Where is my head!?

As always, thanks so much for all your comments - it means so much to me that you stop by to say hi! I have had a lot of fun reading all your notes and e-mails, especially about the "bad ass" misunderstanding. I can tell you that the lady in my stitch-group was apparently not the only one that figured that I had posted some more revealing photos of myself. So, if you thought that picture was confusing, what do you say about this?

(Hey, isn't that guy a vampire or somethin'!?)

So, a lot of great things are happening in my family now, which is really cool. I can not believe that I have forgotten to share some of these major events with you!
- Mom and Dad are finally retired, so they are busier than ever. This fall, they are going on a trip to Argentina. My Littlest Sis, who likes to "collect" experiences, gave them this really cool gift - a roof-top walk through Stockholm. The things people come up with! LOL Here are some neat photos that she sent me. I think that mom and dad look really brave! Stockholm looks as beautiful as ever too!

- Littlest Sis and her boyfriend are in Peru as I write this. (It was really cool - we Skyped through her cell phone while she was on her way through security at Arlanda Airport in Stockholm.) She also e-mailed me the other day stating that "I have just completed my first triathlon It was crazy tough but super-fun". Kudos to her - my type of triathlon is probably quite different from hers; the stitch/watch bad TV series on Netflix marathon, followed by the ice-cream eating while wrestling to keep about a million birds out of the bowl and my mouth, and the final leg is the 2 hr nap. Phew - it's a hard life!!!
- I just started my new job-position last Friday (still not an official move yet though; boy, those bosses are way too good a procrastinating... insert "big sigh" here. (This particular transition has been in the works since December 2010 - they really can't just sit down at the computer, invest the 5 minutes it will take to type up the dratted announcement e-mail and hit the send-button - really!?!?! All right, enough whining!). I am now a member of a real team - yay! On Friday I am going canoeing with my new department. I have to confess, I am a little bit nervous about that, but I figure that I'd better jump into the group and maybe even the water.
Oh, and since we are talking about career and that stuff in this bullet - take the 15 minutes to watch this video: Sheryl Sandberg (the COO of Facebook) on Women in Leadership! If not for yourself, at least for your daughters, granddaughters, nieces and other young girls. Talk about this with them; these are the traps that most of us women have fallen into one time or another - not only through our careers.
Thanks Hip*Hip, for sending me the link!

- But the biggest piece of news is this - Little Sis and long-time fiancee got married the weekend before last! The main-event was the baptism of their second child (remember the PS birth sampler a few months back - yep, still waiting to be personalized...), but they figured that they'd just tie the knot officially at the same time.
Here is a picture from church, courtesy of Littlest Sister.
To the happy couple - Ha den äran att gratulera, Herr och Fru H.

My super-duper adorable niece was dressed in a dress bought for her by her favorite US-residential aunt...

Looks like a typical Swedish cool summer day:

This was the engagement piece that I stitched for the couple years ago. I remember being really pleased with the framing (home-made, no less) and I did home-delivery. It rode with me in the hand luggage on one of my trips home. I have been thinking that I really should stitch one up for DH and myself too one of these days.

Time to start thinking about a wedding sampler. I already have a quick stitch in mind.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. I did get the second package of Maia kits in the mail. Bird pictures - can it get any better? LOL

I also picked up some neat display items from Hobby Lobby - love that store! Three ornament stands and a tiny ornie display tree:

I am also happy to report that I am finally getting up to a reasonable speed on the Hare Pyns pre-stitching. I can not believe how many hours I have spent on these super-tiny pieces!!! They do look great though, if I may say so myself, but there is an abundance of over-one stitching (tent, thankfully) and every potentially exposed linen surface is carefully covered in one type of filling stitch or another.
Note the ridiculously small size of the fob... (again, my hands are "normal sized"... you don't believe me, do you!? LOL)

The scissors sheath stitching is almost finished too, just some extra tenting around the bargello work and then it is finally off to begin stitching on the main-piece. That one will not be small...
Here is the Hare Pyns smalls modeled by "the real thing":

Bubba sends out an extra greeting to Heather! :-)

Before signing off, I have to tell you about a wonderful beginning of a morning earlier this week. Tuesday started out with me looking through the kitchen window while getting some tea going. Something was hovering in the air right in front of me and then sat down on the phone line just outside the kitchen. It was the first humming-bird of the season! This tiny bird gave me a wonderful sense of luck - nothing ought to go wrong when a day starts like that. Then I walk over to the other side of the house, to the living-room, to take care of my beast-birds. I glance through the window and see a Cardinal pair sitting in my crazy sunflower going to town on the seeds.
I left for work with a smile on my face that morning!

Well, time for both me and Bubba to jump into bed. I am sure that I have forgotten a bunch of things that I have wanted to tell you for several days now, but I will probably remember as soon as I hit the "publish post" button. ;-)

Thanks for stopping by, take care and Happy Stitching,