Bye bye Miss Pumpkin Pie

You can't see me, but picture me, if you will, breathing a huuuuuge sigh of relief as I sit here sipping some heavenly java. Whence the relief? Well, first of all, this morning I handed in my second Blazing Little Christmas story after a couple of days of dangerously crazy translating. One more story to go (to be handed in next Monday) and then this little old lady is off on her hols to Germany. My second reason for sighing blissfully is because after months of internet deprivation, I am finally online, officially, legally and hopefully, forever. Which means I can blog my little socks off and visit you lot too. Isn't that marvellous? Within reason, of course. I still have that darned Christmas story to finish.

There's not a whole lot to tell you, actually. I could bore you to tears with tales of my patch, but I decided not to go down that road again, unless I'm really bursting to tell you something exciting. But I've discovered not a whole lot of people find growing pumpkins exciting. Every time I mention my gorgeous patch to people who love me, they go glassy eyed and shrug their shoulders and look at me as if to say that they love me regardless. So, no more pumpkin stories. Stitching stories are what you're all waiting for, I gather, so stitching stories is what you'll get.
I'm sure you've read about our wonderful Stitch & Bitch day over at Harmien's last Thursday? It was indeed as fabulous as the other girls proclaimed, and two of us bitchies came bearing gifts! Rachael brought coffee of the yummiest kind from her local Starbuck's, and Barbara actually found the time to stitch us all some beautiful gifts. Of course, mine was beautifullest of all, and here it is:



Barbara changed the colours the design called for to my favourite blues. She knows me so well :o)))) And the backing fabric, girls, well...I say fabric, but that doesn't do it justice, really. It's a piece of antique lace, featuring a plant I promised I wouldn't mention here anymore. Here's a pic of the back. Notice the prop? (Sorry, I can't help myself, I'm that proud).

In between translating steamy love scenes and visiting friends, I also found time to do a little stitching and finishing of my own. Here's the latest addition to my needlework set:

The owl is just a tiny element from a wonderful chart by Abbey Lane designs, called All Things. I usually use the chart for the cute birds that are perfect for filling up empty spots on Neighbourhood RRs.
Here's my needlework set in full, as it is now:

It's really starting to look like something, isn't it?

It's only ten in the evening, so I think I'm going to do a little more work on Judith's Neighbourhood. I've completely lost track of who's sending whose to whom and when they´re supposed to be sending it, but the date of July 15th is firmly stamped on my brain, somehow. Should be doable.
Ha! Ever the optimist...

Time for some more coffee, methinks :o)

Smashing pumpkins

Before I start, I have to warn you that there is only one link in this post while there should be about five. I started looking for the links, but then I found I didn't have any more time. Sorry ladies!

I do love you all, you know. You´re all so optimistic and hopeful that my pumpkin plants will actually morph into pumpkin pumpkins! All the tips about how to keep them dry, how to make them grow... I must say I don't see it happening, but there you go. Today, I planted the last batch of pumpkin plants in the garden. It had been raining all day, but when there was a dry spell around two this afternoon, I decided to dash back home and put the buggers in the soil. Of course, what do you know, I get the pumpkins and the gardening tools out, along with the potting soil and what have you, and it starts raining again. So while golf ball sized drops of rain pelted on my bare back (due to my T-shirt being a tiny little thing that, in all honesty, shouldn't be worn by over-twenties, let alone over-thirties or near-forties) I gave my last nine pumpkins there final resting place - for the time being. And now I have to admit I would be a little disappointed if this was it, if I couldn't enjoy the fruits of my labour around Halloween.

Speaking of Halloweeeeeen, remember I wanted to start a Halloweeny chart? To keep myself in a pumpkin-y state of mind? I found the one! I have Judith's Neighbourhood Round Robin here, and she wanted us to stitch Maryse's houses. Guess which one I picked? Right! October. Thus mixing business with pleasure. In all fairness, I would have chosen my birthday month (November) if that one hadn't already been stitched by someone else. Here's my start. It ain't much, but at least it's proof that I am actually stitching.

You may be wondering whence the title of this post originated. I mean, you've read about the pumpkins (again! Sorry, it will be a while before I get those out of my system). Unfortunately, the 'smashing' bit has nothing to do with pumpkins, and everything to do with the fact that I parked my car against a Volkswagen Golf this afternoon. Rather forcefully. Why is it that I managed to cruise around the country for seventeen years without even hitting a fly, and that lately I've been involved in one crash after another? Perhaps I should concentrate on driving a bit more. You know, rather than thinking about stitching, growing pumpkins, wondering which book to read next. Maybe reserve those thoughts for more appropriate and safer times. Oh, fortunately for me, it was only my poor Chevy that was hurt. The Volkswagen has a severe limp, but it will live.

Good grief, but I am rambling today, and there´s precious little rambling about stitching. Admit it, you think so too! Well, just to please you, I started and finished a little scissors´ fob today, too.

This is a fun primitive Quaker freebie by the wonderful Aury. The shape of the backstitched line around the bunnikins is a bit weird, but while I was backstitching all around it in a straight line, I noticed the fob was going to be so big it would be better suited to adorn my garden shears. Hence the curve. Hope it helps. Now for the finishing: I haven´t decided how to go about it yet. Shall I use one of these fantastically fabulous fabbies,

or do you think it would look better with a stitched back? Slap a name on the lad, initials, date, that sort of thing? I think I'm going to ponder all the possibilities over the weekend. I have the weekend off, because today I handed in the first of my Harlequin Christmas Special stories (entitled 'A Blazing Little Christmas') and I deserve a break. This break will involve family visits and munching 'poffertjes' in a lovely little town called Laren. And hopefully, I'll do some stitching too.

Have yourself a blazing little weekend! Until next time :o)

A plethora of pumpkins

Thank you, thank you, thank you, all you fluffy-bunny blog readers, for welcoming me back to Blogland with such sweet words. And so many of them! You have no idea how much that means to me. It is no wonder that I couldn't wait to get back. Somehow I had the feeling I had a lot of friends out there and I really needed that friendship to make me feel a little better. I do feel better. I feel a whole lot better and you can all take a moment now to pat yourself on the back...

...there you go... and smile, because you have made a silly old girl very happy.

Enough with the weepy stuff. Onwards! I've tried to do a little blog reading, but I'm still waiting for my very own - legal - internet connection to arrive here in the form of a modem, or a router, or whatever you need to get connected. I don't speak digibese, sorry. The few blogs I have been able to visit were, as always, a joy to read and drool over. One of them, KarenV's (SO glad to see you back in Blogland, too!) got me thinking. Brave woman that she is, she made an entire list of her WIPs and made them public, too, informing us of her intention to actually work on them. I thought: that's what I should do too: just make it public. Come out of the closet, as it were. There must be some way to reduce the old WIP list? But hey, I believe I've found an even better way of getting rid of WIPs: just leave hearth and home and forget to take them with you! That way you can just enjoy heaps of guilt-free bouts of startitis. That's what I'm doing right now, in between growing pumpkins, stitching Neighbourhoods, raising a son and translating this year's Harlequin Christmas special: starting every gorgeous project under the sun. I just HAD to start this one:

Oh. My. Word. Kathy Barrick-Dieter is brilliant. This is Frederick. Isn't he gorgeous? Goodness knows, this one will never get finished, but I don't care. No progress pics, girls. When I say I've started, I mean I crossed two stitches.

I'm also awaiting this one:

Obviously, this new BBD Loose Feathers needs to be stitched as soon as it arrives.
And this one!

Ooh, I love it. It's from the June 2008 issue ofCross Country Stitchng magazine. I had never heard of a GAST thread called 'Cinders', but that's the colour used for this alphabet. Nice.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, behold...

My pumpkin patch.

I'm so thrilled! Even if this year's crop yields nothing but pea-sized pumpkins, or even just some flowers, or even if they don't grow any bigger than this, I don't care. I've had so much fun seeing all these tiny green planties emerge from the soil! Any more fun and I'm afraid I might not survive :o) You do understand that some sort of Halloweeny stitching is in order, you know, to really get in the mood. Hmm. Which witchy chart shall I choose? Heh heh heh... Any advice is welcome!

Again, thanks for visiting, for commenting, and for being there!

Until next time :o)

New beginnings

Welcome to my new blog. I find it surprisingly difficult to find the right words to start this blog post, a new beginning in more ways than you can imagine. The best way to go about it, I think, is just to start writing again. First off, a couple of rules:

1. Comments will be moderated by me and will therefore not be visible until I've given my approval.
2. No more stitched gifts for anyone, on any occasion, unless I really really can't help myself. Looking for fun projects to stitch as gifts is a great hobby of mine. It's only in the stitching and assembling itself that I collapse into a hopeless heap of nerves. It takes ages for me to get my butt to the post office to send handmade gifts on their way. Don't ask me why. It's one of those mysteries of my life that I don't care to delve into anymore. It's a fact. You will all have to live with it. 'Selfish Stitching in 2008' is the word here at Orts and Ends.
3. From now on, I am a 'Blogger Without Obligations'. If I disappear for a while, I won't come back with an apology for having been away. I will leave comments whenever I feel like it (or whenever I have an internet connection which, in the Styx where I live is always a matter of great good luck), I will post when I have something to share and not because I feel I have to.

If you haven't fled because of my sudden strictness, I would now like to explain why I chose the name 'Orts and Ends' for my new blog. I originally wanted something a bit more in line with the name of my previous blog. Something like Nutty Notions, Silly Swervings, that sort of thing. But Nutty Notions was already taken and Silly Swervings was not quite the thing I was looking for. While I was pondering this all-important question of how to name my blog, my eyes wandered around the room and landed on my Origami Orts Bag:

That's It! I thought. I may even have thought 'Eureka!'. Because this is what it says at the bottom:

As for the blog title, 'new beginnings', I wasn't just talking about this entirely new blog. I was also referring to an entirely new life, of course. But I wouldn't be me if I also didn't have an entirely new project on the go:

This is a design by Edith Hansen for Fremme. Fremme rules, just so you know. Really. Fremme designs come in kits, with linen (28 count, I think) and Danish Flower Threads. This combination of linen and cotton floss actually makes it possible for me to stitch in the car (when I'm being chauffeured around, that is, obviously) and to stitch in the evenings without my OTT light (which enables me to watch TV and stitch in a comfortable chair at the same time). Perfect. You may be surprised to find me stitching a piece with so much green with so much gusto ;o) Well, in this particular case I don't mind the greens. They're gorgeous and soothing.

And now I would like to acquaint you with something slightly more worrying, i.e. the emergence of two new hobbies in my life. The first one is due to my fingers suddenly and inexplicably turning green. I've always wanted to grow pumpkins. I don't know why. Upon hearing this, Harmien provided me with a batch of pumpkin seeds. I got some more at the garden centre, and here's how far they've come:

First thing in the morning and last thing at night, and sometimes dureing the day as well, you will find me whispering softly to a heap of dirt, and as you can see, it seems to be working. Wacky whisperings, I guess.

Second new hobby? Bags. I'm not talking about Louis Vuitton or Gucci. No. I'm talking about these sorts of babies:

This is my current project. It's going to look a lot more quilted and complicated than the one pictured above:

It may not look like much yet, but believe me, I'm hard at work in my head. The wheels are turning.

I hope you enjoyed spending some time with me again. Now it's time to spend some time with my son, who is starting to show signs of Mummy withdrawal symptoms. Oh. And I need coffee.

Until next time.