Let the People Choose-May Update

Hello Friends,
First Saturday of the month I join Jo for The People's Choice SAL . Jo takes a poll for people to choose a topic for the month and the participants then post about stitchy projects related to that topic.

This month's topic is Fire. Now this is a tricky one- I don't think I have stitched a piece with fire in it. No problem about that, we can interpret the topic of this SAL in our own way. I waited for few people to post about this topic and see what their interpretation is.

Fire is considered holy in Hinduism, religion I follow. Agni, and thus fire, is a symbol used in many Hindu ceremonies that form a rite of passage; births, marriages and funerals.Fire is a source of light and I can't imagine celebrating my favourite festival Diwali without light. Diwali is a festival of lights and we light earthen lamps, candles and these day electric lights to celebrate the festival.I stitched this piece in 2018 :

Free Pattern from Daily Cross Stitch

I have received many hand made Diwali gifts showing Diyas(earthen lamps) over the years.

Gift from Preeti

Gift from Zhraa

Gift from Zhraa

Gift from Tammy

Here are patterns on my wish list showing earthen lamps:

Now,I'm going to check what other have posted for this SAL.

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL October 2019 update and IHSW

Hello Friends,
It's that time of the month when we show what gifts we have been working on or/and what crafty gifts we have received. If you don't know what I'm talking about , check Jo's blog for more info. This is a easy SAL where you have choice to stitch any designer, color or pattern, just that it should be a gift for someone or gift from someone.

Also , it was IHSW this past weekend , so I'm clubbing these two in one post.

I actually stitched this IHSW after missing it for 6 months.

I started a new project on Friday morning and finished it yesterday evening.

Here it is:

Pattern source:Cross Stitch Crazy magazine, Issue 142

This will be sent to my best friend for her birthday in November. This finish gets double GG points as it was a gift in an exchange I did with Kerry (who sadly doesn't blog anymore) . 

The funny thing is Kerry forgot to send me the chart with the kit and then I contacted Kerry and the magazine to see if they can send me the chart. Well, it didn't work but I liked the design so much that I charted it in excel looking at the cover pic.

I still don't know the designer which is the case with all cover kits I have.

Some other crafting, I really enjoyed making these Diwali (Hindu festival of lights) cards and decorating postcards for Diwali wishes. The idea was to revive letter writing/postcard writing as in this digital media no one cares about a handwritten card.

While we are talking about Diwali, can anyone of you help me in locating the source and designer of this design?

There is serious shortage of designs depicting religions other than Christianity(no offence to anyone here) in the cross stitching world. So I was pretty happy to see the following design on The World of Cross Stitching magazine's facebook page.

If you have bought November 2019 issue of he World of Cross Stitching magazine and would like to share the original pattern with me , I would be really appreciate that.

It was nice feeling to stitch after a gap of months, hope I can continue this now.

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL November Update

Hello Friends,

It's that time of the month when we show what gifts we have been working on or/and what crafty gifts we have received. If you don't know what I'm talking about , check Jo's blog for more info. This is a easy SAL where you have choice to stitch any designer, color or pattern, just that it should be a gift for someone or gift from someone.

Sorry , I have been missing from blog land. I have been busy with work, festivals, holiday planning and musical events.

I missed posting for last month GG as I have not been cross stitching. 

Kuwait has been hit by rains since last week. Though the intensity of rain is nothing compared to what I'm used to in India, it has created quite a havoc. The country is not designed for rains, with an  absent drainage system. 
Government declared holidays on 6th Nov, yesterday and today as a precautionary measure. Personally, I haven't experienced any loss but water has been leaking thru cracks in my house. Last Friday evening it got scary when I saw cars being carried away by water .

Anyways, the unexpected holidays have given me time to pick up my needle. I finished a project last night at 1 am which was supposed to be used for decoration last week.

This project has a lot of firsts: First time stitching a Daily CrossStitch pattern though I have dozens saved in my computer, first time stitching a holiday pattern for my home, first time stitching a pattern celebrating Hindu festival. I added the text in Hindi to complete the design.

The pattern was stitched on gifted fabric and the floss was gifted too.The frame was bought in one of the store closing down sales and I think its perfect.

In case , you are wondering why I picked up a Diwali pattern to stitch. We (and millions of Hindus across the world) celebrated the festival of Lights during 5th - 9th November this year.

Diwali is my favorite festival and decorating the house after a deep cleaning operation is what I enjoy most. I made few savory snacks and traditional sweets this year, decorated the house with flowers, rangoli and diyas.

Sharing some pics :

Most of the items you see in the pictures above are handmade by my craft friends and gifted for the occasion over the years.

I had a very fulfilling experience this year during Diwali, I did what I enjoy most:cooking and decorating.

As its a long weekend here this time, I started crafting for IHSW today and made christmas cards thi morning.

That's it my friends for today, I hope you are safe in your corner of the world.

Gifted Gorgeousness mixed with Diwali celebrations

Hello Friends,

Hope you are enjoying fall or onset of winter in your part of the world.

Sorry I have been missing in action, not much crafting happening here. I think I’m sad from the fact that the year is coming to an end and I don’t have a proper crafty finish except the small projects I stitched for swaps.

Anyways, I’m here to show you the gifts I have been showered upon since my last post.

Remember the owl card for a cross stitch card swap I showed in my last post, my partner stitched this cute Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery design for me, changing the hair color to match mine. Also this was her first attempt at linen, so well done my friend.

  

   

I framed the card using an IKEA frame I had at home. What do you think of it?

We celebrated the Festival of Lights from Oct 17-Oct 21. It’s my favourite Indian Hindu festival and this year I made some extra efforts at decoration which I will show later in this post. I invited my craft friends for evening snacks and we had a good time.

My friend Tammy made this Diwali cross stitch along with lovely crochet doilies.

  

Diwali gifts from Tammy

My friend Z is an amazing crocheter and can make anything using crochet. Look at these beautiful Diya (earthen lamp) holders she made.

  

Diwali Gifts from Z

I finished the sweets they brought before I could click a picture.

I’m so lucky to have friends who take out time to make handmade gifts for festivals they don’t celebrate and know much about. But their inquisitiveness to learn about new culture and traditions inspires me and I hope we have more such acceptive people in this world.

As I told I have been crafting much but I tried FFOing this Friday, a cross stitch I received from Shami in beginning of this year. Then I bought a basket to display all the cross stitch I have received in swaps and as gifts and made a small cross stitch corner in my house.

 

Gift from Shami, now FFOed

  

Small cross stitch corner in the house

Diwali Décor:

Apart from the traditional décor of Rangoli and decoration with flowers and earthen lamps, I set up two small corners in the living room for Diwali this time. 

 

Rangoli

 

Corner 1 by the day

 

Corner 1 by the night, pic courtesy hubby dear

I had some sequins given to me by mom years ago and some beads which are a bit too big to use for projects, they were used for the décor.

Corner 2 by the day

Corner 2 by the night

The décor in the upper pic of corner 2 shows crochet diya gifted on last Diwali by Z, a crocheted tea light and coasters by Tammy, cross stitch words by Shami and coaster by Jo.

  

Crochet Diya, gift from Preeti

We hung two Kandeel (lantern with a wooden framework and covered in coloured matte or glossy papers) in two corners of the house. It is a practice to buy new stuff during Diwali like jewellery, clothes etc. We bought new curtains for the living room in my favorite floral print.  

No pics of the food table as it was same as last year.

I hope you like the pics of Diwali celebration at my home.

Getting back to routine

Hello Friends,

Is it the 15th already? Just a few minutes back I was thinking that this weekend is the IHSW and I will put up a post for GG and IHSW together (sense the laziness here) . Another look at the calendar and I realise that its the 15th today and time for a GG post. Gifted Gorgeousness is a stress free SAL being hosted by Jo . Go check the easy peasy rules if you wanna join us .

As my post title suggests, I'm trying to get into a routine these days. We moved to a new appartment on the 22nd and it was quite a smooth move. It helped that we were living in a furnished appartment earlier and we had very little furniture to move. We didn't hire any movers and packers and were able to shift on our own.
We were able to arrange all the new furniture and kitchen appliances in 4 days after office hours. The reason I rushed moving  was that I wanted to celebrate Diwali in a new house. Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights is one of the biggest Indian festivals and my favourite too. Cleaning of the house is one of the main ritual associated with preparation of Diwali. The cleaning begins at least 15 days prior to Diwali and involves opening the old trunks and deciding what to keep and what not to.
I mentioned to hubby that I wanted to move into the new house before Diwali as that meant a super clean house and all new stuff. Luckily he agreed.

We enjoyed the festivities for five days and had some friends and family visiting us during this time. I made traditional Diwali sweets and snacks and decorated the house with lights and colors.

You may ask that why should I talk about getting back to routine if the move was so smooth. Well I have been struggling to pick up my needle since August , for that matter I'm not even enjoying cooking which is my second favorite hobby. I don't feel motivated to either craft or cook , which has turned me into a couch potato.
September was vacation month, so again no time for stitching.Then came October,when I committed to participate in a handmade fair with one of the local crafters . I wasn't able to make stuff as the stitching bug is AWOL. May be some other time...

The lighting in the new house is not so conducive for cross stitch , all the bulbs are halogen focus lights. Not enough light to stitch and it's gets dark by the time I get home from office these days. I'm determined to set up a corner to stitch soon.

Yesterday was a good day though..I picked up my journal and cleared the back log of entries .Last weekend I tried two new recipes ,so I'm getting a feeling that I will get back to my craft routine soon.

OK, enough of rant , now some pics of handmade Diwali gifts I received and a scarf I finished knitting for my sister-in-law .

Gifts from Tammy

Gifts from Z

Gifts from Karen

The dishcloth is sky blue in color in real life.

Simple Garter Stitch Scarf for SIL

Some pics of Diwali decor

Small Rangoli for Choti Diwali/Diwali Eve

Food Table decor on Choti Diwali

Rangoli for Laxmi poojan

Food Table set up for Laxmi Pujan 

Handmade lantern

A view of  the dining corner of the house

The runner you see on the table was painted by me in year 2000 or 2001. I never had courage to use it before fearing that some food will drop on it and leave stains. This Diwali I gathered the courage and used it for the table set up. Here is a full picture of the full dining set, with mats on the left and napkins on right. You can see stains it's got from keeping it in trunks for 15 years.

Last weekend I attended a very interesting exhibition , however I will save the pictures of that for my next post.

November marks the start of winter here in Kuwait. Temperatures have dropped to 20s (deg C) and I'm enjoying the pleasant weather. I hope you are enjoying the weather in your part of the world too.

P.S. Welcome to new followers. Thank you for following my blog and leaving a comment. Please leave you blog address next time you visit me. I would love to check your blog if you have one.