Belated IHSW Post: Eid Mubarak!

Eid marked the end of Ramadan. It is a happy and sad moments for many muslims, either personally or religiously.
Personally I was very sad that I couldn't go home to my parents house and celebrated Eid with my parents-sisters & their husbands-nieces & nephews and also our extended family. The festivity in Indonesia is more prominent than in Turkey. But I tried to cheer myself at least we are able to come to Turkey and accompanied my mother in law, otherwise it would be very lonely Eid for her.

my parents with their daughters (minus me) and their grandchildren right after Eid prayer

Despite Eid preparation and also receiving guests/visiting relatives, I still managed to do some stitching for IHSW :)

Silvermoon Tea Project: before IHSW

IHSW day 1: did a little stitching in the morning before went to buy Baklava , sweets and cake for Eid. Couldn't do any stitching in the afternoon and evening because my sis in law's family visited and had iftar (breaking fast dinner) in our house and then I had to tidy and clean the house for Eid

IHSW Day 2 (Eid): did this in the morning

ISHW Day 2 afternoon: filled some colours while some neighbours visited :)

See you again next IHSW, hermitters ! :)

Dearest Ramadan
I can’t believe that your time with us has come to an end.
Before you arrived I worried about how we would manage to accommodate such an honoured guest into our home and family. I need not have been concerned.
Your arrival, as always, was one of joy and blessings.
You brought light into our home. Your presence made sure we ate together, even in the early hours of the morning, exper

iencing the joy of family meals. You helped us control our tempers, and be that little bit kinder to each other. You allowed us to remember Allah together – and talk about The Merciful in greater depth.
Some days, having you in our family was not easy. You demanded and challenged us. That, however, is what a good teacher does. You taught us that we can be self-disciplined. You showed us that we can rise to the challenge. You made us aware that we can better than we are.
For all these things, and more, THANK YOU!
We are going to miss you, but pray that we can welcome you into our home again next year.
(Sarah Joseph)

***** many thanks, terima kasih, sağol, شُكْرًا
 

Love Journey - Courting (a Present for Ira) part 2

(you can read part 1 of this post here)

After 3 days in Urfa we went to Ira and Ali's house in Elazığ. Unfortunately on our first morning there we received a sad news from Konya: my father in law's sudden death caused by heart attack :( My husband rushed back to Konya by plane and left us in Ira's house. About a week later he came by bus with his sister to pick us up and drove us back to Konya. On our last day we went to several places Harput, a historic town nearby. 

my family in Harput with my sis in law

before separated in Malatya

Even after I moved to Aleppo then to Amman, once in a while we called each other, and talked regularly (almost everyday!) on facebook and yahoo messenger. When we moved in Aleppo we thought we could meet more often because Aleppo is much closer to Elazığ than Konya. In safer and peace time in past it was very common for Aleppian to crossed the border particularly every weekend and do their shopping in Hatay or Adana, cities which are often visited by Ira's husband for his work. Unfortunately situation got worse, not only we couldn't commute to Turkey but we even had to leave Syria.

So when I saw this design in an online shop in Indonesia, I bought it and asked my sister to send it to Turkey. The kit was already waiting for me when we arrived in Konya so the next day I started to stitch it :) I changed the fabric to aida glitter gold from Yeidam because the fabric provided is not enough if I want to put the wording underneath the pictures.

I also want to share some pictures from Ira and Ali's wedding, so you may know some more about our Indonesian culture. They were wearing Sundanese (West Java) wedding costume which is different than my wedding costume that I have posted here :)

left: one of their pre wedding photos
right: after their Islamic marriage vows (akad)

left: their wedding reception in Bandung, Indonesia
top right: wedding reception in Turkey

I hope you enjoy my post, you can also see other present I made for another friend in Turkey here. Thank you for stopping by and reading my blog today :)

***** many thanks, terima kasih, sağol, شُكْرًا
 

Love Journey - Courting (a present for Ira) part 1

Before I presented my stitch work for Ira, I want to share a story about my friendship with her (Warning: lots of pictures!)

I have been knowing her in early 2009, sometimes before her wedding through Multiply, a blogging/social media website. I didn't like her much in the beginning because she mostly posted her blog in Sundanese, a traditional language from West Java. I didn' speak the language even though I could understand some. I thought she was limiting her friends to Sundanese people only. When she moved to Turkey and I was there too, gradually we become close friend through facebook. It turned out we have so many things in common particularly for crazy and evil things *big grin*

She and her family visited me in May 2010 when I was pregnant to Ali. It was a crazy surprise visit since they live miles away from Konya (they live in eastern part of Turkey). She climbed the gate and knocked my bedroom's window in the middle of the night! I really appreciated her visit, I was so lonely and miserable at that time with my husband gone to military for 6 months. At the same time another friend (an Indonesian bride who live in Izmir) also visited me with her daughter. We had a blast, stayed late almost every night, cooked Indonesian food and also visited several places in Konya.

a fun shopping trip near around the neighbourhood

visited Mevlana (Rumi - the sufi poet's tomb)

In June 2011 we arranged to meet in Sanlıurfa. This city is called as 'the City of Prophets' by many people. We visited several places together:

crazy ladies in Urfa

Balıkgöl (Fish lake) at night. 
The legendary Pool of Sacred Fish (Balıklıgöl) where Abraham was thrown into the fire by Nimrod. The pool is in the courtyard of the mosque of Halil-ur-Rahman, built by the Ayyubids in 1211 and now surrounded by attractive gardens designed by architect Merih Karaaslan. The courtyard is where the fishes thrive. A local legend says seeing a white fish will open the door to the heavens. ( from Wikipedia)

It is believed that prophet Abraham was thrown from between these two pillars into the flames over the Castle of Urfa. At that moment, God ordered that “All the flames! Be cool and safe for Abraham.” As he was thrown the flames turned into water and the logs into fish. Prophet Abraham fell into a rose garden alive.

Urfa Kale (castle) and Nimrod pillars at the day time.
Built in antiquity, the current walls of the castle were constructed by the Abbasids in 814 AD

Inside the cave where is believed as the birth place of Prophet Abraham, inside the Mevlid-i Halil Mosque near to the streams of Balıkgöl

King Nimrod had a dream, in which he loses his kingdom, “This year a child will be born and he will destroy your heathen religion and kingdom...” Upon this dream he decided to kill every child born within that year. Nuna, pregnant to Prophet Abraham, hid her pregnancy and gave birth to Abraham in a cave secretly.

the Eyyub Peygamber. This is a cave where God tested Prophet Job's patience

the Well whose sacred water washed and restored Prophet Job

Visited Harran, which is famous for its traditional 'beehive' adobe houses, constructed entirely without wood.

the crazy ladies tried out some Urfa clothes

The design of these makes them cool inside (essential in this part of the world) and is thought to have been unchanged for at least 3,000 years (Wikipedia)

the Ruins of Islam's first university

Despite the heat we all enjoyed Harran :)

***** many thanks, terima kasih, sağol, شُكْرًا
 

My Mama and I (a gift for Tutik Fidan)

We've been friends almost as long as I have facebook :) I was a new bride in New Zealand while she was a new bride in Samsun (black sea region, Turkey). We were pregnant to our first daughters almost at the same time, she was suppose to give birth 2 months later than me but she had early contraction and safely delivered her baby on 17th March Turkey time while I gave birth on 18th March (00.00 NZ time) so actually we gave birth almost at the same day :)

Until now we haven't met in person. When I lived in Konya-Turkey she sent me a dress knitted by herself that Dilara wore on her 3rd birthday last year.

She is such a crafty person, I was planning to make scissors fob for her but when I saw this design from Alma Lynne's Family Favourites, my mind went to her immediately. I think anyone who knows Tutik would agree with me! :)

I made it shortly before we left to Turkey and it will be framed sometimes after Eid before I send it to Samsun :)

***** many thanks, terima kasih, sağol, شُكْرًا
 

August TUSAL

Its time for TUSAL again :)

Here are my ORTs jar just before we left Amman (both my children wanted to hold the jar ^-^)

And here are my ORTs after one week in Turkey:

I will keep them and combine them with the rest of my ORTs in Amman :) Finger crossed my mother in law wouldn't throw them away :))

***** many thanks, terima kasih, sağol, شُكْرًا
 

Theme-a-licious Altius August and Happy Independence Indonesia!

Merhaba from Turkiye!

We have been in Konya, my husband hometown for almost a week now. We love it, even me surprisingly enjoy it. It's nice to be somewhere familiar. I did a lot of shopping (and will do more in the next two weeks), visited some relatives and stitched a quick project for a friend in Turkey (I will publish it in separate post). Because of those activities so I only able to start my Altius August stitch yesterday afternoon, and this is what I've got so far:

Not too bad eh for one afternoon?
It's my first experience with linen and so far I like it, the fabric is much smoother and softer compared to aida and I think it affected the way how the stitching looked.
My new qsnap that I've received from Indonesia is helping a lot but I changed my mind about making the grid. It's a pain to make a grid on 28ct, I squinted a lot and finally decided not to. Its a good thing that the design is fully covering the fabric so I will keep stitching next to another because I don't think I can count it right if I want to jump several squares.

We will see how it goes, not sure if I can stitch a lot since the lighting in my mother in law's house is not enough for stitching so I can only stitch during the day time, and during Eid we will do a lot of family visits and we also have a holiday trip to Pamukkale :)

and oh Happy 67th Independece Day for my country INDONESIA.

A friend who lives in Brussels, Belgium posted this manneken pis (the famous statue of peeing boy) on her facebook:

When some Indonesians may be offended but I think its cute and promoting :) This (Javanese clothes) is the second time Indonesia clothes being featured, the first was a traditional clothes from Lampung, my father hometown:

This August is also our 6th year anniversary, I want to share some pics from our wedding, one of them my husband was wearing similar clothes with the manneken pis boy :)

left: after our marriage vows 12th August 2006 in Westmorland, Christchurch, NZ
middle: a small family only wedding reception in Metro, Lampung, Indonesia, almost 2 years later
top right: before Indian Style Bachelorette party, a Mehndi might at our students flat, organised by Indian and Middle East flatmates
top left: my first snow June 2006 in front of library at Lincoln University

***** many thanks, terima kasih, sağol, شُكْرًا
 

'Teaching' bookmark

Two days ago I made this little bookmark for my husband's oldest niece who is a Math teacher in Kumluca (Antalya, Turkey)

Pattern is from 'Thoughtful Moments Bookmark' by Linda Bird. I modified it a little because I was using 14ct aida instead of 18ct. Finishing idea came from Camp Cross Stitch. Thank you Stitching the night away for the link, I'd been looking for something like this, once the link came up I started to make one immediately and I finished it over the night :). I modified it by using 2 different colours of floss for the border by alternating them. It turned out very pretty. I also added a tassel of all the treads that I used on the top side.

I love it and I think Feride would love it as well. But Serkan said 'what is that for? that thing is too big for a bookmark!' GRRRR but my daughter quickly said 'mummy mummy, I like it, its very beautiful... see, I'm apprecenting it' (she meant 'appreciating') :)

***** many thanks, terima kasih, sağol, شُكْرًا