Surprise Gift FROM Jessie!

Today a postman rung door bell and I saw he holds a parcel, and he asked me to sign on the receipt, so I thought that is what I have been waiting for!
Actually I have been expecting to receive a parcel from Malaysia, but it was from Singapore!
At this moment, I was very confused, from what country and what I was expecting for???
But when I saw the sender, soon I knew who sent this parcel, it was Jessie!
This unexpected parcel made me soooooooooooo HAPPY and so Surprise, made my day indeed!!!

Look at this sweet stitching she has done for me!
She knew that I love LHN, then chose this design and stitched just for me!
Oh my goodness, what a kind and sweet person she is!
But actually I had no idea to receive a parcel from Jessie, that is because I thought she doesn't know my address, lol

She also added a linen, a chart which I wanted a lot, and lovely height measure for my son!
I realised and remembered that I've told her about Japan when her niece had a chance to came to Japan for business trip.
She has asked me where her niece can buy nice Japanese craft magazines or stitching stuff, etc...so I just told detailed information to her, because I was very happy to hear that she loves Japanese crafts, etc...!
That's all, yes that's all... But she really appreciated for what I've done to her and sent such sweet gifts for me!
Amazing, isn't it? Do I deserve such sweet and wonderful treat???
I'm really spoilt, aren't I?! :D
She is so kind, kind enough! I also appreciate for your kindness, as well and a lot!!!

I can't believe, friends are so nice to me, so kind, so sweet, I'm a really lucky girl!
I do really appreciate for your kindness, friends, that's you all!
THANKS A LOT!

(((HUGS)))

Souvenir and Present from...

My husband is a quite busy businessman, he so often goes to other prefectures by bullet train or by airplane, goes abroad often...
Always comes back home at late night...

I know he has been doing really tough job and really busy, tired, and I really feel so sorry for him.
But actually I can't manage "terrible 2" by myself, alone... so now my son and I are staying at my mum's house, ask her to help me to look after my 2 years old son!

In this month, he had been to Germany twice, the first time he stayed there only 2 or 3 days... What an enhausting job!But second time he could stay there for about one week, so he could have free time a little bit.

We have been married about 4 years now, every year he gave me "preserved flower" for my Birthday, but...
Recently I wanted other things, like cross stitch stuff etc... so this time when he had been to Germany, I asked him to buy something like "Steiff Bear", "Goebel (Hummel) figure", if he could have time to buy them.
He comes to see us once or twice a month to mum's house (it takes 3 hours by bullet train from our house to mum's house), then this time he had brought special things for us!!!
Look at this beautiful "Steiff Bear", actually he had to transit at Vienna, then found this beautiful "Vienna Opera Special Edition Bear"!!
It might sounds childish, but when I saw this bear, I screamed with pleasure, LOL

And when he had been to Germany first time in this month, bought SWALOVSKI mobile strap for me, as well.
It's fairy and so lovely, I don't want to get it dirty in my bag, so I will hang on this in the house!

Last birthday, he gave me Cross stitch books as a present, I think now he knows what makes me Happy!
It took for 4 years, though! LOL

He also bought a "Goebel (Hummel)" figure which we have been collecting!
Thank you so much! I love all the things you presented us, they are so special!
Thanks.


 

By the way, here is another present from my Japanese friend!
She has stitched and sent me this lovely LHN flat fold.

I love this colour, and the fabric she has chosen, etc...
I will put this in my favourite basket as a special present!
Thank you my friend!

Short Trip in September...

Thank you for your concern about my PC, thanks to you it has been backed to me and finally I can use my own PC!

While I have been working on Secret Projects (Christmas Ornaments + Presents), there is nothing to post here at the moment, LOL
So today I post some photos of my family short trip in September in Ikuno / Hyogo Prefecture.

Well first of all, I wanted to visit and have a meal at the thatched roof old building where is now used for the restaurant.
Look at this beautiful old Japanese building!
We can have a meal inside this building, there was a sunken hearth (fireplace) and felt really nostalgia.

I ordered "Kuromame Okowa set", it's steamed rice with black beans (black soyabean) , as in this part of the country is a famous for black beans.
First of all, we had a bit of plum liqueur as an aperitif, and it was really yum! :D

This restaurant is originally famous for rice crackers, but have their own restaurant here in country side.
I love their rice crackers, they are so yum!

Anyway, here is my ordered "Kuromame Okowa set"!
I thought that it's quite rare for Western people to see typical (normal) Japanese meals, so I put this photo here today!

I hope people enjoyed these photos as exotic things!

How was the taste???
Yes, they all were yum!

After we had lunch, we went to Ikuno silver mine.
There were 33 degree outside then, but inside the mine, it was only 11 degree... brrrrr
I thought a lot about old peoples' life.
It might be really tough job and they had hard life...

Here is the photo of silver mine!

They are dolls, seems a bit scary, though! LOL

I hope I can post something about cross stitch soon!

Grape Dyed

People really might laugh at me, as I have been dying fabrics with food many times with many kinds of foods, like I am a researcher, LOL
But it's quite fun to see how it will turn out!
This time I've tested with "Grape".
I thought it would be the same as "Red Wine Dyed" which I have done before, but a bit different result here...

It turned out a light pink purple colour and marbled!
I'm quite satisfied with this result, now there is an idea what design suit well for this hand dyed fabric in my mind :D

I used not whole grapes, I used the skins of these grapes which after we ate ;p
Just boil the grape skins with a bit of water, then when the colour turned out you'd prefer it to be, then just distilled the liquid.
Then soak washed (with water) fabric into the pan, then boil only 5-10 min.
That's all!
Oh, I shouldn't have forgotten to wirte, I've heard that to fix the colour, use wine vinegar and tepid water.
I'm not sure about it, so what's the best is... don't wash it later, LOL!

Why I'm doing this is... because we can't buy hand dyed fabric at the store, means there is no hand dyed fabrics are sold at the store in Japan, we have to order them online and have to wait to arrive.
So I have been trying hand dying by myself with food, as I don't like chemical thing much... :(

My Cheese!!

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for all your comments always when I post something here!
They make me feel really happy, smile and so special, and they also cheer me up a lot!
Thanks again, always!

By the way, isn't this so lovely?!
I found this funny but cute design at French blog "Les chroniques de Frimousse", and wanted to stitch for a long time! Then finally I could make it! Yahoo!


Now my PC has been repairing at the factory, I'm using mum's PC, so there is almost no my data on her PC, so I have more time and can concentrate on stitching better than before!
That's why recently I could have done a couple of stitches and finishings!
Now I realised how much I had been wasting my time on my PC, if I cut my time playing with PC, I would be able to stitch a lot! :D

Anyway, here are some photos of my cheese!

Actually there were Back Stitch on this chart, but I haven't done BS, I thought it would be a bit cartoonish if I've stitched BS for this design.

Now my son has been playing with this Cheese Mouse as saying "chu chu", it's so lovely to see him saying that!
It always make me smile! :D


Free Chart from © Les chroniques de Frimousse

Big surprise gift has arrived from Cindy!

A few days ago, I received a parcel from Cindy!
Look at this photo! There were really wonderful stuff in there!
We were talking about trading charts and she told me that she's sent me a chart, so I was thinking that just "a chart" will arrive to me...
But! She added so many goodies with a promised chart @_@;

She added some more beautiful charts, fabrics, candle, body cream, chocolate, and moreover, she stitched and made really lovely mini pillow from Lizzie Kate for me!
How kind person she is!!
Look at this beautiful and lovely pillow!

I really love all the things she has sent me, I'm using body cream every day after took a bath, it's really nice fragrance, it really make me feel relax!
I love chocolate, but my husband who is now in Germany and Austria as for the business trip, asked me to keep them for him, lol

He also loves chocolates, he had lived in the US (in Colorado, was doing snowboard instructor when he was young), he loves US chocolates very much, lol

Actually, I'm so sorry to Cindy, I didn't expected these wonderful gifts would arrive to me, I've sent only a chart to her... what a nasty person I am, LOL

But I promised Cindy to look forward to receive something special (I hope...) for this Christmas!!

So now I have to do is to be a busy bee!
Make ornaments and gifts for this Christmas!!! :D

Thank you so much for your kindness, Cindy!

I really really appreciate for this wonderful gift!

Sweet Christmas!

Thank you for your concern regarding my PC.
As I expected, it went to its repair center, lol...
I hope when it came back, there won't be no troubles anymore...

By the way, I realised that I can use my mum's laptop instead of mine while it has been repairing at the factory!

So here is my first ornament for this Christmas.　

I was going to make normal ornament with this stitch, but I found this wooden board, and the size was just fitted, I decided to use this for the first ornie.

I added dark red velvet ribbon on the both sides
of stitch.
I was going to present this for my mum's friend (who I haven't met...
lol) as my mum asked me to make something for her as a Christmas gift, but once my mum saw this, she said she likes this so much and now she is going to have this as hers, LOL LOL

Greedy mum, LOL

This design is from "Sweet Christmas" © Glory Bee @ "Just Cross Stitch"
2002 Special Christmas Issue 'Christmas Ornaments'
28ct Chasel Linen (Taupe Linen)