Still here but hurting

I just wanted to let you know that I am still here eventhough my blog has been silent for a while. I've had bad joint pains on my fingers and wrists for weeks so I haven't been able to do any stitching or anything else. I've seen a doctor twice this week and now I am on one week sick leave. I hope that it helps and my hands stop hurting. But I might have to quit my new job since it's the reason for this and the doctor said it's only going to get worse. I have one small stitching that I need to finish this week so I try to sew a bit every now and then and try not to put too much strain on my hands.

As I try to rest and get my hands in better shape I also wish the spring will come back. For a couple of days we've had sleet. I have already bought some new things for our backyard and I can't wait to see the flowers starting to grow. :)

Very late birthday gift to Kirsi

I'm taking part in a Birthday exchange in Finland and now I even remember that I do... This is what happened. I got the email about my exchange partners in early October last year. Well I had just heard a few days earlier that I lost my job. I wasn't feeling very well then and I didn't put the date to my exchange calendar like I usually do. So I totally forgot the exchange and the dates. On March our exchange host emailed me asking if the package had been lost in mail since the birthday girl hadn't received it. I was so embarrased when I had to tell her that no it was not lost in mail since it doesn't even exist! So so embarrassing...  I promised I will get right to it and started to stitch the present. I had a great start but then we got in the middle of selling our home and buying a new appartment (and after all the hassle someone else made an offer that the seller approved so we didn't get the new home we wanted). Finally this Monday I got the present in mail and luckily Kirsi liked it a lot. :)

I stitched a part of chart called "Flowery Heart" by Cross Stitchers Club. I sewed a sewing caddy from a brown fabric, "Blush" Layer Cake by Moda Fabrics and bias strip. I didn't find model for this so I made up my own. I had seen pictures of sewing caddys in internet and liked them a lot. I thought Kirsi might want to use it as a cross stitch project bag. It has six pockets on the outside for all the bits and pieces. The chart for the card is from Mausimom's blogi and it's called the "Vogelpaarherz". The present also included two thread winders from The Gift of Stitching shop and two needle threaders (with cutting blades).  You can see a good pic of the whole present in  Kirsi's blog since as usual I forgot to take a photo of the whole thing. :D

Many blogs have had spring photos. Well we can't take photos like that since it's still very wintery here in Finland but these photos show that the snow is melting here too. :) We had these beautiful icicles hanging from our gutters. Longest ones were almost one meter long. When the sun shines they sparkle like diamonds.

I felt like baking on Wednesday so I made these yummies, carrot cupcakes. I made those little marzipan carrots myself too. :) As my hubby didn't like these (he is not a big fan of cream cheese... go figure...) I took some to work with me yesterday so I didn't have to eat ALL of them alone. :) It did not take long until they were all eaten. :)

Stitched mailarts and a baby gift

I took part in Finnish stitched mailart exchange and stitched an assisi styled envelope to Lumivalko from the blog Lumivalko ja Ruusunpuna (written in Finnish). The chart is called "Americano" and it's from a magazine  Ricami d'Assisi, I ordered it from Casa Cenina. The magazine has many beautiful assisi charts. Inside the envelope I put two cards and two stamps. I found a perfect rose stamp to the envelope but sadly it was lost in mail and also the other one of the fairy stamps that I put inside was lost too.
I stitched this on white 28ct Brittney evenweave with DMC thread 321.

Front:

Back:

Details:

The dotted lining:

One of the cards had a saying that is perfect for us crafty people. :)

"Ihminen jolla on mielikuvitusta,
ei laske luvuissa vaan mahdollisuuksissa."
("A person who has imagination
doesn't count numbers
but possibilities instead.")

I got an mailart form Marja. She stitched me a beautiful mailart with birdhouses and sent me two matching cards too. And as I like sheep she put in a sheep stamp and one frog stamp in too.

My cousin had a baby girl in January and I stitched a present for her. It's very similar to the one I sent to my friend for her son, a pacifier pouch and a bunny. For the pouch I stitched  Little 'Uns chart Baby Newton from the Cross Stitch Card Shop magazine, issue 65. I stitched it on white 28ct Brittney evenweave, with one over one. I used both Anchor and DMC threads. Charts for the bunny are from the World of Cross Stitching magazine, issue 126.

Details:

Sewed and stitched a bit

Life is full of surprises and we have really seen that in this past week or two. We found out that an appartment that is perfect for us was coming on sale. After that we have been busy with cleaning and arranging our appartment so it's ready to put on sale, meeting with the realtor several times, having appointments with the bank about bigger mortgage etc. And did I mentioned cleaning? It's a big job to get the appartment in top shape for showings. And if all that wasn't enough I also had a job interview this week and on Friday I found out I got the job! :) Next week we'll go to the bank again, I'll sign the employment contract, we'll put in an offer for the appartment and I will start my new job. It's not my dream job but the main thing now is to have a job. It's not a horrible job either so I'm sure I will do ok there. :) I will keep looking for a more suitable and better paying job.

So as I mentioned we have been cleaning and we also took some of our stuff to store elsewhere to make more room. I had a few bags of fabric that I didn't want to leave on sight but didn't want to put away either so I started to sew. :) I sewed a pair of decorative pillows to our bedroom. The white fabric is embroidered with white thread and it looks really pretty. I also put the new curtains up and the matching pillow cases to our old decorative pillows.

 

 

I also sewed two new pillow cases for pillows on our couch.

 

And as I got on so well with my sewing machine I continued and sewed these bench covers for our sauna. Thay have already been used so they are a bit wrinkly.

I haven't had time to stitch a lot this week but I put a few stitches in to my jungle. A shy-ish hippo is taking its shape.

A new look for my blog's header

As I still had my Christmassy header on I decided it was time to do some changes.  WhenI did the Christmas look I made the backround so that it's not too Christmassy and can be used later too. For the new header I took a really pretty swirly circle, twisted and added my blog's name around it and added some shading. I have wanted to use this circle for some time but didn't have the idea how. This evening the inspiration hit me. :)

New parts:
Solid Gold Swirls alphabets are a freebie by Marie Stones from Free Digital Scrapbooking.
Swirly circle is from a kit called "Beautiful things" that I have bought, it's by Mel from A+ Designs.

I think this could also work as my blog's button. :)

2010 Weekly SAL - 7th week

Jungle post again. I hope you don't get bored with these. :) I want to thank you all for the lovely comments that you've left to my jungle posts. I too love the vibrant colours of this project and it's a whole lot of fun to stitch this.

Last week I did the backstitching on the anteater and letter A and started to stitch the "header" part of the chart. Still some backstitching to be done on the header and then I will stitch another animal. I was thinking that in the end of March I need to have 1/4 stitched of this whole project to be in schedule and it seems that I will reach that easily. So there is a big change I will get this done by the end of 2010. :)

2010 Weekly SAL - 6th week

My jungle grows a bit by bit. Last week I backstitched the leaves and stitched the letter A and the anteater that lurks behind the A.

I've had a bad case of sniffles and that has taken almost all my strenght and when I've had some energy I have been cleaning an old drawer. My guess is that as it's more than a hundred years old it hasn't been cleaned properly in at least fifty. :) I brought it home last week, until now it has been at my grandma's. My grandfather gave it to me when I was little. He passed away some years ago and the drawer has a huge motional value for me. I will now clean it properly and then sand and wax it next summer when I can do it outside.

I think that I have sneezed my brains out since I forgot to post my SAL update on the SAL blog on Sunday. :D Here's the pic how it looked like on Sunday. Not much progres after that.

It's a boy!

My friend had her first child on 16th of January and she got a cutest little boy I've ever seen! I immidiately started to stitch something for the boy when I heard that he was born. I stitched him a ready-to-stitch bunny and a Somebunny to Love designs which I finished as a pacifier pouch. They live so far away that I sent these in post and I got a message today (with a photo of the baby holding the bunny, so sweet!) that they had received the gift so here are some pictures. :)

 

The Somebunny chart I stitched for the pacifier pouch is from The World of Cross Stitching magazine, issue 140. I stitched it on white 28ct Brittney evenweave fabric, 1 over 1. It's tiny little bunny, only about 4,1 x 3,6cm. :)

  

On the bunny's bib I stitched a blue elephant and a mouse from The World of Cross Stitching magazine, issue 126. I changed the colours of the elephant to DMC 341 and 3747 since the original colours were more turquoise than blue and didn't fit the colour of the bunny. This one is stitched with 2 strands on the bib's aida fabric.

 

Here are some pictures of the pacifier pouch. It has velcro on the strap so it can be attached to a diaper bag or to a pram. I have seen some of these in the internet but I didn't find a pattern so I made one myself.