Happy New Year!

Any resolutions people?

For me?

1. Get rid of stash namely fabrics collected from company over the last two years! So gotta to do some sewing.

2. Get on with WISP (work in slow progress) namely my kingsize bedspread!

3. Complete the 1826 and Long Dog.

4. Get the few FOs framed (or made into cushion cover!)

5. Go for bigger projects instead of pretty smalls which goes into hibernation in plastic bags! Smalls are only for exchanges!

6. Stop joining any more exchanges! Already up to my neck and its before 2008 even steps in!

7. Get healthier, walk more and hopefully carry on eating! Ok ok, eat a little lesser;

8. Loose 5 lbs by CNY?

~Emily

Learn-To-Quilt ~ Paying Partners Wanted!

I wish to pick up quilting in 2008! but need partners in crime! Join me at:

http://www.novascotiaquilts.com/2006/10/learn-to-quilt.html?ext-ref=comm-sub-email

Rgds
Emily

Here are the pictures!

What my young gurls are up to!

My eldest gurl has just moved in with some gurls from her work place and they wanted to bake cupcakes!

http://jaadiejinxed.multiply.com/photos/album/74/xmas_07_at_kelana_jaya


PS: I still dont know how to insert clickable links, so please cut and paste!

Christmas In & Around Kuala Lumpur!

I have no opportunity to take pictures of the various places in Kuala Lumpur where the Christmas deco are up, so click on the following link (non kosher - enter at your own risk! LOL) where the owner has lovely pictures as well as great pictures of glorious food of Malaysia!

http://ugwug.blogspot.com

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Emily

Received from Rose!

For our New Year Gift Exchange at Shuttles & Needles Group, Rose sent me lots of staff in purple!


Rose remembers I love cats motifs!


And Rose used the JT fabric swathes I gave her!


Lovely items she sent me!

Anniversary Gift to Jess!

Here is the Red and White runner I sent Jess!

New Additions to Chinese Spoons Collection!

Look what Janet Chan gave me! A pair of each pattern in blue and white colors combination and in three patterns. Thanks so much Janet!




Interesting piece of crochet work!

My Life at The Moment Is ......

Let's see what sucks:

1. Handphone is acting up (due to numerous drops from various heights!) - not thinking of getting a new one though - cos my fingers are numb due to current medical condition.

2. Digital camera is also acting up (though I dont remember dropping it!) have not made it to any shop to find out what's the matter - so no pictures whatsoever at the moment. Could be non functioning of rechargeable batteries - maybe time to get new ones - rechargeable batteries!

3. Body weight, size and shape is atrocious! need to not eat until Friday this week! hahahahaha Mmmph, had my favorite nasi lemak for breakfast this morning. On a good note, did not finish it in one go, eat the balance for lunch. Ooh, suddenly remember, had nasi lemak on sunday too! aiks! And had 4 sticks of Kit Kat and a packet of M&Ms for tea!

Highlights of the past week:
1. Visited Ikea for the very first time! Yeah! So very village man! But I did visit the Singapore Ikea way back in 1995! If that's any consolation!

2. Used my sewing machine over the weekend and found it to be in excellent working condition (yeah!)

3. Experiment with gluing string, buttons and ribbons to a metal box - yeah! so far so good, everything's still stuck to the metal box!

4. Spend the weekend with both my gurls! Yeah! feeling good!

Stitching:
None whatsoever over the past week! Have not recovered from the marathon stitching during the 5 day retreat! Did stitched on the Gameboard and LDSal then too!

Reading:
None whatsoever over the past week! Read Wicked! A Tale of Two Schools by Jilly Cooper (838 pgs) and The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens during the retreat!

That's all for the moment! Thanks for visiting! Do leave a comment on what you did for the past week that brought a smile to your face! It should cheer me up somewhat!

Gonna to be away abit next week!

From Monday through Wednesday ~ gonna be away for my 'retreat' and these are going with me!

READING:
1. Wicked! A Tale of Two Schools by Jilly Cooper
2. Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian (Translated from the Chinese by Mabel Lee)
3. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver (been meaning to read for a long2 time)
4. The Choice, The Programme by Bernadette Bohan (ISBN 0-00-722551-2 - if any one would like to check out the book!)
5. The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens (Mmmph - dont remember ever reading this title from younger days at all - about time then!)

STITCHING:
Probably the gameboard or the Long Dog Sampler, nope I think the GB deserve some of my overdue attention!

See you all when I get back!

Anniversary Exchange Gift ~ From Jean Angus!

And I drew Jean's fob and pincushion as my gift!

More Anniversary Gifts

Lets see, first there were 2 pincushions from Nik being award for my contribution of fabric swatches to the gurls:


Then, there was Faizon's tatted hanging ornament in Purple! and that cute flower wristlet from June (in lavender):


Then, Usha's crocheted hearts! and Margaret's alphabet fob (Mine's E, of course):


And then there was the special draw gift sponsored generously by Lody!:

Diyana's Anniversary Gift Exchange

Finally, here are pictures of the anniversary gift Diyana made as her gift. They were drawn by Ying, an avid paper crafter!





I am so proud of Diyana's skill in tatting these lace embellishments for the pillow cases. I do hope that she finds them beautiful too and make similar ones for her own use! Thanks to Faizon for teaching Diyana this amazing craft! and Thanks Nik! for the pictures!

WIP or rather none .... ?

Did some crochet on the drive to Melaka on Saturday! Massive traffic crawl coming into Kuala Lumpur on the Sungei Besi highway.....due to closure of major roads cos BERSIH!

Did no stitching whatsoever after that..... cos was reading Catherine Lim's The Song of Silver Frond (all of 328 pages on saturday night itself - 2 sittings - before and after dinner!)

Amazing storyline and a great reminder on why I love that lady's books so much! Book's ISBN 0-75285-692-8. Thanks dear Shantha for this book (am going to get my own copy soon).

Ok so who's next in line for this book before it goes back to Moving Library?

Warm regards,
Emily
ps: I know, I know - Emily's a bad gurl

http://freerice.com ~ Interesting ~ Do Visit!

Got this off my darling sister in New Zealand:

A site went up on October 7 called http://freerice.com.

Through a word game, they donate 10 grains of rice through the UN for every correct answer.

The game itself is quite interesting, and the idea of course is brilliant.

A haven for word aficionados with any concerns about world hunger.


Enjoy!

4th Nov 2007 ~ Terry Fox Run!

DH dropped Diyana and I off at the Lake Gardens this morning at 8am for the Terry Fox Run! This will be the second run for me! Last year it was left to me to do the run on my own although there were a number of Malaysian_Bookcrossers who were keen!....but......

But this year there were three of us! Azwan, Diyana and moi!

Diyana & AuntyJo!

Azwan & AuntyJo

Azwan & Diyana

Starting Line!

Off We Go!

Family!

Young & Old


Water Service!

Almost at the Finish Line!

Needles n Crafts - 1st Anniversary Update!

Hi Everyone!

Wow, that was indeed a fabulous anniversary meetup! and here's wishing that we enjoy many more to come!

Thank you Nik for NNC and MW for the organisation and Jackie for helping out!

Hey hey, Diyana and I were the first to arrive, with Just Heavenly's Triple Expresso Brownies, Beef Rendang, Sotong Sambal and our exchange gifts! Nik had her place all ready for us and with Aiman and her DH out on a Boys Only day leaving us ladies the run of the house!

Nik's craft room is to be envious of (and luckily for me, Diyana did not see that room otherwise she will be shaking her head at the status of MY room!). Nik has loads of her FOs all framed and hung on the walls and there is a huge variety of stuff she has done over the years.

MW, JW, BJ, JC and Anna were next to arrive with delish Nasi Briyani (courtesy of MW), Banana Cake (BJ's), Carrot Cake (Anna's), Ipoh White Coffe (JC's). By now Nik's dining table is two thirds covered! Nik made Lontong ~ nasi impit, kuah lodeh, chocolate swissroll, kueh raya and iced Rose Syrup.

We were soon joined by Usha! who brought loads of yummy Kesari, Josephine with jelly/pudding, June with 'homemade' yummmy yam cake, seafood pizza; Rose with dhall curry! Next to arrive was Faizon with macaroni and cheese - delish! Linda and Azie were last to pop by with more kueh raya!

As usual I made a glutton of myself and mid way through the afternoon - had a lovely cup of Ipoh White Coffee to wake me up!

We had a gorgeous time catching up on our various stitching activies, show and tell, Faizon even gave a quick tatting lesson to Anna and Usha! She also demonstrate needle tatting to the tatters amongst us! And as usual it was BJ and Nik posing for picture of their completed FOs ~ this time it was the LDSal! And hey there was Nik and my SHS pieces too!

Me and Diyana were shamelessly collecting loads of personalised presents from everyone else (aiyoh we must learn to make smalls as presents too.. sometime soon... before the next meetup! LOL) Thank you thank you! to MW, Nik, Usha!, June! Faizon! Lody!

We had a lovely draw for the exchange gifts! Wow there were loads of fantastic items made by each and every one of us! What can I say, talented bunch of ladies we are!

What a great time we had and I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I am sure Diyana did too!

And here are the pictures of my completed SHS! I personalised it with change of colors to the alphabets and colors in the house too. Upstairs light belongs to my DH and downstairs is lit cos Emily is sneaking a bite of Just Heavenly's Triple Expresso Brownies in the kitchen!

Update ~ SHS @ 22 Oct!

I intend to put in the last stitches on 30 October 2007! I personalised mine to reflect NnC where the SHS is being circulated. Good idea? But I would like to re do "NnC" in a darker tone.

I had frogged the littles hearts slated in the space between my name and the completion date twice already. I guess the original large heart motif is going into that space!

When you have to frog a certain area twice or more... its time to take a breather! Gonna concentrate on the house this weekend travelling down to Melaka. Yup, making another trip back there and coming back to Kuala Lumpur only on Monday!

Views on Aging ~ George Carlin

IF YOU DON'T READ THIS TO THE VERY END, YOU HAVE LOST A DAY IN YOUR LIFE. AND WHEN YOU HAVE FINISHED, DO AS I AM DOING AND SEND IT ON.

George Carlin's Views on Aging

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

'How old are you?' 'I'm four and a half!' You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key.

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

'How old are you?' 'I'm gonna be 16!' Yould be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony.

YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would! But you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; 'I Was JUST 92.'

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. 'I'm 100 and a half!' May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them.'

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen.Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes,music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10.Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

And if you don't send this to at least 8 people - who cares? But do share this with someone. We all need to live life to its fullest each day!!

Updates!

I finished my French Country - Rooster! Gonna stitch another later!



And update on the LDSAL which has been put aside for the SHS piece. No further progress on the Gameboard.

Update on SHS

On the way down to Melaka I stitched the first alphabets of the words HOME and NEEDLEWORKER but sadly had to frog them upon arrival as I was distracted by DH chatting to me!

But I managed a fair bit of stitching at night over the long weekend in Melaka. And would have finished the bottom border if I was not occupied with cracking groundnuts for DH on the journey BACK!



From now on I will only stitch this piece an hour each evening!

Sister Hood Stitching

Received the "Home of A Needleworker" by Little House Needleworks chart via Dropzone from Nik on Tuesday, 9th October 2007 and I have three weeks to stitch it before sending it over to our Margaret Wong on 30th October? Or shall I just hand it over to her personally at our 1st Anniversary Meetup on 3rd November? Great idea?

Here is what I stitched so far for the last two nights. I stitched the roof while watching a handsome doctor lift off into space!



I had the chance to compare two brands of size 28 needles, DMC (pack I bought for the FRE project) and Piecemakers (sold by Jean). DMC needles are fragile while Piecemakers are firm despite the size. Ok Piecemakers win hands down!

The SHS being a small project, I am using the decorative hoop (rubber outer piece with plastic for the inner one) to stitch it. Very handi and easy peachy putting in and the taking out of the fabric from it! Love this purchase. Check out Dania's Mother shop at her site!

New WIP

I started a small piece of stitching, a JBW Design ~ French Country ~ Rooster! Bought it from Jean's online store. Using DMC 75, one over on a 20ctn yellow fabric I picked up real cheap ~ RM1 for a fat quarter!



I used a decorative hoop to hold the fabric while stitching. The hoop is plastic and the wood grain looks very real. The hoop come in 2 sizes and I bought them from Dania's mother's online store! Sorry - I cleaned the shelf out of them!

NNCC from Me to Janet!

Here is my card to Janet for the NNCC organised by Ying; she supplied us with all the necessary paper materials.




I added a crochetted bookmark to compensate for my lack of experience in card making!

All By Myself

Sad to announce that I have to get used to being by myself from this year onwards..... on sundays only! Eldest gurl being 24 is independent and living on her own; second gurl just started serious training at AirAsia.... and studying for exams.

So I went out by myself and stashed mags for work and crafts, threads, knitting needles, crochet needles. Even went for a long overdue facial!





I finished the bed runner on saturday and here are the pictures: