Time for everything!

About time i came here! I have many things to tell you, but the first is about the Night Jasmine plant- she is finally showing buds, after a gap of two years. I must have taken this pic about a week back, and now there are many more branches with buds. I am so very happy, beyond-description-happy. Every morning when i water the plants i just look around - more fondly at my 'budsy' plants and just breathe in happiness. My tulsi plant - she had gone all scrawny some 2-3 months back, she is also looking healthier. (Thank you God!) When nature glows, i feel God is with me.

I have also more or less done the pouch for T. I have put the interfacing too and the lining, so it now looks bulky. I still plan to whip-stitch the two sides which probably will result in a clumsily-made pouch. And this explains why i am not going near it. I should take this up today and just get it done.

I also have started (a wee bit) of Footprint in the Sands. You will not believe in that wee bit, i already did some frogging. Okay, probably you will. No pics yet

Here are some pics of T, at home having fun and also in a birthday party he attended recently.

I am reading A L Kennedy's So I Am Glad, this is one of her earlier novels. I am liking it, although i admit 'Everything you Need' was way way nicer. Is it that first impressions are the best? I recently read The Rest of My Life by Laura Moriarty, and i loved her first book (and my earlier read) The Centre of Everything, again way way better.

Thanks for visiting. Wishing you happy times amidst family and hobbies and friends!

Happy Dance!

So here's my completed Western Barn. I loved the timing of stitching this and reading Sue Gee's Earth and Heaven. I could even tell myself this is a design off a Cox sketch, lol. I loved the wheel thrown here and the ducks wandering there. The calmness epitomized by the barn is just the right feel you get in her books where she explains farm life in her trademark lucid writing.

I am half-way through my next book, Inga. I am liking the way the story is evolving via journal entries. 

I have selected my next project, there is a catch though. My next is LA's Footprint in the Sands. I have even kitted the project - have the fabric cut and the floss readied. There are a few of them floss which are near-numbers (as usual, you say)

Now the catch is, i had promised my son the next project would be his. So yes before i even stich the first cross for Footprints, i will be doing a pencil pouch for him. Started it last night in fact.

That is all from my end, ladies. Thanks for visiting my blog. Continue with your stitchalia, humming your favorite song, showering love on your family... Let us all be healthy, peaceful and wise.

Nearing wrap-up time!

Still no luck with stitching during the week. Although i did some reading and completed Sue Gee's Earth and Heaven. She is one of my FAVORITE authors. This is her third book for me. Reading in Bed and Hours of the Night were the other two. I do not get her books here that easily. Still happy I managed 3.

On the stitching side, i am quite close to finishing this dear dear barn. Good amount of back stitching is done with. Very soon, this will sit with my Serenity Prayer waiting to be framed.

I am also going through my inventory (in MS Excel, not the real real stash) trying to decide on my next project. I have shortlisted these 3. Which one would you pick?

A Country Kitchen Sampler

Footprints in the Sand

Little Rascals

I have been selecting and then keeping away the Little Rascals kit - in the last two occasions i did that! So let us see which gets selected as my next project! 

Here's wishing you all happy stitching time!

A little bit of my favorites

I took off this past Friday and what pleasure it was right from Thursday evening!!

I was telling myself the other day that June, July and almost the whole of August parted ways with me with ZERO stitching. Earlier i stitched to my heart's content when my son would be sleeping. These days though, him being all of 7 years, things have changed!

I need to find ways to stitch when my son is at his hobbies; somehow i seem to be part of his hobbies.

The sweet heart tells me you just do this particular thing and go to your stitching. In end May this is how it turned out:

the moment i take my fabric out, he will want me to do something. [Take 1][Ok]

Then when i have held my chart and eye-balled where i am and where i need to focus, he will want my attention. [Take 2][Alright...]

Then when i rearranged all the necessary things, he will want me for yet another aspect[Take 3][Sigh 1 2 3 4....] 

How much should i actually be stitching today, i ask myself, amidst all this 'traffic' and again, before me, my brain and my project connect; yet another whiny suggestion[Take 4][That's it] 

Close the project - chart back, thread set back, needle and fabric back

One sweet heart is happy, one bitter-sweet

This must have been in end-May. Also June, his school started and so started robotic days for me. And that is how my cross stitch and I were in two different worlds in June, July and almost the whole of August.

I now realize there had been no holidays in the past 3 months! The first was on 28th September (Friday). Time to enjoy the holidays right?!

Thursday evening we had decided to make this weekend an enjoyable one! This came true for Friday. We went to our favorite second-hand-book shop and got some books - 3 me and 4 my son. We also enjoyed lunch in our favorite Bengali place. So our day was full of joyous and relaxed moments! Here are our books:

Friday night was when I realized T was not well, in fact his eyes looked heavy and he had mild fever... [Not good]  While he took to bed early, I stitched some on Friday night. Saturday morning, I had him rest for a good part of the day. He was better by evening. He does not usually sleep in the daytime, but he did on Saturday, giving me some additional stitching time. And this is a darling project! Western Barn, a chart I got via ebay when T was not even a year old:)

Sunday - we just did the weekly buying of vegetables and other staples. We(my friend and i) had originally planned an outing - my friend and her daughter, and my son and me for a lunch. Now that would not work. My co-sister had suggested we spend some time shopping. That also was not taken up as I did not want to tire my darling. Sunday saw no stitching either!!

So that is how our 3 days went. With a bit of downs, we still managed a good relaxed time. And now thanks for reading my ramble. Here's wishing you plenty of time stitching or reading or spending with your loved ones.

A non-stitchy post

Months are rolling on, and books too are being read. (although my pace of buying books has overtaken my pace of reading)

My pile of books to be read. The topmost book which is not at all clear in the pic, is by Susan Howatch, titled 'The Rich are Different'

The book i am currently reading - London, some 150 more pages to go.

No stitching happening for close to two months now. No complaints though - life is beautiful now, with my husband and my son. Thank you, God.

Wishing you all fun time with family and loved ones and your hobbies!

Western Barn progress

Hello my stitching friends!!

Uploading this pic of Western Barn. I now have just the back-stitching remaining, which i consider to be 50% of the project!

As for my book 11.22.63, well i am just not that into it, LOL. Close to 1/3 of the book is done.

Wishing you all great time stitching

And done!

Here is my completed Serenity Prayer project!! I dont know what the fabric is, but it is not Aida. Very smooth and close to crinkly. I had bought it from a lady in the US via the 123 mb if i am not wrong.

Started in December 2013, and hibernated from end-May to November of 2014 (as checked from my blogpost), have finally completed this in April, on the 17th which is my Mother's birthday. Roughly nine months, but i know there were weeks of not-even-seeing-the-project.

Instead of french knots, i used beads as the fabric had quite big holes, LOL, and i was not confident to match them with bigger-than-my-usual french knots.

I have started my next project too - which was one of my very earliest ebay buys. It is a chart cut out from a CSCC magazine, called Western Barn. The only pic I could find in the internet is this.

This is part of a 3-chart series, and i have two of these three charts:) While i bought this one, the other i got via a giveaway (must be on 123 mb)

It has been ages since i was active on any of these boards (and also the blog), and i have very vague remembrances of how i got these:( which is  a shame.

Happy stitching!

The end is near!!

Yes ladies, the end is near!!

Thanks to cricket fever in India with the Indian Premier League, my stitching resumed in leaps and bounds the past couple of weeks. You can see i am reaching the end of my Serenity Prayer journey!!

Here's a pic i took yesterday

 and another

This past Saturday was super fun day for both me and my son as we went book-shopping. T got 1 book more than me - his way of putting it. He got a Tinkle, an Enid Blyton, a book on Hulk, a Kids' Book on Animals (akin to an encyclopedia), and another i cannot put a name on. My list is here:

=>Last Orders by Graham Swift (will be my second  book)
=>Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez (first book for me- yes, a shame i have not read him yet)
=>The Rich are Different by Susan Howatch (now i have quite a number of her books, and love her although she does stress me out at times!! and my heart stops beating and all that)
=>Maggie, Now by Betty Smith.

I love Betty Smith. With Maggie Now, i can claim to have all her books (four of them). I have read a library copy of MN way back in 1999 when i was in the US of A. Will read her again. MN and the Susan Howatch book are quite tattered, and my hands greedily picked them up from the bookshop. Hope they like their new home and are enjoying their moments in the friendly neighborhood.

Currently reading The Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King. Just begun, and i know I am going to love the book. Have had quite a s l o w start "what with starting the year with Dickens and his Bleak House", but picking up now.

Signing off with this close-up pic of my son. You have a great day!

Quick Update

Here is an update on Serenity Prayer. Again i have finished some more than what is shown here. I now have just the top frame and the words Serenity Prayer to stitch.

Here is my to-be-read pile (with 2 books missing as i could not find them in time for this pic). I have now picked 'River, Cross my Heart' by Breena Clarke to read. The blue book in the middle that is jutting out(!). This is the author's debut book

I am going to keep my posts real crisp from now! Let me see if that will make me blog oftener!

Catch up

More than what 2 months away?  I have been stitching the Serenity Prayer, and I am now easily beyond the half-way mark. There was a time I was finishing the text first and then doing the 'frame', whichever column took my fancy.

Now I first finish the left column, and then the text, and then the right column. I have finished the back stitching too - the dowel frame was successful in enforcing that discipline, lol. The only parts pending [in the stitched area] are the french knots. Now this below pic was taken about a week back, I have finished one more flower and the white frame of the left column - not seen in the pic

I have taken over a year to do this simple project. Ouch! The only consolation is that a good part of last year I spent on my quilted pillow top. But even then, I was hardly doing any stitching:( - The fact was that when I read out bedtime stories to my son, I would also consider sleeping the best option. So that explains the no or bare minimum stitching! Just yesterday my son decided he will read on his own, and then go to sleep. Just wondering (and fingers crossed!) if that habit makes a good impression on him - my time stitching those lovely charts and kits i purchased can revive!!

I have done some blog-reading (again better) these days, although not commenting. Whatever is holding me back?

Book-wise, I began the year with Bleak House by Dickens. I am loving the book, but still a long way to go.

I have now gotten a new mojo for gardening!! Hows that!! Will hopefully post about that too - in the weeks to come.

Here's wishing you all a great time stitching, and being with your loved ones.