to make sure the colors show up clearly enough against each other.

As mentioned, this has been an unusually quiet week so there isn’t a whole lot to share. The kitties are growing, the rooster is crowing, and the eggs continue to roll in. Life is lovely indeed.

I haven’t been as good about commenting on blogs as I’d like to be, but I have been watching and enjoying what you’re up to. Thanks for stopping by and sharing a bit of your day with me.

escape! at least temporarily

No, Nic, I’m not actually escaping other tasks by doing this (horrible! time-consuming! life-stealing!) housework … the housework actually is the task, and I’m doing it (tho’ I’m kicking and screaming the whole way – tho’ that might change if I tried Marita’s suggested dress code of pearls & panties, LOL!). I will never be one of those women who could actually discuss the virtues of one type of cleanser over another, and feel fulfilled doing so. Alas. That said, living in a tidy house is rather enjoyable – I only wish someone else were keeping it tidy!

I did fight free of my chores for a few brief hours last night and this morning, pulling out my Noah’s Stocking for a quick bit of very overdue attention. Remember Annemarie’s guilt-free SAL? I think I might’ve taken the guilt-free bit a little too far, but I went from having only part of his name stitched to this, and I’m rather proud of my progress.

 

(Between you & me, I think Noah’s seriously groovy. I’ve got something for tall blondes, and his beard just kills me!)

So who else is curious why I pulled Noah away from the dust bunnies instead of one of my other WIPs (or UFOs if we aren’t going to be gentle with labels)? Because I was kind of hoping that if I resurrected this particular SAL, I might be able to lure dear Annemarie out of her reclusion. She’s been so ill, Pelle’s been ill, and sh*t has been happening left, right, and center. But maybe if she ventured back out here into Cyberspace to play with us, we could make her forget her troubles – at least temporarily.

And for those of you looking for a bit of cleaning p*rn, here are my appliances. Just the outsides – I don’t want to make this anything but a G-rated blog by showing even more. LOL. Oh darn, look, someone already smudged my stove. Would you hand me that spray bottle and my rubber gloves, please?

your patience shall be rewarded

You guys are too good to me. Now this is where my stitching is at this moment, which is a sunny moment – a rare thing in the Netherlands in January in my experience – but I hope to uncover my turbo needles later in the day and tear right through Brightneedle’s Covered Bridge Sampler which will be to the right of the cemetery (The Olde Churchyard by Designs By Pamela, altered). You’ll notice that Four Friends has been finished/changed, including Aunt Kathy’s (aka the girl in purple) dress and the white flowers by the door became rosebushes (trust me, they are). The kitty and the bunny are clamouring for more wildlife, too – the cat, a rough old tom that I’m calling Dick (as in ‘every Tom, Dick, and Harry’), wants some birds. Anyway, here’s my Primitive New England Village. (There’s something showing through the linen by the tree at the church, btw, that’s not stitching.)

 

*For those who’ve asked, I’ve been editing my photos using Picnik. I love how easy they make it, but I hate how slow it is, even with our hi-speed connection.

For a laugh, here’s my progress with Shores of Hawk Run Hollow. I’ve only stitched 3 1/2 hours on it (OMG, am I a slow stitcher or what?!). My progress is pretty laughable compared to Heather and Cathy,  my unofficial SAL-mates. I’ve shown it in the Q-Snaps so you’ll see just how insignificant my progress really is! (That’s the laptop showing through – I used it as an impromptu easel.)

I’m not having a lot of luck staying off my foot, but it’s healing up despite me. I still limp, but that’s better than hobbling. Or at least it is in my private dictionary. Off to the ER doc tomorrow to get it checked and to hopefully burn the smelly elastic support sock I’ve had to wear all week. The kids have been great – Max even helped with the dishes last night!

While off my feet, I’ve been reading. I just finished Every Dead Thing by John Connolly and the gruesome title gives you an idea of just how dark and horrific the story is. I really enjoyed the references to John Donne, a poet I briefly thought of building an academic career around in my misspent youth. And the Epilogue’s reference to Portland, Maine is the exact same neighborhood I lived in – I could look down the hill and nearly over to the Inn at St. John (where I’ve also lodged). Ah, these little touches of home. Next up, by the same author (I checked out the only two books the local library has by him) is The White Road.

Here are my furry canines, who greatly miss their daily walks and have been very naughty this week as a result. You’d never know it by looking at them, though, would you? They have their paws crossed that the doc says I can go back to walking them again.

And in closing, here’s Arden reminding us all that breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

d’ya really wanna know?

Do you really want to know where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing since I last sat down to join you in a cup of coffee/tea/etc.? Or shall I gloss over most of it as being, honestly, rather uninteresting?

I’ve been working on my cummings sampler. As mentioned, this is one of my designs and it needed a little bit of tweaking (the text wasn’t in the right alignment). I’ve charted this as a two-color design, but it could easily go either way – a monochromatic or different colors for every leaf. When I read this poem, these are the colors that I see. The brown is pretty unsurprising for anyone who’s been reading my blog. The black is a find, really. This is Kona Coffee, one of the limited editions included in the GAST Colors of America packs. I wish I had skeins and skeins of this, as it is exactly the black I want for text! I’m stitching it on 32 ct Vintage Country Cream that I bought during Mary Kathryn’s latest fabric sale.

I also broke down and joined the Me, Myself and I neighborhood SAL. Okay, I’m insane. But seriously, it is such a cool idea and I had so many ideas for our original NRR that I didn’t use …. I’m not really very good at withstanding temptation if it’s waved in my face more than once or twice.

And I guess that would about wrap up the report of my recent stitching-related activities. (Obviously I still haven’t found much stitching time! LOL!) On the domestic front, the kids are loving school. Max has begun both volleyball and swimming now. Nicky is set to join the Cub Scouts as soon as they get a few organizational matters settled – and Niek may be his troop leader! Rowen is impatiently asking when dance classes begin. All three kids are incredibly busy with friends, as well, and most afternoons I feel like I’m either a taxi driver or running an unregistered daycare. LOL. I grumble, but I love it. I always hoped my kids would feel good about having friends over, and that they’d be brave enough to go to the houses of their friends. Here’s a picture from earlier this week, when one of Rowen’s best friends came over to play. Adorable, aren’t they? (You’d never believe the wreck they made of the house in less than two hours!)

I’ve also been reading, but I’m like a binge-reader. Sometimes I just read and read and read, and if you ask me afterward just exactly what I read, I can’t for the life of me remember. At this moment, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami is next to me. It’s a collection of short stories, and up till now I’d only read his novels. But I’m so into this volume of stories that I simply must have more. Soon! I’ve also read the wonderful novels that the generous and delightful Deb sent me: The Year of Fog (M. Richmond) and Skylight Confessions (A. Hoffman). They blew me away. The Year of Fog had me chewing my fingernails … would they find Emily? It was such a delicate, personal glimpse into people’s lives. Skylight Confessions actually made me cry. I wanted to bring all the characters home with me and try to help them out. I shared that book along, as Nic mentioned how badly she’d wanted to read it. I started Confusion (N. Stephenson) but was just not up to the vast array of characters and stories that were pressing against me. I couldn’t find anything to hang on to, if that makes sense. I’ll try it again another time. When I went to the library today, I also picked up Oracle Night (P. Auster) and Isaac Asimov’s Utiopia (R. MacBride Allen) as well as Tales From Watership Down (R. Adams). I got the last one to read aloud to Max at night and we started tonight with “The Sense of Smell”. The stories are bit too long to comfortably read aloud (I was quite hoarse by page 30) but Max said he enjoyed it, so ….

On the work front, my return to the office was delayed by a week because Niek really had to be there himself. We’re ‘sharing’ – the day that I work, he stays home; the other four days that he works, I stay home. But I have begun developing those writing plans I mentioned a little while ago. One of the two non-technical leads panned out and I will be writing a small monthly column for an holistic health/new age ezine. Still waiting to hear on the other lead …. I’ve discovered there are also a lot of one-off freelance writing gigs I could jump in on, but I just don’t have the kind of time required to trawl through what’s available and what’s suitable. Still, it’s been really great to see that there is stuff out there beyond tech writing.

And now, gentle reader, I’ll let you get back to real life. Thank you ever so much for spending part of your day here with me.

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Don’t forget to sign up for the drawing for An American Landscape! I’ll draw a name at random tomorrow!

thankful for the little things

It’s a gray, chilly day here with rain forecast for the rest of the week and weekend, but I’m not letting that get me down. I’m feeling all cozy inside; very grateful for the little things …

Like this little finish, for the Bride’s Tree SAL, my first finish of 2008. Stitched using 1 strand of DMC over 2 on a gorgeous 40 ct. Silkweaver Solo. This is First Moon Colony, by Bent Creek.

Like little girls and their little brothers who love each other. And like little tiny pigtails on little girls.

Like the smell of homemade chicken soup slowly cooking down till dinnertime.

I’m thankful for phone calls from family and friends, cards received in the mail, hugs from my kids, smiles from my husband, nighttime cuddles with my baby, and so much more.

sal’ing along

I didn’t have too much time for stitching – typical Wednesday – but I did manage to do the swan, tall flower, and bluebird. My swan does show up a little better in real life, but it certainly doesn’t jump out at you. I worked some metallic thread into it to try to make it stand out better, and added an eye and beak (the pattern is just white). Check out everyone else’s progress at Nath’s blog.

 I love this project and I hope to get an extra day in on it next week, too!