I have been really ill yesterday - tummy upset, and sore throat etc, I felt so weak that I was in bed all day, dragged myself downstairs in the afternoon only to continue sleeping on the settee! Oh, but I was much better again today - ready to go to work!

I have finally taken pictures of my Christmas parcels, and here it goes:

Thank you to my Secret Santa from the Friendly Stitchers:

I must have been good to deserve all this! Note the beautiful bag the goodies came in... (with the snowman on the front). And one kit is actually missing - that is the little pointsetta box which I made already into a present for my friend Rachel - see earlier post! Yes I admit I did cheat and opened two days earlier. And I have never used Thread Heaven before, but it is one of those things which I always wanted to try - so a big thank you again.

And here are my goodies from Clare from UK Cross Stitch - thank you so much as well. My daughter already had a curious look on the stichers hee hee, I guess I'll have to hide them. The fabric are actually 2 pieces.

Thank you both of you for your wonderful gifts - it is so much appreciated, especially as I do not have any stitching friends outside of the lists, and those are the only stitching related present I'll get.

Here's an update on the holly picture (John Clayton Design). The main design is finished, and now it just needs 'filling in', as the background will be stitched out completely in dark blue, so it will appear almost like a tapestry. It was fun to stitch the design, but filling in the background is rather boring and I didn't make much progress since Sunday. I'm going stitch this holly picture until next Monday, and then start my rotation - Christmas stitching will go back into the box until December 2008 - I doubt I'll have the holly finished by then.

I have signed up with a birthday club in an American-based cross stitch list. there are 16 of us, and everyone post a birthday present to everyone. It is quite a commitment, lasting for the whole of the year obviously, but I;m quite looking forward to it.

And here is our Christmas goose. It was the first year we did goose, my mum does one every year. I don't particularly like the taste of turkey, and thought I give it a try. Well, it was nice taste-wise, but the meat was rather .. chewy, as Danial put it. Don't know if I did something wrong. The vegetables turned out very nice though. I did the usual Brussel Sprouts (which everyone in our family loves!), parsnips and honey-glazed carrots - they went down a real treat. I did trifle myself, but while it was 'eatable', I think it is much nicer readymade - well, I'm not a domestic goddess but try my best. I enjoy cooking for Christmas.

the kids loved their presents, and they are busy playing (for once, don't know how long this is gonna last). Nafees and me, we don't give each other presents, I treated myself throughout this year with nice stuff, like my laptop and my wonderful Daylight lamp. Tomorrow, Danial wants to try out his fishing gear, and I don't like to let him go on his own to the local lake, so it'll be a fishing trip tomorrow. I'm not into fishing at all, and would prefer to sit at home stitching *sigh*

I received a Christmas surprise from Marlies, containing 'Printen' (which is a German Christmas type of biscuit) - I've all gobbled them up already.... And this beautiful card, it doesn't show up on the picture, but is really pretty, stitched on fine Linen.

We've had our Office Christmas Party on Thursday. The venue was a pub called 'The Doggetts' , overlooking the Thames - it was really pretty. Not a lot people came though, all sorts of excuses valid and not, never mind, I enjoyed the food. Got a nice secret Santa present - a kitten calender and a dish with a fat candle - this is rather spooky as I wanted to buy both those things for myself but I'm sure I haden't mentioned it to anyone in the office - so well done Secret Santa! The (very quite) party came to an end at about 23:oo hrs - so no wild falling out of pubs stories with our parties.

This is a small box i did as a Christmas present for my friend Rachel. it was a kit, and really easy to do, it took me approx. 2 hours to stitch and to fit it all together, it looked stunning and I was well pleased with it - wanted to keep it to myself actually LOL - Oh no, Rachel, hope you enjoy it of course.


I went to see Rachel yesterday with Imran and Ruby. Imran wanted to go and see her because of the dogs - she's got 6 poodles. Oh, they are ever so nice and cuddly, so very different from the cats - I always come back from Rachel's wishing I could have a dog, but with all of us working, the dog would be on its own most of the day, and not to mention what the cats would say... Well, one day, when I'm retiered, I will most definitely get a dog.

A few finishes

First I have to show of Ruby! She did this sampler..ish tablerunner at school in needlework club and I am so very proud of her. It's a garish pink 11ct Aida and stitched with cheap wool, but it is for sure the prettiest piece I've seen for a long time - and isn't it strange, it means more to me than many of the big cross stitch pictures I did. I shall treasure it and show Ruby her tablerunner in 20 years LOL


Here is the Christmas picture from the Bucilla kit. I enjoyed it at the end, and there is much more work in it than the small picture suggests. However, again, I feel I am let down by my 'finishing' skills. I re-did the framing (on adheasive paper) several times, and re-did it, and re-did it - and still it is not centred properly, the back is all bulky - oh, just looking at the picture here now makes me upset - it clearly is loop-sided, maybe I'll just have to try again.


I also framed two small pictures, I finished stitching those in September I think. I like the heart best, it really does look so pretty and I'm pleased with the framing. It is stitched over one.

This is a smallish Christmas picture I started last year. But as I only stitch Christmassy in December, I'd put it away last January, and finished it off now (almost, only a bit ob BS and French knots left. The kit was supplied with a (cheap) red plastic frame in the shape of a house, which actually does not look too bad

And this is the other Christmassy piece I'm stitching at the moment. Its from Heritage Stitchcraft, John Clayton 'Holly'. I received this kit as a secret santa present in an exchange a few years back, and loved it, only slightly annoying bit is the 14ct Aida - never mind, as it is going to be completely stitched out (even the background) I guess it shouldn't matter.

Apart from this, I am trying to get some studying in. My results for D315 came back - I've passed my exam with a 'Pass 2' - as this is a level 3 course, this result really matters and I'm quite glad.

My material for the new course DD307 'Social Psychology' has arrived, and I started to work through the first block.

Chapter 1 Social Psychology - past and present

Chapter 2 Methods and Knowledge in Social Psychology.

Today is Ruby's Christmas play and I took the day off - bliss. I'll try to work through the books this morning, and hopefully get plenty of stitching time in later on. Back to work tomorrow, but the week before Christmas is hopefully a bit relaxed, trains will be hopefully less crowded, but with regards to our line of work it will unfurtunately not make a difference - if anything, it is more dreadful to deal with death around Christmas.

This is the present I stitched for Margarethe - I toroughly enjoyed it, and I practices my Ebenseer technique on it. Ebenseer is a stitching technique where on the back of the piece, all the threads go vertical, it looks pretty neat but takes some efford. I would say, realistically, its only possible when you stitch with a single colour.

And this is the present I got from Sabine. Both and stitched picture (snowman) and the patchwork star are now displayed here in the house. Thanks Sabine!

Rotation

I have decided that I will start (again) a sort of rotation routine for my cross stitch (and knittineg) projects in January. I have done this before, then somehow got out of it again. But it certainly did help to get me forward in my bigger*ish* projects. I can look forward to start new projects, and have a sense that I did achieve something when I stitch on each project at least for a week.

Initially I tried to rotate my projects daily, with on 'focus' project 3x a week. However, I found the 'daily' change of frame/chart setup / colours etc too irretating, some days I only managed a couple of stiches, and already it was time to put the new project in for the next day. So I went on a weekly rotation with 4 projects which seemed to work fine. Danger with this is that when I had a week with a project which I really didn't like I often ended up doing almost nothing for that week, effectively skipping that week... I read on a forum that many stitchers have a rotation of 10 hours per piece, and then move onto the next one. I find this too tedious to list my hours (e.g. with a stopwatch), and also with a busy house like mine, often i end up doing only 20stitches, get up again to do something else, back to stitching, off again etc ... you get the picture, too much trouble to record the time for me.

My new rotation, starting on 1. Jan 08, is going to look like this:

Week 1: Candamar Design ' Japanese Bridge' - about 70% done
(yes, that's the project I often skipped when 'Week 1' was due, I just don't enjoy
stitching on the printed fabric. it's almost done anyway.~)

Week 2: Mirabilia 'Spring Queen' - about 65% done

Week 3: Glasgow Rose 'Cat with vase' (30% done)

Week 4: Stoney Creek 'Nature's Home Afghan'
(only just started on page 1 - this one is obviously going to take me ages, but it doesn't
matter, at least i will stitch on it once a month.

Week 5: small stuff
I leave this week open for small projects like cards, exchanges (biscornus etc), I can
as many new one's to this week as I want, with them all being small I should finish at
least one every week, if not more. Only condition is that everything for week 5 should
not be bigger than 80x80 - 100x100 stitches (absolute maximum)

Come December, my rotation will come to a halt, and I will do Christmas projects. My Christmas Tree goes up every year on the 1st of December, and I love to sit under the tree, stitching well, Christmas related stuff really. I can't get myself into the mood to stitch in August!

New projects will be added for week 1-4 when I finished one project, and it should be really replaced with a project of similar size, eg. the cat is a medium sized project, and once Spring Queen is finished, I will replace it with another Mirabilia or similar.

Now this might all look very strict and serious, but I don't take it that seriously, cross stitch is supposed to be fun. I can change this as much as I like, adding more projects, or putting a knitting week, even another week 6 project maybe, so really, it will just serve as a little guideline for me.

Oh, I admit it, I haven't been a very good blogger in the past few weeks. Don't now... nothing really happened, just life, work and pre-Christmas stress I guess.

Ruby's birthday went great on 24. November - now my little girl is 9 years old. We went to the cinema with a few of her friends and watched 'Stardust'. I hadn't looked forward to it, as I'm normally not one for children and/or fantasy movies (sorry folks, Harry Potter and LOTR doesn't cut it for me) - however, I really enjoyed Stardust. Robert De Niro has a part in it - oh, he is just such a great actor, and .. well, you gotta see it, it's another first class performance. The new 'Take That' song features as well in the movie, I think it's called 'Rule the World'. I don't say this often, but I would pay again to see this movie. Not sure though if my 8 and 9 year olds got some parts in it. Not sure if I'm allowed to show the picture here, if there's a problem, let me know

Workwise - I don't get time off over Christmas, but do have off on 25. and 26.12. Nafess is off for more then 2 weeks, and the kids of course, so I'm well jelous.

I got my brand new and shiny OU books for the new course and started reading and writing up. I know it's going to be a hard year, the course is called DD307 Social Psychology, and it's based a lot on philosophical theories etc, and I don't really get philosophy - never did.

I managed to stitch a few Christmas cards, as they went off to friends who might read this blog I didn't do pictures - I should have really. Tomorrow I'll show pictures of the gifts I received so far from my cross stitching friends.

Christopher Joyce and Eric Stover ' Witnesses from the Grave '

This is a non-fiction book and gives a very good introduction to forensic anthropology.
It tells the story of Clyde Snow, the world's foremost forensic anthropologist, who seem to have come to this profession almost by 'coincidence'. Now freelance, he is employed by police forces, governments and human rights activists around the world to identify human remains. For every bone leaves a signature, however old or decayed it may be.

Amongst Snow's most celebrated cases have been the Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, the victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, and the thousands in Argentina who 'disappeared' nta. under the brutal military junta. Snow and his team had to come up agains death threats and political intrigue.
I particularly like the story of the young Argentinan Morris Tidball who, while walking to Uni, saw a sign on a door were Snow was holding a talk, he walked into it and became one of his 'sidekicks' in Argentina.

Massive shopping attack today - I now got all of Ruby's birthday presents (her birthday is in 2 weeks):

She knows she's getting the CD player, and I might buy another CD in the supermarket.

And Christmas presents: PS 2 for all 3 of them.

and fishing gear for Danial.

And now I 'only' need Christmas presents for Imran, and Imran's birthday present - his birthday is on 27. December! Do I deserve this!

well, I had to happen, didn't it..... went back to the Sewing Machine centre in Welling today. The repair of my old machine was supposed to be over £50 - so I decided (surprise, surprise) I'd treat myself to a new machine.

Can't really afford it shortly before Christmas and 2 children's birthday's - but that's beside the point, I guess, I had to have a new gadget. Not that I sew very often, infact, I haven't done any in the past 10 years. was fun though trying it all out when we came home. And Ruby, my little darling, left her bag with her mobile phone in Lidl in Welling. I phoned up Lidl's headquarter (apparently, you cannot call the shop directly) and passed my number on to them. and believe it or not, someone had handed the bag in, and we can go tomorrow and pick it up. Admittedly, the phone was a cheap one (£15 I think), but still restored my faith in humanity for the day.

Apart from that, I'm still knitting. Did a scarf, finished one sock (yipee), with the second one on the needles. will show tomorrow. Sorry, I am just too tired after work during the week to make entries here - but promise to try as often as I can. Oh, and I added my name to the waiting list of this new knitting community everyone is on about: Ravelry. Only 11.000 something in front of me before my membership is getting approved. ..

Dirie, Waris ' Desert flower '

A remarkable story of courage, a true rags to riches. This is the true story of Waris Dirie, how grew up living a nomad live in the deserts of Somalia, owing not more than she had on her body. Her biggest wish is to have a pair of shoes, but despite this, for us Westerner's unbelievable poorness, she talks about her country of origin with great passion and love.
When Waris is due to get married to an old man, she flees from her parents and seeks refuge with various relatives in the city, eventually, she ends up as a 'servant' to a Somali family in England. Hardly any wages and working 7 days a week, no holiday, sadly, not at all uncommon in this, our country. But Waris has guts. Her writing style took some getting used to for me she takes very blunt, and often not very 'ladylike' - and I grew to love her. I remember in one passage, when she moved for a short period out of London to the countryside with her 'fake' husband, she thinks is great she can 'wee' again occassionally behind bushes. *smile*

She gets 'discovered' and becomes an international Supermodel. But there is more to Waris.
When Waris was 5 years old, she underwent 'female circumcision', or, as it should be called more accurately 'genitale mutilation'. With her own boldness and honesty, she tells us how it was done and how she suffered afterwards, and how many of her friends / relatives did not survive it. Apart from the initial pain, there are numerous problems in later life: menstruation, childbirth and not to mention just plain old ordinary sex, of course. Waris tells us her story, but what I like about it is that she does not descent into a ranting and raving match about her country, culture and parents, she shows a lot of respect and love.

I wish Waris all the best in her fight to help eradicate this brutal and completely unnecessary practice.

I've got the sock knitting bug again - when I really should do my Christmas stitching. This happens to me ever now and again - I just don't fancy cross stitch but knitting. Ever since I first started to knit socks I loved it. I did a pair for my mum last Christmas, and she actually loved something I did hee hee, and she keeps wearing them around the house. I was surprised how straight forward it was. Usually with knitting, I get myself into a pickle with the sizes, especially with garments like jumpers, cardigans etc. they are always too big or too small or whatever, that really puts me off. But with the socks, its not too difficult. And don't I just love this self-patterning yarn! This one is from Opal.
We went to a bonfire and fireworks display here in Darford. Spend what seems like a fortune on silly things like candy floss and fairground rides for the children. Danial and his friend Matt Ruby and CaseyNow who's the Lord of the Manor!

King, Stephen ' Pet Semetary '

Here goes the master!

I've got many many Stephen King books in my pile, and always try to add more. This one is well known, and I finally got round to reading it, and I was not disappointed. One of King's finest, and I like the idea behind the story! What a story!

Louis Creed moves with his wife, 2 young children and family cat to a small town in Maine (Stephen King country!!). The quickly make friends with the elderly couple who live across the raod, Jud and Norma, it seems a lovely place to live, apart from the big road which runs past the house. And then there is a pet cemetary, to be reached from a path leading from the house, where, as Louis discovered with the help of Jud. But there is more to it, another path leading from the pet cemetary to another strange place. Jud tells him about his dog whom he buried there when he died 'for the first time' .... yes, sometimes they do come back. which leaves of course the question, apart from pets, did anyone bury every a human being there. Soon, tragedy strikes in the house. You gotta read what happens.

I had a lovely surprise in the mail today. My German friend Ilse send me this beautiful book cover. beautifully sewn together, and all in 'my' colours - autumn. I love the season and the colours. Thank you Ilse!

And, I have to admit, it also gives me a little boost of having another go with the sewing machine next weekend.Watch this space.

Here's my update on the NH afghan - first stage of block 1 (of 30 blocks ;-)). I actually enjoy stitching on the afghan fabric, it's slightly 'different' to hava a whole lot of fabric covering me - nice for the winter months s'pose. And today was payday, and what did I do? I ordered the remaining DMC colours for the afghan! the best prices are from Tandem Cottage. No, I'm not affiliated to them, but you can't beat 50 threads for £20! They even offer to wind them on bobbins for you, how is this for service.

Today I was in court, and it was quite a funny session. A lot of the witnesses were stark drunk. One of the chaps kept touching his --youknowwhat- and kept leaving (staggering out of) the courtroom to go to the toilet, and he called our coroner 'your honour'. I just had to giggle, and as they were all very friendly, I prefer this sort than the violent type.

This is our house today on Halloween. I'm not going overboard with decorations, but I thought I lead the way for the kids with our little pumpkin.

All 3 of the kids went trick-or-treating and got an enourmous loot. Everyone was really friendly to them, and I had quite a few trick-or-treaters this year, mostly really small kids with their parents.

I have worked in Greenwich for the past few days (no access to the net! in the year 2007!), but will be back in my old place again tomorrow. Looks like though I will have to help out in Greenwich ever now and again which I don't mind. Travelling is slighly less.

Today I went to a Fingerprint course. Got all dirty with the ink, but it wasn't too bad, it left me confident enough to do it. Car passed MOT yesterday (and I'm £160 lighter for this small pleasure).

Stitching-wise... well, I finished the Christmas Ornament for the Advent Exchange on the Kreuzstich-Liste, but can't show it here yet obviously. The whole of last Saturday I fought with the $%%£$% sewing machine. I hadn't used it for about 10 years - you see, I like cross stitching, but the sewing machine and me don't agree. Anyway, i tought I'll try to overcome my adversery and ordered the missing bobbin case. Well, guess what, the darn thing don't work. I can't get the lower thread to come up, I ended up covered in white thread all over me, the house and the cats. Stuck the sewing machine in a black binliner in protest and showed it the big fat wheelie bin outside... well, I have calmed down a bit and might take it to the sewing machine shop. Can only do that on Saturday unfortunately, the shop is in Welling (abt. 20 mins. drive from here if I get through alright).

Golden, Arthur ' Memoirs of a Geisha '

A wonderful and compelling insight into the life of a Japanese Geisha, spanning from 1929 to the post-war years of Japan. Chiyo grows up in a tiny fishing village and as a young child gets 'sold' into a city geisha house. There, she lives with the 'mother' of the house and the established geisha Hatsumomo who literally tortures Chiyo (out of jelousy, as we later learn), as Chiyo is rather beautiful and extraordinay looking, and Hatsumomo realises this very quickly. Almost condemned to being a servant and cleaner for the geisha house, Chiyo meets the sucessful geisha Mameha who takes her under her wing, she becomes Mameha's 'sister' and gets trained up by her as a geisha, and then takes the name of Sayuri. In order for a geisha to be sucessful, she would need a 'danna' which is like a kind of 'husband' who looks after her, only those men are often married already, so really, it is like a better mistress. Sayuri tells us her story, the good, the bad and sometimes the shocking (for our understanding), as she does start out really young, and her 'virginity' get sold to the highest bidder. I have since read that this is not entirely true of 'real geisha's' - who knows! And we do wonder throughout the book whether she is gonna get 'her man'.

It was a wonderful read, the first time I looked into the whole subject, and it made me really curious and it even made me look up info about Geisha's on the net!

Here the promid update on Spring Queen. Almost done now, I can't believe it. Don't look forward to the beading though... and getting it framed is gonna be soooooo expensive!

And here is a historic moment! here you see my very first 3 crosses on the NH-afghan (Nature's Home)

Oh, I know it's gonna be years till I finish this, but I don't mind. enjoying it, but don't know what to do with all that fabric on my lap, is good for stitching in winter time s'pose ;-))

I went back to East Grinstead today with Ruby to have her finger looked at. the bandage is off, and it doesn't look too bad. Odd, I'd say. The nail is still on, but the consultant said it is gonna fall off in the next few weeks, and a new nail will grow in 3 months or so. The tip of her finger looks kind of bulbous, with all that new skin growing. The doctor said it will take 9 months to a year to regain some feeling in the finger, but it would never go back completely normal, however, she will get used to it.

nothing much happened this week, i'm just to tired to go on the computer after work. Danial started to go to Army Cadets. I wasn't too sure first, it's just not my thing. but I realised that he loves it, and even if it's not for me, I ought to give him the chance to check it out. Didn't know a lot about it, but from the first looks they offer a lot for children in a safe and structured environment, and I'm glad he is not 'hanging around' in the streets.

Did a lot of cross stitch this week - just because I can! No OU before December or so when I receive my new books, and the new course does not start before January 08, so plenty of time for cross stitch without feeling guilty. I worked on Spring Queen all this week, will show my progress tomorrow. Now though, I will do all my Christmas Exchanges, started a hanger today which I cannot show of course, as the intended recipient might read here.

And I started to go swimming again *sigh*, otherwise I'm just totally getting out of it and all that hard-last weight will just creep on again.

Lorentz, Iny ' Die Kastratin '

Thisa is a historical book, only the second one I read, and really enjoyed it. I have read it in German, and as far as I know, it has not been translated and published in English yet, but it's definitely one to look out for. There are more of her books on my German bookclub, and I will order one next time.

Even though the exact year is not mentioned, the story can be placed accurately because the heroine of the book, Giulia, gets to meet Galileo Galilei as a baby - so the story is set around 1564, in Italy. The title means 'The Eunuch'. It tells the story of Guilia, the daughter of a musician. her greatest wish is to sing in her father's choir. However, in Italy during the renaissance, it is a sin for women to sing in the church choir. But then one day the lead singer of the choir is unable to perform, and having an important performance ahead, her father dresses Guilia up as a boy and she sings - she is a very gifted singer. Quickly, one thing lets to another, and she is forced to travel the country as 'eunuch', dressed as a man and making a career as singer. But the 'angst' travels with her every single step, and she knows the price if ever discovered that she really is a girl would be very high - she would be burned as a sinner. And then she meets the love of her live.

I finished the rosebud heart from Elisa Tortonesi-Siess. It is done 'over one' , and I enjoyed it enourmously. Might try to make a pincushion, or put it into a small frame. it was done so quickly, and is just so stunning.


And here is the update on the cat picture - my rotation from last week. yes, I have picked up my rotatiib again. After hating the cat picture (because the black does not cover the fabric properly, it shines trough), I sort of made up my mind of just continuing with it anyway, and it seems to turn out ok. I'm well into my cross stitch at the mo, no more studying until January, plus my new lamp makes it such a pleasure

Ruby at Ally Pally - can you see her bandaged finger?

I went to the Knitting and Stitching shown in Alexandra Palace on Friday. There are 2 major stitchting exhibitions (in and around London, anyway), in Olympia around March and this one in Alexandra Palace in October. The Olympia one is much smaller and focuses on cross stitch, papercraft and knitting. Alexandra Palace is - huge - , there were lots of textile arts exhibitions, lace making, everything to do with textiles really. Lots of cross stitch and knitting, all the 'usual suspects (exhibitors). I only ever went to the one in Olympia in March before, mainly because I safe up for it, and can't really safe for 2 shows a year *sigh*. Anyway, I decided to visit Alexandra Palace (or Ally Pally, as it's known) for the first time this year. I was not disappointed and will make it hopefulle a regular feature every year. I went with good resolutions of not spending any money, not a lot anyway, but it never happen's doesn't it.
So this is what I got, the new Jane Greenoff book (and she signed it for me), my usual Anchor colours (I buy a small amount every time I go to a show so eventually I got all colours, some evenweave (28 and 32 count), 2 Bang on the Door kits forRuby, a Eva Rosenstand kit of a tablerunner. and the usual small bits like needles (26er and 28er - I can't get those here in Hobbycraft. Oh, and a seat frame. Tried it out already, it works brilliantly, but only when stitching smaller things.

And this is my new pride and joy. I had decided already a while back that I will treat myself to a new lamp. Saved up for it, saw it in the fair reduced (but was too heavy to carry back on the train), went the next day to Hobbycraft - and it was reduced in Hobbycraft as well - hey presto, the lamp was mine. Stitching seems to be a whole new experience!