New tradition

The new year doesn't officially start until I start stitching on a new Mirabilia! That is a brand new rule I have just decided to turn into a tradition. This time it's Red. I mentioned how much I wanna stitch her and one of my most beloved friends mailed me the chart as a R.A.K..
I don't do resolutions because they are a pain in the back to stick to. I am a single mom with depression but no job, I have enough on my plate already. If I made any resolutions I would only beat myself up about not sticking to them 100% to the letter and would just make my life unnecessarily hard for myself. The last resolution I ever made was to just stop doing that to myself. I do have some vague plans of what I want to do in 2014, but as a true pirate, I tend to think of them more like guidelines rather than an actual set of rules. ;-) So here are my rough sketches of things to do:
   Enjoy the moment. Life is a series of moments. Several decades worth of moments, but still.
   Enjoy my body. It is fully functional and it wasn't always like that. No matter how long ago it happened, I can recall what it felt like to be pushed around in a wheelchair. The real reason for me to work out is not about weight or looks, it's the sheer joy of being able to do it. I will keep reminding myself how much I love it to inspire myself to get more exercise.
   Improve my craft. I've been cross stitching for over 20 years, but I only learned about specialty stitches some 18 months ago. At first I was not even that interested, but then I stitched the Tree of Stitches by Abi Gurden and I got hooked. This year I will try and learn several stitches, learn their name, origin, history, use, everything.
   Stop wasting time on things that don't really matter. Often I do things I could not care less about simply because I think they are expected of me. Not as often as I used to, but still. I wanna stop.
   Spend less time with people who just use me and more with the ones that truly care about me.
   Spend time to figure out what I wanna be when I grow up. If I could pick anything, it would be the Doctor's companion, but I wanna find something to do until the T.A.R.D.I.S. materialises outside my door.
   Last but most importantly. Have even more fun with my girl. It is clear to me that we are different. She is forever moving and active. My favourite activities start with taking a seat in a comfortable armchair. She will never have the patience to stitch or read like I did, she can't wait to leave the cinema after a movie, she does her drawings in several sessions because she can't sit still to finish in one go. It's not easy to accept that. I can do it most days but not always. I will try and find more ways we can spend time together and make them good times too.

Progress and S.E.X.

I've been stitching a lot lately, obviously I cannot show you the secret project, but I can inform you that it is growing steadily and I even started another minor secret project I am about to finish and reveal. Here are my progress pictures and a photo of my recent purchases. Yes, I've been a bad girl and increased my stash yet again.

Game time!

Okay, I am still working more hours than I'm comfortable with, but at the same time I am happy with the direction my life is taking, and to celebrate that I decided to host a little game. I call it "guess the HAED" and it pretty much describes what you must do. Last month Kelly from GA decided to RAK me on my birthday, which was awfully nice of her and caught me by surprise. It made me look through my HAED stash and regardless of the WIPocalypse madness I have going on, I just had to start working on one of them! It also inspired this bit of fun. 

So here's the rules: 

1, Kelly, I love you, but sadly, you are disqualified. :) 

2, You may go through the HAED website, but please don't look at my wish list for clues!

3, If you believe you identified the project, leave a comment with the name of the design you think it is. One guess per player please!

4, If one person gets it right, he/she gets a small prize. 

4.1, If more people get it right, I will pick one of them for the prize.

4.2, If no one gets it right, everyone takes part in the sweepstake.

5, You have until midnight of July 17th to guess.

6, I will publish the results here on my blog.

7, Kelly will be compensated for not being able to take part. ;)

So start guessing and good luck!

Edited to add: okay, I take back rule two, you can look at my WL if you wish. But really, leaving a comment with any HAED design that has blue in the top left corner will get you in the draw, so as I said in my comment, consider this a giveaway! :)

I have also removed word verification, as I have to approve every comment anyway, so no point. 

RAKed by a non-stitcher

You may remember that I paused on the Christmas SAL I'm in because I ran out of floss and the shop that carried The Gentle Art gave in to recession and closed. Thankfully, another online friend of mine that I met on a gardening website volunteered to buy me some floss. I asked her for three skeins of the Raspberry Parfait shade and promised to cover the bill. Imagine my surprise when the envelope contained a whole bunch of other colours and a gift note! When I contacted her, all she said was "well, I had a good month and you had a crappy one with the divorce and everything, so just lean back and carry on stitching."  Isn't she amazing? Who said there is no good in this world?

By the way, did I say non-stitcher? It may not be true for long, as it seems I infested her with the stitching virus! I give it a few months and she will join our ranks!

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.

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

Touched by an Angel

Less than an hour after I wrote my previous, deeply depressed blog entry, someone knocked on my door. It was the mailman. He gave me a huge, snowman-covered envelope. I didn't recognize the handwriting but I could see immediately that it came from the other side of the Atlantic.

My first thought was: oh my gosh, someone must have misanderstood one of my mails and added me to an exchange by mistake. Now I have been sent something and must spend from my limited supply of cash to buy something in return. But how could it happen?

Anyway, I opened the envelope. I found loads of charts, floss, fabric, a button and even a kit! But I was most interested in the little envelope's content, which, I was sure, would explain what had happened. And it did...

Dear Vikki, bless you, bless your children, your whole family, group of friends, bless your hometown, your country! Your letter brought tears into my eyes when I read it, and again when I phoned my husband to brag about what excellent friends I found on the World Wide Web, and now again while I'm typing. You remembered what a terrible financial situation we're in and cared enough to let me know you're paying attention. You knew that a couple of charts worth stitching can make a whole life worth living. You took the time to pack up a bunch of angel themed items to remind me how they are watching over us. I sure believe they do so and I am sure that many of them live among us, disguised as stitchers, performing Random Acts of Kindness whenever they are most needed. And no one in the world would convince me that you are not one of them!

Thank you, I cannot say enough times, thank you so much, I will cherish every one of them as long as I will live. By the way, the little angel button has been spoken for - my baby daughter likes it so much she asked me to give it to her. I will stitch it on a ribbon and put it in her hair so the angel can follow her around and keep her safe. I have been blessed with wonderful friends and when I think about my daughter's future, first of all I wish her good health and right after that, but just as important, I wish her friends like you.

May as many angels watch over you as many eyes were filled with tears of joy because of your kindness! I love you. Your kids hit the jackpot on the lottery of life when they were born into your family. May the angels always remind them of this.