Awfully quiet around here

Oh, my friends. All those dreams, all those plans. Then reality hit in the form of (since January)...

...House purchase delayed for one week
...House painting, cleaning, floor installation - in 10 days or less
...Move
...10 days in new house during which we could not walk on new floor
...Week long delay in moving internet and phone
...Unpacking
...Weekly overnight trips for loving husband
...Family trip to Vienna
...Colds for me and Pumpkin
...Flat tire on the bicycle
...Grandparents arrive from North Carolina
...Birthday celebration (Pumpkin is 2!)
...Record-breaking 7 days of illness during which each and every member of our extended household gets sick and stays sick for at least 5 days. Each.

We're still in the middle of that last one. I'm just starting to feel like I might one day get a grip on things again - like life might one day be something other than a series of life-changing events. It just might be possible that there's a year or two in a row somewhere in our future that doesn't involve a move or a new job or new school or new family member. They're all wonderful things, but it would also be nice to catch a breath and take a minute to enjoy it all, too.

For now, let's take a minute an enjoy a house that's more than less unpacked. A house that's full of people I love - three generations of them, no less. A house that's going to be ours for a nice long while. A house where we can all stay in our pajamas for, say, three or four days in a row. Oh yes, and this yummy cup of honey lemon tea that will surely kick the doo-wop out of my cough!

My Creative Space

I've finally worked up the courage to attempt a Pembroke vest for Peanut. It's a lot more fun and less frightening than I thought it would be. The cable work requires attention, but isn't actually too difficult. Placing a marker at the beginning of each pattern section makes it a lot easier to avoid – or find – mistakes. The shoulder shaping on this back piece is impressive. It's a nicer finish than a straight shoulder. I'm curious to see how it will fit.

This little bag has been my creative space on the road. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling just to look at it and realize how much promise it holds. When we were packing up in Chicago, I put together the tools that seemed like absolute necessities for sewing and knitting, my two Elizabeth Zimmerman books, and Cal Patch's pattern making book and figured that would keep me covered and busy until our shipment arrived in the Netherlands. Two months and a bit down the road, no regrets yet. Between what I can borrow, get on-line, and buy along the way, I've been very happy.

Somewhere, some day, I dream of my own space – a beautiful sunny room with big working surfaces, a comfy chair, and a wall of inspirational images and ideas. But that will just be a luxury. It doesn't actually take much to make a lot. All the stashing, stocking, oohing and aahing are often more distracting than productive. The making time is what counts – it's probably my most valuable space. It's carved out between kids and husband and family and friends and moving and cleaning and cooking and everything else. For now, I'll concentrate on that.

Go see more creative spaces!

Holland: Home Sweet 'Thuis

It is a huge relief for us to be in our own space at last. When we left Chicago, we had no idea where we would end up. Our previous experience with apartment hunting in the Netherlands was not positive, so it wasn't easy to not worry. In the end we found a great place for our family to live. It's not close to trees like we dreamed of, though. Instead, we are smack in the middle of town. In fact, we are in the newest part of this old town. And oh, the adventures have only begun.

We came to this place by pure chance. After weeks of research on-line, days of planning visits with various realtors, and visits to three possible homes, it came down to 45 minutes one evening and a lucky internet search. We walked my in-laws' house at 4:15 on a Thursday afternoon and hoped to make one appointment for the next day. It worked. A huge sigh of relief.

We had to arrange parking permits for the movers. One of our movers. We had things in storage at my in-laws, our car in transit from Chicago, and our goods in transit as well. Figuring out where we could park and what permits were available took a few phone calls and emails. Only by chance did we find out that the day that our goods from Chicago were scheduled to be delivered was the beginning of a city fair (kermis). The next possible date for a parking permit? Two weeks later. And we went for another round of last minute phone calls. We'll be waiting another week or so for that.

Now our excitement is internet. For reasons I may never fully understand, these things take weeks in the Netherlands. We ordered our internet/phone service about two weeks ago. They sent a modem last week. They were supposed to turn on our service today (we requested it for last Monday). No service yet. Lucky for us the library is next door. I don't anticipate this working out well, at least not in the near term. Grumble grumble grumble.

On the upside, though – mobile phones were a cinch and we have reasonably priced packages. We celebrated Peanut's third (THIRD!!!) birthday last week and he loved it, especially the singing. Apparently we can skip gifts as long as we sing “Happy Birthday” repeatedly. My kind of kid! Our neighbors have a little boy the same age as Peanut with almost the same name. They came by to drop of a sweet gift and stayed for coffee and are nice! For those of you not familiar with the Netherlands – this kind of paying attention to neighbors is almost shocking, it's too friendly. We're delighted. We have guests already scheduled to come and plenty of space for them, too. All in all – life shaping up just fine.

Do you see those chairs? There's a good story there, too.