2015 projects and Goals 2016

Hello, hope you had a great long weekend and enjoying the holiday season waiting for 2016:)

Last week I had been busy going for ultrasound and IFT therapies daily for my upper back pain. It is now better as long as I do mild work, especially, in kitchen. It seems the kitchen platform in the new flat is a bit high compared to what I had in my old place . We are trying to find a solution else we will have to dismantle and construct a new one which is a major task :(  I will also be fine if my family allows me to retire from the kitchen tasks ;)

These are the projects I worked on in 2015 . Click on the link of project titles to see more details and images .

Cross stitch projects:

I spent first half of the year on a big project 'Kitty Litter' by Dimensions, but lost my mojo very soon. 

1. Stitcher's saying

2. Playtime 

3. Spring Cat

4. Best Friends

5. Share happiness

6. Super gamer

7. Russian Doll

1. Jungle height chart

2. Lady Bird

3. Kitty litter

Crochet projects:

1. Crochet Jacket

2. Crochet Interlock Purse

3. Crochet Basket

4. Crochet Doily

1. Crochet lace

2. Crochet Potholder

3. Crochet mini doily

4.Crochet Potholder

5.Crochet mini doily

1. Crochet door knob hanger

2. Crochet bracelet

3. Crochet hairband

4. Crochet drawer hanger

5. Crochet coasters

Published & other projects :

1. Crochet collar published in Anchor Needle n Thread magazine, India

2. Free hand embroidered name plate

3. recycled perpetual calender

I am going to continue with the same goals for this year again as shared in 2015.

S.no.	Goal/resolution	Type	Status
1	Design min. 1 cross stitch and 1crochet pattern for Indian magazine	One-time	Partially completed
2	Analyse atleast 2 international magazines for submission	Ongoing	Not started
3	Write one article/story per month for Newspaper/magazine and submit	Ongoing	Partially completed
4	Upload the written novel	One-time	Not started
5	Complete next novel	One-time	Not started
6	Create Goodreads profile and update frequently	Ongoing	Completed and ongoing
7	Read 2books a month	Ongoing	Partially completed
8	Donate more	Ongoing	Partially completed
9	Think less, worry less	Ongoing	Not started
10	Organize more	Ongoing	Completed and ongoing
11	Recycle more	Ongoing	Not started
12	Increase exercise and walk time	Ongoing	Partially completed
13	Make crochet wearables for Anshita	One-time	Partially completed
14	Put some efforts in gardening	Ongoing	Partially completed
15	Play thrice a week with Anshita	Ongoing	Partially completed
16	Learn and make more sewing and patchwork items	Ongoing	Not started
17	Get used to paying bills	Ongoing	Not started
18	Learn and cook few more baking items	Ongoing	Not started
19	Find out more about palaeontology carreer	Ongoing	Not started
20	Learn amigurumi	Ongoing	Not started
21	Learn Tunisian crochet	Ongoing	Not started
22	Do mending and repair work promptly	Ongoing	Partially completed
23	Reduce xx Kgs (too shy to reveal the count :))	One-time	Partially completed
24	Smile often, be more social	Ongoing	Partially completed
25	Reply to comments promplty	Ongoing	Partially completed
26	Write at least 2 blogposts per week	Ongoing	Partially completed
27	Target at least one pending home-decor/fitting each month	Ongoing	Completed and ongoing
28	Learn about finances/investments from Raj - one item per month	Ongoing	Not started
29	Learn Adobe illustrator to draw crochet patterns	One-time	Completed and ongoing
30	Delete unwanted images from iPad,phone and laptop.	Ongoing	Partially completed

This year started good with lot of projects but my productivity went down in second half of the year :(  I hope I will blog more often next year. I am lazy to post the progress pictures.

Good luck and happy crafting for 2016 !!

Preeti :)

Messy-to-Classy and embroidered name plate :)

Life has been very busy at my end both for good and bad . We had back-to-back two parties in December 1st weekend at our home - Raj's office get together and Anshita's B'day party. The very next week, she hurt her wrist and Doctor asked for X-Ray and MRI as he could not confirm whether it was fracture . Thankfully, it wasn't but the tissues are damaged so badly that her lower palm and wrist has turned blue and pains a lot :( She is going to school but since it is her right hand that got hurt , she cannot write :(

Here are my December Messy-to-Classy pics . I have been very irregular in blogging this year . Hopefully, 2016 will have more posts .

This is one of my lace/ribbon boxes . Whenever I open to get one , all of them jump out fighting with each other, getting tangled just to seek my attention ;) Naughty ribbons :)

I separated them and see how they look now, neatly arranged until..........well, you know ;)

I also did a simple free hand embroidery last month

which turned into this........

And this......

It is difficult to take pictures with frame, that is Anshita's bicycle getting reflected .

The nameplate did not turn as I had earlier planned but something is better than nothing. I will make one more nameplate after few years. I feel my apartment front door need some more decoration so there is scope for more creativity .

I am trying to design small crochet patterns these days and will open a new website. This blog will continue to be my personal blogging space. I will soon share the new website with you once I publish it. 

Hope you are done with Christmas preparations . I will share my Ravelry group crochet exchange in next post .

Thanks,

Preeti

Just to share little something :))

Thanks for seeing the vacation pics !! I am taking a break from photo sorting activity but still I don't have anything new to share .

I framed two of my finished small pieces - Stitcher's Sayings and Glamour Puss . There are some more that I framed but they still need few adjustments. It is difficult to take pics as the frames reflect too much of light .

Today, Anshita turned 13 years old :))

I went to a Silk and cotton exhibition on weekend and got some stash for me .

Solid cotton silk fabric

Cotton fabric

A cute keyring and a metal bracelet. The keyring is not from the exhibition . I recently purchased on my vacation from a chain of Indian store 'Chumbak' . I love their owl designs .

Next post, hopefully, I can share my Ravelry exchange images because the recipient has not yet posted on the group .

Have a great day! :)
Preeti

Vacation part 2 : Mountains and greenery ! :)

Thank you for seeing pictures on my last post :) I was waiting if I could show you some crafty progress as well but no luck :(

I have another set of vacation pics to share......hope you don't get bored .

Entering the backwaters of Kerala surrounded by greenery .....

These are traditional houseboats - a house on a boat - which can be booked for entire day cruise through lake and backwaters. We did not have a spare day so we went into the Shikara boat (another traditional boat) for 3 hours.

Shikara boat - with 4/6 seater, to be booked for a family/group. They have old style of long  wooden boat with curved ends as you saw one end in the first image.

On the way, there were innumerable coconut trees laden with coconuts .

and banana trees too .

There were - homes, guest houses and hotels on either sides of backwaters

Ducks joining our boat ride :)

At one place , there were many lotuses . When pulled out, some of them had stems running even six feet long. Ok , I have always seen lotus from a distance but never took in hand . Have you ?

Over to mountains : This is a hill station named Munnar in the same state as backwaters. It is located at a height of  5200 ft. above sea level .

View from the sit-out of our hotel room

Farming in the valley

The weather changed every few hours....Sometimes very cloudy

Then.....so clear

Lush tea gardens

 Walk through the tea gardens

Hope you enjoyed these as well.

Thanks for scrolling till the end !! :)
Preeti

Vacation - Part 1 :)

Thank you for welcoming me back !! :)

I have been doing some crafting but I cannot show you as it is a part of secret Santa hosted by a Ravelry group in India . I have tried to minimize the vacation pics and most probably will share in four parts .

We went to a 14 day vacation to Kerala- a state on west coast of south India- a place of backwaters, mountains, lakes , beaches and most important greenery . It is the greenest state in the country . We went to six cities/town - Kochi-> Munnar-> Thekkady->Allepey-> Varkala -> Trivandrum. We had a direct flight from our city to Kochi and then from there we hired a cab for 13 days and back from Trivandrum we had a direct flight to here .

These are some pics of Kochi city . First Portuguese in 14th century and later Dutch established there colony here in 15th century . There was an old palace of king of Kochi where photography was prohibited.

We stayed in kerala styled traditional cottage, a stone and wooden structure. The lanterns on the pathway lit at night.

View from outside the room, it was raining early morning .

The backyard of the hotel was a deck from where we could see merchant ships passing by. At night they would set the deck with candle light dinner .

An old Basilica

On the way to various places, we saw a pineapple farm and tall areca nut trees. the coconut trees in the background of the pineapple farm  were to be seen across the entire state. 

We saw traditional and folk dance - Mohiniyattam and Kathakali

Models of war ships on display in a Naval museum. The city has a big Naval base.

Next ....on mountains and greenery:)

Thanks for seeing!

Preeti

Back on track !! :)

Hello !!!
Hope you all are doing great . I am glad to be back on the blogland after a break . I had a great and relaxing family vacation last month :) However, the joy later disappeared under the post vacation mountains of laundry and later Diwali festival cleaning .

Sharing some beautiful pics.....

Aster : highlight of my garden

Daisy 

Anshita made this artistic Rangoli on Diwali . It is made with a slightly coarse powder using pinch by pinch , a job which requires patience . She can now make without much of my help . It took her 2 hrs. to complete . Rangoli's are made just outside the main door as a gesture to welcome Goddess of wealth  'Lakshmi' to enter our homes during Diwali festival .

Hydrangea - growing first time

My favourite : Gerbera

I haven't shortlisted vacation photos yet . Don't worry , I will share only minimum pics :) Sometimes, I feel old digital-less life was better when it comes to taking and choosing photos although it is a great thing for creative people like us . But on vacation , we end up taking lot of pics and then it takes ages to sort them and file them . Few decades back , even if the printed photos turned out bad, we would still choose the best ones from the bad ones and feel satisfied . What do you think ? Do you often shortlist , print and file the digital photos ? I have lost many whenever my laptop crashed .

I will visit you very soon 

Have a great weekend !! 

Preeti