Easter Give-Away by Sartorial Stitches

Do hop over to visit
http://sartorialstitches.blogspot.my/2016/03/annual-easter-giveaway.html

 Sartorial Stitches is currently hosting her Annual  Easter Give-Away of her wonderful  Kiyomi Bag

Hurry! you got now till the 28 March, Monday.Good Luck !

 

HAPPY  EASTER



(image google search)

Flowers in my garden

Nothing much this week.

Hexie Flowers  now counting at 12, needed 5 more by end of April 2015.

 This came in the mail yesterday. A giveaway that I won from BJ. It's an unexpected win as I haven't been lucky to win anything lately, or rather I haven't been putting my name in the hat lately for anything . So this pretty crocheted motif was a joy to received especially when I haven't been feeling quite myself this week.

 

Actually been feeling feverish on some days, must be the weather, we are experiencing sudden rain on a very hot sunny day, sometimes drizzle at time heavy only like for an hour or so and it suddenly stop as it has suddenly poured.  

Have a good week everyone.

GIVEAWAY WINNER

Thanks to all who came by and commented and had your name in the hat for my giveaway. It's time to  reveal the winner of  the needle pouch which was drawn by My Random Generator.

This is how my Random Generator works;  named Milo aka Princess

I first toss the folded papers in front of her

I had my initial doubts that this will work.

She some how looked annoyed and shifted her position

I had to gather up the papers and make another toss to get her attention again

and she caught one, sorry for the blurry picture, she was fast and I had to snap fast too with one hand

at this point I had to grab the paper away from her as she was literally tearing....chewing into the paper

revealing 

Vickie !

Dear Vickie, please email me with your address so I can get this package to you by next week.

The scissor and needles are included in the pouch

After all the hard work, it's time for a cat nap. Can you imagine sleeping in that position ? LOL

I hope all of you will have a great weekend.
Take care

Needle Pocket or should it be a pouch?

I think I have procrastinate long enough about my giveaway, mainly because I was being very fickle minded with the finishing design until I  stumble upon a read on Carol's Delicatesse finishing, a wonderful finishing idea adapted from Anne - Broderie , who hosted a SAL which for some reasons I didn't  SAL then but had kept the design for later and later means somehow or rather  I forgot after awhile.

I am adapting a design from Aunt's Attic for that particular finishing.

The needles are well protected tucked inside the pocket

Glide in and out by pulling the ribbon

The back

Stitched on 32ct Linen in white from my stash

The two beads work as a stopper

This is my giveaway.

All you have to do is just leave your comment on this post only, if this interest you

until 15th August.

 

I am having a three days weekend this week, hopefully I get some stitching done and

I hope you will too.

Happy Stitching !

 

 

 

Conspiracy of a private affair

For a Pincushion Exchange that is !
If I do recalled correctly, its our  first private exchange , Margaret W and me. There was no theme nor medium of finishing mentioned,  we only agreed on the dateline.  This is an inspiration drawn from visiting the Strawberry Farms.

With my package I included a Glass Vial which is my second made while the little dress is actually a miniature store bought Cheongsam fob.

I've made the vial cover magnetic by placing a thin magnetic strip  on the inside (bottom) top cover so one may store needles and retrieve it easily

The Pincushion, my Bucket of Berries

Material : Felt and french knots
I supposed you can use beads to replace the french knots
Its actually a bold step for me to use french knots all over the berries, knowingly that I have not perfected my knots yet and when one had knotted one too many, I got confused !

Bucket : Painted French Inspired  design on clay from  Kaison

I hope the strawberries are giving an illusion that its filling up the bucket .

 You can judge the size here

 I've added a pumpkin pincushion under the cover for added support

Removable for actual storage space below, the dangling single strawberry actually helps position the cover

 The before assembling

The packaging 

Gonna tempt you with the real thing !!
Yum ~ Yum

Nancy of Victoria Motto Sampler Shoppe is hosting a fabulous giveaway at her blog.
Please tell her I sent you if you sign up, Thanks !

 

Wishing you happy days ahead  and thank you for visiting and your time to leave me your comments, which I must thank you too.

Peek-a-boo week

A quick lil' peek on the goin' on

Can you find and guess that 'sumthin' that is done ?  well not totally but almost actually. Its there among the cluster !

And WHAT are these ??  Is the frustration over ? NOT quite !

Its been a wet day today, actually since  5:30pm yesterday and its still raining as I am writing this post.

Have a good weekend, hope yours will be sunshines,  I am hoping mine will be too, as weekend comes early for me this week! I shall end my post with this, an Easter Giveway hosted,

By  Victorian Motto Sampler . Check her out !Hurry it ends on March 20th

Its' the 29th day of February

Its so wonderful to have the aroma of a freshly bake bread filled the kitchen in the morning. This is the no knead bread that took the food blog by storm awhile back. Just google for it and you'll have lots to choose.

A morning cuppa at Old Town Coffee with  eggs on toast.

Wanna try your luck at winning these lovely treasures?

Hop over to Between Crossess With Nina, who is hosting this giveaway!

Happy Leap Year !! the extra day at the end of February that comes around once every four years.

So, I won't be posting this date again until in another four years time!
Enjoy the extra day or do something extraordinary!

NNC 4th Anniversary meet

This is a belated posting. Its' about NNC 4th Anniversary meet on March 19 that I couldn't attend as I can't possibly get away on a Saturday due to my ' chauffeur duties' . However, Margaret talked me into taking up the anniversary exchange when I was contemplating some surprise gifts for the meet. This is what I made for the anniversary exchange gift drawn by Rose on behalf of Shanny in Switzerland.The must have conditional requirement for the exchange is a compulsory heart in gingham fabric. So this was mine. Sorry about the blurry picture. There's even a prize for the best gingham heart.and here's the whole lot of the pretty and creative gingham hearts from the group members who took part, photo courtesy from Veronica.My contribution towards the lucky draws for the meet. I put together 2 simple packages, nothing fancy or 'WOW" stuff , just to inject some surprises and fun and hopefully enjoyed by the winners.This was drawn by Tini and below by Usha. Much thanks to Margaret W who have made all these possible on my behalf ;PYou can read all about that wonderful day and mouth watering food from the Group owner's blog, Nik. My exchange gift from the draw was Diane in Myrtle Beach, USA.

The gift is just simply fabulous. I loved it !! Sorry the picture is again blurry here. (I am using DS's Canon camera that I am not familiar with its function.) Her gingham heart in chicken scratch embroidery ( hope I got this correctly) finished into a needlebook.

On Sunday, tea time was this Mini Custard Fruit Tartlets. It disappeared rather immediately after serving, so I guessed it was good. Confession, I didn't bake the pastry shells but bought ready made , only cook the custard fillings and top it fruits. One day, I shall try baking the shells.I found this simple and quick cook CUSTARD FILLING

Source from : Home Sweet Home.

Ingredients :

2 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons custard powder or cornflour (I used cornflour)

8 tablespoons sugar

2 cups (500ml) fresh milk

2 eggs

2 tablespoons butter

Method :

1. Mix flour and custard powder/cornflour in a pot and add 2 tablespoons fresh milk. Stir to mix.

2. Add in sugar till dissolved and follow with the egg and mix.

3. Add in balance of the milk.

4. Cook on low fire and stir continuously till the mixture is smooth and not lumpy.

5. Once the mixture thickens and shiny, it's ready.

Remove from fire and allow to cool, before scoop the custard fillings half full into the shell and arrange fruits of your choice.

Last nite, I tried a Strawberry Chiffon Cake that was a joy to look for like five minutes. It deflated which deep down inside me knew was coming, coz' my white eggs didn't reach stiff peak, thou it did rise but not to expectation, I knew this was so important for chiffon. Also, the recipe did not call for Cream of Tartar that seems to be in every Chiffon cake recipe I had come acrossed, but not this one. I also noted that after adding the strawberry puree, the batter was rather watery, being my first chiffon and inexperience, I had no idea what I should add to revert the situation and decided to go ahead, maybe that is how it should be, so I thought.Result was this, a layer of damp ring and my strawberries sank to the bottom. Now, I knew how wrong was I, LOL . Maybe I shouldn't have been too over zealous with my first attempt, start with basics !! ' sigh'

Tomorrow is April already? Gosh! Three months has just whoosh by so very quickly. This weekend its Qing Ming Festival or Tomb Sweeping Day at the cemetery or coloumbrium (hope I got this word correctly) where the living offer respects in remembering the deceased loved ones and relatives. Its a yearly rituals .

Three months into the year and I haven't accomplish anything that I can be proud of, crafting wise that is. Tomorrow is Fool's Day. Enjoy or should I say, be alert and don't get fooled ? LOL

Oh! before I forgot, I received the 3rd Round Needlework RR on Monday, Diane's piece. Pictures next post.
Thanks for visiting, have a good weekend.

Ellen and to all who commented in my last post, thanks for stoping by with your sweet comments :)

Spring give-a-way

Hurry ! Hurry ! over to Feathers In The Nest , Jennifer is offering some wonderful giveaway in her blog.

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.