Absent

Sorry I havent posted for..FOREVER! I have been a very busy girl. We have had to jump through several hoops around here to get things taken care of. First off as I stated before I had to leave the country to get my passport stamped. So...we went to England. Since we are on a tight budget and really couldn't afford to go there it wasn't the most pleasant trip in the world. We went and stayed in a little town called Luton.



If you ever have even the smallest desire to go there my advice is DONT. It was four fairly boring and somewhat miserable days. We stayed in a little hotel called the Luton Hotel Residence. The entire time we were there they NEVER cleaned our rooms, no clean towels, no new coffee & tea service, not even new toilet paper! I have never in all my life stayed in a hotel where they didnt clean your rooms and give you clean towel, coffee, etc every day. They also didnt provide shampoo or wash clothes. This was aggravatig as we didnt bring any shampoo along considering all the regulations on liquids. We didn't really think we would need any. One fun moment in the time we were there though was on the night we decided to go out and find a nice pub and watch the rugby game. The game was between France and England so you can probably imagine that it was pretty funny to be sitting with D in the middle of a big English pub full of Rugby fans screaming every time the English made a score. Needless to say we didnt jump up ad down every time the French scored. LOL!
I was so happy to get home after that trip. I can truly say that this place is starting to feel like home. After we arrived home we had to go to the Marie for yet ANOTHER meeting as they wanted to ask us more questions. This time they wanted us to provide an interpreter. We were both a little upset that we had to yet again go get interviewed (interrogated) even though we had already had to go to the police headquarters and talk to them. well it turned out ok in the end I guess. the one lady was quite nice and seemed to be quite satisfied with everything we told her but the other one was very bitchy! (Good cop, Bad cop?!?) She asked so many questions and seemed very unfriendly. The interpreter was even a little put off by her and said she thought she was being unreasonable. She even made a comment that I wasnt talking much...like I could say much when I didnt understand what they were talking about? o0 Well after all that was over we were finally allowed to set a date! We are getting married on November 10th. I have been in quite a tizzy trying to figure out what to wear and finally decided to make my own dress. Yes, I know I'm nuts to even try since I dont have a regular sewing machine here, I only brought my serger. I think I see myself doing lots of hand work *cringe* I dont mind though. I think it might be a little fun. Yesterday D and I went into Bordeaux to the little fabric store I found there and bought my material to make my dress. I found some beautiful taffeta, some nice sparkle organza and a piece of cream satin. I am overlaying the sparkle organza over the top of the satin and making the bodice with the taffeta. One small problem..on examining the bags when we arrived home we realized that the pattern was gone. The sales lady had kept it at the second store we went to to buy the zipper and ribbon. Now we have to make a trip back into the city to get my pattern and if they arent open today then I will lose two days of working on my dress o.o



Besides all the fuss in trying to get our date set at the marie and traveling outside the country I have been busy making things. I started a new cross stitch and I have to say this is the most difficult pattern I have ever picked. I really love the picture though and I've decided when its done I will hang it in our bedroom. I have been using a few blending filaments to give it a bit of a sparkle which I think is giving it a nice touch. D says this will probably take me the rest of my life, I think he may be right!



I have also been working on making a light cover. Since arriving here I have seen several cloth light covers. I had never seen anything like them but I really liked several so I decided to make one for the bedroom and this is what I have so far. Sorry the picture quality is so bad. It has three rows of "petals" the inner one being a single larger one, the second row is two smaller ones and the outer row three smallest ones. I serged the pieces around the edges also lining the first inner petal so it shades the light a little better. After serging each piece I cut a two squares out of cardboard, the one smaller so that it fits inside the first square I then taped the petals so the bigs ones hung down from the inner sides of the squares, the smaller ones hung down from the space between the two squares and the smallest ones hung from the outer edges. Then I cut another square the size of both of the others combined. This one I am going to cover with black material and then glue it on top of the others to hold it all together and give it some stability. then I will run strings from the four corners up to a circle of cardboard that will hang around the light fixture. It took me awhile to figure out how to make this. The ones I had seen were mounted on wire structures and since I didnt have one I had to come up with a viable solution. I think this will work well...I just need to remember to buy some glue to finish it ^_^



My last project I have been working on is a cashmere blanket. I had several sweaters left over from the shop that were not being used so I brought them with me here to France and decided to make a blanket out of them. I first cut them all into strips 7 " wide and of various lengths. I then serged them together to form a patchwork. Yesterday I bought a nice big piece of polar fleece in black and I am giong to join the two pieces together to make a wonderful snuggy blanket to use when I curl up on the couch. I cant wait till it is finished. Im already using the cashmere part before I've even backed it!

To top all of this business off...we have decided to have everyone come back here to the house after the wedding. So...I have to come up with some appetizer recipe as we thought we would have a buffet for the guests. We arent having that many people come. Probably about 10 so it wont be too hard. D's mother is going to make some food also and bring it along. If anyone has a good recipe please send it to me. I have to admit I'm short on ideas in that department. I thought maybe a spinach artichoke dip with pita ? Wish me luck *^_^*