Happy Dance

This Dimensions cross stitch project is finally completed. Towards the end i admit i stitched this like there was no tomorrow!! Happy Dance indeed 

Few pics showing the stages.

And here is floss of my next project, sans one Anchor 936. Thanking all my friends in the US who had sent me floss over the years (thanks to the 123stitch board), all the DMC in this pic is courtesy you:) almost half of them. Thank you so very much!

I have started stiching this one, the first colour being cream.

Some pics from my garden: Tomatoes my own!! and look at the blooming gardenia plant. Ever since i have put the pot on a pebbled tray, the plant has been my friend. She is always having buds and almost all buds flower. There is an occasional bud going brown and withering. Hope to nudge them also to a healthier life.

Loving Graham Swift's Last Orders. Loving it, loving it, loving it. Reading it slowly, and relishing it too

School started in June. My son is comfortable, all teachers set, new friends made (all sections were shuffled this year). Comfortable for me too - so far in June i have stitched a half hour or so in the evening till he came back from playing with neighbors. What with gardening, stitching, reading; now i just need to pitch in the occasional baking tray and be happy and say i am truly happy.

Wishing you all a great time with your hobbies and with your family and loved ones.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all. I have been coming here lesser and lesser, and have been getting into the twitter world.

Everything got to a very slow pace last year. I hardly did any stitching. Just one small project. I read few books compared to 2014. Of course study time with T increased. In what seems to be my earlier life, I stitched or read largely during night time, but a 4.40am wakeup time Monday through Friday has entitled the new me to a sleeping-early ticket, LOL. So like i said before, a slow year it was.

The best news for last year being my Parijatha container plant having given me so many flowers for about 3 months!! Parijatha prefers to be on the ground, and my container friend after giving me very few flowers for two years (few days in December - January), for the last two or three years she stopped flowering altogether. So 2015 October to December were a blessing from Nature!! 

Oh, and yes in October i had re-organised all of our books! How could i forget that? All the books 'downloaded' are shown here

These then filled two book racks (with two rows in each shelf, if that makes sense)

 and one which still shows good scope for buying more books!

In December T and I spent time with his grandparents and had a WONDERFUL time!

Changes for 2016

All said and done, I have made some changes this time. I will only do re-reads this year - and i plan to re-read my Jane Austen books. I have read them all before of course. So re-reading should be relaxing i hope. Also for the last couple of years, i have been reading one [so far unread] Dickens book a year. For 2016, it is Little Dorrit. (For 2105 it was Bleak House) Reading-wise i am keeping it this simple and lean. (The real sad news here is about 18 books that I have in my to-be-read pile will continue to be there). I will read during week-days, in between being Mom / playmate / friend / teacher / confidante / secretary / storyteller to T. My current read (from December) is Oscar and Lucinda, which i am about half-way through

This way i have made room for stitching {I hope}, again Monday to Thursday there will be no stitching. Friday night to Sunday night, whatever free time i get will be spent stitching. For the last 3 to 4 years, i have stopped buying any cross stitch pattern or kits, am hardly in any forums to avoid any attractions or distractions and general busy-ness.  Also the idea was to take up one project after another from the STASH, however i noticed while i have not bought ANY new items, i have stitched just one a year (a disgrace to the stitching community, is me). Here is where my Footprint in the Sands (Leisure Arts) is right now.

 Two pics from earlier stages:

Also hope to pick up Lilies whenever possible - i am not even aiming an x number of stitches a day. Whatever number of stitches possible. But first let me get myself into a stitching rhythm with FitS!

In other news, my Samsung Galaxy S3 turned bad in October last year. Would continuously be switching on and off whenever i would try and access any URL. At least 3 if not more factory resets had to be enforced. A visit to the Samsung Service Center also done. Gradually even taking a photo led to this viral behavior. So end December when there were lots of exciting deals going on, we took the plunge and went for an iPhone 5s. Now that 6s is out, i really got a very good deal for 5s. 2 and half years back when i took my Samsung S3, my husband had suggested I go for an iPhone (4 then). But i preferred a Samsung, and that is what we bought. This time round, i took his advice!

Thanks for your patience till now! Wishing you a pleasant weekend with your stitching, spending wonderful time with your family!

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!

Happy Dance!

Here's my Adriana B finally finished! Planning to give it for framing tomorrow.

 

I have taken over 2 years to do this. A Sticklounge project, i am happy i had enrolled for this one. Thanks Sticklounge for giving us such a wonderful project. In my last post (ahem that was in May), i had backstitching remaining. It took me till my son's Dussehra holidays to finally get to it. I had done some bird backstitching with a much darker blue and then decided to remove it because it spoilt my heron #1. I finally picked an Anchor shade which was quite near to the suggested DMC shade and worked on the heron #2. After which i 'cornered myself' to remove the darker blue on heron#1.

The backstitching was a challenge. With my black and white prints, i was not able to figure out a backstitched edge from just the grid. It sounds weird as i read this, but that is how it was. Believe me. Am glad this bridge is crossed.

Here's a closeup of the herons.

 

Happy now:)

 

Have now picked Hummel Postman. In May, i had other plans - and these plans were both involving kits. But come October, my mind kind of picked Hummel Postman. And i hope i stitch 15 minutes every night, LOL. This being a small project, hopefully will not daunt me. My son's vacation and with that mine end on this Wednesday. I have bought all the threads i need barring a few (3) non-Indian Anchor shades for which i am going to rely on the Lilies set.

 

 

 

Currently reading Zhang Wei's The Ancient Ship, translated from Chinese. I am finding it very tough to 'understand' the tone, but am determined to read it.

 

Hope you all are doing great. Have a great time stiching your favorite project and spending time with your family!!

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!