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.