A new life

Sorry to have disappeared from the net for so long. First of all, you may know that after spending three years at my parents' home, my daughter had returned and is now permanently staying with me, where she belongs. She started her schooling on the 1st of September and although she sometimes whines about getting up early, she loves her teachers and most subjects. Apart from the usual classes, she also takes a bunch of extras in the afternoon, such as ballet, folk dancing, singing, crafting, playful English, computer use and junior mathlete club. Might sound a lot, but she asked to take part and I full-heartedly supported her decision.
Unfortunately, I had to give up on a lot of things thanks to the new schedule we have. First of all, stitching. I simply do not have the kind of time and energy it requires. I didn't stitch at all since Tamara is back home. I sometimes think of it, but most of the times I am too tired to even miss it. I wasn't prepared mentally or physically to look after the needs of a child all on my own. I guess as I grow stronger and get used to doing everything, I will be able to find more time for myself.
Second, I had to seriously cut back internet time. Now I have to hunt for jobs in the morning, and share the computer with DD in the afternoon, so idle chatting and browsing is just out of the question. I had to give up on World of Warcraft as well. Tami has to be in bed at 8 p.m. at the latest, so I wouldn't be able to raid, as we have a single room apartment and she couldn't sleep with my talking on vent and hitting the keys near her. Not to mention that I still can't afford subscribing. *sigh* I miss playing with my excellent guild though. So many friends I used to chat with daily.
Even with stitchy blogs and emails, now I just scan through them instead of the thorough reading they are worthy of. So sad it has to be this way, but single moms have to make sacrifices and I'm not really complaining as it was my choice and I stand by it.
I have not been able to watch any live telly in September, thank the gods for teevo. Got totally hooked on the reruns of Battlestar Galactica.
Still unemployed and broke. I will go through my stash this weekend and put up a bunch of leaflets and kits for sale, because I ran out of ideas on how to get more cash.
The past two weeks were tough as the computer broke down and I had withdrawal issues. :) A friend of mine fixed it for me and now I am in the process of reinstalling my old software, which starts with somehow locating installation CD's I haven't seen in years. I hope to keep you posted on how we adapt to our new way of life.

Mandala design

I spent the weekend with my baby, so I couldn't be bothered to blog. Partly because I was having such a good time with my girl, and partly because she was camping the computer. She has a bunch of games she likes to play on the Nickelodeon website and a Hungarian site. She also loves drawing on the computer. For a six-year-old, she is very good with the mouse. I spotted a mandala maker on one of her favourite sites and decided to play around with it. I'm sharing the link in case you want to give it a go. The buttons speak for themselves, so I don't think you will need instructions. I just wish I could hold the mouse a bit more steady. Some of my lines are too shaky!

Blogging to calm my nerves

Mom and I are on the phone every hour. All the rivers in Hungary are flooding, crashing through dams, destroying homes all over the country. All these weeks of raining have washed so much soil away, many homes are in danger, even the walls of Budapest castle may fall down in several places because of it.
My parents and sister live near the Danube and the situation there is very serious. Mom keeps asking me if there are any updates on the web, I keep asking her if they are safe. I'm worried sick for them. I couldn't even sleep so I fixed the printer at night. Now I can scan too. Here is the lost and found Lanarte mini and my progress on Feasting Frenzy. Soon it will not fit in the scanner. I feel helpless, all I can do is rearrange my stash to keep myself from biting my nails.

I'm planning to start working on Cirque des Circles by Ink Circles sometime soon. I already have the floss and fabric. For me it was difficult to pick the colours because there are so many lovely threads! But I made up my mind.
The chart I got from Pat in New Mexico as a surprise gift! I simply left a few kind words on her blog when she finished this project and she decided to just sent the chart to me! To honour her generosity I decided to do the same when I am done. But that won't be tomorrow, lol!
By the way, if you wanna see more lovely Ink Circles designs in the making, you can always click on this blog where stitchers share their progress pictures.

Update

I have disappeared for some time again. My BWO membership stops me from apologizing. I can't say I was busy, I was "only" depressed. I spent my time mostly by leveling various Facebook creatures, whether they are slaying dragons, running restaurants or working on a virtual farm.
My soon-to-be-ex and I had another court appearance last week, now there's only one more before the divorce is final. I am still on a job hunt and the financial problems are not making it easier to fight my condition.
I tried to participate in the 100-stitch challenge one of my Yahoo mailing boards started, where everyone was supposed to do at least 100 stitches daily throughout May, and I did start off nicely, but eventually, as the courtroom date came closer, failed. I stopped stitching for two weeks completely. Instead, I rearranged my stitchy and scrapbooking stash around the flat so now I cannot find anything :P but at least it kept my mind away from the divorce and saved my from crying.

I also visited my daughter a lot more in May. She is the loveliest little lady ever. In this picture below she and I are in kindergarten just after she told me a Mother's Day poem. You see the little heart in my hand that she stitched for me for this special occasion, and yes, if you take a close look at my eyes, it is obvious I cried.

I found the mini kits I lost and mentioned in my previous post. They fell behind the table. Unfortunately I cannot scan them as my scanner/printer is acting silly ever since I last changed cartridges. I should re-install the software but I just can't be bothered. Plus, I have no idea where the CD is.

I was hoping that spring would help me fight depression, but the weather is mostly rubbish, thanks to which we had several floods in the country. And the threat is not gone yet, as we are expecting further weeks of rain.

To end the entry on a positive note, I wanna share a link I just came across. If you click HERE, you will be able to see 40 amazing houses that were inspired by various fairy tales. I would love to live in any of them. You can't really be depressed in a whimsical home like that, can you?

Grandma RAKd me

Some of you might remember that I have the most amazing virtual Grandma' in the world. She might live on the other side of the Atlantic, but that doesn't stop her from spoiling me like I was her granddaughter by blood.She decided to send me all the magazines and leaflets she doesn't intend to stitch and I already got the first package she mailed. It had two leaflets by StitchWorld and two of my beloved Stoney Creek magazines.

For all those new to my untraditional family, allow me to present to you some of the wonderful works of my beloved Granma Jane.

Granma Jane's stitching

New flame

I have a new hobby. I just discovered this site called Polyvore where one can create collages online from thousands of pictures, outfits and accessories. One can even upload pictures for everyone to see and use. To me it is like scrapbooking. I fell in love with it at first try. Now that I have decided to spend more time pampering my creative side, I registered there and published my first sets. If you are interested, take a look and tell me what you think!

Untitled by Jade_reloaded featuring Tibi dresses

New template

As the first step of the re-launch of my blog, I downloaded and added this beautiful template you can see right now from the Blogger Templates site. I wasn't sure I can do it, but there is also a very helpful tutorial that finally did the trick for me.

I still owe you the finished image of the seasonal stitch I have done last summer. It was a model stitching job and was featured in the yearbook of the Hungarian cross stitch mag. Have a look:

From Finished stitching

Picturelessness and other technical problems

Shoot, my camera is broken, therefore I cannot take any pictures. And when I say camera, I think of the device taking photos. We have recently purchased the kind of camera that records moving pictures, if you know what I mean. Native English speakers, please help me out!

Anyway, now I can tape my baby girl's singing and dancing. I have even created a YouTube addy and hope to upload those little scenes soon. For now I cannot download them to the computer because we cannot install the camera's softwares. Our CD drive is dead too.

I have complained about this on my Yahoo! boards but for those who have missed it: we had record breaking heat waves in Hungary during the past couple of weeks. Our computer is unfortunately located at the warmest spot of the flat which often led to a number of emergency shutdowns. This made it impossible to do much work at the computer, so I couldn't update my blog or answer my mail as frequently as I wanted. One day the PC gave up completely, and moved to the other side of the rainbow, advertising its departure with a loud "pop" and a blackout. After switching electricity back on and getting rid of the smoke, we bought some spare parts for it, including a new power supply unit with a more effective ventillating device. Since then, our PC has been running more smoothly and with less noise. However, certain parts refuse to work, including our CD-drive.

Lucky for me that the scanner is working just fine. This way I can keep my HAED progress updated. I stitch on Magic Witch every week, at least for a couple of hours. I still have a lot to stich on my Round Robins too. Here is a scan of my latest finish. It's Birthday Flowers by Jeremiah Junction and I stitched the last segment, the Lily-of-the-valley.

As you an see, I have been trying to redesign my blog too. I'm afraid I'm not very good at it. I tried to use some free blog skins, but I can't use them without using all the extra info - links and stuff - I have at the sidebars. I have not given up yet, but I am a little bit frustrated. I haven't even figured out how to use my Yahoo Avatar! Whatever, at least I have added at least a dozen more stitching blog addresses. I have been planning to do that for months. My goals may be far, but I am getting there anyway!

The big WIP line up

I have put together a show of all the major WIP projects I have started. Some of these you may not have seen because I only got as far as a couple of stitches, but at least I am that far. :)