There's tomorrow still

Haven't been stitching since I finished my RR and got it mailed off , all because I didn't sign-up for any exchange to start the year with and that gives me a stress-free no stitching feel. So when January came, there's this Company Dinner in the first weekend of the month to attend. Then things for the coming festivity took over life. According to the Chinese Calender, its exactly two weeks from today. I am pretty sure that the two weeks will come very quickly while there's tons yet to be done. For one, I have not spring clean the house. I have done bit of shopping for some new things for the kids thou, including some new clothing for my those that need giving, and the house is not decorated yet , the gift-giving things has not been purchase either and MIL has given me a list of things to buy which is still not done yet. I've told myself I will do it tomorrow, that was what I told myself yesterday and the day before, as a matter of fact, I said that since last weekend!! yet there is still tomorrow....

On Saturday, I had my grocery shopping trolley filled to the brim that has got nothing to do with the festivity, may be a bit for the cookies and cake things that I intend to bake a few.

Last Sunday, I was summon for a tete-a-tete at LeVain Boulangerie to meet some wonderful ladies and a gentleman, it was a great pleasure to have finally met Paul.LeVain Boulangerie is a patisserie ( picture above from google search)Full house at 10:30am with the breakfast crowd and I thought we were early !
buns and puffs, most trays were empty by the time we started kitchen staff hard at work and people were queuing here...waiting for the hot from the oven!
yummylicious cakesSweet tempting colorful macaroons, which is overly too sweet to my taste
Diane's choice of Apricot Sunrise and Bartlett Strawberry Tart, not in the pic a slice of Chicken pizza
Seriously, I can't make up my mind everything looked fantastically yummy, but finally settled for these, Turkey Ham Epi and Chocolate chip Bread. Our first cuppa was Latte and Americano. I am suppose to watch my diet, I have about 6 more stubborn kilos to shed which kept piling back every one two kilos I lost and am very sure this will do me no good, but for now I am not countingDiane's choice for dessert, Ananas ,soft and fine texture, importantly Diane says its so yummy
Can you believed we sat through lunch or rather 3pm I think ? My last cuppa, Green Tea. while Diane had Rose Hip, I did not leave empty handed. I tarpau (take-away) the Chicken Curry Donut and the Beef Curry Donut which was exceptionally delicious and the Caramel Nut Danish that Margaret was raving about, mini croissant, Turkey Ham & Egg tart and the Chocolate log bread that everyone was queuing to buy. It's the most expensive bread/pastries I have ever spent on in a single day ! LOL

Above all, I enjoyed tremendously, we laugh and talk at almost everything from crafting good and crafting turn bad and in between there were show and tell. BJ brought her quilts and doll quilts, I got two of her numerous pieces here

June brought Diane's fabulous RR, Margaret came with her awesome books and charts she bought from her trip to London, and her fabulous finished LHN Neighbourhood, Paul with his knitting, all of which I forgot to snap pictures and Jackie , thanks so much for the ride both ways.

And me? June's RR and Mary Wingham June's RR came on 6th with her amazing chart program

Mary that is not quite there yet but I am getting there.

Thanks to BJ who also gave me lesson on how to applique and the hexagon pieces. Very much appreciated. We also discussed on the best way to finishing a curve especially for a heart shape.

Thanks ladies and gentleman for the great company and hope we can do this again.

To all who came visiting and leaving your comments thank you all for coming by and leaving your lovely comments.. Happy stitching and crafting!

'tis December, I almost drown

Literally speaking that is, LOL. There was so much to do and so little time. No doubt I have said that over and over again throughout my entire year, but this was the busiest of all. I just don't know how the time came and then gone so quickly. There was so many things I had lined up wanting to do, but as the days went by, I realised I can only do so much and concentrated what needs to be done and lived by it including those days that turned me into a couch potatoe!

Sharing here are my Christmas stitching that I manage to finished.

LHN- Under the treee - 28ct Tea Dyed Linen Believe

Freebie by Sharon of Daffycat Designs

32ct Antique White Belfast scrap....gosh! I forgot to remove the pin !!!

One design 3 colors

Holly Quilt Block 2009 Christmas Pattern by Thea Dueck of Victoria Sampler

Below closeup individually

All on 25ct evenweave teadyed Merry Days - Pine Mountain Design

28ct Linen - farbic unknown or rather forgotten
One stamped pillow finishing, a birthday gift to a farway land

A piece that I stitched in September this year only finishing done now

Primitive Betty Freebie Design 'Time"

This was actually intended for DS who turned 21 in September, but this mommy just couldn't decide what to finish it into then until now.

This is all I could manage this December besides the LHN Needlework theme RR which I am still currently working on. I will have to burn some mid-night oil on this. As of this posting, I still have 2 more unfinish Christmas pieces. Its too late to finish that now. Workwise, it seem to be never ending.

Thank you everyone who came by throughout the year and took time to leave me your comments , I so appreciate. May your holiday season be blessed with peace, love and joy .

MERRY CHRISTMAS !

The week and the weekend that was

I would like to thank everyone for all your words of comfort in my last post and emails I received concerning my aunt's passing.

Back to life, my trip to the big city with the kids begins with this movie.

It was a unanimous choice over Letters to Juliet and Bounty Hunter. Its action packed and kept me wide eyed until the end ;P Thereafter, its to Kinokuniya, the bookstore where we spent like 2 hours and came out with these and these
A late lunch at about 3pm at Nando's. Diane ordered the Angry Mango Burger that didn't looked any angry at all, LOL, while Vincent went for the Spicy Hot Chicken Burger with extra cheese and I ordered their Chicken Kebab with lemon and herbs flavour instead of their quarter or half Peri-Peri chicken servings that Nando's are so famous for.

Exchange Received

I received this awesome Scissor Keeper Exchange from Anne S, in Australia on Wednesday. I was overwhelmed for her thoughtfulness with the whole package. I absolutely love the color, best of all was the design, Alyssum Scissor Pocket 2007 Limited Edition by The Cat's Whiskers.

It has both our initials on the inside flap and the gorgeous stork scissor which was the source that inspired Anne for the floss colors so that I could have a matching set. The photos are doing injustice here! Thank you so much Anne!

This week its about mailing things
A first attempt at finishing this scissor keeper intended for an exchange I signed up at Becky's blog . I had so much doubt that it became quite scary to embark with the finishing initially, thou, its one finishing method that was longest on my list to tackle. Am much relieved that it did turned out nicely and presentable enough. I was hoping that my partner will thought of the same too.

Design : Freebie by My Aunts Attic on Linen 32ct Antique White
Floss DMC 3777 and 801
Exchange for Michele S in Las Vegas

I am so glad that Michele is happy to receive from me. Words of its arrival came to my knowledge on Sunday.


The final package mailed on the last Saturday of May headed down to Jeanie of Singapore took one week to deliver. So near yet made to feel so far.A design by Romy stitched on 32ct Belfast White Linen and I was so thrilled to found the perfect fabric to go with the stitched design A stamped pillow of a little birdie in a cage with lace print to give an illusion of the cage is on a ledge with a Thank You stamp that which is meant for. A THANK YOU to Jeanie. The Traveling stitcher is finally home safely.The final package and the first package mailed in the month of June contains the Quaker Pochette - Mes Ciseaux. Another first attempt with the triangle finishing that didn't went as smoothly as I hope it would be. I also stitched up a strawberry scissor fob that I came up with incorporating design from the Ciseaux.Both front and back design are not identical. Stitched on a 32ct Linen Belfast White with DMC 3772/3064, 598 and 824. This was my last week's no show project. A gift for June on her birthday this week but mailed a bit too early as I thot it was due the next day of my mailing. What a blurr :P Anyway, June, Happy Birthday to you, hope you had a wonderful birthday! Freebie Design from here .

I started stitching two Mail Art simultaneously for an exchange, my first mailart for the year. It will be some weeks before I can reveal this.


Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate your visits very much. Have a wonderful weekend till I see you next.

HoE LLN/CCN Exchange

One of my secret stitiching project in February was this. From LLN's Once Upon A Time series. I couldn't reveal, its for the LHN/CCN exchange at HoE. I choose to stitch "HOPE" for Nic, in UK, the land of many magnificient castle. Finished into a pillow measured 6" x 11". I went fabric hunting at Nagoya not so long ago for this.
I received word today from Nic that it arrived.

Thank you for visiting.

Stamping stuff

Fabric stamping on cotton fabrics and finishes.

I received some stamped fabrics from Margaret W during one of our girls meet sometime last year, among my choice was the Eiffel Tower print, key & bobbin's print. Talking about enabling, I later found some rubber stamps at one of our local store some months back but didn't have time to play with it then until now. Last weekend, I decided to finish the stamped pieces from Margaret into mini pillows which are good as pincushions including my first effort at fabric stamping. Also, made floss tag out of it.

My order of scissors from Yuko, whom I think needs no introduction now came on Wednesday.

Many thanks to BJ who help ordered it, so we could share the shipping cost .

Edited today at : 2:35pm - mailed LLN/CCN theme for HoE exchange.

Thank you for visiting and for your lovely comments.

Sunday Brunch Meet

Meeting up June, MW, Jackie, Jess and Mr T during the weekend over a delicious Japanese buffet spread. Everyone was camera shy, so you only see the chopsticks going for the fried soft shell crab minus one, who is holding the camera. This is especially for Jess, who is in down under and couldn't join us......this time ;P

The meet was considered short, about 3 hours of non-stop yakking and eating, as Margaret put it, devoured with gusto in between showing off books, charts, stitching in progress, recent purchases and recent finishes including my Mary and a tiny itsy bitsy....... gossips...LOL Shhhh........actually can't remember what it was about...LOL, THE FOOD, thanks to June and for the photos and I confessed, stole from the group's album.

Chicken Sukiyaki

Edamame and pickles

Fried Oysters Tempura
Beef with Garlic

Teppenyaki and Salmon

Desserts - Doriyaki, Mickey Mouse shape, specially made for June instead of that normal looking round shaped Doriyaki and that's not all, there were plateful of yummies that didn't got snap, LOL .

It was a great get-together, a great stress relieved for me too..LOL and June, thanks so much for the treat, the food so yummy at the so famous Kampachi. It was great to meet everyone, more upclose and personal. Thou, we did wrote earlier that this is a ' no gifts' meet, the lunch itself was a treat from June, Margaret brought stamped fabric pieces for us to pick, shown are my selection. She also gave lots of cut ribbons in various colors. Barbara gave the fabric trim card with her sweet coffee dyed ric-rac. (You can check-out the trim card tutorial by Alma here ) and here's my simple gift for everyone, store bought.Its a brooch that I bought from my trip to Hatyai in October, was a bit concerned that I might not have time to stitch something for everyone for the meet, so I had to make sure that I gave some thoughts for the ladies where possible. The brooch is in the shape of a Loy Krathong's vessel, a Thai water festival offering that was supposed to bring great blessings.

My Giveaway arrived

Am very glad that my package to Cindy who won my giveaway arrived safely and I can now revealed. I did mentioned that besides the jar pincushion, there will be some surprises for the winner, so here's the contents that went away and seriously, Cindy's photos looked a lot better and she made it so much more interesting. Thanks! Cindy.

Am so thrilled that Cindy like everything that I put in for her :D

Another piece of exciting news !!!
This just came out of the oven!! that was yesterday, but still hot at the time of being photograph, my foursome Christmas Theme RR with NNC is home. My theme Winter cottage and looked what the ladies, Anna, Janet, Margaret had stitched for me .
Excuse me for the folds, the mail man just flew the envelope into my driveway. Can't blame him, the days has been gloomy and we had many days of rain. Yesterday was no exception. Thank you so much ladies for the wonderful houses. For the first time, my RR came home within its time frame.

Thank you for visiting and for your lovely comments, have a great weekend.