Today's Photos - Drove Down To Odawara...

Today the weather was very fine and so we drove down to Odawara-city in Kanagawa Pref.
It takes about one hour to drive to get there, but we often go there because there are some big shopping malls and they don't charge parking fee!
So we don't need to rush, just can relax (window) shopping!

Here is a photo of Enoshima where is very famous beach in Japan.
This photo was taken from driving car.

Odawara is one of castle town.

We went to Odawara-jo (Odawara Castle) which is very small, just to have a look but it was boring and so we soon changed the destination! (lol)

Just a few snaps there...

I didn't know that Aloe bear this kind of fruit(?) or this can be flower later???
Oops, the words in the photo is miss spelled (lol)

We went to Robinson department store where is our favourite place, and bought some books and my son Tass's winter jacket.
Oh I also bought a knit cap, I love hats and caps so much, I think I will show you my hat collection some other time! :)

When we drove back to home, we could see Mt. Fuji in the sunset, so I asked AJ to stop the car and took this photo.

We are going to visit my dear friend Fiona in Karuizawa, Nagano Pref. from 20th to 22nd, Nov.
I heard that Nagano is getting very very cold, so she suggested us to take winter clothes!!
Ohhh, I don't like cold weather... brrrr

I'm so looking forward to seeing her!!
I will report "my short trip in Karuizawa" when I got back!

Cathey (aka Pumpkin) and Leena, I will send you Giveaway gifts after I got back from a short trip next week!

Take care and thanks for your visit!

Happy Stitching!

The Winners Are...

Thank you SO much everyone for joining in the drawing for my 2nd Blogoversary Giveaway.
I've got totally 107 comments for it, wow :0
Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart!!

And I just finished drawing now!!!

"" Drum roll ~""

Biscornu - Pumpkin (Pumpkin Patch & Co)

Kreinik Williamsburg Lady Silk Kit - Lennu (LENNUN TEKELEET - Stitched in Finland)

Congratulations both winners!
I will contact you from now to let you know that you've won!

It was so fun to hold giveaway, so I will do it sometime again!

Take care + Happy Stitching!

My Camera & Some Answers & Thank You!

I have been asked what kind of camera I'm using to shoot the photos for blog.
This is what I'm using for taking photos, for blog and also for normal life.

This is from OLYMPUS and it's more than 4 years old, not so great one (lol).
But I always take photos with non-flash, and macro or super-macro.
It's quite hard to take photos without flash, though the result is very natural and soft.

Actually I have a new camera which my DH bought for me, but haven't been using it yet, I should read through thick manual first...




And some friends asked me if the smell last long after dyed fabric by Onion skin?

Answer : No! not at all, don't worry! It never smells onions at all!
Just use rustle outside skins, not onion! :)
See more details of dyeing is here...



And thank you many of friends who support me a lot by e-mailing and comments regarding the relationship between MIL and I.
I still have been receiving many e-mails from friends.
Thank you SO SO much for your thoughtfulness.
I'd really appreciate for them all, and would like to reply you all, but haven't been able to do it...
I just wanted to say "Thank you" and "Sorry" for not replying back, it's quite hard for me to reply back to all of you, recently I'm trying not to be negative, trying to retain my presence of mind.

Anyway, I'd like to take this occasion to express my gratitude to you all. Thank you very much.




" Only 1 day left!! "
Thank you SO much everyone for joining my 2nd Blogoversary giveaway.
I've never thought that I've got more than 100 comments for this Blogoversary Giveaway! wow :0
It's still open until 16th (Sunday), so please don't hesitate to join in!
This Giveaway is open for everyone!
Please leave a comment on the few posts back (click here), if you would like to have a chance to win!!
And please let me know which one you want, of course both OK! :)

Coffee And Onion Skin Dyed

While I was cooking, I dyed some cut linens (40ct) by coffee and onion skin (peel).
I have tried both dying before, but the result turned out very differently.
I am going to stitch "Flax Fields" © Carriage House Samplings on this coffee dyed linen, though I want it to be more darker colour, so I might dye it again!

And here is Onion skin (peel) dyed.
I have seen onions those have more light yellow skin outside, but in Japan most of onions are like this.

When you boiled these skins in the pan with boiled water, about 10 minutes, it turns out like this colour, like strong tea.

Then I put the cut linen in the pan and boiled about 10 minutes, it became like this.
This time I wanted to make marble, so I tied the linen with a rubber band.
The past dyed process is here...

I have done this just experimentally, and am quite satisfied, so when I need these colours linen, I will give it try again for the large piece.

I'm yet in the stitching slump... I don't know why, but I feel very blue recently, even though the weather was very fine!
I hope I can refresh and relax and become to feel like stitching badly again soon!




" Only 2 days left!! "
Thank you SO much everyone for joining my 2nd Blogoversary giveaway.
It's still open until 16th (Sunday), so please don't hesitate to join in!
This Giveaway is open for everyone!
Please leave a comment on the few posts back (click here), if you would like to have a chance to win!!
And please let me know which one you want, of course both OK! :)

Take care and thanks for visiting!

And Happy Stitching, everyone!

Yummy! - Chocolate + Brown Rice Bread

Again "Bread", lol
I don't know why but I'm in stitching slump now...
I don't feel like stitching much these few days.
So again I baked bread, this time I used Cocoa Powder, Chocolate, and Brown Rice (not flour)!

Of course again with a rice cooker! (it's very easy!)
I said I will use oven from next time, but as I bought a new microwave+oven recently so had to check how to use first, so it was a bit troublesome (lazy, aren't I?!)

But this time I didn't do the same, I didn't follow the recipe, I checked bread's state by myself and judged and left it more to rise.
So this time it went well so much!

The bread is taste cocoa but there is melting yummy yummy chocolate inside... mmmm, yum!
AJ and Tass also loved it so much, me too, so I bought some more ingredients today for this bread for the next time.

Sorry, recently I haven't been posting anything about stitching at all...
I hope I can share some stitching photos, even progress one with you soon.






Thank you SO much everyone for joining my 2nd Blogoversary giveaway.
It's still open until 16th (Sunday), so please don't hesitate to join in!
This Giveaway is open for everyone!
Please leave a comment on the few posts back (click here), if you would like to have a chance to win!!
And please let me know which one you want, of course both OK! :)

Take care and thanks for visiting!
I appreciate for your visiting and your warm comments!

Happy Stitching!

Baaaaa - My Sweetie

These few days, my son and I are having cold, not so strong one, but very tired...
So I don't feel like stitching much, I tried but it was not fun at all this time...

So instead of stitching, I have been baking breads these past few days.
But everyday posting about bread is boring I thought, so today I'm going to share some recent photos of my sweetie.
Recently he always try to make funny face when I want to take his photos, like this, lol
And he doesn't stop, he is very active and a naughty boy!

Last Sunday, there were small charity bazaar at the nearest elementary school, so we have gone there.
There were some refreshment booth, greengrocer, etc...
We ate Korean food "Toppogi" and "Chijimi", it was first time for me to ate them!

Oh my sweetie is smelling grapefruit, but he thinks it's lemon, lol

There were also some sport games and AJ wanted to join in, but I slept over so we couldn't reach in time (sorry!)

 

This is just our normal weekend, nothing special but being all together is precious time for me.

I wish if only we could trip somewhere... :)
My dear friend Fiona is always wanting us to visit them in Nagano, so hopefully we could visit her and her husband before snowing!



Thank you SO much everyone for joining my 2nd Blogoversary giveaway.
It's still open until 16th (Sunday), so please don't hesitate to join in!
Please leave a comment on the few posts back (click here), if you would like to have a chance to win!!
And please let me know which one you want, of course both OK! :)


Take care and Thanks for visiting!
Happy Stitching!

Bacon Cheese Bread

Again, I baked homemade bread.
This time I made it for dinner, so added bacon and cheese inside.

This book instructs to make bread with rice cooker, so the whole shape is always be like this.
And here it is, I thought the ferment (rise) wasn't good enough when the last time I baked, so this time I left it a bit more time, and so it became better than before.

But still not good enough and yet ugly, lol

I think I should investigate into how to make good bread!

This time AJ and Tass ate them a lot, thanks for your consideration, lol

I ate only one piece, lol

It's quite hard to bake perfect one, because it depends on what kind of rice cooker I have...
So next time I will try to bake in the oven!

As for the stitching, now I'm making some Biscornus and PIF gifts.
I found that to make Biscornu, especially to sew two pieces together is very much fun!
I hope I can share some stitching photos sometime later!

Thank you SO much everyone for joining my 2nd Blogoversary giveaway.
It's still open until 16th (Sunday), so please don't hesitate to join in!
Please leave a comment on the few posts back (click here), if you would like to have a chance to win!!
And please let me know which one you want, of course both OK! :)

Take care and happy stitching!

Fruit Yogurt Bread

I had been wanting to bake breads by myself for a long long time.
But early our marriage I failed once, I wanted to make French bread, but it became like a hammer, lol
It was TOO hard and I could even drove a nail into a pillar!
Since then, I hadn't been baking at all, but recently I found a book for beginner, so bought it and gave it try!

I added raisins + dried apple, and also added yogurt.
The shapes are very ugly, though... lol

The taste was... so so OK...it was like scone.

AJ my husband doesn't like raisin, so he ate only a few, and my son loves raisins (only), so he picked raisins from bread, lol
I wanted to have more, but just after I finished making this, I felt very sick...
Actually from a few days ago I was so tired, and just after I've made this bread I felt very chills, and felt very sick...

And suddenly my temperature has got very high, so I have been sleeping all the time from yesterday.
Tass my son having running nose and a little cough, so I think we had cold...
Thankfully it was weekend, so AJ helped me a lot, thanks to him I could sleep all day yesterday.
From this afternoon, I feel a bit well, so I'm trying to revenge to bake another bread now!

By the way, here is my new room shoes and new socks!

Lovely, aren't they? :D
Every year when the winter has come, I buy new warm room shoes, and this year I found this soft pink shoes, it was first sight love!



Thank you SO much everyone for joining my 2nd Blogoversary giveaway.
I have never thought that such so many people would enter this giveaway!
It's still open until 16th (Sunday), so please don't hesitate to join in!
Please leave a comment on the last post, if you enter the drawing!

And please let me know which one do you want, of course both is OK! :)

If my bread that I'm baking now was good, I will post the photos sometime later!
I hope we can eat a few at least!

Take care and thanks for visiting!

And Happy Stitching!

2nd Blogoversary Giveaway!! - Cadeau

Today is my 2nd Blogoversary!
Time flies so fast, it's been already 2 years since I've started blog in English...
I still remember when I wrote the first post, I just didn't know what to write and even only easy little words didn't come up into my mind in English...
To writing and reading blog(s) is only the way I can learn English, I hope my English is getting a little bit better than 2 years ago!

By the way, here is Blogoversary Giveaway as I mentioned before!
Thank you so much everyone for visiting my small cyberspace, and thanks for comments always.
I really appreciate for them a lot, they really make my day indeed!
So here are some token of appreciation from me to you!


1. The left one : is the Biscornu that I recently made as referred © Atalie "Fevrier 2007".
(detalis are on the last post...)
It's a bit large as I stitched on 28ct linen, so please don't laugh at it when you received it, lol

2. The right one : Kreinik Silk Mori Kit, "Williamsburg Lady" © Historic Stitches.
Inside : Milkpaint colours in Kreinik Silk Mori and the chart for this design. You will need a 17" x 14" piece of 32ct tan linen.


If you would like to have a chance to win, what you need to do is just leave a comment on this post only.
Please let me know which one you want, of course you can enter for both items!
Please include your e-mail address, otherwise I won't be able to contact you when you've won!
And this giveaway is open for everyone, welcome people who have never left comment here, it doesn't matter at all! :D

I will draw the names for these items on 16th November (Sunday) - Japanese time.
So you have 1 week to enter the drawing!
I hope you all will have fun and hope winner will like them!

I didn't write much about my (our) life on my blog because I thought it might be boring for you, but as I love and am very interested in reading your life in foreign countries, I sometimes may write about my life and family here from now! (hope it doesn't get you bored...)

Thank you so much always for visiting and thanks for the lovely comments!
I'd really appreciate for all of you!

Take care and Happy Stitching!

My 2nd Biscornu

How was your Halloween?
I hope you all had a fun and lovely day!

I felt like making smalls after a long time, and made my 2nd Biscornu.
I was going to make "Fevrier 2007" Biscornu © Atalie, though I changed some parts.
"Fevrier 2007" is stitched heart motifs with satin stitch, but I changed them to Spider Web Roses that I like so much.

The threads colour are my choice as I didn't have Atalie threads in my stash.
I was quite not sure about this colour, but seeing the completed one, I think it turned out beautifully!

Here is a back side. I added pearl button on the front, and for the back I just added normal button.

I actually like the back side, there are full of eyelet stitch on the back.
Again, I stitched this on 28ct linen that I used for my first Biscornu, so it's quite big, lol

I was very busy past few days, some explanatory meetings for the Preschool where my sweetie will go from next year were held, and also we had to have interviews.
We had 2 interviews and sweetie was a very good boy then, and so he passed both of them! phew...
It's only normal Preschool, but there were a fixed number for each Preschool, so we all had to have an interview to enter.
We chose the one where does Montessori method that we think it does suit for my son.
Anyway, I will have to sew many bags etc... for my son to prepare his start!

My 3rd 2nd Blogoversary is in 7 days, so I'm going to do Blogoversary giveaway on the day!
So stay tuned and please look forward to joining in!

Take care and thanks for visiting.
And Happy stitching!

Design : referred "Fevrier 2007" © Atalie
Fabric : 28ct DMC linen (white)
Thread : Unknown overdyed thread (presented from Yasmin) and DMC

Finished as : Biscornu