On the move!

I haven't forgotten about you, I'm just up to my neck in cardboard boxes! My daughter came home yesterday and got mad because, "There's no place to play anymore!" Moving day is just a few days away now.

At the moment:

• I'm still keeping tabs on what's happening out here in blog land. I'm currently loving Nana Company -- I wish I was so talented!
• I'm dreaming of retro-Scandinavian style -- just google "Scandinavian tea towels" to see what I'm talking about. Suddenly I can see my new house decorated in mid-century modern. Now if I just had the money to do completely refurnish my house... 
• I'm eating lovely spring veggies! More asparagus and chicken pie or rhubarb crumble anyone? At the moment I'm also perfecting my goat-cheese and vegetable lasagna and my split-pea and sausage soup. Please watch The Great British Food Revival for more mouthwatering recipe inspiration.
• On the nightstand -- Enchanted April (v. seasonal), Baking Made Easy and The Handmade Marketplace.

It is lovely and sunny here at the moment, but I'm trying to hold off any spring fever just yet. I'll wait 'til we're moved in before I start sprinkling tulips and bunnies around the house!

A new home, a few old projects, and a couple of book reviews

Keep your fingers crossed for us! Our offer was accepted on a house. Let's just hope the sale goes smoothly and quickly. The house is everything we were looking for in a house. We were hoping to find something a bit more in the countryside, but it seems wishful thinking to expect a rural setting, a short-commute to work, and good schools and shopping could be affordable. Anyway, I'm trying not to get too excited as nothing is certain until you have a key in your hand.

Here are a few pictures from the countryside here:

As my husband is now back to work and my daughter has started school, guess who is job hunting? Now that we're in an English-speaking country I have no excuse for not working. Ugh. It isn't that I don't want to work, I just hate the interview process and I'm worried about finding a job I like in this current era of unemployment. The prospect of self-employment is very appealing, but as what? If you could start over and begin a new career now, what would you do?

As far as the crafting goes, the progress is v. slow. It doesn't help that I can't access some of my stash and I don't have any space here to work in. I have been embroidering. My cottage triptych is on hold, mostly out of frustration. For some reason my transfer pencil marks on my muslin have disappeared mid-way through and now I have to re-transfer the remaining image. Has this happened to anyone else? So out of childish spite, I've started a new project.

I mentioned that over Christmas I picked up a few new books, one of them being Cath Kidston's Stitch. As I haven't tried cross-stitch before, I immediately started working on the cover project (materials are included with the book). I already own Make and Sew. I liked Make. This and The Kitchen Linens Book by EllynAnne Geisel got me stitching in the first place. Although some of the projects and designs are too basic, there was enough to propel me on. I still refer to the book as it contains a few of Kidston's more iconic designs. Word of warning though, the instructions on some projects are vague or just plain wrong.

Enamoured with Make, I bought Sew. Being fairly adept with embroidering, I wanted to expand my sewing skills. Overall Sew was a disappointment. I think there are better sewing books on the market, especially for relative beginners like myself.

Luckily Stitch was a return to what I loved about Make -- easy to follow projects that put a fresh and unique spin on an old craft. Sure, I know there's a limit to how many pillows one can make, but this book has actually made me want to try cross-stitch for a change. A few of the patterns are questionable, but I can't wait to stitch up her cowboy!

When I was backing up my photos from 2010, I realised there were two projects from December that I didn't share with you. (Word of advice -- take time to back up your photos! I learned this lesson the hard way when my last computer crashed.) As we were leaving Germany I gave a few handmade thank you presents to friends and teachers. Both projects were quick and easy. The images for these came from Flickr and The Graphics Fairy.

I couldn't resist these little purple flowers. I'm not sure if they're really violets or not, but I glued a perfume label on to the pot and used the same image to make the butterflies. These were given to my daughter's Kindergarten teachers.

This little pocket was inspired by Lori Lundy's jean pockets featured in the volume 4 issue of "Somerset Holidays & Celebrations". I quickly glued on vintage images, scrap lace, velvet leaves and my favourite vintage button. I tucked a thank you letter and my favourite recipes inside and presented it to a friend who gave my daughter riding lessons. In exchange for her lessons, I taught her children some English and sent her a regular supply of English and American bakery.

 I hope they know how much I appreciated their hard work and friendship!

My summer schedule

Bus skirt detail, originally uploaded by Tea Potty.

As you can tell from my lack of blogging, I am now in full summer mode. For the last few months we seem to be either getting ready for visitors or getting ready to visit someone. Things have been hectic and it looks like nothing will change until mid-August. This is not to say I haven't been working on projects. I've managed to finish a few things in my free evenings. So, to keep things short and sweet I will summerize:

Geeked about:

• Flying home for a three-week holiday: I don't get homesick very often -- except around the holidays and just before a flight!
• My latest book order: The Complete Book of Sewing, Sewing in No Time, Sew!, and Preserves.
• Decorative trim: I am in love with pom-pom trim, crochet lace borders and velvet ribbons!

Projects on the go:

• An Alice in Wonderland pillow for my sister.
• My 39 squares piece is essentially finished. I just need to decide what I'm going to do with it now.

Projects I've somehow managed to actually finish:

•  A crinkle scarf from a terrific Ruffles and Stuff tutorial.

• A baby shirt for my cousin's daughter. The wonderful Wild Olive pattern can be found here at DMC.

• A recycled jeans skirt embroidered with a VW camper van. I took an old pair of jeans, turned them into a skirt and embroidered them with a camper van. You can find the image by Googling "VW camper van coloring pages".

Spilled all over the kitchen:

• My annual strawberry jam
• Homemade salad dressings -- homemade green goddess salad dressing beats a bottle of ranch any day.
• Salads with beans and/or couscous
• Elderflower and lemon cordials
• Cooked fruit desserts -- crisps, cobblers and tarts galore!

Whew! I think that just about covers it for the moment!

Back at square one..

Back at square one.., originally uploaded by Tea Potty.

I was going to wait until I had a few more squares done, but I'm too geeked about this to wait. I recently discovered 39 Squares. This project is so me! It is exactly what I was looking for when I started embroidering last summer -- something that I could learn on and practice on, but is still creative, meaningful and quick.

As I'm not terribly confident at freehand embroidery, I put some planning into my squares before starting. I've decided that I'm going to use this on a pillow and that the squares will be a bit bigger than an inch by an inch. I also decided that the squares should be about my family, so I made a list of symbols using the 39 Squares flickr group as inspiration.

Then I used the table function in Word to create a table of 5x5 squares at, or close to, full size. I sketched out my ideas on this table using coloured pencils (keeping in mind my chosen colours). I rearranged the squares a few times to balance out the colours, patterns and shapes as I wanted to avoid repitition. I know I won't stick exactly to the layout, especially as I'm sure to run into problems with my more difficult images. I do have a few back-up images in case.

So now I've sat down with my floss, buttons, beads, and trim and am busily stitching away!

I've also finally finished Mariana by Monica Dickens. It really shouldn't have taken me so long, but at the moment most of my evenings are dedicated to embroidery. The book was OK. It would've been a much better book with some harsh editing. The second half is much better than the first. My next book is Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons, who wrote Cold Comfort Farm.

Long days and terrible TV

Thank goodness for long days and terrible TV, the combination of which has made me very industrious this summer. I have managed to conquer some of my cooking hang-ups, acquire two new hobbies (like I need more), read a handful of books and improve my German. This is more than I usually accomplish in a year.

For the sake of brevity, I'll just address what I've been reading.

Though War and Peace still has me stumped, I've gone on to read lighter fare this summer. The Tea House on Mulberry Street was a quick read, though somewhat predictable. I'm glad I didn't actually buy it; it was a book swap. Another freebie, The Marriage Bureau for Rich People, intriqued me because of its setting in India. Unfortunately, I think it could have been a much better book than it was. The author's writing style, or lack of, was at times distracting and there were missed opportunities for character and plot development. As someone foreign to the culture, I hoped that there would be more detail to the setting (ie. history, background, sensory usage). For all that, a pleasant read.

My favourite, stylistically, was Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson. As a fan of Cold Comfort Farm and I Capture the Castle, I was looking forward to this one. It was quirky and funny, but didn't have the same weight or substance of my two favourites. I did buy it and will probably keep it for a little while at least. I haven't seen the movie yet, but hope to soon. My next choice, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, was another that I relished receiving. I had heard much about it and couldn't wait to sit down with it. It was good -- a perfect balance of humour and heartache. I really loved some of the characters and wished that the book was longer just so I could read more of them. I only have one lament, the ending. After reading and rereading the book, I still couldn't feel or understand the chemistry between Juliet and Dawsey. A good read, go out of your way to pick it up.

Lastly, I'm slogging my way through My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead edited by Jeffrey Eugenides. Yes, slogging. This is an anthology of "Great Love Stories, from Chekhov to Munro" but should be described as a collection of stories about tortured and torturous relationships. I love short story collections, especially when I can compare and contrast the writing styles of such fantastic authors. This collection certainly does that, but some of the stories are either so difficult to understand or are so painful to read that I can neither enjoy the story nor the author's craft. Great love stories? No. I don't believe every love story should be sappy happy, but neither is love only a cankerous wound. I've come away from the book feeling that Mr. Eugenides has forgotten the reader and is primarily concerned with showing off how cerebral he is with such a collection.