Hippity Hop Hop

This is a long post as I am cramming everything of March in one post. Hope you have the patience to read through. The months and weeks really went by very quickly now that when I thought I get some me time of doing my things with Diane away in University and living near campus. But no, there's always things to do every weekends. Last weekend I drove MIL for her orthopedic annual visit located at another state, a week before she had her cataract surgery and this weekend we are having our yearly All Souls Day where we are to clean and offer prayers to the dead at the cemetery and the weekend after that, MIL will need another visit with the Orthopedic again, so there goes my two weekends in April. sigh !

Stitching wise, I manage a small finish  this month, Prairie Schooler Book 194 Rabbit Run

Two smalls finish from stitching that I did awhile back

A needlebook finishing

A pinkeep from my February stitching, The Trilogy, Love Tree

CD Pincushion.

While I made one each for the girls in WSG for our Birthday Exchange last year, I didn't finished one for me even though I have completed stitching this. This was my second stitching of the same design that I gave away one. I had initially planned to stitch only one design for all  five ladies. I am glad I had second thoughts and stitched everyone a different design each because it made the exchange much more exciting.  Four out of five of the CD Pincushion for the exchanged are shown on my blog header here

Having done the finishing repetitively five times before, I am definitely getting better at this now.

Meeting up college mates, a belated Chinese New Year meet, we delayed long enough as we could not get everyone to agree on a date. Everyone is so busy, so we decided to go ahead with just a few for now until we could all settled down for another date for all to attend someday.

We later adjourned to have some yummlicious Yogurt Icecream,  IIao IIao at Pavillion Mall

whom Sally's son hold the franchisee from Italy

Crafting meet with the ladies from our Where Stitches Gathers Group. When we meet, we are loud, literally non stop laughing. There's no specific itinerary. We meet to inspire one another, to motivate but largely to entice.

Here's what went on

 Getting ideas for my 9-patch Reds

 Throwing ideas for the Red Hexa ,together with a showcase of  WIP Hexa of the famed beautiful vintage charm of Cath Kidston by MW

Rose Sample in Variegated DMC Blue and Anchor Red

Different count different size

BJ showing off her fabulous PS Friends Quilt

One can get so envious that you just want to jump in and stitch the same

Vibrant and fabulous Crochet Blanket and a crocheted flower pouch

for the blanket to store by MW's DD

A vintage doll by Jackie

A gorgeous  Postage Stamp Quilt that has a nostalgic feel by MW, being her first it's perfectly done
even Sifu BJ, gave the nodding. And we gotta eat too right. We decided to potluck

I bake Chicken and Mushroom puff, cheated the puff pastry from store bought for a quickie morning bake. Recipe adapted from Jamie Oliver's Quick & Easy Chicken Pie and we had BJ's pasta, MW's baked chicken and mini almond cakes, Jess's Sticky Date pudding to topped it with the delish caramel sauce and Ginger treacle teacake

And here are us

Just look at the cheeky smiles of both BJ and Jess.

Both are partners in crime of Jess's surprised visit.

Jess surprised us by travelling for miles just for the meet and can you imagined how thrilled we were to have her unexpectedly show up at the door? Her presence literally sent us screaming our heads off.

 Missing here is JT

All this happening at one of our local haberdashery.

Thanks to BJ for making all the necessary arrangements.

Can't resist walking away without shopping when I am already in a fabric haven

Pre-cuts for smallies

Fabrics for my intended quilt

A little weekend gate away  when I tagged along hubby on a business trip to Batam Island in Indonesia. While he had business meet up, I got to do a little touristy thing and got accustomed with it's area. These are a little snippets of what I did on the Island

The ferry that took us into the Island from Johore Bahru Waterfront at the Stualang Terminal to Batam Centre Terminal which was 1hour 40 minutes journey one way.

Visited one of the two tourist must see Temple in Batam City

Some local flavours Kopi Jahe (Ginger Coffee) and Nasi Ayam Geledek at the fame

Nagoya shopping mall,

Vicinity of  Nagoya Hill shopping mall

at one point the driver took a wrong turn on our way to Barelang
where the 6 bridges connects the island

I was here

The iconic Barelang Bridge
A must see or you've never been to the Island

The bridge overlooking the emerald green sea

 Lots of food peddlers on it's streets who would approach cars at traffic junctions

Fried crabs and some fritters left on the road shoulder waiting for oncoming cars
Would you buy? Seriously not me, even thou it looks yums!

We had the liberty of putting up at two different hotels. The first was Horizon Kings at Nagoya Hills and the second was IHotel at Balroi. These are what we had from the hotels

Soto Ayam (Top) and Cendol (Shaved Ice dessert in coconut milk) 

Indonesian food are not something hard to come by from where I am. This is something I just  need to try from their Hawker's food ON their soil

A mini banquet of the most elaborate and famous Sumatra's cusine, Nasi Padang. The moment you are seated, you are served with small servings of every dish the kedai makan (eatery) has and you eat only what you desire and pay only what you have eaten. The driver took us to this Kedai Makan Bundo Kanduang at Batam Center where the famous Ralph Lauren Polo Showroom is located just a few doors away. Could I not go into Ralph Lauren ? I assured you that you don't need an answer for that, LOL

Someone recommended to us this local delicacy of Babi Panggang Karo (Roast Pork),( I have never heard of this until now) and Pork Bone broth with spiced congealed blood as a dipping sauce and mashed/pounded Cassava leaf for lunch before we depart the island. I was a bit skeptical with that spiced congealed blood dip, but  it tasted quite good actually, wished I wasn't told first coz' then I wouldn't had this 'yukks' thought in my mind.

I can summarized this trip as a gastronome trip,(so this is what a business trip is about too, LOL), we also had  seafood for dinner and some other on the way stopover food expedition which I am not mentioning here or this would not end.

When in Indonesia, one must indulge is their spas, but one need to choose wisely coz' some spas can be sleazy .

Thank you all so very much for stopping and for staying until the end. Thanks a lot for your lovely comments in my last post, appreciate your visits and until my next post, take care.

A new chapter begins

Hello everyone, hope all of you had a wonderful blessed Christmas and a wonderful time with your love ones and a great start into the New Year . I have intended this post before New Year with my New Year greetings, but didn't get this posted since I couldn't upload the photos then until now.  

I haven't done much serious stitching in the past year except for exchanges. I was more into crochet and knitting in the later part of the year.  The only one stitching I started in early December didn't got  finish in time before Christmas but after. January actually. So, I'll consider this my first January finished.

Mosey n me - Santa's Helper - 32count linen

However, I am happy that I got my Gold Tunic done days before Christmas as I had in mind.

On Christmas day, the whole family including  mom, took a trip up North, first to Penang Island where we had Korean Dinner at Uncle Jung on Christmas Day. It was by circumstances that landed us here, not going into the details. I believed this is called Dakgalbi, a popular Korean dish, stir fried on a large hotplate with marinated diced chicken, cabbage, sweet potato, scallion, Korean Rice Cake in chili pepper paste with slices of onions and kimchi as side dish. We later added rice and made it into fried rice. The kids enjoyed it, but not so for mom in her age.

On Boxing Day, we attended a wedding of a family friend's daughter, Annie to Douglas in Bukit Mertajam, a state located in the Central Seberang Perai of Penang. She was just a kid, when I was a teenager and she used to be tagging  me around especially during the weekends and look at her now getting married.

The town of Bukit Mertajam is named after a hill nearby with the highest peak of 547 m above sea level where Mertajam tree (Lepisanthes rubiginosa) with white flowers can grow up to 5-12m tall.

It's the town where the  Old Shrine of  St. Anne's  Church is located and the annual St Anne festival is held. I didn't took the above image (credits goes to google search) but we did went by only didn't stop so as the kids get to see the church, afterall it's not always that we get to visit this little town

Pisang Goreng (Banana fritters) was a miday brunch on New Year 's day,

followed by an Anniversary Dinner cum Students Achievement Recognition Awards in the evening.

Above is the spread at my Company's Annual  Dinner on the second day 

A little arrangement I put up for the house this year, it's a yearly thing.  I would change the deco on this vase. I had had a variety of ponies, cherry blossoms and roses in different colors over the past years and this time around, I thought I go green. I called it "weeds" cos' it's basically all leafy in various shades of green including yellow and  purple . I had no heart to discard that 2 peacock feathers for now. I bought that from an Indian Temple I visited 2 years ago. 

This is where the vase is place, a corner in my living room

Sampler Alter Echo by Passion Broderie

Anyone still remember this? It's been 11 years since, yes that long. A seven month SAL that began  in January 2005. It's time to revive this. I have three more panels to call it complete. So this will be my first 2016 to do list, not forgetting I have my Red Hexa SAL which I still have 7 more flowers to complete and my Birthday Blocks Exchange.

I have no New Year resolutions like always, as being me, I never can follow nor plan ahead. I like to go with what I feel but  I do hope to finish all of my UFO's or as much as I could before embarking on something new but restraining for something new is not an easy task. there's always the distraction.  I am very sure, I am not alone in this, LOL. I would like to travel a little more too next year if time permits. The company has recently set a new rules concerning our public holidays and annual leaves for next year, so hopefully it will not be hard to tackle. I just wanna go on more adventures, connect with people, learn new things and do what makes me happy.

Better late than never as the saying goes,

I would like to wish all my blog readers

May everyday of the New Year

glow with good cheer and happiness

for you and family