Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Easter Treasure Hunt blog hop organized by our wonderful host Jo... First off I'll start by introducing myself: I’m Mini , an Indian expat in Kuwait. I have been cross stitching on and off since I was 7. My other interests are cooking, travelling, meeting new people and trying new foods.

Before I show you what I have to offer for the blog hop, let me tell you how to follow this blog hop. You must start at Jo’s blog and then visit, in order, each of the participants listed who will display a letter.  These letters will form a phrase and when you know what that is, visit Jo again and leave her a comment mentioning the phrase and you might find some treasure.

Here is an Easter card I stitched for a kind lady in the UK , from whom I bought some charts last year.

The letter you collect here is :

And I would like you to hop on to Kaye’s blog for your next clue.

I hope you have a Happy Good Friday and Easter.

IHSW and my nemesis project

Hello and Welcome to my first IHSW post.

For those of who don't know about IHSW being hosted by Joysze at Random Ramblings, here is how she describes it "International Hermit and Stitch Weekend takes place every 3rd full weekend of each month, from Friday till Sunday. In our very busy and hectic lives, IHSW is a chance for us to squirrel some time away for ourselves and "Hermit and Stitch." It is a time set aside to take care of us and our love for stitching."

Weekend in my part of the world is on Friday & Saturday, so I will be stitching from Thur-Sat and post on Sundays whenever I participate in IHSW.

Here is my starting point of the piece I worked on 

Progress after 6 hours and 20 minutes

I was able to add 1164 stitches during the weekend.

Remember I told you that this piece has a story ...Infact I will call this as my nemesis project-a name aptly chosen by Diya.

So here is the story....

Time rewind to mid of year 2014, picture a girl who has just discovered the vast world of cross stitching . Picture how amazed she is, keeping in mind that all her life (which is around 30 years ) the only cross stitch she has known is making table cloths with borders, simple scenery or flowers . She has never heard of cross stitch kits, samplers , electronic patterns , social media cross stitch groups.She is a returning from a big cross stitch break of 10 years because of being busy with college and job.

So she finds out about all these wonderful patterns,threads,kits,fabrics and wants to try hands on them.Being a practical person,she starts with buying second hand stuff .

She buys kits from a lady off facebook plus some non Aida fabric and is so excited it when she gets them in post.Its Oct 2014 by now.

She decides to start the kit she loves the most.She wants to stitch it for her bestie as she thinks this is the design that matches her friend's personality a lot.

Oh she is suprised when she opens the kit- its stamped . Oops she has never bothered to think that kits can be stamped too. Lets check the fabric-sail cloth..what's that? All she knows is Aida and just saw linen and evenweave for the first time .

She is sad ,doubting whether she can do stamped cross stitch that too on sail cloth..She asks around on social media and gets tips.
She starts stitching but isn't happy with top of X's not aligned and the fabric showing beneath the stitches..
By now she has studied the pattern and realised that the X's in the pattern(flowers etc) are double the width of X's in the lettering.So that means we can try switching the fabric and do some over 2 and over 1 stitching and fix this issue,right? Wrong, she is too inexperienced to try stuff like this and the kit goes to bottom of her stash.

Fast forward to Feb 2016, the girl is desperate to make stuff for her bestie .She still thinks that the above mentioned project is best gift for her and decides to try it once again.

After a few hours of chat with DH and Diya, she decides to stitch 2 over 2 on 25 ct evenweave.
Small test patch is stitched and the coverage is not good.

Coverage with 2 over 2 

Again a quick discussion about the coverage and thread available, the decision is taken - Stitch 1 over 1 on 25 ct evenweave with one square on the pattern(non-lettering) equal to 4 X's on the fabric.

So here you are my friends, looking at the project which has been on my mind since last 2 years and troubling me ...lol

I can't show you the cover picture even though that would have made understanding problem a bit easier. My bestie visits my blog and I want to maintain the surprise as long as I can.

I know some of you may not be able to relate my lack of knowledge about cross stitch world but that my friends is a truth in many parts of the world. Cross stitching is a dying art in these parts and the supplies and knowledge of this art is not available .

Anyways ,now that I have overcome the initial startup hiccups , I'm really loving working on this piece and looking forward to finish it soon.

I hope you have a relaxing Sunday doing what makes you happy.

Let's talk about birthday gifts..shall we!!

Hello friends,

Thank you for your wonderful comments on my last GG post and welcome to new followers.Highest number of comments on any of my blog post !!

As the title of the post tells , I have been getting and making birthday gifts since my last GG post.

Yesterday was DH's birthday and this is what I made for him(apart from all his favourite food).

My first quilling attempt

I baked a chocolate brownie for him instead of a cake for the occasion.When I gifted him the card , he didn't open the card for a while thinking that it is a store bought card and focused on eating the brownie..lol .

Tammy of T's Daily Treasures celebrated a big 0 birthday last week of February.Both of us are a part of the craft group which often meets on weekends.This is what I stitched for her

Trust me it was not easy to decide to what to gift to her. She is multi talented,dabbles in so many crafts, does charity work and is involved in many community projects here in Kuwait. I had to consult a few friends before I zeroed down on this project.

An example of Tammy's talent is this picture...my lovely birthday gifts from her.

Let's talk about my birthday gift from DH now...digital subscription to The World of Cross Stitching Magazine. I posted about my dilemma of whether to keep the subscription or not in my last post here. 10 people commented and 6 said that it would be a better idea to buy an individual issue once I find out what chart I like in that .So I have decided not to keep the yearly subscription. However,before I could take a decision ,the amount for yearly subscription has been deducted and I will try to get the money back and pay for a single one.Don't know if I will get any success in that looking at all the digital subscription woes I read on facebook.

I started a new project on 3rd march...a gift of course . This piece has a story (how can there be not a story!!!) which I will share in my next post.

Progress as of 12th March

Another gift (shoe horn) which I can show is a square I stitched "Stitch for Syria" project which Jo talked about on her blog few weeks back.This is a free pattern from Mr. XStitch and concern world wide . The square is now on its way to London . Thank you Jo for spreading the word for such a good cause.
The aida was a gift and I have used one of the floss my mom gave me a few years back.

I'm participating in a daily challenge on Instagram called RockYourHandwriting. I'm loving it so far, I actually started logging in a craft journal which I have been thinking to do since long.The craft journal is up-cycled from a planner from a dental clinic,wrapping paper,clothes tags :)

Its lovely to scroll thru feeds of various participants and look at their beautiful handwriting and journals.
Do you like participating in any such challenges?

It's starting to get hot in the day time here,summer is knocking on the door. I hope you are enjoying time stitching in your corner of the world.

P.S. I just realized that I have completed goal number 7 & 9 on my list ...Yahoo!!!

Subscription dilemma

Please don't kill me for posting second time within minutes of publishing such a long post !!

I need help in deciding whether to subscribe to cross stitch magazines or not (be prepared for my rambling)

Hubby bought me a subscription of The World of Cross Stitching magazine for my birthday in last week of Feb.He worked really hard to get a digital subscription on my tablet with lot of email exchanges with the publishing companies, downloading various software etc.

Since the first time I came to know about cross stitching magazines in 2014 , I have tried to get digital/hard copy subscription only to find that its not possible to get one due to my physical location.
Between 2014 and now, I have bought a few second had magazines and have been gifted a big lot by a kind lady.

TWOCS had a free issue to offer for Valentine day and I was just playing on my I-phone knowing that I would never get the free issue.But, miracle happened and I got the free issue. You can imagine how excited I must have been(poor hubby was thinking his surprise is going to go down the drain).
However, after surfing thru the magazine ,I realized that I like only one pattern in the whole magazine.

Fast forward to my birthday , Hubby shows me my digital subscription on my tablet(picture me not so excited and elated). However he has given me a choice to whether to continue with the subscription or not. He knows me too well..I would be guilt ridden if I didn't stitch from the gift he got me.

Yesterday , I  downloaded two free issues of Cross Stitch Crazy mag on my phone and there are only few designs I like.These magazines have chosen the best time to offer free stuff ,adding to my dilemma.


So the big question my friends is :
What do you think-Should I continue with bday subscription ?
Is the money worth 1 or 2 designs which I may like in each issue ?
Would be it be too rude to cancel something which hubby gifted?

Come over for some Fun and Gala time at The Alphabet Club

Hello Friends,

It's time for detention at the Alphabet Club hosted by Chiara at Grey Tail. Alphabet club is based on the idea of the movie Breakfast Club and for our detention ,we bloggers post about something related to the letter of the month.

I have been a bad student and haven't posted my club entries for January (Letter F) and February (Letter G), so this is going to be a rather long post.

F is for Fattoush (Arabic: فتوش, also fattush, fatush, fattoosh, and fattouche) is a Levantine bread salad made from toasted or fried pieces of pita bread combined with mixed greens and other vegetables, such as radishes and tomatoes.

Image from Internet

People who follow my blog must be knowing by now that I'm foodie ,however I'm not very diet conscious person. I'm particularly not fond of salads and fruits , so trust me when I mention a salad in my blog ,it must be really yummy. 

F is for Friends , not our real life friends lol , the insanely famous American sitcom. I love this series and have watched the whole series twice since I first discovered it in 2008.

Image from Internet

There is so much that one can learn from these characters and I think the best takeaway is 

Image from Internet

I will not bore you by showing off my Fractal piece again in this post,however I think fractal may be one of my favourite theme to stitch.Geometric designs with splash of colors ...whats not there to like!!

Image from Cross stitch collectibles 

G is for Guru - a word now being commonly used in English language has been taken from Hindi language meaning teacher/priest .

G is for Gajak - A dessert made of jaggery (called Gur in Hindi) , sesame seeds and peanuts. This is eaten in winter months in Northern India . The method of preparation  is time consuming. It takes about 10–15 hours to prepare 5–8 kilograms of gajak. The dough is hammered until all the sesame seeds break down and release their oils into the dough.

Image form Internet

H is for Himalayas - The mighty mountain range in the South Asia,  home to nine of the ten highest peaks on Earth, including the highest above sea level, Mount Everest.The Himalayas span five countries: Nepal, India, Bhutan, China(Tibet), and Pakistan.

Nainital: one of the hill station in lower Himalayas

My hometown in India is very near to foothills of lower Himalayas. During my childhood, every summer we would visit various hill stations and enjoy the scenery there. May be that is the reason I'm a more of a mountain person than a beach or sea lover :)

H is for Hala February - an annual event in Kuwait, celebrated in the spring season every year. Its a month-long commemoration of liberation of Kuwait,in which a variety of cultural activities, carnivals, games and events are organized for families and children.

Here are few pics I clicked during this year's Hala February

Traditional Bazaar called the Souk decorated for Hala February Celebrations

Lights with the colors of flag can be seen on buildings 

Kuwait celebrated 55 years of Independence and 25 years of Liberation this year

Fireworks at Kuwait Towers-landmark and symbol of modern Kuwait

H is for Holi  (pronunciation: /ˈhoʊliː/; Sanskrit: होली Holī) is a spring festival celebrated in India, also known as the festival of colours or the festival of sharing love.The festival is celebrated by a lighting a bonfire on the night before last full moon day of lunar calendar. Holi frolic and celebrations begin the morning after the Holika bonfire. Children and young people form groups armed with dry colours(called Gulaal), coloured solution, the means to fill and spray others with coloured solution (pichkaris), water balloons filled with coloured water, and other creative means to colour their targets.

Colors being sold in market.Image from Internet

I'm not a big fan of playing with colors however I love the delicacies made during the festival. Preparations start a week before Holi and friends and families help each other in making various dishes.

My favourite Gujiya. Image from Internet.

Oh man, I feel hungry looking at these pics...I need to eat something now lol

I hope you survived this long post and like it.

Hello there!!

Hello dear Friends,

Mid-february and my first post of the year....Have you missed me? In case you are wondering where I was until now, I was on my annual vacation to India. I'm lucky to have spent quality time with my family during the vacation. It was a relaxing vacation ...all I did the whole month was wake up late ,chat, sip tea ,eat and sleep.

My mom spoilt me by cooking my favourite Indian recipes and I'm sure I must have gained a few kilos..who cares anyway. Winter is my favourite season of the year and I love everything associated with it..fog,blankets, winter food , sweaters, coats ,waiting for the sun to shine :)

This vacation was special as I got a chance to visit my maternal family homes which was unplanned. I met my uncles,aunts and cousins and had so much fun talking about the times when I used to live with them during my college education.

There were trips to bazaars for shopping for clothes,spices,accessories and specialty items and I somehow restricted the weight to allowed baggage limit.We even managed to watch a movie based on evacuation of Indian migrants from  Kuwait in 1990(knowing that it will be banned here ..lol).

Ok, back to business ...I didn't do much of cross stitching during the vacation. In fact whenever I picked up my needle my mom would say "Are you here to cross stitch or spend time with us"? Ha Ha. She was surprised how come I love cross stitching so much and have chosen it over other crafts she taught me.

Don't worry I still have few things to show for Gifted Gorgeousness SAL. One of my cross stitch friends on facebook proposed to do a swap in October ,however I wasn't confident about international shipping from Kuwait. So I kept delaying to commit for the swap. I agreed for it in Dec, when our annual vacation dates were finalized knowing that I can safely post from India.
This is what I stitched for the birthday swap,February being birth month for both of us .It was so much fun to gather goodies for the package .

The whole package I sent..can you a crochet coaster in the pic? Its my first !!

 Here is what she sent me for the swap. All the things are handmade in this package including the needle minder and scissor fob. We discussed our likes and wishes before committing for the swap ,so we knew what we can add to each other's stash.

My main target for this vacation was to make arrangements so that gifts I have been making reach the recipients. One of those was to be sent to Singapore. After my first plan failed, I posted the cross stitch piece unframed, half halfheartedly to my friend's family in India. I was so happy when my friend contacted me and told that her father has got the piece framed in one day and she will getting the piece next day as her mother was flying to meet her .My joy knew no bounds when she sent me the picture of the piece displayed in her house.

Just before going on vacation, my ex colleague sent me this picture of the framed piece I stitched for him as retirement gift.

The cushion I made for my niece ,which I showed in my last GG post, was well received too.

Seeing our work being appreciated and displayed is the biggest motivation for any crafter..don't you agree.

The second agenda for the vacation was to get hands on handcrafted beauties, made by my mom and granny, which she does not use any more. Success achieved and my house now displays these heirlooms. I will save the pictures for future posts.

We visited many wonderful historical places during our vacation and I'm so thankful to my family for taking out time to take us around.

My post will be incomplete without mention of my nephew who turns 2 in few days. He is growing to be such a adorable kid. He loves to play with people and smiles at you for no reason. The way he snuggles melts my heart.Oh I miss him so much.

I have been trying to catch up on reading blogs ..if you don't see a comment from me,soon it will be there.Thank you for your lovely comments on my last blog post.

I hope you had a good day with your loved ones on Valentine's day. We celebrated it on 13th at home as Sunday is a working day here. I cooked hubby's favourite recipe and exchanged gifts.

Happy Stitching 

2015 Crafty Achievements & 2016 goals

Hello Friends,

Welcome to the last post of the year. Blogging has been so much fun this year and I have met some wonderful friends thru this.

I started my blog in 2011 to record my experiences of travelling and then I went MIA.
2014 was the year I started writing about my cooking experiments .
I have been part of cross stitch groups on facebook since July 2014 and I also follow various cross stitch magazine pages there.
One day (end of Jan I think) while browsing thru one of these pages, I saw Jo's comment. She was complaining that how she hadn't received her prize from one of the competitions run by that magazine which she can include in her Gifted Gorgeousness SAL. The term "Gifted Gorgeousness " caught my attention and I searched for it on Google and found Jo's blog. Rest is history as they say...ha ha
I asked Jo if I can participate in the SAL, posted about my cross stitching on the blog, back dated the posts to show the work I did in 2014.

2015 has been year of so many firsts cross stitching wise :

1. Participated in a blog SAL
2. Made a cross stitch card
3. Made a cross stitch ornament
4. Participated in a cross stitch exchange
5. Made a cross stitch cushion including the sewing
6. Stitched a cover kit
7. Bought a cross stitch magazine
8. Stitched on linen
9. Stitched a 20+ color pattern
10. Used  DMC floss (I know your jaw will drop after reading this)

I managed to finish 15 projects this year, however I can't show the 15th as the receiver hasn't got it yet. All were/are gifts.

My favourite finishes of the year

Cards I made during the year

Smalls stitched for exchanges and gifts

Here is a pie chart showing my year round stitching ,quite better than 2014.

Here are my crafting goals for 2016

1. Try blackwork
2. Learn 2 new ways of finishing cross stitch
3. Stitch on evenweave fabric
4. Stitch a medium/big size kit
5. Use stash the maximum
6. Pick fabric painting again
7. Try embroidery other than cross stitching :)
8. Keep trying to crochet. I have now finished making a single crochet coaster :)
9. Learn quilling . This has been pending since 2010.

I will be participating in GG SAL 2016 and EMS Flower of the month SAL on facebook .

I have been blessed to receive so many beautiful handmade gifts/cross stitch supplies from my blogging/crafty friends from all over the world all thru the year. I would also like to thank you all for your comments and appreciation of my work.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!