The birthday celebration goes on

Look what I found in my mailbox today! It came all the way from Finland! Thank you so much Wilma. You have brighten my day. This kit was on my wish list for a while, now I can't wait to start stitching it. It is full of roosters and sunflowers and is design by my favorite designer, Sandy Orton.

And I could not believe my eyes, all the floss is already sorted!

Looks like my birthday isn't over yet!

Yesterday has brought another surprise! Look what I got as a courtesy of Deborah and Everything Cross Stitch: my favorite Pope, John Paul II. Do you know that he was Polish and he was the first non-Italian Pope since 1520? He has a very special place in my heart.

Thank you so much Deborah!

we have a winner!!!

And the winners are:

Carissa

Katrien

and Shelley

Congratulations to all winners! Please email to me your mailing address so I can send to you your surprise gift.

On the last day of my birthday...

Today is the 12th day of my birthday. I was kind of sad because the celebration is coming to the end and another birthday is a whole year away... And my mailbox was almost empty in the last few days... but not today! Today I received a gift from Danni. What a perfect timing! Look what she sent to me:


I was wanting to try those forms for some time and now I have them! And a beautiful snowflake frame and a gorgeous piece of Lugana fabric. I guess it is time to start thinking about Christmas ornaments. Thank you Danni so much, you have made the last day of my birthday very special.

tenth and eleventh day of my birthday

On the tenth day of my birthday I was stitching "life is a journey", a gift from Lisa.


And on the eleventh day of my birthday I finish back stitching, assembled the piece and now it is proudly hanging on the wall in my craft/study room. Thank you so much Lisa for a wonderful birthday gifts.

On the eight and ninth day of my birthday

Rene is the biggest enabler I know of! Look what she "made" me to buy!

And she is getting a special enabling price from me!

My stitching time is getting cut short... my boss asked me if I could work a little extra hours. I'm already working 40 hrs week plus 10 hr commuting, but the money are so needed (to buy more stash of course!)

On the sixth and seventh day of my birthday...

On the sixth day of my birthday I received package from Kooler Design Studio . I treated myself with a beautiful fall sampler designed by Sandy Orton:

and Kooler Design Studio added a free gift:

On the seventh day of my birthday I ordered a book that I always wanted:

Self-Mastery and Fate With the Cycles of Life written by H. Spencer Lewis, first Imperator of AMORC (Ancient Mystical Order of Rosae Crucis)

Product Description
By H.Spencer Lewis. Bring success, happiness, health, and prosperity into your life with the simple system described in this book. Map out charts of your life for every week, month, and year without mathematics. Learn to eliminate chance and replace fate with self-mastery.

And I decided to have a little give away from my stash on the twelfth day of my birthday (July 28). Please leave a comment and your name will be entered for a prize.

On the fourth and fifth day of my birthday

On the fourth day of my birthday he was cooking and I was stitching. He had no idea why I was in a such good mood... and I had a ball. We women are so smart! He can have that kitchen forever.

On the fifth day of my birthday things turn out even better! Dinner, champagne with passion fruit, and celebrating men on the moon!

On the third day of my birthday...

I finished my homework for the hardanger class:


I made "peace" with my man. Can you believe, the only thing he really wanted is the kitchen! About three weeks ago I reorganized it a little and that made him angry. He didn't say any thing and for three weeks we were in a cold war. Finally (after pulling his tongue out) he admitted what bothered him and all I had to do is to allow him to be the king of the kitchen... I love to cook but what the heck, he can have it! I still have to do the dishes though...

And I started to stitch one of my birthday gifts (received from Lisa), Life is a journey. This is how it will look when is finished.

On the second day of my birthday...

I received second gift package from Deborah! Thank you so much, you are such a sweetheart. In the package I found three awesome charts: Winchester Mystery House (San Jose, California) Powell & Hyde St. Cable Car, and Golden Gate Park Conservatory. Both themes are from San Francisco, a city where I have lost my heart. I hope that one day I will just jump in the car and go straight down to the south...


And here are couple of items that need a special recognition: a scissor fob and a cupcake. Just look on the extra fine stitching on both of them. The fob is stitch on linen or evenweave, very small count (I think 32) over 1. I even can't see the cross stitch, just little points... This masterpiece was stitched by Heidi from Idaho Falls. Thank you Heidi, I absolutely love it!


The cupcake was stitched also on evenweave with a very small count (I think 32) but over 2 so I can see the cross stitch and it has beads in the cheeks! It surely puts a smile on my face. That piece of art was stitched by Rene from Las Vegas. And do you see the fob for the needle? I love it and use it to count threads in the fabric. Thank you so much Rene.

First day of my birthday

It is a great day so far. Early in the morning I opened all presents. Thank you so much my ILCS birthday club members!

Way before my birthday I received from Deborah "O Canada" chart:

and a gift certificate that I use to buy a biscornu chart:

My boss gave me flowers, card and a 100 bucks (cash!) and let me off work early.

And I taped my morning opening presents fun. Here is the link http://zamana.ca/video/
It will take you to an empty page with one link on it that you have to click on. It is a large file and takes a long time to load. Enjoy!

O Canada - half way done!

Here it is!

I love this piece. In Kooler Design I found many projects design by Sandy Orton and many of them already on my wish list.

O Canada progress

Thank you so much for many nice comments on O Canada. It is a lovely piece to work on. No back stitching and no partial stitches. I am using DMC floss and 28 ct Lugana (I think...) in color that closely matches DMC 422. The stitching area is 18" x 7" on 14ct (or 28ct over two).

Many stitchers asked me about the chart. Well, it is available at Kooler Design Studio