On doctor's orders..

Hello everybody,

are you enjoying Autumn as much as I do? I love to see the changing leaves and to feel the change in temperature. Autumn so far has been mild here, without too much rain.

Unfortunately Autumn also brought me the flu. I haven't been so sick in years!! I spent a week in bed, watching tv and sleeping. After that week I went back to work, I was starting to get crazy of boredom! Too bad my cold still isn't over, so I visited my doctor to get some antibiotics. I hope they help.

I haven't touched a needle in 2.5 weeks. I miss it. But my right hand started to give the same problems like I had a few months ago (the pain was a 10, I could not even lift my hand). This time I visited a physical therapist and she discovered at the moment there is a serious difference in the movement of my right hand compared to my left hand! It's not permanent, I am told, but untill this is treated I am not going to do any needlework. Bummer!!! Hopefully next month..

Another page done!

Yay another page is done! This is page 9:

The past few days (well nights) I have been in a stitching frenzy according to the Boyfriend. But look at the cute planets!!! Next are pages 20 and 31!

Outside my building my hometown is celebrating an historical event, called Leidens Ontzet. Leiden remembers being freed of the Spanish in 1574 (this was during the 80 year of war against the (catholic) Spanish). The people of Leiden were starving at that time, they were under siege for several weeks. When the Spanish soldiers fled the gates opened and the people went outside and found Hutspot (a stew made of carrots, potatoes, unions and pork meat). Also, the Geuzen (in English: the Beggars) brought them haring and white bread. I am sure I have left some really important and interesting pieces out of the story
Until this day this is celebrated at October 3rd. With Hutspot, haring and white bread. My grandma, who was born in this city, has fond memories of the celebration.
But in these modern times also with lots of beer, carnival and music. On every corner of the street in the center of Leiden there is a small stage. I happen to live in the center. So when I sit in my living room I have a stage in front of my door, a carnival to the right, a carnival to the left and parking next to my building. The party tonight is till 2 in the morning and tomorrow till 3 in the morning.. I was not born in Leiden and did not grew up with this celebration. This party, the noise, it just doesn't do anything for me. I think it's because in the past I had to jump over puke and other human junk the day after to get to public transportation (or to my front door!), that completely ruined the fun for me!

But you know what? It IS very cool to celebrate something that happened more than 400 years ago! I love that!

Hello Autumn!

Oh glory, autumn has come! Leaves are slowly changing colour and the temperatures are dropping. It is also raining quite a bit.

Last week we had a teambuilding day from my work, we spent some time at Neeltje Jans I was afraid the weather would be awful but it actually was a really sunny day! It is always good to spend time with colleagues and to get to know them on another level.
It is going awesome at work. I have a new boss and some people have moved on to other positions in the company, giving more room for me! I have taken advantage of it and I am loving it, I feel so much more confident and capable!

In my personal life I have celebrated several birthdays. First the Girl's, then mine (the big 3-0) and my cousin's. I am not the person for big parties so it was lovely to have my family around for a small celebration. My dad brought fresh rhubarb, tomatoes and a huge red pepper from his garden. Loved it! I hope one day to have a house with a garden..

We also visited lots of Monument's on National Open Monument Day. We visited the Botanical Garden's, the Observatory, the Academic Building, a church and on Sunday we visited a Synagogue and a Medieval house and cellar. I had never been in a Synagogue before so I was very excited about it! There were lots of Monuments open for the public but several had waiting lines and that's not something we like to do when we have the Girl with us.

My country also voted last week. I think I am happy with the results, now the new government needs to be formed. It's an exciting time!!

Because autumn is officially here today, I have been changing the furniture arrangement in my living room and most of my summer wardrobe has been put away and autumn/winter clothes are brought in. My heating system has been checked out this morning, everything works so I will stay warm this winter!
I have also been doing some deep cleaning. I think I have told before I am not much of a housekeeper. It's never dirty though in my house, but every once in a while it gets to me and I need to CLEAN the kitchen and every closet in my house.

Train of Dreams is riding along nicely, I have finished two books so far:

Finally, page 19 and 30 are finished!

Oh my goodness this was a difficult birth but I've done it! There is too much going on in my life right now. It was my goal to finish one page a month so I could finish the entire Train in 2012. I don't think that's going to happen but that's ok. The most important part is to survive the rest of this year. Stitch when I feel like it. It is all ok! No pressure, there is plenty of it already in my life.

Here it is in all it's glory:

It is huge! I had to stand on my bed to take this picture. I can't believe there are only 4 pages and a bit left to do!

This weekend it's the Open Monument Days. I am planning to visit a few of them in the city. There are very interesting buildings and I always wonder what's behind the doors. I hope the Boyfriend and the Girl like it as much as I do, it will be a welcome change in our usual walk! The weather is lovely, maybe the last days of summer? I hope not. But it is wonderful. Soon I will have to find my warmer clothes. I love autumn, just not the rain and the wind!!

Next week it's time to vote for our new government. I am torn. It has never been so hard to choose. I seriously believe my generation won't live as well off as our parents did. But still, I want my child to receive the care and special education she needs and I want a job for my Boyfriend. I want his house to be sold and I want to be able to afford another one on one salary. The last thing won't happen, it's just not realistic enough. Unless I win the lottery ofcourse.
The new government is faced with some tough choices. I am afraid of them already. But still. It is my right to vote. I hate people who complain about the government but who don't vote. They have no right to speak, in my opinion. I want reason back in politics, not populism. I hope more people want that.

I have some serious research to do the next 4 days..

Anyways.. I am off to visit some blogs and website!!

Enjoy your weekend and I will talk to you later!

A treat for me!!

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.

Half a page done!

It is wonderful to have a summer holiday, I get a lot of stitching done! In the mornings the Girl and I hang out at the house, she plays or watches tv and I stitch. So far I have stitched half a page:

In the afternoon we do fun stuff. We went to the swimming pool, playground and the beach (three times already!). This picture was taken last Friday, when we went to my parents. My mom, the Girl and I went to the beach for a swim. There were lots of seagullls. Just before it started to rain we walked back to the house!

I am also feeling confident enough to ride the special duobike with the Girl. We drove to the lake once and basically use it for a lot of our grocery shopping.

Picture from a website that sells bikes for handicapped or invalid people. The Girl sits in front of me but I am the only one to use the handlebar. The one she has is fake.

On Sunday the three of us went to Museum Naturalis

Unfortunately the Girl was a bit scared of the big dinosaur skeletons. We've been here before, but this time she had sweaty hands and just didn't enjoy herself. We managed to distract her enough to see the entire museum but the Boyfriend had to take a long walk with the Girl afterwards to calm her down. She told him she thought it was scary and she didn't like it.


Today it was rainy so we baked pancakes and went to the airport to watch the planes. It was very busy at the Panorama deck! The Girl likes to be able to see from above what's happening with the planes. The loading of the luggages and all the little cars driving around.. it's a lot of fun.

We also watch a lot of the Olympic Games. Our favorites are the swimming and gymnastics but it is all very inspiring. I love that it is in our time zone so we don't have to watch in the middle of the night!

Page 8 is done!

Long time, no action on the blog! This month has been weird and scary.

Scary:
a possible loss of my vision by 20%. My doc thinks it is only temporary and gave me some eye cream. It looks like it worked. This week I will visit my optician again for another test. I do need new glasses though. :-(

Really scary:
my father in law spent two nights in the IC unit. He fell in his garden and his throat hit a stick. Result: a hole in his trachea. He could have been dead and he's so lucky the stick didn't punch through both sides. He is home now, thank God.

Summer vacation:
My summer vacation has started! This year we decided to stay home with the Girl. The Boyfriend is applying for jobs non-stop so for most of the time me and her and doing nice things (or mundane stuff like cleaning the litter box lol). We miss going to France a lot, but we know it's for a good cause. We hope to go there next year.

I have been praying for good weather. It looks like it worked! Today the weather was awesome and the three of us went on our bikes to the beach! I didn't pack our swimsuits but it was absolutely wonderful to walk at the shore. It reminded me so much of my summers at home when I was a kid. Going to the beach every day, building sandcastles, swimming, playing. If the sun is shining, staying in Holland really isn't too bad!
The Girl is really tired right now (after a bike ride for a total of 2 hours and 1.5 hours spent in the sand). I hope that means she sleeps in tomorrow morning LOL.
It looks like tomorrow is another sunny day so I think we will go to the beach again!

Train of Dreams:
It took me some time but I did finish page 8! The second dragon of this piece is sleeping in a green carriage. I can not believe I am nearly at the end of the train but stitch by stitch I am getting there!

That's it for now. Talk to you later!