IHWS December 2014 and a trip to Salzburg

Hello dear friends and followers,

it was IHWS this weekend again (if you are not familiar with it, just click on the icon on the right-hand bar) and I did some stitching, but what I definitely did not do is hermitting... lol!

DH and I had booked a weekend trip to Salzburg, which is a three hour train ride from Vienna. This of course gave me some time for stitching. Oh, Salzburg is a wonderful city and if you have never been there you should seriously think about going! Especially in Advent there is a certain magic to that place.

We were really lucky with the weather, on Friday and Saturday it was unusually warm and sunny for this time of the year (many Austrians are already complaining about the lack of snow for Christmas, but as I am not a winter person, it is all right with me) and we had the most wonderful time walking around the town. We headed up the Kapuzinerberg to a tiny old castle named Franziskus-Schloessl (Francis' castle). This means about half an hour of walking uphill and especially at the beginning it is really uphill, but it always is well worth the effort.

Francis' castle - just look at the gorgeous weather and DH in front of it ;-)

There are some wonderful Christmas markets in and around the city at this time of the year and so we took the bus to Hellbrunn palace, were they had put up lovely decorations.

And if you are looking for the perfect place to drink your Gluehwein (mulled wine in German), you have to go to the heart of the city, to Europe's oldest restaurant.

since 803

Stiftskeller St. Peter - St. Peter's Abbey's cellar

This is the entrance to the yard where you can spend the most romantic evening

The entrance to the cellar/restaurant itself

Just look at the old vault with the wonderful decoration

In the evening they have a brass quartet playing Christmas songs, which certainly adds to the athmospere. There would not have been a better and more romantic place to spend the 4th Advent weekend and if we had not been in Christmas mood before, we certainly were then!

But IHSW! Yes, I did some stitching on the train ride, so here are the two cover kits from previous issues of British cross stitch magazines I had started a while ago on Thursday evening when I popped them into my tiny suitcase:

Fizzy Moon Christmas card from The World of Cross Stitching

Lickle Ted Christmas card, likely from the same magazine

 And where I left them yesterday evening:

All this backstitch drove me nearly nuts, but it looks sooooo cute

Way to go, maybe for Christmas 2015?

 A merry Christmas to everyone of you who celebrates it and I hope to see you all soon again on my little blog!

Best wishes,
Silvia

Santa Claus is coming to town

Hello dear friends and followers,

thank you for your lovely comments, it's always great to hear from you all out there.

I have been stitching a lot lately, because a friend of mine had ordered Christmas gifts for her two sons from me. I had stitched an owl cushion which I had offered for sale in late October at a little exhibition at a friend's place (she is a professional potter and makes the most lovely things). She really liked it and a few days later she texted me that she wanted to buy it and asked if I also could stitch another cushion for her second son with a fish on it. I browsed through my huge collection of cross stitch magazines and found just the perfect companion piece.

I finished sewing the fish cushion Tuesday night after a few weeks of heavy stitching and today I was on my way delivering the two cushions to her. So I was kind of playing Santa Claus (or the Christkind, who is responsible for delivering the presents here in Austria ;-) ).

It gives me a warm feeling to know that my handiwork will wait under the Christmas tree for those two boys instead of some plastic thing made in China. I am really happy to know that there are even some non-stitchers out there who appreciate the work of my hands and prefer it to mass-produced shop-bought gifts.

Here is the owl cushion I already introduced to you in an earlier post:

And here is the one with the colorful fish, that I think is perfect for a child's room:

It is from the August 2013 issue of "Cross Stitcher" stitched on 22 ct. fabric to make it the same size as the owl.

I will be off to Salzburg to visit the Christmas market this weekend and to enjoy all the stalls and the lovely atmosphere in this beautiful city. As it is a three hour train ride in each direction, I will surely get some stitching done, too. ;-)

Hope you all have a lovely Advent weekend!
Silvia