Cheshire Heart and Goa Mug

Don't trust the pictures below, they were taken last weekend, and the weather is finally turning towards to what is supposed be autumn here. Today morning was gloomy, windy and in anticipation of some nice rain. Just like me. No, I am not gloomy but opposite, and I have some nice plans for today evening, as I've got a chance (yey!) to spend it with myself, what happens quite rarely. Though I'd prefer to spend it with my D too, it cannot happen due to an important (of course) monthly meeting they hold at his work place. So here I will be crocheting, cooking a little, watching something or reading.

Last Sunday I made a Cheshire heart for a friend of mine I got to know through the internet over 3 years ago when searching for information about India and relationships issues with Indians... :) hehe, I know, so I found a blog which gave me a clear picture, without hiding anything and at the same time telling interesting things about this country.Can you imagine I finally met its author here in our city! She came to India again to travel with her little son, and I couldn't invent a better present for her rather than the hand made heart, considering that she needed something light in weight to carry along all her journeys. Made with love to spread love and joy. The girl also did a photo shoot for me and my D :) The second one we get as a gift from our friend!

I couldn't find proper light for long time, and particularly like this photo of the heart among my garden's savage greenery.

If  you have never heard of Goa, it is a smallest state of India famous for its beaches and New Year Carnival, and is a former Portuguese province. It is one of my dream destinations too, as I have never been there in more than 3 years of life in India! So this cup could be a projection of my dream, as visualized it is more likely to come true, isn't it? We bought it at a local fair last Saturday. With the thoughts of the beaches and ocean, I continue my day and wishing you to have a nice one wherever you are, my dears! Peace \/ ! Have a wonderful weekend as well!

Achieving Something and Another Cheshire Heart - Wednesday Blanket Update

It is not easy to get everything you plan done. Not easy but possible, same as possible to get my crochet blanket growing and updates being posted :) I hope you can see the difference between the last update and this one. I didn't crochet much though and added only few more squares. I haven't sewed any of them into  the blocks yet. If my calculations were correct I'd be able to finish crocheting all the squares in 5 weeks' time, making 20 squares per day (no weekend crochet). What in its turn means that the blanket will be definitely ready by suppose August-September. I can't wait to see  it spread on our big bed!

 My side project of the last week was made for an American lady, our preschool's mentor I told you about in the last to last post. I wanted to give her something what would be cute and light in weight... I am grateful that I am able to make such thing myself. I couldn't help but crocheted this Cheshire heart which will fly across the ocean to the Key West in a couple of days! The lady liked it very much, especially the colors. I was more than pleased to get this feedback :) 

I have gifted few of these hearts already to the friends in India and abroad as a gift-symbol of love and care. My husband though seeing this (another such) heart, asked why did I make it so long, and suggested to make it broader and perhaps shorter... I tried to explain it was my style, design and so on... but he just looked at it and my slightly disappointed face ( I am very sensitive towards critics:)) and said that it was still beautiful and good for gifting. Thank you, D! :) I am also thinking of designing something new soon and sharing a pattern. The Cheshire Heart pattern is here if you wish.

Last weekend I was experimenting with new art forms and would be sharing what I had done soon.
Bye till then and have an enjoyable second half of the week, my dears! 

Calendula and a Cheshire Heart - Friday Garden

Good evening, my dears! It is late evening here now, I am almost sleeping, as the day has been a little hectic and I'm going to office tomorrow. I was making my D ready for a trip to Rishikesh - a must destination for many tourists who come to India. This is a holy place as well as a place famous for adventurous sports like river rafting, biking and camping. So I wish he would enjoy all these and will have some interesting photos to share. And speaking of me, he promised to take me there too, but this time it was strictly only employees' entertainment. 

So I am being a nice wife, continued my gardening and crocheting, and D, being a caring and attentive husband, brought these flowers from his office yesterday. Calendula was always a necessary  flower at my parents' dacha, I hope to continue this tradition.

 

This type of Calendula has cute fluffy blossoms. They were looking fine today after being planted into a pot...

What I can't say about this one, perhaps it shouldn't have been taken out of the soil while still having flowers. Though I hope it will get accustomed to new environment.

I have no idea how a stripy heart got into a post about garden :) Today was my friend's birthday, so I gifted her a new version of my Cheshire heart - with little bit of beads and sequins. I've gifted already many of these hearts and I enjoy making them a lot, and now to embellish, why haven't I thought of doing it before? "Good thought comes afterwards" according to a Russian saying.

Aha! Now I know why the heart decided to pop up here - it pretended to be a fruit on our citrus tree. How clever of you! The pattern for this heart can be found here.

Now I have to think of what I am going to do this weekend, as my D will not be with me. This is not an issue as soon as you have hobbies and projects in progress. Or friends who might take you out. Let's see how it all goes.

Have a great relaxing weekend wherever you are!

Hearty Crochet

My dears, hope you are doing great! I shall admit that I've been a little busy lazy in the first half of February. Perhaps the waning moon made me such, and  I hope it'll give a charge of new strength as it's in its growing phase now. I also put a moon phases widget on the left side bar. It is very useful for choosing the best days for planting. My little garden hasn't been productive so far, the beans didn't give any valuable harvest, and I'm waiting for this weekend to plant them again. 

I had pretty nice marigolds last year, so I sowed them again, but found out one sunny morning that the birds, who are living on our citrus tree, impertinently pulled out some sprouts and plucked first tender leaves from others! This was the moment when I turned to an angry bird myself... and covered my precious plants with thin cotton cloths. Now I do this every morning, and remove the cloth in the evening.

Hey, but I gave a crochet title to this post and still chatting about my garden issues. Well, to the business. Tomorrow is St. Valentine's day, and I just couldn't stop making hearts the whole week. After the first stripy heart, I made two more. I took the pictures in the morning. It was windy, and hearts kept on swinging, so I was able to catch only few still moments, when finally settled them on the cloth. 

This blue heart is filling my cupboard with eucalyptus fragrance... sorry, I don't have lavender in my stash now.

This one was gifted to my friend today. What I like the most in making of these hearts is that you can use leftover yarn, combine any colors - they seem to look nice together anyway. By the way, I made a pattern for these hearts as well. A Stuffed Cheshire Heart Sachet pattern is a free download which you can find here if interested.

So, this was my hearty crochet and hearty wishes of a good day to you, dears!

 Have a fabulous 14th of February (and other days too;)), have fun, Love and Be Loved!

Truth About Crocheter's Evenings... :)

Hello, dears! Hope you weekend is going on well. I had only one day off this week, but still I'd share some new projects, right, but also some truth about my crochet evenings, like the one I had yesterday for example.
Saturday evening is the best, because you know that tomorrow is Sunday, what means no work, sleeping till noon (in worse cases even more), and you can actually relax. :) So why not to party? I did a little as you can see, with a glass of beer and some pretty yarn colors. I usually don't eat or drink while crocheting, but today it's Saturday, okay. (and in no case I promote drinking while crafting or otherwise!please).
I made 5 squares, no mistakes have been found so far :).

Continuing with Valentine's day's crafts,  I made this stuffed stripy heart which will serve as a lemongrass fragrant sachet for my D's cupboard. I admit that this heart was inspired by Lucy's Heart Hanger, Linda's Sweet Lacy Hearts, Lilli's Crocheted Heart and few others which kept appearing in the Internet in different shapes and colors. I decided to make a Cheshire heart, stripey like a cat :)

I also colored few pebbles with nail polish I'm not going to use anymore. Let's see where I can find a place for them. This is the pattern for the Stuffed Cheshire Heart as a free download.

Have a happy day and a bright successful week ahead! Don't forget, love is all around!
And a Happy Chinese New year!

Little Hearts and A Walk in the City Heart

One week has passed by, another week. Not a significant one, there was a little bit of this and that, as usual... waking up in the morning, going to office, then coming back and waiting for my D to come too, then having tea (or having it later), watching movie... By the way we watched a very good film "Gandhi", in which Ben Kingsley plays the main role (of Gandhi of course:)). May be some of you saw it, but if you didn't, do watch it, you'll definitely recognize many famous actors.
Today I had a nice walk in the lunch time. It was sunny, warm and a pleasant weather overall. This is so called "city heart", sector 17, which is the central part of the city and most popular place to hang out and shop.

Huge trees grow there, I'm fascinated by their trunk, which reminds me veins or even limbs of a human...

Last year this was the time when I renewed my crochet hobby, and the first thing I made was a stuffed Valentine's heart for my D. This year I'm still thinking what I can make for him, perhaps Cheburashka will be to the purpose, or may be better let it go and have a spontaneous Valentine's day? Let's see. 

Yesterday, however I made myself to sit and make at least some little hearts to decorate the rooms. Somehow I got into the mood of "all lovers' day"  as we call it in my native country.

If you wish to make these hearts, I prepared a pattern with some pictures. Hope you will find it useful in anticipation of a holiday, as it's a quick and easy project, which makes it suitable for beginners as well (oh, sounds like I'm already a mature crocheter). I made this pattern while I was in the office (yea, I have a damn interesting job!lol) so photos might seem to be taken from hiding ... what is actually true.
Little Hearts Pattern:
Ch4, join in ring
Ch1, 6sc in ring, join in first ch1
Ch3 (counts as dc), dc in same st, [2dc in next st] 2 times, in next st make [dc, picot, dc] - made heart's pointed bottom; [2dc in next st] 3 times. Join in the base of first ch3. Make a loop for hanging the heart :)

Here is how you can make a loop so that to hang the heart anywhere you want. 

In the end I came up with 6 hearts - not bad for one working day :)

I made these yesterday. I like red and orange ones especially. 

Have a hearty weekend, my dears! Sending loads of warmness and best wishes your side!

Happy Valentine's Day in India

Happy Valentine's Day!
I couldn't miss it because it is really very special to me and I am really grateful that my husband supports me in celebrating it!

   St. Valentine's day is going to be a second one for me in India. Last year my husband surprised me and made me shy a lot on 14th of February by sending bunch of flowers to the school where I was doing my internship! All the teachers were envying I guess (hehe), someone asked whether it was my birthday or what, and I was so proud to say, no, I got this bouquet from my husband for St. Valentine's Day!
 My husband got a lovely handmade card from me last year. This year I gifted him a crochet heart.
 I have no idea yet how we are going to mark this day this year, but my D. already said he invented something. Now I am feeling excited and curious about it.Can't wait till my office will be over for today!
Love you, my D.!