Saturday, February 28, 2015

Treasures From Solvang

Wow!  This week has been crazy busy.  I had the best of intentions to post earlier this week, however, I had a strict deadline to get our annual report done and off to our auditors by week's end.  I ended up working lots of overtime and made my deadline.  Whew!  It was actually a very fun project, kind of like a big puzzle.  Then I have been celebrating my birthday the rest of the week.  The big day was actually on Monday, but I like to stretch it out.  Thursday one of my girlfriends took me out to dinner.  Then last night my kids and their spouse/significant other took us out to dinner.  Tonight is the last celebration, unless of course I can figure out how to stretch my day into March.  My closest friends and their husbands are having a dinner party for me.  I am so excited! 
 
Anyway, enough of my excuses.  Here are my treasures from last week's visit to Solvang's Thumbelina Needleworks:
 

There are a couple of older Permin of Copenhagen pattern motif bookets, and Oehenschlager kit, and a book containing several patterns by some of the best Danish cross stitch designers including Gerda Benttson.  I also bought a couple of Permin hardanger bookmark kits so I can work on developing some mad hardanger skillz.  I could not resist the scissors. 
 
The best treasure of the trip was not cross stitch though.  For many, many years I have been looking for a Dagmar Cross, which is a Danish cross.  Most on the internet are very, very expensive.  So I have been wanting one for about 10 years and searched with no luck.  Last week, we were in a shop which sold clocks of all styles, plus they had a huge collection of beer steins.  We were not in the market for beer steins, but these were so elaborate that we decided to look at them.  The owner of the shop became interested in Liesl, so we walked over to the counter to talk with her about dogs.  All of the sudden, I looked down, and there was a whole display of Dagmar crosses with really reasonable prices.  I was so excited.  So here is my best purchase of the trip:
 

On the front is Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary,  St. John the Baptist and two saints.  On the reverse is a crucifix. It is a replica of a cloisonné cross in the grave of the Danish Queen Dagmar who lived from 1186 to 1212. 
 
So it was a super fun trip.  We ate good food, took good walks, talked to lots of nice people, relaxed and just got to be together.  We love travelling with Liesl.  She is such a great little traveler.  We actually get to meet lots of people, because they want to meet her or talk about schnauzers.  We love taking her with us, and are already talking about our next trip. 

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