Gifted Gorgeousness SAL Feb Update

A foreword before I show you my entry for the SAL.

I discovered about Stich ALongs (SAL) in the month of July 2014 when I joined a wonderful cross stitch group on facebook.

I instantly liked the concept and was more pleased to know that in this age of internet ,its possible to have virtual SALs sitting at your home with cross stitchers all over the world...Isn't that fantastic?

I'm hosting a HAED SAL on my FB group now for first timers like me and big HAED fans...

So I came across Jo's stitching blog and learnt about this SAL on the last day of January(Link available on the right hand side bar of my blog) ..and loved the idea. It suits me a lot because I'm going to stitch for my friends and family for next few years.


As I have told you that I have repicked cross stitching after a gap of 10years..i have a lot to catch up.

My personal stitching goals for 2015 is to stitch at least 3 medium/big size pieces gifts for my besties.

The Gifted Gorgeousness SAL will help me achieve my goals and inspire me to be more generous ...wink wink.
Thank you Jo for hosting the SAL and allowing me to join.


So here is my entry for the month of February.

I have stitched this birthday card for my gorgeous talented friend who is also about to start her own craft business.

I will be giving this card to her when I meet on 20th after 5 long years...I missed you love.


Hope she likes it (and hope she doesn't visit my blog before I give this to her...let it be a surprise, please GOD)

Started on : 6-Feb-2015
Finished on: 13-Feb-2015
Stitched on:14 count white Aida
Floss used :Anchor
Designer: Emma Congdon
Pattern source: Cross Stitch Collection, Sept 2014
Number of colors: 9
Stitch count:50H*50W
Type of stitches: Full cross stitch, back stitch
Number of strands used :2 for Full cross stitches,2 for back stitch

I had to substitute few colors as I didn't have all the colors listed in the original design.

P.S. This is the first time ever I have stitched a card.

Happy day

I had a great day today....

I woke up a bit early for a weekend and then decided to go to office instead of Saturday. Office has been crazy busy since January leaving no time for my personal stuff.

I tried a new recipe for lunch -Moong dal stuffed capsicum. DH rated it to 6.I lost a few marks due to poor presentation ;),the capsicums were too big to stay upright in the tray.

The recipe can be found here:
http://sanjeevkapoor.com/Recipe/Moong-Stuffed-Capsicum-Sanjeev-Kapoor-Kitchen-FoodFood.html

After  fruitful 4 hours in office ,when I came back home, I wanted to have some snacks in evening.
So I thought of making dhokla from scratch. In the past , I have made dhokla using instant mix available in stores.

Why is that whenever you want to try a new recipe, you run out of the main ingredient...DH had to run to the nearest store to get gram flour.

The dhokla turned out good..it was fluffy...which is a main feature of a good dhokla. However I felt that taste of  gramflour dominated the whole flavor.

I got the recipe from:

http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/khaman-dhokla-microwave-recipe/

DH's rating of Dhokla :7.5

And the day ended with an assurance from my friend that he will take care of my noisy budgies while we are on vacation in India. Thank you friend..im so relieved to hear that.

Oh how can I forget to tell you that I finished a cross stitch piece today....my first finish of 2015. I'll post the pics of the piece soon.

What a wonderful day...two new recipes, first cross stitch finish of 2015 and caretakers for my budgies arranged....

I'm going to have a good night sleep today.


Hugs
Mini





 

Reading autobiography of my Idol

Did i ever tell you that enjoy reading books,novels,magazines too?

Yes i do enjoy reading most of the normal stuff...by normal i mean non-political ,non -economical ...ha ha

So,i started reading Sachin Tendulkar's autobiography "Playing it my way " yesterday...i haven't read a book since I shifted to Kuwait.And it didn't help that Kuwait doesn't have a public library ...can you believe that?
There are few bookstores in Kuwait which i haven't explored yet...

If you ask an Indian why are you reading Sachin Tendulkar's autobiography,this may be taken as offence.
Sachin Tendulkar is called "God of Cricket" in India and is the most talented batsman the world has ever seen.

I'm a die hard fan of Sachin..well who isn't. I remember being scolded for not studying to watch a match in which Sachin was playing.

I blame my brother for introducing me to cricket ;) ...oh i miss those matches we played with my father.

One of the pleasant memories i have of being a Sachin fan is getting a lot of Sachin merchandise for my 18th bday .

And yes i share my love for the little genius with one of my besties...

Moving on to the book...the book is written in simple English for obvious reasons of targeting the masses of India for whom Sachin is an idol.

I already know what to expect from the book...a tale of a human being with virtues of hard work,modesty and honesty.

Looking at the pictures brought me to tears...this happens whenever i read or watch something related to Sachin's life.

I'm not going to write a book review after i finish reading the book ,rather continue doing what i like...Reading and worshiping "God of cricket"



Last but not the least I would like to thank my DH's friend for gifting me the book....


P.S. I got the chance to taste one of the sweets from Philippine cuisine today. A colleague who came back from his home country ,brought us some sweets. The sweet I tasted is called Pinipig Polvoron.

Mille Feuille Pastry

Me and DH went for a stroll today after the dinner ,the weather being so nice.

I have a sweet tooth and I can't live without having a sweet/candy/chocolate after lunch and dinner.

Passing by the cake shop, we were tempted to treat ourselves for no reason.

I tried Apricot Mille Feuille Pastry and really liked it.

Need to visit the cake shop often....lol

Yay...more vegetarian options

It can be tough to be a vegetarian in Middle east countries where the staple diet consists of variety of meat.

Not that I'm asking people to convert to vegetarian, all I'm saying is I have limited options where to dine and what to eat.

As told in my previous blog, i love travelling ..and one of the preparations I do before travelling to any new place is to look for vegetarian options in the local cuisine.

Lebanese food is one of most loved cuisine ,influencing cuisine of many surrounding nations.

So, me & DH decided to explore a Lebanese restaurant today. At first, the waiter was a bit confused when we asked for vegetarian options. We picked up the menu card and started asking for ingredients of the dishes we thought meet our criteria.He was kind enough to answer all the questions.

We ordered Veg. Sambousak and Fattet eggplant.
Veg sambousak is Lebanese form of Indian samosa with slight difference in the outer covering and the filling.
I loved Fattet eggplant for two reasons: my favorite ingredients-curd and eggplant and the crispiness of roasted pita bread and pine seeds.

I recommend you try these two whenever you go to a Lebanese restaurant.

Do you have a recommendation too?(writing about food makes me hungry ...lol)






 

Yay another first!!

I'm not sure if there is a word to describe the excitement of doing a thing/activity for the first time.
'firsts' always excite me...be it the first car ride,first view of the sea or first salary in new job. personally, I feel that firsts are an assurance to ourselves that life has much more to offer than we what see in our daily life.
Someone very rightly said everyday is a new learning. I try to achieve this in my professional as well as personal life.
I have already talked about my wonderful cross stitch group on fb.im always learning something  new about the art of cross stitching because of this group.
I wanted to make a personalized gift for my new born nephew since he was born and learnt about birth samplers on the group. I think they are a beautiful way to capture arrival of new baby.
here are pictures of the birth sampler I made for my nephew and the family loved it. I have made few changes to the design: I have stitched birth time instead of birth weight and changed the font to a simpler one as the original one had backstitching(I'm still not good at BS).

Started on : 5-Sep -2014
Finished on: 22-Oct -2014
Stitched on:14 count white Aida
Floss used :Anchor
Designer: Anchor design studio
Pattern source: Cross stitch collection, Sept 2014
Number of colors: 19
Stitch count:214H*144W
Type of stitches: Full cross stitch, back stitch, half stitch, french knot
Number of strands used :2 for Full cross stitches,1 for back stitch,3/2/1 for half stitch

I used the loop method to start the thread for the first time....thank you Pat Carson for the tip.
I also serged the fabric to prevent fraying.

This is my first birth sampler for the first member of new generation of my family :) .The cherry on the cake is..the only French knot in the design was made by my MIL..

Cross stitch bookmarks

The other day when I showed one of my crafty friends what I'm stitching these days...she asked how am I'm gonna finish it. I said i will get it framed and hang on the wall. She asked how about making pieces which are more practical(can be used in daily life).

Inspired by her advice and my wonderful FB group, I thought of trying my hands at making bookmarks.


I loved stitching these simple quick bookmarks...best part being I could use threads given by my mom when she stopped cross stitching.

I had a hard time finishing these as I am bad at sewing :(
Lesson learnt: learn sewing

Finished piece details:

Started on : 12-Aug -2014
Finished on: 20-Aug -2014
Stitched on:14 count white Aida
Floss used :Dolly,Rangoli
Pattern details: Freebie from Whispered by the winds
Number of colors: 3
Stitch count:18W*97H,15W*71H
Type of stitches: Full cross stitch
Number of strands used :2 for Full cross stitches

 I also used highlighting for the first time to keep track of what I have stitched.