Crochet Pancakes !! ;)

In between stitching , I managed to make some crochet pancakes for you all :)

These are my first crochet coasters . Not that I haven't made such things before but they were used as motifs earlier and otherwise for something decorative . These will actually be used as coasters now .

I usually don't like the idea of putting cups on it and making it sticky over a period of time but I should not be all that mean with my creations :)

I made three for three of us . The motif (#32) can be found in the book , ' Beyond the square crochet motifs , ' by Edie Eckman .

I made these with Anchor knitting cotton and  3 mm hook . They are not blocked and I guess I am not going to waste my energy on that either .

I am making this crochet jacket for Anshita with an acrylic yarn , Nako Saten . It is extremely soft and it splits too . While it was fun to touch the balls (yarn balls , I mean ;)) , it is not so when crocheting . I am not sure if she would wear because we don't have as such winters here unless we go out early morning or late night . Her favorite color is blue .

Right now we are going through peak summer time with temperatures hitting 44 C in the afternoon . We have locked ourselves at home in ACs . And I am hating cooking in such conditions . Although I have an AC in kitchen as well but I don't use it when I am using the gas stove for cooking . And most of the time I do cook that way . I feel I am standing in a furnace .

I am stitching only few projects right now . I missed working on my  kitty litter project this month so next month I will dedicate two weeks for it .

Have a nice day!
Preeti

Bits and pieces from here and there :)

Thank you for your sweet comments on my last interior design show !! :) So far I haven't replied to any of you and I guess you need to overlook my erratic reply system again  :(

I was just comparing my life how it was few years back when I worked full time with that as of now .

It was like this ......

After leaving the job, it slowly turned to this....

But again, after adding blogging, crocheting and stitching into my life , it slowly started to return to 'busy'as it was  in the first image .

Now I am trying to strike a balance between these two :) How is your life ?

Last week, we cleaned and destashed the entire home and look what I got to show you - these two crochet jackets that I made 15 years back when I was in college :) I knew only basic stitches at that time and created wearable on my own .

 Little did I know that this is called as tapestry crochet. Although I may not have done it exactly the way it should be done but the fact that tapestry is not new to me is enough consoling .

I never stashed during those days and would buy things as and when needed . I would be thrilled to find matching lovely buttons . No amount of stash gives me that kind of excitement today .

I did some specialty cooking which wasn't 100 % success in terms of presentation but ok to enjoy the taste.

Panipuri or Golgappa . Crisp balls are poked, stuffed with mashed spicy potatoes,onions and then pour the green water (sweet & sour & spicy) and then gobble it up. I made everything at home . Anshita said she would be happy to have it every weekend :)

Vegetable baked puffs. This is the first time I made these and I almost burnt them . Raj and Anshita said it tasted good but make only once a year :))) 

On reading front, with my goal setting of 2 books per month ,  I have so far read 8 books. I got few more books last month and I am reading these two right now.

I think I should include crafting books in my count as well. So I started by adding a gardening book to my list . This is the only good book I could find which has gardening information based on Indian weather conditions . The book is written in 2007 but that still have when and how information which is great . Every Indian Cricket fan is proud of the legendary Sachin Tendulkar - World's top Cricketer. His autobiography is quite a big book and he has written everything about his life . It is a pleasure to read .

I also bought few more things

Small tin boxes with transparent lid covers for keeping my seed beads. I should have taken the pic with beads.

Some bobbins, a hammer foot and cording foot. I don't know how to use the cording foot . 

Transparent plastic cover with laces . These are lying flat but when filled they have 5 inches of depth. I got 8 of these kinds to keep my fabric and yarn stash segregated by type. I got all of these from ebay. These covers are known as Saree covers.

and these acrylic paints to paint a big picture for the living room . To be painted by three of us who are amateur artists and these colors are too many for us to use :)

Happy weekend to all of you !!

Preeti

Home Sweet Home - Part 3 :))

In continuation with the series of posts on my interior designing , I will show the bedroom and kitchen in this post . You can view previous posts here and here .

The Bedroom :    Brown, coffee and white .

 

These are sliding doors with printed laminates used on plywood. I cannot open and show it to you. I have kept the old TV in the centre cupboard . If I want to watch, I just need to slide the mirror door . I used sliding doors to save the door opening space but unfortunately I cannot use back of the door to hang my purses as I used to do in the previous house . There is another balcony that opens from the bedroom but that's not well maintained yet ....lot of stuff is dumped there which I am not sure when will I sort out . 

The Master bed is store bought but the sleek night stand on my side and a computer table on his side of the bed are custom made matching with the cupboard . I still need to decorate more but may keep it less cluttered . 

There is a bay window on my side . I try to keep my bedroom clean as it looks here .

My mother strongly disagrees :)

The other two people , out of fear and trepidation , choose not to comment :)

The Kitchen :    Purple , cream and grey . 

This is the left side of the kitchen platform . We got shutter and hydraulic shelves and push to open and every other kitchen trolley types that I could see in the stores and model apartments . It was difficult to procure some individual items like shutter because usually they do the entire modular kitchen .

This is the left corner which is inaccessible to me so I got it made as a display corner with glass shelves and glass doors . Getting these glass doors fit in an L-shape corner was a bit difficult . Please ignore the dangling wires they are from a water purifier inside the top cupboard . We have not yet decided how to adjust those. I still need to hang the crochet lace I made and posted about it here . I will hang it beneath the L shape display corner but I haven't got enough matching hooks yet .

This is the front kitchen platform . Usually this side of the platform gets cleaned twice a day as I cook here but the left side I showed you gets cluttered as I keep on stacking things there .

This is a designer chimney . I loved it when I saw . I did not want the traditional rectangular one as I always felt I might bang my head on it while cooking :)

  

This is the opposite of the front platform . The top is fully covered with loft .This time I got built-in Microwave and Oven . Earlier I had a counter top oven . All the three - Chimney, oven and microwave are of same company ,  KAFF . They are good . I haven't made cake yet, but I have baked biscuits and pizzas . 

  

The glass cupboard in the centre was meant for keeping decorative things and recipe books but I ended up keeping some daily use crockery . I have plans to shuffle things again .The work table is just a pull out (you can see , it was just a sleek line in the previous picture ) where I sort vegetables and do other miscellaneous tasks like when taking out something from oven, I can easily keep the dish on it as it is nearest . 

This is the old refrigerator which coincidentally matched with ovens and the wooden laminates . This is not a built-in one , therefore , not advisable to fix in a cabinet . So an ample amount of space is left on all the sides for the generated heat . 

While the top space was fine , the front two sides were closed with 3 inches wide flaps . This is good when I want to clean the space around it .

The kitchen towel dispensers which I found on internet were either not of good quality or were a combo of  foil and cling film dispenser which did not fit on any wall space of kitchen . So I  used  the leftover curtain rod and with the fittings, it made a convenient low-cost (almost no cost) holder :) 

All of these laminates, in the bedroom and kitchen, are textured. They are a bit difficult to clean but I have seen that glossy ones loose their gloss after few years even though they are easy to clean . I get lot of sunlight in the kitchen and it was difficult to take pics but since it wasn't glossy so that was fine .

Next post in this series would be the last and heavenly place  - 'The craft room' :) It is small , but I am sure you will like . So wait and watch my space here .

I am about to start a big and important assignment from tomorrow . Raj has done his part , now its my part to be done . If everything goes fine , it will be done in a week's time . Wish me luck :)

Thank you for seeing !!

Have a great week ahead!!

Preeti :)

A stitcher's saying !!:)

Thank you for your overwhelming response on my happiness cross stitch in the last post . I came back early this week but was and still I am busy with unending tasks back home here . I missed my mother too, so did not feel like doing much .

However, I completed this stitcher's saying.......isn't it true ? ;)

I was not having the recommended blue shades for the border so I changed to pink . The original chart calls for french knots in each circle of the border but if you look at my french knots, then stitching these many was going to be a nightmare for me . So I tried using beads but even they looked bulky. I made small crosses to fill but those weren't looking good either . So I left those circles empty. Do you think it looks incomplete ? I feel I will spoil it if I don't get the french knots right .
Here's is the original design by the talented artist and my blogger friend, Rhona Norrie . I always admire her simple, cute and witty designs :)

I also got some time at my mother's place to complete this easy felt fabric case for her spectacles which she is going to use it with this crochet purse I made for her . I did not use proper template to cut the fabric, it could have been more neat.

My sister-in-law (my brother's wife) is a doctor by profession but she is also a great cook and an artist . She loves free hand embroidery and has created beautiful designs on her Indian tops . These two are the recent ones that she showed me .

This is Kashmiri embroidery where the design is filled using tiny chain stitches . It requires lot of patience and time .

This is Dharvadi embroidery which is similar to some counted embroideries done using net over the fabric . This one is done as a free hand embroidery . 

Isn't it beautiful ? :)

Here is another glance at my cross stitch . The chart for this can be found in the magazine, Cross Stitch Crazy, July 2012, issue 165 .

I had a nice time last week, eating my favorite food and lazying around :) Don't feel like doing much work here :(

I have many comments to reply and many blog posts to read .

Have a great day!
Preeti :)