While Elly went to get water, Margreet went downstairs. She picked up her bag with the enormous piece of linen fabric. The cloth was much too big for the wall, more than twice as big... She thought that in the end she could finish the tapestry with it by sewing fabric behind it. And at the top loops of the same fabric. She would ask Huib if he could make a bar to hang the tapestry on when it was ready. She could also buy a stick, but probably Huib would be just as pleased to make a bar at measure for her. Probably the tapestry would then also slide less fast if their daughter would pull at it, for example.

She thought about that for a moment. Actually, the tapestry should be placed so high that a small child could not reach it. And then a small table, one of those semi-circular ones, underneath it. A table with a low bowl or a tray on top, where upon some nature stuff can lie. Create a nature corner under the tapestry. Margreet saw it all in her mind. The tapestry would also get something natural, like a big field of flowers with all kinds of colors, only more abstract.

Margreet decided to go to Action and the thrift store the next day, and also look for such a table and a bowl or tray.

"I must be crazy," she suddenly scolded herself, "I have a lovely husband who loves to make these things himself, so why would I go looking for them in the thrift store?"

She decided to go and ask Huib right away. He indeed liked the fact that she asked him and walked home with her. Using his folding ruler, he took the measurements and typed the information into his cell phone.

"How big did you have in mind for a low bowl?" he asked.

Margreet pointed with her hands: "If the little table is going to be about that wide, then the bowl something like that?"

Huib nodded, "Shall I make that bowl the same shape as the table top, also semi-circular?"

Margreet looked at him in surprise: "What a fun idea, then they really belong together!"

Huib grinned mischievously, "I'm just fun, so my ideas are fun too. I have another fun idea. I actually feel very much like carrying you upstairs and..."

"Sorry dear, not convenient now, Elly is busy in the nursery."

"Yes, and? Our door can be locked..."

"Yes, I know that, but I don't feel free then. Grrr, shame..." Margreet muttered.

"Nice touching," Huib said, "every time something is touched, a bit of healing follows at that point. That usually doesn't feel pleasant, but the result is sublime!"

He hugged Margreet and pressed her tightly against him for a moment.

"I love you!" he whispered, covering her face with kisses.

"Oh Huib, it's quite a lot huh, all that needs healing."

"Yes, it is a lot, but it will be all right, rest assured of that! I'm going to work on your table and your bowl, so when they are ready you can put some nice things on them. Do you have any preferences for the table legs, what they should look like?"

"No, not really, I'm sure you'll have a fun idea for them," she snapped back at him.

"Right away," laughed Huib, "I'll get right on it, see you at coffee!"

Margreet went back to her piece of fabric. She decided to make the cloth she wanted to embroider as wide as the table, about one and a half meters. And the height slightly larger, about two meters.

With her fabric scissors, she cut the cloth liberally to size. She looked for a spool of thread of a contrasting color and began to zigzag along the edges.

She admonished herself to take it easy. This went well for a while, but after a while she began to increase the pace unnoticed. When she realized this, she was annoyed, but then thought about what Huib had just said about another piece of healing. Every time she got hit in a wound, it would give some deeper healing. As a result, she was satisfied with how things were going. So she would just hate the increased pace and then continue in peace, knowing that the wound was healing further as a result.

The alarm on her cell phone alerted her that it was time to go to the guest house. She put down her sewing and walked up the stairs to go warn Elly. In the doorway of the children's room, she remained standing and looked open-mouthed at the first bird.

"Is it coffee time already?" Elly asked. "Time flies when you're having fun! This rascal just needs an eye, I'll finish that, and then I'll come with you, okay?"

"Absolutely fine," Margreet said, "and how well you can do this, truly a work of art! The shape of a gull, a black-headed gull, only in different colors. Nice also that those colors run a little..."

She came a little closer to get a better look at it. "Oh, you've done that with very fine strokes, a sort of Vincent van Gogh style, but just a bit different. Elly, you really are an artist!"

Elly smiled, but said nothing, concentrating on the little eye of the colorful gull. She watched him from a distance.

"Good girl," she complimented herself, "you did a great job on the eye, that darling is just looking at us! That's what I always like best, to make the animals I paint connect with myself and other people looking at them."

She put her brush in the water and took off her apron. "Just wash my hands, then we'll have coffee! By the way, I'm glad you like that bird too. And yes, that technique with dashes, I'll be honest, I kind of copied that from Vincent van Gogh. I like his paintings, only I don't want to work exactly the same way, with all those dots and spots, but I could use the idea, to mix the paint a bit in a similar way. The colors actually mix themselves this way, the moment you look at them." Elly washed the paint well off her hands and asked if Margreet had an old towel as well.

Margreet reached out to her for a guest towel: "This one isn't necessarily old, but if you use this one all the time, it'll just be our painting towel, something like that..."

Elly laughed, "Fine, we'll do that, I'll hang it over the bath rim here, then I'll know this is the painting cloth."

They walked to the guest house together, while Margreet asked if she ever did any paintings.

"I did it once, a really big one. You can also buy canvases to paint there at Action. I took the biggest size of those. I liked it, but on a wall like that I like it much better. It feels so free, so much space."

"I understand what you mean, I feel it, you should have such a big room where you can do your own thing."

Elly shot up in laughter, "Then I'd need quite a bit of word-of-mouth advertising first."

"Yes, you do," Margreet looked thoughtful, "maybe it would be smart to take some pictures of the wall, during the painting process, and when it's finished, without and with the dresser. I've already thought for Huib that he should actually make a website for sales. Those pictures of your work could be on there too. Could we make a joint website?"

"That would be cool, then we'd both get fame in one fell swoop. Huib should actually have a building where he can exhibit his work. There is an empty building in the village, it's not very big, but it could be a start."

"Yes, but I don't think Huib wants a store, he just wants to be able to be here, to work here."

"I see," said Elly, "but he could use it as a sort of deep display case, just to show his work. And then if he hangs a note with his phone number and website behind the door or window, people can approach him if they want to know more, buy or order something."

"Yes, that seems like a great combination, especially to begin with. Let’s check with Huib right away."

To chapter 134. Lisa's Projects-Plan

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