Beautiful day!

Here's my beautiful daughter, on her way to church yesterday to receive her first Holy Communion. It was a beautiful day, with much better weather than could be expected from the forecasts, there only were a few drops of rain while we were in church. She so enjoyed all the special attention, the gifts, the dress, everything about the whole day. And so did we!

Posing with her little sister

Partying makes hungry...

Getting ready...

We're getting ready for the big event, on Sunday. The house is slowly getting back in it's normal state (and, of course, better state than before the big works). There are still some little things to do but for now the big breaking and dust-producing works are done and we are very happy with the way things worked out.
There's still some checking things, cleaning and shopping to do and then we are ready for Sunday. Veerle is super excited, every day she asks: how many more nights, mommy?
Yesterday we dressed her up like she is supposed to on Sunday, and did her hair and everything, and made some very nice photo's in our new back yard. She was so proud of her clothes (and, of course, I was too, having it made myself). I will show you the pic when the weekend is over, as it still has to be a surpise.
But anyway, I wanted to let you know I'm still here and haven't forgotten about you all... i't's just that I am buzzing my days away, being a busy bee!!!

I'm still alive!!!

Wow! Has that been a long time or what? We have been soooooooo busy around here lately, I just didn't know where to find the time to blog. But now finally things start to calm down just a little bit so I thought I should share some pics of what we have been busy with.

There have been some major changes to our house over the last few weeks, we got a new bathroom (it still is not finished after 5 weeks but it looks a lot better than it used to, and at least we can use the bath and the toilet now. No shower or sink though yet).

Yes, that's me in the mirror! Where I am standing there should be a beautiful glass shower wall in a few weeks...


Then we had some new big windowdoors to the back yard, and new stones in the backyard:

I am very happy with the way it turned out, bring on the nice weather please...

Of course we are also preparing for the celebration of Veerles First Holy Communion in May, but that also seems to be going the right way, yesterday I sent out the invitations. I am working on the dress and now I finally know why my test dress didn't fit that is going well too.

I did find a bit of time to stitch in the meantime and thought I'd better use it well, and started the Jane Austen Sampler Stocking by Tanya Anders (aka The Sampler Girl), this is my progress so far:


I hope to keep you update on a more regular basis again from now on... I have missed you all!!!

Fair & Square round 5 and another finish...

I got word from Danica that she received my squares in Round 5 of the Fair & Square exchange so here they are:
And today I did some finishing, when watching "Idols" last night I did the last stitching on it and today I finished it in a biscornu:
It is stitched with the lovely silk I received in the surprise exchange on a Silkweaver fabric which I forgot the name of... I think it was something with "clouds" in it...

Spring fever...

With two beautiful weekends behind us I was getting a bit of spring fever, and since I had to stitch something for Verona in the birthday exchange of our Dutch group, I decided to stitch her the needleroll of the "Spring fobs" pattern from Heart in Hand. Thursday was Verona's birthday and she ysterday told me she has received her package. So here is the needleroll:
I already made her Heart Fob from this pattern earlier, so now she has a set! Now I don't have that many "obligations" on the stitch front anymore, and I decided to take a break from the Fair & Square exchange for a while and so did not enter the next round. I want to focus on my own stitching and on sewing the dress for my daughters First Holy Communion on May 25. Wednesday evening I drawed the pattern so hopefully over the weekend I'll find some time to make a proof before cutting in the good (and expensive) fabric...

Almost forgot...

... the most important thing of all... I have been awarded the "You make my day award" by Iris, which means she is inspired by my blog! Isn't that an honour? Thanks so much Iris!!!
Now, I have to do a most difficult (if not impossible) job: to name the 7 blogs that inspire me the most... let me say that all the blogs you find on the left side of this page are an inspiration to me, or they wouldn't be in that list!!! But here are 7 that I think definitely deserve to be awarded in one way or the other...

Stukje bij Beetje (Bit by Bit) by the lovely Francine, who makes photographing daily things to an art and makes me smile while reading her lovely blog

Wacky Wanderings by dear Annemarie who I've been lucky enough to find just about right next to my door

xstitch.nl by surprising Harmien, I guess she knows why (think Holiday season...), it was a joy to meet you in person!

Stof en Draad by Chantal, who is just such a dear friend

Sommeke by Yvonne, who always is willing to answer with my beginner patchwork questions

Mainely Stitching by Barbara, because I just don't know how she does it all, and I mean that in the most complimentous way!

The Twisted Stitcher by Vonna, who is an inspiration and a big help through both this blog and her tutorial blog as well

Well I could go on and on, and please note I put that in the most random way I could, because, like I said, every blog I follow is of the most importance to me!!!

It's been a while...

... and I have lots and lots to show and tell!

First of all, I already told you we were celebrating carnival here last week. I owe you the pics of my two beautiful daughters during those days, so here they come:
Isabelle as Pippi Longstocking:
Veerle as a Japanese:
After the celebrating was over, we were of course worn out so we had some quiet vacation days afterwards (with a bit of the flue here and there which luckily didn't last that long), in which I did quite a lot of stitching. I finished my round 5 Fair & Square blocks, which I am going to bring to the post office tomorrow to be sent to Danica. Then, I finished the first block in the Quilted Hearts Afghan, which was quite a relief, as this was a difficult block. Unfortunately block 7 is the same, only mirrorred, that is something to not look forward to... but the result is stunning I think:
I already am quite far along with block 2, which is a lot easier to stitch, I expect to finish that in the coming week. But first I am working on a birthday exchange for our Dutch stitching group, which I have to send out soon. Can you believe I stitched that in the garden this afternoon, we have had such a beautiful weekend here with lots and lots of sun! I think I even got some tan while stitching!

I told you last week was the 3rd anniversary of our Dutch Borduurhoekje, and this is what I made for the exchange:
It is Heart in Hands' Heart Fob (from the pattern Spring Fobs) in DMC floss on 32 count beige vintage linen.

Oh, and one more pic to show you: my cousin from New Zealand sent me a very nice present:

Some very nice Maori quilt fabrics to play with and a beautiful quilt magazine.
She told me she wants to see the result on my blog, so I guess I'll have to get to some patchworking soon again..

Last but not least, I got some good news last week: I passed my exams last December and so have earned myself the "Certificate of Proficiency in English" from the University of Cambridge!