Drage Feuer Stitch

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.