Things to Cherish and Value

I know I have been sounding rather upset and sad in my previous posts. But I know that you all understand and share the same feelings as I. However, after discussing the same with D several times over the last weekend, I had to go on and carry on to take of my little boy, because he is the one who needs our care and love right here right now, and thank god we are able to give these and more to him.
I kept myself busy last weekend completing the old projects and making new ones. Here is a glimpse of our New Year tree in all its spontaneity and  variety of ornaments and decor.

This little Gnome is sitting joyfully on the branches - a gift from my parents.

You must have seen these all over the internet. I fell in love with the idea of making my own gnome or a nisse. This was a half an hour project - made of a sock, felt and yarn. I want to make one for my parents as well.

I have at last finished this felt Russian doll (Matryoshka). She is not perfect but I am glad I attempted this  felt ornament.

It is time to display my latest cross stitch - a Santa carrying a little new year tree. Perhaps, I will leave it in this loop only, not framing this time. The cross stitch required a black outlining -  I don't have time to do this and, to tell the truth, I like it the way it is.

Stars, stars everywhere! By the way, I used little A's play dough cutters to make these cookies (after thorough washing of course) :)) since I am yet to buy steel cookie cutters. The recipe I used is this Shortbread Cookies with addition of some milk and ginger to the dough. They came out very tasty and crispy.

So that's all about how I am trying to get into a better mood. I wish that all of you dear friends had peaceful, joyful, cozy holidays and spent all the great moments with your loved ones. Cherish each and every such moment!

Things to Love

Hello my dear friends! I have read your blogs recently and found out that I am not alone in my tiredness and constant want to simply do nothing for a while. I don't really address it to being lazy, and not that there is any health issue as such (touch wood), but rather a mental exhaustion, probably it is the end of year which is usually more hectic. I officially declare that I need a break with change in my surroundings.
Getting in the mood for Christmas and New year in India is a little difficult due to the +25 outside, no snow, no major city decorations. The affect of all the sad recent news leaves me guilty of thinking about happy holidays and all when so many suffer and cannot even dream of sleeping in cozy beds...
However my holiday spirit prevails indoors, a quiet one. I have put up a tree together with little A last weekend, he enjoyed, oh so much, bringing me those little ornaments and is so excited about the lights! I am so glad that we were able to ignite that holiday cheer in him. His school also installed a tall Christmas tree in the lobby and decorated beautifully the premises.
My crochet mood in its turn has been rather high. I confessed to my D that I was bitten by a "crochet bug", he understood what I meant. Whenever I am crocheting in front of him, he then asks me : "Why do you make such a serious (= concentrated?) face ?" :P

The first thing to show is an up-cycled purse. Everything is hand stitched. The handle is crocheted with a t-shirt yarn.

It closes with a help of two buttons and loops made of crocheted cotton threads. (Thank you Preeti for the buttons!:))

I was in need of a new cap for little A he can wear daily on the way to school. My A looks adorable in it! I cannot find the pattern I used for this cap (not in my Pinterest), but it's a basic cap pattern, and semi-circles attached for bear ears effect :)

I have been keeping in my mind that I need to make another, a more beautiful and better fitting sweater for A. So I found this really simple and easy to make Toddler Striped Sweater. As usual it asked for yarn weight I don't have, so I started crocheting with two strands of sport weight yarn, hoping it would help but needed to buy two more colors. Last weekend me and D went to our (note, OUR) favourite yarn market, expecting to buy two skeins and go. When I saw the yarn stalls after a long time .. I got dizzy! The first thing my eyes fell on were various, multicolored skeins of a BULKY weight yarn!!! I have been searching such among Indian brands but never found in the Internet ...and here they are, waiting for me. LOL. D could not help but say ok, buy it if you need... Think if you really need it... I said I needed it very much and can now work so many projects!:)))

 Here is a sweater cum jacket in progress. I want to finish it as soon as possible so Little A has opportunity to wear it THIS winter (not the next one :~)). I plan to make it a little longer like a cardi. The yarn is acrylic, very soft and not prickly at all, works up very smoothly, no knots, and color is just great for this type of garment.

AND... I got this one , a sock weight yarn to try! It seems to be very good too. Overall I was really impressed by the range of yarn  Indian manufacturers offer now. There were many  other ones which I would like to try to work with, but maybe next time.

So that's all for now friends. Wishing you a happy week whenever you are! Happy coming up holidays!

Holidays' Spirit Created by Yourself :)

Hello my lovely friends! West Christian Christmas is just round the corner so is the New year! I am full of holidays' spirit these days, creating the mood myself for myself and wanting to share with all of you. I will also visit your lovely blogs soon, since I absolutely LOVE all the holiday posts made by you, and I want to finally keep a pace too :)
(Maybe not related to this post, but I started reading the Thirteenth Tale by Diana Setterfield and I love it! Anyone read it too? Perfect read to divert your thoughts).
My holiday spirit started with ... baking! I tried for the first time to bake cookies in our IFB convection oven. First attempt... hmmm, too sugary and buttery and crunchy, but we ate it all :P

Second attempt - much much better! I am going to use the same recipe with different flavours for Christmas treats. In plans, let's see how it realizes itself, to make a traditional winter wine gluhwein! :) Yumm! I will find this eggless recipe among my notes and provide a link here.

Yahoo, I managed to make some tree ornaments! Which cost zero I believe. Here is a Pinterest inspiration  - a Christmas star ornament made of sticks :) I later painted it golden, and also painted pine cones my D got from Manali last year, more photos are yet to come.

 We went to buy a New year tree few days ago, and it was proudly placed in the drawing room :))) Of course I wanted to have it primary for my little A to enjoy all the celebrations related to Christmas and New Year, since we cannot go to Kazakhstan this winter. But.. I am a big child too, therefor it brings loads of joy to me as well. It is not yet fully decorated in this picture.

And at last... My little boy is now a Christmas elf! :) I don't usually post his pictures in my blog, but it's a special occasion now. How do you like his look? D's childhood sweater (more than 30 years old!), and a red hooded shirt along with a hat created an unexpectedly elf-looking costume. Little A loves wearing this Santa hat, especially that it has become really cold at home. Here are his photos to compare how much he grew since last year. I cannot believe this! :)

To conclude my post ;

Happy holidays and happy coming up Christmas, dear friends, from our family! 

Winter Holidays - 4 Years in India

Hello, friends! I am here, I am always here :) I found time (and ok, let's be honest, wish) to blog! I got caught up with my new job and other events in life so much that blogging, unfortunately, went on the background.
First, I hope you all had happy and enjoyable winter holidays. I had rather good, with gifts and New year tree, and lights. There is a Santa under the tree which I bought in India, when celebrating my second new year here. Very cute, and I haven't seen such since.

 This year we bought some more tree ornaments, but I didn't make any new myself. Also I wanted to have lights on my tree for a long time, and this year we got it too! I LOVE these lights! Now as the holidays passed by, I put the same lights in our room, my D loves it too :)
This little Santa I bought in Moscow, 4 years ago. I also bought 4-5 more of them in different colors, one travelled with me to India.

 This Santa was purchased in my city, just before I went to India (4 years ago too). So basically I have 3 Santas with me every year, more to come? :)

Sorry, it is just a quick post, I gotta go somewhere, it is Saturday! Yey!

Love you all and wish you a splendid weekend!!!

Merry Christmas 2013!

Have a Merry, Happy, Jolly Christmas and winter holidays! 

I have off from office today, so enjoying my day! I hope to be back to blogging soon as I have things to share with you, my dears!

Christmas and Cats

Well, as you know I live in the of the North India which doesn't have that real change of the seasons. These days we have +25 in day time and around +8+9 in the evening. The house feels more cold than outside. We never get snow here, and hence I cannot FEEL winter. So as I have been doing for the past 3 years, I IMAGINE winter.. :) I imagine the frosty morning air, and looking at the evening sky I expect it'd snow... I also try to create that winter holidays mood around me, preparing little gifts.

This time I couldn't wait more and tried my hands at cross stitching. I used to admire all the beautiful needle work people do: absolutely amazing pictures, made with love and warmth of their hearts. I wanted to start learning this craft. My D took me to the local shop called "Chhotu Motu" in Hindi, means "Big and Small", miscellaneous. There I purchased 10 skeins of Anchor thread and 50 cm of fabric + 2 tapestry needles. All cost me 130 Rs. or 2.09 USD. I think it is damn cheap! 

Here is my first cross stitch picture - a Christmas cat :) I know the stitches are uneven, and as I used 3 strands of thread, the crosses came out too thin. But I am happy with this first try and enjoyed the process a lot! This cross stitch was washed and intended to be made into a card. The pattern is here.  I have started another small picture, and I am using 4 strands of thread, which looks way better.

 One more very quick Christmas themed project was a mini stocking made with this pattern. I didn't make any more stockings so far. It's a good project to engage with as you can use scraps of yarn to hook it up.

Meet Mellow, a toy cat. Mellow - Meow + Yellow and it is soft :) Hehe. It was such a spontaneous thing to make, originally it is a crochet applique. I made two such appliques and stitched them together.  Pattern is here, it is a Russian forum/website. 

 I didn't really like the idea of making so many cat appliques for a blanket, it is too boring, and now a toy makes me smile and meow every day :) I am definitely a cat girl!

Tomorrow I am joining new office, and I am very excited about a new job and a new place to work in. Details later and wish me luck! Thanks for wonderful comments about my blanket, you made my day and days to come!

Have a wonderful second half of the week, my dears! Take care! Meow!

Holiday Mood Crochet Bookmarks and a Rose Brooch

Hello, dear friends! Christmas was successful for all of you, judging by your homely, happy posts about celebrations. May it be like this always:) We also had a nice Christmas, though I'm the only Christian in the family (and also an Orthodox). It was pretty cold, foggy and chilled when we went to the church  in the evening. All our family lit candles to honor Jesus and pray for our health, however I really don't know whether it is enough just to lit a candle... Because my FIL fell ill just 2 days after this. Nevertheless, we believe, that God will make things all right. We need to believe because we need support.

Well, away from philosophical mood to real deals. These are other crochet bookmarks I gifted to my friends. It's so easy and fast to make them - perfect for the last minute gifts.  I think I need one too:). I might post some pics we took on Christmas day as to show you how it's celebrated in India. Hope, it' s not too late for this update.

This is a small ego-crocheting project from that new yarn I bought. I made a rose brooch, which will be attached with a safety pin. It'll add some color to my new grey cardigan. The background is a much bigger ego-crochet project, it's completed and ready to have a photo session any time soon I get good light (the sun seems to be abandoning us these days). 

I found this yarn looking pretty in combination with white one. I literally fell in love with this orange sparkly yarn and want to buy more of it for some good crocheting time. I'll be back soon with some more holiday posts.

Have a great weekend ahead and a happy coming up New Year! 

*** Merry Christmas 2012! С Рождеством Христовым! ***

I wish you and my family (of course) a Merry Christmas!

Thanks for all your kind wishes and comments throughout my blog land journey. I'm happy to gain so many new friends from all over the world and share holiday happiness with all of you. :) 

Here is the Christmas tree in my office, decorated by me and my Singaporean friend. I would like you to know that as soon as I'm an Orthodox Christian, our church celebrates Christmas on the 7th of January, so don't be sad when 25th passes by, we will honour the birth of Christ again soon :)

These are some Christmas presents I gifted last Saturday :) A heart bookmark.

A Christmas doily.

And a ruffle lotus doily! More gifts to come. I'm also doing some "ego-crocheting" (means, for myself :) which I can't wait to accomplish and show you!

*** Merry Christmas! *** С Рождеством! ***

Indian Winter and Snug Things

My questioning mood has passed by, I can't think too much about things I don't understand.May be it's not required. So I'm just trying to dive into my sunny winter days again...with many pictures this time! 

Indian winter reminds me my native country's warm autumn... Cloudy sky, some trees' leaves gained the autumn colors . The tree in front of our house changes its attire according to the season, unlike other, green all year long.

We had another homely weekend. Indian cardamon tea and some tasty crackers are the best to keep warm in a cold house.

My husband got these socks cum shoes from his mum and can't spend his evenings without them now. Our heater is "on" too; we like the kind of light it gives.

Of course, Indian winter can't be spent without light and fragrances. Mmm, lemon grass!

The tree was established on Sunday. I'm planning to get some lights for it as well.  I bought that small Santa from my university's shop in Moscow, there are more of them at my parents' place. Now I have a piece of memories on my New Year tree..

And Ta-dah! The ripple baby blanket is ready. It took me quite a while to weave the ends. Baby boy was born on the 10th of December, so now we need to think of the option of delivering the blanket to his parents as they live in another city :) I know it needs to be altered and may be steam ironed.

More... some new yarn from the Indian brand Vardhman. Pretty colors, smooth thread, and I have a project in my mind to use it for. 

These were some moments of the past weekend. I'm grateful being able to have peaceful and snug time with my D. 

Have a great cozy day!