Thank you :)

Friends, I want to sincerely thank each of you for your warmhearted messages, advice, and support. I won't have time to thank each and everyone of you privately, but they've meant a lot and helped me go through the week. Thank you!

I'm still under the weather, altough I can swallow now, and can finally feel this evening that I'm on the mend. However, one of the medicines I'm taking has made me feel all terrible and nauseous, and I can't wait to be off it.
I'm still not sure how I managed to get to the classes and actually teach them - especially yesterday morning at 8, after another awful night... But it's over now, and the classes went well - I did warn my students not to get too close to me. ;) The students are really nice and motivated. However, the turnout is much larger than planned! The classroom yesterday in particular was absolutely choke-full, and the late students actually didn't have anywhere to sit - some had to go away :( I asked for a larger classroom but the logistics folks seemed dubious that any other would be available.

I'm so glad the week is over and that I got through all my classes without any problem :) I got hardly anything accomplished as regards PhD research this week though... Not to mention the appalling state of my email inbox. Hopefully next week will be better.

I really hope I'll manage to take some rest this weekend, but it turns out to be a long-planned family and birthday weekend - so I'll be taking the train to Lille tomorrow morning, and coming back to Paris on Monday morning. I need to take my laptop and some books to prepare next week's classes, and hopefully get a little reading done for my PhD...
All this means I definitely won't be stitching or sewing until next week, and I miss it. I had started a blouse last weekend that was coming along so nice and classy! (I'm making it in the crinkled sable fabric you can see here). I'm using this great pattern (view B, the blue model) The frills and details and the challenging fabric - along with the mere fact that I have never sewn a blouse before - were making me hesitant, but Seb just told me to "go ahead and cut", and he was right - I was really having a ball with this project last weekend. Can't wait to get back to it, and then move on to other projects (like this dress... love it! But I don't have the right fabric for it yet... I want to do view E, the one with three-quarter sleeves, possibly in a burgundy or dark plum fabric).

Here are a couple of projects I can show you though :) The first one was just received by our friend Becky Bee, along with the peacock pinkeep - I just couldn't show you this banner earlier or the bees might have given the recipient's name away ;)

And here's a picture of my latest WIP...

Kitty Cottage Sampler by Little House Needleworks
(you can see the finished design on the middle of that page)
stitched on Clay belfast by Zweigart.

This turns out to be a larger project than I thought - I started it in late August, since I showed it to Sylvie when she came to Paris. Of course I worked on some other things in-between (my Cat Crazy Lady exchange, Karen's gifties and Becky's pinkeep); but the small picture on the LHN website is deluding! Not that I complain though - I just thought this would be a cute little project instead of a full-fledged "sampler" and I'm getting a little bored with it. Those colours are not my usual palette, but I am enjoying the change. I'll probably keep this one for Violette, Seb and me ;)

I think I'll manage to pick up a needle tonight. Seb has just been to the DVD rental and chosen a Cohen movie - so we should have a nice cosy evening :)
Thanks again everyone :) See you next week!

Little Miss Cutie and I wish you all a lovely weekend.

Here she is in one of her favourite positions - sitting and showing off her fluffy belly.
She's had a blissful week - a sick human friend means more bedtime and hence more cuddles!