A Mixed Mess...

Hi everyone! Thanks for signing up for the giveaway. I am so happy that you seem to like the stuff; I was a bit worried that my picks would be too lame, but I have gotten a bunch of comments which I will take as a good sign!
Today, I finally framed a Brightneedle design that has been lying around for ages. I am a huge Brightneedle fan, which is why i just started the new Brightneedle Stitchers' & Fans' Blog. I know that it is a log title for a blog, but I had no imagination left over after work today...
Anyway, if you hop on over to visit, you will find that the blog only has one measly follower, namely yours truly. Since I have only ever stitched up 2 Brightneedle designs (no worries, a third one is in the works), I need you dear readers to join the blog and post your Brightneedle finishes, WIPs, stash gatherings etc.
Note that I am not even showing you my BN stuff here, but you have to click on the link to have a look. Clever huh!? ;-)

I have also been neglecting a reward that I got from L-Bug a week or so ago. Thanks a bunch L-Bug! (Insert "heart" here!)

The trick is that I have to tell you 7 things about myself. Problem is that I am not a real interesting person combined with the fact that I babble a lot on my blog, so not much left to tell, really...
I'll give it a try though - here we go:

1) My family and I lived in the jungle of Panama for a year when I was 6 years old. My dad was working for a company that was building the power distribution net through the jungle and we lived in a Swedish trailer village smack out in the bush. I have fond memories of this time, but as an adult I do appreciate the constant terror that my mother has to have been in, seeing that we did have quite a few visits form the creepy-crawlies (scorpions, poisonous snakes, gigantic cockroaches, and my dad proudly came home with a tarantula one day after work...)

Indians women dressed in traditional clothes adorned with molas.

Little Sis and I walking through the village.

Dad, sis and me enjoying a pick nick next to one of the building site.

I still remember how scary these bridges were to walk across. High up in the air with roaring waters below.

Mom and Sis and a gorgeous view!

2) Since I am Swedish, my name is pronounced "Yenny", with the soft "y" instead of the hard "j"" sound. One of my friends mother had a bit of a problem with this unusual version of the name would always ask her "how is your friend Henny doing?". My friend thought that it was both embarrassing and annoying, while I found it quite amusing. This is the background to why one of our parrots is named Henny. It is adorable and fits her so much better than it does me...

3) My dream job when I was a kid was to be a pilot. When those dreams got more grounded (hah!), I decided that glass-blower would be the thing to be (since I did get the fact that there are not a whole lot of pear-shaped super-models out there). Seriously - how cool would that be!?

4) I have a tendency to collect things... Stash, shoes, parrots (no, wait, that's DH), kitchen ware, fabric, Mexican tree of life statues, beads, buttons, and an impressive "tip collection" from the laundry machine thanks to DH... I have a seriously hard time to stick to only one thing - I kinda' sense that I need the "matching set"...

5) When i was younger (mid-20:s), I was the girl that everyone turned their head after to check out the kitsch chick! I loved my mid-night blue velour tights, my super-high plateau shoes, my leather/sequined/animal print top.
All good things must come to an end though. People would pass out at work if I ever showed up like that. Plus i would probably end up on the "People of Walmart" site (even though I did make sure that my body-parts staid within my clothes...).

6) My greatest accomplishment to date is that I have a PhD in Chemical Engineering. My claim has always been that you don't have to be smarter than everyone else to get a PhD in Engineering, but you do have to more stubborn than the vast majority (as in stubborn on to the verge of "not normal").
There are a lot of things that we seriously have to change in the world - did you know that only 17% of all graduating engineers are women!? And only about 1/3 of those graduates stay within the engineering field! Time to roll up our sleeves, flex our biceps, and say "We can do it!" and tell our girls to get with the program! (Stepping down from the soap box... sleeves still rolled up, though.)

If you found the past couple of sentences too high up on the soap-box, please ignore and by-pass to this tidbit instead: the scariest movie that I have watched so far is Jurassic Park. The kitchen scene was almost enough for me to jump out of my own skin...

7) Are you with me so far? We are almost there. My sisters and I went to a specialty elementary school/high school that was aimed specifically towards song development. I was even the lead singer in a "jazz-band" all through my Swedish university years and I survived no less than 3 tours to Germany. Believe it or not, I am a recorded artist (insert pinch of salt around "artist") - somewhere out there is a cassette tape and a CD (big time!) with me singing old classics such as "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby"... Those were the times! LOL
(The photo shows the largest St Lucy procession in the world, performed by my old school)

Well, that is it! So, I am also supposed to send you on to 15 bloggers that inspire me, but I have to wimp out here. Please check out my blog-list instead - I love every single one of them and I know that I will find many, many more to adore over time. It is great that all of them are so different and the personality of all the blog owners shine through the computer screen. I am a big fan of all of you!

Time to get to bed.
I'll post stitch pics and finishes (I hope) in my next post.
Thanks for coming by today and Happy Stitching!