I did it again !

Yep, I finished my banner on saturday ! It's so nice to have another happy dance. It's not hard to have a happy dance so soon after the last one when you choose a small project AND when you don't correct your mistakes !!! So here it is:

Stitched on a 32 count blue Diamonds by Silkweaver. Too bad, I don't know how to finish it as a banner ...

So you may wonder (because we all know how curious you are !!! ), what's next ? I hesitated between three projects ( all Lanarte's) :

The kiss by Lanarte but that one is huge and I didn't want a big one this time.

The three bird houses: I like the hand dye fabric.

and Nesting box: I want to stitch that one but without the little birdies on the bottom. The only problem was the fabric: it's a linen and I hate linen. I didn't want to dig into my stash to find the right fabric (and yes there were lots of greens ... )

So what made me decide to stitch the three bird houses? My working copies were made a long time ago !!!

Here is the first pic of the first bird house I'm stitching on. As you can see, even though I ironed my fabric prior to stitch on it, we can still see the line in the middle ! If you know how to get rid of those lines, please let me know! Thanks !!! It's a Lanarte so it's a great pleasure to stitch !!! Large chart, barely any back stitches: after a Dimensions, it feels like heaven !!! And it makes me feel I stitch very fast as well.

On that picture, you can see the hand dye in the middle of the fabric.

Sunday was my birthday: I look terrible on the pictures so here is Emma bringing me my cake. I strawberry cake !!!

and the winner is .........

Once again we used the red bowl to serve as a bowl of destiny. Twenty six stitchers decided the last issue of the magazine de fil en aiguille was worth it and they decided to enter this giveaway. Emma was spending two days at a friend's so I had to find another innoncent hand and I pick: Steb!

So he tossed and tossed more (he could have gone for hours !!! ) He took his job very serioulsy !

Then I told him he needed to pick a paper (because I was ready to shoot a picture and also because I wanted to know where in the world the mag will go !!! ) And the innoncent boy picked ............

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . K A R E N !

She doesn't have a blog but now, she has to start one so we can see the picture once she receives the magazine, right? !!! Karen is from Mexico and I'll remind you that's a half mexican boy who picked her so I wonder if there is not a secret connection between the two ??? ( Ahora dame tu direcion senorita )

I'm not done with my banner and I even added another mistake on the lower green leaf on the left ... oh well .. it's only the 5 th one ...

Halloween report

I hope you all had a great Halloween; ours went very well thanks to some good friends who came with us to celebrate it. One of Emma's friend stayed with us and she helped preparing the party. I had a total of 9 kids (one couldn't come). Unfortuntely, Halloween is less and less popular here but we decided to do it anyway because Pierre and Emma always celebrated it.

Of course, we decorated the house. Chuy put a bucket next to the bulb in order to have an orange atmosphere to the livivng room. I don't have lots of decorations to display but it was nice anyway.

We found the two garlands the morning of the party and Chuy put a giant spider web in the entrance .

A good friend greeted the guests:

We installed a new ring ( excuse the spider web - the maid had a week off! )

And we decorated the outside as well: I made the girls inflate the balloons . Our neighbors must have thought we are crazy but it was fun !!!

Then it was time to carve the pumpkin and I made my slaves the girls do it. As you can see on Emma's face: she enjoyed every minute of it !!! Her friend on the other end loved it !

Have you ever seen some bunny ears on a pumpkin?

Then I couldn't resist taking some pictures of my cuties outside:

And our guest arrived: we didn't mean to do it but all the costumes were a nice mix of black and orange. They were all very cute.

My friend did get a costume for herself and I took a picture of them on my stairs:

Then my neighbor ( you know the one who has a nice girlfriend ... ) was leaving and the kids rushed to his door to grab some candies:

Esteban did his own make-up: too cute !!!

We finally went trick or treating and the kids were very, I mean VERY excited !

I think I didn't feed those kids enough during snack time because they were so desesperate to have some candies ... We did get some odd stuffs: an old lady gave some coins (not enough for the 9 kids though) and a Hello kitty key chain ...

And a last picture with nine almost exhausted likds (why almost? because minutes later they were dancing in my living room ... )

And don't forget today is your last day to enter the giveaway !!!

Happy Halloween !!!

Don't forget that tomorrow is your last day to enter my giveaway for the french magazine! Enter here !!!

Here is my latest progress on my banner: I finished to stitch the two birdies at the bottom: I now have all the white and blue left and then I'll have to stitch the message inside the sign. I hope my mistake is not going to be a problem ... We'll see!!!

Tomorrow, I'll show you my Halloween pictures !!! Lots of fun !!!

it's time for ... a giveaway !!!!!!!!!!

As I promised you a while ago, here is the giveaway for the last issue of the magazine De Fil En Aiguille. You can see some pictures of the charts here. The rules are very simple: it's open to EVERYBODY, you have until sunday (my time) to enter and Emma will draw a name on Monday. Just enter your name on this post ONLY and please, add your email if your email is not linked to your blog or if you don't have a blog. You don't have to put a link on your blog but if you want to do it, feel free.

Good luck everybody !!!

Update !!!

On saturday, we celebrated Pierre and Chuy's birthdays (two october babies). Pierre turned 13 on october 7 th that makes him an official member of the teenager club. Already 13 yo ... Time flies ...

Steb was so happy when Pierre was opening his gifts. Mickey is not really apropriate for a 13 yo but I didn't have another wrapping paper. He got a MP3 player and now feels he belongs to the world !!! (then he took forever to figure out how to download some music to his player but this is a totally different story ... )

In this portrait, Pierre looks so grown up: I think that's what he could look like in some years from now. The kids are on vacations for a week and a half so we have to find some things to do. I bought two little clay items to paint. Emma got a little lady to paint and was very happy to paint it but almost at the end, the little lady fell off and broke. She was very disapointed and it was hard to stop her tears ...

Steb got a little car and he loved painting it (in blue and only in blue !!! )

So Halloween is around the corner and my kids are pretty excited. Emma decided it was time to have a Haloween snack time so she dressed the table all by herself (note that we don't have any table cloth yet: she used some of her blankets !) Will you believe I was crazy enough to invite some kids over for a Halloween party on saturday? ... I should have 9 kids (mine included ................... )

Mid october, we got our christmas toys catalogs. (this is soooooooo crazy) Pierre and Emma love to circle what they want so Steb had to do the same. He was so funny to watch.

I have three big mistakes in my stitching now but I won't frog it ... I only hope it won't be a problem when i'll have to stitch the Wecome message on the middle. Before my Facebook life, it would have been already finished ... I'm working on the second bird. The design is so cute but it's a Dimensions and those designs are often very pretty but a pain to stitch.

it's friday !!!

Yesterday I felt like it was already friday maybe because today was the last day before the kids are off from school for a week end a half. That also means I won't be doing my wednesday taxi chores for three weeks because we'll have a holiday on november 11 th (not a happy date for us but I'll take it !!! ) I love vacations !!!!

Yesterday I got a text message (yes, stores don't call you anymore, they text message you ... ) that our table was ready for pick up ! Great news as we were supposed to get it only on november 22 nd. Now I have two boxes in my living room. We checked the instructions sheets: four sheets, no words, funny pictograms (yes, I'll show you so we can share a good laugh !!!), should be lots of fun, right? Did I mention the assembling requires NO drill at all? Wonder if Chuy has noticed it yet ...

I'm still stitching on my banner but unfortunately, I made a mistake when I stitched the white frame. I don't know how I could made such a mistake but I did it and I'm not going to frog ! I think I can work around that mistake. I know the picture is not that great but the light was not the best today. I love the bow: backstitch make such a difference. I feel my progress is slow (I could blame all on jeweled Blitz on facebook ) but I noticed once again that I make slower progress on small pieces. You know how it is: you stitch 5 or 6 crosses and you have to change the color. That design is really pretty !!!

Have a great week end !!! Ours should be quiet (if nobody get kill during our assembling time ... ), we have two birthdays to celebrate though. Emma is at a friend house until sunday morning. Talking about Emma; we got her report card today: she's a straight A student !!! (but you know what I love the most about her? She actually does her homework willingly AND with a smile ! Priceless (if only Pierre could do the same ... )

New project

Our lastest project was to assemble ou armoire/wardrobe. Oh what the fun it is to assemble a piece of furniture with your spouse ... The joy of getting frustated, yelling at each others, getting arrested for attempting murder ( I swear: it was an accident : the screwdriver just flew to his head all by itself ... )

This is a before picture ( I didn't take a pic with the suitcases with our clothes inside: I want you keep a good image of myself !!! ) So here is the empty space:

And this is the kit we had. It felt like a Dimensions kit: lots of stuffs and us trying to figure out what was going to be with what...

Then we checked the manual: 26 pages: felt like a HAED chart suddendly ... And to make things easier (understand get the client crazy) , they decided to mix the instructions for the armoire with 2,3,4 or 5 doors ... So each time, you do something you have to make sure you are assembling what you bought and not another armoire ... ( that you didn't buy and could not complete anyway ... ) And of course, no a written words !!! That would be too easy: you have to guess looking at the pictograms ...

Here are two examples: First we had to put the rails for the drawers and literally guess where to put some screws ...

And I love that one:

Be careful caveman handyman, take your screwdriver, use your brain strenght BUT not a lot and please, please, put down the drill that is in your hand ! The engineers who create that manual know their customers: cavemen who are just waiting to play with their drills !!! Must be something with the sound ?

Of course, we made some mistakes like putting the rails the wrong way Could it be that the manual was not easy enough to understand ???

Anyway, the next day we realized our mistake

Look after some hours, we got some results !!! You may wonder: why an armoire? Easy: we don't have a walk in closet ( ) so we had to buy this armoire to store our clothes but look: you can also store your kids if they misbehave:

AND ... it also works for your husband !!! He bothers you? Store him in the armoire !!! ( perfect fit I shall say !!! )

We had another mistake that made my hubby quite happy deep down inside him.

One door had a problem: the little mechanism to close the door was not built the right way so someone had to use his drill special little toy !!!!

And miracle : tadaaaaaaaa

Assembling time : 2 days (we had to wait for the drawers glu to dry)

Yelling at each others: few

Nails broken : 2 (mine)

Happiness at the end: lots !!! I have an armoire !!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah !!!!!!!!!

Despite my facebook addiction, I do stitch a little bit (but less than before ... ) So I started a Dimensions banner that I find very cute. I have only the chart so I use a conversion to be able to use my DMC threads.

And here is my first progress picture: The birdie is so cute !!! (I'm stitching the backstitch along the way because they are lots of it ... )

Thanks for your warm response to my latest finish : you made my day ladies !!! And don't forget I'll have a giveaway very soon !!! So stay tuned !!!

It's getting cold so let's dance !!!!!!

You didn't think you'll have to get your disco ball out of your special closet so early, did you? Started on november 9 th 2008, I stitched on it everyday for 3 months then I gave up when the one over two light pink was almost all I had left to stitch ... Then I stitched other pieces (and finished them, yes I did ) and went back on the fucshia just recently then a miracle happened: I finished it in F I V E days. I know, I know what you think but I really couldn't get myself to pick up the needle and stitch on it ... Please, clik to enlarge

Details:


I decided that my floss had to be better organized because I used to keep my full set of DMC threads sorted by colors (because it's so beautiful that way ) but it's a pain each time you want to kit a new project )

So now, it looks like that: not so yummy, not beautiful anymore but it should make kitting a project much more easily !!!

I didn't stitch much those past days because I got addicted to a facebook game but that should change today !!!

Let's dance now !!! (it's really getting cold )

Harley Davidson and Lori

Saturday was the annual Harley Davidson free rides for the children with cancer. Usually it's in september but this year, they decided to do in october but they got lucky: the weather was fine even though it was a little bit overcast.

Emma was spending the week end at a friend's house and Pierre said: if Emma doesn't go, I won't go ... (even though he did ride last year ... ) Well, well, well ... We decided to give it a try but right away, he was not in the mood ... and when Pierre is not in the mood, well, he's not in the mood ... But we had fun ANYWAY !!!!

I have some pictures to share with you:

Steb pretended to be a very quiet boy :

Why ? Easy: Lori's husband was there and he knows how to keep little boy quiet (see his right hand? ) Better be the quietest boy in the world, right?

Chuy tried to calm down Lori's husband : NOOOOOO, don't shoot, he's only 4 !!!!!!!! But it was time for the rides so we promised he'll be a good boy and we fled the scene !!!

Pierre still didn't want to ride but Chuy decided he'll take advantage of the day! Steb loved the helmet !!!

As you can see, Chuy had lots of fun !!!

You may wonder: but where in the world was Pierre during all of that? easy, in the red car (see the above pic !!!) We don't understand that boy (at all) but sometimes, he has some sensory issues (when there are a lot od people) and when he suddendly lackes of self esteem .... So he spent his afternoon in the car with Chuy's MP3 player listening to old songs (read the previous post). I tried another time to persuade Pierre to have a ride but he didn't want ... Anyway, I took a pic of my two boys: the blue eyes and the brown eyes, ... in the car ... :

Steb stayed close to the snack table and when Chuy came back he wanted to wear his helmet so I snapped some pictures:

And he even went on a motorcycle but not for a ride ...

Bikers rock !!!!

Hope you all had a great week end

What a week ....

My friend Pumpkin has created a special chart for the breast cancer awareness month: check it out on her blog . You should follow her blog: she's very funny (especially when she does laundry ) and she's a great stitcher !!!

I now have 101 followers! Thanks to the 5 persons who decided to follow my blog. Who is the 100 th follower?

I am now on Facebook : Yvonne made me do it !!! (I swear !!! ) If you want to follow me there, my name is Chiloe Mu (I sound chinese that way but I'm not !!! I just didn't want to give my real name on the internet .) So far, I have resisted to ALL the facebook games ... (even though Cindy is trying to get me addicted ) but for how long?

Don't you like when you try to upload some pictures and a message from Blogger pops up telling you: Bad request ! What do you mean bad request? It's only cross stitch !!!

This week, we learned that the magazine De Fil en Aiguille that was loved by many stitchers is going bankrupt. The last issue was the one I showed you last week. I hope another publisher will buy the magazine because it is one of the best. My favorite designer, Veronique Enginger, was a regular contributor to the magazine. This is so sad. I bought an extra copy of the last issue with the botanic studies to do a give away one of these days!!! Do you like that idea? So stay tuned !!!

Chuy got a MP3 player from one of his best friend from California. The guy recorded 580 songs from their chidhood/ young years. It took us a while to find out how it works but we mastered the beast and since then , I have a pretty silent husband (he is usually very talktative .... very rare among men but I did marry an exception !!! That's what happen when you marry exotic bird ! ) , a husband who shouts "what?" very loud (with the earphones on ! ) , who sings (very loud as well) mexican songs or Michael Jackson songs. Then he makes me listen to songs (sometimes old boring mexican songs because that's what he likes ... ( while I'm more a rock and roll girl who loves energetic songs !!! ) and tells me: "it's good, isn't it? " ... Me: "you mean for a retirement home? "

I noticed it's been a while since I haven't showed some stash so here it is (yes, there are some but I couldn't resist a good bargain: I'm sure you understand me, right? )

I always loved that snowman:

A cutie:

Some Lanarte:

Another Vera.

And some sunflowers with the exact same style as my fuchsias: watercolor ( = lots of 1/2 ... but only with yellows and ... greens )

I won't show you any pictures of the fuchsias because I didn't stitch last night ...

Thanks to everyone who take time to leave me a comment: you always make my day !!! Have a great week end !!!

Pink anyone?

Fucshias are still here:

I stitched some green!!! Imagine green on 1 over 2 ... Yes, I did leave a lot of green for the end ...

And some pinks:

I did think I had stitched all the pinks but nope ... I still have some pinks to stitch around here:

I noticed I have some new followers: I hope you'll enjoy your visit here ! Four more and I'll have 100 followers ! Woohoo !!!!!!!!!!! Who wants to sign up ?

Sunday

Today I have a special thought for my bogging friend Velda who is about to start the biggest fight of her life. Please, keep her and her family in your thoughts or in your prayers. Thanks.

Am I still stitching? Yes, I am and actually an old friend came back !!! I haven't touched it for a long time and have started it 10 months ago to tell you the truth ... I started it on november 9 th 2008 and stitched it every day until febuary 6 th 2009; then I got tired of all the one over two around the design. So this is how it was in febuary after 3 months of stitching: (click to enlarge)

And this is how it was yesterday after an 8 months break:

And here are some details of what I stitched (and honestly I wonder what I'm stitching it as we can barely see it from far ... ):

All the pink on the bottom (I'll have to stitch some long stitches at the end) I still need to add some very pale pink.

Some pink around that one:

Some yellow around here:

And don't think I'm done ... I did leave a lot of 1/2 at the end. Silly me !!!

Have you heard about the Janlynn contest?

Janlynn is having a Dolly mamas contest! (all underlined red words are clickable.) I'm sure you have already seen those ladies with funny sayings like: all I want for Christmas is a nap, who are these kids and why are they calling me mom? or Bite me !!! All you have to do is to buy a Dolly kit at the Janlynn's site and add a dollyism to the design. What does it mean? You get to write your OWN statement !!! I'm sure you have lots of ideas for those. I know the cross stitching world is full of creative ladies and let's be honest about it: our life is full of funny, edgy moments that makes us think things like: Holy crap, now I have to wrap ( always happens to me at christmas time because for an unknown reason I am the official wrapper in the family ... still wonder who gave this tittle ) or it's official, I've become my mother (the scariest of all !!! )

I don't know if you have been to the Janlynn's site lately but they added a Heart of the stitchers (HOTS) where you can buy all you need to complete a cross stitch project or just the charts if you have all you need (it's called : get it my way !!! I love that !). You can add the fabric and what is great is that they sell the Zweigart fabrics which are for me the best fabrics on the market. I just wish they could also add some luganas ( 28 or 32 ct) for the lugana lovers like me !!!

So let's the fun begin !!!!! Go to Janlynn's to get started !!! I can't wait to see all the funny sayings stitchers will create !!! And you know a great thing about it? You can win up to $1000 !!!!!!!!!!

Newest progress

This is how far I went and how far I can go right now. I stitched all the DMC and all the Kreinik I had.

You can see some gaps in the umbrella: that's all the missing Kreinik ...

All the beading is left as well. Some stitchers told me I have to wash my fabric BEFORE beading: do you all agree with that? Yes, I'm very nervous with the whole beading thing ... I never did it and I want to do it right !!! I don't know why I'm putting so much pression on me ... Maybe because both Sweet Pea and Pansy are beautiful and I want to do the right thing

If you like flowers ...

You may like the new De fil en Aiguille, full of botanical studies of some of the most loved flowers.

Here are some pictures of the designs; which one is your favorite?

You can see some finished work here. Some french stitchers did a SAL's of those designs. You are going to see some finished work and some WIP.

I worked a little bit on the umbrella (mostly because last night I chatted with an old friend on Facebook !!! )

Have a great week end !!!!

Friday

Today, I feel down (but it actually started yesterday) I injured my bad knee after exercising ... It bothers me that I'm never able to exercise for more than three weeks ... So I guess I'll have to follow Dani's advice and try to loose weight by dieting only which seems soooo damn hard ... I hope I'll feel better soon because I hate feeling that way ...

I still having fun stitching on Miss Pansy: her umbrella (what is it actually? ) is so nice to stitch. I love the happy fun colors!

I'm already thinking about my next project: I have a Christmas banner from Dimensions and a little Halloween project (Teejay ) in mind. By the way, can we trust the conversion Dimensions colors to the DMC? I have an used chart without any threads left over so I'm wondering if we can trust those conversions.

Madame la fée has a new release: it's nice but I don't think I'll stitch it.

Crazy wednesdays ....

As you may remember, kids have the day off here on wedensdays so that means all the extra school activities are almost all during that day. This year, Emma still plays the violin and has her music class. Steb still goes to music school. But we have something new: they both tried tennis and loved it so they started a tennis class today. And you know what it means? More taxi duties ........ So it goes like this: Pierre goes to school at 8.30 - Emma: violin class: 10.00 - Steb tennis class: 10.30 - pick up Emma: 10.45 - Pierre school off: 11.05 - Pick up Steb: 11.30 - Emma tennis class: 11.30 (same place: yeah !!!! ) - Pick up Emma: 12.30 - LUNCH - Emma music class: 1.30 to 3.00 - Pierre speech therapy: 1.45 to 2.15. And because Steb cannot go to his music class on wednesday, he goes on tuesday evening from 5.00 to 5.45 pm. The good thing about it is that they both love what they are doing !!!!!!!!! I wish they could offer free massages while we wait for the kids Pierre wants to play hand ball but I haven't called the club yet .....

But maybe all you want is to see Miss Pansy? Here she is :

Now it's time for me to take a break and stitch !!!!!!

A good progress

I finally finished the skirt on my Pansy. To tell you the thruth I was getting tired of it: lots of purples ... But once I was done, I was able to move up to the top of her dress. I stitched the green very fast and I even started an arm. It took me 22 days to stitch her skirt ... Now, I think I'm going to run out of the Kreinik that was needed for the skirt (and that sucks big time because I don't have a lot of options: I'll have to make a mail order for it as I don't have a LNS close by ... ) and a purple DMC that I will have to pay a fortune to be able to keep stitching (but at least I can get it here ... ) So there are two possibilities: either I wasted too much Kreinik or I had to buy two of them and nobody told me ... I don't know anybody who stitched it so I can't tell ... It may be me after all.

Have you seen the new Pixies by Nora Corbett? I know some find them very simple. I like Lavender, I like her simplicity but I'm not sure, she will be a good match to Pansy and Sweet Pea. She's too simple, isn't she? What do you think?

My SIL got released from the hospital during the week. They didn't really find anything beside a dislocated knee and a dislocated vertebrae in her neck. What is weird is that she left the hospital with just a medecine. What about her knee? We don't know. They did tell her to loose weight but no words on what's going to be done for the knee ... And once again, it's hard to get informations from here ...

Summer is maybe over but I decided it was time for me to go back to an exercise routine in order to loose some weight. Maybe you remember I already tried, back in january. Unfortunately, I injured myself while exercising and couldn't get back to my routine then I gave up (oops ) Last week, I decided I really needed to loose some weight so I started to walk again with the Leslie Sansone DVD's but this time I decided to do it progressively: first week, one mile, second week, 2 miles and so on ... Because if my brain is ready for exercise, my body may not ... I didn't want to go too fast and injure myself again. I did weight myself and took the measure around my body and will weight myself only in 6 weeks. It may sound like an eternity but I read that's what it takes to really see results. So I'll wait . I created a new blog to keep me motivated, so bookmark it if you want to follow my (funny? ) journey in the weight loss world !!! Here is my new blog ! I hope you'll join me there to encourage me in this difficult quest !!!

Like a monday

Thanks again for your kind words for my SIL. She's going to see a neurologist tomorrow I think. First, they found a kyst in her back and they found it could be the cause of her lack of strenght but then they made more tests and found out the kyst is likely not responsible for her problems .... We still don't know if she got tested for MS ... Each time, Chuy speak with a family member, he gets differents opionions ... but what pisses him a lot is that they all say "don't worry about it! " How can he not worry about someone he cares a lot ???

Thanks also for understanding my irrational fears about Pierre. Your support means a lot to me. You know I don't really talk about it with people around me ...

Saturday morning, we went to a sport event where kids can try out different sports. Of course, Pierre was NOT willing to try anything ... even though he says he wants to play hand ball this year in a club. Steb, on the other hand, did try different sports and he especially loved tennis. The teacher told us 4 years old can play mini tennis so I'll see if I can get him in our city club. Emma also tried different sports and she liked tennis as well. Steb did a small poney ride that he enjoyed a lot. The lady told us they had a free poney ride on sunday.

So sunday, we went for the free ride. Emma tried to get one but like they already know her, they told her she was not allowed to get one but she could hold steb poney! She was very happy !!!

Here are some pics:

I now remember to use my camera to take a video (and you don't have to look at it upside down this time !!! ) He's really enjoying his ride !!!

Wanna see Pansy? Yep, she has some legs !

And look: seems like someone got smart today:

I think my neighbor's girlfriend FINALLY understood that if she wants uninterrupted sex in the afternoon, she better not parks her car in front of my garage !!! Do you think I should have rung the bell to say thanks?

Life - part 2

Thanks for your nice comments about my sister in law. Right now, she's in the hospital where they are going to do more testing. In my opinion, they should have admitted her in the begining instead of making her travel two hours each way, knowing that she can't really walk ... One guess is that she could loose some fluids from her brain but again, I don't have details and we don't know if it is really that ... I also thought it could be MS but I don't know if she got tested for that ... Chuy still worries a lot and gets lots of nightmares ... One day in Fort Worth, he got robbed at gun point and since that time, he gets nightmares when something worries him (usually in his dreams, people kill him or try to do so ... )

Earlier this week, I got another scare with Pierre: I discoverd some small bruises on his lower legs. Of course, my mind played its little scary movie right away ... I panicked , thought about what it could be, and what if ... You know the what if his cancer comes back ... In the morning, I decided to wait and see in the evening how were the bruises. I tried to convince my little brain that he eats well and doesn't complain about any legs pain. The bruises had dimished a litlle bit later that day so I decided to wait more. I think teenagers love to push each others and maybe he got bruises that way. Anyway, after five years, my fears are still here, they hide in a little corner of my mind and they are always very happy to surface when I don't expect it ... Hope one day I could stop worrying AND panicking.

Have you seen the new Lanarte fall collection? You know I'm a big fan, right? I was waiting for their new collection to come out and got very disapointed: no Marjolein Bastin this time ... I am now wondering if they still work with her ... I only like this design that would look great on a hand dye fabric !!!

Wanna see my Pansy? Here she is !!! The skirt takes forever but I'm sure the result is going to be great.

And today, I have a special thought for the 9/11 victims and the people who tried to save them and are now dying from the bad stuffs they breathed that day and the next ones ...

Life ...

I've been a little quiet this week. The reason is that one of my sister in law in Mexico ( do you believe I have 8 sisters in law in 3 differents countries? ) is sick. She's been sick for a while. She first started to fall once in a while and it came to the point that she can't really walk anymore. She did lots of tests but so far, they haven't found anything ... so we worry a lot. And when you live 9000 miles apart, you worry even more because you can't talk to the doctors, you get informations that may not be accurate, and you never know what family members could tell you so you don't worry ... Chuy worries a lot anyway ... He's very close to his sister. She took care of his younger brother and him when their mom passed away. She never got married, never had the children she's always wanted, she's the one who takes care of their aging father. Last time, she told Chuy that she knows she's going to die ... And he told me that before going to bed so that night, I didn't sleep very well ... We feel so helpless being so far away ...

Pierre went back to school on tuesday. We were instructed to just drop him off in front of the school and leave ! Remember when we had to get up every saturday morning last year because Pierre had school? Well, it's OVER !!!!! Instead, he has school on wednesday morning !!!

Emma and Esteban went back to school yesterday. Steb didn't really want to go back: he's already asking when are the next vacations ! Emma is estatic ! She has a great teacher and she goes to school with a big beaming smile in the morning !!!

The very day of back to school, Rain and Wind teamed up to bring us a fall like weather ... I was hoping for a nice back to school weather because we got such a great summer ... I guess it was a way to go back to the reality very fast ...

I kept stitching on Pansy as you can see below. There are a lot of kreinik in the skirt and I don't really enjoy stitching with them.

Today, I got my thread from Patou so I'm going to be able to finish Sweet Pea but I won't say anything to Emma in order to suprise her.

Sunflowers

Especially for Tammy who loves them !!! All my three sunflowers are showing their colors and they are beautiful. They are also a good larder for the bugs in the garden.

Here are some pics:

It's funny but one is black in the middle while the other ones are yellow/greens in the middle (I used the same seeds though).

Our big one bloomed !!!

Some guests are already enjoying the free restaurant !

Yesterday, we went to the seaside where the kids enjoyed some free rides during the afternoon.

We could have even gone to England as the ferry boat harbor was very close.

This little fellow let me take his picture:

But we were there for the free rides:

My Pansy? I'm stitching her but I have to admit I had more fun with Sweet Pea. The colors were more attractive to me. Once again, there is a big difference between the picture on the chart, where the colors appear to be in the blues, and the real colors: a mixed of blues and purples. Here it is:

New one !

I started my new project !!! Nobody guessed but it was easy if you follow my blog: it's Pansy by Nora Corbett. I'm stitching that one to put in Emma's bedroom. Here is my first progress. Emma told me: "that's it? You're going so slow on that one" ...

I took a larger pic so you can see the fabric I'm using: it's a 28 ct shimmering spring sky opalescent by SMF. (one of my few fabrics from this company)

I'm not sure to stitch tonight as I have a headache ...

I'm stuck

I hurt my back monday morning right after I got up ... doing nothing, just bending over to grab something ... (on a 30° angle) I guess I slept in a bad position ... Anyway, I feel a little better,not great but better.

I'm also stuck because I can't stitch on my fairy anymore ... See when I started to stitch that one, I realized I was missing the Caron waterlilly and when I talked about it on a bulletin board, someone told me I could replace it by a Caron wildflower and that's what I did. Big mistake !!! A wildflower is more like a pearl cotton so it cannot be use for backstitching : it's too thick ... I'm surprised nobody warned me on the bulletin board ... But I'm lucky: Patou, an incredible stitcher (check her blog: here ) ordered two of these threads so she's going to sell me one of her wildflower. But I stitched all I could do with the regular threads and the kreiniks and I have to stop right here: ( it is enlargable like always ):

And a larger view of the wings:

And I prepared my next project because I need to keep busy, right?

Thanks for your nice comments on my last post !!! It's so nice to read them !!!