Blogland gift and trip photos - part 2

Yes , you guessed it right ! A gift from none other than Debi from Dly's Hooks and Yarns . Lots of colorful lovely buttons and a sweet satin ribbon !! I received it as soon as I was back from my vacation :)
I always envied that jar full of buttons on Debi ’s blog and her link party icon . Now I have a share of the lot . :) Anshita happily arranged the buttons for the picture on her desk once she was done with her homework :)

Thank you Debi ! It’s so kind of you for sending a gift to me .  Keep up the gifting spirit and I will keep posting comments ;)

Some more vacation details....

To reach Ooty , you can either take the Niligiri mountain railway or the taxi. Since we had gone last time via mountain railway , this time we tried by taxi . But I must say the view from train is much better and an enjoyable ride .

The Nilgiri Mountain railway was built in 1908 and is more than 100 years old UNESCO world heritage site . The train runs up the hill through the green terrains on a narrow gauge track which works on ‘ rack and pinion ’ technology to climb extremely steep heights . On its journey of 41.8 kms , it covers 108 curves , 16 tunnels and 250 bridges . There are three such mountain railways in India declared as world heritage site by UNESCO . The other 2 are for Shimla in North and Darjeeling in East . I had been on the Shimla train too .

The rack and pinion which prevents the train slipping down the track while climbing

(The above three images are from internet, not mine)

On the way , there were farms of tall Areca nut ( also known as beetle-nut , Supari in Hindi ) trees on either side of the road .

Just an hour before you reach Ooty , there is another beautiful place called Coonoor which is famous for its Tea plantations .

The tea plantations , even on the top of the mountain ( enlarge the picture )

As I said we planned more for relaxation purpose so we visited only few places . Amidst the mountains , there is a lake called ‘ Pykara ’ which is at a 45 min drive from the town . We took a boat ride for 20 minutes and enjoyed the breathtaking view and the pristine cool beauty . The mountains are called Nilgiri means ' Blue Mountain ' because it is believed that the blue haze is created by emissions from the Eucalyptus trees . Yes , I forgot to tell that this place is also known for Eucalyptus and other medicinal oils .  There is another lake in the heart of the town which is not worth going as it is now polluted with huge inflow of tourists .



C'mon wake up ! Just 3 more miles to walk

 

 
How to wear your shoes if you dont want to sit on the dusty ground :) Not applicable for mothers to publicly do so in India .



Dad's Copycat :)

Thanks for sustaining through pictures of my simple vacation. I will not bother anymore with my photos . Seeing my pics inspires me to go on a diet plan . I have been sitting too long since I started blogging and needlework . It ’s just that I look fat on some days and on other days…ummmm…. less fat ! : )) Anyways , I need to do something with that weight before the magical menopause sets into my life . But , I must say I gathered lot of courage to post those chubby pictures . Gym is not my thing , but there is no harm in planning things . I used to do a good planning and execution....these days I feel I only do planning , zero execution . Not my fault , those needles tie my hands with yarns :)

I want to share about a tribal embroidery from Ooty , not in next post....sometime later.

Have a nice weekend !
Preeti :)

Follower button and Google reader has NO connection

Hello Friends ,

After seeing many blogger friends moving to other reader applications post the declaration of shutting down Google reader , I wanted to share that it has got nothing to do with the ‘ Follower ‘ button on your blog .

Your FOLLOWERS and FOLLOW button will NOT CHANGE at all .

I don ’t use Google reader to read your blogs ,  I directly read through the subscription list displayed on my blogger dashboard . Google reader is something which enables you to read as well as bookmark your favorite blogs/posts from your subscription list . You might be following 1000s of blogs but may be reading only few hundreds. Reader helps you filter those hundreds and will not harm your entire subscription list of 1000s when it is going to close down .

So , only if , you are using Google reader to save those favorite items , you then need to move the data to some other application .

Also, the news clearly mentions that it is bringing down reader because of its reduced usage and definitely your dashboard or follower list is not used less . But , it is always good to have information on alternatives . Follower button is not going anywhere as of now with Google reader .

For more detailed information and alternatives, do read this nice post @ Joyful Creations with Kim

Important : I have just tried to clarify in case you are in a panic to change . You still may want to do your own research and decide .

Hope this information helps .
Preeti

Giveaway luck strikes again and trip photos - part 1 !!

Hello friends, I am back!  Hope you all are doing fine. I went for a short family vacation and then wasn’t keeping well; that helped you all keeping me at bay for a while ;)  There is a lot to catch up with your crafty adventures and also many things to share from my side.

Firstly, I would like to share a giveaway from Ranjana that I had won in February. I received her gift on 15th March but I left for vacation on the same day. I won this lovely handcrafted pairs of earrings made by her! Thank you Ranjana!! The fact that you made those make them more special to me :) Ranjana is fond of working on various art and crafts and does have an expert hand on creating beautiful things. She blogs @ http://ranjana-craft-blog.blogspot.in/

 

We went for a short family vacation for 4 days to Ooty, a hill station in South India, since Anshita was having a short break from school. She has moved to Class VI. She got excellent grades in Class V with certificates for ‘Best in Academics’, ‘Good Conduct’ and ‘Impeccable Turnout’ for the year. :)

Ooty is situated in the mountain ranges of Nilgiri, South of India, at an elevation of  7,400 feet. We stayed there in a holiday resort which was a colonial period summer mansion turned into a resort known as ‘Sherlock ’. It was more than 100 years old and maintained as what you would see a Victorian style house in late 1800s. The mansion belonged to some Britisher from whom an Indian Businessman purchased who was then a great fan of Sherlock Holmes. He named the mansion as ‘Sherlock Homes’. It was situated at a bit higher altitude away from the main town. The deluxe rooms each had a private sit out overlooking the green lawns and a panoramic view of hills all around. The weather was very pleasant during the day and early mornings and late evenings were chilly.

The entire experience was Holmesian. Each room was named after Holmes’ adventures. We stayed in one of the deluxe room named as ‘Blue carbuncle’. Although I am not a fan of Sherlock Homes but visit to this resort was a homely (not Holmely :) )feeling than in any other hotels in a tourist place and it is the best in Ooty if you want to get a real mountain view.

We had been to this town before, so this visit was meant to be more for relaxation away from daily routine than about touring the town.

Sharing few photos…

The cottage

 



View from the sit-out

me, crocheting in the lawn

Not sure, what these flowers were, may be from Cacti family, but were lovely

with my boyfriend ;)

Valley view down from the lawn, splendid !



Back home, lots of work again and I wasn’t keeping well to manage blogging in my tiresome schedule.
Next post, few more photos and another gift from one of my lovely blogger friend….do come back to visit :)
I am soon going to visit your blogs :)

Happy week!
Preeti

2013 Turtle Trot SAL March update ….

So , here I am , into the second month of my Turtle Trot 2013 SAL . Every 13th of the month we share the updates on our chosen 13 projects for this SAL . See here to know about my 13 projects . To read about and sign up for this SAL ,  visit BAP Attack blog .

I worked on 3 of my projects compared to just 2 last time and successfully completed one of them . Yippee !!!

1. Cross Stitch floral border from EMS (free pattern) - Completed !!
  

EMS pattern



Before

After Completion :)

 

Full view

To know about this pattern and few more pictures , visit my post here.

2. Cross Stitch blooms


Pattern



Before



After

 3. Nature's Charm


Pattern



Just started !

So far I am on track with my cross stitch projects ; this SAL and of course you all have given me a lot of motivation to work on my cross stitch projects and I am happy to create beautiful things :)

I am all ready again for next month ’s stitching !!
Happy stitching and have a stitch-full month ahead !
Preeti  :)

A Cross stitch finish and my B’day gifts ! :)

Hello friends ! Hope you had a lovely weekend . A warm welcome to all my new follower friends :) but unfortunately , I wasn’t able to reach few of you as I could not find your blog name or mail id .

I completed my cross stitch border on the towel which was part of my turtle trot project .  The floral border looks small but it was very time consuming changing shades frequently . The third flower is grey in color as per the chart I used which is available for free here. I loved the outcome very much :)

 

Also , I wanted to share the gifts I got last month for my Birthday from Raj though he doesn’t agree to display those :) I was waiting for one online gift to be delivered.
 

Fancy necklace and bangles :)

Earrings, they are my weakness !!

Three boxes of chocolate!! :)

Other two boxes I ate and threw; this one being a tin box, I kept it. 

A Crystal pair of Swans :)

This is the same crystal on the first image. It is difficult to take picture of it from a proper angle.

Some crafty gifts , which he doesn't like to give as a gift but since that makes me happy , he added in his list ! I was desperately looking for some organizers to keep my embroidery threads , he got these for me .

A Dimensions cross stitch kit - 'Kitty Litter' and some fancy paper craft wooden clips :)

I received the kit two weeks after my B'day and I am planning for a SAL with Elisabeth from Elizy art who has got the same kit as gift from her mom . After seeing so many shades of threads , I am kind of scared !! :)

Hope you liked my cross stitch :)
Happy week ahead!!
Preeti :)

Bringing the hexagons together ......

The hexagons , which I posted about few weeks back here , are now glued together forever ; ) It formed a pretty circular cushion cover because that was the only shape I could manage with the number of motifs I had created . I don’t have a circular cushion so I used Anshita’s Barbie cushion to display my cover .

I have not used any lining for this which I thought is not required too . I do plan to get a new cushion which would give the white background . I made this with Laura knitting yarn and hook size 4 m.m.

I generally end up making front side and the project goes into WIP status until I make up my mood/mind for adding a fabric on the back side . But this time , I crocheted a stylish back for the cushion .

I used a circle motif from Edie Eckman’s book ‘ Beyond the square crochet motifs ’ and then crocheted long chains joining back to the motif forming a loop . I then joined these long chainy loops to form the outer circle and did some double crochet rounds making it the same size as front part to join .

It can be used from both sides . Isnt it stylish ? Hope you like it .

Happy week ahead !
Preeti :)