FOTM SAL July Check in

Hello Friends,
Here is my progress for the Flower of the Month SAL hosted by Alyssa at Brownie's Chair. This piece was my main focus for the month of July. I completed stitching 2 more flowers and the gaps you see in the flowers are due to floss shortage.

I think I have lost my stitching mojo. All I do the whole day is keep thinking of stitching and when I actually sit to stitch, I can't put more than 15 stitches in the piece. I don't know what's wrong , the project I'm working on doesn't have many color changes or confetti, still I ended up making two mistakes .

 

I really hope I find my stitching mojo back soon, as I will be on vacation on the later part of August, giving me lesser time to stitch.

Here's how my Monthly Stitchy pie chart looks like:

Have a great weekend .

Exploring Kuwait

I just realized that its been almost one and half years that I moved to Kuwait for better career opportunities and never have written a post dedicated to my experiences here about the food/travel and other interests of mine .

To tell you the truth when I was shifting here I never made any queries about the country :its culture, food, society . I was more than happy to know that I will be able to work here and wear the type of clothes I want to ...which not many middle eastern countries allow for.

Kuwait being a desert doesn't have bountiful nature, which leaves Shopping Malls as the main places of attraction. I am not a  brand shopper so that kept me away from the big Shopping malls here. However, I never stopped looking for places of my interest and now that I have found some, thanks to internet and social network, I have started liking this place more than I used to like it last year :)

While roaming around in one of the sea side malls, I stumbled upon on this café called "Color me Mine". The café has a collection of plain ceramic/POP figurines/vases/bowls etc. The idea is to select a piece and paint it there with poster colors. Once the piece is painted, it is baked to add shine and then the person can take it home. The Café mainly attracts kids, who paint the pieces with help of lady instructor of the café, while having muffins or cakes. Isn't that cute? The Café  also displayed few pieces to be sold for charity and I was able to pick some lovely stuff .

One of the walls of the Café



Below paintings were displayed in the covered bridge connecting the mall and the marina.



Medium scale model of Dhow

Last Thursday I attended Eid celebration at TIES center and visited the Second chance charity and handmade shop there. I can now guess what charity shops and thrift stores in the UK & USA would be like. I was able to find some nice stuff there-small table ware items , stationery and beautiful crochet doilies which some of the local ladies had donated for charity. Sorry I didn't take any pictures.

Now about my second passion food

Me & DH were treated in a contemporary Indian restaurant Asha's few days back.This is a chain of restaurant at multiple locations around the world run by famous Bollywood Singer Asha Bhonsale.



Ordered Mai's favourite.Image courtesy:Internet

The food quality was up to my expectations, a bit spicy though, however I feel they should offer more vegetarian options being an Indian restaurant.

On Sunday , B&B had a sudden urge to eat Thai food and search for Thai restaurants in Kuwait began. We were so surprised to find a branch of famous Thai chain Sabaidee  near our house..




Som Tum



Pad Thai & Pad Wood Sen

The food was delicious and great value for money. They won my heart by making a vegetarian version of Pad Thai. 

The idea of this post is not to review any food or shopping joint. Its my way of sharing my life here in Kuwait and also to help new expats . I am thankful to many local bloggers about providing useful information about the country on their blogs from which I have benefited.

Do you guys like exploring new places? Do you search for online reviews of restaurants/cities/tourist places before you visit them?

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL July update and my first ever Stitchy exchange

Hello Friends,
Its been a month I haven't posted on my blog...I have been busy with stitching and socializing.
I didn't post for TUSAL as I wasn't feeling inspired to continue with this SAL and have bowed out of it now.
Before I write any further, I would like to welcome my new followers and thank them and other blog visitors for commenting. I really appreciate that.

Well, this is going to be a picture heavy post as I have lot to show.

First of all, I would like to show you how my stitchy friend Diya pampered with me her gifts. I have known Diya for a few months now, we met on facebook in a cross stitch group. Since then, as we interacted we discovered, we had similar interests and some of her family/friends visit Kuwait for work or personal reasons.

Last month, I asked Diya would she be interested in a Stitchy Exchange, the answer of course was Yes! This is what she sent me

See how the packets are numbered as each of them had a gift related to one of my hobbies.

Look at the Cute Penguin she stitched for me, isn't it adorable. She has been so generous to include gifts from her trip to Thailand ...painting, hand cream, soap, cross stitch kits. Also she added a book for baby gifts with some linen and Aida...Oh Diya, I can't express how I feel about these...Thank you Sweetie.

Here is what I sent her

 

Yes, that's an ornament..my first one and I'm tiny meeny proud how it turned out. Herez a side look

Another gift which I stitched for first anniversary of my friend couple is a cover kit that came with Cross Stitch crazy 202.

This is my first time stitching a cover kit and I was really surprised by the stiffness of aida that came in it. Initially I thought I will break the needle and was stitching at snail speed. Then I realized its because I use the sewing method rather than stab method for stitching .The lengths of threads were too short to use loop start, so I switched to stab method and used knots to get comfortable. However, I'm really happy how the finished piece looks like and the recipients liked it too.

Did you notice so many firsts in these post- first exchange, first cover kit, first ornament :)

Other than stitching, I haven't really tried any new recipes in cooking. However, I did explore few new cafes and restaurants and will post about my experience later. I also have few other crafty things to share ...so watch this space.

As promised about sharing a picture of my life in Kuwait in each blog post, here's a pic of view of water front from one of the sea side malls in Kuwait.

Hope you are having a good stitching time