That much closer to a completed nest

This you may remember having seen in an earlier stage of incompleteness. It's almost done...now, there's just the wait to see what the name and date will end up being. And time to find another project; the cross stitch part of my heart and brain feel somehow empty. Candidates to fill that aching void are this and this.

Does this count as nesting?

I believe that this might just count as nesting, but then again, I have gone through several periods of my adult life spend huddled over a cross-stitch frame for hours each day, for days at a time, not nesting. But this time there is a theme. Stemming from a compulsion to pore through my giant folder of patterns to find baby samplers, of which I frankly don't have very many. But a small few, bought long ago just in case someone close to me was expecting. And one or two much more elaborate ones which I thought, these are far too complicated and would take far too long to justify doing for any child who is not my own. So, now that I have justification, it's time to break out the complicated stuff and see what I can get done before I never have a moment to stitch again for years and year.

This pattern, just to make it clear, is not one of those complicated ones. It's dead simple, just to get me back into the habit (which took all of about 10 minutes, I'm easily addicted to this stuff). I'm especially fond of the cat, who has since been finished, backstitching and all, and is looking very cool indeed. Next stitching stop: the toy train.

Bedtime Story #1: Clumsy Hans (Klods-Hans)

The story of Clumsy Hans, to be read right before bedtime. If it's not that time, you may come back when it is, or rebelling against petty rules is also appreciated:

Once upon a time, there was a princess who decided to marry the man who had the most to say for himself. Two brothers who were a little too sure of their abilities set out to woo her, so that one of them might be the chosen one. A third brother, who was sure of himself in a whole other way, set out to win the princess as well. This third brother started without advantages (he had a goat rather than the fine horses of his brothers), and collected seemingly useless objects on his journey to the castle - a dead crow, a broken wooden shoe, and pockets full of mud. There's no way he could have won the princess.

Except in a fairy tale. He had perfect luck and timing, and his resources were just what was needed, or could be presented that way. The other brothers were forgotten, our anti-hero got the girl, erm, princess, they eventually became king and queen and lived presumably happily ever after.

That Princess. If only modern princesses were married in this way...what work for the tabloids! Would you agree to choose your future King or Queen by public interview? If so, what one quality would you be looking for in all your suitors?

That Hans. Working with what he has, and without inhibition. And it works. How do you do this in your life? What treasures do you carry around with you, to use for winning that princess or prince (or job, or house, or whatever else is in your line of desire)?

Those other brothers: Were they given a bum rap, weeded out unfairly by the selection process? And for that matter, what about all the impressive people in line after Hans?

Answers on a post-it note or blog comment, please.

And, for those who took my suggestion seriously, goodnight and sweet dreams.

Here be dragons

The cross stitch dragon: I can go years without stitching anything, and then again I have phases where I stitch prolifically. Denmark seems to set off the prolific phases. When I'm truly into a project, I can easily spend hours and hours on it every day for weeks at a time. This one is from a Teresa Wentzler pattern, and I actually stitched it twice. Not one after the other, but at the same time, switching after each small section or sub-section. One late evening, after a day of stitching, and perhaps a glass of wine too many, it suddenly hit me that one dragon was named Fred, and the other one Clive. I of course quickly stitched their names on them, so that I wouldn't get them confused. The one in these photos is Clive. Fred was a birthday present for my brother, by which I mean that I showed him what it would look like on one birthday, started stitching soon thereafter, had it done a few months after that, and then framed it and gave the finished product to him for the following birthday.

The wooden dragon: we saw lots of 'do it yourself' wooden model kits when we were in China, but didn't buy any. I suppose we just didn't think we'd put them together, or if we did, then what would we do with them? Then, we saw them again in Prague, and bought loads for all the children in Thor's family, and one for Thor. Putting it together was a mess, until I realized that the instructions were in many cases wrong, and then it became fairly easy. The painting was a bit of a bore, so I let Thor do it, just disassembling dragon sections for him to do, and then reassembling them after they were dry. Now, we're both mad to get more, but haven't found them anywhere near us. So, it's high on our shopping list for whenever we find them.