The Pitfalls of Translation

Indeed.....

I also listed some stash for sale - the link is on the upper left margin.  

Bye for now,

Sylvia

More Paris

For everyone who has patiently waited for my stash pictures - here they are.  I was fairly conservative, BUT next year I will have a plan, and damage will be done.

Reflets de Soi - Ann Mitchell & Heloise Cornu each flanking Muriel Brunet  MB 1841

Heloise Cornu - I know its bright!  It was done on 32ct Silk Gauze with AVAS Soie Surfine - a total dream!!

I love the Eiffel Tower pattern by Jardin Prive , the ohter owe is by Natalie Jo from Atelier Perdu

AVAS for Jane Atkinson - No its not cheaper to buy it in Paris....chaching!

A bit of trim.....

This one was so feminine - I could not resist.

Now for the two Reflets de Soie samplers, thread packs are available, so I think that is the route I will take - its much cheaper than buying each the colors seperately.  I am planning to do Heloise Cornu on silk gauze - she looks wonderful that way.

Now for some more Paris pictures, just to put you guys into sensory overload...

Yes, they are real.... and expensive!!

One of the fun things in France is the food....

Yummy, yummy food

Oh la la - le Fromage....

The produce...

Such large & beautiful strawberries...

I wanted to buy a little of everything

And pasteries....

And chocolate....EVERYWHERE

More hip-exploding pasteries....

Beautiful flowers

Ginormeous crepes

Hope I did not blow anyone's diet!

Here is a lovely statue of Jaon of Ark

Champs Elysee at night towards the L'Arc de Triomphe

Champs Elysee towards the Place de la Concorde & some French hair...

I leave you with some images of the Catacombs, the underground querry beneath Paris where eventually 6 million Parisens found their final resting place.  At first, the bones were thrown in, later they were organized in the stacks you will see in the photos.  These were taken without flash, as it was forbidden to use it down there.  The black line you see on the ceiling still remains from when people walked through the catacombs by candlelight only, and this was their guide through the catacombs.  Let me tell you, it was difficult enough with electric light, but going through there by the light of the candle, which you carried.... NO THANK YOU!!

See the ground water way down there - quarry workers used to cool their feet in this...

Stop:  Here is the Empire of Death - a slightly distrubing entrance to the Ossuary

Uuhh, creepy

Skulls and femuers were used to build a wall - the rest of the bones were thrown behind this wall.

There were A LOT of bones - and we only got to see a fraction of them.

  To climb back out you have to climb up a very tight spiral staircase with higher than usual treads.... there are 82 of them.  I was behind a group in which an elderly lady was struggeling to get up these stairs, and although I could not see her, I could hear her moans, and groans.  For some reason it filled me with anxiety, and much to my shame, I just wanted to climb over that group, shove her out of the way and escape to the fresh air.  I did manage to keep my flight impulses in check and I don't have to mention how glad I was to get back up the to the surface!  

I leave you with my first onrie of the year - LHN Fa-La- La - over one.

I stitched this over one, because over two was just getting too big, plus my stitches looked like a kindergartner was having a good time - don't know what was up with that.  Its very petite, and I love it that way.

Until next time,

Sylvia

Le Winner

I think its still Friday on the West Coast of the US, so I am still on time!!

Anyway, I decided to try out the Randomizer, and it worked just fine...I had to test it though, because I wasn't sure if it did it correctly, so I have two winners now.

Margaret - Days of a Sampler lover ..... come on down!!  If you send me your addy I will fill a box with chocolate and the magazine and send it your way.  If you don't like chocolate, let me know - there are plenty of other yummies to send.

Winner number two is Kerri ( who still hasn't started her blog) - now,  I know I will get you chocolate for sure.... what else...hmmm, it will have to be a surprise.

More of Paris to come.

Until Then,

Sylvia

The Trip that Almost Wasn't

First off, Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope got to indulge in a little bit of Chocolate today - I had mine early and in Paris, nonetheless.

I went there with my sweet husband to take a peek at the needlework show that was taking place - it was a blast. But this whole trip almost did not happen because my youngest child Olivia was doing her annual ( it always seems to be in Feb/March) medical mystery/emergency thing.  She started having pains that migrated from her lower right back to her mid right abdomen.  After taking her to the doc, with nothing conclusive, he said to come in for a follow-up two days later - at which point in time he saw things in her urine which were of concern to him.  Another trip to the lab the following day, and the doc sent her to the local children's hospital.  They were as stumped as he was since everything they looked at was normal except her urine and her pain, and she got sent home since there was no sign of infection in her blood - her urine was still a concern.  The following day they called us back to the hospital and took a look at her kidney ( she already has 2 sonograms and one CT scan by that time), but still nothing conclusive - however, her values in her urine now made them nervous, and they sent us over to the pediatric surgeon.  He took a look ( and by that I mean poked and prodded her) and  took the usual blood and sent her up to have another sono to see if they could locate the appendix.  It did look suspiciously like appendicitis , except that she was missing the fever and the elevated white blood cells in her blood - but no appendix to be found - they scanned the rest of the abdomen, really studied her CT, made calls to admit her for some laproscopic exploratory surgery pending results of her bloodwork which was ....normal! So, home we went, where my poor child stayed in bed and was miserable.  She did have some good painkillers, but they did not give her much relief.  After a weekend of pain and boredom, she went to school for 3 days - with visits to the lab to check on her urine, which showed improvement.  I had already changed my train reservation to Paris to leave two days ( Friday) later, in hopes that she would be well.  On Thursday she woke up in a great deal of pain, and I hustled her back to the children's hospital where they sonogrammed her abodomen from top to bottom and finally found a rather large ovarian cyst.  Jimmeny Cricket - what a two week freak-out  I had.  The cyst should resolve itself, thank goodness.  My friend Margit kept an eye on Liv, and I decided it would be safe to hop the train to Paris.

Our first order of Business on Friday was to visit the American Embassy - my husband has a connection there, so he got us in - what fun.  No pictures though because its not allowed.  Here we are  standing right on the corner of the Place de la Concorde where the embassy is located.

We checked into our hotel - a French Officer's hotel with nice rooms and reasonable Paris room rates.

Our room was on the top floor - last window on the right in the dome part - our view was fantastic.

The last two were taken Sunday morning around 8:30 a.m. - Paris is super quiet at that time - the only real activity comes from tourists trying to squeeze as many attractions in as possible.  

Back to where I left off - Friday night there was an event at the AVAS store, which I had signed up for - my main goal was to see the store and buy my floss for Jane Atkinson.  I hopped the Metro - which at that time was belly buttons to behinds full.  I emerged onto the street and went off in search of the store.  Being the well-trained American I was looking for a nice bright store sign, but leave it to the French to be understated...

  

Into the entry hall

 up the winding stairs,

and through the door into silk heaven.

Just FYI - I blurred the two ladies in the photograph because I received an e-mail from one of these ladies, stating that I had broken French law by even taking this picture, and since it showed nothing of interest anyway she asked that I remove it from my blog.  I think this is a good compromise - I get to keep my non- interesting photo and she is just a non-recognizable blur.

The next day we ( yes my husband came along) went off to Aiguilles en Fete.  We came out of the Metro, crossed the plaza and voila - the Grande Hall where all sorts of delights awaited the needleworker!

Rob and his new friends....

Yup, it was THAT big!!

One of the first booths I got to was Reflets de Soie... wow, her stuff is fantastically beautiful.

Here are a few more pics at random.

So, if you are still reading, I want to reward you!  Since it is Valentine's Day and I have just returned from Paris, I want to giveaway the current issue of Mains & Merveilles, which features 5 Red Samplers by Isabelle Mazabraud-Kerlan of Reflets de Soie.  I will, of course, add plenty of chocolate goodies to go with this.  Just mention in your comment that you want to be in this giveaway.  I know it sneaky adding this to the end, but I want to reward those who actually take the time to read all that I write.  I will draw a winner on Friday.

I will write more on Paris in my next post - this one is very long as it is, and I will show you guys what I brought home as well.  

Until then,

Sylvia