Apart from the trip to Germany I have to show something else. Of course I took my stitching with me, and my daylightlamp (small one, of course), so I could do some stitching in the evening on our room. And I did! Most of the time I have been working on Celtic Mystery XI.

I also made a start on Rose Cottage by CCN, a gift from Stephanie

And I have done some stitching on I Love Letters Needlebook. I hope I will finish it before the end of this year.

Where to begin? Were I stopped last blog-entry, I think. That's when my DH and I went for a short trip to Germany. We had some lovely days together, staying at Bad Laer. We had a quiet hotelroom, great breakfast (that is what I like the most at staying in a hotel, breakfast! At home I'm satisfied with some muesli and milk, but when there is so much choice, I can't help myself from taking it all LOL) and a good rest.
Just let the pictures tell their story!

View from our room

No, this is not only mine, also DH's breakfast!

Visit at Osnabrück

DH is very interested in Germany's history.

He's also interested in other stuff LOL

Castle of Bad Iburg, back and front

On our way home we visited Warendorf, a small village with horses like this everywhere! I didn't talk to everyone of them, but DH did take a picture of all of them, to show youngest DD (she just loves horses!) that stayed at home, with her brother. They did fine together, the house was clean and in good order, so next time, it's again, just me and DH!

A winning!

Last whole week I have been bugged by a headache and a cold, and last friday I decided to stay home from work. And to cheer me up the postman delivered me a lovely chart I won on the "October breast cancer awareness giveaway" at Barbara's.

I still have the headache but in spite of that I've had a busy weekend, stitching like crazy on a Crazy Exchange, and yes, I finished it and no, no pictures yet, for obvious reasons. And I made some adjustments on my bourse. On pictures of another stitcher on the bourse class I saw she had the darts turned inside, while mine were outside. I liked the way she did this much more, so I decided to torn the darts out, and do them all over. And it looks much better. I also changed the cord to close the bourse. At first I used some velvet ribbons, and it didn't open and close too smooth. Now I used some silkish ribbon, and it opens and closes much smoother. Can you see the difference?

I also have been stitching on a Christmas ornie, for the HoE board. It looks like I'm going to finish it next weekend, and that gives me some time to stitch on some other things.

Tomorrow my DH and I leave for a short trip to Germany. DS and youngest DD stay at home, so it's just me and my beloved husband. We are going to enjoy a stay at Hotel Mönter-Meyer.

Proudly presenting: my bourse

Ladies and Gentlemen (if they are here?) I proudly present to you: my stitching bourse. It is true, I am as proud of myself as a child that did its first step! Thanks Debra for your bourse class, it stimulated me to do something like this. I am not that great at sewing anything else but curtains and cushions, but this was not too difficult. Only the darts gave me some trouble, also due to a lack of specific words in English .
But, here it is!

There's not much to show, because I have been very busy stitching on some exchanges. One is finished, but the date to send is November 3rd, so I have to keep it a secret. The other one isn't yet finished, I hope to have it done at Oct. 24th.

And I have made a beginning on the finishing of the bourse. This afternoon the finishing instructions came out, and I have been busy with it part of the afternoon, but then there's a part I don't understand. Maybe it is a lack of sewing skills, or I just don't know the stitching terms in English. Anyway, I asked for help and just have to be patient.

I can show you a little progress on 'I Love Letters Needlebook' (Periwinkle Designs). The original chart is saying 'Barabara's Needles" but since my name isn't Barbara, and we don't speak English, I had to translate it in Dutch and center it between the hearts.

Autumn Exchange for Edda :)) and a gift sent

Edda let me know the exchange I did for her arrived yesterday, the same day I got hers (what a coincidence)! So now I can show what I stitched for her. Remember my complaints about frogging? Well it was on this piece. I had the front of the scissor pocket all done, when I read I should have done it with one thread instead of the two I had been using. So I continued stitching the backside, using ond thread, just to see what I liked the most.
Guess what? The designer turned out to be a great designer (Beardie Designs - Autumn Accessoire), she was right! So I frogged the whole front and did it again, using one thread this time.
This is how it turned out, being put together and sent to Edda.

A few weeks ago a fellow stitcher did something nice for me, and I thought it would be a nice idea to let her know how much I appreciated that, by stitching something for her. She told me it arrived safely :))
I made her a floss tag and a small cushion.

Autumn Exchange from Edda :))

This afternoon I had a cup of tea in excellent company: my DD, DS, me and Edda. She sent me a wonderful package (from Iceland!!) and she wrote to me she invited me to join her in having a cup of tea with chocolate.
And so we did, only, stupid me, I forgot to take pictures of that! But we had a nice chat together, and found some rest after a busy school and working day. The chocolate tasted great, and the tea also :)

When I opened the package a lovely smell came out. I couldn't figure out what it was, but soon I found out it was the tea (how did Edda do it, she picked my favorite flavours). So, enjoying our afternoon-tea-and-chocolate, I admired Edda's skills. She made me a beautiful biscornu and scissorfob, and she added a pair of scissors to it, and a Zweigart booklet with Autumn patterns. Wow, when do we have the next autumn exchange??

Here are the pictures you all are longing for :)