Drage Feuer Stitch

Completed her yesterday evening! She took me nearly a month, I think. I am really happy with the way she turned out, though stitching all those blacks was really boring. What will my next project be? I thought of Lanarte Ballerina but that one can wait. I will go back to my Sleeping Beauty and hope to complete her by end of this month.

Today is my mother-in-law's birthday, DD And I are going to take the bus to Germany, do some shopping and then the train to my in-laws' house. Mil will pick us up from the train station. DH is so worried that we will lost our way to the train station and insisted that I bring his navigator along. His navigator will probably point us to walk along the main road instead of going by short cuts. I can always ask people for the directions if we really get lost. Hope we don't spend too much time shopping and forgot to go to the train station!

I haven't been stitching her for nearly 2 weeks now. I started on her again early this morning and I could feel that my motivation is up again :0)) I guess that is also because I am recovering from a bad flu + an ear infection.

We had great weather last week. The temperature was up to 25 degree. We had this swimming pool last summer but it was at the back garden. DH thought it will be fun if she can slide into the water. He dragged the pool to her small playground. DD is so crazy about it and for days, she stayed in the garden for 4 to 5 hours. We realised that there could be a punctured hole in the swimming pool. We found another pool and this time with a filter in a shop as DH doesn't want to be the Poolboy scooping all the grasses ;0) They were all sold out when we drove there yesterday and were told to call today at 2pm asking whether the stocks are in again. I am crossing my fingers that we can get the pool later today.

I am pretty amazed that I am progressing rather fast on my Spanish Dancer. I haven't been stitching much since the holidays. The whole family is down with a very bad flu. DD 's flu is not so bad as ours but still we put her at home as she had cold sore. I don't want other kids in the kindergarten to get it too. I haven't touched my Sleeping Beauty for a week now. I simply don't have the motivation to stitch her. I know, I am so close to finishing her but if I don't have at least an hour in the morning to stitch, I won't even touch her as that one needs my full concentration. Really not easy when my nose gets stuck all the time and also with an ear infection. Hope I can get some motivation back once DD is back in the kindergarten and when the house is all cleaned up AND when my blog doesn't look weird anymore. I noticed the layout of my blog is acting really strange recently. I have no idea what is wrong and is still trying to find out what it is.

Even though flu days are really horrible, DD and I did a lot of baking during this period. We baked cookies, bread, cakes and all kinds of boller with different fillings - chocolate, pizza, raisins, marmalade. We are very pleased with the outcome.

I am posting some pictures of my garden here as some of my friends are wondering why I am pulling weeds constantly and not planting :0)) Look at all the bushes and the trees, do you think I still need to do more planting? We've chopped down lots of trees since we moved in. The first owner of this house was a Green Finger lady. They are nice but my ideal garden is just flat with 1 tree and probably one area just for flowers. I am quite an organised person and love things to be at certain areas and not everywhere. Our garden is actually round the whole house.

This old antique 'vase' is too huge to be moved. It was actually situation right in the middle of the garden and we managed to get 3 other friends to move it. Can someone tell me how to dig out bamboo pants without breaking a bone? I've tried and they are too difficult to be digged out.




This is where we planted some garlic, onions and other spices. A lot of the trees at this area have to go too. My brother in law just removed 2 huge ones few weeks ago.




The left picture is the garden at the back and that is the worst area. I think 4 trees were cut down? I had been bugging my husband to get me a cherry tree. Guess what? Just few weeks ago, the flowers were blooming on this tree and we realised it is actually a cherry tree with white flowers! I was wondering why the first owner planted it at the back of the house and at this 'garbage' area (still cracking my head how to get remove all the stuff in this area) and not the front. She was a smart lady, if she would had planted it in front, she would had to sweep the ground everyday when the flowers fall.




It was Lanarte Ballerina which I was so keen on starting at first. However, I can't find a great fabric to go with it. So, I started on Spanish Dancer first. I love the colours on her dress. I usually start off with the face when I work on a project but this time, I started from the bottom. I know I won't have the urge to stitch fast once her face appears before the rest. Maybe Ballerina will be started very soon. A friend of mine is sending me a SW solo from her stash. She said it will look great on Ballerina and the fabric has all the colours I am looking for. If I am not happy with it, I can always send it back. So, I am really looking forward to take a look at this fabric.





I received this lovely baking book from Japan few days ago. It was a surprise as sometime back, Chie wrote to me, saying that she wants to give me some really great recipes to try. I opened the book and it is all written in Japanese!!! I looked through the pictures and found 1 which is so perfect for the kindergarten or parties on certain occasions. I wrote to Chie immediately and told her it is Page 132 recipe in English I need. She will translate it for me and told me she is a big fan of marzipan and cinnamon. Those are certainly not my favourite and I never baked any cakes with these 2 stuff but it is not so difficult to find recipes as a lot of Danish cakes and pastries have marzipan. Thank you so much Chie and I hope you don't take too long to translate Page 132 for me ;0)))



It is Kristi Himmelfarts Dag in Denmark and DH will take the off from work and DD from the kindergarten. We will be visiting the twin girls' and their parents in their house for coffee and grill today. I am so happy that they've moved into their new house finally. For 2 years, they've been rebuilding their house. We will do our weekly grocery shopping tomorrow. We are invited to another family for grill and snobrød tomorrow. We will be visiting my inlaws on Saturday in the morning and then to the circus at noon. I told DH that I am not going anywhere on Saturday evening as Americal Idol comes on every Saturday.