So much wonderful news, my head is spinning!

So what's the good news, you may ask?

Well, first, the non-stitching news. Long story short, DB has been here in Canada for just over 3 years now, and we've been doing his immigration paperwork for residency. While full permanent residency is still a couple of months away, he got his work permit a couple of months ago, but with this recession, finding a job has been difficult. I kept telling him that in spring it would be a snap, there's so much building going on in this area (he's a carpenter by trade) that he would be tripping over jobs. Well today he got one, and a very good one at that. He's been hired to join a small crew of guys who do home renovations/restorations on centuries old homes, and starts Monday. Very happy for him - and me! This means I can finally cut down my hours at work and get some serious designing done!

Stitching news... part 1 - http://europeanxs.com/index.html - Celtic Garden is now available for sale. I got the chart sent off this morning and it was up on the site right away - and on the front page too! I was doing my happy dance before I went to work today! The neatest part was coming home from work, and seeing a couple of emails, and a message board post about the design from some friends. The message board post had me dancing again, my friend mentioned that some people I don't know were emailing her about this new, must-have piece that was just released and it was mine! I was so happy I almost cried.

Stitching news... part 2 - Carrie's threads has just released a new product which has me flying. Silks!! I'm a fanatic for silks, I rarely stitch with anything else. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Carrie's colours, and I do have a couple of projects kitted in the cottons, but I rarely work on them for the sole reason that I don't enjoy working with cotton much anymore. And now I can re-kit all of these pieces in silk and still get to use all the cool colours! I'll definitely be contacting Carrie in future for some of my own designs!

Stitching news... part 3 - I'm almost done the design for piece number 3. Well I guess it's actually number 4 if you include the free piece I released last June. I know I promised DB and Mom that I wouldn't work on designing or model stitching after working all day and would give myself a break, but I'm glad I didn't really. I had a bit of a play earlier and I'm quite happy with how the ideas are flowing now. Sometimes I can see it so clearly in my head it's scary, but when I try to convert the picture in my mind to stitches it just won't work. This one seems to be coming more easily. And now I have 3 whole days off to work on it!

Stitching news... part 4 - I've gotten two more people hooked on silks. I sent an HDF e-card to my aunt - I say aunt because she's married to my uncle, but she's my own age and one of my closest friends. I had been telling her for ages how nice silk is to use, so much nicer than cotton and a hundred times nicer than the kit threads she uses on so many pieces. When you send an e-card from HDF, there is a spot to put the persons mailing address in, and Vikki will send them a thread and fabric sample. Well she got it and played and is in love. :D AND... another aunt was down a couple weeks ago for my son's birthday. I had brought a few things I was working on with me including various silk threads I was using for them, and my HDF tags. I just got together a care package for her with all kinds of silks and fabrics that she loved, my mother is heading up north this weekend and taking them along. Apparently my aunt is so excited that she's reminded mom about 10 times not to forget the bag of goodies!! I love getting people to explore new horizons in stitching! I fear though, that I have become a dealer, and they'll be coming to me for their fixes!

Stitching news... part 5 - well it doesn't have me totally overjoyed like the others, but I thought I would give a mention of what I'm working on personally. I put aside my latest model to wait for some threads, and in the meantime I've been stitching away at a couple things. Spanish Rouge got a couple more bands finished - very happy with my colour selection on this one and when I'm not so lazy I'll take a picture and post my progress. And of course with all today's good news, I had to celebrate... with a new start. I started I Will Give You Five Hearts, by A Mon Amie Pierre today. I'm stitching it on Vikki Clayton's 35 count linen, in Haywains, using Crescent Colours Belle Soie Silk in Rosebud. What a gorgeous colour of thread. I've been waiting to find the perfect project for it. This one stitches up very quickly - almost done 1 heart already. :)

And now I must get some sleep. It's 5 am, and though I'm still flying high from such a wonderful day, I need some zzzzz's. ;)