Friday, May 13, 2011

Mother's Day


Design: Rose in the Morning by Little House Needleworks
Threads: Recommended Crescent Colours, DMC B5200 and 809
Fabric: 32ct waterlily Jobelan
Start/Finish: 10/02 & 17, 12/27-29/2010, 2/5-6/2011
Framed: February 2011



Close-up of framed design

A gift for my mother on Mother's Day. She hasn't decided where to hang this piece and so it is displayed on the mantle in the living room amongst her collection of Blue Ridge pottery.

When we went to the framer in February, my aunt and I chose a cherry colored frame and rose colored matboard to compliment the waterlily linen. My aunt has an eye for color combinations so she always comes with me to the framer when I have a stack of designs to frame :)

Until next time ^___^

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Top 100 Books List *updated*

My aunt was asking me about this list that I had posted back in July 2008. I thought I'd re-post the list with the books that I've read.

I've read 44 books on this list; in July 2008, I had read 36 of these books.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated.
5) Reprint this list in your own blog.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Don't be an average adult!! Read more than 6 books on the list! You won't regret it. I recommend any of books by the following authors: Louisa M. Alcott, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas, or Thomas Hardy.

Happy reading and/or stitching ;)

Monday, May 9, 2011

Once Upon A Time sampler


Design: Untitled (Once Upon a Time sampler) by Stitch Ideas Volume 11
Fabric: 32ct ice blue Zweigart
Threads: DMC white
Start/Finish: 5/8/2011


Hi! I stitched up this little sampler yesterday while watching Little Dorrit on DVD. Isn't it cute? I don't know the official title for this piece as it is in one of my Japanese craft magazines so I call it the Once Upon a Time sampler. I love the swans and the castle!

I wish the photo turned out better as the fabric is a lovely blue color.

Until next time ^____^

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Stitch Ideas

Hi, I came home this afternoon to two packages from eBay sellers. I bought a bound volume of Cosmopolitan magazine from 1891-1892. It has some interesting articles on marriage in Japan during that time period and the Chicago's World Fair.

I also received the latest issue of Stitch Ideas from Japan via one of my favorite sellers of Japanese craft magazines.



I think I've found some designs that I want to start on. It has a whole section devoted to children's literature adapted for embroidery and cross-stitch. They have some lovely embroidery designs for Anne of Green Gables and my all time favorite, The Secret Garden. They also have a gorgeous design of a mermaid.

I can't wait to get started on some of these designs. I need to go by my LNS and get some linen this weekend.

Until next time ^____^

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

April Recap *Edit*

April Recap

Read:
1. Love Comes Softly by Janette Oke
2. Castle Waiting 2 by Linda Medley
3. The Sugarless Plum by Zippora Karz
4. The Buntline Special by Mike Resnick
5. The Light Princess and Other Fairy Tales by George MacDonald
6. Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
7. Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon
8. Fairest of All by Serena Valentino
9. Beastly by Alex Flinn
10. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
11. Swan Volume 2 manga by Ariyoshi Kyoko
12. Swan Volume 3 manga by Ariyoshi Kyoko
13. Snow by Tracy Lynn

As you can see I've gotten no cross stitching done this month, I had started a Mill Hill kit, but had to start over on it. I worked on it over the weekend, but had to pull out stitches on the fence area. Despite the DMC colors given in the chart, they did not match the thread colors that actually came with the kit. So now I'm restitching the fence area.

I haven't been in the mood to stitch for a while. **Found something!** Last month wasn't the greatest for starting projects as I've been swamped at work until just recently.

I think I might see what's in my stash that I can start on since my mind isn't too favorable towards that Mill Hill kit right now!

Until next time ^____^

CA Trip and foodie photos

Hi, I promised that I would at least have one post about our vacation to CA in March and I’ve finally found the time to get around to it.

My sister and I spent a week in Covina, CA with a dear friend of ours, armed with an itinerary for a week’s worth of sightseeing.

Here is a list of what we crammed into a week in CA:
1. Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple
2. Beauty and the Beast Broadway
3. Getty Villa and antique store in Malibu
3. LA’s Little Tokyo, Angel's Flight, and Grand Central Market
4. Getty Museum
5. Natural History Museum
6. Page Museum/La Brea Tar Pits
7. Horseback riding
8. Malls, Asian plazas for stores with K-dramas, CDs, etc.

I think our list of visited restaurants and cafés is longer than our sightseeing! So much yummy food....

1. BJ’s restaurant and brewery
2. Dim sum restaurant
3. Akasaka Japanese Fine Cuisine
4. Pink’s Hot Dogs
5. In & Out burgers
6. Sugar Rush café
7. Pinkberry yogurt
8. Frisco’s restaurant
9. Genki Living – Japanese crepes
10. Porto’s Cuban Bakery and Café
11. Korean BBQ
12. Taco Express
13. Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles
14. Daphne’s Greek Café
15. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf
16. 85 Degrees Bakery
17. Jurassic Restaurant – Taiwanese


Dim Sum: Nothing says culture shock like a dim sum restaurant if you have never been to one. In the years that I have traveled to CA to visit, I've been to this restaurant twice and it still gives me culture shock!!


Pink's Hot Dogs - downtown LA: One of my sister's request while in CA was to visit Pink's in LA. We went after the Beauty and the Beast Broadway. It was worth the wait for the hot dogs.


Sugar Rush café - cinnamon and raisin toast with banana syrup: Our friend Amanda suggested this little café, which is great for breakfast. The banana syrup is freshly made with every order of toast.....yummy!!


Pinkberry for yogurt in Little Tokyo, LA: We stopped here on our way through Little Tokyo. We do not have a Pinkberry in Mobile, but we do have other yogurt places that have popped up recently.


Genki Living - model for crepe: After a sandwich and fries at Frisco's, we stopped by the Life Plaza for crepes at Genki Living. The photo is a model of the type of crepe that Amanda and I shared. It is a neat little shop, you can watch them make your crepe. You can choose from the models or suggest your own fillings.


Potato ball - Porto's Cuban Bakery: On our way to the Getty Museum, we stopped by Porto's for breakfast/lunch. It was delicious. The potato balls are to die for!!


Turkey on croissant with guava chips: My sandwich at Porto's! I loved the guava chips. My sister and I both agree that the next time we visit CA, we will have to stop at Porto's again :)


Lemon whoopie pie with raspberry filling at Getty Museum: The museum has a large cafeteria area with sections set up for different ethnic foods and self-serve cases with drinks, chips, and sweets. I chose a lemon raspberry whoopie pie as a snack after touring the museum.


Burrito at Taco Express: One morning we had Mexican for breakfast before going into LA to see the National History Museum and the tar pits.


Chicken/Cheese Omelet at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles: My sister suggested this restaurant after she and my friend were done with their two hour horseback ride to the Hollywood sign. I've never been to a chicken and waffle restaurant before this; it was very good. My sister actually had the chicken and waffles, which I sampled...yum!


Daphne's Greek Café: We had Greek for lunch on the last day we were in CA :)


Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf: Coffee after Greek food. Anther one of my sister's requests for the vacation. Yummy! I wish we had one in Mobile!!


85 Degrees Bakery: This is a Taiwanese bakery in Irvine, CA. It is quite popular in Taiwan, but there is only one branch in the United States. If you don't get there early, you could be in line for more than two hours. I think between standing in line, ordering our baked goods, and paying for them, we were in the store for about an hour. I have mixed feelings about the bakery. I loved their pineapple buns and taro buns, but I think you can still get good baked goods at your local Asian bakery without making a trip out to Irvine.....unless you really want fresh hot taro buns.

The last place we stopped at before our flight back to AL was Jurassic Restaurant, which has the craziest interior I've ever seen. It is a Taiwanese restaurant with scantily dressed waitresses serving food in a room decorated with faux palm trees, vines, and dinosaurs to go with the Jurassic theme. I really should have taken a picture of the restaurant, but I didn't think about it at the time. They did have some great pineapple fried rice!

All in all, our trip to CA was lots of fun, though I think next time we will skip the itinerary and just wing it!! I can't wait to go back again :)

Until next time ^____^