Perhaps a new job in 2014

There is still three months left of 2013, but I have already begun to plan for 2014, as I hope that I will be in a new city and have a new job when 2014 arrives. Yesterday I sent applications for three different jobs as a medical secretary in Karlskrona in the south of Sweden, by the Baltic Sea. I've lived "landlocked" for thirteen years now and I've been missing the nearness of the sea more and more lately, as I've lived most of my life near the sea or a big lake, and I lived eleven years on the island of Gotland, where the hospital I worked at was situated next to the beach, and I could see out over the water every day at work, and the sunsets during the winter months were often very impressive with lots of colours and the ever-changing sea. Now I hope that it won't be too long before I live in a city by the sea, and can watch the sun go down (or up) over the water.

I've already begun to go through my stuff, I won't say that I'm packing, it's far too early for that, but going through all the things that I have accumulated during the years, so it's high time to get organised and to throw away or give away things that I don't need or are too old/well-used/saved "in case I might need them. I know that I'm a bit of a hoarder, not only when it comes to stitching stuff, but also to stationery, as I went through the items I have kept in my writing bureau and filled three boxes (about 25 x 35 x 30cm big) with paper, envelopes and cards. I have had several snail-mail pen pals during the years, but have unfortunately lost contact with most of them, and now it's usually only an exchange of Christmas cards, so all those lovely writing papers I have collected have been forgotten in the bureau. Maybe it's also time to start looking for new snail-mail pals so that my collection of stationery doesn't just collect dust.

I've also done a bit of stitching on the muguet heart, page 3 (the bottom part) is all done and I have only a handful of stitches left on page 2, so it's soon time to begin stitching the flower part of the heart. I also picked up my knitting needles, I found some fuzzy yarn for a scarf and as I'm knitting with size 8 needles, it won't take long to get the scarf done, perfect for the colder months ahead.

A visit to the vet

Had to take my oldest cat to the veterinarian today, as I had noticed that he had began climbing up instead of jumping when he wanted to get up somewhere, and he has also been more irritated lately with the two female cats I have. He haven't seem to be in pain but I wanted to have him checked, as he's the one of my cats that have had most problems health-wise, it's been either accidents or illness. He has had his fair share of visits to the vet, thankfully he's always been a very good patient, even when he doesn't like what's been done, he's never tried to bite or claw anyone.

He had a bad ear infection in December/January and had to have first ear drops and then two rounds of antibiotic tablets before his ears were fine again. Unfortunately he has suffered a permanent loss of hearing after the infection, he had a rupture of the eardrum on one side due to the infection, but he's lost hearing on both ears, and doesn't react on any sound.

He will be eleven years old in January, so he's not young anymore, and the vet found that he seems to be suffering from arthritis (or some other joint pain) in his hips. He was prescribed a medicine that's anti-inflammatory as well as pain reliever, and we will see if it will help him, and hopefully his temper with the other two will improve.

Stitching-wise I've been working on the muguet heart, I had to do some frogging after I had stitched about one third of the stitching on the bottom part of the heart, which is on a separate page, as I discovered that the centre markings on the top and bottom page were not correct, they were five or six stitches out of sync. Thankfully there was only 21 rows of stitching on the separate page, so it wasn't that much to frog, but still, it's always irritating to have to undo what you have done, and this time it wasn't entirely my fault, there was a fault in the pattern.

The weather forecast for tonight says that the temperature could drop below zero Centigrade, and the cold is coming in from Russia. The weather has changed quickly this September, during the two first weeks the temperature was still summer warm during the days, and now it will be almost five degrees colder than normally during this time of the year. Hopefully the turn to colder weather will only be temporary, and that October will be mild and sunny.

Soup Monday ... and some frogging

Autumn is officially here, the Autumn Equinox was yesterday, and although we have had a sunny day today it's not very warm, so I decided it was time to make some soup for dinner to warm me up. As I like corn and knew that I have several cans in the pantry I went looking for a new recipe and found Chunky Corn Chowder on Allrecipes.com, with potatoes, carrots and corn. The recipe is vegan and made with soy milk, but I'm a vegetarian so I used ordinary milk instead. The soup was easy to make and didn't take that long to make and it tasted delicious, and I have saved the recipe and will make it again, perfect for chilly days.

I've been stitching on the muguet heart and have almost finished the right-hand part of the heart, and began stitching the bottom part that's on a separate page. There were markings for the centre on the pages and I assumed that the markings were correct, but when I had reached to the top of the bottom part I discovered that the markings had been out of sync by five or six stitches! I had to frog everything I had stitched when it came to the bottom part, maybe an hours worth of stitching :-( I'm just glad that it wasn't more.

Perfumes and more stitching stuff

I love perfumes (even if I'm not allowed to wear any at work), and I like to try on new ones. I'm a member of Fragrantica.com, and it's possible to make different searches there, for example for a specific note. I made a search for lavender and found several perfumes, but most of them not available here in Sweden. While looking I found some for me new fragrance companies, and ordered a few samples from Fragrances of Ireland and Molinard, and have received them now.

I haven't had time to try on all of the perfumes, but I love the Innisfree perfume from Fragrances of Ireland, there is lavender in it, and sandalwood and cedarwood in the base note, and I will buy it.

In the Molinard box there are five flower scents, lavender, rose, jasmine, violet and lily of the valley, and I also ordered an orange blossom soap.

As for stitching, I got more stash, this time from Sew and So in the U.K. I ordered a Vervaco kit, Majesty II, I've been wanting to stitch it for a long time and finally decided to buy it. I also bought a bookmark (with a cat of course), new scissors and a rotating Easy Clip frame (not in the photo).

I've continued to stitch on the Coeur de muguet, it's coming along fine, but I'm not sure I will have time to finish it before September 30, the day my mother was born. I have also found an old UFO, Who's watching whom? from Dimensions, and began stitching on it again. As you can see I have one of the models here at home ;-)

Sunny September days and some stitching

I'm on holidays now and I have to say that the weather have been exceptionally fine the last two weeks, it's been sunny and almost as warm as we usually have summertime during the days, people are still using their summer clothes and I'm still going bare-legged. Of course as soon as it gets dark in the evenings the temperature drops a bit and the mornings can be a bit chilly, but I do prefer the spring and autumn with the cooler weather to the heat of summer. The only drawback with having a late summer/early autumn holiday is that the evenings are not as light as they are in June and July, the sun sets already about 19,30 now instead of at 22,00 as it does around Midsummer.

I've been stitching on the Lily of the Valley heart the last week, I got the package from Madame La Fée, you can see the contents here (including my little helper):

And this is how much I've been able to stitch on it during this week:

I'm stitching the green part of the heart, it's five different shades of green and I find it quite easy and quick to stitch.

Stitching, shopping and a concert

On Monday last week I received two of the Seasonal cat samplers (Spring and Autumn) and on Tuesday I got the Coeur de muguet, and I began stitching on the Autumn sampler immediately, hopefully I will be able to finish it before the winter is here (winter solstice this year is on December 21). The fabric is aida, which is not my favourite, I prefer linen, although I have to admit it's a bit easier/quicker to sew on aida. I've also began with the first stitches on the heart pattern, which is on linen. There was a small gift in the package from Madame la Fée, a tiny angel charm, perfect to add to the heart when it's finished.

Yesterday I went shopping for new tea towels, or should I say old tea towels as I went to one of the charity shops looking for older tea towels made of linen as I like them much better than the new ones made of cotton. I have been using tea towels my mother had made when she got married, and they are/were more than 50 years old by now and have survived the everyday use and wear for that long, but now they are getting worn and I had to get new ones. I found half a dozen new/old linen towels that seems to be hardly used at all. I also bought a couple of lovely linen napkins, as well as a bowl and a jar in blue and white china.

In the evening I went to a concert, our county council celebrates its 150th year, and as a gift to all employees they arranged a concert (or rather six concerts as there are 12 000 employees) for free with Peter and Matilda, they are cousins and have both received the county's culture stipend. They are well-known in here in Östergötland and has also performed both in Sweden and abroad in musicals. The show was very good, they played covers, it was everything from Burt Bacharach, Dolly Parton, Simon & Garfunkel, The Eagles and Queen to Swedish artists as well as songs from musicals.