I want to wish all my American friends happy Thanksgiving and so I decided to collect what I can be thankful for.

• I'm thankful for the internet because it made me possible to have amazing friends all over the world.
• I'm thankful for living in a country where women's rights to get a job, own property and get a divorce are self-evident.
• I'm thankful for living in the 21st century where vaccination, clear drinking water, heating, electricity and various forms of telecommunication are available.
• I'm thankful for globalization that lets me have a Big Mac with french fries while watching Japanese anime on my Samsung telly and making a phone call on my Nokia.
• I'm thankful for holiday sales that let me buy stash and make me feel like I'm saving money. :)
• I'm thankful for all our bad teeth because is shows we can afford candy.
• I'm thankful for all the clutter in our home, it shows we can buy more stuff than we need to survive and that we have more important things to do with our time than cleaning all the time.
• I'm thankful for frogging, because it shows I've been enjoying something else (movies, conversations) while stitching.
• I'm thankful for Lady Gaga, now I no longer feel like the weirdest person I know.
• I'm thankful for yesterday's blackout, it reminded me how much fun one can have by folding origami birds by candlelight.
• I'm thankful for the nights I spend alone, I didn't have so much time to think and re-evaluate things in years.
• I'm thankful for my financial problems because now I can appreciate what I have even more.
• I'm thankful for the cold because it drove a hungry black kitten to my doorstep where it's meowing every evening 'till I give it food and milk. If I can tame it, I'll keep it.
• I'm thankful for my ex-husband for helping me understand what I want and what I don't in a relationship.
• I'm thankful for all the annoying teenagers I come across, they make me love my age and maturity.
• I'm thankful for all the arguments I have with my parents and  sister, it shows they are still alive and caring about me (even if in a bit suffocating way) whether I ask for it or not.
• I'm thankful for blogging because it lets me vent.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

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!

Robin is celebrating her blogoversary by organizing a giveaway! Click HERE to check it out and enter the draw before Thanksgiving!

I finally finished part 7 and 8 of  my Christmas sampler and scanned it. I'm not sure if it will fit in the scanner next time! I didn't print part 9 yet, I might need to buy a new ink cartridge before. Which worries me, as it's rather expensive. There is the option of having the cartridge refilled, but I heard some cases when it was done so badly it spilled out of the cartridge and ruined the printer. Anyone knows anything certain about this topic? I have no idea, just rumours but no facts.

I got another great package from Granma Jane, again two issues of the Stoney Creek Cross Stitch magazine and a hand made Christmas tree ornament as a bonus! Plus I got some nice postcards from an exchange in one of my favourite Yahoo groups. And I even treated myself to a Heritage kit by John Clayton that I wanted to stitch since the first time I saw it. And since I've been browsing those kits I decided to make a collage wish list just for fun!

I haven't been stitching a lot lately. I got a bit lazy with my Christmas sampler, so now I'm stitching part 7 and 8 together to catch up. I can't take my time because part 9 is already available on Carole's website.
I don't know why I'm acting as if I didn't know what to do with all the empty hours of my time, but I did sign up for a HAED stitch-a-long as well! Not sure what made me do it, don't even ask! HAED simply makes me weak. I cannot resist their beautiful designs! Misery and cross stitching likes, what's more, craves company, so if you want to sign up, you can do that on the HAED message board, come along!
I spent four days at my parents with my amazing little girl. I missed her so much! She got better, waved her cough good-bye, so she is back in kindergarten again. Good thing too, she simply loves that place.
By the way, on this picture she is sitting on Granpa's head. Yes, she's allowed to do that. When she is at Gran's house, she is allowed to do whatever she likes. I'm not particularly happy with that, but what can I do? I need their support.
For the four days I dusted off an older WIP and took it with me. I worked on that single project for the time I spent there. Tamara was really delighted by my choice, because she loves tigers just as much as her mommy does. Here you go, this is my latest progress picture:

Never again lick the floss right after eating chocolate. Never.

... that I posted my previous entry without giving it a title. That is how disorganized I am recently. That's all I wanted to say.

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!