Back from Away

Darn. I had been looking forward to blogging so much and now that I finally have the time (and the required internet connection, which is a surprisingly difficult thing to find when you're on holiday in Germany) I can hardly bear to drag myself away from my stitching! So this will probably be a short post (but you all know what happens when I say that) about my sojourn in Deutschland. A couple of family pics and a bit of an update on the stitching front, because BOY, has there been a lot of stitching going on!

My parents took Pelle and me to the town - well, village - of Linstow, which sounds like some place slavonic but isn't. From there, we took a lot of day trips to all sorts of fabulous places in the beautiful neighbourhood. We've been to see a water mill...

...Oh, before I go on, I wanted to ask you: are you guys inspired to stitch by new surroundings, unfamiliar buildings, etc? I felt myself longing for the Village of Hawk Run Hollow when I saw that water mill. I even felt inspired to design my very own German version of the Village when I visited Quedlinburg. The Willage of Quedlinburg, designed by mich...

...Hang on. What was I talking about before you interrupted me? Oh right. The water mill.

The gentleman parading around in front of the building is my father. This is a rare picture indeed, because I managed to capture papa just before he could put his hands or his newspaper in front of his face.

We also went to the city of Rostock, and later on to the beach at Warnemünde, where I encouraged Pelle to allow the water to touch his toes. He loved it so much, I could hardly drag him away from the water (and the jellyfish. Eeeew). The last time I took him to the beach, about two months ago, he screamed his head off, so we're definitely making progress. Here's Pelle with my parents.

Notice the Elvis Presley handbag which my mother carries around with her with great pride :o))

I had such a wonderful time. Without wanting to wax sentimental (again), this time away with my parents gave me the chance to discover that the old me is still very much alive and doing very well under the circumstances, which is something I tend to forget when I'm faced with the inevitable difficulties that wait for me at home.

As for the stitching news I promised you, I don't think I've stitched this much in years. It er... I'm ashamed to admit it, but it took a little getting used to. Every time someone came near me, I think I actually growled at them? The first day of stitching was when the weather people threatened us with rain and storm, so we decided to stay in our cottage for the day. This was also the day that Pelle discovered the joys of role play and decided to open his very own DVD and Bookshop. He didn't need me or my parents to act as customers: he made them all up. Goodness knows what he told all these poor imaginary people, but there were a lot of them. It took Pelle all day to get his shop organised, which gave me plenty of time to work on my Fremme birds.

As I've mentioned before, one of the joys of stitching Fremme designs is that they're worked on low count linen with one strand of Flower Thread, so you can actually stitch in the car (a moving car, that is. I mean, you can always stitch in the car, but it tends to get a little more difficult when the thing is actually cruising down the motorway). I made a lot of progress, as I'm sure you'll agree.

I also finished Judith's neighbourhood. Here it is as it looks now:

I stitched the block at the bottom. The one with the pumpkins, that's right.

And even though I thought I would never get around to working on my Pistols, I took it with me anyway, and what do you know? I stitched so much I ran out of my holiday supply of blues!

At the beginning of this post I told you about my urge to stitch? Well, just now, while I was putting away all the stitchy things I took with me to Germany, I thought: 'Hello? How can I live without a needlework set composed of Blue Lady/Pistol elements?' 'You can't' said the little devil perched on my shoulder, and so I started a fob which I hope to show you, in a semi-finished or finished state, some time later this week. In which post I will also make mention of my pumpkin patch, so be warned!

Retail Therapy

Thank you all very much for your kind comments and votes of support on my last post. I feel better now that you, my friends, know a little more about what makes me tick and how sometimes the ticking isn't all that regular :o). I'm sure I have a difficult road ahead of me, discovering all sorts of things about myself and about those I hold dear, but with the help of friends far and near, it won't be quite as hard...

Well, as you all know there's nothing like a little retail therapy to cheer up a sad stitcher, so last Friday Harmien and I went to the villagette of Abbenbroek to enjoy the Summer Sale at Crown Stitches. I make it sound as if we just hopped in the car and drove there at the speed of light, but let me tell you, without Harmien to read the map we would never - EVER - have gotten there. Only a few miles from said village, we were so tired, so sick of the road, so hungry and so desperately in need of a toilet and sustenance, that we had a little fast food therapy as well...

Thank you, Harmien, for taking this picture and then putting away your camera and forgetting to photograph the really important things, like the inside of Liezbeth's home, which also happens to be a quilter's heaven and a stitcher's - slash - stash-gatherer's dream. Here's two pictures of my haul:

The red fabric is already in use:

This is the last you'll see of this project for now. It's a present (yes, a stitched gift! That's my idea of falling off a wagon), and the presentee is a reader of this humble blog, so this is just a peek before you can actually see what it's going to be.
The charts I got are Stitcher's Prayer by CHS, two pumpkin-themed Stacy Nash designs, and Garden Walk, by our very own Monique, which I'm looking forward to stitching some time soon.
This is my progress on Judith's neighbourhood so far:

And... Okay, you've asked for it, so don't blame me... here's a picture of my patch.

Holy moly. I'm afraid I'm going to have to borrow some of my neighbours' gardens soon...

It's starting to feel like one creepy Halloween already, but that might also have something to do with the freakish weather we've been 'enjoying'.

I'm not in a very writeative mood today. Nothing personal. This always happens after I hand in a translation. Yes, the Blazing Little Christmas stories are now a thing of the past. Thank heavens. All those jingle bells were starting to get on my nerves, and they didn't do anything for my desire to stitch Christmas ornaments, which is still as non-existent as it was before I started working on this book. It's a good thing it's only October July.

Coffee and bed.
No.
Coffee in bed.
With a book.
Nice.

No title, just this...

Last night I dreamt about my husband and today I´m even sadder than I have been for a long time.

You see, my husband disappeared about five or six years ago. He didn't disappear overnight. It was a gradual process, but in my mind there came a point when gradually saying goodbye turned into mourning. It took me two years to mourn his disappearance, and when those two years were up, five or six years ago, he had gone completely. I said goodbye to every aspect of him, bit by bit, and I wasn't even aware that these aspects were going, going, gone. I thought they were still there. The person was still there, he just didn't look like himself anymore. He looked like a she, said he felt like a she. He became much happier as a she than he ever was as a he. That's what she kept saying and that's what I kept believing.

The outside changed, but so did the inside, which was something I hadn't counted on. Heck, it was something I didn't even dare acknowledge until about three months ago. That's when I realised that while she had become herself and while I had helped her become herself, I had completely lost my own self. Lost, insecure, nervous and angry, that's what I am now, deep inside. On top of that, I'm incredibly sad. I thought I was done mourning, but it turns out I still miss my husband more than I can say.

***

I'm sorry if this is TMI, but I wanted to share this. Maybe this post will answer some of the questions you may have had. I didn't have to think long about actually posting this. It's my blog, and while I have no intention of turning it into a place where I share the story of my life, I don't want to keep the personal stuff from you, either. Besides, you've always been such good friends. You can't possibly only be interested in my stitching and my pumpkins, right?