Little update after almost 2.5 months absence

Hello... hello... hello...
Its been almost 2.5months I didnt post anything on this blog. September when we were back from Turkey  was a busy month for me, helping my daughter to adapt to her new school (she loves the school!), dealing with my son who was cranky now his sister is gone every morning (poor dear Ali) and looking for a house to rent. But in the end we decided to keep staying in the house where we live since we moved in Amman in February, because there wasn't any certain time when our furnitures and personal belonging would arrive from Damascus (hence confusion whether to rent a furnished or unfurnished house) and there was an issue that my husband would be transferred to another country next summer so if we moved to another house and paid annually we would lose some money. Good news fınally our belonging arrived, we now can use some of our furnitures and I still have a lot of boxes to sort out.

October, another busy and fun month for me, particularly in the end of the month. Just before mid term holiday there was a book week in Dilara's school. She had a great time with Gingerbread man theme, having pajamas story at school and in the end there was a costume day where she wore the costume of her favourite bbok character. She wore Tinkerbell costume and had a tea party with her class.

I came to the school and thrilled to meet the author of Married to a Bedouin: Marguerite van Geldermalsen. I read her book a couple months a go, the story was amazing, I was quite taken by her experiences and her courage.

Right after the end of book week, there was an Eid holiday (Eid el Adha or Sacrifice day) combined with mid term Autumn holiday. We all deserved to have a real nice holiday, besides it was my birthday and a friend visited from Netherland so we all went to Petra and Aqaba (the red sea). We went there with another three families, they are originally from Canada-Ghana, Italian Australian and Tunisian and we are Turkish-Indonesian, quite interesting crowd :) 

the Siq, Petra

In front of The Treasury, Petra

The Amazing View of The Rock Camp (our accommodation in Petra)

The Red Sea (behind us is a town in Israel)

Enjoying (Ali not so enjoying!) Aqaba

me and Dilara. In case you were wondering, I wore a full body swim suit called Burqini which I got in Australia

Ali spent most of the time sleeping but he wanted people to think that he was busy snorkling!

the site of Ayla, an old Islamic town in Aqaba. Behind is Giant Flag of Arab  Revolt against Ottoman Empire

I also took my friend for sightseeing around Amman: Amman Citadel, Roman theatre, Jerash, Dead Sea and Hussein Park.

Jerash, Rome far away from Rome

Jerash is the biggest Roman site outside of Rome

my friend floating in the dead sea

float... float away...

me, dilara and sunset in the dead sea

Al Hussein Mosque, Amman

The Children Museum of Jordan, Amman

Jordan Royal Automobile Museum, Amman

My friend Santi posing with King Abdullah in Cultural Village, King Hussein park, Amman

Temple of Hercules, Amman Citadel

Roman Theatre, Amman

It was fun but very tiring indeed. And my boxes are still waiting to be sorted :(

Now... how about cross stitch? I still managed to do some stitching, particularly early October. I wasn't sure why in September when we were back from turkey I didn't feel like doing any stitching. I spent most of my time reading novels. And the internet connection in our building was awful, it made me less motivated :( I think if I had a better connection, all your encouraging posts and events such as IHSW would keep me going. My husband had been promising me to buy our own connection but he was so busy and he was the number 1 procrastinator (tomorrow... tomorrow... next time... next week and hey its been more than 2 months!). Yesterday I dragged him to the mall and half forcing him to buy the router-internet connection deal. So here I am writing my blog again! I will post my stitchworks in different post :) I hope you enjoy my pictures, its so nice to be here again :)

PS: I have changed my blog address from yanahanimstitches to yanakristik.blogspot.com. I think its shorter and easier to remember for my Indonesian fellow. I hope the link to my blog from my follower would be automatically updated. Sorry for inconvenience.

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

Themealicious: Obligation October

hi Themealicious, I am back :)

Obligation October

Wow, the holidays are only a couple months away! Avoid that last-minute crunch and work on some gifts now.

I have explained in this post the reasons why I absence from blogger (and events such IHSW, TUSAL and of course Themealicious), so now its time for me to show my progress :

The first work that I want to show here is actually a project that I made for September Small. I planned to make one pin cushion and two biscornus but I only managed to make one pin cushion. I made this for Marina (http://stitchingrendezvous.blogspot.com) so I think this also match for October Obligation theme :)

I wasn't happy with dacron filling that I have for my own pin cushion, so I am planning to fill this one with natural cotton. I don't know where to get it in here so I decided to buy it in Indonesia (I am planning to go home next summer) just before I hand it to Marina (she lives in Indonesia).

Second project is a small cross stitch for Ina, my friend in Amman who is going to move back to France. I found a simply cute pattern that stated 'La Maison du Bonheur' - The house of happiness. I added the name of their family and the name of each family member.

This project is small so I am going to turn it to a box. I have taken it to a frame shop and will pick it up in a week. Finger crossed it will turn out nicely. İt was kind of difficult to explain with the shop guy because I didn't have any example with me (and forgot to bring any picture) and his english was limited. I will post later once I got it done.

Third project is a gift for a friend (and long distance relative from my husband side. it is interesting because she is Indonesian and we are related through our Turkish families) who will give birth to a baby boy (God's willing) in November. It is a long waited baby after one ectopic pregnancy and one miscarriage. I almost finish the project, only need to fill the booties with white and add the name and the date of birth. I am a bit disappointed with the washable pen that I used, the green colour left a faint yellowish line. I tried everything its still there :( Any suggestion?

Apart from that yellowish line, I love the result. I will update it later when I stitched the name/date and framed. My husband keep teasing me, where is the body? why only the bottom? I think its artistic but he just dont get it. what do you think?

And my last work is the Rose Clock that I made for my sister:
Its very simple but elegant stitching, I love it alot, it only took 2 days to finish. I still thinking whether to get it framed in Amman or Jakarta.

This small project drew a lot of attention on my facebook. I even got an order from a friend but I just don't know how to put a price in it. Anybody can help me?


Apart from the first one, I had 3 projects in October, all done in the first two weeks. Not bad at all :)

Nail It November: 

What's lying around that's so close to being finished you can't stand it anymore? Get to it and finish it!

I have three unfinished projects: Silvermoon Tea for my sis in Law, Baby Kitties and Furry Friends that I really want to finish!


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

Themealicious 2012 Altius August

Hello everyone, 

Sorry for belated post but I was so worn out from our trip to Turkey (arrived in Amman on the 1st of Sept).

So here is my report:

done the top right after August IHSW

continue the bottom right, love the colours already even when its only 1/3 finished!

middle top took longer to stitch, need to concentrate because of the colours and many  twirly spaces

finally done the moon in the middle. can you see the siluet of the woman, a hand holding a cup and the smoke?

I stopped stitching about one week before August ended because it was our last week in Turkey so I wanted to focus on last minutes shopping, packing and visiting relatives.

Overall I love stitching Silvermoon Tea alot, the chart is great and the colours are amazing. I still need to get used to stitching on linen, I think an experienced stitcher could have done it better than me but I am still happy with the result considering this is my first attempt.

In the beginning of the month I set up some goals:

1. Stitching on linen: Done. Therefore GOLD medal for me

2. Stitching full design on fabric: Did it but couldn't finish the whole design. Therefore SILVER medal for me.

3. Stitching the beads: Intended to but couldn't do it because I haven't finished the stitching. Therefore BRONZE medal for me.

Here I want to show off my medals to you :)

And September theme is:
September Smalls

We all love gadgets, and none better than the teensy tools and holders we make ourselves. Let's stitch some smalls--needlebooks, fobs, biscornus, scissors keeps, pincushions--or knit some teensy things--amigurumi, jewelry, sachets....

I think I will make biscornu and if I still have time I want to make needlebooks and pincushion too :) See you next time! I hope you all enjoy your Altius August (I know you do!) but if you haven't joined at all, lets join us and lets have fun together!


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

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