FOTM SAL May update and some cooking

Here is my entry for Flower of the Month SAL hosted by Alyssa .

I have not been able to stitch much of this as my current target is to finish Sunflower bouquet for my colleague who is going to retire soon. As advised by my stitchy friends, I am now using two strands for stitching for the flower series. But I didn't have the courage to frog what I had already stitched using 3...do you think the difference is too obvious or looks ugly?

In other news, I'm happy to tell that I have attended two meet ups of a group of knitters in past 2 weeks.
Don't be surprised...I don't knit but this is result of my desperate attempts to a have a group of cross stitchers. I have been trying really hard since last 1 year to gather or meet people interested in any type of needle work here in Kuwait. Sadly, nothing worked ..so I  signed up on Raverly and joined the local ravelry group.
The ladies in the group have been kind enough to absorb me and we had fun in the last two meetings. While the ladies chit chat and knit, I stitch (at the pace of a tortoise) counting everything thrice. I must say that cross stitch is not a easy craft to take along...I am finding it difficult to stitch sitting in a chair with chart in hand and I'm already thinking of learning crochet specially for the meet ups ;). At home, I stitch sitting on a sofa with my legs stretched and the chart pinned to one of the cushions.

The weather here is at its worst now with the temperature nearing 50 degree Celsius. This Friday, DH & I ,dared to step out of the house in the noon and we repented it so much. The sun was blazing and our feet started burning...Well its just the start of summer.

On the cooking front, I have lost my cooking bug...however guilt took me over and I tried my hands at making my mom's recipe of a lentil cake last Tuesday. The result wasn't upto my expectations so I'm not going to blog about it until I get it right.

Today I made Menemen (Turkish-Style Scrambled Eggs With Tomatoes)  for dinner.

This dish is very similar to Indian version of Scrambled eggs-Anda bhurji.
I like tomatoes in my Anda Bhurji but DH doesn't like tomatoes much...
So when he asked me to make something eggy today, I proposed making Menemen instead of Anda Bhurji .
I'm a conservative and usually don't make changes in recipes. The only reason I divert from the original recipe is unavailability of ingredients.

I followed the recipe by Burcu and used capsicum instead of green peppers.

The other reason I like Menemen is because I like eggs to be slightly undercooked and this a perfect recipe for that.


Its end of another month and good time to think how productive the month was craft wise...





 

May TUSAL Update

Its time for TUSAL check-in for the month.

My ORT jar is growing as is the stitchy portion of my Pie Chart.
This is because I have been able to stitch almost everyday this month even if its 15 stitches in a day.

 

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL May update and some ramblings

GG SAL is by far my favourite SAL ... Every month, I eagerly wait for Jo's link up post.
I love looking at what stitchers are working on: gifts they are making or gifts they got.

My stitching priorities have changed in last few days and there is a reshuffle in the gifting ideas.
As I mentioned in my first GG post, my goal this year was to stitch 3 pieces for my college friends.
Seems like I'm not gonna meet them this year...so the pieces which I were stitching for them will now be gifted to one of my work friends (whom I showed the piece and she liked it, not shown in this post) and a colleague.

Below is the piece which I'm stitching for my colleague now, as a thank you gift for being a perfect host in Windsor (I know my London post is still pending). He will be retiring in July and will be re modeling his house after that. I think this will look good as a wall piece in his house.

I started stitching this piece on 21st Nov 2014 but had difficulty reading the colored chart and was short of so many colors then. I kept it aside and thought may be I will never stitch it again.

This is where is left it on 28th Nov 2014.

Picked it again on 4th May and this is my progress so far. Yesterday I reprinted the chart in black and white and A3 size and what a relief to my eyes.

This is how it will look when finished

The second piece for the GG SAL this month is part of another SAL I'm participating in...you can read  about it here.

As the fabric (even the needles I'm using for this piece) was gifted to me by my stitcher friend Ms. G from London, I can include this in GG SAL too.

I plan to finish this a hanging and gift it to one of my friend's for her kids room.

Last Saturday I invited my colleagues for lunch and cooked vegetarian Indian meal. It was a big hit and nothing was leftover after we finished eating. They were inquisitive about the ingredients of the dishes prepared, method of cooking  and this is definite a boost to my cooking adventures.

I have been feeling low since Sunday mainly because I'm not feeling challenged at work. I'm not happy with the type of work I have been assigned these days. Instead of feeling depressed for various other reasons I was able to stitch for more time in the work week.... which is a plus point.

Oh how can I miss telling you about the panic attack I had while I was comparing my DMC to Anchor conversion sheet. It seems that for few shades  DMC to Anchor conversion is not same as Anchor to DMC conversion. I was almost in tears when I realized that but then DH very calmly explained to me that the pieces I have stitched till now using the old sheet are still beautiful.
After 5 hours of referring to various online conversions available I now have a new conversion sheet.
All this because I work with Anchor floss and most of the designs use DMC.

I hope the coming week I feel better emotionally and really hope to finish the Sunflower bouquet in time.


Till then...take care you lovely people.

Thank you Khristine!

It was a pleasant surprise to see my blog being nominated for One Lovely Blog Award on Khristine's blog seeing I'm quite new to world of blogging and cross stitching.

Khristine has been very encouraging through her comments on my humble cross stitch cards which is all I have stitched this year.

Thank you Khristine for the appreciation and nomination.

Please visit her blog to see her beautiful stitching specially the HAED "Hannah" she is working on these days.

The purpose of this award is for bloggers to nominate fellow bloggers. In order to accept the award, the nominated blogger must follow these rules:

• thank the person who nominated you and link back 
• Share seven facts about yourself
• Nominate 10 other bloggers for the award.

 

1.     I have been married for almost 8 yrs now and my husband is the nicest person I have ever met in my life. Trust me I’m not exaggerating…

2.     I’m a Chemical Engineer by profession and my work field is in Oil & gas industry. I’m a career oriented person and competition brings the best out of me.

3.     I’m close to an atheist.

4.     I cannot stand discrimination due to sex, religion, race, nationality etc. and I have been raising my voice whenever required for this cause.

5.     I have inherited the crafty genes from my mother and maternal grandmother. I’m really thankful to my mother for constantly reminding me to keep practicing what I have learnt in various craft classes, so that I don’t lose touch.

6.     I believe in living the moment rather than worrying too much about future.

7.     I want to revive the art of cross stitch in my home country India. A small attempt in this direction was to get associated with Eclectic Bloke designs. Still a long way to go …

 

  I would like to nominate:

1. Maria    : Not only Maria stitches beautifully, she comes up with the most unusual ways of finishing her stitched pieces...coin purses, craft envelopes etc.

2. Shammi : I'm so impressed by the fact that Shammi knows so many type of hand embroideries: satin stitch, kantha, kasuti, kutchi, cross stitch along with crochet .

3. Neha : She is newbie like me and indulges in quilling, cross stitch and decoupage.

4. Fatema : I love her choices of designs and she is brave enough to tackle 2 or 3 HAEDs at a time ;)

5. Lulu  : Cross stitching blog with a flavor of life in different countries.

6.  Jo : The name itself is enough ;)

7.  Alicia : She is HAED obsessed and a RAK queen, always late in posting SAL updates ..;)

8. Kay : Look at the gorgeous Spanish rouge sampler she is stitching .

9.  Kaye

10. Justine

 

Please have a look at these wonderful blogs.

 

Thank you again Khristine for the nomination.

 

Hugs

Mini