Birthday Bonanza

Hi friends. Aren't you glad that it is already Thursday? We are on the right side of the week. :)

Let me begin by welcoming our new friends;
          Ana from Tejedora de Nanduti,
          Beck from BECK to Vintage,
          Nilgun from Nilgun"den guluckler,
          Kamoni (Dear Kamoni, please let me have the link if you have a blog),
          TehSoune fromHooks and Yarn!,
and    Kevser from Kevser'in Penceresi.

It was my husband's birthday on Tuesday the 28th. The celebrations started at midnight (27th) where we kept up with our usual tradition of waking up the birthday person with the Happy Birthday song followed by cake cutting. This year my son decided to choose the gifts and the cake for Dad. So, this is the cake he bought:

We debated for a long time about the gift. It was difficult because what can you get for someone who already has most of the things. (My husband would have loved a ticket to Switzerland.... but as you imagine... way way beyond sonny's and my budget - LOL). After searching  the internet for some time we decided to get a few practical items. And these are the items we got,

A Nokia Bluetooth Headset.

And a set which included a Polo watch, a belt and a wallet;

I have my eye on that Polo tin. Would make a nifty storage for buttons and stuff. This set came with a pair of formal black shoes and a pair of Lotto sports shoes, but one disgusted look from my son prevented me from clicking photos of said item ... ha ha. (Secretly both my son and husband think I have gone bonkers, going around the house with a camera and clicking random objects, birds, books and balls of yarn!) If only they were aware of the pleasures of blogging. ;)
The day ended with a movie (not so good) and a visit to KFC (very very good.... definitely finger licking good). I was given strict instructions not to take the camera along. (He he)

And now for a Ta Da moment.....
Yesterday my brother did some techno tinkering with the blog (he is my 24x7 tech support for the blog and all other computer related stuff) and now my blog is in its own domain!! I think it is wonderful. Thanks dear Bro.

Friends, if you have not yet visited my Facebook page, please do and give me a "Like" there. I know it does not have anything much on it yet but I am working on it. Hmmm... I think I should start that right away. So see you soon.

Have a lovely day. Buh-bye.
Love xxx

Monday Musings

Good afternoon, friends. I hope your Monday has got off to a roaring start. 

Is that groaning I hear out there?  Ha ha... don't worry we can groan together! 

Now as a SAHM for me Monday mornings only mean getting up a little early to make breakfast, and lunch for hubby to take to office.  Sunday mornings I am allowed to wake up a little late, but mainly because I think my husband thinks I just might kill someone if woken up too soon. Yeah..... I confess I am not a morning person and it takes a big pot of tea to bring me into the land of the living. 

But Monday mornings never fail to take me back to those days when I was a full time working mom. The only regret I have is that I never got to spend enough time with my little boy. I don't even remember watching him grow. Memories of hurried breakfasts, bus stop deadlines, dropping and picking him up from the babysitter's, PTA meetings, struggling to get the homework done before bed time and then off to sleep. Life was like a train hurtling down the fast track, you are sitting eagerly at the window with you nose pressed against the window. But stations just fly by before you can read the names and before you know it your destination has arrived.

Now that he is a teenager he is so busy with his smartphone, iPod, laptop and God knows what other fancy gadgetry, who has the time for parents? BUT yesterday he very sweetly agreed to drive me to the book fair as he loves to drive and he knows how crazy I am about books!!

And yes..... if you have not already guessed, that is my son posing at the steering wheel in my last post. 

And now (gleeful rubbing of hands) let me show you the treasures I acquired!

A couple of novels

Catherine Cookson

Catherine Cookson is not really my favourite author and I do find her books to be a tad depressing, but I have a weakness for fat books.... so there.

A few cookbooks 

Cookbooks

Cookbook

Young housewife...who me? (He he) But seriously, this book has some great recipes and covers everything from soups to desserts. And also, because I often read cookbooks for reading pleasure. Especially the really descriptive and narrative ones where they go into stories about their childhood memories, how this dish was invented, and blah, blah blah. Yeah...good fun.

And now a lovely mouthwatering book

Cookies and Biscuits

I love baking but I don't bake nowadays as all three of us need to seriously lose some weight. (I can imagine my brother exclaiming "some weight!! write a lot of weight".)

This next book is chock-a-block with information and photos of my favourite deity Ganapatiji. And it was a real steal at that price.

Ganesha

 

 Of course, saving the best for last,

Join as you go Afghans

This is one lovely book with gorgeous, gorgeous projects. Absolutely fantastic afghan designs which deserve a "guided tour", which I will give you in a few days.

Kid's Quilt's Weekend

One more quilting book added to my bucket list. You know.... make at least one quilt before I die. LOL Now that I have totally four books it is high time I made at least ONE quilt...shame on me.

Well, now off I go as I have lots to do, which means deciding whether to drool over the afghan book OR the cookie book. Life is so full of tough decisions :)

See you soon, do let me know your Monday woes, keep your hooks busy and take good care of yourself. 

Love xxx

Steering Sunday

Hello beautiful people. I hope you are having a great Sunday.

I started to write this post today morning. After lunch dear hubby decided to take a nap and that is when sonny boy and I took the car and went for a spin. I tell you it is such a blessing for me that my son now has a driver's license and also that he drives pretty well! So, where did we go? Of course to the Book Fair I told you about yesterday. I got some lovely books but I will share them with you later.

Now it is 11.00 pm and I am trying to type as fast as I can so that I don't have to change the post title...!!!??

 One day DH complained "I always see you with a hook in hand and yarn trailing behind you, but you have never made anything for me."  Upon some reflection I realised that he was in fact quite right. The only excuse I can give is that since we don't stay in a place which has really cold weather, scarfs, sweaters, gloves, hats are all out of question. So then, what does that leave me with! What can you actually crochet for a man?

I did make something special for him some time back with hilarious results for which you HAVE to go and read that post. So that item does not really count. In THIS post I showed you something I was making for my hubby. Finally I have completed it.

What does it look like? It is not a scarf or belt or anything wearable.... it is in fact a steering wheel cover. Yes, that is what my hubby wanted me to make. See my army of bobbles marching in formation.

 After crocheting for an appropriate length and measuring it against the steering wheel I stitched the two ends together.

Then I stretched it over the steering wheel and stitched it into place.

 

And voila there it is firmly in place.

Yep, those are my hands. Only posing of course as I am shit scared to drive, even though I have a license.

The yarn store had limited choices and this was the closest match I could find to the car's upholstery.

 

Some unknown 19 year old who agreed to pose for me... ha ha. Isn't he a dear?!

 It is hubby's birthday on Tuesday the 28th, do you think I can pass off the steering wheel cover as my handmade gift for him? LOL. Just joking as I Have got something else for him. Will show it to you soon.

Yes, yes, yes managed to finish writing this post AND it is still Sunday....Yeah! I am praying there are no typos I have overlooked.
So see you tomorrow my sweet friends. Lots of things to share.

Take care, happy hooking.
Love xxx

Facebook Page

Hello friends,

Just a quick note to inform you that I have managed to create a Facebook page for Crochetkari. I have not yet decided whether I will be linking it to the blog or just upload my projects on to it.

Please visit my FB page (link on the right sidebar) and don't forget to "like" it.

And I would really appreciate any tips about the page you might have for me!!!

Saturday has arrived...yay!! There is a Book Fair in town and I just might venture out in the afternoon to visit it. Shhhh.... all in secret of course as DH gets annoyed when I get bagloads of books home. Can you believe it, I have almost 900 books tucked away and he has never seen me bring them home......he he.

Have a lovely weekend!

Love xxx

Squared Away

Hi Girls, How are you? Waiting for the week to end.... yeah I know.

The company that DH works for has a six day week so we really look forward to Sundays as that is the only day he can relax...poor thing.

A warm hug to Kara from Petals to Picots. Kara has a wonderful site with lot of crochet info, resources, patterns and tutorials. A must visit site for any crochet addict.

During my coaster mania I showed you these Square coasters. I made these coasters using Bliss Knitting Cotton. As I really like this pattern I decided to make it once again using Laura knitting cotton this time. Laura is thicker than Bliss so I got a thicker and slightly larger coaster/doily.

This is as per the original pattern. It has four picots in the center of each petal. I thought the design might look better without the picots, so here is the second one I made.

 

Personally I like the second one better as I like picots only on the outer edge. When used within the design I feel picots look crowded.

So here are both the doilies.

And here they are "on duty".

In this next pic you can see the difference between Bliss knitting cotton and Laura knitting cotton.

Now for a not so pretty picture. I did mention that the reaction to the antibiotics caused my hands to swell with redness and irritation. The swelling and redness has gone away but as is always the case the skin now starts peeling away and this is what my palms look like.

 

Not a pleasant sight I know, and sorry about that. But this time I got away lightly with only the finger tips. This also means no contact with detergents, chillies, spices and any abrasive stuff for a few days. 

As this has happened in the past, DH has hired somebody to help with the cooking for a few weeks. Isn't that absolutely sweet of him?!!

I have yet to dig out all the bag handles from my stash so maybe tomorrow I will put up pictures of the handles.

PS: Is anybody watching/has watched the tele serial "Make It or Break It" a story about elite gymnasts preparing for the Olympics? I just love/adore Payson Keeler. Who is your favourite character?

So ciao until next time. Happy hooking. Take care.
Love xxx

Kitchen Kompanion

Hi friends, How are you? I hope all of you are in the pink of health. The last few weeks really proved to me that Health is indeed Wealth.

A warm welcome to Mor Lotte at Familien Geleff Fonnesbech  and Rita Ataide (Rita, if you have a blog please let me have a link to it).

Now that I am up and about, I am happy to be back in my kitchen. Takeaway dinners are fun only when it is not compulsory, isn't it? So to celebrate I made one more potholder to  brighten my kitchen.

I really liked the centre of this potholder. What starts out as DC shells ends up as small circles which then form petals of a bigger flower.

This pattern is once again from Best free crochet. I am sorry I don't have a link to the pattern directly. It is a vast site with hundreds of patterns but not user friendly and finding your favourite pattern sometimes takes ages. But all the patterns are really cute and lovely.

Here are the potholders I made so far.

So, how do you like my kute kitchen kompanions?

Right now I am working on this Golden Evening Purse but I am not sure about the kind of handles I can add to it. Next time I will upload pictures of the handles I have and maybe you can give me your suggestions.

So cheerio until the next time. Happy hooking and hope you have a lovely week.

Love xxx

Anybody but myself

Hello there, my lovely friends. I am back after another forced hiatus, this time due to an adverse reaction to antibiotics. Inspite of informing my doctor that antibiotics don't suit me, he insisted on giving me amoxycillin and as the evening progressed my face and hands were swollen and my legs were covered with an angry red rash. Next morning he saw my condition, injected me with an antihistamine and told me to stop taking the antibiotics, well things were closed from his end. And now I have to bear this itchiness and peeling skin for the next 7-8 days. Can't beat what is destined, I suppose!

This reminds me of the quotation "Man proposes, God disposes", well Woman in this case. Would you believe it, I had decided to try and write one post a day in the month of August, just to see if I could actually manage 31 posts in a month. I think competition starts with yourself, trying to better your own record, whether it is finishing a report in the shortest time possible, cooking for the largest dinner party you have ever hosted, crocheting a tablemat in 6 days or even writing 31 posts in a month. In short I don't have to compete with anybody but myself.

Crochet was out of question for the last few days due to red, irritated palms, so I will let you in on the details of a mini competition I had some time back, with myself of course.

Last year we went to Mumbai on a short 6 day trip. As usual my hook and yarns accompanied me. I had chosen two colors, a cream and a coral colored yarn. I had these yarns in my stash since the past 16 years!! The three items I had made with these yarns had already been grabbed by my friends, so I decided to use the remainder yarn to make a shawl for myself or atleast a scarf. I had found a lovely motif pattern and I decided to make two color motifs and join them even though I hate weaving in ends. 

I managed to make about 5 or 6 motifs on the way to Mumbai. Upon reaching Mumbai, my brother had one look at the WIP and said that since the colors match his curtains he wants it for his centre table and that I should cut short any ideas of shawls or scarfs and make it into a table mat. The colors did match his curtains perfectly so I agreed with him. But I had only 4 days left and sending it to him by courier from Ahmedabad would have cost more than the mat. So there was nothing left to do but start working at top speed, which meant crocheting in every spare moment I could get.

Well, I did manage to complete it, weaving in the last few ends exactly two minutes before we were due to start on our return journey!! As there was no time for "posed" photos, be prepared for some shabby photos taken with my mobile phone camera.

 

A close up of the motifs. My brother and my sister-in-law both are pleased with it, so I can safely say Mission accomplished :)

Now on to the next competition. As soon as the soreness of my my palms is gone I am going to try to make another Granny mandala in one day as the last one took me two days. Isn't that going to be fun?! I just can't wait!

That is all for today. I am still hoping to get the maximum number of posts up for the month of August, or whatever is left of it.

Till then take care, happy hooking and lots of smiling.

Lovexxx

Keep the change

Hello, Beautiful people! 

It feels so good to be back with you after a long forced break. What started as a slight cold with a painful throat quickly turned into a full blown viral fever with bodyache, sleepless nights due to bouts of coughing, watery eyes and high temperature. After hoping that it will subside on its own, on Thursday I gave up and went to the doctor for meds. Since Sunday I am feeling quite better, of course the fact that dear hubby was home, may have something to do with that :)

A big thanks to all of you for your kind words and get well soon messages. Dear Aishwarya thank you for the magical recipe.

A warm welcome to Autumn Thyme and Boo from Boocoos Blogthingy.

Dear friends I am so happy to tell you that I have now reached 50! Not in years of course but in Google Friends. Isn't that just fantastic. When I started this blog I was hoping that a few people would actually read it and that eventually over the months or years I would also have friends. But to reach 50 after just 3 months into blogging is just super cool. 

A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL MY DEAR FRIENDS!!!

The last few days were dry in terms of blogging and crochet but I did manage to complete a few WIPs. One of them was to add the finishing touches to this cute little purse to be used for ... yes, you guessed it - Keep the Change.

It is from a free pattern on Ravelry called Floral Pouch. The purse has a small doily as its flap.

I used a pearl as a button for the flap. I think it is a cute purse and a nifty way to keep your change in one place. It will also make a lovely purse for a little girl to keep her hankie and some sweets.

 

The pattern is from a Japanese site and relies more on diagrams with only a couple of written instructions. I was stumped when the pattern called for a decrease in the number of stitches at the mouth of the purse and it took me a while, but after that it was smooth sailing. I am thinking of making a few more purses with different colour combinations.

So, do you like this cute little Change Purse? 

Another WIP I managed to complete was to read "STILLWATCH" by Mary Higgins Clark, who is my current fave author. A gripping plot with a really surprising turn of events at the climax. 

A very enjoyable read, I like murder mysteries. Due to crochet fever the books in my library are gathering dust. Pity!!

And while on the topic of murder mysteries, my current fave TV serial is "The Mentalist". I am not really sure whether it is the gripping storylines, the crisp editing or the dishy Simon Baker (as Patrick Jane) that is keeping me glued to the TV. All three reasons are good enough but especially the last one ....he he. I am a big fan of mysteries being solved "mentally" rather than by using DNA, fingerprints and ballistic reports etc which is why Agatha Christie is my all time favourite author. Don't you sometimes wish you could meet your favourite authors?

And now off I go to visit your blogs and keep up with the things you were doing in the past few days.

So, see you later and a Great Week to all of you.

Lovexxx

Tangled happy

Hi friends, I hope the new week has been treating you well.

A big hug to Stephanie at Crochetapy and LDH at With a Grateful Prayer and a Thankful Heart for joining us.

In my quest for crochet patterns, I came across this lovely site called Tangled Happy by Sara. Sara sources the loveliest of crochet patterns on the net and puts them up on her site with a link and a photo.

Sara also has a few of her own patterns on the site and recently I  made the Granny Stripe Boutique Bag. It looks really cute.

 

I used a pearl with gold striations as a centre for the flower.  And best of all, the purse is the perfect size for my cell phone.

That is all for today as I am down with a horrible cold and a really painful throat. But I will be back soon with one more cute purse I recently finished.

So till then, take care, happy hooking and lotsa love.

Doily Round up

Hi Girls, I am sure all of you are looking forward to the weekend especially those of you who have full time jobs. Yeah... I remember the feeling. But ever since I have become a SAHM my feelings about the weekends has changed. Because you see I was "Born to crochet, Forced to cook"..... okay, just joking there! In fact on Sundays we have really special lunches which always includes fish as my hubby is a fish gourmand.

A big hug to Carina from Carinas Virkning and Lizzie Kate at Grandma's Grapevine. Welcome aboard.

Oh God! Another week is coming to an end. So many patterns, so little time. I am adding the finishing touches to a crochet purse. So, today I will let my doilies do the talking. This is a round up of all the doilies that I have already spoken about somewhere on the blog, just to have them together in one place.

So here goes.

That is all for today. I know you must be busy with your plans for Sunday.  Do let me know if you were playing hooky and share the pics. 

See you later, crocheters
Love xxx