Good progress, bad scanning

I have managed to stitch a great deal on the Permin piece. I found a way to speed up my progress. Usually I kept my chart on my lap while stitching on the couch. But last week I have decided to grab some bluetack and fix the chart on the wardrobe door next to my stitching spot. This way it is not covered and still always close enough for my eyes to see. I can't believe I didn't think of this before!

Unfortunately, my camera is still not back, so I can only use the scanner to provide you with progress pictures. But now the piece is too big and I was rather sleepy when I jammed the fabric into the machine, that is why it looks so twisted and wrinkled. It's even blurry in places where the fabric didn't touch the scanner glass surface. 

The more important yet less pleasant news: Tamara is sick again. Some kind of a bowel virus that makes her throw up and causes diarrhea. It also raised her temperature. Poor little monkey of mine, she is no longer running and jumping around, she is just resting in her bed and watching cartoons. Normally she would be making mischief and be incredibly cute while doing it, making it impossible for the adults to be mad at her, but not now. Poor thing, she was still weak after the H1N1 vaccination when she went back to kindergarten, maybe that is why she caught this other virus so easily. 

Here is a photo from last week when she let my sister curl her hair and put some glittering make up on her face. She's my little princess. Just when I thought she couldn't possibly get any more beautiful.

Okay, here we go.
I got all the papers I need for my divorce. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. We have decided to not let any lawyers go close to our case because 1, we cannot afford it and 2, we both really wanna remain friends and kinda fear that would be a lot harder if we invited lawyers to take part in the process. We just want this divorce to go smoothly and as fast as possible. Call me prejudicial or malignant but I don't think that would be the best interest of a lawyer who gets paid by the hour. So we inquired about what to do and been told that we just have to write a letter stating when we met, when we got married, what went wrong, how long it lasted, plus the financial details, etc. After listening to the list of what must be included I asked the clerk "isn't there some kind of form we can just fill out" to which she said "sure", reached to the shelf behind her back and handed over the papers. SERIOUSLY, WHY NOT START WITH THAT? As if divorcing wasn't stressful enough without having to deal with clerks who are either dumb or just totally apathetic. Sheesh.

Okay, now some good news. The mailman brought me my copy of the Hungarian Keresztszemes Magazin and this time he even managed to properly insert it into my mailbox. Which is huge, I bought it specifically so I can subscribe to mags and not get them folded into four. Anyway, I have been collecting the free kits that subscribers get for... as long as they were there, and since I got every issue, you can imagine the pile. I store them all in a big shoe box. But last month I made a resolution to not procrastinate anymore and so I decided to stitch the mini kits right away!

I did it too, here are these cute little trees. The kits were supposed to have three shades of green in them, but no matter how hard I looked, I could only tell two apart, so I added the darker greens from my DMC collection. The darkest one is number 500, on the other tree I didn't pick one that is too dark, it's just a different shade. (If that makes any sense.)

I have spent more time on the Permin kit as well. It is slowly but surely expanding beyond the screen size of my scanner, but since my camera is always where my daughter is, which is over 60 kilometers from here, I had to jam my fabric into the machine. How else am I gonna show you my progress? Here, take a look!

Happy Halloween!

I wanna wish all my friends happy Halloween and/or Samhain!

This is what my Christmas sampler by Carole looks like right now. I just printed part 7 and hope to stitch it tomorrow.

I worked on the Permin butterfly kit too. As you can see, I will soon finish the central section and will start to literally stitch outside the box. :)

I have made such a great progress I keep surprising myself! But finally I can dream of buying new stash without feeling guilty about my ever growing WIP lineup. I already know that I will buy me a new kit by Permin of Copenhagen. This above picture is nice but not really my cup of tea. My husband chose it, that's why he's the one who will be getting it. Me, I would like to have one of these on my wall:

 What do you think? Are they lovely or what?

I will go and set up another wish list on my web album now. That's what I always do in times of turmoil. Today I helped my husband pack his things, he is leaving. We are about to write the official letter that we must hand in to the court... that is, we file for divorce. I feel rather strange now. Half of me is scared of what is going to happen, and the other half cannot actually believe that it is really happening. I'm 35 and I am about to divorce for the second time. It's hard to not say "life sucks", even if I know that it really doesn't. My parents help me despite all our arguments, I have a most amazing child, I'm more or less healthy and still young. I have a roof above my head and food in my fridge, I have 24 hr online connection to the world, HBO digital, a multi-functional scanner/printer/fax machine and enough stash for the next decade. I have friends in all continents. I speak two languages and can kinda read two more, and my IQ is so high Mensa needs extra tests to specify it. I'm tall and thin and have excellent skin. And yet... life kinda sucks right now.

Stitchy update

My whole life is turning upside down, but it's not easy to even think about it, let alone put it into words and then publish it on the world wide web, so I'm discussing one topic at a time, starting with the easiest one. Stitching.

This is the picture I am working on right now. It's a Permin of Copenhagen kit and I just love it! I have never made so much progress in such a little time!

This is a kit my husband chose some years ago and now I'm stitching it for him. This is the one of two pieces he will be taking with him when he's leaving the place that was our home for the past 6 years. The other one is the little blonde girl watering flowers. I stitched that for his birthday the same year our baby was born.

I also started dyeing some fabric. I had to dye a piece for Emma's Garden. I bleached a piece of blue fabric years ago, but instead of yellowish, it became some ugly greyish white and I didn't like it. I halved the dyeing time on the package but still it turned out to be a darker yellow than I wanted. Never mind, I made my mind up and even started the first few stitches.

I used the leftover dye to come up with this lovely piece of aida here. I have no idea what I'm gonna stitch on it, but I really love it.

Still no progress on Deepest Love. I just put that one away for a while. I'm not ready to finish her yet.

Next time on Stitch and Serve: housekeeping and other curses.