Drage Feuer Stitch

HAED had a Day Before Christmas Sale and I bought Citrine (November Birthstone Fairy) with a background removal. I requested for the stone stairway, including the ground to be removed. All I want is just the Lady and all the butterflies to remain. Instead of hunting for fabrics like what I usually did, I decided to use a fabric in my stash to stitch Citrine. It is a fabric from Crossed Wing and stitchers call this the Flower Power Fabric.

Here is an update of my Sleeping Beauty. I posted on the HAED forum asking members' opinions on this and my Angel of Spring. All of them said they don't see Angel of Spring having too many colours on her face and to continue with her. Some said to stitch more on Sleeping Beauty and see. I am not so sure now as I think it is not so bad as I thought initially. One members said maybe it could be the colours of the HDF silks I am using on her. I didn't realise that at all and I didn't even check the difference between the 2 brands before starting on this project. I took the DMC colours out and put them beside HDF silks. I don't think the problem is with the floss as all the silk floss are about 1 shade darker than the required DMC floss.

My 2 pieces of custom cut fabrics from Silkweaver arrived today. Love them and I am still hating myself for not ordering more, like Starquest just to stash up as my friend Emma got hers and said she is really thrill as there are so many lovely colours on the fabric.

Chasescape is for my Permin Christmas Street and Winter Skye is for Eva Rosenstand Animals in the Wood which I won on the ebay.de. I am very happy with this Winter Skye as I used to have but that one has round patches of the purple on the fabric. I wrote to Tracy from SW regarding my concern and she said that was the old dye but won't be with the new one.

These are the presents which were given to the 3 kids - DD and her 2 cousins. She got quite a lot of clothings, games, Belville Sunshine Home, Hi-5 CD and a Colour Kidz Spray Duo set. As for DH, I bought him Dexter S2 dvd set. It arrived today in the post but still he is very thrill with his present.

Wonder anyone is like me? Still waiting for Christmas presents to reach them as those are meant for your family members. I ordered Dexter S2 dvd for DH on the 16th Dec and item was shipped on the 17th. Since the ebay seller indicated that the item's location is in UK, I presumed I would get it latest by today. Well, got a Gentle Reminder from the seller to leave a comment once I receive item. I told him if I would had know the item would be shipped from Oz, I wouldn't even order from him. He replied and explained why the item was shipped from Oz...... something about AUD weaker than £.... not sure what he meant but he seems nice over the explanation, so he is FORGIVEN! I don't think the postman will come by tomorrow as today is their last working day but still I am hoping. Anyway, I printed out the picture of the dvd from ebay and pasted it on the Christmas card for DH and got it wrapped up (hopefully he doesn't read my blog till he gets his present). For DD, we bought her a Colour Kid Spray Duo pen and also a Hi-5 music CD over Ebay. If I would had know all the new dvd players are Region Free, I would had bought a Hi-5 DVD over Ebay too. All presents are packed in a basket and ready to bring them over to my in-laws' house tomorrow + my Great American Salad. I got this recipe from a member over 123stitch mb, tried it out and both DH and I love it.

I wish everyone who visits my blog a wonderful Christmas!

I was so excited to start on HAED Remembrance 2 days ago as I've been putting it off for a year now. I may be really excited but my heart wasn't on it at all. I wasn't checking when I was stitching as it was my first time tenting. After 500 stitches, I had to frog some stitches and guess what? I accidentally cut off 2 threads out from the lovely Silkweaver solo! Instead of frogging, I had to rip the whole thing out. I can certainly turn the fabric around and restitch but that is not the area where I want the picture to be. It is a very lovely piece of Silkweaver solo. i can still reuse it but stitching 2 over 2 for another pattern. I sent an sms to Jackie and told her about it. She told me to start on others which are calling me the loudest. I am starting to see her point. I screwed Remembrance up as my heart wasn't in there but just started because I have to. So, I decided to start on HAED Sleeping Beauty. The only plain 28 count evenweave I have is Angel Blush which is close to cream and I am not so fond of stitching a black and white pattern on a light cream evenweave. My only choice is Wichelt Lavender Sunset 28 count Jobelan but Jobelan's fabric is thicker and I am using HDF silks which are thicker than DMC floss. It was reallly frustrating. Well, I decided to try out on this Wichelt Jobelan by starting with 1 over 1 as I am really not used to tent stitching. It went really slow and I tried tenting again and it worked. It wasn't so bad as I thought. Jackie is right when she swears that by tenting, you can really go fast.

I won a Lanarte chart this evening on ebay.de from the same ebay seller whom I won her ER Animals in the Wood chart last month and that is my 2009 goal to start on it. Well, at least something nice to cheer me up after destroying my lovely SW solo fabric.

Hope to post a WIP very soon :0))

Super brown nosers.
Not helping new comers or even ignoring them.
Complaining about anything and everything too much.
Not getting what people wish for their birthdays and Christmas, instead buying stuff what they want others to like.
Taking other people's kindess as their weakness by pretending to be 'poor' and asking for stuff for free.
Asking for expensive gifts from friends and family members.
Pretending to be nice to friends but deep inside they are cursing them to the bones.
Thinking they are the best in everything.
Talking without thinking.
Asking stupid questions.
Walking into people's houses with their wet and muddy shoes, especially during winter.
Sensitive people who jumps up and think you are saying some negative things about them, even when you only whisper 'Errrrrr....'
Fat people who think skinny people are unhealthy and force them to eat more.

Overall, I just hope people who has nothing good to say, to please shut their mouths up. If you have something nice to say, just say but please don't overdo it. Never say things you don't mean.

Done!! I actually didn't expect it to be finished till probably end of this year. I am surprised myself too as I only put in a couple of stitches during the wee hours in the morning and evening. I couldn't stitch much on this one as we are all down with a very bad flu. Those colours were really confusing me as I only got ready the list of colours which I want to change for the dress but as I go along, I have to change colours here and there to fit into the blues and pinks and also into the hand dyed fabric.

Call me a chicken as that is my first name. I've always wanted to try out beading and thought it will be a great start on this chart. I ordered the Mill Hill beads together with this chart from 123stitch. However, I decided to use white to replace all the frosted beads instead as I am still not into stitching with beads.
I would really love to stitch this again and thought of changing the dress to greens and yellows?

Should I start on my new project? Should I start on HAED Remembrance or Sleeping Beauty first or should I wait till January to start a HAED KK SAL with Jackie? She is definitely going to start on Shy Baby.

What is a blog? I've been having these thoughts on my mind since I started one. To share pictures and stories but what about your frustrations with friends and family members? This is the only thing I've not done on my blog so far and that is to vent my frustrations here. Reason being that you never know who will read your blog.

For example:

WHO called me yesterday to discuss about some gifts and WHO wasn't happy when I said I've already settled that and that's final. WHO is not happy about it. In my heart, I wasn thinking 'I give a F"&% who you are and what you think and whether you are happy'. Imagine if WHO comes across my blog and read my frustrations, won't she call me and asked 'is that WHO me?' oooppsss.

As mentioned earlier that we have friends over for Julefrokost (traditional Danish luncheon). It went really well and we had æbleskiver, cocoa and my Nutella Lagkage for coffee. Monika and I prepared dinner. Monika is real good cook and I was acting like her assistant. I got to say we both work really well together. We had a huge spread of traditional Danish dishes on the table and by the time dh was done with the eating, he was sweating! The twins and dd played really well together as usual. I got to say once these 3 girls are together, they are really wild! We danced around the Christmas tree and was singing German and Danish Christmas songs. We played pakkeleg and they left for home around 9.30pm.

I received a Christmas present from Joy in Singapore. Really nice hand made floss ring she made and also a kit by Dimensions call Cinderella. Well, I actually have this no count kit in my stash for a few years which I bought from cross-stitch-corner.de but never had the guts to start on it due to the fact that there are some speciality stitches.

We went to get a sleigh for dd yesterday but the shop is really full of bull. What they have in the shop is not the same as shown on their brochure and still insisted that it is the same. Those people thought we are not only blind but stupid as well. Then we went to the wrong supermarket to get my full set of plates, cups, etc. Well, let hope we got the time to run to the right supermarket to get them this week.

We went to our good friends' house for æbleskiver and glögg yesterday. Honestly, if I see 1 more æbleskiver, I will puke. DD started her fever last evening. We expected it as the doctor told us to expect a fever within 4 days to 12 days after her MFR shot. Crossing my fingers that she will recover before Friday as Friday is the last day in the kindergarten (though officially, they are closed from 23 but she will stay at home) and they have Waffle-Eating on that day.

I managed to get the rest of the Christmas cards written and sent out this noon while having dh watching over her. STILL! I realised that I forgot to send out 2 cards to my overseas friends!! Typical. Anyway, I finally got a mail from Beth giving me address in USA and sent out the 2 German books to her 2 sons. I am so embarrassed but I have to get it out. I told the post office to weigh and check the postage to USA and it was 499g and she said that will be dkk 74 and I am lucky, as I am still under 500g and if it is over, I have to pay dkk 120. I put in a card and how would I know a card will weigh that much. I was confused too as I was sending few cards and another package to my good friend in CAnada. When the postlady weigh my USA package again, it was 510g. She said I must had put something inside and I insisted no. She gave me a look and said 'maybe a card?' well... I did and didn't t hink of it. So, I ended up paying dkk120 for the postage. I should had send the card separately but it was too late as I've already put the card in and sealed it up.

I've always wanted to buy such houses with lights but they cost so much. While doing my weekly shopping today and looking for gifts for the twins, I found this set at €6.50 - 50% reduced. I would like to buy the one with music but that set cost €24. I am rather happy with this purchase and hope to expand my collection slowly. FYI, I am not The Kartoffel Avler Woman, not even close. I only have small christmas decorations as I hate overwhelming decorations during Christmas. Simple and nice, that's me!

This is the food I am contributing to the kindergarten for the Julefrokost (Christmas Luncheon). I prepared 18 pølsehorn around 6am in the morning. They are really easy to make. I bought cans of crossiant dough and packets of chicken sausages and roll the sausages into the dough which are already cut into huge triangles. The kindergarten said they were a real hit during the luncheon as all kids rushed for them before a picture was even taken.

I got to thank a member of the 123stitch MB for posting a thread about blogs. Quite a lot of the members posted their blogs there and I was jumping with joy when I saw Coral's Celtic Summer. I always feel bad asking her for an update on this WIP all the time. The truth is, I never get sick of staring at this beauty in her pinks and blues. She is the one who gave me the colour conversion for her Celtic Summer for my Isabella's Garden. Thank you Coral.

This is what I completed so far since the last update. I thought of changing the hair colours as I thought it will sink into the SW solo fabric but seems like it is turning out well. I still can't decide how to space out some pinks on left hand side of the dress. I don't want all the empty squares to be in pink as I think that is a bit too much. I am also thinking of giving her a violet ribbon? I really hope the next update will be Isabella's Garden Finished!! I can't wait to get this done as I have so many things to do before the school holidays starts the week after. Also I have do something to my blog as after looking at other stitchers' blogs, really make me so embarrassed of my blog. I only have to do something about this Classic template and then I can accept most codes.

DD went for her annual checkup 2 days ago. Everything went well and I am so glad that she is not as blind as me. Eyesight was checked and it was perfect. Her height is above average and she is taller than 75% of the kids here. Weight is normal too - WHEW!! I was rather worry as last year, her doctor said she was a bit overweight and told us to keep an eye on her diet. Actually it was my fault as I was giving her Kinderpenquin to her daily, thinking they are just snacks and not fattening at all. I stopped that immediately after her 3rd year checkup. She got an injection at the doctor too. It came as a surprise to us as we know the next one will only be when she is 6 years old? Doctor said that is the new rule. Anyway, she is a treal trooper as she only whisper an ouch when the doctor injected her. HOWEVER, she was screaming so much when she tried to take the plaster off from her thigh later that evening. I had to convince her to trust me to take it out for her. When the plaster finally came off after I put so much water on it, she shouted between tears 'I DID IT!!'

We set up the tree yesterday. It is our first Christmas tree as we've been spending our Christmas holidays at my inlaws. This year, we want our own tradition - Dancing round the Christmas tree. DD helped out to decorate the tree and I think she did a great job even though she is hanging all the ornaments only at one part of the tree. We explained to her that she must spread all the ornaments out round the tree so that it will look nicer. My stitching time had been shorten since yesterday as she wants all lights to be off, except for the lights on the tree.

Here is my update of Isabella's Garden. I've changed the bottom folds of her dress to darker colours as the original (Ecru and 677) colours looked too pale on this SW Solo. I've also changed the pink flowers on the right side of the dress to lighter pink. I hope I don't have to change her hair colours too. I am a bit worry that her very light blond hair will drown into the fabric too. If only I had been a bit smarter and used SW Spring Garden instead of this solo, I wouldn't had to change colours constantly. Now, I am not sure whether to put in some pinks on the left side of the dress or just use dark blue as what I wanted initially.

Last week was DD's 2nd Christmas party at the kindergarten. Last year she didn't get a roll for any of the performance as she was still very new. This year, she got 2 rolls! She was one of the 'snowflakes' and one of the penguins. I got to say the Santa this year looks much nicer than the Santa from last year. Last year Santa has such a long and straight beard.

This is one of the Skt. Nikolaus DD received on the 6th December. This one is from her grandmum and we've also prepared 1 more for her. She got lots of chocolates and and clothes from her grandum. We told her Skt. Nikolaus put the gifts there as she had been a very nice girl for the whole year. Well, the secret burst when she saw the gift. She said 'no, it is from Oma!' I told my mother in law please, in the future, to use a different gift wrapper for Skt. Nikolaus. DD recognised the gift wrapper as her grandmum used them to wrap all her birthday gifts! It was really fun for her as she was hunting around for more gifts from Skt. Nikolaus and unfortunately, there were only 2 :0)))

Snow came rather early this year. This picture was taken from our balcony. I remember we only get snow just after Christmas for the past few years. The snow only lasted for 2 days and since then there wasn't any more snow. I hope the next snow comes when we are all at home and not out on the road.

I received a package by hand from the postman yesterday. It was from my good friend in Canada. Sandy addressed the package to DD. I put the package into our letterbox. DD is at the age whereby she is so thrilled when she sees letters in the letterbox and even thrill to death if they are addressed to her. She had been receiving cards from friends and relatives last week and hug them to her chest when she saw them. Yesterday, she was so excited when she saw something in the letterbox. She took the package out and saw her name on the package and again she was jumping up and down like a little gorilla. I opened up for her and it was wrapped with christmas gift wrapper. I told her that is a Christmas present, and she can open it up on Christmas eve.

Got an email from our good friend Monika. We've arranged for a Julefrokost at my place. I guess it is call Thanksgiving in America. Monika gave me the menu of what she is going to cook and we will split up the costs of the food. Both dh and I agree with the menu and I trust Monika's cooking as she had been working as a cook for years, though she was educated in Business Administration. Her twin girls will exchange Christmas gifts with DD and we are sending the girls' wishing list to each other. Looking forward to that day.

When I first saw this thread on HAED Forum, I was really excited and even more excited when I saw that one of my favourite artists Rachel Anderson's Citrine is one of the 4 SALs for the forum members. When I first saw Citrine on Rachel's site, I told myself that I will get a background removal as I have a piece of hand dyed fabric which is just perfect for the fairy and the butterflies. According to the murderator.... I mean moderator of the forum, I can remove the background myself with the chart she will email to the participants every 2 months but I am not eligible for the finisher competition. I am not so much into the competition but more on the SAL as I've never participated in a SAL with so many people and stitching the exact same chart without any colours changed. On the other hand, I ask myself, will I be able to enjoy the SAL if my mind is on the background removal? If I buy the chart, I will definitely get HAED to do the background removal.

Here is my update on Isabella's Garden. Initially I wanted to stitch her dress in HDF's silk but changed my mind as I wasn't so sure whether the conversion will work and I know I will change my mind all the time. It was a great idea not to stitch her with silk floss as I was ripping and changing the shades constantly. I wish I can see a real picture of someone's Isabella's Garden as there are some areas where I have to stop and look really hard, wondering whether that part belongs to the ribbon or the dress. I might have to change the colour of her hair to a darker colour. I was so obsessed with the fact that the colour of her hair will be drowned in this SW Solo and forgot about the bottom of her dress. I am not really happy that now the bottom of her dress is a bit drowned by the yellowish/browish colours. S*#t happens.

Every year, the kindergarten has a tradition that every day, a child will take turns to bring the Drille Nisse (teasing elf) home. The parents has to do something to their child and act as if it was the Drill Nisse who did that. It can be anything, like hiding the shoes, putting the toothbrush somewhere, etc. So, what dh and I did yesterday while DD was asleep was to stack her table and chairs up high, putting her sunglasses on Drill Nisee and arrange an F with her toys. She was surprised to see the arrangment like this this morning and said it must be me and I said no and she looked at her father and he said no too. We told her it must be the Drille Nisse. I love this tradition and think it is really fun. When dh was sharing the office building with another company, everyone plays as a Drille Nisse. We either re-arrange their office or decorate their office, put a new cup for them, sharpen their pencils, removing the batteries from their mouse, etc. Just before Christmas, everyone will get together and make a guess who their Drille Nisse was and also why they vote them as Drille Nisse of the year. I was voted as Drille Nisse once as I decorated this lady's office with chocolates and all sorts of decorations.

So, we thought we still had time after waking Santa up at Røderko. We drove a bit further to Damgård where they were supposed to wake Santa up at around 1530 but we just want to take a look. It was really nice and cosy inside and we had waffles and boghvedegrød and we left for home at 1500.

Couldn't take a better picture as it was rather foggy yesterday morning. The party went really great and our guests stayed for dinner and everyone enjoyed the simply hotdog menu. Parents in law left after dinner and friends stayed till 9pm. Just got another invitation from one of our guests to go to their house for coffee on the 21 Dec. It is the birthdays of their 2 daughters and no big celebrations but just for coffee.

Silkweaver had a 25% off storewide yesterday. I was really happy as I really need 3 custom cut fabrics for some projects. I asked Tracy whether the 25% is applicable to custom cuts and she said the prices can be worked out manually and she goes with my idea for the 2 colours which I wanted for my projects. I ordered 2 from her as I am not sure about the 3rd fabric. Since SW is always having a colour each week at 20% off, so it is not a problem as it is a FQ I need. The 2 fabrics are for my Permin Christmas Street which I bought it from Pawsprint at 20% discount nd Eva Rosenstand Animals in the Wood which I won on Ebay.de. I chose Chasescape for the Permin and Winter Skye for the ER.

I am really glad that SW had this sales. Initially I wanted to order the fabrics from another hand dyed shop (don't want to mention the name) she didn't reply my mail. 1 thing for sure, the mail had not been lost on cyberspace as I did asked her on her forum but she was only answering other members posts and not my question. So, from now onwards, I will only stick with SW as I've really experienced very bad experience with 3 other hand dyed shops.

Another thing is, I received a revised copy chart for Cuddles from Heritage Crafts.

HAED is having a Thanksgiving sales. I don't have anything to buy this time. Wish they had get Rachel Anderson November Birthstone Fairy Citrine charted.

I really think there is something wrong with the charting of this chart by HAED. Remembrance, Sleeping Beauty and So This is Love don't have so many colours like this one. Her face looks like Nightcrawler. One says you have to stand 3 meters away to view a HAED but this Angel of Spring, I have to stand more than 5 meters away, just not to scare the hell out of me. I've spent so much effort on this one and I will just continue with it, unless Mindy from SMF decides to open up her business again.

These are my 2009 HAED projects. Katerina K is my all time favourite artist. Not only is she a very talented lady but also a very humble lady. I love most of her artworks and how she could make expressions come alive and so real with her pencils.

Sleeping Beauty and Remembrance will be stitched with HDF silks. I bought quite a few during the sales and I really hope I have enough of her silk floss to complete these 2 projects.

I love to look at people's blogs but I am so lazy to get one myself. Now I managed to get my finger out and start one, hope it will last. Be patient with me as I am still learning and trying to find out how blogging works.