Beds are for sleepy people...

...not for translators with deadlines who also have an irrepressible urge to stitch. So when my work is (more or less) done late at night, what do I do? I sit down and stitch. And stitch. And then I stitch some more. And then I *finish things*. To wit:

Blackbird Designs' Loose Feathers Pattern 35; Peacock Pinkeep/needlebook, using the recommended 28 ct. Weeks Dye Works Gingham Linen light grey/straw and GA/CC threads. Substituted WDW Fawn with DMC 4150

Ta-daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Yes, I know, I surprise me too sometimes. Just wanted something to store my needles in, because they were forever wandering and straying. No more! Notice the bijoux buttons holding the booklet together. Still, on the whole another staggeringly wonky primitive finish, but it's for myself and I'm very pleased with it.

Noah is a no-no today - but I think one fortnightly update on the CHS Stocking SAL is not bad at all for someone like me.

I think I will go to bed now. Turns out I'm quite sleepy after all...

Yours sleepily,
Annemarie.

It was bound to happen

Before you ask: yes, I'm still ploughing through that cowpat of a novel, and no, I'm not reading it for myself OR for work, because if I only had to read it I would just lock myself in my cottage for a day or two and be done with it. Or I wouldn't read it at all, which is by far and away and without a shadow of doubt the wisest thing to do with this book. Still. I'm a translator, so translate it I will.

Thankfully, I have friends who love to indulge me in my procrastinating ways. I placed an order for a gift with Annemiek last week and when the package arrived, I found two of the same freebies (one for the giver and one for the giftee, I assume). It was Portrait of a Cat by Brittercup Designs. Oh, Annemiek, you evil vixen you! I just had to stitch it, dribbly novel or not. On the plus side: it only took me exactly an hour to kit, stitch, iron and frame it and my translation time didn't suffer for it (my sleeping time did, though). Here it is:

Bear in mind, it was 10.30 pm when I started it, so the framing was done in bad light and with a sleepy head. And besides, have you ever tried framing something in a heart-shaped frame? It's not easy. It looks a bit crooked, but I thought I'd just label it 'primitive' and in that light it looks rather charming, if I do say so myself.

My parents' canine fur babies were here for a sleep over during the weekend, and Pelle was in seventh heaven. Especially when I let him walk the pooches.

I don't know which of the three boys looks cuter. Oh, what am I saying? I do know :o)

Have a lovely week all!

Yours cheerily,
Annemarie.

Prepare to be amazed

Still wading knee-deep through the shittiest of novels ever written, let alone translated. I will not mention the title, nor its author, for fear of being googled by said talentless person and besides, the less said about it in my spare time, the better. There's freaking five hundred pages of the dribble, and I would be losing the will to live were it not for the mystery man who will be coming to live with us in the first week of July. Yes, my dears, I have picture portraits, and here's the finest:
Meet Pantoef. He's not called Pantoef yet. His name now is Buddy, but since there is no-one in my family who can pronounce the name 'Buddy' as it should be pronounced - making it sound more like 'Biddy' which, I think you'll agree, is too silly for words - and since Pelle made Buddy sound like Buddha, which he then proceeded to change into Juja, which is what he calls my co-parent, I decided to go an entirely different route and call him the Dutchified, shortened version of the French word for 'slipper' (Pantoufle -->Pantoef) (Dutch 'oe' sounds like French 'ou' and English 'oo'). No particular reason for that name. Just. Why not. Oh, and Pantoef is a Devon Rex cat. He has short, curly hair (or he will have, eventually) which will stay put under all circumstances and which makes him very allergy-friendly. A sort of Poodle among cats (shhhh, don't let him hear that. I think he would be quite put out).

You didn't really think I was talking about a human man, were you? Human men will not be welcome here for a looooong, long time, apart from (obviously) my son, my father and my brother. (Unless he is in possession of a good fortune and happens to be in want of a girlfriend and a cute four-year old) (and a cat named Pantoef) (If you know such a man and he happens to have some other Mr Darcy-esque qualities (of the Colin Firth variety), please be sure to direct him to my Profile Page where he can find my e-mail address).

Sorry, I got myself distracted... Oh yes. It's Thursday. I know everybody else in the CHS Stocking SAL group (except, possibly for Tanya and Jennifer [links in my sidebar]) has forgotten about Thursday Update Day, but I haven't. No, really, I haven't. And I have proof:
Before:

After:
Voila. The only stitching I've done in the past week and this is it. Quite impressive, don't you think? I left the frogging of the N for later, because the progress would look so much less impressive without it. I don't know why exactly this N is off, but it is. It doesn't line up with the rest of what I've stitched so far. I counted and re-counted and I re-counted the re-count, but I can't find the reason for this boo-boo. But then again, I'm not a very good counter. So I will just approach the name from the other side and see what happens from there.
Tomorrow is a school day for Pelle, and another work-day for Mama. She's dreading it, honeybuns, but she will persevere, if only so that she can have a well-deserved holiday in July when the fur baby arrives.

Yours whateverly (the novel is sucking the inspiration right out of me, as you see),
Annemarie.

Hi! Bye!

Up to eyeballs in deadlines. No stitching since Sunday.

Had someone else do work for me, i.e. framer:

Jugendstil sampler, by José Sterrenburg, pres for parents.

Were it not for new man in life, would go bonkers.
New man is gorgeous, grey-haired & blue-eyed.
Will post pics asap.

Yours hurriedly,
Annema_

Noah, where art thou?

First of all, let me thank you all for your messages of love and support for Pelle and myself. You don't know how much comfort they, and the many e-mails I received, have given me. We have overcome so many awful obstacles that I never thought we would overcome that I'm sure we will be able to deal with the rest as well, especially knowing we have so many sweet friends cheering us on :o)

So. Yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life. I don't know if that's technically true, but it definitely feels like it. And my goodness, what a dreadful day that first day was. But it is all in the past and we can now move on. I started by doing something I've been wanting to do for many years: get ourselves a pet. Being from a doggy family (a Yorkshire Terrier family, to be precise) the thought of cats always had my parents screaming out in horror. 'You don't want a cat', is what they always told me. But I actually DO want a cat and I have done for quite some time. And you know what? After yesterday (the first day, etc) I finally feel free to do it, too. Admittedly, the Sip & Stitch at Heidi's place didn't help. Apart from the fact that Heidi left us - or at least me - wanting to be

a) a kitchen goddess
b) a master quilter
c) a faster stitcher
d) living in a house with more wall space
e) in possession of time and a bank account that would enable me to achieve all of the above

her cat Dagi left me longing even more for the constant company of a cat. I heart Dagi and I do believe Dagi didn't totally un-heart me. So I did my research and it would greatly surprise me if I don't have a little one running around here at the beginning of July. That's all I'm going to say about it...

...except that now I have to start me some cat samplers. Rats.

Speaking of our Sip & Stitch, you must have all read about it on the other blogs and you must also know that Heidi made us all a personal beaded floss fob and gifted us with some special floss to suit our favourite colour palette. Here's the picture of what Heidi made for me:

Isn't it gorgeous? Thank you, Heidi, for the loveliest of days and for the beautiful fob.

Even though it is Noah's Stocking update day it won't come as a terrible surprise to you that I didn't do any work on it. I was too busy working on my Do Not Fuck With Me Replacement Sampler. For obvious reasons.
Remember what that was all about? I started a sampler that read Do Not Fuck With Me and while I was stitching it I felt the negative energy coursing through my veins, not helping me at all? And so I decided to pick up the Alter Echo Sampler and rename it the Do Not Fuck With Me Replacement Sampler. Now, working on this sampler does calm me down. And here's my progress. Also partly thanks to Heidi, by the way, because her finished Sampler looked so good I would have secretly slipped it in my tote and kidnapped it if it hadn't been so huge.

Oh! And there's more! Yesterday, before I was due in court, a package was delivered for me, and it contained this:

And this:

Oh, and this:

And something else which I can't show you, but it's one of the Country Cottage Kids series. The Mum to be is a visitor and she's not allowed a peep.

Well girls (and mayhap boys), that's it from me. Until next time!

Yours free as a birdly,
Annemarie.

Progress has been made...

...and it's actually progress I was supposed to be making, i.e. I worked on my CHS stocking. It's true. I have photographic proof:
Before:

After:
It's not that much, but I'm happy with it. I finished the beard and started Noah's coat (changed the colour to DMC 831 because I thought the contrast between the beard and DMC 832 was not clear enough). The peacock now has a neck. I need to finish the upper part of the stocking before providing the beast and its companion with a body, because I need to scroll down the frame for that. Hopefully by next week ... although I'm not making any promises. Last week was bad, this week was pretty awful and the mere thought of next week gives me spasms. Without wanting to be a terrible bore, here's a short re-cap of what's going on (feel free to skip to the next stitchy pic if you feel so inclined):

Pelle finished his time at the special medical daycare centre he was attending. The end of his period there came with a report that, quite frankly, took my breath away. Of course I knew that he had problems and that things aren't looking that well for him, but this was a very bitter pill to swallow. What it boils down to is that, at nearly five years old, he has the developmental age of a one-year old. I knew this was the verdict, but to see it in writing and illustrated with numerous examples is another matter. I know all you mothers out there will understand that this doesn't have any effect on my love for Pelle. In fact if anything, it has deepened my love and admiration and belief in him, to see how bravely he has fought against everything he has had to deal with, which was more, much more than any child ('normal' or otherwise) should have to go through. He's the sweetest, loveliest boy any parent could ever wish for and (allow me to wax sentimental for a moment here) sometimes his smile and the way he looks at me can actually reduce me to tears from sheer ... well... joy and love. Is there a word to express this? Motherly love, I guess. Anyway, Pelle is now attending a new medical daycare centre, and he's doing remarkably well. He will make it. I know he will.

Also, next week will see the start of the end of divorce proceedings. I have a couple of court dates to look forward to (or should I say dread? Yep, I think that would be more accurate). In the meantime, I'm trying very hard not to lose faith in myself and in everything that I'm doing. I should really be stitching Be True by Little House Needleworks.
Instead, I chose to start another project (yes, another one). But really. Who could resist the new BBD Loose Feathers? I couldn't:

Isn't it perfect and gorgeous and yummy, and so stitchable and small-ish and quick? I bet all of the people who decided not to join the Loose Feathers Club this year are really kicking themselves.

That's it from me. Sorry for the very personal post, but I really needed to share this. Also, I needed to explain why I have been so quiet around Blogland. I'm sure I will catch up with all of your blogs as soon as my life loses its soapy twist. A bit.

Yours distractedly,
Annemarie.

At least it's by CHS

It's April 24th. Not an easy day for too many reasons. In fact, the entire week sucked buckets, with one exception: on Tuesday, I spent the entire day with my behind parked on Harmien's couch, and we did nothing but chat, stitch, relax and have enormous fun. Around dinner time we went into the kitchen, where Harmien initiated me into the art of sushi-making. I'm afraid I'm quite talentless in that area (I managed to make a sushi role out of a teflon sheet. No, really.), but thankfully, Harmien knew what she was doing, so we had a deeeeelicious meal at the end of a perfect day.

Several years ago - has it really been years? Yes, I think it has - Harmien, Vonna and I picked up the insane idea of doing a Village of Hawk Run Hollow SAL. I never progressed beyond blocks 5 and 6 (no surprise there). Vonna gave up quite soon after that (but picked it up again a while back. You go girl!). Harmien, with her usual self control and perseverance, managed to stitch a whole lot more. This is how our Villages looked before we started on Tuesday:

And this is what they looked like before we put them away:

Four and a half, if not five hours worth of stitching went into this. The more perceptive of you may notice that Harmien nearly got an entire block done and that I managed some letters and some hay. I know there is an unofficial contest going on between stitchers about who is the slowest stitcher EVER, but, come on. Girls. Give over. I'm the winner, surely you can see that now.

I don't mind being a slow stitcher, but if a stranger to stitching would see Harmien and I on the couch together, they would surely be under the impression we were doing two entirely different things altogether. You see, watching Harmien stitch is like watching a Grand Slam tennis tournament (in the days that Monica Seles was still a player): wild gestures, grunts and the occasional moan, backhands, forehands, services and PACE. I tell you, I found myself ducking every once in a while to avoid being hit in the head.

Mind you, I'm not laughing at you, Harmien. When I smile when I sit next to you, I'm just enjoying philosophising about the different ways each stitcher has to tackle their work. Some stitchers build up a nice, steady pace and get lost in the repetitive, hypnotising rythm; others measure the width, breath, height and untwistedness of every stitch like a thing obsessed and take pleasure in that while also enjoying the sound of thread being pulled through fabric very slowly (that would be me). I'm sure there are more ways to enjoy your stitching. I must pay attention when we meet at Heidi's on May 2nd.

Anyway, progress on Noah's Stocking? Again, zilch. Good thing it's a guilt-free, stress-free SAL, or I'd be in serious trouble. Hey, at least I made progress on something by CHS!

Yours guilt freely,
Annemarie.