Pass the book on ...

Some time ago Jennifer of Sweet Pea Stitches wrote her 100th blog entry (May 28th) and had a give-away: a book, 'fresh from the press' (as we say here), written by a friend of hers, Julie Luongo. There was a winner, but surprise, surprise: she told me she had drawn my name as well ...


She came up with a very nice idea: she was willing to send me this book as well ... if I was interested ... wanted to give a comment on Julie's site about it and (beat the drums, crescendo please!) ... if I would pass it on to another interested reader! Yes, it's right, it's true.

Yesterday Jennifer's/Julie's book arrived and I will take it with me to France. Another addition to the huge pile of books I always carry with me when going on holiday. I don't say I always read them all, but it's just a manifestation of my endless optimism and longing to be 'lost' in reading good books whenever possible.

But now ... if you are interested in reading Julie's book, if you want to give a comment on the site (see Julie's entry) and are willing to pass it on again, please leave a message! I will draw another name myself next Thursday morning and I will send 'the winner' this book as soon as I have read it myself. I hope you like the idea! (I certainly did. I think it's rather charming, actually ... Thanks again, Jennifer!)

So, that was one thing. Now I must tell you this was an interruption of my blog break, hihi! I KNOW! I hope you don't mind. It won't be the last entry before leaving, I guess. I will come back soon and answer some questions about our holiday in France. I did read your comments and I thank you for all the good holiday wishes for the whole family. Thank you very, very much!!! So sweet ...

I know it, I'm hopeless in keeping up 'blog breaks' etc. Well, maybe you already guessed it before hand. And in case you didn't know: I'm hopeless. Now you all know it.

I'm off, playing a dutiful housewife tonight. Tomorrow there is some more sewing to do. (The costumes of the girls are ready, hurray! I have to drive two Roman ladies to school tomorrow morning and I hope they will raise loads of money for the Cancer Research Fund ... )

Have a nice evening! Greetings, Carolien

Foxgloves, sampler and summer break

The first foxgloves are nearly gone now, but they were a delight to see! All the bees buzzing busily, popping in and out of the flowers ... a definite sign of summer!

The next weeks will be full of activities for me: sewing curtains for Fleur's school, sewing clothes for Valérie and Sofia (they will be 'living statues' on a fund raising day for cancer research, good initiative of their school!), celebrating some birthdays, etc. And as soon as the girls have left school we will be off for a holiday to France. We finally made the decision to go to 'la douce France' ... Swimming in the sea, croissants, a nice red wine, camping again ... we look forward to it!

So I will take a blog break and hope to be back at least somewhere in August. I hope to follow some other blogs in the meantime, but I won't post many (maybe none) entries on my own blog, I'm afraid.

I leave you for now with the last update on Valérie's sampler:



In case I will be totally absorbed by all the activities and the preparations for our holiday: I wish you all a very sunny, happy and relaxing summertime. Please stay healthy, take care and I hope you can make loads of beautiful stitches!

'Au revoir' and with love,

Carolien

P.S. I hope to be back in August with some stunning progress on Valérie's sampler. It's in the air, I can feel it! Stitch, stitch, stitch ... :)

Family reunion

The chief of the family had invited us for a family reunion yesterday. We gladly accepted the invitation and had great fun seeing all our relatives again!



You just saw two nieces with their little ones, aren't they adorable?


I loved to chat with this cousin. We always felt close, no distance between us, no fences or walls ... Just the two of us chatting happily ...


We played 'hide and seek' as well. I had trouble finding this aunt of mine!

The catering was excellent. There was a restaurant and the waitress was nearby ...


The chef of the restaurant walked by very proudly. He had reason to do so.


Another colourful member of the family ...


After a wonderful day we said good bye to everyone and thanked the whole staff of this wonderful location for their hospitality and good care.


Do you wonder where we were yesterday? At the Apenheul in Apeldoorn.

Have a nice Sunday! Greetings, Carolien

Not even a pea ...

Hello, it's me, Lea. Have to tell you something. Something positive, at least for me. You could try to do the same at your place. Good luck!

Well, we had rain today, almost an English drizzle. Got wet feet, wet hair, wet everywhere. I can't stand that, I bet you can't either ...
Now comes the 'lucky me' part. My boss had a strange urge to repair some sheets of the kids. Sewing on that sewing machine. Then she left the room for a few seconds. Came back and yes! Too late. I gottit! Gave her my prissy 'too-late-now'-look. She complained she needed to wash them for the second time now. Nonsense! Gave her my sweet look though, and after some grumbling she left me here. Jippieeeee!

Washing that sheet? It's ME who needs a washing up, really! That sheet didn't get muddy feet by walking in that drizzle ... They don't get it, do they ..? Anyway, I took my time, did the job, settled down comfortably and let my boss give me a hug. Silly boss, but she's not too bad after all ...

D'you know? I checked the sheets. There isn't even a single pea underneath them!

I'm off for a little nap now. Miauw, miauw!




P.S. Greetings from my silly boss.

Little stitchery

Due to some headaches I have a finish to show you. Sounds odd, isn't it?! It's just that I didn't manage to make the little stitches on Valérie's sampler without a cross-eyed pair of 'things' ... So I decided to do something easier than that. Big stitches, something relatively easy. Here it is! It's the result of a 'surprise parcel' Ria sent me recently. She has a very nice blog called Grandma's Kitchen. On this blog you can read about her 'surprise parcels' which she plans to send each month when you subscribe. This was the first parcel.

It was meant to be a wall hanging, but I made it into a little quilt which is lying on my desk now. My desk is actually a table. Very old and worn out, with paint spatters and scratches ... I cover the worst places with all kind of clutter. And now I have a soft part on which I can lay the beautiful scissor fob Heidi made me. And instead of the heart I put a charm in the middle, a little dragonfly. I guess Ria didn't think of such an 'outcome' when she designed her lovely little stitchery :) It's my 'cover up and scissor fob quilt' now. And that's it!


We do have some sunshine here, so let's try to fetch some sunrays ... Have a nice day!

Greetings, Carolien

The good sorceress

This is Glinda, the Good Sorceress of Oz. I made her for Ingrid on her mini RR4. Ingrid sent us Vermillion patterns of twelve 'Fantasy bears' and this is one of them. To be honest I've never heard of Glinda. But since she has a friendly face and wears clothes in my favourite colours I decided I wanted to bring her alive on Ingrid's cloth. Ingrid told us she will make a calendar out of these 'Fantasy bears'.
The borders of her 'apron-like thing', her collar and her diadem are stitched with gold thread (DMC 5282). This doesn't show on my scan, but it's there! I broke two needles on this gold thread. Maybe Glinda had a hand in that with her magic ball, just to tease me?

Have a nice weekend! Greetings, Carolien

Old and new

Last Saturday we had a fair on the grounds of the church. All second hand stuff, a lot of rubbish but some nice bargains as well! I have been feeding my blue-, china- and chicken tic (just to mention a few of my tics of course ... ) And with my addictions I even sponsored the restoration of the church hall, so my conscience is perfectly clear. I don't know if André shares my view ... :) Well, it's the art of bringing more stuff to the fair than bringing back home again and I practised it well this year. I can't deny I didn't always manage to do so, but this year was really o.k!

This Dutch
'Rembrandt' is a masterpiece I found on the free market on Koninginnedag (Queens Day) in April. I am the only soul on earth who has a Rembrandt for the price of €1,00. I love this very, very Dutch scene, I can't help it. I'm hopeless, I know ...

And here is the 'new' part of this entry: my progress on Valérie's sampler. There's a mermaid swimming around now and I loved making her after all the biblical scenes. It gives a little humorous twist to this very serious sampler.

That's it for today. I hope you enjoy your day, whatever the weather!


Greetings, Carolien

Surprise of the day

Don't ask me what I did last week. I can't remember, I have the feeling I was in a kind of whirlwind. The wind just calmed down and I am here on June 10th! That's it.

This afternoon I had a pleasant afternoon with an elderly lady of the parish. She happened to be the 'chief' of a former needlework group in the seventies. A group of +/- 12 ladies would come together to stitch, knit, sew, crochet etc. in the parish house once a week. When the 'chief' got some health problems the group had to stop: they were all elderly ladies and nobody could take over her coordinating task ... Sad, isn't it? Most of the ladies have passed away now.
Of course we talked about needlework. (Strange :) How did that come?) She was surprised I was interested in needlecraft, making stitches etc. I told her about Stitch and Bitch meetings, knitting hypes in the USA, celebrities knitting socks etc. :) She was amazed by all this.
And then I had my surprise: she suddenly told me she wanted to give me something she didn't/couldn't use anymore. She gave it to me when I drove her home and urged me to come in for a minute. A shoe box full of DMC and yes, it's a souvenir of that needlework group of the seventies ...



Am I spoiled or spoiled? Say yes! Are you jealous? I'm very sorry, I just HAD to show you this. Sorry, sorry, sorry ...

I am going to create a folding and ironing whirlwind tonight and then ... I will be happy as a child sorting all those DMC's. Have to go now! Will catch up with some things later, promised.

Greetings, Carolien

A little Dutch island

Fleur went to Ameland with her class and teachers for three days. They had a wonderful time there! Fleur made a lot of pictures and I thought you might like to see some inhabitants and guests of this little, tiny but charming Dutch island ...









On the last picture you can see the photographer!

Have a nice weekend & greetings, Carolien

Patience required

Our little butterfly has disappeared for a few days, fluttering to Ameland with school class and teachers. No green coat on my blue coat hooks. Fleur is off for a genuine nature week, wadlopen, inhaling a lot of fresh sea air, freed from parents and sisters (who already sent her postcards - with elephants of course, they're not native there, I think, and a silly dog as well to be her guardian on the (Dutch) Wadden). I keep my fingers crossed, hoping the weather will be better at the islands???!!! I also keep my fingers crossed the two classes will have a great time, but to be honest I'm pretty sure of that, whatever the weather ...

There's one thing. Fleur has taken Sofia's camera with her. So that means no updates of Valérie's sampler and the RR I'm working on. Our butterfly will come back on Friday, so I will have to wait until Saturday. Well, the progression will be all the more visible, don't you think?


I will be sewing and making some stitches the coming days, partly waiting for the butterfly to come home again with lots of stories and lots of sand in her clothes and lots of sand in ... well, you know!

Have a nice day! Greetings, Carolien