The promised peacock picture

Here is the long promised picture of our peacock. Every time I went out to take one, either he would disapear or it would start to rain. I think the only times it has not rained in the last 4 days is when I was at work or while I was in the shower. Anyway- he is lovely , isn't he!!
Michael is leaving for Brussels tomorrow and then on to The Congo on Friday morning We went to Munster this morning to have breakfast and do a bit of shopping. We were finished eating and moving on to the shopping bit when my phone rang and it was (surprise) Patrick's school. He had hurt his knee and needed to be picked up. Are cell phones a blessing or a curse?

Know he is laying on the couch with his knee iced and up ,but it doesn't look too bad and I assume that he will be okay buy tomorrow- or this afternoon if anyone calls with a good idea -like going to the swimming pool.
We have another four day weekend coming up and I plan to finish Barbara's RR- knit a sock, stitch and finish a scissor fob for an exchange and work on the newly started gift sampler. let's see what I say to this ambitious list next Wednesday.

Drying floss

I rinsed this blue floss for a sampler I am working on. My poor family is so used to my strange goings on that they did not even think twice about floss drying in the middle of the living room. Now that it is dry , I have it hanging over light fixture- thay haven't let that bother them either.
I had a lovely birthday - thank you Barbara, Annemarie and Dianne for the birthday wishes.
I had a whole houseful of wonderful friends as guests from Saturday to Sunday. I knew that some friends were coming , but Anja and Roman and the kids showed up and surprised me. Which is the kind of surpise I love. We BBQed and drank wine and beer, and the kids ran in and out of the house, even when it was raining and after dark. At midnight everyone seemed to disapear. Then the lights went out and they came back into the dinning room with a cake with 42 candles, sparklers and presents- totaly fun. I received a book , a necklace, a ring, a vase, flowers, nordic walking poles, a poem and a picture from my boys, and lots of lovely bits of colored, cut and pasted paper from the little girls. In the morning we all had breakfast together before everyone left- today is not a holiday here :-) We spent the day lounging around and watching the Formula One race. What I didn't do was stitch or knit as I was tired and afraid of mistakes.
I have to work today , but now that I have given notice, I can count the days- not just until vacation, but also until my last work day!

Birthday traditions in Germany

Tomorrow is my birthday ( 42 if you want to know) . In Germany, a day with rules, like any other here in his country. The first is that it is the birthday persons responsibility to celebrate. Birthday partys are seldom given for someone. As the birthday girl , I must shop and clean and cook and bake in preperation for any amount of people. This I have accomplished with the help of my DH over the last two days.
The other rule is that it is considered unlucky to celebrate or even wish someone "happy birthday" before their actual birthday. This often complcates the situation- you are expected to provide for everyone -sometimes on a Wednesday evening! There is a small saving grace to this rule. It doesn't help you on Wednesday ,but in years where your birthday falls on a Sunday , you may cheat by inviting people on Saturday and then "celebrating" after midnight. This is what we are doing tonight.
A few out of town friends and the neighbors are coming by and Michael will BBQ (never let a little rain stop you) . To go with the BBQ I have baked a couple of loaves of bread and some brownies. I am also planning some American style coleslaw and an insalata Caprise. If I can get ahold of some nice strawberries I might make a shortcake as well.
To sweeten the situation a bit (ha ha) Patrick got sick Thursday evening and we ae still not sure if he has Mono or "just" tonsillitis. Which ever it is he is taking antibiotics and is no longer contagious - he is also feeling much better , if sleepy.
I have already received some lovely birthday presents and cards, My gemini exchange , bracelets, earings, and a darling inlay wooden box from my Mom , a card and money from my Dad and a card, and money from my in-laws. The money from my in-laws was almost exactly the amount that I needed to pay for the stack of books and cd's that have been piling up in my shopping cart at Amazon for the last month or so, and so I hopped over there and hit the
" one click order" and will have something to look forward to in the next week.
Tomorrow on my actual birthday - I am planning on watching the Formula One race in Monaco and relaxing with my stitching and knitting- we'll see!

Our peacock has been released from his cage, as some entity decided that the bird flu danger in our area is more or less over, and he is quite happy to be out and about. Once I am showered and dressed I am going to go out and see if I can get a picture of him with his tail open, to post here as a treat for all who are patient and kind enough to read my blog.

Some finishes

I have had A few finishes lately but as they are all gifts, I can't show them right away. This bear was an exchange in my mailart group. I bought the bear at Ikea and then dressed him as a pirate. Note the hook inplace of his right paw- this was my DH's idea- cute huh!! I packed him in his own little bag to send him to his new owner and he arrived today. The yellow socks are for my Mom. I finished them on Sunday and mailed them to her on Monday. She knows they are on there way so no real surprise there. They are such a pretty soft yellow- I really like them. Alexander picked out the pattern. I started a new pair of socks for my friend Moni. Worked on Barbara's RR last night- it is coming along nicely. I am planning on starting a new project tonight or tomorrow- a sampler for a special occasion for a special person. I received the chart in the mail today and am looking forward to seeing it grow. I also have another pair of socks on the needles- another gift. I seem to be doing a lot of stuff for other people lately- but it feels nice:-)

Mothers day

Here is a not very good picture of my beautiful mother's day flowers. The kids did a great job of picking them out and I was thrilled to get them. I also received a cup of tea, breakfast and Alexander Bbqed dinner. Pretty nice! Monday things were back to normal. At 7 am I had gotten up, woken the kids, laid out their clothes, made breakfast, made lunches, cleaned up from the same, started the washer, started the dryer, started the dishwasher, made sure the dog got water and food and let her out the back door, swept the kitchen , yelled at the kids to brush their teeth and was standing at the front door to kiss the kids and wave good bye to them.
As they rounded the corner, I decided to call the dog in. I called and whistled a couple of times and was getting a little pissy and decided to just close the door and wait for her to come home. I closed the door and turned ,to see the dog lying behind me in the hallway . She was looking at me like "yes?" I guess she came in the back door. I went back to bed!

New socks

The pink socks are finished! I love this color- reminds me of cotton candy. This is the first pair that I have made with a cuff to turn down. AThe yarn is a cotton/wool mix from Regia. The next pair I cast on is going to be for my Mom- yellow.
Right now I am working on finishing up a mail art. It needs to go into the mail on Monday, which shouldn't be a problem.
The bee scissor fob and the scissors are part of what I sent to Von for our Gemini birthday exchange. As she has received it and opened it ;-) I thought I could post a pic now. When I picked up the colors, I was afraid I was going to hate it ,but when it was finished I was so pleased with it that I think I might have to make one for myself.
I did manage a walk already this morning so I can spend the rest of the day between stitching and laundry.

Gemini Exchange

Well, You guys convinced me:-) I was being strong ,but then at about 11 pm I jumped up , grabbed the package and ripped it open. Was I ever glad!
Absolute tons of wonderful stuff. DMC, charts with beads and charms and even a skein of Waterlillies in a yummy green and white with a touch of pink. The charts are all to my taste and I own none of them. Two of them are "Just Nan's" and include the beads and charms. I love these and they are just not available in Germany. Thank you so much Connie. It was a great package and I will have lots of fun stitching all the charts and useing the DMC over the next year. Okay I am dreaming- I will never get to all of these charts in the next year, but a girl can hope.

A small rant

This is just a small rant. For me anyway as I am known among my friends and family as quite the ranter (is this a word?) .
Why, oh why , would anyone in their right mind publish a "how to " book that is not bound in such a way as to lie flat?
I am a huge book lover and own many of the things (this is an understatement) . My novels tend to be treated as royalty- I usually use a book mark to mark my place. This can be an old receipt or a ticket stub ,whatever. I would never put a stitched book mark in a book. I would be afraid 1) of ruining the stitching and 2) ruining the book. See , this is why my family runs and hides when I start to rant. I have trouble staying on the subject. You guys are lucky , you can just click off my blog if it is too tiresome to read any further. Anyway..... although I have seen many beautiful stitched book marks I would collect them and not actually put them in a book.
Back to the laying flat thing. I just don't get it. Why print a book on knitting, stitching, cooking , home improvement, piano notes, that someone will need at least one hand to hold open ,while they are trying to do something that they don't know how to do (Otherwise they wouldn't need he book . Right?) that probably already requires two hands. ( I had to go look up how to spell "require" don't want to be the subject of someone elses rant about people who rant,but can't spell . Which I can't ,but I like to pretend) . I can't tell you how many times I have tried to hold open a knitting book with my elbow or knee while reading how to slip some stitch that isn't happening for me any way,and the dang book keeps flipping closed, or watched my son try to keep a book of music open on the book holder thingy ,while he tries to learn a song on the piano. I mean they give you notes for both hands, how do they think you can see the notes if thebook keeps flipping closed?

We have a small advantage here ,in that I own a pretty good, copy , printer, scanner. My excuse is that I need it for my english lessons .Which I do . But, the real reason I bought it was to be able to print out free patterns from the internet and to copy pages fom "how to "books so that they can easily be clipped or taped to something at eye level . Some books, though, are bound in a way that prevent things close to the binding from being copied without hurting the book.
You all just got lucky. My next English student just showed up so I am forced to stop this. If anyone has an answer for me I would love to hear it ,but I am afraid there just isn't one.

Gemini Exchange

Ohhhhh- I am quite excited. I received what I think is my Gemini exchange pressie today. Thank you , thank you Connie! Is there a protocol on this? Can I open it now, or do I have to wait for my birthday? I can at least open the card- right?
I tend to be a waiter on stuff like this. I like to be the last to open my christmas presents and I like to be surprised about what I am getting. But, I am not sure I can sit here and wait another 19 days to open this. If I don't do it now I will probably have to get up in the middle of the night ,some time next week, and rip it open. LOL !!

Gemini exchange

I just wanted to mention that I did put my Gemini exchange in to the post last week.

mixed nuts

Walnuts:
Here is the picture that I wanted to post a couple of weeks ago on my Dad's birthday. It is from last summer and we are at Marine World. Looking at it I am amazed at how much the kids have changed in the last 10 months. I think that my parents are going to be quite surprised at how grown up they are this year. I will try and remember to take a picture in the same place this year so we have something to compare it to.

it took me so long to post this picture because for some reason ,completely unknown to me, all of my summer vacation 2005 pix ,landed in a different file than all the other pix. I could only ever find them on accedent. I had my husband reunite them the last time I happened upon them and he was home at the same time!

Pecans:

I found a new vegetable, well new to me. I discovered ,while visiting Anja , that I love raw kohlrabi. I had only ever eaten it cooked and found it kind of slimy. I always ate it when it was on my plate ,but certainly never bothered to buy one and cook it myself. We also never ate it at home. This surprises me as I am from Califonina and my Mom is big into vegetables. I would always choose to eat broccoli, for instance, over an apple. Anyway ... While I was visiting Anja ,she cut up a kohlrabi and set it out and I discovered a "new" low fat, healthy snack. Yea!! Does anyone know if it is called kohlrabi in English ?

Cashews:

It is Formula One Sunday which means that in spite of the lovely weather ,we will be spending some time in front of the TV. We did however manage to get in a good...

Macadamia;

walk. The dog was quite exited when she saw us putting on our tennies and ball caps. We had quite a nice walk and met a lot of families on bike's. The only problem was that it is quite windy and as we were going over an overpass my hat flew off. It landed on the "schnell strasse" below" . It is one of my favorite ballcaps- I think that is sort of a dumb statement because if I didn't like it I guess I wouldn't wear it -or even have it... Anyway, there are some stairs down to the street and we went down and Michael risked life and limb to rescue my hat. It didn't even get run over.

No peanuts ,because Patrick is allergic, and no hazelnuts because, I think they are yucky :-)

Michael"s socks

Here is the promised picture of Michael's plain black socks. I think the shadows are the most interesting hing in the photo :-) I have number 1 of a cotton candy pink pair on OTN.

"The stitching area "or "It's Rachael's -don't touch it"

I thought I would treat you to a picture of "my chair" today. This is where I always sit to stitch and knit. Other people are allowed to sit here, but only when I am otherwise occupied. You can see two lights here ,but I actually have four! The one attached to the bookcase was the last purchased and is a daylight lamp and my favorite. The chair and footstool are gliders and the knitted wrap on the chair is " Big Blue" .

Big Blue was knitted for me by the lovely Cheryl . It started out as a kind of shawl, but due to a small miscalculation, ended up being so big that when I put it over my shoulders I have a train. I love it though and use it to cover myself when I take a nap on the sofa :-) On one side of my chair is "My table". If people have to sit in chair I can live with it, but my table is pretty much off limits. I try and tidy it up regularly ,but as you can see it is overdue. The glass is a huge canning jar that I stole from my neighbor and I use it to drop my orts in. On the other side of the chair is a basket for sock wool ,a box for whatever stitching projects are in the holding pattern, and a frame/chart holder. Next to that is a bookcase with all my hardback stitching, sewing, and knitting books. I have to admit that while I am flexible about many things , my hadwork is not one of them. Please let me sit in my chair with my light just so and my books within arms reach. I do have more stash areas including a large bookshelf a small rolling cart, a small chest another rolling cart and ...oops I keep thinking of more stash areas. Better not to think to hard on this.

On the chair seat you can see my almost finished project of the moment. Michael's plain ,black socks. Not really interesting and kind of slow going, but I should get them finished tonight or tomorrow. I will post a pic when they are finished-however boring. Happy stitching.

A very quiet week.

It's Thursday and no one here has been in the hospital- had a birthday-made a major purchase or anything else truly worthy of notice.
I have been to work ,washed the floors and painted my nails this week (toes pink and fingers clear). I am also working on a black sock for Michael, as so many men have told him that they hate to wear anything but handmade socks. He is now willing to try them. For some reason though I misscounted the heel and had to redo it four times. The knitting part doesnt take that long,but the pulling out of the mistake and not completly losing my place is tough and takes ages.
Today is my Dad's birthday- Happy Birthday Dad, if you are reading this. Michael is going to Dresden this weekend for his free weekend- I had mine last week ,remember? It seems so long ago already. Tomorrow morning I have my last stitching class and afterward am going to do the last bit of shopping for my Gemini birthday exchange.
I found a nice picture of my dad and the boys from last summer but once again I can't get it to download - i will try again this afternoon.

The promised pictures

Here are the promised pictures. A pair of socks , finished in a race with the Formula One drivers in Imola. I watched too much and knit too little and lost. LOL . The yarnis for four pairs of socks- a black pair for Michael,which I started last night, the blue strip is for Moni. The other dark yarn is actually a dark blus silk mix with sparkle. I hope to find some dark blue beads to add to the cuff of this pair. I don't yet have a plan for the off white and blue yarn. I just liked it. I also bought three pairs of circs. One pair is Inox and the other two are Addi premiuns. I have read so much about these needles that I have to try them. I have been ironing this morning , but Larry King live is on so it is my knitting/stitching time.

Vacation bits

I made it home safely from my mini vacation- a day late and but in good time to see the Formula One qualifying ;-) . Had a very relaxing trip ,not hurrying to go anywhere or do anything in a short time frame. I did have a couple of small set backs ,but nothing tragic.
On Wednesday I drove to Moni's and on the way tried to go to a LNS that I had been meaning to visit for about three years. I have ordered things from there and spoken to them a number of times and thought I would take the opportunity and drive out of my way to actually see the shop. When I got there it was gone! I spent about an hour trying to find out if I was in the right place and if so what had happened to the shop. I finally found out that it had suddenly closed about a month before. Sad- and a pain for me. After I had lunch and a cup of tea ,it was off to Moni's. The weather was so nice that we were able to sit outside and chat and dringk pots of tea until about 7pm. Lovely.
Then next afternoon I continued my trip with a visit to Annemarie in Maastricht. I had a little adventure in driving in that I was almost to her house when I decided that I must have gone wrong somewhere and turned around. I quickly found a place to park and called her . With a little encouragment I made it all the way to Annemarie's house and even managed to park my car in a small space behind her house. It was fantastic to meet Annamarie and Pelle ,of course- I had a wonderful afternoon and hope she did too. We had lunch in a little cafe in front of her house and then we walked into the center of Maastricht- which is a town I aways enjoy. We hit all he LNS/LYS in the hopes of finding some nice sock wool- which we didn't, but it was fun anyway. We then ate an ice cream at an Australian ice cream shop- mmm yummy. We then walked back to the house . Jula was home from work so we got some Chinese for dinnner, another of my favorites, We then talked until far to late. Poor Pelle should have been in bed ,but was remakably good tempered, and I should long have been at Anja's. I did have a chance to show off a few bits of my stitching and knitting and to check out what Annemarie is working on. She stitches beautifuly and has chosen a super chart for Carol's RR. Thank you for the lovely afternoon and Evening Annemarie. I hope we can do it again soon.
Friday I spent with my friend Anja and her kiddies- Ciara and Mika. In the afternoon we mananged a trip to Aachen to the big Junghans craft store-where-hooray- I finaly found a great selection of knitting needles. They also had a good (not great) selection of sock yarn and stitching bits, pluss tons of other fun stuff. All of which made it definiatly worth the trip.
Friday evening was another beautiful one and we were able to eat outside and even sit out until after 10 pm- wonderful.
Saturday I drove home and managed not to get a speeding ticket so it was an all around successful trip.

This afternoon I finished the second of a pair of socks while watching the Formula One race. I thought I could get it finished before the race was over and was knitting like mad ,but they were to quick for me. I had it finished before the interviews were over though- so I was close.
I thought I had downloaded a picture of the new socks and my stash to this blog ,but they seem to have disappeared into cyber space. I will have to go searching for them.
Well, I have downloaded my pix twice and blogger keeps eating them ,so I will try again tomorrow.

Going to have a couple days of vacation!

Here are my three Easter Bunnys. We had a lovely lunch in a hotel and they provided some child care and amusement. They even hid eggs in the hotel entrance hall and had an egg hunt. After lunch all thelittle kids lft and my kids ,and Leonie, took over the craft corner and amused themselves making rude bunnys and hanging them on the wall of the otherwise elegant conference room.

alexander was at the doctor this morning and was given a clean bill of health ,and Patrick is in Koln visiting a friend so I have decided to go away for a couple of days.

I am going to drive to the German/ Netherlands border where I have friends. First to Moni ,who has sprained her foot,and then tomorrow I am going to meet Annemarie- in person (woohoo) , and then I will spend a night with Anja and then back home again. Between visiting friends I hope to hit at least one LNS and one LYS both of which I have never been to before. So I might have a stash report when I get home. Now I better pack a few things and get going before someone comes up with the idea that I should do something else before I go:-)

Are you ready for Easter?

We are- or as ready as were going to get. The boys dyed the eggs , to help out the Easter Bunny , I baked another easter bread-the first two have been eaten already. And Michael made arrangments for us to meet friends for brunch tomorrow .
Watching the boys dye eggs made me remember one year when Michael was deployed in Jugoslavia over Easter.
Friends of ours lived in Amsterdam and I took the kids there to spend the holiday. Their idea of Easter was brunch in a nice hotel . I like this idea too ,but the kids required an egg hunt first. After the kids were put to bed Saturday evening , I unpacked the egg cooker, the eggs and dye that I had brought with me. Both Judy and Jun rolled their eyes and made that "this is why we don't have kids face" . I begged them to help me and they both agreed, although I don't think Jun ,who is Japanese, had ever dyed eggs before. Sometime around midnight I gave up and went to bed and left the two of them happily creating tiny works of art . I had shown them how ,if you color on an egg with crayon and then dip it in the dye , the dye will not stick to the egg. I use this techniqe to do things like write "Happy Easter" in block letters. They took this and ran with it. They made really wonderful eggs with names, animals and fantasy designs. The kids were thrilled with these eggs- me too.
They are divorced now and we haven't seen them in ages, although I spoke with both of them less than a year ago. They helped make a holiday that could have been difficult, with Papa away, into something special.
I wish everyone of you a Happy Easter, Passover, or just a lovely day .

Promised updates

Here are a couple of pix , to show what I have been up to on my "holiday". My goal was to be somewhat further along than I actually am, but things will happen.
Alexander needed new clothes -again. We have been invited to go out to brunch on Sunday and realised that A has only lined ,winter pants. Until now that has been good ,but it is spring! Also he has outgrown all of the nice, button down ,oxford shirts that my dad bought him last year. So off we went to Munster , in the pouring rain , to fight the crowds, with our still limping son , to buy him clothing. We managed two pairs of jeans, a pair of "nice" pants , his first adult shirt and tie and a nice-ish sports jacket. . I will try and remember to take a picture on Sunday when he is all dressed up.
I am off now, to watch "Law and Order " and work on Barbara's RR some more.

An important finish

I am letting out a sigh of relief. I have been messing around with a mail art for weeks and it is finally finished. I am not sure why I had such a hard time getting it done, exept that I wanted it to be "just so" and a large part of getting it right was in the finishing-which is not my strong point. I can't post a picture yet because it is supposed to be a surprise ,but as soon as it arrives at it's home I will put up one ..or two. I am very pleased with the way it came out and all of the thought that went into it shows.

Alexander is doing well and now just has to avoid being overactive for a week or so, and as my house guests have gone home (sniff,sniff) I have some time to work on Barbara's RR and my socks. Hope to have an update picture on those tomorrow.