A New Design Release
3 weeks ago
Thursday, October 22, 2009
I am very happy with the progress. I've completed 1 1/2 page, not full page though as I've got the background removed. It really feels great to be back on Ourfriendshaedsal every Thursday, posting wips along with other members.
This magazine arrived in my mailbox this morning. There are 3 patterns inside this magazine which I really like a lot. My favourite magazine ONS in Germany doesn't have this in stock and I managed to find this De Fil En Aiguille No. 52 from Violarium . Like I mentioned in my earlier post that I really want to learn how to sew on a sewing machine. I would really love to make these patterns into a bellpull and a cushion cover. Been searching on the net over the last few days looking for tutorials. I found a few but those tutorials are really not easy for someone like me who doesn't know how to sew. That means I need really baby steps to show me.
Monday, October 19, 2009
She's finally restarted :0)) I restarted her on the 10 Oct 09. She is tent on Silkweaver Iris Garden. I love to time myself each time I stitch a block of 10x10. When I was on the old Angel of Spring (see picture below), it took me 45 mins to stitch a 10x10 block without many confetti stitches (1x1) but this new start, it only took me 1 hour to tent nearly 20x20 block (2x1 tent) - where the blue flower is. I am looking very much forward to stitch her eye which took me 4 hours the last time! Tenting is so much faster.
The old Angel of Spring - 14 May 2008 till 03 Sep 2008
I thought I told myself I am not going to be a turbo stitcher or at least only 1 HAED at the moment but still it is so hard to resist nice cross-stitching patterns. After seeing this on Chiloe's blog on this De fil en aiguille, I wrote to my favourite German magazine shop, Kreative-buecher, asking whether Martina whether she still has this in stock. I called her in Germany 2 days later when I didn't get a reply from her. Luckily she still had 1 copy left and I bought it immediately. I have to say, for that amount I paid for, this magazine is really good with lots of lovely flowers to choose from.
The schools had a week of Autumn holiday last week but the kindergartens were not closed. Still I took DD out from the kindergarten last Wednesday to visit her grandmum in Germany. My mother-in-law has a few of these hydrangea plants in her garden and I love how she maintains them. I wish I have 1 in my garden too but I know I can never get such large and beautiful hydrangeas like hers as I am so bad with flowers and plants. I was sure that those hydrangeas were in such rich purple colours just few months ago.
For a long while, I've been wanting to learn how to operate a sewing machine. The last time I touched one was when I was 14 years old. During those days, what we had were those with pedal and a wheel on the right hand side. I was so bad with those sewing machines. I am on the lookout for some sewing machines which are very very friendly to people who doesn't know how to use one. It is so amazing to see computerised ones and also those 1-touch button and it will do the rest for you? I want to learn how to make simple cushion covers, bellpulls and table runners, ornaments, aprons, etc. I had been searching for tutorials but my simple mind still finds those tutorials are so difficult to follow. If anyone of you knows of any very very simple tutorials for simple sewing, please leave me a message. Thank you so much in advance.
Christmas is just round the corner. DD and I have been busying doing some paper Christmas ornaments - Paperklip. Love Gitte Schou Hansen's books as the ornaments are really very lovely and easy to make. I bought some of these magazines from Germany too but they are not as good as the Danish ones. I find the templates in those German magazines too confusing - templates' drawings overlaping on one another.
Friday, October 9, 2009
He is SO finished!! I am so happy. What a relieve!! I really wanted to finish this by today. Well, I did nothing yesterday morning but just stitching on him. I actually finished it this morning but wasn't happy with the God Jul (Merry Christmas) fonts I did and changed to the current one.
What is my next project? Lots of bakings!! I still haven't find a good cookie recipe yet. I've been trying out tons of cookies recipes for the past few weeks but I just find them OKAY, nothing that made me faint over. My mother-in-law bakes really great cookies every Christmas. We are trying to find a day in December as she wants to do some cookies-baking with her grand daughter.
I will still stitch since I get up really early in the morning. So, Angel of Spring will be my next project for that 1 hour-stitching in the morning. It is a restart on a different fabric. Maybe I should make her as my 1/2 year goal on the HAED BB? I hope I can finish her by June next year, or what? It can't be that difficult as I had the background removed, including her wings. 
Thursday, October 1, 2009
I am quite good with those confetti stitches now. In fact, so used to them that I am going at a great speed with this Santa.
I had a great week. Got lots of things done. Tidied up the whole of the basement, the garage and lastly my stitching room. Ever asked yourself why are you stitching? I woke up one day, 2 weeks ago, asking myself this. I put away so many stuff which I wonder why I bought them in the first place and also my taste had changed a lot. I even have duplicate copies of magazines. After sorting them out, I am selling and giving some stitching stuff away. Not that I am never going to stitch anymore but I just want to stitch another HAED and taking it as my own pace. I've been experimenting with baking and cooking a lot these days too and simply don't have the time to stitch. I am also reading during the evenings. The only time left for me to stitch is during that 1 hour or slightly more before the whole family wakes up in the morning.
DD started in the new sports center last week and she loves it there. The trainers are a bit strict but I think that is fine. I also love the fact that they are doing a lot of sommersaults during their sports hours. I just weighed her yesterday and she lost a bit of weight. I guess she had a bit of her parents. DH puts on weight easily and it is not easy for me to put on weight. For her, her weight goes up and down rather easily.
DH is supposed to celebrate his 4oth birthday in a villa but yesterday we heard from one of our friends that the owner had declared himself bankruptcy last month. We ran through the papers and true enough, there was a news on that in the local papers. That means, we won't be able to get the villa for his birthday celebrations. We are now thinking hard what we can do on his birthday. Of course close friends and family members will be invited over for coffee. We thought of staying over in Legoland but it is soon winter and everywhere is closed. Now I can understand why he is always complaining about being born during winter.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
I am so done with those whites and creams and now I am on the wreath. Stitching the wreath is not something which I am enjoying too! I give myself max. 4 more weeks to get this done as I really want to start on my HAED.
I havent been stitching much since last Saturday after I brought Karin Slaughter Genesis home. It is such a GREAT book! I've always love Karin Slaughter's books but I will say this is my favourite.
While stitching this Santa, I thought of the Nissekjole which DD had for the last 2 years. I doubt this one can fit her this year. I really love this dress as it is quite thick enough to be worn outside as a winter jacket. I guess I will have to get this in a bigger size once the dresses are out in the shop.
In my last post, I mentioned that I have something to announce but only until Katerina receives her package. This is the first time my package took more than a week to reach USA. My HAED Sleeping Beauty got published in the latest issue of CS Collection. It was my first time sending a finished work in and got published. I was so excited. I actually knew about it during the last week of August as 2 UK ladies informed me about it. I got one of them to buy me an extra magazine when they were out in the news stand and then contacted some people living in New York whether certain Danish chocolates can be found there. I sent Kat this magazine + Anton Berg Guldæske. Kat sent me a mail when she received this package. It is an extremely sweet and touching email.
Lovely prizes I won but they are not something which I can use. So, I think I will have a Giveaway on one of the stitching forums. Let's wait till I recieved the prizes first as I haven't got them in my mailbox until now. I want to say congratulations to my friend Emma whose finished work got published in the same magazine too. Her work is really beautiful and she stitched on her own hand dyed fabric. My husband who has never shown any interest in embroidery saw Emma's work in the magazine and commented that it is really good as the finished work goes really well with the fabric.
There are some ladies here whom I want to say a BIG thank you to for helping me in this secret :0))
Luan - for putting her own magazine aside for me when she saw Sleeping Beauty got published, as well as running to the store to get an extra copy for me and sending them to me.
Jackie - for helping me with the text before I submit it to the publisher.
Petra - who told me what kind of Danish chocolates are not easily available in New York.
Last Saturday, DD and DH went Geocaching and they thought it was really fun and got me into this treasure hunting with them the next day. It was a bit tiring for me but it was really fun especially when you know the treaure is just somewhere near. The scenaries are really great and we actually found 2 treasures!
Today, DD will start in another town for her sports activities. She was back at the old place last week where she did sports for the whole of last season. Everyone was new - the trainers and the children. The new trainer is not as well trained as the trainers from before. Most of her friends are not there anymore. There was this little girl... approx. 4 year old who was instructing other children what and how to do things. She was quite haughty and DD got enough of her and ran to her father and started to cry. I found out that this little girl is the daughter of the new trainer. At the end of the session, I asked the trainer for the name list and she thought I forgot to sign DD up for the class. I told her I did but now I want to take her name out. I told her that her daughter had been going around instructing other children what and how to do things. I don't feel good leaving my own daughter alone if I know she is uncomfortable having another young child breathing down her neck constantly. Parents are only allowed to stay in the activity room/hall on the first day but after that, all have to leave the children alone and pick them up when the sports end. We taught DD to say 'Do Not Tell Me What To Do!' if she again meets other children like this young girl. Of course, we are also telling her that she is not supposed to use this sentence on us or any adults she know.
Time of the year again. DH is turning 40 soon and we are planning a huge celebration but not together with DD this time. Both of them were born in the same month and we will make 2 separate parties this year - 1 for DH and 1 for DD. We will rent the same castle again as we did 2 years ago. We are inviting friends and relatives all the way from Southern Germany and Bulgaria. Relatives and friends travelling from far will get a room to stay overnight. It is a castle with 10 bedrooms with attached bathrooms and we can only have 10 families, including us in each room. I am pretty sure there will be some guests who will be very unhappy to know that they are not given a room. We had some unhappy guests 2 years ago too regarding the bedrooms. They were already informed beforehand that they won't get a room as they are given to others who travelled from far to our party. Lots of planning to do for this party and when I am under stress, I BITE!! ;0)
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
I believe my tongue must be somewhere in the house ;0) I've been biting my tongue so hard to stitch all those creams and whites on his beard and his hair. I REALLY can't wait for his head to be done soon.
I won Katerina Koukiotis 's Mermaid's Touch Bookmark on her Ebay last week and received the package this morning. She attached a small gift for me - a print of Alice in Wonderland which will goes very well with the chart I bought from HAED. I love the bookmark and Alice in Wonderland a lot. They are simply BEAUTIFUL! Thank you so much, Kat! Eternity had just been released on her site. Katerina drew this for her HAED fans. I've never been a Gothic fan but this one is really amazing and I can't find any fault with it. It is so beautifully drawn, the couple looks so real and the woman is so sexy in such an elegant way. Well done and thank you so much, Kat!
I actually have something to announce but I can't do it till Katerina received my package and I hope she gets it real soon (she doesn't know what's in the package ;0)). I knew about it last month. It is really hard to keep a secret, isn't it? :0))
September 11th, the German kindergarten and the German school organised a carnival, inviting parents and the friends. I offered to bake some muffins for that day. It was a fun day and DD's group leader had a chat with me about DD. I am extremely happy and proud to hear the great feedback from the group leader. They had been a bit worried about her German before summer but was surprised to hear her speaking more German after summer. The credits will have to go to her Oma who had been spending quite some time with her during summer. On the same evening, we went to the train station to get my sister-in-law who was coming from Copenhagen with her new boyfriend! He is a very nice and down to earth man. Our daughter likes him almost immediately.
When Amo came out with this baking book 2 last weekend, I immediately went to get it. I have the first book and it is really GOOD! I think I've tried almost everything from Book 1 and almost everything turned out really well. I've tried 2 recipes from this Book 2 but it seems like everything is so watery. I made the French Baquette and some buns but end results are - too much fluid. I am going to try the English Scones recipe this weekend with DD. If result is still too watery, I will have to write an email to them, asking them to double check their recipes.
Our shed is done!!!! My brother-in-law had been working on this non-stop. Over the last weekend, DH tried to do up as much as possible while my brother-in-law had to work. The shed was built from ground. Kudos to both of them for getting this shed up. The top of the shed was supposed to be of the same height. However, they had to lower one part of it down as our neighbour (behind the shed) said he can't see over to the other neighbour's window if that part is too high. We respect his concern as they are just looking out for one another.
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Season for all the sports activities is starting this week. DD will be going back to her sports activities. I am not so fond of the new timing 1700 to 1800 and last season was 1600 to 1700. My husband said we are not going to take that away from her as she really loves doing sports and also she misses her friends who are in the same group. We just have to adjust our dinner timing. Last Thursday was her 2nd lesson in dancing but she came out of the room to look for me after 30 mins. I had a good talk with her. I told her we had this discussion for more than a week, asking her whether she really wants to join the dancing class. I don't want to push her but I want her to learn that she can't be fickle-minded all the time. It took her less than a min to get into the room again and she came out smiling when the lesson ended. Still we could feel that she loves doing sports more than anything. We will see.
I think I write too much today! I just want to let people who happen to read my blog to know that this blog is something like a diary for me, as well as some happenings going on in my life which are for family members whom I don't have the time to write long emails from time to time. I know my cousin from Canada is reading my blog from time to time to know what I've been up to ;0)
Monday, September 7, 2009
This is one pattern which I will definitely not stitch again. I've always asked myself what colours do I have a problem with and they are white and cream together. It was a drag to stitch the edge of his red cloak. Those white, creams and golds are really confusing me. I am over that part now and I am really not looking forward to stitch his beard, hair and the edge of his hat.
HAED is having a Labour Day sale right now. I didn't buy anything again this sale, not yet. I guess I won't be buying unless some really great charts catch my eye. Well, I did buy Koukiotis Mermaid's Touch the day before the sale started. No heartaches for not waiting to buy it when there is a sale. I still get 15% off as I subscribe to their newsletter. I thought Mermaid's Touch shouldn't be that difficult but when I compared her to Over the Rainbow, Mermaid's Touch is actually more complicated! Still, I've been waiting for this mermaid to be charted since Koukiotis released her and she will definitely be stitched once Angel of Spring is done.
I used the GC I won for this year Silkweaver Gallery on 3 solos. I love the 3rd piece a lot but it was gone really fast. I managed to get it into my cart after 45 mins :0))
Bought this Tutti Fruiti last week when Silkweaver listed her Odds and Ends. It is actually slightly darker than the last piece I had. I sold the other Tutti Fruiti as I find it too light for my taste. I am quite happy with this one. At least I can get the colours out with my camera.
DD started her first dancing lesson last Thursday. Both DH and I thought she was doing really well throughout the 45 mins. However, when we were about to go home, she told me she doesn't like it and find it quite boring. She told me that she wants to go back to her sport lessons. The new season is starting next week. However, I am not so fond of the timing they have for this season. It is from 5.15pm to 6pm and it used to be 4.15pm to 5pm. DH said not to take this away from her and we can find an arrangment with the timing - dinner and bedtime. Since all the activities are starting next week, we will bring her to all and try them out. Just found 2 more sport activities in another town. We think why she thought the dancing was so boring could be due to the fact that they are constantly in a circle and not moving all over the place. She feels that it is too restricted, unlike the sport, which they have to run around the whole hall to do different type of exercises.
I wish everyone a great Labour Day!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
In my last update, you could see through him but now he is all covered up. I am moving to the bottom of his red cloak next week.
For the first time in many weeks or months, I finally bought a HAED chart using my birthday GC which I thought I will never have the chance to use it. It is Katerina Koukiotis Over the Rainbow. I've requested this for a while and so glad that it finally got charted. Now, I only have to wait for her Mermaid's Touch to be charted as I really like that one so much.
My husband took a lot of pictures when he was at the festival but most of the pictures contained faces of our friends and I don't like to put closed-up pcitures of their faces on my blog. I managed to choose 2 photos which are rather harmless to put on my blog ;0) As I mentioned in my previous post that it had been a tradition for the last 15 years at least that my husband and his friends gathered for breakfast at someone's house, have breakfast there and take a cab to the festival AND a cab to send all drunkards home again. These small Feigling are the first thing they start with after breakfast. Once the Feiglings are gone, they will go for the beer and when the beer are gone, they go for anything on the table!!
I am surprised to hear that the father and the daughter there again this year. According to my husband, they haven't been there for the last few years. I first met this young lady when she was about 7 years old and that was 9 years ago. She is such a sweet and pretty young girl who can sing and play the musical instruments very well. I still have a CD by them. At that time, I know she was already a multi-lingual young girl who can speaks 5 languages - English, Danish, German, French and Italian. I wish I had been there yesterday to see how much she had grown.
My husband came back early this year as he was so tired. It was partly my fault ;0) I am an early bird and I am already up usually at 4.30am to 5am. I subscribed to some photobuckets albums and I got a notification that one of them uploaded some magazines for sale. I clicked onto that link and all of a sudden, it says that I have a virus and told me to run this so-call anti-virus program. I thought that was my own (no idea how many anti-virus programs I have in my program) and after a while, it asked me to buy the program using my cc. I am not so stupid and just cancelled the whole thing. I decided to wake my husband up at 6.15am as I sensed something is really wrong. He didn't had the time to find out more about this virus, so I had to switch off my computer the whole day and used his backup computer to go online instead. He managed to get rid of the virus this morning and did a few scans, so I am sure my computer is now quite safe :0) This is the first time I am so careless. 'Women and their shopping!' will be what most men will say for my case :0(
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
I really can't put this project down as it is such a fun stitch. There had been froggings here and there a bit but still it had been a pleasure. I am starting to worry about the wreath as I am quite unsure about the candles. 1 of the symbols can be either a backstitch or a full stitch of 1 certain colour. I will see as I move along. I am also changing the krenik to other floss as I am not a krenik fan at all.
My brother-in-law was here last Sunday and this is the progress of both he and my DH's hardwork from morning till late evening. DD thought they are building a playhouse for her and she got so excited. Now, DH is trying to make my brother-in-law to help him to build a playhouse for her. Wish my brother-in-law can be a full time carpenter but he is a full-time fireman. He had an education as carpenter for 3 years before becoming a professional fireman.
I haven't been sitting on my butt on that day too. DD and I were baking bread and tried out making Kanelsnegle which didn't turn out well. I was totally kaputt at the end of the day as I am down with a bad flu. I am always telling people to drink lots of camomile tea whenever they have a flu but I never do that myself. I drank 2 cups yesterday and at least for once in 1 week, I am not coughing so much, though my nose is still bleeding a lot.
My coming weekend is going to be really exciting. DH will be away for a festival. So, DD and I will be baking again!! It is a tradition every year for my husband to gather with some of his friends (for the last at least 15 years) to have breakfast at one of the houses (last year was at ours) and they start drinking after breakfast. Then, they will drive with a cab to the festival, enjoying the music, food and drink the whole day. Not some kind of modern music but more like folk music and Irish music. At the end of the day or the start of next day, they will all share another cab to come home. I've been to this festival with them once. I only started drinking at 1pm and got drunk at the same time with them!! Imagine they started after breakfast. I am not a good drinker and I get tired really fast. Since then, I rather do other more relaxing stuff rather than all the walking and drinking. Just a note to anyone who might think that the Danes are alcoholic if they are drinking the whole day but they are not. They are doing it once a year and some doing it during other festivals or birthdays or weddings. Drinking is a culture in most European countries and I will only consider an alcoholic as someone who drinks every day but then again, it all depends. I was drinking a lot daily too right after my birth. It was Hvidtøl and this beer is only available in the market during Christmas season. I was lucky to have so many bottles of these Hvidtøl during my 5 days stay in the hospital as I gave birth to my DD in late November. Hvidtøl is known to help new mothers to produce more milk :0)))
Saturday, August 22, 2009
I finally got this big and round Santa (L&L The Spirit of Christmas) started on the 18 Aug 09. It had been a pleasure stitching him so far, though it is a pain to stitch on an opal fabric. I love the reds and greens.
I finally restart on my Angel of Spring on Thursday. I settled with Silkweaver Iris Garden after thinking for a long time. I won't be stitching much on her as I want to get this Santa done asap but will focus more on her later this year.
This morning, I could hear a band playing from our terrace and there was a parade going through the road outside our house. We realised there must be a carnival somewhere. We checked out the internet for happenings in our town and true enough, there is a small carnival nearby. We went there after coffee.
This picture was taken outside our terrace this morning when the band was passing by. Look at the cart filled with children.
I got impatient and went out of the house, put myself outside the driveway with DD and took some more pictures.
While at the carnival, DD wanted to play some games inside this so-called Children's Land. The lady told her that she needs 2 tokens to play every single games. We looked around and wondered where we could buy the tokens. She pointed to 2 huge sand boxes and told us to look for tokens there. I think this is such a brilliant idea!!! No wonder there were so many kids there searching for stuff. DD found quite a few and exchanged the tokens for her games. Not only that, with the entrance fee she paid, she got an ice-cream and a huge bag of candies.
This is one of the activties which she needs 2 tokens for. This is what we call Snobrød in Denmark.
It had been a great day....until I accidently deleted my contact list on my mobile phone. It was a mistake. I was supposed to transfer all the contacts over to my SIM card and I have no idea what I did, they overwrite everything on the SIM card. On the other hand, I am very happy with my new iphone 3G which my DH brought back from the shop yesterday. He had waited for almost 3 weeks for the shop to call and inform him that our phones are there. I don't really have the time to try out the new phone yet as I spent the whole morning making buns and a cake. DH hasn't stop playing with his own phone since yesterday.
Oh! I tried making a new cake this morning. It is a cake made out of rye bread (a very typical kind of cake for this area in Denmark). Taste really good but I really have to work on the cream around the cake. I have no idea why my whipped cream always look so crumpled up. Is it because of the vanilla sukker I added while whipping the cream? Any great bakers out there to give me a tip or two will be greatly appreciated.
I hope everyone has a great weekend and enjoy the sun.
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