Make-do project

One for Halloween this year. 

Halloween - Freebie by Aliolka . Yet to decide what to finish this into.

Had a little crazy idea with  leftovers scrappy fabrics 

from the  mask sewing . I am no quilter, therefore choosing fabrics and matching can be quite overwhelming for me. Thus, this crazy patchwork idea I had comes with no actual planning, just grab and hand piecing randomly and nothing measured.  

My idea was to turn it  into a Tissue Case Cover

to fit the size of packet tissue of  Size 5" x 7.5" approximately. I got so disturbed with its

plastic wrapper that got tore so easily. 

More from the scrappy mask fabrics.

I  also hand quilted a mismatched scrappy quilted cover  

for this doll bed made from clothespin.

The bed tutorial by 

Ann Wood Handmade Doll  House Bed from Clothespins 

The finished bed was completed and went into my UFO box. Had wanted to paint it but like always procrastinate with the color choice and so never had a mattress or pillow until now. DD recently ordered some acrylic paints and it arrived yesterday. I also  found a larger clothes pegs, so maybe another bed soon and I'll give the bed a coat of color too. 

Kathy Schmitz Bird In Hand Strawberry Pincushion 

A freebie on my to-do list for a long while.

These are some of the projects that I embarked on during our Movement Control Order.(MCO)

Life was suddenly interrupted as work was like being suspended even thou it was work from home but with no definite directions or guidelines, it was a new norm and  I felt like a sitting duck. I  was lost for a moment in time. During my 'lost time' my kitchen was smoking. It was a  time to hone my cooking skills. A good thing I supposed.😆 That lasted during the first phase of our MCO. 

Things are better now for I am no longer lost, so to speak.😄

Life goes on.

Be Safe everyone and thank you for coming by, very happy to hear from you too and I thank you for your comments. 

Checking in

Hello everyone, it's been many, many months, like almost two years since my last blog.  Seriously, I haven't been crafting much after that last blog entry except for a  Halloween Exchange with my local stitching group that year and a meetup was held in October for the exchange..  And that too I procrastinated alot with my choice,  being fickle minded with my handmade criteria . There was four category to fulfilled; handmade, store bought, stash and food

Finally I decide to stitch Mr Baron Von Bat for the exchange. That bat was like calling to me

        My exchange package ; sew a Vampire teabag with a packed of tea and some bloody finger cookie to fulfiled the food category. My halloween store bought item was a frog ( a tissue case)  to denote a witch's familiar and  fabric and zipper for the stash.  

And with the exchange done with, the year just ended and begins a new one so quickly I just don't know where the time went. 😄

MIL had a fall  twice in the beginning of the year whereby the second fall gave her some serious issues and she had to go into nero surgery in February, a time when I first heard news of the pandemic Covid 19 had landed on our shore,  the  day MIL went into surgery in the same hospital.  I was still in a blurry state with no knowledge of how deadly the virus could be then.  

Thereafter the surgery,  several  medical visits followed which during the early stages was kinda hectic and took a toll on my me life. Six months later,  things have settled down a bit but C19 has already spread like a wildfire  and we went through several stages of Movement Control Order (MCO) , an effort  to curb the spread until some three weeks back, we  had another major spike. I shall not go into it further .

My priorities now is  finishing the UFOs including crochet knitting and some patchworks,  some dating back to upteen years ago. 

Two biggie achievements this year which are stitching related are two SALs I took part in and manage to complete. Something which is a rare, LOL  - Universal  Monster  SAL which I found myself not able to resist by The Witchy Stitcher fb group. This was  fun to stitch as Meg offered so many options and choices so every stitcher can personalized it and there were so many ideas and lots of creativity from everyone in the group doing the SAL

A freebie Garden SAL so generously offered by Durene Jones during the pandemic .  I made my choice of colors to compliment my blue evenweave.

I stitched up a small from the Be Well freebies. This is by Cottage Garden Samplings. 

Actually I had a few other choices I would love to stitch but ...later

I finally jumped into the bandwagon to sew some fabrics face mask too after some months of pondering

 For now,  C19 don't seem to be that easily eradicated and eliminated from this earth for the time being  and face mask are significant in our lives now 

Sew a matching face mask to go with a tote bag for DD. The tote bag was a long overdue project from last year which I only completed in August this year in time for her birthday. 

That's it for now. Back to some knitting and crocheting in the evenings. Work is still full time for me during this time . Currently, my state is in the second phase of  Control Movement Order till November 9 , which I foresee that this will be further extended looking at our current cases.

Wishing everyone good health , Stay Safe,  Be Safe and Be Well

 

Welcome November

How quickly October went by and the only crafting I did was paper related . Two things that I am grateful for in October are that both parcels from my Teacup & Mug exchange arrived safely even thou I was a couple of days late with my mailing and that brought great relief. Two more cards from the tea exchange will be reveal later

This is an Angpow packet (Red Enevelope) I created for a Wedding. A college mate son is getting married in a week's time.  Since  black is always a taboo color on such an auspicious day, I 've choosen a cream colored textured stock card  (but don't know why my camera just don't pick up that color) complete with a red vest inside which is the envelope for the cash gift. The two Chinese cutout symbolize "Double Happiness" was later printed on the inside of the red envelope with my "Wishes of Love & happiness" And so it doubles as a greeting card and an envelope .

That yellow boutonniere don't seem to match, I have run out of red rose in my stash, so look like I will have to make a trip down to the LNS soon to pick up some tiny red roses and to replace that

The vest is the envelope

Some October flowers in the house

Hope I'm not too late to wish everyone

I must thank everyone who had commented in my last post. 

My apologies for not replying to you, but do know that I appreciate your time to visit and leaving me your comments. 

Wishing all a wonderful month and blessed November

October musings

Another month has come to an end and I have a little something to show and some happy thoughts to share.

Happy thoughts : A big relieved when I finally received word from my Christmas In July Swap partner, Silvia that she finally received my swap package. Finally, because it was my second mailing to her after my first mailing failed to deliver.  She is such a sweet soul to sent me photos of my gifts including one of herself holding the Angel.

This is one of the four photos Silvia sent me. If only you can read this Silvia,(Silvia has no blog) I just can't thank you enough and truly appreciate that you took the initiative to sent me the photos and of  yourself. It's always wonderful to be able to put a name to a face. I am so glad to see the Angel didn't get squashed or flatten and is still wholesome.

Travelling Tea Cup : Much thanks to Kim for posting the link. It's the 9th Teacup and Mug Exchange . Naturally, I signed up for the teacup exchange, how hard can that be? All I need is a cup & saucer and a little extras. Never really gave much thought about packaging which is a bit  intimidating. Extra care need to be given  to ensure the cup and saucer arrived in one piece.

Well, happy that I managed to put everything together to meet the mailing deadline but somehow I just worry. It's my first mailing something this fragile, worried if I had not packed it well enough to take on the journey. Fingers crossed until it arrives and it did; happy as a bee.

And I must not forget to add, my so lovely teacup came very quickly from Kimberley in NZ. Saving up the photos for a November reveal. Here's a little peek.

While searching for something extras to go with my swap, I stumble upon this  Japanese Lacquer Tea Plate . It's said that the plate are hand drawn which means no two plates are alike. Having the plate simply means that I need a matching tea cup to go with it.

What's up with crafting : 

First, progress of my Second Lily Gold yard crochet in single strands. I truly like the outcome of this single stands more compared to the first Lily Gold which was in double strands. This is definitely for me to keep. It's still a work in progress

I also finished this LK Reindeer I stitched awhile back with a mini hoop. Replaced the snowflakes with two tiny flowers . I actually missed a count on the Reindeer and couldn't fit the snowflakes,  I choose not to undo the stitches and so I need to improvised.

A little something for this Halloween. Homespun - Wicked Fancy Boot. Haven't decided yet what to finish this into  and I need a little charm key to complete the design.

A pot of tea : The ladies from the Where Stitches Gather group (WSG) decided to have a mini meet up over a pot of tea when the DOUBLE  Js'; Jess & June  took off and had a wonderful time in  Down-Under that made us so jealous (in a good way of course).

The spread from our Mid Morning brunch

So Jess W and June T, here's to you, I know this lil' sweet revenge of ours is nothing compared to where both of you are now, just make sure both of you brings us a little souvenir each, LOL. And we went home with a fruit cake from BJ. Thank you so much BJ. Don't you agree that it look delish ?

From my Kitchen : Steamed Chinese Pear with rock sugar and Goji Berries is traditionally known to benefits the lung; a remedy to prevent dehydration of respiratory tract or throat irritation from common cold and return the body to it's natural balance. It can be made into a sweet dessert. In my case, I have a bit extras of the Chinese pears lying around in the kitchen . Need I say more? LOL. I added a bit of ginger for the gingery zing.

Green Mangoes Pickle is what I made when someone left me a bunch of Green Mangoes. I have never made pickle before, but I got tips as to how to pickle the mangoes, I was bent to try it out. It sounded easy until the peel and slice. There's pickling recipes out there with vinegar and sour plums but mine has none of that two ingredients. The sweet and sour mangoes pickles with  a crunchy bite is a good any day snack or a side dish as well as served as an appetizer . 

Sweet Potatoes Dessert

A very simple and easy sweet dessert for a mid morning or mid afternoon brunch.  All you need is sweet potatoes + sugar+water and maybe a slice of ginger and screwpine leaves for an added fragrant.

 Diwali

A festival celebrated by the Hindus

It celebrates light overcoming darkness and is also known as the Festival of Lights falls on this Saturday.

HAPPY TREAT OR TRICK

There is magic in the night when pumpkins glow by the moonlight and when witches go riding, the moon laughs and whispers

image courtesy from google search

It's near HALLOWEEEEEN

Have a great Trick or Treat and a good weekend

Happy Halloween

 This is my Lil' Witchy basket of Halloween Ornaments, that I put on display in the house from last year. It's one of my three ornament baskets and a little too small to hold all of my Halloween ornaments. The basket actually started off  as a temporary sanctuary for my finishes and  swap.

                      Welcome my pweety one, trick or treat ????

A lil' fun dressing up for Halloween 

Have Fun !

It's Halloween tyme

Another Mail Art Exchange with Mii Stitch and I have been assigned to June of  Butterfly Wings

After some 2 weeks full of anticiption on it's arrival, June finally received it on her return from her holidays, Whew !

 

Here's what I stitched for June

Design sourced from various designer and the Halloween Magazine Issue

These are the things  that went into the envelope

 The back has a buckle clasp to close the envelope

This was a fun stitch being my favorite season.

 

From Albena R, France, came this fantabulos Mail Art.

Thank you Albena for this so beautiful Mail Art and all the goodies that came with it

Big thank you for Ingrid of Mii Stitch for hosting this exchange

I got this finished too, finally

The Lizzie Kate Freebie "Believe In Yourself" is back from the framer and now hang in Diane's room, sharing the wall with her collections of lanyards from her highschool days and a picture of her young self.

 

 

 

Tick ! Tock ! Tick ! Tock ! May is coming to an end

How time flies. I have been procrastinating on this post as well.
It'll soon be June and two birthdays from this little group of mine where we are having the No Deadline Birthday Exchange in 2015 has just gone by, with June it will be three and I haven't got anything on my drawing board nor planned yet. Well, there were lots of ideas in my head, I pretty much want to make everything I see on Pinterest, well, looking and looking can take hours and not able to make up my mind is another. So here I am pondering still.

On another note, I've just finished stitching for a Mail Art Exchange hosted by Mii Stitch. It's been a long while since I was in an MA exchange.   I won't be able to share the photos of my MA as yet for now but this I can show you. Buttons I made using a little button making gadget from Daiso. It was pretty easy to make.

My Mother's Day stashing at Spotlight,  my first visit  like  35 minutes, and any crafters would know 35 minutes is NOT enough time to explore a craft store but I thought I could just make  a quick stop over on my way to fetch Diane 20 minutes away since I already knew what I wanted but apparently there's a lot more that I want but couldn't lay my hands on with so little time. So next visit, no rush.

Me and Mom had an early Mother's Day girls shopping spree  with both of us ended buying shoes, we went to Sephora, H & M, Parkson, Isetan and  thereafter we  stop to rest with her having  a bowl of Curry noodles instead of  Nasi Lemak which she wanted earlier but changed her mind.

She's  82

My bowl of Asam Laksa noodle (A spicy sweet sour from tamarind broth)

 A late  Tim Sum at Genting Resort with DH. There's not much to show of this hilly casino resort at the moment since it is currently undergoing a massive re-development for the  first Twentieth Fox Century Theme park due to complete in 2016 . No we don't gamble, just sometimes we like to put a night or two here for it's cool air plus I love to shop here.

Red Hexa SAL related.

I finally got these fabrics out intended for washing but it rained heavily on the day I wanted to get it wash. So will have to put it away until another day

 

So instead I went on to make these Form Dress Mannequin, a design template from DIY Dish.

Here's the link thediydish. I have made these before but given away. These are for me, oh wait!! Diane had claimed one for herself.

.Stitching a Witchy Boots on a remnant piece of fabric to get my mind off  some pending issues on the homefront that has been on my mind for some weeks. I was also feeling unwell and apparently I had what the Doctor term is as Acid Reflux Symptom.  I was too tired to think any more and thought I could stitch a simple pair of witch boots on my own intuition and instinctive feeling, no chart, resulting I had to undo one boot when both  doesn't look like a match.

 After all the froggy~ies gone and new stitches put in

Confession, your eyes not playing any tricks on you.  

One leg is off by one count, not gonna undo that. I'll just leave it as that, no execuses

Will reveal my finishing in the next posting.

Till then, have a good week ahead, thank you so much for coming by, I appreciate and thank you all  for your lovely comments.