My next

Again I bring the Kitchen Sampler to the forefront, this time I have even started getting the floss ready!! But the floss list is quite huge, and to be frank, I am ready with about 25% of the required floss. Wellllll.... I could just go by [nearest] color rather than code, and start the project. Will i do that? Not decided yet.

So i am thinking i should do one of these Belle and Boo charts. The first one looks doable with only some 7-8 colors required! The second one connects with my gardening button!!

  

Let me see, what finally connects!

Here is how my Cardinal looks now - there were 7 colors for back-stitching, i have completed 5. 2 are started, and in varying stages of completion

Happy Stitching

The cardinal

Finally a pic of my cardinal!! This pic was taken in the weekend

Now i have few half crosses left and all of the back stitching. It was fun doing this, although i am on it since the start of the year!! Say two instances each of about a month not even seeing the fabric.

Hope you visit me on my twitter handle for the regular updates!! https://twitter.com/SharmilaPrabhu

Thanks

The next one

I have not published a single photo of my current WIP either here or on twitter.

So while i am itching to show something cross-stitchy, what better than my next project. There are 4 charts in there. I have almost decided the bird on the wheel. But then between now and the time my current one gets done, she might change her mind. You never know.

I see less and less blogposts. People must be busy with other modes of social media, LOL. But the strange and sad thing is whenever I comment on someone's blog, I get an error on my yahoo id (which is the id connected with my blog), that the comment has not gone through:(

Do any of you get such errors? How did you resolve them pls

Here is Friday, and due to continuous rains I am working from home today. Bad roads, and bad traffic too. This evening, i hope to get to my stitching project real soon! Here's wishing you all a great time stitching and being with friends and loved ones.

Happy Dance

This Dimensions cross stitch project is finally completed. Towards the end i admit i stitched this like there was no tomorrow!! Happy Dance indeed 

Few pics showing the stages.

And here is floss of my next project, sans one Anchor 936. Thanking all my friends in the US who had sent me floss over the years (thanks to the 123stitch board), all the DMC in this pic is courtesy you:) almost half of them. Thank you so very much!

I have started stiching this one, the first colour being cream.

Some pics from my garden: Tomatoes my own!! and look at the blooming gardenia plant. Ever since i have put the pot on a pebbled tray, the plant has been my friend. She is always having buds and almost all buds flower. There is an occasional bud going brown and withering. Hope to nudge them also to a healthier life.

Loving Graham Swift's Last Orders. Loving it, loving it, loving it. Reading it slowly, and relishing it too

School started in June. My son is comfortable, all teachers set, new friends made (all sections were shuffled this year). Comfortable for me too - so far in June i have stitched a half hour or so in the evening till he came back from playing with neighbors. What with gardening, stitching, reading; now i just need to pitch in the occasional baking tray and be happy and say i am truly happy.

Wishing you all a great time with your hobbies and with your family and loved ones.

My plant has a name!!

Hope you all are doing good. My stitching time has become limited edition now!! I have a new hobby which is of interest to some of you I am sure - Gardening!! Of course i am taking it slow, and have increased the pots gradually in my terrace garden.

Recently got some pots off  my friend, and there is one i am not able to identify. It is a foliage-only hanging plant and has very fragile branches. The leaves are tiny and oval, and i am thinking they become light green in direct sunlight. I am in love with this dainty damsel! Because i have no idea what are the specific care details, I am all the more in a rush to identify this sweet little heart. Is there anyone out there who can help?

I put this on twitter, i put this on PlantSnapp app and so far have been unlucky. Here is the pic
Update: This plant is Tradescantia fluminensis / Small-leaf spiderwort. Appears to be a flower-less cultivar. She prefers shade and moist soil:)

This originally being a stitchy blog, I am posting here my latest adventures!

Footprints in the Sand (Leisure Art) was completed in February. I had loved stitching this!!

And my current project from Dimensions. I am not stitching as much i am reading or watching cricket on TV. I had told myself in January i will read very little to make room for stitching. But that is not what is happening:(

Currently i am almost at the end of Laurie Graham's The Unfortunates. Her best book for me will always be Gone With The Windsors.

This makes for an occasional post for me? Apologies i am not around much in blogland. I am in twitterland more these days...

Wishing you all a very happy Friday and a great weekend:) Thanks in advance for the gardening help!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all. I have been coming here lesser and lesser, and have been getting into the twitter world.

Everything got to a very slow pace last year. I hardly did any stitching. Just one small project. I read few books compared to 2014. Of course study time with T increased. In what seems to be my earlier life, I stitched or read largely during night time, but a 4.40am wakeup time Monday through Friday has entitled the new me to a sleeping-early ticket, LOL. So like i said before, a slow year it was.

The best news for last year being my Parijatha container plant having given me so many flowers for about 3 months!! Parijatha prefers to be on the ground, and my container friend after giving me very few flowers for two years (few days in December - January), for the last two or three years she stopped flowering altogether. So 2015 October to December were a blessing from Nature!! 

Oh, and yes in October i had re-organised all of our books! How could i forget that? All the books 'downloaded' are shown here

These then filled two book racks (with two rows in each shelf, if that makes sense)

 and one which still shows good scope for buying more books!

In December T and I spent time with his grandparents and had a WONDERFUL time!

Changes for 2016

All said and done, I have made some changes this time. I will only do re-reads this year - and i plan to re-read my Jane Austen books. I have read them all before of course. So re-reading should be relaxing i hope. Also for the last couple of years, i have been reading one [so far unread] Dickens book a year. For 2016, it is Little Dorrit. (For 2105 it was Bleak House) Reading-wise i am keeping it this simple and lean. (The real sad news here is about 18 books that I have in my to-be-read pile will continue to be there). I will read during week-days, in between being Mom / playmate / friend / teacher / confidante / secretary / storyteller to T. My current read (from December) is Oscar and Lucinda, which i am about half-way through

This way i have made room for stitching {I hope}, again Monday to Thursday there will be no stitching. Friday night to Sunday night, whatever free time i get will be spent stitching. For the last 3 to 4 years, i have stopped buying any cross stitch pattern or kits, am hardly in any forums to avoid any attractions or distractions and general busy-ness.  Also the idea was to take up one project after another from the STASH, however i noticed while i have not bought ANY new items, i have stitched just one a year (a disgrace to the stitching community, is me). Here is where my Footprint in the Sands (Leisure Arts) is right now.

 Two pics from earlier stages:

Also hope to pick up Lilies whenever possible - i am not even aiming an x number of stitches a day. Whatever number of stitches possible. But first let me get myself into a stitching rhythm with FitS!

In other news, my Samsung Galaxy S3 turned bad in October last year. Would continuously be switching on and off whenever i would try and access any URL. At least 3 if not more factory resets had to be enforced. A visit to the Samsung Service Center also done. Gradually even taking a photo led to this viral behavior. So end December when there were lots of exciting deals going on, we took the plunge and went for an iPhone 5s. Now that 6s is out, i really got a very good deal for 5s. 2 and half years back when i took my Samsung S3, my husband had suggested I go for an iPhone (4 then). But i preferred a Samsung, and that is what we bought. This time round, i took his advice!

Thanks for your patience till now! Wishing you a pleasant weekend with your stitching, spending wonderful time with your family!