Some silly stuff to play with today :-)
http://www.blogthings.com/
Enjoy :-)

Having a bit of a hangover. Being a civil servant is a hard job at times :-) Yesterday was the last working day of 2006 at the office so around 3PM we started drinking champagne and other stuff. We ended up in a pub and drank some more and now I have a headache! Don't know where I got that from....lol.

But I did manage to stitch more HAED! First page is almost finished. But I'm really struggling with these little dots that are not stitched yet. I have problems figuring out what colour they are on the chart. I think the next page I'm going to stitch 10 x 10 squares to avoid this from happening again!

Ahaaaaa... "My Sharona" - The Knack on my media player! One of my favourite songs for dancing!!!! Great rhythm. But not for tonight! Tonight it will be an early bed night and if there's anything good on TV I'll record in on a video and see it later on!

Bye for now and if I don't come back before next year.... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Well, like I said yesterday, it was back to work today. Not many burials today though. I was at the office and my boss was there too. And guess what.... we were both bored...LOL. We didn't feel like working so we didn't do that much. In the afternoon we sat in the kitchen with the lights out so people outside wouldn't spot us and I took out a bottle of red Porto and drank a glass. He didn't join me and neither did he take a glass of whisky, like he has been doing last week. He almost emptied a whole bottle of Chivas....LOL. No we aren't alcoholics, we are just bored at times :-)

And now I am sitting here and I have a small glass of Bailey's Irish Cream next to me, yum, yum, yum. The Corrs on my media player and everything is just perfect the way it is.

My eyes are itching from the neon lights at the office though and together with my Bailey's I am not going to attempt stitching tonight. Just relaxing and going to bed early.

I do want to phone a girlfriend whom I read the most horrible mail from this morning at the office. She sent it to me last Thursday afternoon but I was on holidays and I can't access my office mailbox from home.

Anyways, what happened was, she had a baby last Nov. 21st. and everything was fine. Now, last Dec. 11th. her boyfriend plainly announced her that he's leaving her for another woman. She's back at her parents place now and I can imagine she's going through hell! I replied to her mail at the office and told her I was going to phone her tonight, but now I've noticed the batteries of my phone are dead :-(

She, Véronique, is also a cross stitch addict who has a web page on the Internet. Some 3 years ago I was browsing and stumbled upon her page. I put a comment on it and since then we became friends.
I stitched this baby bear in a pram for her little baby girl and she likes it a lot. The shiny lace I put around isn't blue but white. It's just the camera flash that caused this colour change.

I just wish I could phone her now but I am going to mail her instead.

This is a scan I just took of my Night Queen. Yes, I know, some of you may think: "Wow, she's a quick stitcher". I can be that when I have my heart set on it, but unfortunately I have to get back to work tomorrow. Holidays are over and done with and waaaaay too short, as usual!

But, come to think of it, it will be weekend again soon and next week I have Monday and Tuesday off too (New Year remember). So my stitching will be a bit less over the next few days but than I'll speed up again, if nothing else needs doing first.

Oh boy, guess what I'm listening to on my Media player.... Eros Ramazotti "Se Bastasse una Bella Canzone. What a blast really... I mean I have a Punk and New Wave past and now this. Maybe it's because, when growing older, you get to appreciate more different stuff? Or maybe it's the first stage of dementia??? Who knows....lol

Good morning all.

I just wanted to show you my WIP!!! This piccie was taken yesterday. I'm stitchink like a lunatic on this queen of mine and I love every minute of it!

Enjoy and have a nice Xmas.

Been stitching my head off today and yesterday too! That's why I haven't been writing much. I also made a short ride on my trike yesterday afternoon and this afternoon too.

This evening I opened up a postcard I received from my friend Paula in England. She sent it to me a while back, along with a pressie, to avoid it arriving too late for Christmas.I simply love this card! She always manages to find some nice kitty cat to stitch for me!!! Really wonderful! Thanks Paula!!! I haven't opened up the pressie yet. That's going to be a surprise for tomorrow!

Back to my stitching now! Toodeloo!!!!

Stitching with my "Piecemaker" needle, that's Rock 'n Roll!!!!!!

I also solved the problem with the daylight lamp and not knowing where to continue stitching. Guess yesterday I had a rather "blond" day again.... I just turned my daylight lamp to another angle today and.... voilà!

Will write more these next few days, right now I just want to stitch till I itch!!!

Part II

Yes, here I am again. No stitching done. I had just put my fabric in the hoop and was trying to figure out where to start stitching when my mum phoned me. Seems my nephew (a 3 year old little toddler), who's in hospital since Dec. 16th. has been moved to the ICU part of pediatrics. He developed a pneumonia and it's not getting better! I hope he'll pull through soon! I phoned the hospital and got in touch with my brother and offered him to help out but he says they can manage on their own. I told him the offer would still be standing!

I can't concentrate on my stitching now so I put it away. I have noticed it is really hard to stitch with artificial light and I'm wondering if this night queen can only be stitched in daylight....lol. I have a daylight lamp but it's no help at all it seems! I have only been using 2 colours in the design so far and I can see a small difference in colour during daytime, but now that it's dark outside I can't find where to stitch anymore, daylight lamp or no daylight lamp :-(
Am going to try and find out if some other lamps exist because at this rate I will still be stitching my queen when I'm well past my sell-by-date :-)

Part I

Well, before I start to stitch a bit I thought I'd put some other silly stuff on here. You had a giggle (at least I hope you did) yesterday with Murphy's Law. Today I present you:

The Cat's Commandments

Now hear this! You may live in this dwelling with me, but keep in mind your sole purpose for existing is to care for me. I pray God keeps you able to do so.

Feed me well and promptly, so that I may then find a quiet place to lie down and stare at you. If that place happens to be on top of the television set, do not keep trying to dislodge me even though my tail is hanging in the middle of the picture.

I expect full run of the premises, including the kitchen table. I sniff your food only to see if I would prefer it to mine. Brush me twice a week. Pet me as often as you wish, but I can do without the idiotic statements you utter as you do so.

When I bump my head against your leg or cheek, it means I accept you as part of my environment. Keep in mind that if I thought the lady next door would feed me better, I'd be out of here in a minute. If you are looking for loyalty, get a dog.

Sounds familiar too doesn't it....lol

OK, enough laughs, Night Queen.... here I come!!!

See ya

GRRRRR!!!!! Had no time to stitch today!!! Wanted to try out the needle I received yesterday but couldn't.
I cooked some food tonight, a Kenya style Shrimp Curry. Very hot but nice to eat still.
After that I started writing Christmas cards and wrap up pressies so I can mail them. I know, I'm late this year but I've had a lot on my mind and I'm still not in a Christmas mood either.

When I finished wrapping, I had to sew some buttons on a new winter coat I bought. I really wonder why they can't sew these buttons on correctly right from the start. They are always loosely stitched and if you're not careful you loose them. And I hate sewing on buttons!!!!

So no HAED stitching tonight. But looking forward to next Thursday! I am taking the rest of the week off as of Thursday afternoon. That means I'll have time to stitch until next week Wednesday when I am due back at work. I have no plans for Christmas, I just can't wait to be sitting here at home stitching away on my Night Queen!
Thought I'd put up something fun I found somewhere on the internet a while back:

Murphy's law of Cross-Stitching

*** Come sale time at the needlework shop, they'll be out of DMC 310.
*** Chocolate is to Aida as metal filings are to magnets.
***The thread will fray.
***The last lost needle will only be found by a bare foot traveling at a high rate of speed.
*** When there are four stitches of a color left to do, there will be enough thread left in the needle to sew no more than three.
***The needle threader won't.
*** "Mother's scissors" are the only ones your husband and children will want to use.
*** Dog/cat hairs will penetrate any and all enclosures used to protect cross stitch projects in progress.
*** After counting the same line 11 times, but before the first critical stitch is taken, the phone will ring.
***You will count wrong.
*** You will re-count wrong.
***After recounting again you will find you were right the first time.
*** When you finally get the count right you will loose your place.
*** Regardless of how recently you have fed your household prior to stitching, the minute you pick up your needle... every child will be hungry, every bird will give out a faint ravenous tweet, every dog will go pale, every plant will droop, and the doorbell will ring.

Doesn't this sound familiar? :-)

Came home from work this evening to find some mail from the UK and from the US. My mother's niece lives in the UK and she sent me a nice Christmas card, a robin in the snow is on the front of it. I do love robins a lot and intend to stitch some more when I manage to find the time.

The second card I got came from the States and it was Wanda who sent me a "piecemaker" 28 count needle along with it. Thanks a million Wanda! This will surely help me make my Night Queen look even better!

These needles are very strong and are the best to stitch these designs with, so I read on the HAED forum. Unfortunately you can only get them in the States. And Wanda was really nice to get me one!
Nice people do exist!!!

Unfortunately I haven't been stitching today. I worked at the cemetery, am still sneezing and coughing and in the evening I had to do some shopping. In the supermarket I bumped into someone I hadn't seen for almost a year and we blabbered quite a lot so in the end I got home a bit later than expected and was too tired to concentrate on stitching.

What I did instead was hunting down blinkies on the net. I saved some goodies on my computer so I can put one up once in a while. Too bad I can't post them in this posting area but only on the sides, top or bottom of the page. Or else I'm too blond to understand how to do it....lol

The one I posted on top of this page (about "men") is one that really made me laugh a lot. It makes sense to me :-) I think Paula will understand too, don't you my friend? LOL

TTFN! Bedtime for Bonzo here!

It's 10 AM here and it's a beautiful morning!
Just wanted to put this on my blog!
Almost makes me feel poetical!
The sun is shining, sky looks like DMC # 160 with the emphasis on the word "Blue".
There's a myriad of dewdrops glistening on the hedge in my garden. It looks like it's made out of diamonds!
Makes me want to smile and sing!

"Is This The Way To Amarillo" by "Peter Kay" is playing on my Windows Media Player. Just the kind of happy music that goes with my mood.

Wishing you all a very happy and cheerful Sunday!!!

(Weird thing is, I usually don't like Sundays... lol)

First piccie of my stitching. 4 days and a bit of a strain on my neck, but worth it. It doesn't look like much and it isn't much, but what makes me keep going is the sheer curiosity as to what it will look like in the end.

I hope the scan I took will not be too much of a blur...

I am running a fever :-(
I should be in bed really but I just wanted to try out something that Sally explained to me in an email. Thank you Sally, it worked :-) Look at the blinkie above!
As for my HAED Queen, I am still at it, well not right now of course. (Would be fun to type and stitch at the same time!) I had stitched some 50 stitches on Wednesday and on Thursday I pulled them out again....lol.... Wasn't fun to do, but I tested doing cross stitches with just one thread and it looks much better. The 50 stitches I had done with 2 threads looked a bit bulgy, so that's why I was happily frogging away last night. It took me a whole while to get the stitches out but I finally got there and started all over. I have done much more now but I have no idea what it looks like. This is rather funny to make really, the HAED designs I mean. You just stitch and don't have a clue what it will look like as it's going so slow. I am sure one day it will be clear what it is but it's way too soon for that now. I am still stitching a piece of the night sky with the dark navy blue colour and I still don't regret starting this design. When I think I have to stitch 35 pages of chart I feel like I must have been bonkers to start this. So I just don't think about it and just stitch trying not to wonder if, when and where this will ever end.
I stitched a whole lot more today as I got to work this morning but didn't feel too good. So when it was somewhere past 11 o'clock, I left and went home. As I'm having a cold, I will not go out this weekend and that means I'll have plenty of time to stitch some more! I just hope my nose won't run too much or that I won't sneeze on the fabric....lol.
That's it for now! Just going to surf the web a bit more and listen to a bit of music, I have "A Flock of Seagulls" on my CD player with "Telecommunication" blasting away now. Yep, I know, I'm old, but I don't care!

YES, YES, YES!!!!!! Me happy!!!! Me got good mail yesterday evening!!!! LOL
Woops, I am at work at the moment and the boss is back. Can't write much more, will be back later!

Here I am again. Almost 10PM.
So, like I said, I had a good postie day yesterday. Finally the fabric arrived, together with some #28 needles, an empty plastic thread box I bought especially for the threads I have to use and a bobbin of Kreinik very fine braid #4.
I almost ripped the plastic bag and cardboard box it all came in as I was really curious to what 25 count fabric looks like. Might sound silly as I have been stitching since the end of 2003, but I had never seen 25 count fabric before. Remember I live in Belgium and it's the Middle Ages here when it comes to stitching.
I had a good look at the fabric and concluded it wasn't all that bad. I thought the little holes would be much closer together, I thought this would be rather easy to stitch on and my Night Queen would be made like a flash.... hmmmmmpppffffff....
So after having fed my cats and myself (different brand of food!), I sat down, took a needle, some tacking thread and started counting holes.... 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, make a blanket stitch, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 blanket stitch, and so on and so on. I managed to surround the whole border with that stitch so the fabric would stop from fraying. (Thanks again Paula for telling me about that stitch!) Must say by the time I finished it I saw holes everywhere :-)

Today I went to work and thought about the fabric the whole time.
I had the impression I had bought too small a piece!!!
So when I came home tonight, I showered, ate, fed the cats and grabbed the fabric to start sticking pins in. Yep, I was a voodoo queen for an hour or so, just counting and sticking pins in. Finally I realised the fabric was big enough, pfewww, and I started gridding it.
I still don't have the floss to make it all, but I have some full skeins of a couple of colours for this design so I took DMC # 823 (Dark Navy Blue) and started testing stitches. I had hoped to make this queen with a tent stitch using 2 threads. It's impossible though, you can still see the fabric in between the stitches. If I had bought some dark fabric it would be a different matter, but the bone colour I have makes it look bad.
So, it is going to be a cross stitch design instead and I started it tonight! I think I did some 50 stitches and that will be it for now. It's not as easy as I originally thought it would be. I use 2 threads and stitch up every hole, so it's 2 over 1 and the stitches are really, really very close up to each other. I'm glad this design is full of dark colours as you don't notice each separate stitch too much. If I used light colours you would certainly notice the stitches being irregular sometimes. That's why I usually stitch on 14 count aïda. My stitches remain regular all over the design. When I use a higher count fabric my stitches become a bit irregular and I don't like to see that. But the 50 stitches I made on my queen don't look too bad so far, you would need a magnifying glass to notice the details. I have no idea how it will evolve but I am happy with it at the moment. Must say I have had to cut some of the tacking thread I used for the grids. The thread gets tangled with the DMC floss and I don't want the basting to ruin the good stitches.
Going to watch a quiz on tv now and go to sleep after it's finished. I do hope tomorrow evening will come fast so I can get on with stitching this queen and start putting up some pictures.
Bye bye for now to all who read this and see you later alligator!

Nada, ziltch, rien, niks, zero, nishta, noppes, nothing, not a single thread in my mailbox. This is not funny! This is not funny at all! I know the UK order must be on its way, but I don't know if the US order has been posted yet.
And I feel awful. My alarm clock woke me up this morning, but I didn't feel like going in to work. So I rang and it was ok that I took the day off. I finally got out of bed around 10 AM and decided to go to work in the afternoon. I am a bit in a kind of broody mood at the moment and if I would have stayed at home, it would have been worse.
Tomorrow evening I'm going to see my doctor as I don't like the way I feel!
I am going to bed now and read a bit. Must say "The Devil Wears Prada" by Lauren Weisberger is a fun book to read and it helps me get my mind off things.
I hope I will have better news soon!

Guess I will have to be more patient.
Though yesterday morning I thought something had arrived.
I was still dozing in bed when at 9:50 the doorbell rang. (Yes I know, dozing at 9:50 in the mornings.... I am a lazybones at times!) I immediately bolted upright, darted for my dressing gown, scared my snoozing cats, switched on the light in the hall, dashed down the stairs, scrambled for my door keys, dropped the keys, picked them up, fiddled with the keyhole, opened the front door looking like a scarecrow.... and there was the mailman.... he had a letter for me to sign for. Nothing else, just a letter.
Needless to say it was a bad start of the day. And in the end it wasn't a good day either. I stitched a WIP on plastic canvas and I have been puzzling my head off about some stuff that's not HAED nor stitch related so I'm not going to mention it here.
In the end I was glad when it was time to go to bed in the evening!
We don't receive any mail during weekends so I hope at least the fabric will arrive next week so I can start gridding and put a stitched border around it to stop it from fraying. A friend of mine told me what stitch to use for that! Thanks Paula!!!
Today I still have cobwebs in my head and I don't like it at all! I cleaned up the bathroom and filled in an excell sheet on which I put my monthly fixed expenses and earnings.
I made the totals and compared what came in and what went out.... seems like I have been a rather good girl this year. I haven't overdone it on the spending part!
I guess I will be stitching a bit more for the rest of the day. It is sunny outside but a bit cold. I am tempted to go for a ride on my trike as it helps me get my mind off things but the cold is not making me want to go out.
This is a picture of the kind of trike I have, mine is black though.
Yesterday I also noticed I don't have anymore English or French Christmas cards and I will have to go to town to buy some. I thought to do that yesterday but I really was not in the mood. And today is Saturday so the town will be swamped, which I don't like at all!
Before leaving here I would like to thank everyone that has left nice comment on this blog! It's great to get some so please visit whenever you want and leave more feedback!
Signing out for now. I hope I will have some better news soon!

STILL NO POSTIE!!!!!
Nothing much else happened here. Just a usual day. I did leave the office at 14:00h and I'm at home for the rest of this week. I will try and stitch a bit as I still have some WIP's but my stitching bug is playing hide and seek with me!
My brother turned 50 today! I don't have a lot of contact with him, he's always too busy, but I did send him a card.
I will have to figure out more about how Blogs work and it's a bit hard to get as the explanations are in English, but I will get there eventually!
I don't have a lot of writing inspiration at the moment so I am going to get me some coffee and chocolate to compensate for not having received my fabric yet :-)
CU

Boohoohoo..... just got home from work and the postie didn't bring me anything yet... snirffff.... Though, when I look at it on the bright side: he also didn't bring me any invoices to pay :-)
I guess it was a bit of wishful thinking on my part that the fabric would be here today. Guess the postie had too many cards and pressies to deliver elsewhere.... Today is Santa Claus in Belgium. That means all the kids get goodies, toys, chocolate and other healthy things to eat ;-)
Santa Claus is a bit like Father Christmas in the UK and the US. We also have Father Christmas but he brings less for kids and it's more of an adult holiday.
Santa Claus lives in Spain, rides a grey across the roofs at night and he dumps his toys down the chimneys. He also has black footmen accompanying him, dragging a bag over their shoulders. This bag is meant to put bad kiddies in :-)
We sure were scared and anxious when we were kids and we were on our best behaviour when we knew Santa was coming!
But this year Santa didn't bring me anything :-( and neither did the postman :-( Wonder if I can complain somewhere? And this is what Santa looks like:

21:15h here now. Just had contact with my floss mum in the US! She's going to get me the DMC threads for my queen next Saturday. She'll be sending them next Monday. Yippeeeee!
I will pay her and I am going to send her some nice Belgian chocolate to thank her!
Signing out for today!
TTFN!

Well, here I am trying out something new. Never thought I'd create a blog! Last year I didn't even know what a blog was!
The reason I'm making one now is very simple.... I'm a wee bit addicted to cross stitching and I am hoping to start stitching my very first Heaven and Earth design real soon.
What I want to do with this blog is posting my thoughts and pictures of my work in progress for others to read and maybe give tips to others that way.
So last Sunday, Dec. 3rd. I succumbed to HAED. I purchased a design which I received by e-mail yesterday morning.
This is a picture of the design I bought:

It's called "Night Queen" and it's by "Jessica Galbreth". Isn't she just lovely and mysterious?!
I forwarded the mail to my office and printed it out today..... 40 pages!!!!!
The complete design needs 60 different colours and I'll be stitching it on 25 count Zweigart Lugana. The fabric will not be white because the design is mostly made with dark colours and it might shine through. So I ordered a bone colour. Someone on the HAED forum gave me this tip and I gladly accepted it! It also made me laugh because I work on a graveyard.... lol.... I don't dig graves though.... I do the administration.... and I burry people into a specially designed computer program. Yep, they are buried twice.... in the ground and in the computer. At least that way we know where they are for sure :-)
Anyways, enough about my job for the moment.
So, like I said, I ordered the fabric, special needles and a floss box and I'm waiting for those to arrive. They are coming from the UK.
No, I'm not English, I'm Belgian (like Hercule Poirot) and in this country everything to do with cross stitching costs way too much compared to what I earn. The UK is cheaper and my DMC floss is coming from the US where it's even more cheap!
I ordered all this yesteray and am waiting impatiently for it to arrive. I had a confirmation mail from the UK just a while ago telling me the order was despatched, so I know it will arrive shortly. I am not sure how long I will have to wait for the threads to arrive though....
By the way, I mentionned I was Belgian, so don't bash my head in if I make mistakes in my writing! English is only my third language. My first one being Dutch/Flemish and my second one being French.
I am writing this blog in English though, as most of the stitching junkies I know are living in the UK or in the US.
Leaving for now. It's almost 22:00h and I need to get to bed to get me some sleep!
Hope you enjoyed my first page and that you'll come back soon for more!
CUL8R