Monday, December 17, 2012

End of the year: TUSAL - IHSW - Themealicious



proudly presented my TUSAL for 2012, this is my ORTs for about 6 months, since I joined TUSALin June:

look how empty my jar was in June in my first TUSAL post


Theme of this month is: Delightful December
The holidays are a time for relaxing...at least, that's the theory! No stress here...work on whatever you want and enjoy!

I was planning to stitch the Winter Clock but I decided to stop after 2 days because I didn't enjoy it. The fabric is 11ct, the hole is big and the fabric is rough, the thread is China thread and it is not the shiny one (which has better quality) but dove, it is not interesting at all and easily frayed on rough fabric. Horrible :( I dont feel like changing the fabric and the thread ( do not want to waste them), I still want to make it because Ilike the design but I think this one will stay in my WIP stash for quite sometime.





So... just on the day of IHSW I decided to sew A Good Marriage from Lizzie and Kate. I am planning to give it to my husband's oldest niece who just got married last month. I dyed the fabric by myself using Folgers Columbian Coffee that Serkan dislike and wont brew and he said I am welcomed to use it as a dye as much as I want :) I enjoyed stitching a couple of rows and couldn't stop, and then started to get bored... this is cute but not so much challenge on it. I decided to take it easy, besides I have got a lot of things to do before going to Turkey this weekend: gatherings, souvenirs and gifts shopping, attending Dilara's school winter production before end of term holiday, and packing! No worries I would still have 2 weeks in Turkey to finish it before I handed it to her mum (serkan's niece lives in Istanbul and we are not sure if we could meet up at the airport, we are going to spend the holiday in Konya, my husband's hometown). 


Thank you to Sharon Daffycat, Heather and Joysze for TUSAL, Themealicious and IHSW. Your events keep me going stitching and blogging.

See you all next year :) Have a great stitchy holiday everybody :)
***** many thanks, terima kasih, sağol, شُكْرًا
 

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Au Revoir, Mbak Ina!

I've known her for years, we attended the same university back in Indonesia, the same faculty but different departement. She was two years of my senior so we never made any contact at the university, but I shared a flat with some of her classmates so yes, her name and her face were familiar to me. She has a lovely petite figure, which made it easy to recognise her :)
I knew she went abroad for her master degree (later I learned that she went to Netherland), through friendster (without being her contact) I knew she married  a French man and moved to France, has a cute little boy...

When I moved to Jordan, a friend told me that Ina is currently reside in Amman too. We made contact through facebook, she called me at the hotel and we met up in PAUL cafe at the City Mall.


We clicked straightaway, we did not meet that often but tried to catch up whenever we can, spent some times with the kids, Indonesian women gathering, watched late night movies at the cinemas after her kids went to bed (while mine were still running around the house but poor husband of mine happily agreed to be with the kids while I was having ladies night out), and lots of shopping trips to flea market, downtown, outlets, shopping centers...

And the kids are so get on well together!

Our kids at The Children Museum of Jordan
As long as I can recall, its only with Nicolas that Dilara has never get any argument with, never cried when they were together, never told me Nicolas did this did that. For them only laughter laughter and laughter even when they had nothing to do or to say, even small thing could make both of them burst in to laugh :) Even when they don't know the words, because both of them speak little Indonesian, Dilara know nothing of French, Nicolas neither of Turkish, but thank God Nicolas knows little English (Nicolas attended French school but he took a private english lesson). So its a mix of everything but who needs a same language when you are kids and you have a big lovely heart, right?

I just love to hear Nicolas calling DilaRa with his strong R French accent :)

Ali and Raphael are about the same age and because of their multilingual nature they haven't spoken much. But they always find a way to play together :)

So its a great loss to me when it is time for Mbak Ina to leave after 4 years living in Amman. we are together in this city only for less than a year! I found this lovely pattern that I made for her during Themealicious Obligation October.

It is a very simple and small project so I wanted to turn it into something special and useful. So I took it to a random frame shop that I found on the way to downtown and when I saw him has an example of a box, I asked him if he could make a box for me too. I gave him the description, we agreed on a price and he said he would call me in a week to collect it. One week passed he didn't call. Closer to 2 weeks, I called him. He reasoned that he'd been sick so he hadn't made it yet but it would be ready in 3 days. I said no worries I called you in 3 days. I called to pick it up he said come in 2 days, I couldnt go on that day so I called again can I get it tomorrow, he said come in 3 days... and on and on and on until more than 1 month after I took it there! I was getting cranky so finally we agreed on time and date and... it was a disaster! The box was rough, uneven, and the worst of all didn't show my full work! The framed picture was not straight, the name Le Duguey was almost cut at the top, the bottom was also cut (Ina and Manu name were almost cut and Nicolas and Raphael name were nowhere to be seen!). The left side was also cut, where the word LA should be you can only see A. My goodness! He claimed that he didn't cut it off only folded it and promised to fix it in 3 days but I was so disappointed, can't think straight because my husband was in hurry to catch a plane to Aussie... I gave him another chance but on the way back and also at home I couldnt help but crying! I really don't know what to do because I have no time to go to another shop or stitch another one!

After a lot of hassle finding the taxi, describing the way, got lost, tried to call him etc etc etc... to my relieve he made a better job this time. Not as perfect as I wanted in the beginning but this time its acceptable. 





Two days after that when I held a gathering in my house for some Indonesian ladies (I cooked delicious Indonesian chicken porridge, perfect for cold winter weather, yumm) , I proudly presented it to her :



When being asked what is she going to put in the box, she said she wanted to use it as a JOY Box instead of a Joy Jar as adopted from this idea:


loving this for next year - The Joy Jar. Put the good things that happen all year in - and take them out at New Years just to remind yourself of all the good things that happen to your famly every year. (from facebook)
Au revoir Mbak Ina... Selamat jalan dan selamat pindahan to your 'La Maison Du Bonheur'. I don't  want to think how Amman would be for me without her anymore... I do still have some other good friends but still it is sad when one of your good friends is leaving. I told Dilara that maybe we can meet up with Nicolas in Indonesia and I like to think that at least if one day I finally have a chance to go to France I have something else to look forward to (beside Eiffel and Louvre): to visit Mbak Ina in her quiet village :) 

Next Monday we will have a send off party with Indonesian ladies in her apartment, we planned to go to watch late night movie again for the last time on Tuesday. We want to watch the Hobbit... I so look forward for seeing the Middle Earth again but some of my friends told me I'll probably be homesick for NZ afterwards... and watching it with Ina who is leaving soon, maybe it will be a bitter sweet one?
She will go on Friday, the same time with our flight to Turkey but we are going with Turkish Airlines while she and her family are going with Royal Jordanian Air. I am afraid we will be in different terminals even though it would be nice to catch up at the airport for the last time...

PS: 'Mbak' means big sister. In Indonesia it is impolite to call someone who is older than you (or maybe younger/same age but you respected her for some reasons) by name only. It is Javanese word but commonly used in Indonesia in general. 


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

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Featured on Finish Friday

Last friday my Javanese wedding couple was featured on Finish Friday.



Thank you Andrea!

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

Monday, December 10, 2012

Themealicious November: I Nail Them All!



Hello... its me again with another belated Themealicious post! Phewww I can't believe after we bought our own connection (using wifi modem with cellular simcard) I still had problem with the internet! The connection was so slow (probably because we live in the ground floor) so we continued using the internet from the apartement (which suddenly got faster on the day we bought our own modem, it drove my husband mad :p). But on the last week of November the connection stopped so we had to use our super slow internet. It was so slow that it was impossible to do anything, and it disconnected on the 4th of December when my husband was in Australia and I received an invoice of 52JD. We subscribed for 27JD internet so I didnt want to pay until my husband is back. Last night we sorted it out, apparently they sent a wrong invoice to my cellphone (phewww) and I just found out that if I put the modem on top of TV cabinet it made the connection clearer. I wish I knew it earlier!

Now NAIL NOVEMBER. A lot of happy dance because I successfully finished all my WIPs! Thank you so much Themealicious, I wont be able to do it if it wasnt because of you!

So, as I mentioned in my check in post, I finished Hello Kitty (here the picture again):


Finally I made the backstitch for Margaret Sherry's Furry Friends (I made this during Jumanji June):


I want to make it as a wall hanger (where I can slip some letters or bills or postcard), now I really need to actually buy that sewing machine :)

And tadaaaa.... my masterpiece:

I love this Silvermoon Tea so much, everybody on my facebook likes it even my husband gave me a lot of compliment (its for his sister after all :p). Cant wait to start sewing the beads, but couldn't do it until I go to Turkey this end of the year because my sister in law (who live in Turkey) bought the Mill Hill beads for me when she was in the USA. Almost forgot to mention I changed the wording 'Earl Grey' to 'Nuray' (my sis in law's name). NURAY is Turkish name (derivated from Arabic) which means The Moonlight :)

Last one, I stitched the name of the baby boy:


Will post more details on each project once I've got them framed or sewed into something :)

Now Delightful December
The holidays are a time for relaxing...at least, that's the theory! No stress here...work on whatever you want and enjoy!

Its getting cold and rainy more often in Amman I don't feel like going to the shop to buy the threads that I need for a new project. Serkan has been busier lately (just back from Australia and will go again to Afghanistan in a couple of days) its difficult to expect him to take me to the shop and Ali is more active than usual its hard for me to manage him in a market, so I am going to work on a kit that I already have:

 Its a chinese kit and I like to call it 'Winter Clock'. perfect for this time of the year :) I hope I could do most of it before we off to Turkey on 21st of December :)

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