Another rainy day...

Boy, our holiday weather isn't as nice as I'd hoped for, we've got another rainy day, but, looking on the bright side of things... I've got some stitching done, not only the stitchy part!

Here's a picture of the blanket I made for "bear". "Bear" is the favorite cuddle toy from my youngest. The stitchy part was ready, but finishing... well, you know... Now bear is really proud of his little blanket, and so is my son ;).

Next up my list of finishes is a bourse, first one I ever made. Inside is the stitchy part, L*K (Lizzie Kate) coffee crazy.

I also made another as a gift to a stitch friend who had her birthday. I'm not sure it arrived yet, so picture has to wait for a bit ;).

Next up my list is a Christmas ornament, well... ones it's finished it'll be an ornament, but I thought it might be too early too decorate my tree LOL. The decorations will be made with beads, but I haven't ordered them yet. It's the "Victorian Christmas tree" by Sue Hillis, from JCS Christmas ornaments 2003.

The Sanman may SAL is also finished! It was a fun little project, now how to finish this cutie....

We didn't have all bad weather, on one of the good days our butterfly plant really attracted some beautiful butterflies, have a look:

July in progress

Oh my, I’ve got quit a few finishes to share with you. Willeke’s Round Robin is finished and received, I made my mom a needleroll for her birthday, finished a biscornu and I even made a little time for a UFO!

First things first, a picture of Willeke’s RR:

Then there’s the needleroll for mom finish. It’s a Lorri Birmingham design called “the four seasons”. After looking long, hard and not being able to trace this chart, I felt very lucky to finally obtain this chart, it’s OOP (out of print). Jenna had it for sale, did she know I definitely needed this chart?, thanks again Jenna! I choose the summer part, cause mom loves butterflies.

Another thing finished is this biscornu.

It’s a rather special thingy… well, not the biscornu, but the reason why I made it. Mmmmm, perhaps I should explain this a little? I’ve got this friend who owns a craft shop, “de Marlotte”. She sells embroidery machines, beautiful fabrics, DMC, and stitch accessories (the cutest Rico booklets and French stitch magazines). Well, Marjo asked me if I could start some stitch classes! After taking some time to make my decision I told her I would love to do a “coffee / tea morning with the possibility to stitch” ;). In my opinion, being together is the most important part, but I’ll also try to explain how to make things like a biscornu for those interested. So now you know the reason for this biscornu.

The “wijnkelder” has a long term UFO sal. It means you pick a UFO from your possibly large pile (I’ve got a few…) and you do some stitches on it every 13th of the month. I’ll try and stick before and after pictures in the side bar.

Then there’s our garden. What can I tell you about it… it has very fertile ground, this means plants are doing well and weeds are doing even better! The knee-high stage of weeds is reached in no time and removing them takes up ages… *sigh… Really it does! In front and to the side of our house is done and we also planted some new plants. Now up for the backyard (I’m getting tired even thinking about it). This is a mosaic from our garden.

Quick update for may

To bring to memory my goals for may:

1. join in the SMO "happy may days" SAL

2. start with Willeke's RR

3. make a few fob's

4. finish the biscornu (half done)

5. finish and send FBI projects (now this makes you a bit curious, doesn't it LOL)

6....... dare I put it here again? The tea cozy.....

So far I've joined the "happy may days" SAL on the SanMan board and the best part is that I've not only joined, but also stitched most parts that were given!

Willeke's RR has also received quit a few stitches. Even better news on that front is that my very own RR nicknamed "Truus" has come home! I was lucky because Simone was the last one to stitch on it and she's such a skilled and fast stitcher! Look at the picture! It was hard for me not to look at the update pictures, but I'm glad I didn't. It was such a surprise to finally ("Truus" has been travelling for a year!) be able to see what everybody stitched for me. I enclosed a little booklet with my wishes and asked everybody to write something in it as well. It's so nice to have this little document.

Then the famous "FBI-projects" (secret projects ;) ), also sent and received! Iris had her birthday and she's really into whitches, halloween and such. I decided to make her some floss tags and an apropriate birthday card. The designs I sittched are both SMO (boardmembers only) halloween ornaments, or in this case, halloween floss tags!

Well, that's it for now, more to come soon.... (incl garden pictures and more finished stitch-bits)

Quick update...

Hi all, here's a little note from me ;). Starting with the reminder of my april goals:

1. finish and send Chantal's RR. Done!

2. put a few more stitches in Susanne's project. Well well, it's finished and already given! (forgot to take a picture though so I'm hoping my sis will send me one!)

3. finally make at least a start with that tea cozy for mom (Susan, I'll explain more about the combination with the "theelichtje" ;) ) Can't have it all, can you ;)?

Also finished: march pinkeep from Maryse.

But that's not all cause I've been really busy.... in my garden. Our garden is still very bare, cause when we bought our house it had to be build and funny enough our "Bob the builder" didn't spent any money or time on the garden to go with it :$.

It has ofcourse the advantage of putting in your own favorite plants and flowers, but boy, it's a lot of work!

I've got more to share, but DH is on a business trip and he's got the "photo-to-computer-cord" so pictures will have to wait for a bit ;).

That's all for now.... No, wait! My may goals have to be posted....

goals for may:

1. join in the SMO "happy may days" SAL

2. start with Willeke's RR

3. make a few fob's

4. finish the biscornu (half done)

5. finish and send FBI projects (now this makes you a bit curious, doesn't it LOL)

6....... dare I put it here again? The tea cozy..... 

Spring-a-licious

Hi all, here's a quick reminder of what I was supposed to do in februari:

1. Stitch and mail Diana's RR. 
2. Finally put the sewing machine on the table and make the finished stitchings into real finishes.
3. Finish the dragon I'm stitching for Jan (my eldest).
4. Non stitchy, finally make my mum a tea cozy (I intended to do that about 3 years ago, so another big chunck of shame on me)
5. If there's time left I would love to start stitching for my sister. I bought her a great design, but I can't show it, cause she 's reading my blog also (making a funny face at you Suzan :) ).

I didn't get much done, although I did stitch my part on the RR from Diana. That was enough reason for me not to blog ;).

A special day was februari 23rd, when we did celebrate our 12,5 year wedding anniversary! "Nothing to make a fuss about" and "it isn't a difficult thing to be married" are the things I've always said, but nowadays it seems to be quite something to be married after all these years (.....). I decided on a small celebration with our own family, mum and dad added, nice dinner and a hardanger heart specially made for us.

March was another just-4-me month and I did several things. They all had something to do with a march 21st. This was the day that Marne came to visit us at a crazy bee (get together with members of the crazy exchange group). This was a rather special occassion, because Marne, from America, was visiting the Netherlands. Simone was our host, thanks again Simone, and we had a great day.

This bee was a perfect "excuse" to finally get some finishes done. Seeing all these unfinished stitchings made me feel a bit awkward, so I started .....

Maryse's januari pinkeep, a bookmark for Teun en Jan, a little present for Marne:

a cute L*K the stitchy part long finished....

Meanwhile I had a little more time for myself and I also stitched Maryse's pinkeep for march and I made a start at my Susanne project....

Now for the april goals:

1. finish and send Chantal's RR.

2. put a few more stitches in Susanne's project.

3. finally make at least a start with that tea cozy for mom (Susan, I'll explain more about the combination with the "theelichtje" ;) )

Then there's more to be told, I've been busy gardening. The weather is turning really spring-a-licious these days and it gives me the urge to go outside. Our garden is still not much fun, since we decided to get the inside of our house done first. With all that being about done, the outside needs some work as well. There are already some apple trees in our garden and some flowers, but it'll take some time and elbow grease to get it right.

One last thing I wanted to mention is a new stitchy project. Papillon creations has a new "free"bee out, it's called "Castles in the Air". It's a mystery in 24 (?!) parts with beautiful specialty stitches. I think the time is ripe for me to try this. Perhaps you've seen pictures of the last SAL ("How does your garden grow") and this was a beauty as well.

Well, enough to be doing, see you next time!

January goals:
1. Mail out Marion's RR. Done.
2. Start stitching the januari pinkeep from Maryse. Finished the stitching!
3. Finally continue some stitching on the Snowbuddies Afghan. Unfortunately... nope...
4. Finish the Dragon Dreams christmas ornament. Stitching is ready and it's too cute!
5. Do some stitches in a WIP (work in progress) Finished 2 WIP's, major happy dance!
6. Make a WIP list. Done that ;)

I also started 2 new thingies, one already finished, one about half done and I finally got round to winding all my new DMC floss on bobbins. My stash corner in the attic needed some attention (......) and I managed to get it a little bit more organised too. Busy month don't you think?

February goals:

1. Stitch and mail Diana's RR.

2.  Finally put the sewing machine on the table and make the finished stitchings into real finishes.

3. Finish the dragon I'm stitching for Jan (my eldest).

4. Non stitchy, finally make my mum a tea cozy (I intended to do that about 3 years ago, so another big chunck of shame on me)

5. If there's time left I would love to start stitching for my sister. I bought her a great design, but I can't show it, cause she 's reading my blog also (making a funny face at you Suzan :) ).

That seems enough for me, afterall February is a short month LOL.

Shame on me...

Shame on me for forgetting to mention other birthday presents that are beautiful. From my dear "little" sister I got my very own cauldron/fiktor & dolf-designer handbag (designer as in Victor & Rolf, the more famous ones ;) ). She's really talented when it comes to paper and sticky glue. The cauldron is boiling as you can see and she also added a few ingredients... (can you believe it? She molested a toad for my present! LOL) This is ofcourse a really funny way to wrap your gift. She and her fiancee bought me this book, Nanny Ogg's cookbook. It's soooooo me! My blog is called "Welkom bij vrouwe Nack", and that's a derivative from Ootje Nack. Ootje Nack is a caracter in my favorite book series (discworld by Terry Pratchett). Her english name is.... Nanny Ogg! Great gift.

Than I also forgot to mention that my Belgian friend Iris sent me a beautiful gift. She stitched me this cube and also put in the package a beautiful card. I guess she know's of my love for coffee. It's still in my windowsill, across the place where I sit to eat, stitch, drink coffee... I see it all day long (and still love it). 

You might be wondering "how come she wants to tell us all now?". Well, first of all I didn't want you to miss out on these beauties and second, I'm currently working on some Barbara Ana designs myself. (The coffee I got from Iris is also a Barbara Ana design.) I proudly present a finish , it's a bookmark I made for Teun (my son) and I'm currently working on "I love my dog", for Paul (my youngest).

Stitchy notes:

"Love you to the moon bookmark" by Barbara Ana, freebie from cyberstitchers. 

Started in 2008 (?), finished 13 januari 2009.

Fabric: eavenweave with a sparkle from stash.

Floss: as indicated.

This isn't the only finish (yes, I'm on a terrible stitching rampage  and I'm enjoying it so much!) I also got Marion's RR in the mail. I stitched a part of LHN's Acorn Hill on her RR. I'm glad I could sent it when we were supposed to. No more 712 picket fence's for me! (Traditionally they would have to be white picket fence's, but that made the colours to bright.)  

Stitchy notes:

"Acorn Hill" by LHN.

Started december 2008, finished 4 januari 2009.

Floss: I substituted cresent colours for DMC 

(434 -680 - 712 - 581 - 977 - 816 - 3799)

And I had the intention of stitching on a WIP. The bookmark I showed you earlier was a WIP and I also finished the WIP of SMO's Sugar Cookies!

Stitchy notes:

"Sugar Cookies" by SMO, only for boardmembers!

Started in 2008 (?), finished 8 januari 2009.

Fabric: aida from stash, ivory colour.

Floss: as indicated.

I guess this is enough for today ;) (the saying "when it rains it pours" comes to mind.....)

Happy New Year!

First of all I want to wish you all a very happy new year. May 2009 bring you and your loved ones, happiness, good health and perhaps the fulfilling of a dream? Did you make any new years resolutions? I didn't..... I haven't made those in a long time because I think if you want to change something you should just do it. Don't wait for something silly as a date (in this case jan 1st). 

That being said I do want to make some little changes (hey, come on, it's jan 2nd! LOL).

On many blogs of befriended stitchers and quilters I've seen posts about monthly goals. I think it's inspiring to be able to cross things of your (ever growing) "to-do-list". Besides, thinking about your goals will give you a clear idea of what to do. 

I'm gonna give it a try, it might work out fine.... here we go....

January goals:

1. Mail out Marion's RR.

2. Start stitching the januari pinkeep from Maryse.

3. Finally continue some stitching on the Snowbuddies Afghan.

4. Finish the Dragon Dreams christmas ornament.

5. Do some stitches in a WIP (work in progress) 

6. Make a WIP list.

Well, if I get this done I'd be very happy.