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Tuesday, March 13, 2018

The Birthday Exchange

Where Stitchers Gather (WSG) meet again, we are definitely a bunch of procrastinators , LOL . We are only a handful of ladies who shared, enjoy and supportive of each others creative endeavors and are much comfortable with each others antics.

So it has been decided that we are meeting in March for the 2017 birthday exchange. We are assigned to one "secret" partner by drawing a single name, unlike stitching for everyone like the years before. The highlight of the event is of course the pressie, it has been a well kept secret for over a year and I am pretty sure everyone is excited that it is finally the reveal day

The exchange packages (top )with the bonus gifts below look just like Christmas minus the tree

The Exchange Gift - Procrastinate I did, it was hard to decide what to stitch for my partner who is a crème de la crème needlewoman, actually it was never easy to stitch for any lady in the group, its very stressing, cause whatever I had in mind, it had to be something special and it has to be perfect. Thus, visiting L'uccello on my trip to Melbourne last July was like hitting a jackpot. That was where my exchange items materialize and I am glad I could stitch something within my comfort zone for Margaret W

The Gift : ONE Handmade item

Vintage French Seed packet Needle Keep by L'uccello.

It's a decorative two-way folding needle keep, I called it the magic fold,simply because it opens both ways. I have never done such finishing before, yes, I have seen it as a purse, Diane has one which she enjoyed playing tricks with her younger cousins.

Construction with the written instructions was excellent, but my mind kept playing tricks on me and I kept having this thoughts and doubts. The hardest was positioning the tapes, I resolved to whip stich to hold the pieces together after I fail to hold it in position with just glue as per the instruction, yet it didn't quite aligned the perfect way.

Another doubt I had was what and how to finish the seed pocket design cover. There is no specific given instructions how it should be done, basically no right or wrong and one can embroider as much or as little as you desire and any way you like it on it's pre-printed fabric. Froggy visited me three times, before I finally came to terms with my embroidery. I did better with the last Zinia flower, not the first two as I was trying to imitate the colors on the pre-printed fabric, before OCD sets in. Actually I almost gave up on this thinking twice maybe thrice over.

One Stash - Antique Mannequin

We are to include one stash item . This is another one from L'uccello. Unfortunately I didn't realized that this was not a kit and thus, I made this into a kit by adding the required item; fabric and lace

An extra item - An embroidery pinkeep from L'uccello, simply because I was sure that the second item can be a stitched item or store bought , not just stash. I was wrong. So since I have already bought the item meant for the gift, I might as well gifted it.

Exploding Box - I made the Birthday girl an exploding box in lieu of a card containing a page of the birthday month which dated back to 2017 where I am leaving it as it is and will not replace that with current year since this is an exchange meant for that year .

Would you agree ?

We have agreed that we will take a break from an exchange this 2018 year so we may concentrate on what need to be done with or finishing whatever on our priority list. For me that will be my Hexagons SAL and the Birthday Exchange quilt blocks from previous years. Let's see if I'll manage to kick myself out of this stitching slump and get some progress done this year. We needed the break just to distressed too, just thinking about the exchange can be very tiring.

From my partner JUNE this is what I received.

FABULOUS little sewing kit, so intricately and elaborately stitched one over one with tiny little needle rest and thimble complete with a scissor's pocket. Looking at all the tinniest stitching left me breathless

The cutest turtle tape measurement and scissor is to go into the pocket on top of the sewing box and a FIRST DAY COVER in conjunction with the Dog Year

She also included in her package a fabulous rolling pin from Goody Woody with a pineapple print design. Think I am keeping it for display with my collection of wooden cookie molds.

The BONUS Gifts

A secret project from Margaret with little pieces of fabrics from each of us she requested

where it's incorporated into the spool and finished off as a pinpillow.

How cleaver of her and gifted back to us.

Jess gave us each a pineapple scent soap

From me to everyone
a little teapot ceramic teabag coaster for all
While June gifted everyone a crocheted tape measurement which I forgot to take a photo
but if you scrutinize a few photos here you might have spotted some turtles crawling

A peek at what the rest of the ladies received from the exchange on that day and the photos said it all. We did not set any particular theme for the exchange and thus all of us went with our partnered favorite things or subjects.

June received from Barbara

Blue her fav color

Barbara received from Jess

Doll Quilt

Margaret's from me
Needlework accessory

Jess from Margaret

Mini Quilt with a PS cross stitch piece

Where we meet, food is always and never far from our thoughts.

Poppy seeds loaf

A little festive mood still with a platter of Yee Sang

Blooming Tea

A very messy table only a crafter will appreciate, LOL

A little show and tell there
Conclusion, I am pretty sure everyone went home happily, I am indeed happy
It was a lovely day and a we laugh at our silliness, put up with each other's antics, shared some crafty and craziest ideas and that the day ends amazingly
We even got to stash a little from the LNS where we meet

March 8 - Celebrating Women Day with the State Assemblyperson for Kuala Kubu Baru Madam KH Lee, (in White). She hosted a mini dinner for us and later gifted the ladies with aprons while the men who took a piece home may give it to the women in their life .

Sorry the photos here look blurry, it's due to the lightings I supposed.

Thank you to all who visited me in my last post and left comments. Glad you enjoyed my short break to Bangkok .

A little bouquet in March from Diane shall ends my post for now .

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Here comes the rain in November

A few more days and November ends. Everyone will be so busy with the coming festivity, especially more if you have not started your shopping, baking and decorating; can you feel the festive season yet? The malls are already filled with everything Christmas for weeks. We are getting more rain while the malls are all deck with fake snows and snowflakes....
Christmas is definitely in the air.

Gift for a special lady : Remember I mentioned about stitching something in blue variegated ? Well this is the design, Belle that I stitched and finished into a Pinkeep with the backing fabric as shown. It's a little surprise for Kim . I am so glad she is happy to receive this little gift of mine.

The color of the wrap caught my eyes and was calling out to me and thoughts of Kim came to mind.

I made a very simple card to go with my package

I had a very limited resources when I made the card at my MIL's home where it's miles away from a decent craft supply stores and I am no where near home and I can't just mailed my package without a note.

A RAK for BJ : I forgot to take photos of the items before I got it wrapped. Actually I wanted to just bind it with ribbons but I forgot to bring along some ribbons when I went visiting my MIL and wrapping papers are all I could find at a nearby Sundry shop. It took me like ages to get this delivered personally, but finally I did, bad me

Finally delivered after weeks that became months of waiting

I hope Jamie O will keep BJ company in her kitchen happily and the Quilting book will serve as a compendium of references when the need arises

(I forgot to take photos of the books before wrapping)

Crafting time input : Time to start crafting some Christmas smallish. Hope I'll have finish photos to show in my next post.

Diane requested for a sewing kit as a parting gift for her roomie whom she shared a room with at the hostel in her University for 2 sems. She gave me such a short notice that I couldn't think of what to stitched, so I made her this all fabric and felt in cheery yellow.

An Angpow cum Wedding Card is what I made for the daughter of gal from college's who got married in a lavish wedding recently.

Angpow is a an envelope that has to be in "red" as it symbolize luck and prosperity as well as auspiciousness where one puts in money of a certain amount depending on the occasion and given out as gift in lieu of a wedding present. Angpow is a very universal gift for the Chinese, one may received an Angpow on your birthday, Baby fullmoon or any happy occasion that is befitting. The amount of it's contents may varies depending on your status in the society, relationship or what suits your pocket and at times the economic situations of where you are from to who you are gifting it to.

For a wedding , it can costs hundreds to thousands for a couple attending the event.

Angpow is also given out during Chinese New Year as a token of luck and auspiciousness to family, friends and those who come visiting especially children. Single unmarried young adults may also be given, unless one is "overly over the Young Adult age" and still single; one may not receive an angpow then unless, the host is teasing the recipient, but always in a good away. An employee will normally received from a Chinese employer, married or unmarried , while still single colleagues will received from their married colleagues during Chinese New Year too.

For this, I had all the symbolic wishes. There's the character of double happiness, the peking ducks a symbolic of love and the names of the bride and groom . However, at the end of the day, this was what that actually went out when someone suggested we get the bride a gold bracelet instead and shared the cost. With the last minute changes, I had a quickie re-vamp of the little red packet that was intended into a gift card so we could all put in our names instead.

Dressed for the night : Wedding is always a good place for a meet-up. The opportunity came when we, the girls from college got invited to Sally's daughter wedding at St Regis of Kuala Lumpur

Having a little girly fun at the polaroid booth, this was a wefie before the actual booth snap

Lynn and me with the mother of the beautiful and radiant mother of the bride, Sally

A weekend dinning celebrating the 38th Anniversary Annual Dinner of a Youth Club with Jamis where the Lions graciously became our backdrop

From my Kitchen : Steamed pau or steamed Chinese pau. I have never attempted to made pau as I always had this thought that it's a tedious process. It spells difficult just by looking. I mean how do you get the tissue like skin to peel and a soft and fluffy texture too. I can't even bake a good decent bread yet. That is not until Jaimis who seem to be making these pau so effortlessly gave me her recipe. Thank you sifu! So here goes. This is my second attempt after I forgot to let the dough rest the first time. A total success and very please if I must say so.

On a serious note, making pau is definitely a lot easier that making bread. In view that now pau is getting costly from the shops, I think I am addicted to making pau for the time being. I need to improved my pleating (to close the pau) and even out the dough for the fillings. With the basic dough I managed a lotus paste filling pau

The 3rd time with a pumpkin dough for some color on the pau skin and a better improved pleating, thou the pleats are not prominent after the steaming, more practice needed

Sometimes the mind can be inquisitive and so on my 4th attempt, it's purple skin pau that derived from purple sweet potatoes

Made breakfast Quesadilla one morning

And we harvested some mangoes from the small plot of land near MIL one weekend

I am sorry some of the photos are looking a little dull. It's bad lighting on one part and gloomy weather on the other since we are currently into the monsoon season which means wet days are here to stay for awhile.

Flea Market : We had a mall that houses small individual vendors with all kinds of everything, call it antique, old junk; just like a flea market only a very small scale but the mall caters to these vendors on every of it's floors. I don't frequent often, the occasionally that I do, there's always something that caught the eye. Like this blue porcelain teapot set with a snake/lizard head? Intriguing yet intimidating . Nope, it did not came home with me, nor did I asked for it's price.

That's it for November, until my next post, take care everyone

Wishing all

and may your Thanksgiving be wonderful

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

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.