Hello from sunny Holland! The weather has been great this week, it's very warm outside! Too bad I have to work, my office gets really hot even with working airconditioning! I have been working again for two weeks. My vacation was over so quickly!! We bought the Girl a new mattress and visited some friends. We also took a fun ride with a real steam train! The last day the Girl and I drove our bike to her home from the train station. It was a 40 minute drive and while we were pedaling away there were black clouds hanging over us. I swear, the minute we arrived at the house the rain and thunder started!!!
I have been enjoying the Olympics and I am so sad it is over! I am so in awe of all these amazing athletes. The Netherlands did good this time, three medals more than the goal that was set. For me the best medal is the gold for Men's Gymnastic Horizontal Bar. The first medal in Gymnastic since 1928. I swear the entire office building was watching and I could here the cheers when our athlete won LOL. It was very impressive, he did three flying elements in a row and I was told no-one in the world is capable of doing that. It was very exciting especially since the sports presentator was also very excited about it ("one, two, three, he did it!" and a little later when he jumped to the ground: "He's standing! Everybody's standing! I am standing! I am going nuts here!"). I think he made half the medal LOL. Here is a link to a youtube movie with lego of the exercise and the comment (in Dutch, sorry) Epke Zonderland in Lego
The most emotional moment for me was the Gold on the 100m breaststroke for the 15 year old girl from Lithuania. She was so cute.
I have been sleeping like I was fighting LOL so I started my week with a cramped hand. Grrrr. I am thankful to know why and acknowledging my stress helps. Last week I saw the August issue of Cross Stitcher magazine (a UK magazine) in the bookstore. I have bought their issues in the past, they have lovely free gifts and the charts are fun! This August magazine had a giant chart by Emily Peacock (she is also on etsy) and also some lovely ribbon. I loved it, but I am on a serious budget so I decided not to buy it. After this crappy weekend I WANTED it so badly! So to the bookstore I went, but boohoo there was already a new issue!! I have never been a demanding customer but this time I took the risk and asked them for the August issue. I was lucky, the old issues were still in the store and the day after they would be sent back!!! I bought one and now I am the owner of this huge chart! I have no idea when I am every going to stitch this but I want this to hang in my next house.
No update on Train. I have been working on it but it's not enough for a new picture. Better next time! I have also found a Stitch 'n Bitch group in my town. I haven't joined them, since they gather in a pub (again, the stupid budget) but as soon as that is better I will check it out. They are mainly knitters but they are open to any thread-related crafters. I also would like to see if the lighting in the pub is good enough for stitching.
I miss crafting with a group. I was a pretty regular visitor of the scrapbooking crops of scrapbooknederland but I haven't been there in awhile. Scrapbooking is way more expensive than cross stitching you know! The store is closed now, they only have a webshop left. Another result of this crappy economy.
