New blog

Im starting a new blog at wordpress http://hcrafts.wordpress.com/ - Helene's crafts. I may not have much to show but I like wordpress a lot better than blogger. I hope to see you there!

I'm back!

Well a little at least. Now I am starting to adapt to working and not arriving home until after 5 pm every day and has even started stitching a little bit! But when I wanted to take a pic to show you the camera needed new batteries - so nothing today :-(.

I decided to start something totally new that night I decided I wanted to stitch. And the one piece I chose was the new Ring O' Roses from Papillon Creations. I haven't finished much more than almost all the middle ring and the ring of roses around it yet - but hope to get more done during the christmas leave. But I was a little naughty when I bought that chart - I also got the Year's End from Papillon too - and that one is really tempting me!

Hope to be able to update again soon and if not I wish you all merry and happy days during the celebrations in front of us!

Work!

I have started to work now and my time and my energi is soo much lesser now than when not working so I guess it will take some time to adjust and get used to just having a few short hours a week for myself. But I am so happy that I have gotten a job!

My guess is that it will be some time before I have made anything worth showing!

Weekly SBQ

This week’s SBQ was suggested by Elisabeth and is:
How many pieces have you stitched? Out of these, how many have been for you? How many have had specialty stitches or other techniques besides cross stitch?

How many I have stitches... I have no idea but I would say between 40 and 60 and about 10-15 has been made for other friends and family. I really enjoy stitching on larger designs and then Im also good at not finishing them until several years have past.
I love speciality stitches so many of those have included that but mostly the last 2 years and then not so many have been finished...

Some more preserving

I have just picked our first grapes from our own vine! They are not big as bought grapes but very sweet and juicy - lovely!


And I have picked off the last apples from our young apple-tree and made mashed apples of them last evening. We dont eat a lot of it so this will last us through the winter - we mostly use it for applecake and sometimes as a complement to meat and potatoes. I really like this time of the year when I can preserve and take care of some of our needs for the winter. And I really like that the things I make dont have any strange and maybe not healthy ingredients like the ones you buy in the store. Only thing added is sugar and preservatives.

A half finish and flowers

First of all I have finished my first sock in about 10 years - havent knitted socks since the girls were really young! It was fun and fits great and I just love that self-striping yarn.

Then I have been really busy this week with all kind of things - a work intervjue - but I didnt get it ;-(, some meetings, I even started go to a work-out class (and that took its toll on me - havent done that since the age of 17 I think - and that is MANY years ago!) and lots of small things with the girls - and all this means very little stitching, knitting and sewing.

But yesterday I managed to go out in the woods twice! One time each with the 2 oldest DD. And we carried home a lot of chanterelles to put in the freezer, parasol mushrooms for drying and using in sauce during winter and a lot of cep to dry too. We also picked wild-apples and rowanberries to make rowanberry jelly - that is just soooo deliciuos to eat with any kind of meat. And also some lingonberry to make lingonberry preserve of to serve with meatballs, meatloaf or my favorite - potato cakes with bacon and lingonberry! Om really getting hungry now!

Im also going to show you pics of my Wax plants! First one out is a ordinary one that I got for christmas last year and that didnt want to live at all - it died out to just a couple of leaves left but I managed to save it and now it looks like this - great that is - it even has a bud. You can also see what I see from my bedroom window - a lot of lavendula that smells great.

There is also see my newly bought Hoya loherii that seems to adapt well. I also got a Hoya bilobata but that is just a tiny cutting in a plastic bag right now :-)


And lastly the Wax plant I bought last autumn as just a little tiny cutting with 2 leafs. It is a Hoya incurvula and has grow amazingly much during summer

Door-quilt part 1

I have started sewing and stitching on my door-quilt and so far so good! I think I will try t fill it from the top down and am right now stitching on the empty spot you see and hopefully will get it done today.

Otherwise I have spent some time knitting in front of the tv but havent gotten too far so you will have to wait a day or two for some progress pics of those.

This weekend will be pretty lonely as my DH and the youngest and oldest DD are away much of it on orienteering competitions and for my youngest its very exciting as she's in 3rd place in this regions youth-league for her age!

But I think I will take the bus on Sunday to a kind of "gardeners plant sale" where anyone can sale off what they have too much of from their gardens as well as professional gardeners sell their plants. I usually end up with bringing home to much LOL! Every year for the last two years I have bought a Hoya-cutting and I hope the Hoya society is there this year too. They are really lovely I think and grow so well in our bedroom window.