Happy Dance

Yes you have guessed it right...my order from 123stitch has arrived and the Kuwait postal system hasn't failed me.
Well I got my packet yesterday all thanks to DH who drove 55 kms one way to search for the packet.
I'm a bit guilty for being impatient and pestering DH to go and hunt for the packet. What is a lady supposed to do when the packet(all full of floss) doesn't arrive for 2 months...yes that's true 60 days.

Can you believe this small packet has cost me a fortune?

After one hour of sorting this is what we got-208 shades of floss

 

Yippie my first ever DMC floss and I'm now a proud owner of all color shades of floss available in the market...oh what a feeling!!!

 

Last Friday I wasn't able to find one particular color of floss and we re-organized the whole stash only to find the skein in the stitch bag which was lying next to me ;)

 

New folder for patterns

 

 

I'm so excited about my travel to London that I could hardly work today in office and the semi finals between Australia and India added to the cause.

Yesterday while I was digging my stationery box, I found my travel diary. This is the travel diary I started writing for our first vacation after marriage. I don't know why I stopped recording in this diary after that.

Well its never too late to start again..isn't it?

 

Looking forward to a great Easter weekend in London and bring back beautiful memories.

 

What are your plans for Easter guys?

 

 

 

 

TUSAL March update and Wonderful giveaway from Maria

Here's is my entry for the TUSAL this month. As you can see I have added some aida trimmings to my jar...well I want to fill my jar as soon as possible ;)

I have also updated my pie chart and I'm happy the red portion has come down to 54% from 59% from the last update. This week was a good one as I got two hours daily for stitching.


I would like to talk about a fellow cross stitcher in this post of mine. Maria Demina ,is a very talented lady who creates most gorgeous things from cross stitch. I know her thru my facebook cross stitch group and I'm a big fan of her work. What makes Maria's work different from others is the way she finishes her cross stitched pieces....none of the ones I have seen are pictures for framing, pin cushions etc. So what does she do with her pieces...go check out her blog(use the google translate button) to find out for yourself.

Maria is having a give away on her blog until May 22nd and you know what, she is going to give away one of her own creations in the giveaway.. I'm not going to miss this chance....

Hoping to get some stitching done this weekend..

Hugs

 

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL March update and lots more

This is going to be a long post as I have so much to talk about the last 10 days...

First of all my entry for the month of March for the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL .

Birthday card I made for DH...It was a surprise as I stitched it whenever he was asleep :)


I'm finding it difficult to take time out for stitching these days which explains the bigger portion of red in my stitch pie :( . I decided to keep some area of the card unstitched as I was short of time.

On the cooking front , I tried making pasta in red sauce for the first time and it turned out good. The recipe can be found here:
http://www.tarladalal.com/Pasta-in-Red-Sauce-37563r

It was the festival of colors-Holi on the 6th ,though we didn't play with colors , I invited my friend and his wife for a festive lunch on 7th . I was successfully able to prepare "Ragda pattice" and "masale bhaat" just before the guests arrived. Why successfully, because there was no electricity for  3.5 hours and wasn't able to cook during that duration.

After the lunch, we had a good chat for 5 hours...yes I'm a talker...
My friend's wife brought Holi special food preparations and we were no more missing home ...blink blink.

Here is a picture of goodies which I got as part of International Women's day celebration in office.

I'll be travelling to London for business on 29th and you know what, all I want to do is buy lots of cross stitch supplies from there. I have already made some arrangements for that(picture me with a mischievous smile ).Imagine its my first visit to London and I have little zeal to visit the  tourist spots .

So if you have some recommendation for a good LNS or a thrift store in and around London , please let me know.
Of course the foodie in me still wants to know what are the must eats in London.

I'm hoping to get a lot of stitching time over the easter weekend during my stay in London if I don't go around and visit the London attractions.

I have now added separate pages to my blog for
a) Other crafts which I pursue( in a hope that these pages will keep me motivated.)
b) Pics of my mom's garden.
c) Cross stitch Finishes-Check this out for details of my finished projects.

  

RIP Neil !!

I'm at loss of words today...When I logged on to facebook today morning  ,the horrible news  was there...my cross stitch friend Neil Bray passed away yesterday.

I cannot believe this has happened ...its only few months back when I met Neil on one of the cross stitch group on facebook.

There were many things which attracted me to talk to Neil.
He was the first male cross stitcher I came across in my life, he had left his job to follow his passion of cross stitch and had an eclectic taste of designs and avid supporter of copyright laws to protect interests of designers.

I was quite surprised at first to know that Neil has left his job to start a Cross stitch company. It requires a lot of courage to take risk of leaving a regular income job  and follow your passion.

While I write about him, I realize everything happened so soon. His company Eclectic bloke designs was started in July 2014 ,I first contacted him in Aug 2014 ,he was detected cancer in Sep 2014 and today he is not with us physically.

I'm thankful to Neil for entertaining my request to convert few of personal pictures to cross stitch designs so that I could present Indian architecture to the world.

During this interaction , I learnt he was very diligent and left no stone unturned to get the best design out of a photograph.

Also, I feel very proud to be associated with Neil's company ,which has presented designs to support gay rights.

In the last few days ,a particular design Shades of Strength (design by Paul Richmond) became symbol of Neil's fight with cancer.

I would also like to say that I was surprised to see how gracefully Neil and his family members talked about his struggle with cancer on facebook. I come from a society where talking about illness is a big no-no and death is something to cry about.

Neil, you will be always with us with your fabulous designs !!

I would like my cross stitch friends to visit Neil's company website once(http://eclecticblokedesigns.co.uk)/ blog (http://eclecticbloke.blogspot.com/)/ facebook group and appreciate his efforts for making the world of cross stitching richer.


 

I'm back from short vacation

I'm back from my short vacation to India and am already homesick.

Needless to say that I had a great time with my family ,I also managed to meet few of my friends.
I'm so glad my bestie loved the birthday card I stitched for her.

It was my nephew's first birthday on the 21st and we had a small celebration at my home town. Enjoyed every bit of it.

And then it was my birthday on 27th and celebrated it with my parents after 15 long years.
I travelled to Delhi on the same day and had a nice birthday dinner with my brother and his family.

One of the best birthdays in years...lots of gifts ,wishes and two cakes :)

I think I can be too hard on people sometime...DH had a tough time buying me a birthday present. Anything he wanted to buy me as a birthday present ,I would disqualify that as one of the things I had told him I wanted to buy in the past. My personal opinion is that gifts should be surprises...not things which I want to buy and have talked about.

DH is a such a darling ,he worked so hard to arrange to fulfill one of my wishes ...I will now be able to sponsor education of a under privileged child .What better way to  celebrate your birthday...

My mom is an amazing cook and she loves cooking some of the my favorite dishes whenever I visit her . I'm sure I must have gained around 2 kg. of weight gorging on my mom's food.

I will post my maternal grandmother's own recipe of a spicy rice preparation soon which mom and I love and think you will like it too.

Shopping is one of the major activities whenever me and DH go for a vacation. Strangely, I'm not interested in apparel shopping since last few months which surprises my whole family. Until now, I had a reputation of hoarding clothes in my wardrobe.

Apart from all the gifts I got from family, these are the best buys from this trip.

Yes ,I'm a Jeffrey Archer fan.

On a sad note, my order from 123stitch hasn't arrived. I contacted them and got the reply that I can expect the order by 14th.

I'm not sure when I will be able to pick up stitching now as the house is a wreck after the sand storm which hit Kuwait when I was  away .Also ,me n DH are a bit sick...the flight was bumpy.


How have things been with you guys?