Perfect Giveaway this week :)

When sis Lia of Lia's Crafty Journey announced that the winner of her giveaway was me, I had never been happier. Not only because the giveaway were soo gorgeous (Alexander Henry's is among them!) but also included was a sweet note from her .

Can't say enough thanks to you sis Lia, these are perfect gift for a fabric freak like me, lol...

My, how many ideas I can get to work on these beauties... projects

!

(Almost) Always With RE

RE on the above title stands for Ribbon Embroidery.

You see, my first love in craft was with RE. I saw a beautiful ribbon embroidered blouse in a local mag, I called to ask the price which turned to be too much for my budget and lead me to learning all about those beautiful ribbon stitches, up until now. I learned it from books, AJ. Boesra's, Di Van Niekerk's, Chris Rankin's and Ann Cox's. After that, I bought many local ribbon embroidery books too (beside AJ. Boesra's) like Rosa Amalia's (which is my online friend here), Yossi Zulkarnaen's, Endang Rachminingsih's, and many more, for inspirations.

Whatever craft I made, I've tried to put ribbon embroidery in it, if possible, because not only I love the looks and doing it, but also I feel I owe my existence in the craft community to ribbon embroidery (Sounds too much, eh? Lol)

Now let's get to another story. Almost every crafter I know have an owl creation. I myself love the owl ever since I read Edward Lear's poem about "The Owl and The Pussycat" which I found both funny and cute. As the matter of fact, I made a pochette based on that poem.

As written above, almost every crafter I know have an owl creation. To the point where sometimes there are little bit of "clashes" where one "stole" other design, one claimed to be the best owl creator, and so on. While there is a strict rule between crafters that one can be inspired by others but NOT duplicating theirs (for commercial use), I think there's no problem if every crafter have an owl creation (of course, as long as it's not "pirated" pattern), the more the merrier . Now, I'd like to have one(s) too, but of course with my own rendition. Since I consider my self as a stitcher, these are my version of owl plushies:

To be honest, I was inspired by Aimee Ray's, but I'm sure, as you all can see, I'm not trying to be her . What do you think?

Being double now...

There are 2 reasons why I haven't updated my blog for such a long time...

1. My tweenie have become more and more attached to the fb now

2. I have a new job, an office job. So I'm doing double jobs now, office work 9 to 5, crafting afterward.

At first, I feel overwhelmed, because being a "single" parent, doing double jobs, it really is not easy. Hats off for those who've been doing this for quite a while ! Not only I feel handful, but also sad to leave my son at his grandparent's, sometimes alone at our place. For 13 years, I've been nurturing him, never leave him to anyone but hubby (and that's on veeery rare occasions!). But I have no choice...my inlaws are getting older, they often have to be treated at the hospitals because of their illness. Separated from my husband, turns out quite hard on financial, it's like funding 2 households. So I have to earn more than just what I usually get from my craft, if I want to have little money in the saving and for my son's lessons and extra activities.

Sew Loving it!

Last week my crafter friend mbak Dita of Cemprut who lives in Jakarta, came to Bandung to have a sock doll making workshop at Crayon's.

Of course I eagerly attended it, not only because she's one of my close friend on the net that I haven't meet in person, but also because I've never learn to make a sock doll before, I love to learn something new.

As I expected, at that workshop I met other crafters, I already knew some of them from the net but haven't got a chance to meet in person. I was so happy to find that the crafters are so friendly, down-to-earth and hilariously funny ! We laughed at our own jokes through the workshop session with our hands kept busy on the needles and threads.

The Cemprut's workshop at Crayon's Bandung

Unfortunately I had to go before the workshop's over. Nevertheless, I had fun and I especially loove to have & meet new friends (or old friends but "newly met") . I "sew" loving it!

Speaking of sewing, this month I've finished commissioned orders on "Love to Sew" bags. This time I designed it in form of pochettes. Not only "Love to Sew" actually, there is one pochette embellished with nothing but crewel and beads embroidery. They all have gone now to their new owners (thanks so much customers, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy making them ).

"Love to Sew" pochette in pink flowery canvas & brown faux leather

A New Place (again, sigh)

As written in my previous blog, I wasn't happy with the place I lived in Bandung.

No, not because it's an old house, it's just have not enough electricity to be use by 2 families and that other family who live there wasn't happy to share the house with me and my son.

So we moved again, still in Bandung city but this time we chose a house built specifically to let the rooms for rent, located not far from my parent's. There are 24 rooms and we rent 2 rooms which available. We like it here better than the previous one, alhamdulillah, obviously because each room have its own bath, enough electricity and it's quieter here, more plants and trees too.

Love the jasmines on the yard, always smell nice each time I pass it

Unfortunately our rooms are in second floor, so that moving in was quite exhausting.

But once it's over, I can slowly settle down and quickly back to my work .

My son in front of our rooms

Insya Allah, we're gonna be here for a while, I'm tired of relocating, unless it's to move to our own or to be live together again with hubby . Amiin...

Anyway, "Gigi" hijabs are back, now only pink, light brown and black colors are still available

"Gigi" hijab, sold as a set with below matching pin

Another Craft Swap, Alhamdulillah :)

Me and mbak Samsiah of Shafaa Craft have been online friends for quite a long time, as I remember.

And all this time, we haven't meet each other in person, of course because I lived in Bandar Lampung (that time), she's in Jakarta. Now I live in Bandung which relatively closer to Jakarta, took 2 hours drive, but still haven't got a chance to meet, lol...

Though we only keep in touch online, I just knew (from her blog & comments) that she's such a sweet person that I can trust. That's why I really hoping we can work together when I asked her to share a booth at Bazaar Arafah.

I was right, she's so easy to cooperate with, trusted and super kind. When she said she has an eye for Calyx cupcake hijab, but unfortunately it was sold, I instantly said that I would make another one for her as my thanks for her good cooperation in the bazaar.

Surprise, surprise, when I asked her to kindly send me back the items that haven't sold on that bazaar, she included a pretty brooch, beautifully crafted by her self, alhamdulillah !

Shafaa Craft's pretty cabochon brooch

To mbak Iah, I the brooch, a lot!

So sorry for not sending the swap sooner, because I ran out of material (my supplier just came back from Eid holiday, she just opens today).

Pink Calyx Cupcake hijab with matching pin

I hope she likes it, just as much as I like her brooch...I just hope we can meet each other off line soon and work together as a team again, amiin

One of a kind Eid

I know Eid has passed and we missed it already. What I'd like to share here is, this year's Eid, for me, is one of a kind.

It started when the discussion about Hilal sighting in our Department of Religion hasn't ended until about 8.30 pm. There were different opinions; some believed that Eid will be on Tuesday, August 30, 2011 and some were sure that it expexted to fall on the next day. It was finally decided that the occasion will take place on Wednesday, 31 August 2011, based on that Hilal wasn't seen that evening. But, the Government will still respected those who still celebrate Eid on August 30 and advised people to do the same.

So on Tuesday, me, husband (he was home for Eid) and my son came to my parent's house still in fasting condition. What a surprise, my parents and family had already celebrate Eid because there was other information that Hilal was finally seen and many of our people and other neighbor countries did the same. So we broke our fast without doing special Eid shalat because it was too late. I found this quite odd and confusing, really hope that it will never happened again.

We did the shalat the next day, with some people who celebrate Eid on Wednesday. It was pretty quiet, fewer people came compared to last year.

Only a few rows

Anyway, before Ramadhan's over, I managed to finish orders of hijabs and one special order of ribbon embroidered tote bag, alhamdulillah

Tote Bag