Christmas Wishes, Stitching Updates & Greetings from Assorted Pets

God Jul and Merry Christmas to Everyone!

I won't bore you with lame excuses regarding my absence this time, so I'll jump right into the stitching updates. :-)
I am currently concentrating on a very pretty design by Brightneedle from the Better Homes & Gardens Keepsake Calendar 2002. This calendar contains a few more designs that are on the must-stitch-one-day list.
Anyway, this design looks beautiful in the photo, but is not turning out quite as fabulous. It was funny, when I pulled all the DMCs for the design, I was thinking to myself that it was amazing that all these bland colors would add up to something so warm and radiant looking. Well, let me tell you, it doesn't... My version, ironically stitched on a warmer linen hue to make it even cozier looking, does look quite blah... Right now, I am trying to tell myself that it may look a lot better after I iron it. As if! :-)

The photo below shows my blah-version and the photo from the calendar. Know what I mean? Luckily, I am almost done now. I have the brown outer-most border left and the light-blue checks in the inner box left, so I have a feeling that I will get it over with today. You never know, I may end up loving it once it is done (and ironed...).

I have already collected a bunch of material to stitch Brightneedle's "Lo, How a Rose" soon, so maybe I'll be luckier with that one? I did actually pick up a bunch of WDWs that are not listed in the instructions, but I thought that they looked better together and closer to the cover-pic. I tell you, some of the designers seems to just find the best photographers out there.

I did manage to finish up the little candle-holder wraps and send them off to Sweden (but probably not in time for Christmas). The turned out pretty cute and were so easy to make. I thought that the finish was going to be really tricky, but it was surprisingly easy.
Of course I forgot to give one to my MIL, so that won't happen until next year! LOL

I did also finish stitching my favorite mistletoe ornie. I like how it turned out, but I haven't even begun thinking about how to finish it.

If I haven't already told you, I am incredibly frugal about my linen usage. I have found that my scanner is a very useful tool for figuring out how many more designs I can fit onto any tiny linen cut. I am guessing that for this piece, one more mistletoe heart will be stretching it. What else to stitch in the small naked area? Hmmmm...

I also joined a pretty cool new 2012 challenge; Measi's WIPocalypse! Maybe this challenge will keep me on track better than I managed to keep myself focused this year? This is one of the project that will be on my list (Sandy Orton's American Sampler):

I have actually stitched a teensy bit more on this one, since this photo was taken. Another project is my nemesis, TW's Peacock Sampler. Sigh! I really need to get that one done.

I did also decide to sign up for the TUSAL again, even though I totally messed everything up the last month. Too many things going on at work combined with getting the flu, made this last month pretty painful to live through and I had to let go of a lot of things that I would normally have kept up with.
Recall that I wrote about Lucia and planning and organizing this big event for the Scandinavian Heritage Society? Well, that day I was in bed with muscle pains, chills and the full circus... I had even taken the Friday off from work to bake lussebullar, so the timing was pretty terrible. (Isn't it odd that so many of us keep getting sick over our vacation more often than not? I am definitely on of those suckers.)
Luckily, some individuals in my household were more than happy to eat the lussebullar. Here is Henny taking a bite:

Yum! Henny likes!

Others were more skeptical - here is Scrappy surrounded by her new admirers Pebble and Nibbler. It is so funny, these three have broken off and started their new flock. Both Nibbler and Pebble, who are siblings, think that Scrappy is completely irresistible. Nibbler even did the "fluff my neck-feathers, stretch out really tall, and start struttin' and dancin'" routine the other day. Scrappy was very, very impressed.

The bunnies have had a less great time the last couple of weeks. First, their mommy took them in to the vet's for a pedicure and while in the vet's office, they were turned on their backs and rooted around upon. At the pick-up, the vet told mommy that Bubba is a girl and Princess is a boy... So there you have it; Murphy's law applies to bunnies too. DH now calls Bubba "Bubbette" and Princess is "Princess-Dude"...
No more than three days later, Princess did something really bad, very demonstratively to Bubba in the middle of the living-room. If the vet had not already told us, we would have been able to figure out the gender of the bunnies all by ourselves - say no more! So, back to the vet's on the following Friday for the big snip. Princess was up and running right after waking up form the anesthesia, while Bubba has been pretty tender and not real interested in food for the last week or so. She is finally coming around, but i was a bit worried there for a while. She and I did take a lot of naps together over the first weekend (she had been snipped and I had the flu, so we were miserable together.... LOL)
Here they are, talking about a not-so-pleasant experience.

"No mommy, we are not talking to you anymore!" (Note how they are the best of friends all the sudden though! I guess that traumatic experiences tend to create close bonds between the individuals involved. Plus Princess doesn't try to hump/pie on Bubba all the time. That may have helped the situation a bit too....)

Princess has also learned that certain spots in the house are warmer than others...

DH cracks me up - I have to tell you real quick - at least once a day, he lifts the bunnies up one by one and holds them as close to his face as possible, eye to eye, and ask "Who's the alpha-bunny?" and answers "I'm the alpha-bunny!". It is pretty funny to watch, but I am thinking that he is talking to deaf ears.

Anyway, here is the ambitious pile of assorted Christmas finishing work that I had hoped to get to (no, we never eat at the kitchen table. Luckily!). Not gonna happen this year, but I can always get a quick jump on it for Christmas 2012.... By the way, with all the fabrics I have, I find it quite fascinating that I still don't seem to have enough cool and pretty Christmas fabrics to suit me. I am just a brat! LOL

Again, have a wonderful Christmas with many hours of wonderful stitching!
Best wishes,

We've Got Some Finishes! (nothing big though...)

A quick post before bed - it is barely past 10 PM and I can almost not keep my eyes open...  I think that the sharp twists in the weather leaves my body behind somehow (and may brain apparently even further away), so I am walking around in a daze most of the time right now.

Anyway, I did manage to finish up the small cross-stitch designs this weekend.  This is one of Homespun Elegance's annual Christmas ornaments kit from 1997 - picked up at E-bay for cheap!  It is always so much fun to translate the vision of how the finished ornament will look into reality (with varying results....).

Over that past couple of years, I have found myself drawn to kits more and more.  I am just too lazy to kit things up by myself nowadays!  ;-)

Here is the little scissors fob (by Prairie Moon).  Look in the progress picture how the blue bled like crazy during the ironing (with full steam) step.  Luckily, this is one of those "scrappy chic" designs, so I was actually pleased wit the result.  I was even a bit suspicious at my own reaction, since normally I tend to be bit of a perfectionist.  I guess that you just have to pick your battles, right? 
I did have a lot of fun figuring out how to finish the fob up.  I just made it up as I went along and I am pretty happy with the outcome of this experiment!  I even carried out the final assembly using my sewing machine.   The backing fabrics were taken from a charm pack of La Petite Ecole by French General - I just love their fabric collections!  The "bling" came with the chart pack.

 

Note the window film in the door.  I am absolutely addicted to bright and light environments.  No candle light dinners for me - I can't see what I eat which tends to make me in more of a crabby mood than a romantic such.  These films are great - no visibility from the outside, but all the light gets in.  Plus the films are static cling, so no adhesive goop to clean off the windows after removing the film, not to mention that you do get almost an unlimited number of "extra chances" to get it just right when setting it up (I did use a fair number of extra chances to get it straight and even).  Can't get any better in my book! 
I got two patterns, geraniums and orchids, when I was in Sweden a couple of years ago.  I wish that I had more wondows, because this baby would be installed next!  
Anyway, here is a somewhat better view:

If you are interested in picking up a roll to try it out for yourself, here is the link to the Geranium film at Scandinavian Design Center.  The design company is Strössel (which is Swedish and means sprinkles, the type that is used as toppings on ice cream and cakes) - here is their web-site.  Let me know what you think if you decide to try it out!

Speaking about geraniums, they are an absolute favorite flower of mine.  I just potted a tray on Sunday.  Love to pot plants; it takes no time compared to digging holes in the KY clay... 
Before:

 After:

 

The sweet ceramic bird-bath is a 2-piece deal.  The top part was broken no less than twice and is now beyond repair, so I picked up a big plant saucer from Homedepot and voila!  We are open for bathing season this year again!

Also, since we are talking geraniums, I just have to show this adorable embroidery design stitched up by my Godmother.  This is a table cloth in stamped embroidery from the Swedish company Fingerfärda, 

It is based on a Swedish story by Elsa Beskow; Sagan om den Lilla Lilla Gumman (The Tale of the Little, Little Old Woman).  Elsa Beskow was an Art Nouveau artist, which is a style I am very attracted to.  Here are a few examples of the illustrations to the story.  (Elsa was only 23 when she wrote and illustrated this childrens' book - can you believe it!?)

Well, what about The Birdcage?  It is coming along, slowly...   I was thrown off schedule once I realized that there were some details in the finishing that I just could not fall head over heels for.  Changes had to be done!   Anyway, I think that those birds in their cage will be wrapped up in one more evening or maybe two.  Until then, here is a teaser!

Oh, and finally; DH expressed some concern about not having any space in the kitchen to cut up his dinner pizza.  I don't understand what he is getting at....

 

Guess that it is time to pile things back up into neat stacks, huh!?  That should fool him for a few more days...  ;-)

Thanks so much for stopping by, take care and Happy Stitching!

Millesgården in Lidingö, Sweden

Today we got to go for a real treat.  We visited the home of Swedens's most famous sculptor, Carl Milles.  His mother died while giving birth to him in 1875 and Carl ended up having two siblings and three half-siblings after the father re-married.  Two of his siblings were artists as well, his older sister Ruth Milles was a talented illustrator and sculptor and his half-brother Evert Milles was an architect.

Carl Milles was born in close vicinity to the Swedish university city of Uppsala.  He studied at the Tekniska Skolan in Stockholm where he won a stipend to travel and he ended up studying art in Paris 1897, quite by chance.  Here, he was greatly influenced by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin.  In Paris he also met his future wife, the Austrian Olga Grannar, also a very skilled artist.  They met in 1999 and married in 1905.  The couple had no children.

Carl Milles big breakthrough came in 1902 after he won a competition to create a monument in Uppsala.
Carl Milles does also have a strong connection to the US (here are a few examples of sculptures in other parts of the world than Sweden).  From 1931 to 1945 Carl Milles was professor of sculpture at the Cranbrook Academy at Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.  His work in the USA includes fountains in Chicago, Kansas City, New York, and St Louis.  Carl Milles became an American citizen in 1945 but returned to Sweden in 1951 and died at Lidingö, where his and Olga's home, Millesgården (The Garden of Milles) is located.  Millesgården was donated to the Swedish people by the Milles' and is now an open-air museum of his work, known as Millesgården.

Here are a few examples of his fantastic work.  I feel that Carl Milles was definitely ahead of his time and many of these sculptures are still unique ideas today.  Photos are clickable and well worth a closer look....

 Littlest Sister and The Ice Skater

 DH and a Boar

 Me and a Genius

DH, Littlest Sister, Dad and Mom admiring the 

view from the lower terrace of Millesgården.

 We did actually go to Millesgården to see a temporary Beatrix Potter exhibition.  It was fun to see a large collection of her drawings and paintings (copies only, Britain does not lend her work to anyone).  Who does not love her children's books? 

Beatrix Potter was economically independent thanks to her books, which in turn made an independent life-style possible, even though her upper class parents did not approve many of her choices, which were quite unusual during the strict Victorian era.  We learned that Beatrix Potter was very engaged in keeping Britain's farm lands and meadows untouched and helped save a lot of land from industrialization together with the organization National Trust.  When she died in 1943, Beatrix Potter left 4000 acres of land to the National Trust, including 14 farms, cottages and many local areas of beauty. Beatrix was interested in farming and did even win prizes for her pigs and her sheep.  Who knew?

Finally before bed, I have to give you a quick stitch update!  The Homespun Elegance ornament got finished up on the plane over to Sweden.  The Prairie Moon fob was stitched up in an evening here after I had tea dyed some of mom's white scrap linen.  I just started on the "A Schoolroom Primer" kit from Milady's Needle the other morning, when I woke up from jet-lag issues at 4.30 AM, Swedish time...  As you can see, the actual horn-book broke on the way over to Sweden, but I do believe that I'll be able to glue it back together again.  Or maybe I can contact Milady's Needle and ask if I can buy a replacement.  What do you think?

Good Night from Sweden, Take Care and Happy Stitching,