What she has been doing or rather not doing the past month or two

Ages since i came here... I have been fine in case you were worrying. I was not depressed or anything, lol. The summers have been bugging me - but that is true for mid March onwards. Where was i the whole of February and early March? I was busy at office, and was just making it one day to the next till it became one week to the next and then one month to the next. Owww. Something like that - i did not even get time to visit any blogs.

 

I have been stitching on Popcorn Alphabet T since the time i finished Freddie. Early March i got this idea i should stitch the 'T' in a feverish pace and get it completed before my son turned 5. But phew i hardly got to stich this for the past month and more:( Oh yes, now i remember the last time i stitched this i did the wrong / side on a half cross stitch and i think my sub-conscious switched off a bit. I have not sitched this for over a month (Actually i have not done a single cross:(    )

 

And amid all this tropical-summer-and-wrong-turns-with-T, for the past week or soi did stitch a bit of Part 6 of Adriana. This is where i am at the moment.

 

 

And here is Heart Note Alley all framed!! (Busy-me is yet to get a good-sunlight-photo of Framed Freddie, will do that hopefully this weekend)

 





And a pic of my son on his birthday, when he turned 5!!

 

Book-wise i am with Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. About half-way through. I know this was booker-long-listed, but i am not gushing with love for this book. Okay book. While i did take my time finishing (and LOVED it no doubt) And Ladies of the Club, Dodie Smith found a fan in me for I Capture the Castle. Such a well-written book. Oh i loved Cassandra's journal entries! Days of Gold and Sepia by Yasmeen  Premji is wonderful. So if any reader out there is interested in a good book on India by an Indian author do not miss it. I loved the book, loved the wonderful people in the book. Alphabet Weekends was yukk (i will return it to the second-hand-bookshop - they buy it back at 60% of the price they sold.)

 

You'll have a great weekend. As for me I hope to show my face in May:)

Log It!!

I should have prssed the Publish button last Friday, but i have had Blogger problems - non co-operation in inserting images:(
Dt 27th July
It has been an off-week this time. My son has been having tooth-ache for quite some time now(chocolates galore). An ice cream cone in the weekend brought some cold too. Gradually this added some ear ache too (not sure if the molars contributed or the cold). So my son did not go to school Wednesday ( i worked from home), he had an Open House on Thursday(about an hour in school with me talking to his teacher (great reviews on him, btw, and few story books and an activity book) ). Now Wednesday evening i had realised he had Friday off for some festival or the other. That meant i could not go to office as my maid needed off for the said festival. Hrmph, so that meant i had to go to office Thursday second half no matter what. Well (sigh) even though my body felt it was Friday, i did rush to office after the said maid came. Come Thursday night, my body was deadsure it was Friday, and i slept like a log. There were two logs - one me, and one my son. Come Friday morning, and me no better. I SMSed my boss that i plan to take the day off and slept some more. Sleeping like a log is yumm, is bliss, is halleluiah.

OMG, it has been a long time since i went non-stop like that eh?

Here are two pics - one finished - the first for this year (ahem) and HNA - i hope i stitch this tonight:) I hardly stitch any more, refer log hints above

This is MANKA sal, which by the way, i must be the last one to be finishing, and this i made for my son, who has put all his tidbits into it - dice, coins, tiniest toy cars and so forth. To be honest, he has forgotten about it now. It has however found a place in his almirah, and is nestling amongst his t-shirts.

Books - i have still not decided which one to settle with, although i picked 3 - Room, Stranger's Child and Old House on the Corner - i know what you must be thinking - 3 totally varied books. The first is a poignant book, second is an intellectual book and the third is well, neither-of-those book. My son picked SC for me to read, but as i said it is an intellectual book, and i think not a good time at the moment.

Ah, now an upset stomach too

Dt 3rd August
This week my Brother and his family had visited!! His elder daughter who is 6 and my son had fun playing together. I had off from work and overall had a great time with them!

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Wishing you all a grand weekend with great stitching time to keep you sane. Funny i am writing this as i hardly stitch these nights

A new project!

I have joined a real-quick and cute little mini mystery SAL organised by Manka-sal



Most have finished the entire project (of 2 parts), and their mouth-watering finishes can be found here. I have only finished part 1 last night, and have today received the part 2 design, which I was originally planning to do in mustard color (Anchor 307). Now i have opted for a subtler blue close to grey floss. It should tone down my Anchor 134 a bit.

I also took a pic of HNA today which i have been stitching. I did run out of floss for the topmost band (Anchor 102), and then luckily found some in the Lilies stash. My son did not have his afternoon nap today, which means he should call it an early night, which should mean LOADS of stitching time for me. Let us see. Ah, as i type this i do see a lone butterfly needing back-stitch...

Here is a recent pic of my lifeline, my bundle of joy.

And here are few recent buys of my "me" line of things, lol.

Thats all for now ladies. Here's wishing you a great week ahead, a week filled with peace (i am looking for serenity by the way) and love, week well-spent with child(ren), family and friends. Wishing you good amount of stitching time at least enough to keep you sane!
 

The Lone April Shower

Now this post is just so that April has one entry, at least. It has been close to 6 weeks since my last post. So much for truck-load of work and working from home. I think it is the latter that makes it look like truck-load of work. It was fun in a way, as i had independence for the last two months on how to manage my home, and the extra time i got with my son has been such a bonus. Of course, I always had my maid for those emergency teleconferences on work. While March had me working from home the first half only, April I enrolled my son for a summer camp - so i would drop him in the morning, go to office and pick him up in the afternoon, and then worked from home as he did need a nap for over two hours.


Coming to stitching, here is Adriana with Part 5 done. I have now the last and final part to be done.

But i have shifted gears and moved to dependable (band sampler) HNA. I must be around 65% complete with this project. I am basing this % on the repetitive part of HNA as I know i have done more than what is given in the chart parts of 11 and 12. I have time till August, so that is cool, eh!

My current book, "The Brightest Star in the Sky" by Marian Keyes has been a worthy competitor to HNA. There are times i have chosen to read the book than stitch HNA. (as my reading time is almost nil) It did take me time to get into the skin of this book, lol (if i may say so). I am loving the female characters in this book. Stitching is my first love, but what a dismal world it would be but for books like this!! Love you authors...

Wishing you all a great time with your children, your friends, with your home, with your hobbies.

Have Fun

To the next year

Heart Note Alley till part 10... I have still not got around doing the next parts, guess we are in #13 or #14 at the moment. We have time till August, so i am okay to be lagging.

The reason is i am still about half-way through Part 3 of Adriana. Well, let me admit this - not much stitching possible these days. Cant believe that i am not fully into it. There were times when no stitching in a day made me feel incomplete. And now, there are nights i just want to sleep. Like last night, there was this tiny voice inside me saying - get up, pick up Adriana. And i easily snuffed out that voice and s l e p t... The pic at least shows how big Adriana will be once finished! Did i tell you i love these longish ones...

While i have been a poor performer in stitching (what with no lilies for 4 months out of 12, less than 10 completed projects, and the disastrous (and unmet) target set to complete Frederick the Literate ), book-wise i did good. I did read 36 books this year. Here are the books i LOVED reading - I reccomend these books!

And finally some pics of my son...

Wishing you all a very happy new year... Hope you have pepped yourself up with enough stash enhancement, enrolled in wonderful SALs for 2012, and set some crazier challenges for yourself. Hope you have set time to indulge yourself. Here's wishing a better 2012 for all of us!!

An entry for October

I cant believe i have been away from blogland for so long... I have been extremely busy, and not getting time to blog-hop... There have been mind-boggling soul-crushing issues on the personal front too that have kept me in my Piscean shell, with little or no inclination to survive like i used to...

So no lilies, not yet...

Here is HNA part 7, when i started this part i was giving myself 3 nights to complete this part. 3 turned to 13 sadly

I see i have not yet shared Adriana 1 which i completed early October. This project is going to be grand. I have still not yet touched Adriana Part 2, hope to get needle and thread along there tonight.

I did venture into backstitching Frederick, and i am so not a happy camper... I cant even see the letters in gold in the two books in the bottom left

Hope you have enough stitching spirits!! I hope to get into blog-hopping soon and read your blogs and comment on them, I mean it... Take care

One more finish and split-rail dowel help

Purple Garden is a project designed by Angie of Angie Designer blog, tilted El Jardin Purpura. This is the original design.

For me somehow the inner piece was 'calling' constantly, and that is the piece i stitched. So here is my version. I am still undecided on the lavender/brown situation, so i have left them untouched.

Most of my readers have suggested lavender, and I agree with you - this brown is not going because all others are making brown kind of a black sheep, LOL. So, i will give it some time, some other 'family' color might flash to my mind, and then i will replace both OR probably go with lavender-to-replace-brown compromise. At the moment, no action taken. So that was the finish.

Heart Note Alley sailed along this month with the Lilies going into hibernation. I have now completed part 5. 15 more parts to go, and i think Part 8 is now the most current one. I am loving this longish fella.

Yes, fun can be had in many ways. So i present to you one more angle of HNA

I am going to mount (is that the right word for what i am saying?) this on the frame. I have split rail dowels, and i am trying to figure out how best to put the fabric on to the rods. So if you have any tutorial or any tips for me, pls HELP!!! And I did it!!

I worked on Adriana for a week this month, and will resume stitching her for another week starting tonight. Again i have taken the recommended colors, luckily MOST of the colors were available locally. 3 of the colors could be 'borrowed' from the Lilies treasury(!), and for 1 or 2 colors, i did a close-call. This is where i am at the moment. Whatever is she stitching???!! Wait till the herons come, you are going to love this one!

So, these are my current projects HNA, Adriana, and Lilies once i resume her next month. Frederick is still 'inside'. For those of you who are wondering what i am talking about i have a confined-to-closet project Frederick the Literate (Dimensions, Charles Wysocki) who has hardly seen any light of day this YEAR.

Coming to books, I had a great journey reading The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey. A wonderful book on a person suffering from Alzheimers. Recommended read for all you book lovers out there. Currently reading Rosie Thomas's Moon Isalnd.

Wishing all a great weekend and sanity through stitching!

Changes in my Stitching

A major change actually, if you had understood my penchant for Lilies. I was on vacation till 5th September, so i did not start Lilies on time. 6th had to be a rest day. And the following night, well I just decided to park Lilies for a month, and instead stitch on my Sticklounge projects. I have chosen two biggies to stitch, and am kind of lagging behind in one of the SALs. So i decided Lilies could remain in vacation for at least one month.

I think it will be fair, if i mention here that there have been moments when i have thought that the Lilies project can be 'deemed' completed. There are several reasons for this

1. My son has been sleeping late

2. I am feeling sleepy (mentally tired) earlier

3. I am now finding doing 4288 stitches in two months daunting.

This last reason is really a weird one because i have done tougher (4992 stitches in a page) in about 50 stitching nights. But i think it is a combination of all three that is now troubling me and my Lilies. So all in all, i decided i will give it a break and i will give me a break too.

So giving Lilies their due respect, let me move on to the Sticklounge projects and post some pics:

I finished Freundschafterz last month, and here is how it finally turned up:

And here is Heart Note Alley. I love stitching this one, i love the various colours and keep admiring and imagining how the whole Alley will turn out and admiring again. Isnt that what we stitchers do anyway? Take a step or two back, relax and just imagine, LOL. Hmmmm. This is a longish one, the stitched area when completed will be 147 by 312. Lovely, isnt it? The designer of HNA is Kathy Bungard if anyone is interested!

We have recently started a heron project in Sticklounge called Adriana, this will be a 6-part SAL, each part is quite HUGE, if you ask me. This is 119 by 298. Crazy to take up another biggie? Well, I fell for the herons. I think we get one part each month, and then (i think) 2 months more as buffer.

Hope to stitch on Purple Garden in the weekend. I have a wee bit remaining to conclude this one:)

So that is it from me on the stitching front. It is the end of the week, and hope all of you have had great fun doing what you like doing. Wishing you a great weekend

Mid Month Milestone

Since i am on the fourth page in the row, my pic is looking lopsided as the stool i kept my lilies on was smaller than the fabric. Well, it was night time when i took this pic, so all energy to take it to a better place for a better pic was most likely sleeping...

It is very very warm in my neck of the woods, so stitching is really going very slow. And T is sleeping later than usual, lol. Still, not bad progress overall as i have crossed the 25% mark.

Here is how my Freundschaftsherz looks at the moment. I have now completed Part 3 of 7. Do do notice the script before the huge A. That script is Hindi:) It says 'Friendship is the union of two souls'. This is my first (and probably will be the only) project that has Hindi in it:) The original design is from a French designer, Atélier de Circé . One of our group moms has added some more verses to this beautiful project keeping in mind the people we have in our group, Sticklounge. Surely, this makes it a special project in more ways than one!

Here is my start on another project in Sticklounge. It is called Heart Note Alley and the designer is Kathy Bungard. I am using most of the recommended colors(all were available locally hurrah!!). This is going to be a beauty. It is a longish one (i love these longish ones btw) and the stitched design will be 147 by 312.

Coming to books, i have had quite a bad time. Second time this year, i took up a book which i had to skim through. Earlier on, i used to 'completely' read the book i took for reading, no matter what. Now, i have realised life is too short, lol. When there are so many irritating things that happen in your life that you cannot change, surely you should change those you can. Something like that, so i have decided books that make no sense at all are worth skimming through only.

The one i am currently reading by the way is a stunner. Great book - Set in Stone. I now look forward to reading all of Catherine Dunne's books. If you havent, make sure you do. You will love her!

Wishing you all a great week, with enough stitching time... Thanks for all your comments and your visits, I love the feeling that my blog is read. When you leave comments, it is like someone visiting my home. Thank you.