Visit from an Angel

Wishing all my readers a happy peaceful new year!!

May you have as many cross stitches done, and as little frog visits:)

May you see your sons and daughters and neices and nephews grow.

May you have time every day to hug them and show them you love them.

May God send you angels every once in a while so your belief in humanity continues.

Do you believe in angels? I do! At least God gives me those angels once in a while, and they cheer me up in their own sweet way. This is how the latest visit happened! In the 123 MB, there was a thread going on a stitchy wish list. Initially it was fun for me to merely open the thread and check what ppl are wishing for... Then i just wen ahead on an impulse, and wrote my wish down of having Sew Busy. In fact i remember now, as i was typing my wish i was choosing between the two kits that i had been viewing like crazy in eBay... The choice was to be between Sew Busy and Hummel Postman...

And i wrote Sew Busy, as i always (had been hunting in ebay for about a year for a good deal) found this beyond my budget. Whereas the Hummel i thought would get a rare 'low' auction that only needed to be sniffed.

Next day morning, i check my emails and find the subject '123 sew busy'. Can you believe it?? I could not, and i felt so happy to have got the email... The rest is history. My angel's name is Linda. Thanks Linda, thank you so much for this treat! The parcel came to me in moisture-resistant bubble-wrap envelope. How thoughtful is that!!

Many angels have visited me this year, and i thank each of these angels for having cheered me through the year. Thanks for instilling in me the belief by example that goodness is nice and sweet and reassuring. Thanks to all of you in blogland who visited me and entertained me while i visited you. Thanks for letting me be a part of your life. 2009 has been much better for me becuase of you all.

And let me end this post with a pic of Frederick on his shelf. I have been working on him for a week now (in my night-time stitching) and managed to finish the birdie and added another book to the top shelf.

Tonight i pick up Page 7 of Lilies.

Milestones!!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!!

Completed Page 6 on Christmas Eve:) Here is a piccie. Lilies are now on official leave, and shop opens 1st January, LOL. I am very happy as i would get 7 nights to stitch on something else (Freddie). As there are guests at home, i have not done any of my weekend stitching. All stitching has happened after all the housemates were sleeping:)

I have also picked my next book, which i am sure will not be completed this year. Tara Road by Maeve Binchy.

Here is a pic of Alla Turca - pages 1, 2 and 6 completed. I was very very tempted to take this up for my night-time, and complete at least 2 of the top pages by end of the year. But it is Frederick the Literate i am working on, and you should see a pic very soon. I will now take up AT in February.

Thanks for all of you who take time to leave me a comment/email me!! It means a LOT to me:)

Here's wishing all a great, happy, peaceful 2010!!!

Out of 516 reviews in Amazon, Tara Road has 236 5-star reviews, and 40 1-star reviews. The review that catches my eye (and no i did not read all 516, i read the reviews on the first page, and skimmed through those on the second page (there are 52 review pages) ) is this one:

At first I was hesitant to read this story because I thought it sounded like another stereotypical romance novel, but it definitely breaks the mold. The characters are so endearing, especially the main character, Ria. She is a gentle, loving house wife that is appreciative of her husband, home and family, but when tragedy tears apart her life she finds strength and a sense of independence in the midst of her heartache. Every character is so real they all feel like someone you know personally: a friend, a sister, a neighbor, your children. The author beautifully intertwines their lives to create a rich tapestry of experiences. Maeve Binchy is another wonderful Irish storyteller.

Mid Month Milestone

First the lilies - they have been shrieking confetti at me, and i am silently tending to them. I have to, LOL. If you look at the sea of blue below, they were my silver lining of the page. Once that sea was almost done, i switched gears and looked seriously into the confetti stitches - the disarrray of the hanging floss talks for that, dont you think.

Can you believe this pic is taken (this morning) from my E71?? Tonight, i am going to work around the sea of blue in case that makes you feel better for me:8)

The other pic (courtesy E71) i have is of the Alla Turca. As you can see i am currently doing Page 6. Pages 3, 4 and 5 are the top section which is the order i would have followed if i was 'on time'. Since i am always a lagging behind cross stitcher, i have an option (it conveniences me)of doing Page 6 first, and then take the top portion most likely.

Froggie visited me on Sunday, and i had to redo some stitches - annoyed me no end. And then what do you think, i stitched some MORE and found out i have done another blunder or two. You are right, Captain Haddock says Blistering Barnacles. While the first frog visit had to, HAD TO be dealt with, this one most likely can be camouflaged. So i have not been hospitable to Froggie, the second time round. She might wield her power, and then there could be more work and then Captain Haddock might remind me of Thundering Typhoons, but i am ignoring that for now. I tell you...

Have Been Charmed!!!...

Saturday turned out to be a lucky day. I recieved the Lizzie Kate Living With Charm charts, along with the charms. This came from South Africa from a 123 MB member, and was a great deal considering the deals on eBay. I felt so good, so good looking at this parcel.

Since one or two much awaited parcels have not reached me, i have been worried about the Postal System. Not for long, coz i got these 6 sweetest charts:) Oh, and i also got to add couple of South Africa stamps to my kitty!!

Now, i really hope i also get the Popcorn Alphabet series Letter T cross stitch kit, especially since i wanted this for my son. Please God....

*And* my paypal problem seems solved. Ta Da... I had been having a LOT of email discussions with Paypal over this, and lastly i was asking them to let me test my credit card payment before i try buying from eBay et al. Obviously i did not want to ask for help again from friends, in case the payment got stuck and i had had another ebay item purchased. But when the answer was not satisfactory, i thought i will try 123 GC;-) If it fails, i thought i will have to hound Paypal some more. You see, for the rest of you probably you have other options like money orders, or even payments through credit cards. In my case, sadly there was only the Paypal option.

So i put in 1 USD GC, and after one single email interaction, dear Nancy checked it out for me. It works, it works, it works.

There is another good news, that i will share with you later on:)

It is healing...

to be here, with you all.

Remember this post. I said i will send something to three people. I have not forgotten... So far, I was having lot of 'ideas' on choosing the people.

One thought process said one per country (for 3 countries), and the person should be a stitchy person i know through blogging. I have known some group people whom i have really really gotten close (no blogs), i thought i could pick one or two from there as well.

Since i am selecting the people myself, it would not be a PIF, but more like a RAK. Well, i realise as i am typing, not a RAK really, but some kind of a Thank You note. Why 'Thank You' you ask? Here goes:

My stitchy hobby got me onto blogging, and opened such a wide world of wonder and excitement. There was stash, and enabling, and exchanging, and PIFing and round-robining. The list goes on...

As i amble through this contented journey of mine, it is very striking that there are so many helpful people around. Apart from the stitching being therapeutic, i even find reading about the lives/happenings in my stitchy network equally therapeutic!! It made me learn, gave me insights, made me endure 'my stuff' better, by observing you. It is amazing really to see how some of you take life's cards with a smile, take the challenge head-on... Blogland has helped me [at times] enjoy my journey, has helped me (re)look at the finer things in life, to rejoice in nature and converse with nature. Thanks for that, ladies.

Blogging and the stitch boards also awakened in me the 'gift' of enjoying giving a gift. There are innumerable instances where i have seen this, and it thrills me to see how beautiful a world we are weaving amongst us stitchers. I can go on and on, but i will get to business.

I was letting the 'choice' grow in me, and today that click happened. I decided my gifts are going to three people who have helped people - made people happy through their gestures - brought or shown a silver lining - shown what a miracle is. I have decided on who the three will be, i know two have a blog. I have addresses of two people!! I leave you with just this information.

Meari had said 365 days; my 365 days starts from November 14th. Meari had said stitchy stuff - i will tweak that a bit as in it will not be merely stitchy stuff. The number of items will be 5 or more!

The activity i am occupied with right now is to look around for what sort of things ppl would like to receive, LOL. I really hope i find things they will like to use!!

Three down!

Here is the pic of OHD January SAL - the completed version. I know i have to do some more 'beautifying' work on this coverlet, but i still consider the project as completed as i have stitched up all the 12 charts of this SAL. Am i breaking a rule!!?? This is taken from my cellphone, in the morning. Today brought us a foggy morning...

So this becomes the third project i have completed this year. I know that is not at all promising, is it. But that really has been the turnover. I have been lucky with books for that matter - i read 17 books so far, the next being The Colour of Water, by James McBride. 17 is pittance to some who walk with their head held high after conquering the 100-book challenge!! but i currently am one more than last year;-)

A rule that got created - it kind of emerged on its own - is that i will have only two weekend projects, and will rotate them every month. Yes, this is how i aim to work on AT and BOINK. And it appears, i will finish AT before BOINK. We will know as we go.

Although i have still not decided on what next, on a broad level i know it will be a kit/chart i purchased online. I know i have mentioned a lot many times that i will pick up Monopoly, but the idea is to start and finish one smallish-thing before being monopolised!

Someone had said to someone else who was a pro-Paypal person - Wait till you face problems - I agree with that someone, LOL. I am experiencing it... As i have enough in my stash, I can and am ignoring Paypal's monopoly for now. Till then i will concentrate on [hoarding] the SALs (the free ones) that appear on the internet. Talking of SALs, here is one that interests me a lot. It is in French, and means Tree of Life. Two parts are already out, and there are 25 more parts to come, i am told. Looks very very promising. No i am not starting this yet. But it increases my to-do list of samplers. Needless to say, it is SALs like this that are the only great threat to my working on an online-purchased kit/chart. I succumbed in 2009, am trying a braveheart for 2010:8)

And then there is this SYHO for 2010. Importantly, this will need me to sort out the payment bit. I so want to do this one-a-month, 50 by 50 design, one each from 12 wonderful designers. Not to mention the encyclopedia thingy. Did i just say i will take up an online-purchased kit/chart from my stash? That is still the plan. I can SYHO on SYHO later right? At least i hope so:) I also will wait to know the 'theme' that will decide if i dive or not!

!! Say E...

Yes!!! Say E, Plug a 7 and Dash a 1. E71 it is! I went with my friends from office to look at the 3 ear-marked handsets. It appeared Sony Ericson W595 is no longer available in the market. You know, sometimes it surprises me - how relieved you are when some decisions are handled for you!! So, we had N79 and E71. One look at each of them, E71 was a straight winner:)

Here's how my OHD SAL looks - this is the first pic i took (in the night though) with my cellphone and on the day i purchased:)

It is also month-end milestone for the lilies and here is how they look. The confetti stitches won and as you can see (or probably not!) i have barely crossed the 50% mark this time. The two pics below are from my digicam. To add to that, T sleeps very late in the night - a pattern i am seeing for the last 5 or so days. Hopefully that will change soon. More worrying is the fact that he does not want to eat his regular dal-chawal any more. Says no to drinking milk too. The fruit intake has been increased so he does not feel hungry. And we plan to buy Herscheys (did i spell that right?) Chocolate Syrup, and Badam (Hindi for almond) powder too with a faint hope that he enjoys the flavour. We have tried Horlicks with milk - not accepted, date syrup with milk - to some extent.

Another pic of OHD SAL i took on Dec 1st. The pic is blurred, sorry. Post-pic, I stitched some more, i now have the December text to fill and the little birdie (?) in the top left. The christmas tree does not look very christmassy to my eyes - because of the greens i used. But then i have ha d a free hand with colors in this SAL. So i will live with the chosen colors, lol. My FIL loved it when i showed him the coverlet yesterday:)

If we go by a rule book, i should not be stitchin on OHD in December;-) but i surely can spend some 30 December mins to complete it? Once done, will take up Alla Turca for all weekends in December.

This and That!

On stitchy news, i have not completed the November month yet, i have a wee bit of one pumpkin and the text 'November' to stitch. Apart from that I am going crazy with the confetti stitches in the Lilies - am doing about 70-80 each night.

I received my eBay US parcel - after the payment hassle that my friend helped me clear. This was the kit that i won - the Dimensions Flowery Verse Stamped Cross Stitch kit.

I am yet to receive an eBay UK kit. I had bought this before my October vacation, and had requested the seller to delay the shipping for a week:( It so happened that there was a postal strike in the UK from 21st(I think) October till 5th November. So even with 15 plus days after the strike, the parcel still remains elusive. But this is what i am supposed to get, and i hope and hope and pray and pray that i recv it in my mail box. Pls wish me luck.

With this, i complete my eBay shopping for a WHILE now, of course there is another deal i was discussing with (which again the very same firend is helping me pay) an 123 MB member.

On the local shopping front;-), I am busy going through some mobile handsets. My current one (a Nokia old model i dont recall the number and the handset does not have it written on it) wants a break it says - at least the batter life is close to nil. I was almost 'locking' onSony Ericcson W595(for the camera and 3G features), but understand it cannot stand my son's treatment!! So now, i am looking at sturdy Nokia. When i am going for 3G, i might as well go for QWERTY keyboard right? That narrows down my search to 5?! models and the only handset that appeals to my eye is Nokia E71. I will have to live with lesser multimedia features (in E71) or take Nokia N79 which has good camera as well as 3G, but without QWERTY. Decisions, decisions!!

A Retro Post!!

One of my very early posts was about my lack of luck with Retro Kitchen Aprons cross stitch kit. You can read about it here. I had won myself this kit at a very good deal, but i was unlucky with the shipping. By God's grace, I was luckier with the seller though as she (truly an Angel) refunded the money.

That happened early this year. And then onwards, i have been checking in ebay diligently for a good deal. Either the bid was above my budget or the shipping rates were too high, every SINGLE time, so i was (m)uttering 'Pass' on each occasion. Each day, i do an ebay search for my wish list items. They keep changing, i know, but the first three searches are always the REGULAR ones!! And RKA was the first in my search.

As you know, for little over a fortnight now, i have been facing problems with Paypal. While i know i will not be able to buy these items, my daily 'search' regimen continued without fail. And then i see an auction (last Friday) for RKA *and* it is a US-only auction with a Buy It Now rate as well. I almost cry when i see US-only auctions. But this time round, i knew it was one and the same be it world-wide or US-only. I cannot PAY. Period. I then think (prolly for 10 seconds which is a shame), and then email my brother (in the US) about this auction and my current lack of luck with Paypal. And in the evening (of last Friday) i get the most sought-after email response of the day. He says done. Well he has typed 'Done dana done'!!! so you can apply your favourite tune to that:8)

The once-bitten-twice-shy sis waits for an email that says 'received'. Yes, i am in a relaxed and happy state as i type this post now, and thanks to my Dear Brother, i have another item in my stash, although still not in my hands:) Tra la la...

Thanks to all of you who take time to leave me comments, I love them. They are my stash too, thank you:)

Becoming Jane

On one of those rare moments of watching TV, i saw 'Becoming Jane' - from the cricket match onwards, on Sunday. I stopped watching when the 'elopement' part was being aired though. Somehow, i did not feel right. That cannot be Austen, i thought and made a note to myself to check it up in wiki. Well, now that i have checked wiki, it looks like i could have watched it till the end:( *groan* The chemistry between Austen and LeFroy was great, although i would have prefered someone else (similar-looking to Austen) playing Austen to Anne Hathaway.

Never mind, i can still give this a try (apart from being lucky again with the movie being aired again on TV) - read the book, Becoming Jane by Jon Spence on which the movie is based. The book is based on the letters Jane wrote to her sister Cassandra. Now this is one other project that i should take up - there are FAR too many books out there that are Austen-related. I know there are innumerable sequels to Austens' works and also fiction that connect to Austen. What i would like to do is do some internet research on both the varieties, and pick up the most near-to-Austen sequel of P&P, and pick up a couple of the latter. The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen is one book that i wanted to buy - but could not get a copy of. Today i checked the ratings in amazon (7 1-star ratings though out of 56 reveiws, i do not like that) and not sure if i should still buy it. Probably not. If you are a Jane Austen fan/addict(!!!), do let me know your favorite Austen-based work, and i will look that up. Thanks in advance.

My immediate action item is to read (courtesy internet) her letters to Cassandra and derive my own meaning:D

Mid-Month Milestone

Here is my current look on the work-in-progress OHD January SAL. I had slightly changed my rotation plan - and decided will stitch OHD in my weekends in the November month. So i have completed both September and October in the past two weekends! I have brought in my own colors for both as you can see. This pic ( just luck and not my art) is probably the best of the OHD that i have taken so far. I had a lot of 'do and undo and some more' for the witch's face, finally settled with this:

If you can see at the top, there is a line of cross stitch - well i am gonna remove that, i have something else up my sleeve wrt this coverlet. But the time is not yet ripe for that! You can also see my toes (how did you get in there) and the very end of the foot rug(you too?).

I know! it has been AGES since my [mid-month] milestone of the lilies, so here is how she looks so far after 15 nights of stitching. You can also see the blue pillow cover which covers the top stitched row to protect the finished portion from dust. My calculator says i am about 30% done for the page and 27% done overall.

I had put in a PIF post couple of weeks back. Unfortunately there were no responses in the expected way?? So i am thinking i will still go with '3' ppl as mentioned in my post and do a surprise thingy. I will choose the 3 ppl myself from my circle of stitchy friends. More about that in another post!

My 'one of a kind' Lifetime Projects!!!

I was going thr the 123 MB, and found a post abt Herschners shipping code, and then just for the fun of it went through their weekly sale items. I find here something that catches my eye and yes, heart:) This Cut Thru item is being sold as a leaflet only and is a very good deal for those in the US. As for me, I am putting some sense in my own head, that even if I could buy this (say if Herschners had 3d secure!!) i still could not manage the international shipping charges anyway.

I had seen the Bothy Threads cross stitch kits in some or the other UK website, and well, i still find them too darn expensive to buy.. But i cant help drooling on this one... Amanda Loverseed is the designer for their Cut Thru kits, and i am loving all her designs!! The dictionary series are also cute, although no designer name(s) is mentioned.

I hope i do ONE Bothy Thread, and mostly it will be a Cut Thru design and that too the above one - in THIS lifetime. What say you!!! Let me list down what other 'One of a kind' stitchy things i want to do in this lifetime, apart from my [staple] stash of course, LOL. Here they are:

1. One cross stitch afghan
2. One quilt each for son, husband
3. One BOTHY THREAD work
4. One Applique project of Ganesha
5. One VERY INDIAN Cross stitch
   

The water lilies BAP that i am doing is a 'One of a kind'. It is in fact my very FIRST lifetime project!! Couple of these - 1 and 2 for instance - are very very nascent ideas. 3, 4 and 5 are in different stages of evolution. 3 most likely will be the haberdashery...

4 will be based on an oil painting of Ganesha that must have been displayed in the art exhibition. The painting appeared on the card (post card size that too!) that was in our mailbox intimating us of an art exhibition!! I never went to that exhibition. It is my LIFETIME wish to replicate that in applique. I have stored it in my closet somewhere, and need to bring it out for inspiration:)

As for 5, I still do now know what i want to stitch : landscape or painting or monument or people. All i know is when i see it, i will know. And in all probabilities, i might have to chart it myself using PCStitch or similar.

Adrenaline Rising!!

Here is the most recent cross stitch picce that pulled my heartstrings, LOL. This is from Just Nan. It reads 'In my little kingdom of stitches that cross, i am Queen of the Needle and Boss of the Floss...'. I am luvvving the words, and the pattern is also so beeeutiful.

I have seen this in couple of blogs, but somehow this caught my HEART just now. Yesssss, Just Nan Just Now!!!

You can choose to ignore the below Online Payment Rant
Further updates i have are that

=> Ebay India and Paisa Pay *have* the payments done via 3d Secure i.e. Verified by Visa and / or MasterCard SecureCode. This was effective sometime in September

=> Ebay UK also has a deadline of end of the year to get all the merchants 3d secure-enabled. You can read more about that here:

What i still cannot understand is why Ebay USA or Paypal.com are ignoring what i am talking about? Why does it appear that they have not heard about 3d Secure??? Any guesses?

Moving on...

for the time being that is. I have sorted out two of the three payments with help from my friend, for the third i am awaiting the seller to be back from vacation.

It really takes away the stress i had the past week. I have got to work on how to break through this impasse. But when you have asked for help and complained to FIVE different bodies, and have not got ANY way out, then you only have to wait right?

The FIVE bodies (in the order in which i approached or complained to them)

1. Paypal Customer Support

2. The bank that issued my credit card

3. Ebay Support (and their Answer Center)

4. Master Card Secure group

5. Reserve Bank of India

I have now put in a request in couple of message boards where i am a member, if i can at least get a list of popular websites where i can get GC's (Amazon and 1-2-3 stitch are *not* enabled with Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode). At least i can offer GC's to ppl who have their charts/kits for sale. Of course ebay is no longer my shop:( ... for now. So, if you have an answer to this, please, please leave a comment on this post.

I am not upset, i guess - coz ebay has its India arm that works out the payment bit with PaisaPay. Ebay will either have to sort out this payment authentication on their site OR stop having Ebay India OR give us some workable solution:) Yes that is why i am not upset, and did i tell you i have a lot of patience:)

Also check this blog here - there have been a handful of complaints here as well. Tells me i am not alone. So like i said, it is only a matter of time.

I had put in a PIF post, so if you are interested pls leave a comment in that post.

A PIF and 2 PICs

Here's my first Bloggy PIF moment!! If you would like to receive a PIF from me, do comment on this post!! This is so easy. No sewing involved, and you get 365 days to send out your PIF's :) The "rules" are as follows:
1. Send no less than 5 stitching related items per person within the next 365 days.

2. Items can be DMC, other threads, stitching needles, straight pins, buttons, scissors, ribbons, etc. - a combination of items such as 3 threads, 1 pack of straight pins and 1 pack of stitching needles or just 5 threads.

3. Items must be new and not used. (Send things you'd be happy to receive.)

4. If you win, you must be willing to post this PIF on your blog and do the same for at least 2 people.

If you are interested in Paying It Forward, please comment on this post with your email address so that I can contact you. I will PIF three readers. If there are more than three comments, the names will go into a drawing to determine the lucky ones :) I hope there are more than three comments to this post!! Good luck! I'll announce the PIF recepients on the 14th which is celebrated as Children's Day in India. Each of us is a child inside, dont you agree? Let us see who the 3 lucky children are!!

Here is some history behind 'paying it forward' in this link from wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_it_forward.

Here are my progress pics - I worked a lot many nights on Frederick this month after completing page 5 of lilies that is. I wish i had completed the bird as well, but that was not to be. Had a lot of black on black to do that took a lot of time than expected. Now i will have to check if i get time end of December to work on this project. Most likely no, as there will be guests at our place during Christmas time. Let us see. My rota plan went off kilter, so there is only BOINK that i worked on this month. On the first weekend of October, i did not have the OHD September printouts ready, so took up BOINK; the next weekend i did not stitch as my parents left:( and i was feeling very low; the weekend after was Diwali so no stitching only cleaning:8) and then Sat night i left to my parents'; and *sigh* the next weekend was spent in office on BOTH days; that gave me this weekend only and i spent that on BOINK. As i said earlier, i also stitched BOINK when on vacation for my night-time stitching, LOL. Sorry did you raise your eyebrows reading this?

I am thinking i will stitch on OHD in November and AT in December. So they know there was no discrimination!

Last night, i took up Page 6 of Lilies. Stiched 110 crosses:) Just to prepare you for the pic this mid-month - because of how dirty the fabric was getting, courtesy my Mother the finished row is now covered (running stitch) with a pillow cover, the portion below the 'row being stitched' is covered with another pillow cover. I probably have to wash the fabric after completing the project, but with these covers, i am minimising the dust gathering on the lilies. This explanation was just to keep you prepared!!

The CC problem still exists, i have now placed a question with the ebay Answer Center.

October ends in Frustration

I owe 3 ppl money, and when i go to the 123 stitch site (GCs needed for 2 ppl), everything is the way it is always. I check the automated emails i have got from Paypal and 123stitch - normal again, and so i relax - till tomorrow. Next day, i check with 123stitch on the status, and i find at their end the payment has been declined. I check the paypal site at my end - Status reads 'Pending'.

This night i buy a wonderful wish list item of mine for a VERY good deal. It is a Buy It Now item. I typically wait for the invoice as shipping info is not known for International cases most of the time. We need to contact seller, typically before buying. But the deal was so good, and the US shipping costs were the right non-hiked ones. So i had plunged in.

Next day, the invoice is ready waiting for me, and i hit the Paypal button. This time, there is a message 'This credit card cannot be used for this transaction...' I tried another (debit) card this time. Same message. I own only one of each (credit, debit) card.

Paypal gives me some odd reasons and suggestions which i try and fail in.

So now i call up my credit card bank. They do say,

day 1)the transactions have been declined. The Master server is down. Unless that comes up nothing can be done. => Logical to me. Fine, will wait for 24 hours

day 2)no problem at our end, Ma'm. The transaction has been declined at the Master end. (Mine is a Mastercard CC). Server is down => Irritated now, this is business for Mastercard correct? They cant have their server down for over 24 hours. Even two hours is a bother.

day 3)the merchants need to be enabled with Verified by Visa and Mastercard Secure payments. i.e. each time an online transaction is done, at the time of paying the V/M screen pops ups asking for a password - only when authenticated, you are 'let in' and the payment accepted =>got the problem.

This logo is what is needed on web sites where i do any online payments - this brings in the additional authentication screen. (My CC has this passowrd - had enabled the same during my IT filing)

I now have asked both paypal and ebay about this. And am waiting for an answer to c. This tells me the solution will take a LOT OF TIME. I do not see any thing on the websites that shows either ebay or paypal to be Visa/Mastercard 'security compliant'. This extra layer of security is to minimise fraudulent usage of cards, but looks like i am at the losing end, eh?

Net-Net:

1. The sellers have been sweet and understanding, so though i am feeling miserable, at least i know they trust me

2. I will prolly get my Indian friends / colleagues in the US to pay for me?? and i can pay them here. Dont feel good about this, but have no choice it appears:(

3. This is the end of my xs purchases, at least for a LONGISH TIME

If anyone of you have experienced this for your online payments, pls share your experiences.. I really really want to cross this hurdle soon. Thanks in advance

Some to-do's

I had planned a week-long vacation, but had to cut it short by half. That did not dampen my spirits, not for long. I was happy i cud still go:) Had a wonderful time with my sister. My nephew is a darling. T wanted to hold and cuddle him. But the nephew (9months old!) did not feel comfortable to be held by anyone other than his Mom. He came to me after 2 days of 'reviewing' me, LOL. I could gradually change his slow smile to a hearty laugh, we even managed a dance or two. So far, three teeth in there:) Shweety pie.

T had a fun time too, he was very much at home at my Mother's place, and prolly busier than my Mother. Except for the vacation being shortened, we had no complaints, and in fact enjoyed every bit of our stay.

And now,

there is too much do at work

i am half-way thorugh the Cross Stitch Land blogs - not responded to any, but have read them

i am yet to look into the Applique World blogs

i have got to respond to Meari. I am one of her PIFers:) *happy dance*

yes, i have got to publish the PIF, and PIF it too:) I am thrilled, and have already started deciding what to send!!!

While on vacation, i completed another book Open House by Elizabeth Berg, and have now picked up The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve. That reminds me i have to update my blog on my reading progress. Both have the Oprah's Book Club stamp on them, and i have checked amazon reviews - both have a sizable number of 1-star reviews. Of course the 4 and 5 stars are WAY more, but still. Here's how my copy's front cover looks:

I have no stitchy pics this time, but i can tell you i have finished all the black on Freddie *and* now working on the book that he probably has pushed when he sat on the shelf comfortably. I have also done some more BOINK progress. This wknd i shud work on OHD, that is if I do not have office work. 50-50 so far, let us see.

You all have a great weekend, and spend wonderful time stitching!

A Lilies Milestone and A Guernsey Journey

Here is how my Page 5 looks!! It feels so nice to have reached this milestone. It took me 10 months to reach this stage! I target two months for one page, so if i finish couple of days or weeks before the second month ends, i do not take up the next page but instead dabble with Frederick! Of course, there has never been a case where a page took more than two months, i have been lucky that way. I have had a cursory glance at Page 6. The top half tells me i will be going crazy with confetti stitches. But let us keep that for November.

This is most recent ebay win, am waiting for the invoice to be sent me after which the payment and the wait remains:) It says 'This is the day to Listen to your Heart ... May we touch the earth with kind and gentle hands'

One of the books being disucssed in my book-circle is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. I googled for this, and the excerpt i read in the Random House website has drawn me completely to it. It is epistolary and looks like research taking place via correspondence. The only epistolary book that i have read is 'Lady Susan Says' by Jane Austen, and i loved connecting the letters. The other book that kept my mind alive in this manner was The Time Traveler's Wife with the alternating journal entries from Henry and Clare.

I have read the Press Reviews and the Reader Reviews, and cant wait to have this in my lap. Just that the most recent haul i had, is enforcing a huge massive rugged speed-breaker, LOL. Here is the front cover of the Random House publication

Sweet Sixteen...

did you say?? Sixteen can be very pesky when those many stitches are remaining to complete a page. Sure you agree. Now you may wonder how could one leave a stitchery that required only 16 stitches. The reason is it was way past midnight, and these were confetti stitches - so i could have gone stitching till say 2 in the morning. (Which i would, prolly if i was alone, lol) A li'l voice within me made me see sense that it is better to be stitching some every night than to stitch just one night till the wee hours especially when you can hear some rustling, some tossing and turning in the bed room.

So i know i will complete them tonight:) Those sixteen stitches. Here is some news on my adrenaline rising. I lost in the ebay auction last weekend for this, but i hope i win him some time soon at a good deal of course- i have already ear-marked a place for him in my son's room.

Talking about my son's room, I will pick up Freddie from tomorrow till the end of the month for my night-time stitching. Dont you think he is going to be happy?? Once ready, Freddie will sleep above the book-rack in my son's room. Well, this currently has my books, but it will take T a good amount of years before he tells me he needs the shelf-space:)

Month-end milestone!

This update comes slightly delayed because of a happy long weekend i had!! The past couple of long weekends have been a godsend coz i got those extra moments with my parents. They leave on the coming Sunday, though.

Here's how my lilies looked by end of September; though some more color has been filled in the past days. Last night i spent 1 and half hours only doing 38 stitches - when my son woke up, and then another 36 stitches in an hour after he slept. When the end nears, we go confetti!!

I also finished Page 2 of Alla Turca. Ta da.. Yes I did!! The project looks much better than in this photo! All happy and motivated i kept the Boink project out to put in couple of stitches whenever possible. But the time never came. Never mind.

I played with my son every possible time the past three days. We also gave him a hair cut (ourselves, as we did not want him bawling) during his nap time. His Mom was thinking a slight trim would do. His Papa decided a good trim is required to 'manage' till the end of the year. Luckily we managed well, if i may say so and he did not wake up either.

Coming weekend is OHD time and it is time to stitch September. Yes!!! i have received the charts.

Ends... and Beginnings

September is over. My parents leave from here in about 10 days time, and i am already feeling sad. Emptiness looming. I know i will miss them terribly, and they will miss T for sure.

Looking at the bright side, my sister and her family will pay my parents a visit in the middle of October. I plan to take a week off to be with her. We meet after 6 years.

We have a day off on Friday on account of Gandhi's birthday (Gandhi Jayanti as we call it here). So this being a 3-day week, there is hardly anyone in office. That translates to hardly any meetings, hardly any work. Well, as far as we are concerned, all this translates to more ebay search.

Apart from ebay and more importantly, i am busy doing a school search for T. I am putting all the information in a spreadsheet. Some schools have Montessori (or pre-school as some of us might call it) option, while some start only from kinder garten. He is 18 months now, and in about a year from now we are thinking we will start pre-schooling.

This morning i took a pic of my lilies, which i will most likely show on the coming Monday.

My First Applique project and A Happy Shelf!!

Finally i get to show you my first applique project. This is from Vicci's BOM called Notions of the Heart, and i picked up Block 5, as that was closest to my heart:). As mentioned earlier, my Mother had got me the fusible interfacing. She assisted me in cutting the fabric too. I am so very happy at the outcome. Well, the sisterhood is definitely a YES and this bonding is here to stay:)

I did a li'l bit of work on the finishing part of OHD, but since i have still not received the September chart, we will wait...

The BOINK was taken up as per the rotation plan, and i have finished about 50% of the block. I would have finished another significant amount beyond what you see here, except that i slept too during my son's nap time.

The weekend past and the one before have been long weekends - the extra days away from work helped me finish my first applique. I was also able to make one shelf very happy. I know the photo could have been better, and am not that great to have avoided the shadow of the top shelf on my new friends (when clicking i did not even realise about the shadow...) but i digress...
I got not 5 nor 10 nor 15 books, but 19 of them in total - a mix of classics and contemporaries. Halleluia!!

Mid-month Milestone - Updates Galore!!

It is time for my mid-month update on Lilies, and coincidentally i have pics of all my WIPs this time round!!

To begin with is Lilies, i am almost half done with Page 5. I am enjoying doing this page, as i can continue with one color for a good amount of time!! Also Page 5 completion will be an important milestone - i complete the first row. That is an accomplishment!, even if i say so myself.

Next is an update on OHD January SAL, i had completed this way back but the pic-time is now. If you remember i had only the text August, and li'l bit of backstitching remaining when i decided to hit the sack on the last day of August as it turned into early September, lol. This remainder got done in my morning-sneak-time in the next couple of days. I will now request Tonia for the September chart. And Yes!!! Tonia is back in the OHD group.

BOINK - This weekend was AT time, but i had just a little pending in the BOINK block that i decided i will have a dig at it as well. So here is how it looked by Sunday evening. If i do not get the September chart (of OHD) by Friday, i will work on the next block (the top block in the middle column) of BOINK.

And lastly i have AT to show you - i am positive i can complete this page in the next AT rota. Just like i thought, it was Page 1 that had a lot of xs to stitch!

And yes, i also received the floss from Mary-Anne from Canada for the Monopoly game board. Happy Happy!!!

As you will be knowing i have landed in Applique World and am mesmerised by what i find there. This is my progress so far.

• I have been watching/following several Applique blogs for over a month now.
• I have even finalised on taking this up as my first applique project.
• I have gone through this tutorial and now have this for reference.
• I have also been approved to be a member of the yahoo group Applique Addicts.

Wish me luck on my Applique Journey - I have to start from scratch with whatever materials (apart from fabric, floss, scissors and needles of course!) are required. So far, I only have the Interfacing material!

Puttering

I am continuously improving my repository of my two passions - reading and stitching. If i get a minute or two at work, i Alt - Tab to the spreadsheet(s) ( yes they are open most of the time) and see what other aspect of book-keeping can be done, lol. I never seem to run out of ideas;-) I either add another worksheet to capture an interesting aspect OR in an existing worksheet i try my hand at depicting information newly. I guess puttering fits well for what i am doing? I love it, and then it energises me for whatever activity i have lined up next..

Look at the worksheets i have for my reading passion

and my stitching passion

This is the immediate puttering i have lined up!! - i have to fill in three columns in XS XLS in the Stash Worksheet - Amount, Currency and INR. I started feeding my cross stitch hobby 'onlne' from June 2008. The first for me was a kit via ebay US. I got it for 17$ and another 5 something $ for shipping. But my memory fails me for all the OTHER purchases i have made since then. All payment has happened via PAYPAL, barring one (i think) which was via my credit card (i think). I thought it is best for me to maintain the monetary outflux;-) Let me see how long it will take me to accomplish this!! I will give up on just one aspect though - i will not enter any purchases done locally - which is anyway only limited to the limited floss, ha!

I am not overly worried about my spending on this hobby. In fact my credit card bill amount each month is always an innocent figure. You see small drops are making an ocean!!. For instance if i say, i need a chest of drawers for my charts and kits (and there is a need as they are eating on my closet space, LOL), then eyebrows are being raised. So some idea on the monetary outflux is good for me. Dont you agree??

Have a nice weekend, all and let them frogs stay in the pond!!

Stitchin' and Stashin'

This Saturday?? Well i worked. Yes had a 6-day week. So my daytime stitching got almost entirely cut off. It was to be BOINK, and together i must have put probably 20 stitches on the Sunday. Sunday, we went shopping in the morning time (with our son) for things i needed, and my son slept on our way back, and for couple of hours after we reached home too! Those 20 stitches were done on Sunday afternoon amid chatting with my parents, so that felt very nice for all three of us!!

The Cross Stitch Gold magazine is now a great friend of mine. Apart from Anchor's MajesticHeron, there is another bird chart - rather it has 4-5 birds in it, and also a kitchen sampler that am sure will be done. There is an afghan pattern too that covers letters from A to P (or is it O), the remainder letters covered in the next issue. No, there is no way i will be buying that issue, lol. All the same i am happy with this purchase, and thanked Lyn again for the wonderful discount!! And yes, i went ahead and did another ebay purchase of another bird theme chart this weekend. This is a Maria Diaz chart. Some one stop me from buying any more please. I am not sure i like the bird (isnt that the wood pecker?) so much, but the rest of the scene fits well for my bird-theme.

I have got to force myself to some applique, before my Mother goes back to her place. She has got me the much-needed interfacing, so some trial and error required from me. Since this is going to be my very first applique project, i am looking for some push from somewhere!!

I am reading Anne Tyler's Back When We Were Grown Ups, and i like her writing so much. As i turn page over page, it amazes me how she depicts things that happen to you and me - those innermost thoughts you do not even share with anyone, but only note to yourself, those 'feelings' that have never been written before, you get what i am saying? The other book i read is The Accidental Tourist, and have felt exactly the same reading this book.

Thanks Annie and Meari for your helpful comments. Meari - i think your suggestion of taking up a small project in between will help me:)

A small happy dance!!

Edit: I have received the Cross Stitch Gold Magazine:))) A BIG Happy Dance for that!!

Yes i completed Page 4 before August faded away!! Here it is and i am so happy with the progress. You can see some threads dangling too. Page 5 is a delight, very little confetti stitches *and* lesser (by over a 1000) stitches to do compared to the previous 4 pages. This fact enthuses me no end!!

Then there is the OHD January SAL - August that i have almost completed. As you can see in the pic, I have two windows of the vehicle to be backstitched and the text August to be brought in. Post-pic, i have completed the windows and the first two letters in time sneaked-in this morning.
That is it from me. This weekend will be BOINK time, and there is no way i cannot get the current block done. Let us see.