A pleasant surprise and my first project.

So two things happened last week. I was co-organising a conference and also I bought myself a sewing machine.

I had to miss the conference dinner on Thursday because I was working in the evening. The next day boss handed me a gift box, saying that it was a token of appreciation from the assocation that I was helping to organise the Conference for.

It was definitely a very pleasant surprise because I hadn't expected it. As curious as I was, I didn't want to rip open the packaging to see what it was because after all, we were still at the Conference. But I sneaked a peek as soon as I got chance and absolutely loved the gift.

You can't really see it clearly but it's a thin silver chain with an apple. It's really lovely and cute. The Conference was held on the 7th Floor of the Executive Business Centre and needless to say, it was equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and I was particularly taken by the 'techno booths' especially designed for group discussions.

Of course back in those student days, we weren't privileged enough to have such hi-tech equipment that would have made group discussions on presentations so much easier. You sit in groups and view your slides together and one of you can make any necessary changes to the slides and you can plug in your own laptop too. I notice these techno booths in the library too. So canggih ah?

So after fiddling with my new sewing machine for a couple of days I decided to make an ironing mat, which would be my first project. I started off trying to make a quilt-like mat but halfway through realised that a quilt is not going to be ideal for ironing on as you can imagine that whatever you iron will have grooves and lines on them. So I did patch work on one side, and plain cotton fabric as the backing, which would be the side that I'll use for ironing. These pictures show you the sequence of the project.

Arranging the squares for patching.

Stitching them together stage by stage.

Done.

Framed.

Preparing to stitch the front, middle and back together.

And adding a binding on the edges. This was the state as of last night before I went to bed. Having a bit of problem doing the binding coz it's a pain in the backside. I hope to be able to finish it tonight as I'll be working nights for the next three days and won't be able to touch my sewing machine again till Friday night.

Oh and totally unrelated, I bought a box of 'Curiously strong mint' from Marks and Spencer just so that I can use the tin for my pins.

I was going round all evening trying to force my colleagues to finish the mints so that I can start using the tin box. Crazy. I had one of the boys stuff his mouth with 7 mints at one time. Bless him.

Oh here's my sewing space. Quite a small area but I'm utilising every inch of available space and still it was a bit tight.

Okay. After I finish this first project, I'll be looking for something else to make. So till then, adios.

Have I left my blog for too long?

Well there wasn't very many exciting things to write about, that's why the long period of silence....

Today however, I have a few pictures to show you of my weekend just gone... what a fantastic foody weekend it was.

Last Saturday, from morning leading to evening, almost everyone was in this hythened state of excitement and was getting more and more psyched up by the minute over the much awaited World Cup match between England and USA. I, on the other hand, was getting extremely excited about a promise Steve made before the weekend to cook up a brilliant seafood paella with fresh seafood, while getting ready for the BIG match. To top it off, when we were shopping for the seafood in the morning, we decided that a meal is not complete without desserts so the plan was to make some chocolate profiteroles for afters.

I'll let these sequence of pictures tell you how it went.

Big fat juicy cockles and they were absolutely delicious too.

Oh I forgot to mention, when we were at the fish mongers, there were lots and lots of live crabs and they weren't expensive so I insisted that we get one and Steve had to kill it. He wasn't happy about that. He said kesian the crab.After the crab's been cleaned, we cooked it in Black Pepper Sauce and it was absolutely yummy. By then, Steve was still feeling sorry for the crab. I wasn't.

The paella rice cooking in pure chicken and seafood stock.

Almost ready now. The side of the pan decorated with mussles and cockles. The paella was absolutely delicious and to die-for. It wasn't cheap at all. That's one thing I don't like about the UK. Not being able to get fresh seafood at affordable and reasonable prices. The cost of the seafood for that paella was probably close to 15pounds. But it was absolutely worth it because we even had enough leftovers for lunch.

What's Sasha waiting for?

That's Steve preparing the choclate for the profiteroles and sadly Sasha wasn't allowed any. I'll show you the profiteroles.

Nice? It was very creamy and nice. This is the before-chocolate shot and I love it.

On Sunday, we decided to sit in the garden for a bit of sunshine. And I took this picture as I was lying down on a rug on the front lawn. The weather forecast wasn't meant to be good for that day but you can see clearly from the picture that they were wrong, again.

And I've got a new hobby.

What could it be?

Yup, I have caught the sewing bug transmitted by Fely. It cost me an absolute fortune because it's computerised and also it's Husqvarna Viking. This whole business of buying a sewing machine has been a bit of a journey for me and in fact as we speak, there's still the tail-end of the palavar which will hopefully be resolved soon. Long story short, first order I placed, the buyer did not state that it was a US machine until before it was despatched and I had to cancel the order. I was very disappointed but at the same time relieved coz I thought that was an opportunity to reassess spending such a large sum on a sewing machine when I barely knew how to sew. So the whole online search and shop began again and I found a different model that I'm happy with and Steve helped me secure a deal with an online company who promised a cash discount instead of free gifts. If you know me well enough you'll see this coming. Instead of ordering a much cheaper model, I have gone one notch higher and ordered something even more expensive than the first! (crazy, I know) The machine arrived and lo and behold, it was the wrong one. So we rang and now we're expecting them to send another one and in the meantime, I am allowed to use this machine until the other one arrives and I'm having tons and tons of fun on it!!

Bare in mind I am a complete beginner when it comes to sewing machine and this is what I managed to do on the machine so far.

 I am most delighted with the ability to create alphabets (Fely, you're laughing).... I must say Husqvarna Viking Emerald 203 is very easy to use, easy to understand and because it is computerised, programming it to do various stitches is very easy. There were a few initial hiccups in terms of loading the bobbin and starting the stitch without it bunching... but after a few more attempts I got better and better and had so much fun creating various patterns on my old clothes.

But as Fely promptly reminded me, sewing is not all about creating fun stitches on your old clothes, it is about making fun and creative projects. Hopefully I'll be able to update my blog really soon with news of those. Meantime, I'm looking forward to going home and making more fun stitches on my old clothes later !!!

And it was a success...

If you know me at all, I don't cook, bake or vacuum.

Yesterday, I did two of the above mentioned, because I wanted to make Steve's birthday special. I took half a day off work (and Steve didn't have a clue I was planning all this) and decided to bake a surprise birthday cake, and to cook a special birthday dinner. So, with the help and moral support from dearest Fely, I embarked on this challenge (I don't care what you think, it is a challenge to me)

After rushing around Sainsbury's grabbing all the ingredients I needed, I came home and happily laid out all the ingredients ready to start because I knew I needed all the time in the world for everything to go according to plan. ALAMAK, then I realised the Vanilla Extract that I had put in the shopping trolley must have fallen out before I got to the check out so I was missing the single most important ingredient !! So, I jumped in the car again, raced to Tesco, got my missing ingredient, and raced back. So now the picture is complete.

So I printed out the recipe from here and got started.

A good start?

It is surprising the number of oranges and lemons you need in order to generate a substantial amount of rind from them.

Kenwood chef working hard...

So far so good?

Cake finally in the oven. Unfortunately I was too eager to stick the cake batter in the oven so I forgot to take a picture of it before it went into the oven. I am not in the habit of licking cake batter, as you can see...

Fresh from the oven...

Cooling down...

After a layer of chocolate icing... Fely's expert recipe and opinion was a GREAT help... thanks hun...

At this stage, I started to panic a bit about running out of time and I started doing EVERYTHING all at once -- decorating the dining room, wrapping the presents, writing the card, dashing back into the kitchen to check on the icing to see if I could start writing on it...

And the finished product....I was told later on that decorating it with fresh orange segments, not a very good idea... but I thought they looked nice anyway....Notice the word 'Birthday' being shortened? By the time I had finished writing 'B' I knew I wouldn't have enough space to fit in 'irthday' in that tiny space... :P

 After the cake, I quickly cleared all the dishes away, getting rid of all the evidence of a cake being made, and got started with preparing dinner -- Shoulder of pork steaks marinated in black pepper and char siu sauce, and stir fried kai lan with mushrooms...

The birthday boy blowing his candles after dinner.... he was still wearing his chef trousers after a hard day's work...poor thing had to work on his birthday...

 As you can see the cake went down quite well so I took it as a sign that it must have been quite a success...

A special thanks to my dear, dear friend Fely who was there for me the whole time...

I never win anything, until now...

Do you find yourself being EXTRA motivated in completing surveys and questionnaires when the reward for the prize draw is attractive and lucrative?! That's what I did...

Three weeks ago, a survey was launched at my workplace and I, along with 600 other people took part in the survey, in the hope of becoming the lucky winner in the random prize draw. I have done that many times and since very young, I have not had much luck in lucky draws so I did not harbour any hope at all.

So I got back into the office this week after my two-week holiday and have long forgotten about the questionnaire and the prize until I got an email yesterday.

Apparently, I have been randomly selected (with a randomiser software) as the winner for the prize!!! How about that?! Of course I was beyond ecstatic and my exact response -- "You are joking !!!!!!!!!! You're not pulling my leg, are you?!!!"

So the bearer of the prize came by yesterday and dropped this off for me.

 Yup, that's my name. That's for me !

So I opened it and revealed this...

Can you guess what it is at this stage? Is it a book? Is it a pencil case? Okay, okay, let's carry on then...

The all-too-familiar symbol?! Surely you can guess by now? No? Okay another picture to show you...

Yup. You guessed right.

It is a brand-spanking new 8GB Ipod Touch by Apple.

The trouble with this is, I already own an Ipod Nano which Steve got me on X'mas a few years back and I am absolutely happy with it even until today. As for the WiFi capability and being able to surf the net and check my emails yada yada yada, I've got my BlackBerry to do all that. So technically, technically speaking, I have no need for this Ipod Touch. Even when I got the MacBook last year, it came with an almost-free Ipod Touch (cost me £20) and I sold it for the same reason, I didn't think I need one. Today, another Ipod Touch has yet again managed to appear in my possession and I am again left with the decision of what I would do with it. I was admiring it last night and Steve said ,'You are tempted to keep it, aren't you?'. Well, yes, I am tempted to keep it but I know I'll grow tired of it after a day or two, after the initial excitment has died down. So, so... I think I shall sell it and put the money towards getting a sewing machine!! What do you think?! I think it is a brilliant idea !!!!

Simple Cross-Stitch Tips

Getting some encouragement from Fely, I finally decided to pick up from where I left off with my Cross-Stitch of Sasha two years ago.

This is the picture that I'm making the cross-stitch from. 

Sasha was just a few months old then and she hasn't started growing her 'trademark' beard yet, which is why I decided this would be the best picture to use.  And I have really enjoyed cross-stitching this picture so far. This is how far I've got to.

I know, I've got a long way to go yet!!
You probably can't see it clearly but you can just about make out on the right hand side the contour of Sasha's face with her right ear flapping down. Due to the type of fabric I've chosen, the squares are extremely small and it's quite a job trying to follow the chart and stitch at the same time without losing your place constantly. It is especially challenging when you get to a part with lots of different colours like this.

So I've decided to fashion a marker in which I can use to hold the paper in place, while marking my progress on the chart. I started off with this.

Nothing fancy, just a straight piece of rather thick wire. 

 

Next, bend the wire following the shape of a paper clip.

And then you'll get this.

Simple, right? But be careful you don't poke your eyes out with the sharp ends.

And then, clip it anywhere on the side of your chart like you would a paper clip. Move it accordingly to which part of the chart you're working on.

To make it even more effective, use a black marker and make a tiny mark on the point of the giant paper clip like this.

And not only will this help to make your chart stay more in place, you'll never lose your place on it, ever again!

Another tip I find extremely useful, especially after you have worked a few different colours from your chart, is to keep your loose threads organised and properly labelled. 

Start off with this.

Again, nothing fancy, just a piece of paper folded in half with holes punched on one side from top to bottom. Tie the loose threads each colour to a hole and label them like this.

That way, you'll never lose track of which code the loose threads belong to. Sometimes, because there may be two or three colours with shades that are very close to one another, it is extremely difficult to tell which colour is which without properly organising and labelling them. This will make your life so much easier when you're trying to reuse your loose threads again.

Another tip I find useful is colour marking the chart as I go along. (Assuming that you are not going to use the plan again)

Just get a few gel pens, and mark your progress on your chart. This way, you'll find it easier to keep track of your overall progress.

It might be a bit messy, but I find this method extremely useful every time I want to pick up my project again after leaving it for some time.

These are just a few handy tips which I find extremely useful in helping to keep me organised and to make my cross-stitch experience a bit more fun and hassle-free.

Try them and let me know!!