It's a miracle - a page finish!

Yesterday I finally finished another page of Butterfly Wood. I started this page on May 11, 2014. Yikes. Oh well. It is pretty. So far I have finished pages 1, 9, 2, 10, 3 & 11 and have started page 4.

Today our nation is celebrating it's 70 years ago we were liberated from the Germans. Everybody has a day off and is out having fun. Allthough the weather isn't so great at the moment, I'm seeing dark clouds and the wind is pretty strong. We'll make the best of it!

Enjoy the day and happy stitching!

Back to normal?

I reaaaaaaaally need to go back to regular blogging. I was really (?) good at blogging once a month.
Oh well.

Last week I went to my framer and picked up...... Train of Dreams!!
It is beautiful if I may say so.

I worked a bit on Butterfly Wood, I almost have a page finish! Finally, after a year:

Permin Sampler has seen more activity! Every week I'm at the Stitch 'n Bitch, having fun. Last week another stitcher joined our group! She's not into following patterns and cross stitching, but she just starts and follows her needle! So creative..
However, I'm very proud of how the sampler looks like!

Merry Christmas!

In my house it is a tradition to either go to the Christmas Night Service in church or watch Christmas Carols on the BBC. This year it was the latter, since Girl2 has the flu.

From my house to yours: Merry Christmas!!

  

Life update!

It has been way too long ago since my last posting. Lots has happened.

In my last posting I wrote about Girl2 moving in with us in September. Well, that didn't happen as planned. The witch decided it was in her own best interest to sue against the decision of CPS. (So typical, her interest has been more important than the interest of her children, allthough she swears she is the Perfect Mother. Weird, since her oldest child - Girl1 - was decided by CPS to be safe in our care and the custody of her youngest two children by her latest ex-partner was awared to her latest ex-partner. But anyway.) So we (well the Mr.) went to court in September, where the witch convinced the judge to hear Girl2. She also crowed the Mr. could see Girl2 anytime when she (the witch) got custody, since he was now paying so many things for Girl2.
In my country a judge can only hear a child in a custody case when it's 12 years or older. Girl2 is 11. The judge heard Girl2 in October, who ofcourse said she didn't want to live with daddy, because daddy lives in another town so many miles away. But judge also saw a girl behaving in a weird way.

In October the Mr. went to court again, thinking the judge would rule. Well, she didn't that day and said the ruling could take another month. The Mr. ofcourse didn't like this, but couldn't do anything against it. Then, a day later we got a call from our lawyer. The ruling would be sent to her office on Friday! That Friday we were so nervous! We called our lawyer but heard the judge had sent the ruling by snailmail and it would be delivered on a Monday! We were so disappointed and called CPS to see if they could reach the judge. No one could do something for us, we were told. So we were a bit lost. School was out for a week and Girl2 would spent the week with us. We were hoping for a positive ruling so Girl2 could move in that week and start at the new school.

We were so done with it all and the Mr. was ready to go away for a few days. The Mr. lost his job in August, but found a new one that started at the end of October. We needed a few days with the four of us, just relaxing! So we booked a weekend away at a holiday park.

That afternoon, I went to pick up Girl1 from school. As I told her teacher it was a nerve wrecking day because of the ruling, my telephone went off. It was the Mr. who told me to start celebrating, the ruling got in and it was positive!! I was so relieved I alsmost cried! I hugged Girl1 who didn't understand what was happening. It literally felt like a huge weight was taken off my shoulders! Chills everywhere!

We couldn't celebrate too much that day, because CPS had told us they would tell Girl2 the news. She was told the following Wednesday. She wasn't that sad, but she did start to cry when she was told she would be placed in a lower year (say from year 5 she was put back to year 4). We did this, because she was in her last year of primary education and her school results were bad. The witch didn't want this to happen but the judge ruled for it.

So that weekend we went to a holiday park with the four of us. It was heaven! We were in the indoor swimming pool all day long and had lots of fun! The Monday Girl2 went to her old school to tell them the news and on Tuesday her new school started! The Mr. was still at home, his job would start a week later so this gave us some time to get her used to all of it.
After the first week the Mr. started his new job and my new life began. I work closer to home than he does, so I'm the one responsible to get Girl2 to school in time!

Two months later I can say it has been a lot easier than I feared! So far we haven't had too much negative attitude. I do notice Girl2 is crunching her teeth so bad after she has spent time with the witch (2 days a month). But she listens to us, helps around, works hard at school (and is progressing!!) and is a sweet girl. We are still careful around her (she has been the witches spy for a while, we don't know whether she still is), but life is better now!

This posting is just the tip of the iceberg of what has happened to me and my family for the past year and a half. Lots of negativity took a lot of energy away from stitching. I'm slowly picking it up but don't think I will be stitching like I used to (every spare moment of the day).

This being said, here's what I did on the Permin Sampler!

A beautiful flower and equally beautiful peacock!

I'm not going to promise anything about posting more ;-) but I hope to come on here soon!

Update Permin Sampler 5

My last update was two months ago, where did the time go?


Since the last update I have worked hard on restoring my work-life balance and my stress levels. The therapy has helped tremendously and I am stronger than ever. I only have a couple of appointments to go. I am grateful for the opportunities my employer gave me to work on myself.

Life is slowly returning to a new normal. I took a few weeks off and we are enjoying the time together. We love to hang out on our new sofa!

In September, Girl2 will move in with us. It will end an emotional journey but will start a new one! Pre-puberty anyone?

In the mean time I have been stitching a bit on the Permin Sampler. Butterfly Wood has been neglected the last months.

I've also joined a Dutch Facebook group dedicated to stitching the Dear Jane! Dear Jane originally is a quilt designed by Jane Stickles and is very famous around the world. Someone translated the quilt to a free cross stitch pattern and it is now a huge hit in the Netherlands!
I haven't started it yet, I'm still thinking about colors and stuff. I really like a rainbow Dear Jane. (picture taken from fiddletails.com)

After I finish the Permin Sampler, this will be my new Stitch 'n Bitch project!

Update Butterfly Wood 9 and Permin Sampler 4

Goodmorning!

Lots has happened these past weeks!
1. Girl2 celebrated her 11th birthday. Together we baked a chocolate cake from scratch (first time for me!) and it was a success. Dad (the Mr) and stepdad organized her party and everybody loved it. I was so proud of the Mr!
2. I started therapy and I am working hard in restoring the balance in my life. It is not easy, but I feel that this is the right time for me.
3. We ordered a new sofa, one that can fit two adults and two teens. Am so excited about that!! Only thing I need to order now is a wider arm for my workstand (the armrests of the sofa are much wider).

I did cross stitch too but not very much. Look at all of my butterflies!!!

And don't you just love this sampler? I must confess this one got lots more attention than Butterfly Woods. It is a quite Catholic sampler I think, with the Lamb of God:

It's time for my lunch now. This weekend's weather forecast looks promising (very warm!) so I can't wait for it!

Untill next time!

Update Butterfly Wood 8 and Permin Sampler 3

Goodmorning!

So I got up early today. Girl1 was awake and was enjoying herself tremendously in the big bed of daddy and Liesbeth but we weren't too happy about that LOL. So now I am downstairs with her, watching children's tv. Daddy's still in bed. Lucky him haha.


Children's tv is kind of boring so this is the perfect time to upload my pictures and write a blog post!

First: Butterfly Wood. I finished the first 4 pages...

and started the next one:

The Permin Sampler has been calling my name often. It is hard to put it away after my weekly Stitch 'n Bitch night!!

That's it for now! Enjoy this Sunday (the weather here is looking lovely!) and see you next time!

Update Permin Sampler 1724 2

This week I got a bit stressed out at work. Basically I fell apart. Sigh. So I went home and told my temp boss (my real one was on a business trip) that I wouldn't be at work for the rest of the week. I am so thankful he understood why and agreed with me! In the almost 10 years I have been working I have never had a bad review or taking sick days, so I do have a lot of credit.
So this week I have done some soul searching and have been taking care of me. It's hard but I'm ok. This is a wake up call for me. I'm going to change some things in my life. Step by step. I will get there.

Yesterday was my weekly Stitch 'n Bitch. It was nice to be there. I worked on the Permin Sampler. I confess, since I took the last picture I worked on it some more. I finished all the pink, the light green of the basket and all of the dark green. Yesterday I worked on the grey green (the grapes). This morning I took a picture:

I really like working on two very different pieces!

No update for Butterfly Wood. Nina asked me if I'm getting to the big butterflies yet. Unfortunately not! I am working from left to right, so the next 4 pages (my frame shows 4 pages) will be trees. I don't think it's a lot of confetti (here's to hoping!) so I hope to be flying through these pages.

Untill next time my friends!!

Update Butterfly Wood 7 and new start: Permin sampler 1724!

Hello dear readers, long time no see!

It's not like I didn't do anything the past two months. I just didn't feel like updating. There's still lots going on here. It's not something I'd like to share online, especially since we're still in the middle of it.

Anyways, back to stitching!
I'm in love with my floor stand. It is the best tool I've bought in a long time, seriously!
So what have I done?

I've nearly finished the 4th page of Butterfly Wood:

Every Wednesday I'm going to the Stitch 'n Bitch club. I absolutely love it. In the past few months I worked on small things, cute things. Nice but Sampler 1724 by Permin was calling my name! Yesterday night I took up my needle and started the darn thing! It came with a lovely linen, I forgot how nice it is to work on linen!! It is also nice to work on something completely different than a HAED.

Well, hopefully my next update will be sooner!!

I gave in

and ordered a workstand! I hit the 'order' button on a Thursday and it was delivered this Tuesday.

It was killing me to keep it closed till after dinner!

But then...

And after assembly:

This is the tallest the stand goes, unfortunately it is a little to low to use next to my dining table. And I think I will have to order an wider 'L' bar. But I am so happy already! It gives my shoulder a lot of rest!!

And yes, I finished my third page! I'll try to get a better picture this weekend.

Update Butterfly Wood 6

It has been a while since my last update. Lots happened in my personal life. Lots of worries. It's funny, as soon one problem solves another one arises. We are hoping for a good outcome but the Mr and I both feel 2014 will be an interesting year!

So yes, I've been stitching the last few months, but not as much as I wanted to!

Girl1 has found a love for my embroidery scissors so I really have to hide it for her. LOL I can't have more accidents!

And now I have to find a solution for my broken washing machine. Yes, two days for Christmas it broke. Argh.

Happy Holidays everyone! May 2014 be gentle for all of us.

Update Butterfly Wood 5: why you should never leave your sewing out in the open

I wish I could give you a very happy update but no. Yesterday I let my sewing unattended in the living room, I was baking pancakes in the kitchen. Just when the Girl was bored. I know she truly just wanted to help but she used my scissors and cut three times in my Butterfly Wood. To say I was pissed is an understatement. Maybe you can see the thin red lines I added with my photo software?

I was really mad. She got scared, she cried, I almost cried and we went outside for a walk in order to cool off. You can't really punish (no more pancakes for you!) a kid with autism because they (she) really don't (doesn't) understand why it is wrong what they did and what pancakes have to do with it.
We talked about what she did. "I cut your sewing Liesbeth", "Yeah, and were you allowed to do that?", "No", "So you did something naughty?", "Yes", "Did I like that?", "No you didn't", "What will you do in the future?", "Not cut your sewing". "Good, come and give me a hug. I still love you". "I love you too, Liesbeth".
And then we walked to the park and played on the swings. She still talked about cutting my sewing so we repeated our talk a few times and then we went home.

When I got home, I started working on the repairs. I knew the first and last cuts were easy repairs. But the middle one? Ugh.

So this is what came out of it. I am not really happy but it will have to do. Embrace imperfection right?

Let's just say I learned my lesson!

Update Butterfly Wood 4

It's windy outside, we have our first autumn storm and I am inside my cosy house, together with my two loves. We are loving our new space!! I am glad the main work is done because at the end I was seriously questioning my insanity LOL. It didn't help that it was also busy at my work and that the Mr. has a high demanding job! But I'm glad we survived hahaha

Now I have time to stitch again and I worked hard!

As you can see I finished page 1 and have almost finished page 2. I am flying through page 2 thanks to the color 3865! I didn't expect the first butterflies to appear, but here they are!

Thank you all for reading and have a lovely Sunday!

I'm still here!!

Hello my dear friends!

I realize it has been a while since my last post. I have been busy busy busy. First I was on holiday and after that I got the keys of my new house! I had to do tons of work: with the help of some friends we've painted all of the upstairs and downstairs, our bathrooms got mildew treatments and I got a couple of new heaters (the old ones were leaking). We are also in the process of putting in new floors. The upstairs (laminate floors with a whitewash/greyish look) is already done and we have just started downstairs. The downstairs floors are a bit of a pain (whitewashed oak floors), but we still have a week untill moving day! In between we celebrated the birthdays of the Girl and myself.

I already moved lots of stuff to the upstairs and attic. I promised the Mr. I will downsize on my craft supplies. I moved an insane amount of stuff I know I will no longer use. Also: I still had text books from high school! I have no energy to purge right now, so I just dumped it all in the attic. The Mr. has to purge as well, he has too many shirts he doesn't wear and I swear he collects old computer parts! I moved it all

For me it is really empowering to see I can DIY and move lots of things myself. The Mr. has huge deadlines at work so he can't help all the time. I feel like a strong woman!

Don't let me fool you, it is the most stressful experience I've ever had and at times I really loose it. I try to look at it as a race: the end is almost there!

Next month: a "normal" update of my stitching!!

Update and some big news!!

Goodmorning!!

Today probably is the hottest day of the year in the Netherlands and I am home, packing my bags. Tomorrow we will leave for France, I cannot wait!!! We are all very excited! Too bad tomorrow is one of France's Black Saturdays, when the roads are so busy it sometimes takes hours just to travel a few kilometers. Thank God we have no deadline for getting at our destination!

Ofcourse Butterfly Wood will travel with me! Just like the previous vacations, my cross stitching is packed in a laptop bag, it fits perfectly!

On the left: my floss box and pattern, on the right: my HAED, some extra floss and I have a pencil tucked in.

In other good news: yesterday I signed the lease for a new apartment! I cannot believe how much luck I have in my life right now! The Mr. has been high fiving me a lot lately LOL.

The day after we come back from vacation, I get the key and I will start cleaning and painting. The Mr. will put in new floors. In the Netherlands we can paint the walls of a rented property and install our own floors. We also bring our own appliances. So basically when you rent, you get a bare space (unless you agreed with the previous renters to take over floors, curtains and other things). Allthough I do not have a lot of budget for a move, I've decided to do it because the rent is acceptable and the apartment has a lot more space than I have now! As soon as the Mr. gets a permanent contract from work (probably in April), we will get married.

Ofcourse I have been stitching this past month! I also ordered a qsnap huggie (actually, I ordered two) from Christine and I like it a lot! It's still a bit of a pain to roll up the fabric nicely but now it doesn't rub my skin anymore. Plus I LOVE the fabric (Hawaiian flowers).

I have almost finished my first page of Butterfly Wood! I am loving the shades of beige and green I am using. It is not too much confetti so it's a pretty easy stitch so far!

Maybe after the vacation I have a page finish to show, but I'm not going to give myself a deadline this vacation!! I only know I will drink a glass of French red wine in two days, woohoo!!

Hope to check in soon, but it will probably take a few weeks! Enjoy the summer, enjoy stitching and talk to you later!!

Butterfly Wood, update 2

Oh how addicting is a new start! I am stitching any moment I can!! Right now there isn't too much confetti and I am just enjoying myself. 

Untill next time!

And so the journey begins...

Thank you all for your comments on finishing Train of Dreams!

I spent last weekend wrapping floss around bobbins and preparing the fabric for Butterfly Wood. The fabric is huge!!!! I worked 27 months on Train, so this will be a five year project?? Also, the colors are so different than Train! I am still missing a few colors but when the rain stops, I will walk to the store to get the remaining colors.

These are my supplies: a DMC floss box (with room for my bobbin winder, scissors, thimble, extra needles and my gridding thread), my ORT-jar (basically an empty creme brulee pot), a magnetic pattern holder, a pencil so I can cross off the sections I've done (I try to switch colors every two pages, just to keep it fun) and the color codes.

 I bought the large format and it has 56 pages. A substantial amount of them are partial pages

Tuesday I made my first crosses, this is the result of two days stitching:

See what I mean by totally different colors? It is hard to take a picture! The fabric is 18ct Ivory Aida.

Talk to you later!

Celebrations!!!

About one hour ago I finished Train of Dreams!!!!
It took me about two and a half years and oh my gosh I am so proud!! The Mr. loves the result and I am sure my stepdaughter will adore it. She is a big fan of the dragons, little crocodiles she calls them.

Tonight this baby will be washed and dried. I am already looking for a nice frame!

Now I have a lot of floss to wrap on my new bobbins. Butterfly Wood uses lots of pretty colors!!

Almost there.... and plans for the future!

I am so so close to the finish of Train of Dreams!!

I am already thinking about the next BAP I am going to tackle. I have two in my stash calling my name. Basically they are the only BAPs in my stash LOL, I try to keep my stash as small as possible.

The first one is Butterfly Wood by David Penfound. Yes another HAED. I believe I have been talking about it before:

I have ordered all the floss and fabric (18ct Ivory Aida by Permin of Copenhagen) for it. I was thinking about using pre-gridded Aida from DMC but I could only order a huge amount that would cost me more than 100 euros! Since I am happy with the 18ct Aida by Permin of Copenhagen I am using for Train of Dreams (color: Stone Grey), I decided to order from Permin again. I also ordered a new floss box. This morning I printed the pattern. I am almost ready!

The second BAP is this sampler from Permin of Copenhagen:

This was a gift from my MIL, the fabric has a rust colour. Since the fabric and floss are included, the only thing I still need to order is another Q-snap frame!

I have joined a local Stitch 'n Bitch group. They come together in a pub every Wednesday night. So far I have met only two members and they were very nice! Unfortunately the pub is a bit dark so I cannot work on my HAEDs. I still have some little freebies from a magazine to work on, so that's what I do on those nights! Since the sampler uses a lower count fabric I hope I can also work on the sampler during the meetings! I will work on Butterfly Wood at home.

Have a cuppa...

I haven't picked the sunniest days to take off from work, but oh well!
It is very cold around here and I am still wearing some of my (thinner) winter clothes. Unbelievable! Just this weekend I turned on my central heating system! I am so ready for warmer weather!
In order to get a bit of relief from my boss (did I say that out loud?) I have taken this week off. I was hoping for nice weather but it's still nice to stay in bed a little longer and hang around. I have been doing all kind of things in and around the house. Some of them fun, some of them not (paperwork, yuck!). I am still hoping I can visit a local museum tomorrow for fun, but I also have the ingredients for banana bread so I haven't decided yet!

I have been stitching as well!! It provides a nice break between the house work. I still haven't finished the piece but I'm getting there! I have finished the train and am now working on the tea cup!

Maybe next time I can reveal the full picture? I hope so!!