Cute little flowers 1st & 2nd attempt

I saw some pretty little felt flower clips awhile back, thanks to looking up for ideas for NeedleN'Crafts anniversary gift exchange. Each participant has to construct a felt flower for their partner.

So while browsing, I thought to myself that "hey! I could make that!". So now is the time to make it. The idea comes THIS online tutorial (THANK YOU FOR PUTTING IT UP!!). It really is amazing the amount of tutorial this crafter and the rest has put up! Imagine the time, money and patience (some of us do have tots that drive us crazy while we're blogging, you know) for each tutorial spend.... So I've always think that its nice to link it back to the owner of the tutorial, to show appreciation you know....

Just too bad that we don't have little girls of our own, so these will go to a very cute little girl whom I'll be meeting later in the afternoon. Who knows, I'll be trying out a hair band next for myself? *wink*wink

Pâtes au poulets et au fromage frais

Literally means: Chicken with pasta and fresh cheese sauce. Took this out from my weekly COOP newsletter (its a chain of supermarkets like Tesco). I really like this recipe and its really quick and easy peasy to prepare. So here goes...

Main meal for 4 person.

Ingredients

Enough olive oil for cooking

3 spring of thyme

400 g chicken breasts sliced into bite size

1/2 tsp salt

a pinch of pepper

1/2 tsp olive oil

450 g zucchini cut in half and sliced into 3mm thick slices

150 g frozen peas

100 ml chicken stock

1 tbsp mild mustard

125 g fresh herb cheese AKA cream cheese, such as Cantadou or Boursin, cubed

1/4 tsp nutmeg powder

300 g pasta

Enough salted water for pasta cooking.

Method

You first heat up some olive oil in the pan, then add thyme and chicken breasts. Cook till meat are slightly golden. Remove thyme, season and set a side the chicken for later use.

Pour in the rest of the olive oil into the pan, lower the heat and stir fry the zucchini for about 2 minutes. Then peas, for another minute, followed be the chicken stock and simmer for about 2 minutes. Stir in your cream/fresh cheese, mustard and nutmeg and bring to a boil. Stir in pre-prepared chicken, cook briefly and remove from heat.

You then prepare your pasta according to manufacturer's instructions or till al dente/just cook. Drain and then mix the sauce with your pasta and voila!

Note: I made mine slightly different: didn't have zucchini so in comes canned mushrooms and some left over bacon... :p

The weekend was spent...

Ready to cut...

testing out a sandwich mould (well, a couple of them) received last week on Monday. Don't you just love getting gifts or parcels on a Monday morning? I know I do, beat off the Monday blues.

into a whale, dog, elephant and a car!

I seriously thing only the Japs could come up with these "inventions". Remember the square shaped watermelon thingy and there was the heart shaped cucumber? I think it has to do with their bento (packed lunch) and visual "eating".

Minnie and Micky

Anyways its pretty easy to use. Just slap on the filling of your choice (just not salad leaves or anything that is difficult to cut without a knife) and press the mould down. Voila, you'll get a little car, a whale, an elephant and a terrier dog sans bread crusts! :D Owen was pretty happy to eat it all up, just not the greens. :(

Mental note: white bread would look better!

Next is the Minnie and Micky Mouse bread stamp. I know, sounds funny right? Who would wanna stamp on bread?? Apparently some people do. So you take the stamp and stamp it on the bread (white breads are preferred), then you can either toast it in the toaster (which by the way brings out the optimum result) OR you could just slap on your favourite filling, with of course the stamped side out. You then cut the bread crust using the accompanied crust cutter, making sure that Minnie's or Micky's face is centered. I did not cut the crusts out as I find that its wasteful to throw away food. OMG! Why do I sound like my mum now? Or do all mothers feel the same ways?

Mushroom & bacon "sandwich"

Any how, besides trying out the new toy, I made pork curry for brunch on Sunday. LOVE GRAVY! I could eat it just with plain bread.... Heavenly! And then tried out supermarket finger food: pan fried mushroom with bacon. LOVE BACON!!!

Hers and his

And after all that, went out for a walk along the lake with the boys. The weather wasn't really nice, all grey and cloudy. But still at least it didn't rain, and it wasn't really windy. It just look depressing that all. So to perk things up, a nice thick hot chocolate is in order. Minus the marshmallow and whipping cream.

NKOTB

or rather on 2008... YES, I'm still a fan! Bite me!

NKOTB with Ne-Yo: Single

NKOTB

I was just listening to my New Kids on The Block on my Ipod. Brings back sooooo.... MANY memories. A really close friend I think (might be mistaken) had this song as her wedding march! Crazy girl! LOL! Both of us went gaga over NKOTB. We had all their songs and posters etc!

Here's the video of The Right Stuff: one the many fav of mine...

Winnie and friends

Winnie and friends wall clock that seems to be FOREVER!

I've been on this for weeks now... Its a pretty simply and straight forward piece but some how I seem to be stitching it like forever!

I think part of the reason is that by the time I'd like to sit down and do it, I'm just so tired that ended up making mistakes. So that means I'm frogging more than stitching! ARRGGHHHH.... I'd love to start another piece but then again, its just not me to start something and abandon it half was like what I did to my 9 gold fish piece. Its now officially an Unfinished Object laying around and I do feel guilty just looking at it. So what I do? I kept it "hidden" in my "Work In Progress" box. Well, its at the very bottom... :p So far that is the only one there.

My little model...

It has been 3 days that Owen has not taken his afternoon nap. Somehow he doesn't need that much of sleep ever since he was a baby (and he's still a baby to me!). Which makes me wonder where does all his energy comes from? I would LOVE to have this type of stamina but alas, as we grow older its the opposite.

Next model in the making? ^_^

Speaking of sleep, Kevin seems to be sleeping more than his older brother. Which is GOOD for me. As I was determine NOT to repeat our mistake with Owen, by letting him sleep later. So Kevin now sleeps at around 7:30pm or 8pm and wakes at around 2:30am or 3am for milk and sleeps back till around 9am. There are a few times when he slept right through the night till 5am! Pretty amazing for a breastfed 3 month old, I think. I wonder he'll continue with this trend of his?

Date Night

No, we're NOT having date nights and I don't forsee dates nights for the next 3 years and counting. LOL!

But it is a movie entitled Date Night starring Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg (OMG! He IS THE MAN HERE!!) etc. I absolutely enjoyed it. Not just because there's Mark Wahlberg (well, he may and may not be part of the reason). But because of the title itself.

Now tell me how many average middle class new parents with babies ages ranging from 0 months to 6 ave date nights? When I mean middle class (with a single income earner) parents, I mean those WITHOUT domestic helper or in-laws at the standby mode to baby sit. I wish we could afford having a baby sitter on regular basis. BTW, they are super expensive now, so families with girls; please train them to baby sit to earn extra pocket money!!

Anyways back to the movie. Its a a story about the average working couple with 2 boys that makes the effort to go out on their weekly date nights out. Even though they have demanding jobs that drains energy off them by the end of the day, they still go out. But then again some how they realised that the way that they are doing it and the way their relationship is going, seems more like a job to do rather than a pleasure. So one date night, hubby decides to make a change. It is hilarious how this date night is so different that the rest of their dates! I'd bet the next date would be even better!

I still wish we'd get a chance for date nights though. Even movie nights are far fetched these days.... Sigh...

A week that was

Has been a week and one day since mum left for home. I could still manage the house, the kids and the husband.... sans bloodshed for the moment! HAHAHAHAHA.....

There are however, times when I truly and honestly wanted to strangle that husband of mine for: letting the older one act as if his mischiefs are nonpunishable, for letting the little one cry non-stop while I cook (I can and will forget to add or add too much salt/sugar whatever if this happens) and for act thing as if he's SOOOO.... TIRED from his job as an IT support. Which by the way typically is a sit down job with only either one index finger for clicking, perhaps the full 10 fingers for replying e-mails, the ear & mouth for listening/answering phone calls, the eyes for looking at the screen and the brain to process information.

Being a full time homemaker for the moment is NOT recognisable as a job as being say a lawyer, nurse, doctors, cooks, food & drinks server or even the garbage man. What is making me even angrier is that the person who brings in the bacon/dough/money thinks that he/she can get away with throwing temper tantrums by saying "well, I'm bringing in the income there for what I says goes!" GRRR.....

Well HELLO THERE, we slave around at home without any pay and most of the time we don't even get the right complaint about our job! And there ladies and gentlemen is modern day slavery....

I'd have to admit it, it has been tough running the house on daily basis like running the Star Ship Enterprise. Albeit the budget cuts for my personal hobbies, I truly hope I could still see some light at the end of the tunnel for me time! That's is why I stand on firm believe that babies and kids should be in bed by 9pm no matter what husband and the in-laws have to say. Just because its school holiday doesn't mean that MY job is done or on a holiday well as does it? My job is only done when they are sleeping.

OH WELL! All this typing makes me hungry. Now how about a nice cup (make that 2 cups) of hot chocolate. Mind you not one of those ready to mix chocolate powder with hot milk. Its the ones where you-melt-your-dark-chocolates-by-cooking-them-in-milk types. YUM!

The week that was

The Lavaux vineyards with its mountain the lake.

When the in-laws came to visit us last week and left only on Wednesday. They rented a mountain chalet for a week up at Glion. Its a pretty place but with limited compound. And even with that small amount of space, the care taker managed to grow tomatoes, zucchini, cherry trees and some herbs like basil and rosemary. The zucchinis was excellent! We made omelets with it and the zucchini flowers. Zucchini flowers are sold mostly at farmers market AND its pretty expensive.

Owen eyeing the cake with his hungry eyes...

Eating with his cousins

Owen had a blast with his cousins. He slept at midnight almost every night! And during that week, he hardly take his nap. And guess what? At night he'll be talking/have nightmares and during the day time he was so tired that he's so agitate that it irritates me. GRRRR.... Its like he's uncontrollable! And his misbehaves so badly that I had no choice but to punish him all the time! And I don't like punishing him. It gives me mental drain.

Hubs with Esma & Fabrice

Mum with Uncle Tony

Any ways when they arrived on last Monday, the weather was not o-operating at all. Its all doom and gloom till Wednesday. But then again it was OK as grand aunt couldn't walk that much due to her illness. So they went visiting around Montreux and Vevey. We even went around Lavaux vineyards terrace, stoped a few times to take some photos at Lutry and later on went for wine tasting at one of the local cellar. Bought half a dozen bottles as gifts for friends and family in France and for my dad.

What's a bbq party without kids?

The little star in the arms of 1st aunt

The family didn't really go visiting around Switzerland as planned but at least we get to be together for catch ups and a barbecue! So it was all good.

What a trip!

The proud big brother. More pictures here!

As many of you know, our family just had an addition. Little Kevin was born on 5th July 2010. It all happened in the early hours of the morning. I thought I'm just having episodes of tummy ache until there's some bleeding and labour pains started.

It wasn't painful but still... Good thing my bag was packed a few weeks ahead. Hubs jump out of bed and did a "rush job" on his morning routine.. hehehehe... Managed call the hospital mid-wife and to kiss Owen goodbye before heading out the door. Poor kid was still sleeping then, I didn't have the heart to leave him without telling him where we're off to. But then again, this time is different!

At the hospital, the only place with air-conditioning was in the labour room! We were pretty lucky to be assigned to a room with an extra lie-in sofa/bed for hubs! Having drifting on and off epidural, we managed to take an hour nap BEFORE the actual dilatation began. I had the "mild" pain relieve level as I could still feel the pain (on the level of 10, it was a 5 for me). They had to break the water bag in between labour. After nearly 8 hours, Kevin finally came to the world at 4:30pm with the help of the vacuum extractor. YUP! His head look a little awkward for a few days. In fact it looked alien like! LOL!

We stayed over at the hospital for about 6 days. Owen came to see us on the same evening Kevin was born. He was wearing this "Ok, here's the baby. So what can he do? Why are you guys so excited about? " look when he was here. I could tell he miss having me around at home whenever he came to visit us. But then again without mummy at home, he was the little terror according to grandma! He locks grandma out at the balcony, creates havoc for grandma to clean up afterwards, refuses to go to bed at the time mummy has established etc etc.... AIYAH!!! Mum says that only I could control Owen as he was bullying her! LOL!!!

As we were having a pretty hot summer (average about 32°c), the 5 night hospital stay was like sleeping in the sauna! We do not have even a small table fan... :( Gosh! It was so hot that all the babies were crying from 10pm till the wee hours. I had make a fan out of a piece of brochure, thank goodness it was made out of thick paper. I so wanted to get out ASAP but Kevin's jaundice level was rising but not enough to be put under the UV light (phototherapy). So in the end I'd rather stay on to make sure that he has clean bill of health BEFORE both of us checks out.

It was so nice to be back at home and sleeping in my own bed with some form of heat reducing instrument A.K.A. the fan. Owen is adjusting and is still adapting towards having to share mummy with his baby brother. Kevin was feeding every 2 hours for the 2- 3 weeks we're home but now he could hold up till 4 hours max at night. Which is a BLISS for me! I remember when Owen was hungry every 2 hours till the 2 month! ARRGGGHHHH..... I can't wait when he could at least hold up till 5 hours! But then again, I'd bet it won't happen with breast fed babies.

New addition to kitchen appliances

Our not so new but new to us Chinese Red Docle Gusto Machine! ;D

We have inherited a coffee machine from the Bernardo who works for Nestle on Sunday. They actually offered the machine to us before Christmas last year but there wasn't any place at that time to put it.

Now its sitting near our dinning table above my sewing drawers. Its a Dolce Gusto machine and not the Nespresso. Good thing as well, as we could make other drinks besides coffee. But then again, I don't think I'll be using it THAT often unless we have people over. Reason being the capsules are rather expensive to purchase on daily basis. A box of 16 capsules of decaffe Caffè Lungo would costs me CHF6.40. The same price for cappuccino light (8 cofffe & 8 milk capsules each). So for the moment, I'll stick to my Italiano stove top cafetiere and my battery operated milk frother for every day use....

Perhaps when mum comes over this Saturday, I'll give her a treat. She's such a coffee drinker! hahahahahaa....

Being 3.....

I'm now 3!

Owen had his 3rd birthday party on Saturday. His actual birth date is on 11th June, and he shares the same birth date as June of NNC! ;) Now more the reason NOT to forget June's special day eh? *wink*wink

We just had a small gathering with some close friends as our families aren't technically able to be here. We have limited entertaining space at home and we don't really entertain that often. So whenever we have friends over he'll get so excited that he'll forgo his afternoon nap!

Spidey cake!

There's Carmen & her boy, Jules; the Bernardos: Cheche, Tony & Regina, the Kuntz: Nina, Andreas and their little princess, Emily and a long time uni friend, Azni. The weather was cloudy but still really warm and thank goodness it didn't rain! We had a little barbecue, with our electric grill of course, on our balcony. As usual hubs man the grill.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OUR SWEET BOY!

Look! Even Grandpa Tony is helping.... ;)

BTW, what's with men and grill? Perhaps its the ONLY time to show off their "cooking" abilities? I've notice how men tend to LOVE grilling meat over fire (even on electric grill!!). I think its genetics or due to our ancestral heritage OR they could be reminiscing about their camping days?

Any ways, we got him a Spiderman cake. I seriously do not have the patience to decorate cakes, although I'd like to learn the basics next time. So this time round, I ordered it from a Filipino friend who makes really gorgeous birthday cakes at home. LOVE the marshmallow icing and cake as it wasn't too heavy nor too sweet. But we did ended up with blueish/pinkish teeth/mouth! LOL!

It really felt like it was yesterday when he was born. How time flies! And now with him being fully toilet trained (day time and no need reminding. YAY!) before his 3rd birthday, I really hope that he keeps up his good work and then we could be able to rid off his night time diapers as well. He'll be going to school/kindergarten next year at 4, which is hard to believe for myself. I guess we'll better take advantage of having short breaks/holidays out of school holidays BEFORE September 2011.

My cuppa

Toasted English muffins with cappuccino.... heaven!

Cappuccino (decaf of course!) happens to be just the thing for a sunny morning like today. I do not have a machine, we don't drink enough coffee to buy one and plus there's just no place in the kitchen for another hardly use bulky thing. So what I bought a year ago was a 1 cup coffee percolator also known as Moka Pot. Why 1 cup? Hubs is not really a coffee drinker, will only drink coffee while driving long distance.... LOL!

My cute moka pot with its tall frother

So I got that and also a battery operated milk frother. Having worked at coffee shops (no, not like the ones in Netherlands!) during internships and part-time jobs, basically learned a little about making milk foams that could make a toothpick stand manually. Which is taking cold milk, pour it into a steel jug, turn on the "arm" of the coffee machine full and then steam the milk in the jug by just making sure the tip is just below the surface. Full cream milk creates the best froth. And if you're using a battery operated one like mine, make sure the milk is warm enough and just put the tip of the frother into the milk and froth away! :D Btw, you'll need a container that is tall enough as frothing milk could rise up....

Big, plum and juicy strawberries

Since we're having spring at the moment, strawberries are abundant now and we're eating them almost every week. I think I'll buy some more today to make strawberry compote (sauce) for that bucket of vanilla ice-cream in the freezer..... Can't wait till end of June though. That's when we're having cherries!

Home of a Needle Worker (too!) - FINISHED!

Mental note: need to polish up photo taking skills....

Hurray! I actually finished it a few days ago but didn't really had the time to blog about it. I could say this piece is actually a very relaxing piece to do. Made some changes to the house and also the spool of thread. At 1st I wanted to change the white heart into red but decide against it. Colour too clashing and so I left it as it is.

Recently hubs was asking me what am I going to do for work in the future and he suggested that I sell some of my work online. I was like; how much am I going to sell them? Do I have the time to do them with the kids? My workmanship to me is not that good to actually sell yet, and finally; I don't have a proper place where I could actually put all my stash and my finished work, AWAY from the kids.

Honestly, I really feel my stitching and sewing is not as good some friends I know from NNC. So doubt that anyone would buy beginners work as well... And then hubs mentioned something about buying our own place in the future and then I could have a work room to myself! That would be a dream come true if we EVER decide to buy....

I could get use to this....

Hello Kitty is peeking.....

diet! Hahahahahaha..... That is one good thing about being preggers, one does not need to follow a strict slim down diet! LOL! That is provided that one was in shape BEFORE being preggers.... Otherwise, its the doctors' advice to follow.

I was really craving for a rich, flavourful (is there such a word?) butter cake. And this morning off I went to the shops to get a bar of butter (250 grams) and used the whole bar for the cake after lunch. Lunch today was just home made salad with last night's left over baked chicken & potatoes, all mixed up with some tomatoes, corns and mustard vinaigrette dressing.

I kinda drop in some chocolate chips.... ;)

I decided to use my rose silicone mould since that its been a while I've used it. I didn't realised butter cake was sooo... EASY to make! Its just butter, sugar, eggs, self rising flour (I had to make my own as they don't have this type of flour here), vanilla essence and some milk. Here is the result; rich, moist, super FATTENING (!!!!!) butter cake! Muahahahahhahaha......

Aaaaaaa......tchoum...

Seriously, I need to get myself in better shape after this. Am having sinus headaches for about 3 weeks now!! ARRGGGHHHHHH.... And of course being preggers, I'm not allowed to take meds to help with recovery. *sigh....

And to make matters worst, Owen and hubs got sick as well! Hubs, thank goodness, recovered in just a week but Owen, he's got ear infection, eye infection, stuffed nose, coughs and fever as well. Took his almost 2 weeks to recover from it. And while the little one is sick, he's just so clingy to mummy.... Not something I want when I too am not feeling any better.

I think Kleenex would be very happy to know that their products did sell out very well as almost every one was sick these past few weeks.

I hope things will get better as the weather is FINALLY warming up a little starting today. Although a little bit windy but still at least the sun is here to stay! :D And I really need the sun to cheer me up now. At 34 weeks of current pregnancy, I've never encountered so much health related problems as with when it was with Owen. I have a feeling that this kid is going to weight a little less; Owen was 3.99kg when he was born. But still, I hope he'll be on time (unlike his big brother) and be born healthy.

For the moment I'll just have to sit back and enjoy the ride (frequent kicks and restless sleep). Until he gets here, I'll have to start stitching up his birth sampler in weeks time and also finish my Little House Needleworks: Home of a Needleworker (too!). At the moment its half done, so I'm just proud that I'm keeping to my stitching schedule FOR ONCE! LOL! Pictures will come soon enough, in say 2 weeks or less.... See how ambitious I am? LOL!

In the eye of the Tiger year

It was Chinese New year on Valentine's Day. Actually It still is CNY, until 28th of February as for us it runs for 15 days. We went back to hubs side of the family last Thursday.

Owen looking handsome in Chinese style clothing

Click here for more photos....

Paris was freezing cold!! And it was so WINDY! I think that its because 3rd SIL's place is right next to the Seine river, that makes the wind worst. What's worst than the cold outdoors? Cold indoors! LOL! Heating costs are rising so they try to limit their electric heating at home. But then again, their heater isn't as efficient as ours at home as its one of those typical one unit wall hanging type and not the floor heating. We were always in thick polar sweaters, pants and socks... :p But thank goodness it was for only 2 nights before we go to Rochefort, 1st SIL's place. Now there is what I call OVER HEATING! LOL! We actually sweat while we slept at night in winter.... And I end up having flu with soar throat the next day. :(

Oh well! Besides that it was fun to see them again and having the 4 little boys playing. OK, "fun" might not be the word to describe the chaos, noise and at times crying of what happens indoors.... The little ones slept each night at nearly midnight! Owen developed dark under eye rings by the time we come home, as he was sleeping so late and waking up so early in the the morning to continue playing!!!

Funny quilts wall hanging
Click here for more photos....

OH! Did I mentioned that I managed to persuade hubs to let me go to this craft show in Paris? hehehehehe.... Yes he did! *HUGS!!! This time I went WITHOUT THE BOYS, knowing how bored both of them will get with me going oohhhhsss and aaaahhhssss over fabrics, buttons, craft books, etc etc. LOL!

There were a lot of people there, mainly women of course! And the stands were quite interesting all in all. There were some displays of hand made quilts, contemporary hand made art, granny squares etc etc. As this silly women forgot to take her camera with her, photos shown here were taken by mobile digital camera.

And did I get anything for myself? OF COURSE! :D Needless to say, I was a very happy women that whole week, even with the chaos operated my the little ones!

An old ladys' curse

Drag Me to Hell. Thank goodness I didn't waste $$$ in the cinema verison!

Was quite disturbed after watching "Drag me to Hell". No, I wasn't even spooked with the movie! As some people know I just don't like watching horror movie coz of the spook factor that lingers on. I stayed away from movies like Saw and Hostel. Am still spooked with Nightmare on Elm Street series!!!


Now why am I disturbed with this particular movie? You'll have to watch it to find out what I mean. The following comments are ONLY MY PERSONAL VIEW. IT IS IN NO WAY TRYING TO BE FUNNY WITH ANY OLD LADY AND THIER "BLACK MAGIC".

First of all, Christine Brown as the character. Ok, she's a bank loan officer at a bank in LA. I for on will not EVER employ this person as the loan officer. Why? Cause she is NOT a person with eye for details. When one works with numbers, one has to be detailed, be it as in checking certain things twice, making sure that certain statements/paper works are in order. I may not work with numbers, but having influenced by parents' need for detail, and their most preferred line "a black & white" due to their line of profession (a mechanical design engineer & an accounted clerk, I say this is a no-no in banking.

Then there's the CG of the movie. It sucks. Notice how fake the eye balls and the hand of the old lady. One wonders if the old lady is a robot! Freddie Kruger has more realistic scars and what nots that. The story line is not really realistic in a way. Something is just missing. For example she's a vegan, OK. But is being a volunteer at a puppy shelter got anything to do with being a vegan? DUH!?! Don't get me wrong, but it just sends out the wrong signals. I love animals, even own dogs for that matter but I eat meat.....

So apart from being shocked & surprised, being scared on a scale of 1 to 10.... Well, for me it'll be a 3.

So I'll have to stop being a critique for this movie here, as to not to offend any Gypsy old lady who would give me the Lamia curse!! *shivers


As far as curses are concern, I come from a country where black magic/dark arts are practiced. That doesn’t mean that I totally believe in them and it also doesn't mean that I don't believe it exits. It does but then again, if one leads a correct path of life to the Almighty and do not offend any persons (by being arrogant, cheat, lie etc), I don't believe that curses will work on these people. But I do believe that the person who puts a curse on others will get what is waiting for them later.... What goes around comes around. By the way, people who dabble with curses/black magic etc are playing with fire while adding more oil onto the fire.

Neighbourhood Patchwork Expo

Happy dance...

I was quite surprised to received a flier saying that it'll be in a school cafeteria, running for a week starting from the 16th till 24th October . Since the school (middle school) is just basically across the street, I decided to go have a look.

And turn....

And SMILE!!

Its free entrance (YAY!) and all the lovely work done are made by a regional patchwork club. the lady at the entrance I think was quite taken by me as I was the only Asian there and she kept on asking me if I'm into quilting etc etc... I told her that I'm just a beginner trying to learn the ropes from books and "sifus" at NNC! LOL! Told her as well, it was an enriching experience having to frog and redo some (well a lot) of blocks on Owens' quilt. Took me ages but I did finish it in time for winter.... LOL!

The patchwork/quilts were sooooo...... LOVELY! There aren't words to describe them. The use of other materials like beads, feathers, organza, wool and ribbons were really what made some pieces stand out in terms of theme. There's two with Japanese theme, teapots, scissors, African, flowers, reflections..... I would say about 80% of them were hand quilted! I mean WOW! I don't think I can spend all my attention hand quilting a piece. I don't have that kind of "stamina", if you know what I mean....

Then there's this particular piece with miniature flowers that were actually hand sewed! Man, I am just lost for words with the attention to details that lady has. There's one thing though, I didn't know that one could piece together using metallic threads... And also by using variate colour threads... Hmmm, I learnt something today! ;)

As with most art expos, there are bound to be some pieces being put on sale. But the question is how do you put a price in a piece that take long hours of pin pricks and painstakingly put together? There's one GIANT quilt (about 173x220cm) is selling for CHF3500.-!!!

And BTW, I didn't go with Owen. God knows he'll be running around, touching those lovely pieces and as if we weren't poor enough, mummy has to fork out a fortune to buy a piece that he solid with his grubby hands! *shivers

So instead after my walk around quilts, I brought him out to walk amongst the falling autumn leaves and to the park. He had fun making noises while walking (or rather stomping) on them. Then he picked up some leaves and start dancing around with them! LOL! It was fun watching him having fun....

PS: FOR FULL PHOTO REPORT PLEASE CLICK HERE!

The end of De Fil en Aiguille?

Just got news that my favourite mag is closing shop (thanks Rose of NNC!). Its so SAD!! So I went to look up on other French bloggers to see if its true. Here's a letter from the editor herself to a French blogger :

http://clarelis.canalblog.com/archives/2009/10/07/15337128.html

This is a copy/paste thing, please use the Google translator...

A nos chères lectrices,

Toute la rédaction a appris la semaine dernière (à notre grande surprise) que nous étions en cessation de paiement.

Nous avons, pendant 12 ans, essayé de donner le meilleur de nous même à nos lectrices, et avons toujours fait ce métier avec passion.

Nous savons peu de choses sur notre avenir : la direction nous a informé qu'un liquidateur judiciaire allait reprendre les comptes de la société et c'est lui qui prendra désormais toutes les décisions.

Croyez bien que nous sommes toutes désespérées de cette situation pour nos lectrices, et pour toute la grande famille de passionnées du fils que nous étions.

Depuis que la nouvelle s'est propagée, nous avons reçu un certain nombre de témoignages de soutien, de compréhension, très chaleureux, de la part de nos lectrices. Nous en sommes très touchées et chacun d'eux nous va droit au coeur

Merci encore pour votre fidélité et encore une fois, croyez bien que nous sommes navrées d'avoir ce sentiment "d'abandonner brutalement" nos lectrices contre notre volonté.

Sophie BESTER (rédactrice en chef) et Judith DESSONS (rédactrice en chef adjointe)

Looks like I'm gonna have to look for another cross stitching mag to buy from now on. So sad that its such a sudden end to a 12 years running magazine. Its even worst I think for the employees and designers attached to the mag, that the directors of the company decide just to drop the bomb. I hope subcribers could get their refund....

Here's one kept mag that I find quite good. Main & Merveilles by Les Editions de Saxe, its a little bit more expensive than DFA. Why I like it? Partly its because there's Isabelle Haccourt-Vautier (French XS designer). I love her charts... ;) BTW, to those following Isabelle's mystery sampler chart, there's part 5 and 6 out now for down load. Any one wants to do a RR on that?