Did someone say 'unforeseen circumstances'?

Unforeseen circumstance the first:

My new wheels. Pretty shiny, huh?

Unforeseen circumstance the second:

Actually, the only circumstance I could foresee when I wrote here last was the fact that there would be unforeseen circumstances as to why I would not get an awful lot done on Rites of Spring. I did three strands since my last RoS update. Well, three strands on RoS, of course:

I did significantly more on Rise and Shine by La-D-Da. You see, I persuaded myself that I needed to stitch something for my dear son, you know, to assuage my feelings of guilt over not being able to go for a ramble in the woods, or for playing hide and seek or for going for a horse ride on Mummy's back. I promised Pelle two of his very own sampler walls to make it up to him: one containing happy samplers (like Rise and Shine, and Zippity Do Da and Polly Wolly Doodle, all by La-D-Da) and the other with samplers of beasties, Noah's Ark, that sort of thing. He already has two Noah's Ark quilts. I want to turn his room into a regular zoo, once I get to do up his room :o) God, we stitchers are a shameless bunch, aren't we? Anything is an excuse to start something new/buy something new/not finish anything old. Pathetic...

Meanwhile, I find myself reduced to a dithering idiot of George Costanzian proportions every time I'm at the hospital, shouting at every passing doctor: "What have I got? WHAT? Is it meningitis? Scoliosis? Lupus? Is it lupus?" And no-one can give me an answer. They have to wait for that bit of skin to grow mushrooms before they can say anything. One thing they DO know: it's not the skin that is infected, but the blood vessels (vasculitis, for those of you who are fond of itises).
Well, at least I've got my happiness :o)
Hope you are all happy too, AND healthy!

Yours infectionately,
Annemarie.

Smooth stitching on a bumpy road

No, I haven't been back to hospital (at least not until this afternoon when I had to have some bits cut out of the skin of my leg so they can study it and determine what sort of interesting flora or fungi grow out of it. I don't know why they're bothering. Surely I suffer from Bubonic plague) (although, come to think of it, Bubonic Plague is a bacterial disease and should therefore respond to insane amounts of antibiotics as opposed to my mystery illness, which doesn't respond to anything. Not even to all of your positive vibes, healing cyber hugs, tasty chicken soup, gallons of tea and tons of stitching), but my progress on The Blue Lady is astonishing nonetheless. Well, I think so anyway:

Before

After

But now, the good lady is back in her project bag, sniffing her flower, while I try and finish Nobody Loves Me and work on Rites of Spring and Bea Potter. For those of you who secretly think The Blue Lady is the design of a drug fiend from the Seventies and hate it accordingly, these last posts can't have been much fun. So expect an update of Rites of Spring on Thursday! (barring unforeseen circumstances).

Yours snotfully (still),

Annemarie.

They're coming to take me away, ha-ha

See this?

And this?
The second picture shows the progress I made yesterday, while I was in the emergency room at the hospital. I don't know what possessed me to drag this huge piece over to the doctor's yesterday morning, but I think I may be psychic. Went to the doctor to tell him of my health problems, doctor scratched his head, then shook it, then called several other doctors at the hospital, whom I could hear scratching and shaking their heads through the telephone. Doctor wrote a note for the emergency room. So I drove myself and Mrs. Slocombe over to the hospital, where they proceeded to stick a needle (easily size 40) into my arm, draw four gallons of blood, and while I waited for the results and for several doctors to come in and scratch and shake their heads, I stitched some hair. And some flower petals.

Long story short, when they were about to hook me up to the IV for the night I asked them if they thought it was a good idea to keep a single mother of a four-year old in the hospital overnight and they said, 'yes, in this particular instance, we do think that's a good idea.' And then I asked, 'Are you sure?' and they saw that maybe I didn't think that was a particulalry good idea and so they asked another doctor to have a look at me, and she came in, had a look, scratched her head, then shook it, and then she said, 'Okay. You go home. But take this insane dose of antibiotics with you and eat it, and if you feel so much as a sneeze too many, you get your *ss down here and we will have you hooked up to this IV quicker than you can say ouch.'

So I'm home. Scratching and shaking my head alternately. Wondering what the H is going on here. Ah well. At least Pelle is better :o) And look at all that PROGRESS!

Last week I also added a couple more stitches to Nobody Loves Me. Now that the words are there, to my befuddled mind this sampler is finished. Well, the words are there, aren't they?

I told you about the BBD Rites of Spring SAL, right? Well, we're supposed to post progress pics on Thursday, but since I'm not sure where I'll be on Thursday (I have no intention of going anywhere, but you never know these days), I will show you how far I've come today.

Has anyone heard anything about the Loose Feathers Club designs for 2009? Any particular theme? I can't wait for the first installment, especially since I was a bit disappointed with the last two of 2008 and I'm wondering if perhaps they got tired of the 'Nature' theme prematurely or whether they got tired of designing period. Still, the fabrics and threads are always worth the subscription, no matter what the design looks like.

I'm going to take a nap.

Yours truly, madly, feebly,
Annemarie.

My idea of fun

Good day, all, and a Happy Valentine's Day to you. Hope you had a good one. I for one curled up on the couch with my beloved on my lap. It was far, far too long since we spent any quality time together, but today, with Pelle spending the afternoon with the ex, I decided enough was enough. Actually, my beloved and I didn't just sit on the couch. We... er... okay, this may be TMI for some of you, but we spent some of that quality time on the dining room table too. I couldn't help myself, couldn't stop admiring that perfect face, that long, lean body. Well. There's no body yet, but... See for yourself:

I thought the love had faded a bit after all this time, but no! It's as strong as ever, and I fully intend to spend the rest of this Valentine's day in exactly the same manner as I started it. So even though I have a couple of e-mails to reply to, they will have to wait until tomorrow. I'm sure you'll understand :o))

Just in case you're relatively new to this blog and to my life: this project (Fremme's Blue Lady, aka Pistols, aka The Bird, aka Mrs. Slocombe) had been on my wish list for about ten years before I could finally clasp it to my greedy bosom. Some of the chart is easy peasy. I mean, there are only NINE colours in the entire project! It's worked with Danish Flower Thread, and big parts of it are done in half cross stitches. Other parts, however, cause me to break out in a cold sweat on quite a regular basis. The part I worked on today, for instance, required silence, serenity, and most of all, Pellelessness to get me through a mere 350 stitches. It took me about three hours to stitch that wee bit of pink hair! But oh, what joy!

Before:

After:
Thank you all for your advice re. the Tulip Cornucopia. The tulip was actually the reason why this project caught my eye in the first place. But then I started to associate the cornucopia with Fall, and all I could see when I looked at my ornie was Fall. Thanksgiving. Autumn. Falling leaves. Acorns. Squirrels. Not hearts, pastels, flowery vines and birdies and chocolates and pinks and hugs and kisses. Anyhoo, I've decided this is the gift. Now if only I can drag myself to the nearest post office and send it, that would make me very happy.

And now, dear reader, the moment you have all been waiting for: the winner of the Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers Club Pattern Number 33. In order to keep things fair, I asked my sweet - though still somewhat snotty and drooly - assistant to lend a hand first thing this morning.

The Preparation

The Drawing

The Opening.
Congratulations, Grenae! Would you be so kind as to send me an e-mail with your snail mail address at amcdevries AT gmail DOT com? I will post the chart as soon as I can get out of the house!

Well, dear friends, thanks for stopping by. It was a joy as always, but the Pistol Bird awaits.

Yours smittenly,
Annemarie.

Speaking of Lists

Where to start, where to start.... Rough times in Snotston Upon Phlegm. At Coughdrop Cottage here, not only is Pelle still recovering from his pneumonia - by secreting copious amounts of fluids of the most unimaginable kind - but he was kind enough to pass it on to his old Mum. Such a sweet boy. He just wants to share everything. My attention span has been drastically affected by all of this, so this post will probably not be too long. [Alright, that's enough. No need to rejoice quite so loudly]

This morning, I did start to feel a whole lot better when I saw the additions to the ABC Stitch Nashville list. Only yesterday I was proclaiming not to like anything to come out of Nashville this year. But then I saw the new Goode Huswife designs. O-o-o-o-o-o-o-oh, my goodness me. They would look SO good on my 'to stitch list'. And I haven't even seen the new Blackbird Designs designs yet!

Speaking of Blackbird Designs, I'm joining Giovanna, Cristina and Karen (hi Karen, I'm not sure you know about my playing along?) in a BBD Rites of Spring SAL. We will be posting progress pics every Thursday, starting on February 19th. I'm already halfway with this one and I really want to add it to my 'finished and waiting to be framed list'.

Speaking of projects that are headed in the direction of 'finished and waiting to be framed' with gathering speed, here's my progress on Nobody Loves Me.

I adore it. I don't really want to finish it, and I'm very glad I'm only, roughly, halfway.

Could I bother you to look at this next picture and tell me if you don't find it a bit autumnal/Thanksgiveny to send to someone as a giftie at this time of the year?

I just liked the design (it's a BBD freebie from 2003) and thought the giftee might like it too.
Remember you can still leave a comment to my previous post if you would like a chance to win the chart for Loose Feathers number 33! I will announce the winner next Saturday.

Until next time!

Old progress, new stash, and a giveaway

Despite an alarming lack of stitchy progress I bring you a stitchy update. Short, but hopefully sweet. In order to distract my hopelessly preoccupied mind from dwelling on my son's pneumonia (!!!), on the Soapy Twist becoming soapier and thus dirtier, on my translator's block and on my own self pity [which, at present, knows no bounds :o)] I decided to pay Blogland a visit and bore you with my ramblings.

So, stitchy progress first. This is how far I've come with the Fremme birds:

(Did you notice that I call every Fremme design the Fremme birds? Except for the Blue Lady, which I call Pistols) This project is my 'away' project. It's usually left lying around at my parents', in case I'm visiting and I have nothing to do but stitch. As you can see, I visit my parents quite often.
This following picture is going to be my next 'away' project, for when the birds are finished:

May I present to you, the Fremme Birds. I love the colours, and I can't wait to start this one.

I have made some progress on Nobody Loves Me, but it really isn't enough to waste picture space on, so you will just have to take my word for it.

And now for the giveaway. Last year was the first time I participated in the Loose Feathers club. I really like all of the designs that came out, except for Number 33. Well, I like it, but not enough to stitch it or keep the chart myself. The fabric and the threads, well they're quite a different story. They're scrumptious. In fact, the fabric is already being used for 'Nobody Loves Me'. So fabric and threads are NOT included in the draw. If you would like a chance to win this chart, without fabric or threads, then please leave a comment to this post, stating that you would like to be included in the draw. I'll pick a name on Valentine's Day (no particular reason).

I'm going back to my barking coughing son. Until next time!