An Anime Christmas

I can't believe I haven't posted since the 11th of December! Busy with work and life in general! Yesterday after work I went by a friend's house for our Friday anime night. LOL We didn't get around to watching much anime, just talking and enjoying the company of friends. I've got a few pictures of the gifts that I gave this year. I went with an Japanese theme of course :)


Just a group shot of all the gift bags, a gift card for Books-A-Million, and 50 Things We Love About Japan book! Everyone with the gift bags got the same book in addition to the items below. I didn't get the one guy in our group the same gifts, just a gift card because I knew he wouldn't like the girly-ness below ^__^

For the girls' gifts, I got each of them a different colored/themed Hello Kitty bento box filled with Japanese fruit gummies and hard candy. Don't you just love this cute bento box! It is two-tier and small; perfect for snacks or a small salad and veggies! They all got a box of strawberry Pocky, the same book, and a cell phone charm. Each cell phone charm was different depending on what anime they favored :) The cell charm in this photo is a cute Totoro with an acorn; it is from the anime My Neighbor Totoro. I love Studio Ghibli films, Hayao Miyazaki is a brilliant visionary when it comes to Japanese anime.

One of my friends absolutely LOVES Sailor Moon anime/manga series! She collects anything dealing with SM. It's a pity that the series' license expired in the U.S. and it is no longer in print! I found a lovely cell charm on eBay that has a picture of all the Sailor Scouts on it. Her bento box has Hello Kitty in front of a castle :)


LOL My other friend loves D-Grayman so I got her a cute charm with the character Allen Walker. He is always eating so I thought this charm was perfect! The manga for this series is good; hopefully a U.S. company will pick up the anime series! Her bento box has Hello Kitty in front of a little town ^__^ Too cute!



A picture of my stash of gifts from the girls in my anime group! I got the latest issue of the Gothic/Lolita Bible put out by TokyoPop in the U.S. and a lovely antique-ish brooch with amethyst and diamond-like stones from one friend. A beautiful statue of a Japanese geisha holding a piece of embroidery in her hand! The girl that got it for me also cross stitches so it was a thoughtful gift. My other friend got me a keychain with the character Irvine Kinneas from Final Fantasy 8, one my favorite FF games and some stickers from the Clamp series Magical Rayearth.

I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday season!

Ugh...

Temperatures changing constantly, a rain cloud or two, and you have the perfect recipe for the common cold. This is the second one in the space of a month that I’ve come down with so far and I’m blaming it on changing temperatures inside and outside. I’m lucky it isn’t what I usually come down with during the months of November or December, bronchitis <-- very evil!!! I think my only saving grace from bronchitis this year is the fact that I’m no longer in school and don’t have to worry about catching it from someone sitting near me during class! LOL Now all I have to worry about is the spreading of office germs!!

So with all these silly colds, I haven’t been stitching much lately if at all. I’ve heard of people who can still stitch or knit while being sick, but I’m definitely not one of those people, though it depends on the type of cold. I think in my case, it is the medicine I’ve been taking….makes me sleepy all the time. At the end of the workday, I just go home and watch TV or a movie and go to sleep. I have no energy to stitch, which is sad because I would love to finish my Elements sampler this month. I tried to stitch on it over the weekend, but the dragon I’m working on……was overwhelming. There are only two thread colors on this sampler, but the dragon has both of them together and I shouldn’t have tried to read my chart after taking cold medicine. All the squares kept running together so I put my cross-stitch away!

Despite my crazy cold and the sleep-inducing medicine (I think they mislabeled it non-drowsy), my aunt and I were able to go by Pensacola to my LNS on Saturday and get a few pieces framed for Christmas. Kathy at Needle Delights was very helpful about giving advice for mat colors and showing my aunt and I how those mats and certain frames help to make colors ‘pop out’ in my stitched pieces. We were very much indebted to Kathy for taking our order for the frames. Somehow I had missed the email about the framing deadline, but she was nice enough to put us in the order that she was making that week to get pieces framed for Christmas!!!!

I can’t wait to pick them up this weekend! They will cost a small fortune, but it will be worth it to see Christmas Tea and the JBW dog design framed!!! By the way, did you guys see the amazing job that Carolina Dreams did on her Christmas Tea pattern? She had the right color linen, unlike my platinum linen, so her colors really ‘popped.’ I also like the frame she painted for her piece.

Oh, by the way, I was actually good this time when I went to Needle Delights. My aunt and I talked to Kathy about frames and then we browsed the store. I promised myself that I would not buy any more patterns until I had finished what was in my stash at home! LOL I kept my promise! My self-control actually worked this time! I only bought some light mocha cashel linen by Zweigart for two Little House Needlework designs that I want to work on next year after I finish my Elements sampler. I also bought a few skeins of thread that the patterns called for that weren’t your average DMC colors.

In other news, I am almost done with my Christmas shopping. I still have one aunt to buy for and an uncle who never gives anyone a list for Christmas. I’m totally at a loss as to what I should get him. He has been talking about wanting a Kindle, but they are so expensive, and luckily sold out on Amazon so none of us has to even consider it as a Christmas gift!!! <-- That would have definitely been a joint gift with several people chipping in to afford it!!

Now what? I still don’t have a clue. LOL Typical gift-buying dilemma, you always know what to get for your aunts/mothers, etc., but never the guys in the family. Well, I’ll think of something, especially since my sister and I are going to Pensacola on Saturday to pick up my framed pieces. We were thinking of going to their mall and looking for Christmas gifts. Pensacola’s malls are so much better than Mobile’s malls, which contains more jewelry and shoe stores than should be allowed! Though I will say that at least we have the Eastern Shore Centre across the bay that is nice. Reminds me of Staines’ outdoor shopping centre in England!

Happy Stitching or Shopping!

Book geek!

Guess what I got in the mail today?


Emma goodies!

As I mentioned in previous posts, one of my favorite manga/anime series is Victorian Romance Emma by Kaoru Mori! I found these animation guides on eBay from a seller in Japan. Of course, the text is in Japanese, but I couldn't resist these books. They feature scenes from the anime series and drawings from the manga!!

My sister and I went by Target this evening and we picked up the newest book by J.K. Rowling, which isn't really new when you think about it being in HP 7.



I love the fact that the proceeds from this book's sale goes to charity! The same goes for J.K. Rowling's other smaller books, Quidditch Through the Ages and The Monster Book of Monsters!

Books were on my brain today apparently because I finished reading Mansfield Park on my lunch break at work ^___^ It was the only book I hadn't read of Jane Austen's books!

What am I going to read next? Well, for starters, The Tales of Beedle the Bard and then maybe Polite Lies, a Japanese memoir.

LOL And yes, I will get back to stitching soon!! This week I've been getting house work done after I come home from work. Good way to get things done now and not let them pile up for the weekend!!

Happy Stitching or Reading ^______^

A flurry of snowflakes :)

I finally got around to finishing Christmas Tea by Plum Street Samplers!


Design: Plum Street Samplers, 'Christmas Tea'
Thread: Belle Soie threads, DMC Perwinkle?
Fabric: 32 ct platinum linen
Finished: 7/26, 29, 31 and 8/10-11, 12/1-2/2008

The Vanilla Pudding color was nice, but it didn't show up on my platinum linen so I decided on a blue color for the snowflakes :) I never got a chance to go by Needle Delights and chose another color of Belle Soie so I decided last night to just go with a DMC color :) I chose a light blue, I'm thinking it is a perwinkle color....I'll have to look it up and see what the number is O_o"

Now I just have to make a trip to Pensacola to get my stitched pieces framed!!!

Happy Stitching ^___^

Thanksgiving stitching :)

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving with their families. We had a good Thanksgiving at my grandmother's house. My aunts and uncle joined us for our crazy spread of goodies. LOL One of my aunts made some non-traditional items for our dinner in addition to everything else such as stuffed mushrooms (yummy), deviled eggs, and two desserts, cheesecake and chocolate cake!!!

With a four-day weekend I managed to get a lot of stitching done!


Almost finished with my Feu block!! Just a few more motifs left :)


Sorry about the dim lighting!!!


LOL My stitching movies ^___^

Since the past few days have been dismal in terms of weather (lots of rain and wind), I sat in the dining room and stitched away while watching a few period drama film/series!! LOL I'm a period drama geek, which my family can attest to with the Christmas list I came up with this year O_o"

Speaking of period dramas, one of my favorite film companies, Sullivan Co. in Canada, had a Black Friday sale online!!! I bought the entire series of Road to Avonlea for $125......talk about a deal because the set of them usually goes for $280!!!! The same company produced the Anne of Green Gables series, another one of my favorites (the movies and books)!!

I know I shouldn't be spending money on myself, but I thought if I'm going to buy one big thing for myself this year it was going to be this series. My sister and I used to love watching this series on the Disney Channel when we were kids. We didn't get to finish the series though :( We didn't have cable when we were little so we had to wait for the channel to be 'free' for a month or so and we would watch what episodes we could before the channel wasn't free anymore. I love how the Disney Channel is a free channel with TVs now ^___^

I can't wait for my dvd sets to come in the mail!!! It will be something nice to watch while stitching on my Elements sampler. I have two more small motifs, a bit of the alphabet, and a large dragon to finish in the Feu block and I'll have that one done :) I'm hoping I can finish this sampler by the end of the year. I think I'll be able to do so as long as I stitch everyday :)

I want to work on some small-sized patterns next year in my stash instead of starting on my other French sampler by Anagram Diffusion called Saisons. I have a few Little House Needleworks patterns I would love to stitch up :)

Happy Stitching everyone ^___^

Feu update and mags :)

I haven't stitched that much this week. I got a cold last weekend while mowing the yard....in the cold air. I'm finally getting over it after a lot of cold medicine, Kleenex, juice, and soup.

I did get some stitching done on my Feu block while watching my grandmother this weekend.


Feu block! Sorry about the wrinkles, I just removed the Q-snaps when I took some photos O_o"

I had a chance on Saturday morning to go by my local bookstore and buy some craft mags :)



The Cross-Stitch and Needlework magazine for January 2009 has a lovely Christmas biscornu pattern that I would love to start stitching. I need to go to my LNS and get some nice fabric and threads for it :) The latest issue of Piecework has an interesting article about the history of Oriental embroidery/cross stitch. It also has two charts that can be reproduced for personal use!!!

Happy Stitching ^___^

Safety first!

I just got an email from a friend of mine who lives in CA to let me know that her family is ok with all the fires in southern CA. She said she and her mom had things packed up in case they had to evacuate the area.

I hope everyone is being safe with these fires. Personal possessions can always be replaced, human lives cannot. If you live in area that might be at risk of fires, kept photos, etc. in a box along with your important papers that can easily be picked up and put in your car when you evacuate. If your local law enforcement officers tell you to evacuate, please do so!!

Wishing safety to all those in CA who are dealing with wildfires!

Yummy!

Last weekend I bought several holiday baking magazines from my local bookstore. I was hoping to bake something that weekend, but didn't have the right size pans?! LOL So earlier this week, I had to make a stop at Target to pick up a 9 x 5 pan in order to make some yummy bread :) It wasn't overly sweet; it is definitely more of a breakfast bread than a sweet dessert bread.


Pardon the crazy drizzle!! LOL My aunt had to tell me the proper way to drizzle icing O_o"


White chocolate blueberry loaf!!

I used the blueberries we froze from our bushes in August. We didn't keep any pecans from our tree so I had to go buy some from the store :(



The Pillsbury Holiday Baking magazine has many great recipes! I might even try to make banana peanut butter bread next time :)

Happy Baking and/or Stitching ^___^

Happy Birthday!!

Today is my aunt's birthday!!! Woohoo!!!



What's in the bag? It's a surprise :) Happy b-day Snowbird! Love ya!!

Hope everyone is having a good Sunday!

Baking goodies!!

I had to go by the store today after we got our grandmother back home to get some groceries for dinner. Look what I found!


Mini-bundt baking pan!

I can never find these types of pans throughout the rest of the year. All the fun baking pans seem to come out during the holidays. Well, unless you make a trip to your local Williams-Sonoma store, which would probably charge you an arm and a leg for the nice baking pans. Not to blast Williams-Sonoma, I love that store, but I can't afford them that often unless I save up some money. If I won the lottery I would buy the whole store!!!! ^___^

I can't wait to make some holiday goodies with this pan. I've seen some yummy recipes that use this type of pan, but haven't been able to make them since I didn't have the pan to do so....and now I do :)

Happy Stitching/Baking!!!