Cute kit

This is a kit by Lanarte that my mother picked for herself. She really loves small birds, especially song birds. All winter long she makes sure they have enough food in the bird feeder in our back garden. And a very busy feeder it is too! Every time I visit, there are a big bunch of feathered friends feasting. Which is why I gave her the Dimensions birdhouse I stitched earlier this year. I hope I can finish this kit before Christmas! 

Below is the progress I made in a month.

Finished frenzy

The crosses were done for over a year by the time I forced myself to finish all the pesky backstitching on this one, but I did finish just in time for my mother's birthday. Here it is all finished and framed, and now I cannot stop happy dancing.

Feasting Frenzy by Dimensions

In the meantime

I shared a lot of non-stitching stories in the past day, but I have been busy doing the little x-s despite not mentioning them. I think I mentioned frogging the ballerina's hair, that is gonna happen soon. Right now I am working mainly on Feasting Frenzy. My parents have a bird feeder in the backyard that is visited mostly by blue tits and great tits (which in Hungary have a name that translates to coal tit because of the black cap they have) and blackbirds. Everyone in my family adores them. So my mom really wants to have that picture stitched, framed and hanging on her wall. I have made really great progress and will soon start doing the backstitching!

Survived Valentine

Valentine's day, the would-be-anniversary and the first court visit in my divorce case are all behind me.

*phew*

That is pretty much what I have to say about that. I tried to dodge the lovey-dovey period of the year, but it is very difficult when my usual escapade reality, World of Warcraft, has a two week long Love Festival scheduled on all its realms. Thankfully I got the relevant achievement last year, so I could concentrate on other activities.

I wasn't very active on my stitch related mailing groups or blogs either. I tried to avoid everything pink and heart-shaped, as in my present state of mind it only triggers a "bah, humbug" comment from me, and I didn't want to spread my bitterness. I'll get over it. I've been a good girl about stitching the monthly magazine freebies though. Despite them being heart shaped.

On further stitching news, my mom gets more and more interested in my stitching. That is the politically correct expression about her nagging me almost daily about when I wanna finis beading Deepest Love and when will I resume stitching The Lady of the Thread. :) Don't get me wrong, I love that I can finally chat about my projects with someone offline, but I really don't need anyone setting deadlines. I'm not complaining. It's the first time in years that I feel like she thinks I am good at something, so I enjoy it.

She made me start a new project. My daughter loves to fill the bird feeder and watch the adorable feathered friends gather around it, so I started a Dimensions kit I had in my stash for quite some time. As a belated Christmas present I bought my first q-snap and I tested it for this project. I absolutely love how tight it can keep the fabric without damaging the stitches the way my wooden hoops did. I wish I would have bought a larger one and not the 6"x6" but that was the only available one at that time, so I will have to make do with that, as I cannot afford another until I get a job.

Oh, and I have a question to my trade partners: do I owe anyone a piece of linen? One of my friends sent me some special floss in return for the fabric I sent her, and what she apparently wasn't expecting. I do have memory problems due to sleeping problems, had them for months, but I cannot remember even the intention of RAKing anyone, so I must assume I sent her the fabric by mistake. Which possibly means that there is somewhere in the world a trade partner of mine who has been waiting for that package in vain, possibly for months, and has to think I ripped her off. I tried to search my mail but couldn't find who that was supposed to go to. I faintly recall trading linen for some magazines, which I remember sending, but I don't even remember which Yahoo group it was, and I am a member of too many to read through all of them. So if you know who you are and I still owe you, please mail me at my jadestitch address at gmail, and I will make up for the delay.

Potted Paradise

Finally, it is that time of the year again! What time you ask? Well, that of gardening of course! I grew up in a small house with a huge garden. My late maternal grandma filled it with flowerbeds where she used to grow the most beautyfied flowers. There was barely any space for anything else, I could not walk the thin aisles between the flowerbeds without brushing leafs and petals. While I was little, several flowers grew much taller than I, especially the dahlias. And then, there were the huge rose trees, forming a fragrant arbour, and there were the lilacs, filling spring with the sweetest of pretty smells, and of course, the hyancinths.

Nowadays, that garden is much smaller. My grandparens have died, their son - my uncle - has built a small house. It is taking up half of the original garden. After grandma' passed away, no one really knew the little tips and tricks of keeping a garden healthy and beautyful. The flowers faded, dried and died. They were attacked and destroyed by various diseases and insects. The only thing left of what granma planted is the now huge tree-sized lilac. We still enjoy its smell in the spring and traditionally pick its flowers for the Mother's Day bouquet. My father now grows tomatoes and paprika and carrots in what's left of the garden. I give him some flower seeds and bulbs to plant. The only ones that last are the tulips. They're my favourites. I guess he grows them for me.

As for myself, living in a big city - I must do all my gardening in pots. As soon as March starts, I begin sorting my seeds and putting them in a cue based on their planned sowing time. This year was difficult though. We had health problems, mostly showing in my lack of energy. I also had some work to do, plus had some personal problems. But that is all over now. We wake up to the song of the blackbirds. We get sunshine every day. We are back on track. We even have a swallow couple above the house's staircase. They have moved in this spring. Tamara loves them. We see them regularly zigzagging through the yard, hunting for insects. We put out some leftover floss ends. Sometimes they grab it and incorporate it into their semi-finished nest. And best of all, this spring, I am not doing gardening by myself. Tamara joined me in the delightful action of getting jet black soil underneat the nails so deep that it cannot be removed without pain, as my sister refers to planting. That's OK for me though, and Tami doesn't seem to mind either. She also makes sure that every plant is soaked with water beyond belief, and so are her socks and shoes. That is also fine with me. It belongs to pot gardening on a concrete platform, I guess.