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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.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
She could had been fully completed before 7am this morning but I 'ran' out of floss for one of the symbols. Was starting to bite my nails as I know Lanarte's email is not on their site anymore and my nearest LNS is at least more than an hour drive away. While DH sent DD to the kindergarten, I started to go through the 2 floss organisers and found 2 full strands of that colour there. I must had taken it out and forgot to put it back in its original number.
It didn' take me long to decide which project I want to stitch next. It is this L&L The Spirit of Christmas. I had always wanted to stitch this big and round Santa. I think it took me at least a year before I decided to buy the chart (bought it last week). Well, actually the fabric was bought around Christmas time as I know I will stitch this Santa one fine day. I am not a big fan of opal fabric as my ears hurt so much whenever the thread goes through the fabric. It is not a big design, so I believe I will survive.
I am pretty sure I will get to this one very soon too. The design looks small in this Point De Croix Magazine 55 but it actually needs a FQ fabric. So, I chose this Silkweaver Solo which I have in my stash. I think the cream colour flowers will stand out in this fabric, I HOPE! While looking at this fabric, I thought it is the PERFECT fabric for HAED Angel of Spring! That means I don't have to go hunting for a fabric for her. However, that means I have to hunt for a fabric for these butterflies... decisions, decisions, decisions.....
My brother in law had been to our house twice last week as he is helping DH to build a shed. Our intention was to build it at one area - so that it is against the wall of the house. Strict rules in Denmark, the shed have to be away from the walls of the house by 2.5m. So, they conquered my potatoes area. I intended to use this area to grow some potatoes. Guess I have to find another area for them. This is just the foundation. I think the building will start this weekend.
Summer is soon over and I've been calling some places wanting to enrol DD for some extra activities. She will start in a dancing school in September. She wants to continue with her sports in the sports club but this year, they changed the timing for the training - 1 hour later than usual. Since that sports club is in the same town as her kindergarten, that means we have to bring her home, take an hour rest or so and then drive back to that town again. Still on the lookout for other activities that we can bring her straight there after her kindergarten.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
I could had ripped that face off 2 days ago. I had been stitching and frogging so many times on her face area. Patience pays off and now her face is done. I really thought her hair will be a pain to stitch as looking at those scattered stitches almost gave me a migraine. However, it is really easy when I am into it. I really like this Ballerina a lot but I still think the joining part from her shoulder to her neck is a bit weird. It just looks too long. 
The postman arrived with this JCS Christmas Ornaments 2008 issue for me today. As I mentioned in my previous post, I won this magazine in a draw by Ann. I spent quite a while looking at the magazine and the techniques on how to make ornaments. To be honest, I am really nervous as I've never tried making an ornament before. There is always a first time for everything and I found 1 very lovely ornament which I can't wait to try out. Wish me luck ;=) Thank you so much to Ann again for this magazine.
Monday, August 10, 2009
I won the 2nd prize for Small Category under Silkweaver Showcase 2009. I submitted 6 finished works and 4 went into the finals. I had John Clayton Heritage, Vervaco Wedding Hands and Vervaco Young Dancer in the Medium Category and Three is Company in the Small Category. I woke up this morning and received 2 emails from Emma and Chiloe, congratulating me. I thought I won something from the Medium submission as I have 3 there. It is a surprise to see these 3 birdies won me a prize and I am really happy! Not only for the prize but also knowing that my works will be hanging on the Gallery as long as Silkweaver's business is still running makes me very happy too.
You can see the finalists and winners for 3 categories here. There are so many beautiful works on the Showcase and if I am one of the 30 judges, I will choose everyone to be a winner. I got to say Nathalie's Stargazer really took my breath away. Congratulations to all the winners and the finalists and a big Thank You to all the judges ;0)
A good deal if you are looking for lots of DMC floss. Silkweaver just put out a huge lot of DMC floss on Ebay.
I had been really lucky last week. Before I knew I won a prize for Silkweaver Showcase 2009, I won a JCS 2008 Ornament Issue magazine just a day before. My name was picked by a very generous lady who wanted to give this magazine to someone outside USA. I had in mind for a JCS ornament issue for a while but never got the guts to order it or bid on Ebay. That is just so me.... I always think a lot and for a long time if I have to venture into something new (I don't know how to sew). Just few days before this magazine drawing, I was on Ebay searching for the magazines and checking on the postage fee. I am looking forward to receive this magazine as I really can't wait to try out making an ornament. Thank you very much to Ann for having this drawing.
I am still working on my Lanarte Ballerina and moving onto her face and hair now. She is a joy to stitch, though I wanted to rip her face off as I was frogging and stitching few times on that same area. I hope to complete her in 10 days' time.
As for Angel of Spring, I am just not comfortable with any of the fabrics I want to stitch her on. I settled with Iris Garden but still I am not so happy with it as I would like some pinks on that fabric. It is really frustrating as I haven't join in the Thursday SAL since I completed Sleeping Beauty. I really can't find any fabrics under Silkweaver's main range to go along with Angel of Spring, so I will go for the solos and I really hope I find one soon. I received an extremely touching reply from Cindy who is one of the 2 ladies who created this Thursday SAL blog. She told me to take my time to find the correct fabric for Angel as they are not going anywhere and they won't kick me out of the blog, lol!! Thank you so much, Cindy!
DD and DH went to a birthday party of this 5 year-old boy. They had such a great time there while I stayed at home. It is a no-parents party again but seems like DH got really friendly with the parents and was asked to stay. I used this time to pack my stitching room and did a bit of stitching.
One of the stores in the next city is having a huge sale on winter clothings yesterday but DD and DH had to choose to oversleep yesterday. It was really nerve-wrecking as I knew there would be so many people. The store opened at 10am. We arrived there at 10.10am and already the whole carpark was already packed with cars and people were queuing to go into the huge store with their shopping carts. This is the time we start to stock up winter clothings for DD. I had a long list of stuff to buy there but there were so many people and we stood in the cashier's queue for almost 45 minutes. We bought the necessary winter clothings for DD and went home. I wanted so much to buy some stuff in the supermarket as the coffee, whole chicken, flour, etc were really going at such great prices but I am not so fond of the crowd.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
I can't wait to get to her neck and head. I actually prefer to stitch the greens than skin tones. I was working really fast on her dress but started to slow down on her skin. I am extremely pleased with her on this Silkweaver Solo.
I received my Silkweaver Tutti Fruiti yesterday. It is extremely lovely but I think it is too light for Angel of Spring. I want something darker. I could only get some colours out of Tutti Fruiti by taking a picture of it in a very dark room. What a waste as this is the only fabric closed to SMF airbrushed Keenan. Now I have to choose between SW Starquest or SW Iris Garden and I have no idea which one is better. I just thought Starquest looks a bit like night time.
Tutti Fruiti, Starquest & Iris Garden
I had a busy week but fruitful. I started the week by having a major cleaning up of the house. DD just finished her 2 weeks of holidays and is back in the kindergarten this week. I washed all the windows and I am so proud of all the cleaned windows. I know they will get dirty again after a few days as we are expecting rain but still nothing makes me happier than spotless windows! I had been doing some heavy duty gardening job too. I was moving sand (left by the last owner) to another end of the garden. DH wants to make use of the sand for the tiles to build another terrace in front of the house.
DD is invited to another birthday party again this Saturday. It is a boy from her kindergarten who is turning 5. I still think it is weird that kids from the kindergarten are inviting a few kids to their house for parties. It is not a normal practice in Denmark as far as I know. Usually, if someone wants to invite friends from the kindergarten to their house for birthday parties, it will be either an invitation to all the boys or all the girls and not a few of them. Anyway, I went to buy a gift for this birthday boy yesterday. DD told me that he loves nothing else but cars. So, I bought him a 3 storey Car Park. I wanted to buy only 1 thing and some nice bread and dressings from the bakery but I came home with so many shopping bags! I simply couldn't resist the great sale in Germany. Nothing for myself as I couldn't find anything I like but I saw so many nice and cheap t-shirts and bought quite a few for DH.
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