Craziness!

Hello all friends!
I have read that some of you have Blogger problems right now. I hope that everything will get solved soon, so that all of us can continue sharing photos and commenting on our buddies posts.

My week was a bag of mixed candies. I was out sick from work on Tuesday with an eye-infection. Not a whole lot adventures were had during the earlier part of the week - unless one counts hours of continuous sleep as adventures (some of the dreams were a tad freaky...). I have not slept that much in years!
Wednesday was back to work, running around and putting presentations together. Right now I am researching the interesting field of women in engineering. The statistics does not look grand; in 2005/2006, women earned 62% of Associate's degrees, 58% of Bachelor's degrees, 60.0% of Master's degrees, and 48.9% of Doctorates, however, only 17% of all Engineering BSc are earned by women... What is worse is that a large part of these women never enter the field of engineering. The women that do often decide to leave after a few years. I am trying to help my company solve this problem, but it is challenging when practically all the executives are men.
Since I work with a lot of very talented female scientists, I generally ask for feedback before I share my findings with management. And here is where the fun begins - one of my friends told me that it was time for me to do something fun and convinced me to go with her to the second part of the Harry Potter marathon in the theater close by.
She had already caught the first marathon run on Wednesday with her daughter, during which the first 4 movies were shown.. I took a half-day on Thursday to enjoy the last 4 movies with her, including HP and the Deathly Hallows part 2 starting Friday morning at 12.01. We had a great time!

At 2 pm, we started out with HP and the Chamber of Secrets. After a 30 minute break, we jumped right into HP and the Half-Blood Prince. Wow - I keep forgetting that these movies are so good! I have to confess that I only watched part 6 and 7 on DVD on the TV screen at home, so it was wonderful to see them in an actual theater. Movies really are better on the big screen! Especially since the last three movies are very dark - not only story-wise, but the movie photography itself is dark too and a therefore I have found it a bit tricky to follow on a TV screen.

After part 6, we started to really get pumped up for the last two movies! We had about 1.5 hrs to get something to eat, meet my friends DH outside, since he was joining us and get some shots of the line. Check this out - here is the line - front:

Side:

Back:

Fans dressed op both themselves and their surroundings (my friend "Marathona" in red dress, her DH in black T-shirt and shorts, and I am the one carrying one of my trusted Vera Bradley bags):

Do you recognize the characters? The girl in the white outfit (she made it herself!) is Hedwig, the guy who looks like ZZ Top is Dumbledore, we have Mrs Weasly, Harry as a baby (his bib says "My Mommy loved me so much that she DIED for me"), Harry as a school boy, and Serios Black. We did also see the Golden Snitch, the free house-elf Dobby, many Gryffindor students, and a bunch of people wearing shirts that spelled out "muggle".
As you can see, fans decorated their cars and the bathrooms. they sat in line from early morning all they way to the first showing of part 8, playing HP games, posing for pictures (they, the people in line, had built a tent with a red carpet!) and getting very, very excited!

Two buckets of pop-corn and 8 liters of diet poop later, we had enjoyed the last movie. It was fabulous, managing to bring in both laughs and tears. By now, I am so used that the movies are getting further and further away from the books, that i did not spend time working myself up over it! (I was pretty upset after watching the Goblet of Fire...) ;-)
The scene showing Snape's memories in the Pensive was very powerful, I think. This is when you could really hear people starting to sniffle in the audience.

Anyway, I had a fantastic day and I was a bit surprised that I was really productive at work the day after (or later that day I guess is a more correct statement - I got home from the movies at 2.30 in the morning...).

So, if you are not a HP fan, no worries, there will be a stitchy post later this weekend. For you HP fans out there - I hope that you'll have a great time enjoying the movie, unless you already did so!

Happy Movie Going!

Spooky

Happy Saturday!  The weather is beautiful here today - after a few days with well-needed non-stop rain.  The temperatures are down and everything looks fresh and clean!

Yesterday evening, I finished up my last Crowjacker.  Check out this spooky & very, very scary collection:

 I stitched these figures because I thought that the Crowjackers were just about adorable, so I was a bit surprised to find that the Moonriders are my favorites now.  Hopefully, I'll get around to finishing them up this weekend!

I also started on my second Fremme bird picture.  This one looks a bit more stitch-intense than the first one, so it will be interesting to see how long this one will take to finish up...

Before I jump on to breakfast, I wanted to show you this super-sweet fabric collection by Heather Ross for Kokka Fabrics - this is my latest fabric obsession.  This is the third collection in the "Far Far Away" series.  I love the themes, the colors, the artistry - everything!  Kokka Fabric is a Japanese company and is the same design house that also prints up the Echino brand (another of my obsessions).  Anyway, being a Japanese collection made with fabrics that are a mix between cotton and linen, the prices are a tad high... one can always dream, right?  Anyway, this is Far Far Away III:

My favorites - Snow White in  light blue and green - the birch trees are wonderful!

Playing With Horses in brown - cow-girls playing with horses; who'd thought about using that for a fabric design?

And here is the pretty Far Far Away II collection, with Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, and Owl & The Pussycat:

 Some examples of finished goodies - some sweet bags from Blue Nickel Studios:

A gorgeous quilt, Sand Castle, from Chasing Cottons (pattern available for Ay $ 10):

Finally, here are some snippets from the first collection.  Unicorns, The Princess on the Pea, snail repeats and frog-princes....  Love the colors!

Yummy!

A lot of the fabrics from the earlier collections are still available at Etsy - quite a few of them at outrageous prices, but still...  ;-)

Talk with you in a bit and Happy Stitching!

Busy Holiday

First off - I have some exciting news!  My super-duper buddy and peep L-Bug has finally taken the step into blog land.  Go check out her blog The Inspired Stitcher - I know that she'll love to have you visit her.  she already has  some real beauties posted!
This is the fourth member of "my" guild to have a blog.  Not bad at all, I think - the guild isn't really huge or anything.  The other bloggers are Big Dog (Indigo Rain), Bzz*Bzz*Bee (Everybody Loved Clark), and yours truly.  :-)


Wow, I am exhausted!  The In-Laws sure have some serious energy... hard to keep up!  :-)  They visited with us from Friday 'til Sunday.  After a solo cage-cleaning session on Monday I was pretty much pooped and ready to get back to work, so that I could "rest back up".  I miss them already though!

So, after a very productive holiday weekend, we now have:

• brand new PVC pipes instead of the old, rusted iron pipes(I wish that FIL had not shown me the old ones...  yuck!)
• new break pads on my car (I was told that I did not have a whole lot left to play with...)
• most all flower-beds without weeds and a new set of pretty annuals in the front corner bed
• trees and bushes trimmed and happy
• a dish washer that does not leak (took DH ~4 hrs on Sunday to fix due to a defective part from Home Depot...)
• a beautiful hand-crafted spool cabinet (built by FIL - I bragged about this one in my last post.  I am rubbing my hands while thinking about all the goodies that I can stash away in it!)
• a gorgeous and very cool new seat cushion cover made by MIL.  I picked up the fabric at IKEA.  It is of upholstery quality with a trendy print that I simply love. Check out the serious craftsmanship in the close-up pic!:

 

Well, in all honestly, I really did not work that hard...  see, I still had time to start and finish this pretty kit, Jacaranda (30-6665), from Fremme.  I have another kit from the same series that I hope to pick up soon (Goldcrest, 30-6664).  I am picturing these finished very simply (just laced over cardboard) and resting in frame stands on the living-room mantle.  I hope that it will look as simple and elegant as I am imaging that it will....  Not so sure though - things tend to look quite different in my head than in reality, I have discovered.

 

Aren't these birdies just super-cute!?  I noticed that in the photos, the grey cotton floss almost looks fuzzy, but I don't really think that it appears that way in person.
I love how Fremme's designers manage to get so much detail and beauty in with just a few select floss colors.  I know, I have already said it before a hounded times over!  Anyway, I think that this design only uses 13 colors all together!  I especially love the fresh green shade - very crisp.  I am also a stitcher who enjoys larger fields of the same color.  Confetti is not may idea of fun!  Stitching, that is.
I have probably mentioned it before, but I keep some of my pieces pretty smooth while I stitch by rolling up the linen and holding on to the roll.  It actually works really well!  If you like me, are an in-hand stitcher, this may be something that you could try out.

Yesterday night, I started on Moonriders and Crowjackers from Just Nan.  I have been thinking about starting them for about 4 months or so now, so I just couldn't take delaying it any longer.  I got "Jinx" and "Jasper" stitched up in a couple of evenings and "Jack" will hopefully pop up on the linen tomorrow.  The Crowjackers look a little bit more complex (confetti galore...), so they may take a bit longer.  I may even finish them up as ornies next weekend - only 3 workdays left!!! (Oh, and yes - I know that I am extremely frugal with my linen, but this was one of those "bargain cuts" and I felt that the color was just right; a dusty lavender with a layer of a gray tinge on top.)

Other than that, not much to report.  We finally got some rain here today after being by-passed on Saturday.  We got the thunder, the lightning, the winds, and very long noses (= not a drop of rain).  Today, we got a good much-needed down-pour, so I know that the garden is thrilled!  DH was less than thrilled, since he was scheduled to play a soccer match that got cancelled.

I absolutely love the sound of rain.  That and a bunch of different bird-calls, especially sea-gulls, are my favorite sounds.  I also like the sounds of chickadees and crickets, but I may be in the minority there?
Here are some evening pictures from a freshly washed garden.  Note the butterfly bush that has just started to bloom in the second photo.  After a rough yesteryear in the back yard with DH trimming it down to the ground with the mower on a weekly basis, I felt like this poor fighter deserved something better.  I can almost hear the collected sighs of relief from all the branches....

 

 

 

Check out the sunflower!  It must have been planted there by a friendly critter.  For the longest time, DH asked me whether I was sure that it really was a sun-flower.  "Yes dear", I said over and over.  When I finally started to give up hope and begun to realize that the thing probably was an out-of-control weed, it was too large to pull out.  We laughed about it and then were both pleasantly surprised (as I am sure that the neighbors were too) when we realized that it indeed was a sun-flower after all.....

Well, I can not believe that it is past Midnight.  Again!!!!
Gotta' get ready and jump into bed.
Talk with you in a bit and Happy Sticthing.

TUSAL Update

Quickie post here! My In-Laws are here for the Holiday weekend.  I just wanted to show my TUSAL progress:

And look what my TUSAL-jar is standing on - a wonderful spool cabinet that my FIL built for me!  How wonderful is this!?  I love it!!!

Oh, and before I leave, thanks so much on all your lovely comment in regards to the Swedish sampler finish.  How cool that you enjoyed reading about the different symbols - I was a bit worried about boring everyone, so great to hear that you had fun reading it!

Take care, Happy Stitching, and have a great Holiday!

A Small, Colorful Swedish Sampler

First off, let me say a great big THANK YOU for all the wonderful comments and congratulations that you left about the Richmond sampler!  Each and every one of your comments made me so happy - thank-you-thank-you-thank-you!!!  :-D

To take a break from the BAPs, I started stitching on this tiny Swedish sampler last week.  It was an e-bay find that I was really happy with, since I have seen pictures of the finished piece on Japanese blogs, but I have never been able to figure out where it comes from, even though the last three letters in the alphabet tells us that it likely is a Swedish design.  Once I finally got my hands on it, I learned that it is a design from 1982, designed by a local craft guild in Sweden.
I just finished it up a few minutes ago and wanted to share it with you before bed-time!  I was about as lucky ironing this piece as the last - I swear that I burned the linen on one of the edges this time around... sigh.  :-(
Anyway, it was a fun and a relatively quick stitch.  Colorful, yet only using seven different colors total. Here is a quick progression series;
Thursday night:

Friday night:

 And finally, tonight:

As I mentioned in my last post, this sampler is made to celebrate craft in all it's forms.  You probably recognize most of the items representing various craft genres above.  There are a few things included that I am curious about whether they are known all around the world, though.
First off, we have two stars somewhat placed in the center of the sampler.  I believe that these stars are represent the wooden Christmas stars that are hung in some Swedish windows in the beginning of the Christmas season.  The stars hang from a cord and have light-bulbs mounted inside, so that they light up.  I don't think that the wooden versions are that common nowadays, but most people use the "fold away" paper stars instead.  Here are a couple of example of Swedish Christmas star lights:

 The bird nested in the crest of greenery is probably also representing wood craft. 

And the blue and green object in the upper right hand corner is likely a traditional Sami knife.  The Sami people is a nomad people who follow the reindeer, sometimes across the far north borders between Norway, Sweden and Denmark.  They are well known for their skills in various crafts, among which can be counted knife smithing and unique jewellery and accessories made with tin or silver strands which are braided and mounted on leather.  Very pretty!

Anyway, I had a lot of fun stitching on this sampler and the colors make me happy!  Another thing that makes me happy is the company of Henny.  She loves to sit and "help" me stitch.  She will sit on my knee and watch me until I give her a piece of floss.  She rolls up her sleeves and gets right into business:

 

Look at her giving that piece of pink string a work-out!  She does also like to do some serious work on Q-tips....

I did also get some really nice surprises in the mail this week.  First, I got this really neat post-card from Littlest Sister.  Guess what, it is a bag full of Bergamot tea!  I haven't opened it yet, but I am looking forward to trying it and I just love the picture on the front.

 I also happened to get in some serious Swedish stash...  These are a bunch of (=7!) kits designed as annual Christmas wall-hangings and I have been trying to figure out who the manufacturer is for a long time.  The colors used are grey blues, dusty greens and subdued oranges and they are "clean", free from unnecessary detail, with a rustic, understated and elegant look.
I am truly fond of Swedish designs, but I must say that the Swedish craft guilds leave much to be desired when it comes to their web-sites.  We just don't stand a chance against the Danish embroidery companies approach to advertising their design portfolios.
Another not-so-great bullet on the list is that the kits never come with color photos of the stitched design.  Add to that the fact that the chart quality generally is less than fantastic.  The charts look like badly copied originals (which I am sure that they are), which is not real good for re-sale of used charts from kits.... 
Either way, I am looking forward to stitching these fellows one day!  I wish that I could show you a photo of the actual samplers, but the only pictures I have ever seen were actually posted on a Japanese on-line needlework store (!) and have since been taken down.  (That is how I found the source of the samplers to begin with!  Sad but true!  Thank goodness that the Japanese are fascinated enough with Scandinavian design that we can find some of it through them...)

Well, time to get to bed or Missy R will let me know that she does not appreciate my late bed-time habits...  ;-)

Before bed, I have to share a couple of pictures showing Pixie in his/her (not sure which yet..) true element.  Check out that water spray!!!

 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by and talk with you soon again!
Happy Stitching and Good Night,

PS Speaking of the 80's - I just had to add this video by The Pretenders.  Ah, the age of the girl rock bands!  Another era...  Special....