Blathering on

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for all the kind, thoughtful, sweet comments, e-mails and post cards I received from so many of you after my previous blog post. Really. Whenever I read similar messages on other blogs I always thought: ‘what on earth can I write that will give any comfort?’, but I will never think that again. Even the simplest {HUG} was felt and I can’t thank you enough.

Enough of the weepy stuff. I will keep you posted of course, but I’ve found that life really does go on despite it being rather crappy right now. And life without stitching is no life at all, right? Right. Hence the update.

At the start of last year (that would be 2008), I started a sampler for my parents’ 40th wedding anniversary. Being the experienced procrastinator that I am, I didn’t make it. Never mind that this was also the time when I left my partner and had to build a new life formyself and Pelle: I now know that’s a very poor, unforgiveable and silly excuse not to finish something like this on time. So I did finish the sampler for Christmas and took it to the framer’s this morning (more about my framer later). Here it is in all its un-framed but finished glory:

I Thee Wed by Blackbird Designs. I stitched it on some unknown 32 count fabric with the suggested DMC conversion (which I wasn’t always too happy about)
Yikes! I just noticed the yucky brown spoton my chair. Ewl. No worries: it's just coffee. My coffee spoon fell out of my cup just the other day. Annoying Dutch habit I have: I drink my coffee with the spoon in my cup. And I don't even take milk or sugar!)

This was a lot of stitching. This was a lot of solid stitching. So much so, that I decided to use half cross stitches for the grass because I would never ever have finished it otherwise. Not too fond of solid stitching, you know... Obviously, I changed the words to the initials of our nearest family: my parents, my brother and his partner and Pelle and me. My brother was kind enough to reveal the first letter of his daughter’s name, although she isn’t expected to make her official entry into this world until after Christmas. (And yes, I’m stitching her a sampler, and yes, I still think I will finish it next week to take it to the framer’s as soon as the wee one is born).

Speaking of my framer! You must all think either the woods I live in are filled with money trees, or that I am one of those divorcees who sits on her behind all day, stitching and sipping tea (well, coffee) while her ex brings round cart-loads of cash every month. Alas, neither of these suppositions are correct. No, the simple fact is that my framer is dirt cheap. Oops, I should really use very small letters and take care that this doesn’t reach his ears or eyes, otherwise he might perk up said ears and raise his fees. I understand that framing in the States is excruciatingly expensive. Well, I’m very sorry for all of you, but it is nice to be able to get something cheaper than you lot for a change (you do know how much one single simple skein of DMC costs over here, don’t you? 1,30 euri, ladies and gentlemen. According to my online converter that’s $ 1.89) (one skein. Of DMC floss. I kid ye not). In fact, it’s cheaper to get my things framed by this guy than to buy a cheap frame and do it myself (not to mention the fact that I am utterly talentless when it comes to framing anything).

It was really good to be blogging again. Hopefully, this birth sampler for my niece will be done shortly, so I will have something new to show you. And ooh, ooh, ooh... My brother and SIL aren’t the only ones expecting an addition to their family! Rather than selling Pantoef to a vivisectionist or giving him away as a blog contest prize, as I threatened to do a couple of months ago, I went ahead and got myself another kitty. It’s a girl this time and she will be here at the start of the new year. Her name is Pipien (which I couldn’t put into phonotype if my life depended on it. It sounds roughly like Peepeen, but with much shorter ‘ee’ sounds. Someday, I will record all of the Dutch names you encounter on this blog and play it by way of soundtrack to Orts and Ends).

I had no intention of blathering on like this, but there you go. Hope you don’t mind!

Yours blatheringly,
Annemarie.