Hermitting, less stitching!

Hello! Yippee! It seems someone (2 new someones) are now followers! I hope to have something to show for last weekend's IHSW!  All I can say is, everytime I went to stitch the Evergreen (day 5) , the dreaded "frog" was with me and the last time I actually touched it was last Saturday! I understand that putting it down is the best thing to do when the frog visits you.. so that's what I'm doing!  I'm seriously debating "fudging" (I don't know what the technical term is) it, and just actually going on so I can break out the champagne for finishing a square! lol

Okay everyone, I've decided to do SB Santa's Christmas and the PS together..I need a rotation after all.. I mean, when you put down the work that isn't working, for a fresh one ... that refreshes you, too!  The only thing is I am afraid to cut linen!  Everything I have is already pre-cut (except for the Aida of course), and I'm scared of making a mistake!  My LNS is no help either, offering to sell me big pieces, not the exact size I want!  However, never daunted, I have already counted the stitches and all that's left to do is the actual measuring and cutting!  Measure 2x, cut once?  Wish me luck!

Real luck has been in short supply... one week of no internet, having to fiz hacking problems (both mine and mom's), time spent doing things for my mom and aunt, etc etc...  I need a HUGE dose of luck as I am very afraid of cutting wrong!

In the meantime I've picked up a UFO which will soon be a finish.. will hurry up with the posting for tomorrow!

Anyway.. have a great weekend, friends!

hmmm

I have a little progress to show on "evergreen" (square no. 5). I was doing it just now when I hit a snag.. a stray thread from "angel" (square no. 1, which i haven't finished because of the metallics) got caught in my green.  So I am now hunting for my scissors - I know it's here somewhere.  There was a whole week last week where I was missing them; they're a small, utilitarian pair of Fiskars with nice sharp points for getting under thread and cutting.. I was already mourning them, I mean a whole week and they hadn't surfaced!.. when I found them in my little stitching box right beside the bed! Now, I would seriously have been inconvenienced by their loss, because 1. for sure there is not any place to buy them here and 2., I have no other pair of "embroidery" scissors -- I am missing my DMC "stork" embroidery scissors (haven't seen them since the move).

I haven't helped but notice, in many of the stitchy blogs I've been following or visited, that there's this mystique about certain kinds of embroidery scissors - you know.. "Ginghers", "Kelmscott", etc.  I'm curious about what makes them so special (aside from the fact that they have lovely designs on their handles).  Note to self:  visit an LNS (I would, of course!) to LOOK at the different kinds of scissors.

So here I am with a lot of charts to start and for sure I have not kitted any.  I am going to be using whatever Charles Craft, plain ol' no-name Aida, no-name hardanger and MCG evenweave that I have. And good 'ol DMC.  Sometimes it's a relief not to have a choice (of floss!). Just think how much damage I could do to the wallet.

List of charts to start (kitting not sewing, I can't start til I've kitted right)
1.  Prairie Schooler  "Holiday Homestead"

2.  Shepherd's Bush "Santa's Christmas"

3.  CEC Mrs. Claus
4.  Graphworks "The Christmas Shoppe" (from Denise)
5.  plus a whole lot of others that I will post later

Which one should I start first?   PS or SB? Decisions, decisions.  Whichever one it is, I will be sure to post.

Anyway, in the madness of the full moon, I am seriously considering buying a new chart "A Most Noble Pursuit" which is a collaboration of blocks by seriously good designers. Our only problem right now will be the logistics of paying (the logistics of stitching will come later, assuming the logistics of paying get sorted out).

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Hope I am starting the Chinese New Year right!  I am going to mass, and then going to order dinner (our cook doesn't do Chinese), and then I will be back to my stitches.

So here's what I've accomplished this IHSW so far:

Doll is almost done! Just backstitch a line for her mouth (the pattern doesn't say what color!) and attach a few beads to the front of her dress (like I know how to do that!)   :-))

I've also started Day 5, which is the Evergreen.  Another Christmas tree, holy cow!  To think I was thinking of sewing a Christmas tree small (red, on white) by Sue Hillis, from the JCS Christmas 2008 issue!  Maybe I still will, it's words and not plain green stitches anyway.  Well, I will do a small in between just to keep things interesting.

Here's the evergreen:

not much to show yet but at least it's a start!  And my weekend is LONG, because of Chinese New Year! Woo hoo!  Hoping and praying for a good year for all of us! My mom, my brother and his wife, my (late) brother's family, everyone dearly loved!

Jade Vine blooms

Just thought you might like to see what jade vine blooms look like.. despite living in the tropics, I only ever saw one blooming, live,   yesterday.

Instead of stitching (it's the IHSW weekend, you know!)  I went out right after Saturday half day work, to a place 2 1/2 hours away, for a delicious, mostly vegetarian lunch.  The setting was a beautiful, fragrant garden... such balm to the soul!   We had wheat sesame bread, salad (romaine, butter lettuce, and assorted other edible leaves and blooms I couldn't identify off-hand), and pasta, with a choice of cashew cream dressing, olive tapenade,  basil pesto, mango, pineapples, sunflower seeds, some kind of shelled "pop bean like" bean, cream sauce with chicken, basil tomato sauce, grilled salmon pieces, etc etc... with dalandan (a type of citrus orange) juice, and to finish, banana fritters, and a thin wedge of dark chocolate cake.  Yum! I'll try and find some pics from among my friends to show. I was too hungry to whip out the camera and take pics.  It was the birthday treat of the beautiful, kind, gracious lady who is my boss.  May she continue to be blessed (and may the rest of us be blessed along with her!)

woohoo.. all signed up! and late!

Ha! I'm all signed up for International Hermit and Stitch and I'm not even sure whether it's this weekend or last.. okay, just checked, and it was for LAST weekend!  Sigh.  So much for keeping myself on the "straight and narrow" stitch-wise.. now I'm just plain late!  Is there any way I can un-sign up?

I want to have some finishes - notice the ambitious line-up on my sidebar?  I can barely finish a square a month from my Whimsey and Wit project.. I'm ambitious, what can I say? Some stitchy friends have been so nice as to put up some gift-aways and PIFs, and I have to get cracking!  Not to mention which I committed to having my own give-away for Christmas sewing!  And have I mentioned that everything to me, which is bigger than 6 x 6, seems like a BAP?  :)   In 5 minutes, I am getting off here to do some sewing...

Anyway.. I am putting some finishing touches on the Christmas ornaments that I forgot to give my dearest nephew and niece.  They're ready now.. for next Christmas!

For the New Year

“The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness;  to an opponent, tolerance;  to a friend, your heart;  to your child, a good example;  to a father, deference;  to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you;  to yourself, respect;  to all men, charity.”

Writing from my sick chair (I would say bed except I'm not in bed).. caught a bad virus and am now sick.  Won a few giveaways in the last couple of days (not on blogs, so they weren't posted on my wall) - isn't it great??  Christmas stitching stuff and the leaflet "The Christmas Shoppe"! Many thanks to Laurie and Denise!!  I'll get to see them (the winnings only, not them!) at the end of the month, when another cousin comes home for his dad (my uncle's) first year anniversary..

I'll post my finish and a couple of starts for the year.. certainly hope it's better than last year!

Wishing peace, joy and love to all my stitchy friends..

Race before 2012!

Hello!  Here we are, with a little less than 6 hours left til the New Year 2012.  In Singapore, the day after Christmas (Boxing Day they call it, a remnant of their colonial British past), decorations for the Chinese New Year were being put up right alongside the Christmas decor which were most likely on the way down, I suppose.  They say that the next year 2012 is the Year of the Dragon (honestly would not have known that if I hadn't been there: the lead up to that will come in our local papers maybe a week or 2 weeks to Chinese New Year, which I reckon will be towards the end of January 2012.. no firm date overheard).   They say it will be a better year.  We can only hope!

See the Christmas decor on Orchard (poor shot taken from a taxi cab as we were crossing Orchard; my timing was off)

As of now I am rushing this Day 4 doll square, work on which you may recall came to a standstill after I lost the whole skein of green 501 floss.  Pretty lame, but there it is.  My friend Joysze has been yearning to see a finish (sorry Joysze! and I forgot to sign up for IHSW!)  For the past week I have been sporadically stitching on it; I've been unable to because I was spending time with the apples of my eyes (there are 2 apples, don't you know) my nephew and niece.  Christmas was a bit of an anticlimax, with family matters spoiling all things Christmas.  

Anyway, here is what is new over at Casa Whimsey and Wit (my WIP is now a "casa" where things happen.. or don't! lol):

I'm not being very ambitious, I just want the green dress and the red piping done and the word "dolly" in green sewn out before 2012 comes.  The red piping will be courtesy of DMC metallics 321 -- apparently there is no such thing as DMC 5270 anymore...  paid a quick visit to the local needlestore - such nice staff!  the store is smaller than it used to be but the two young ladies manning it said it was only temporary - let's hope so! I bought 4 DMC Amorsolo patterns (I have the Tinikling already, so that makes 5th) - there are 8, but I don't like the other three -- all yellows and browns, and the "Banga" one and the fishing one and the girl bathing which I really don't feel drawn to as subjects for stitching.  Are they for me?  No, they're for my dear cousin who's visiting - it's been 5 years since her last visit and she's here with her family to celebrate her mom's 80th.   I must say, though, that I'm inclined to buy the patterns for myself... but given my rate of finishing they might turn out UFOs or NFOs!  Still.. would be nice to have them in case I'm ever crazy  inspired enough to stitch them.  I like Tinikling, and the Girl with Mangoes.   My cousin, on the other hand, is someone who will likely stitch them, and finish!

These paintings portray early 20th century scenes from the countryside.  Sadly these scenes are very rare now as what used to be countryside and rice fields are now real estate developments!

On to more inspiring things... stash!  Magazines count as stash, don't they?

A lot of magazines my cousin sent to me.  These aren't half of it yet.  She even sent charts, and boy can she keep them neat and really new looking.  She made up a kit for me for one of them and that's going to be the second, no third item I'm stitching for 2012.  First will be a Happy New Year small for a card ( I already apologized for not being able to send it off before Christmas!), then the Flower scene "Flowery Meadow" from Burda, and then the kit.  Um, I should say I have not kitted up for the Flowery Meadow just yet.  Threads are in Anchor. I don't mind Anchor, but at the point where I started stitching there seemed to be more DMC, so I have more DMC than Anchor.  

I have a confession to make.  I visited Spotlight at Plaza Singapura, and they were having a huge sale til January 5th, and I didn't buy anything except a pack of Mill Hill beads that were on sale at SG$1.  There was also Kreinik at SG2, and 2 shades of green Marlitt at SG3.. and packs of Aida and evenweave with accompanying leaflets/charts by Semco at SG5.. even red Aida 16ct.. and I didn't buy!!  At that time I was congratulating myself on my restraint but now... it just seems abysmally dumb of me not to have bought!!!  :((

 And another thing... I FORGOT to bring my stitched ornaments to my nephew and niece!  So they're here, languishing in my box.  Well, I have decided to find a way to "finish" them into respectable ornaments and not just little bits of stitched stuff, so my mom or I can bring them next time.   Oh well.  

Okay.. I better get cracking if I'm to finish Day 4!

A brighter, happier, all around better New Year to all my stitchy friends!   A peaceful, prosperous New Year!