Shalini's Sewing Space

Guest room prints Digi, I have missed you!!! I did these prints today for our Guest bedroom. The size is 16x12 and the frames they'll go in are 20x16. I print at Costco as the bigger prints are way cheaper than anywhere else. They'll be ready tomorrow. Can't wait! &copy Michelle Coleman, Medith Fenwick and Nancy Rowe Jaitz I also printed this years Christmas cards. I had started a baby book for Mehul that just got printed. He is now reading so it should still be useful :)

Recap Ok you readers :-) I guess I should fess up what has been keeping me busy - My sisters family visited us in September. This visit had been postponed because of me going to India for a month for work in June. So before she visited, we completely re-did the guest bedroom. This kept us busy through out August. I am really quite happy with the way this room has been done. Exactly what I wanted. There will be pictures, I promise. They visited in mid-september and stayed till mid-october. We took them to Disney!! They have a 7yr old DD and it was just perfect. We were there for 6 days and had a great time. Went to Sea World, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. The weather was good for the most part, the lines were short. It was a great time to visit. The only thing was I couldn't ride but still made the most of it. We also took them to visit Niagara Falls and New York city. Both long trips but they really enjoyed it. After she went back we slowly got in

Back!! I will be shocked if anyone still comes to check this blog. I will try to blog regularly again. I have some news that I can't share here yet but it is the news that is keeping me busy :-) Since the closet transformation, we've undertaken building my craft room (Finally!). Hopefully it will be in decent enough shape to take pictures of soon. I just finished re-doing all the images for this blog. Way too tiring of a job. I'll be back.

Master closet - Transformed DH started working on this when I was in India. We had discussed doing something with the closet and I had done sketches and started a design in IKEA design builder to come up with ideas last year. Nothing concrete because we wanted to explore all the options. He did the research while I was gone and started building it. Prior to this, we just had a single rail running all the way through with a wire rack to keep clothes. I don't think I have a picture of that but it's pretty standard in builder houses in our area. It is DONE!! My dream closet is done. This is the best possible shot from the outside. The right wall is completely mine, the back wall is his but there is some of my stuff there, the left wall is 50/50. Right wall My work tops and bottoms on the right. The main dresser has my indian dresses, night suits, workout clothes, t-shirts, jeans, etc. The thin side unit has undies, socks. More work tops on the left bottom, kurtas etc. on the top.

Thanks, all. For sure, DH and DS are missing me. DS is sick and it was heart breaking to hear his voice on the phone. I will be sooo glad to be back home. I am even looking forward to the flight - normally I hate it. LOL The only life-saver has been VOIP phone which we've used like anything too keep in touch. Without it I would have been depressed. Raychill - I remember that! We must be stitching-sisters :) This morning I sent my final laundry for the week and it suddenly hit me. This is the beginning of my trip back. Co-workers are taking me to dinner today so I will pack tomorrow night. Checkout of the hotel friday morning, catch the flight to Delhi in the evening after work. This weekend I'll be in Delhi and time just FLIES when I'm there. Sunday night is my flight back home!!!

Stitching An entire month without any posts. I thank you to visit after such long absences from blogging. So much is going on in my life that I don't feel like spilling all of that here -- except for crafting, ofcourse. I love making craft related posts. Quick update - I am in India currently on the tail end of my trip. It has been fine except missing DH and DS too much. This time I got the time to do all those things I want to do on when I come to India but never have time for - like taking long walks in the parks, going window shopping (and shopping), going to movies, just sitting at home (hotel) and hanging out with family, and so on. But it has been a long 4 weeks without them. It would have been so much better if they were able to come but seeing that we just visited 6 months ago, it didn't make sense. DH wasn't able to get vacation so soon and for me it is work during weekdays anyways. So glad I brought stitching with me on this trip. It was a last minute decision to

Quick update I will be going to India in a few days for work purposes. Life is quite hectic right now. I will be there for 5 weeks. Will be back in the middle of July. There is some vacation time in there but mostly it will be work work work. I also wanted to show the London Photobook that I've ordered. I made it using ArtsCow interface i.e. it was quickly put together on the site. Here is a peek! London Photobook ** Requires Microsoft Silverlight.

Wool, Sheep and Silk cocoons! Last Saturday, Jenni and I went to MD Wool and sheep Festival. It was my first time there but she has gone several times before. DH volunteered to drive me to her house. We woke bright and early, had chai and were at her house around 7:45AM. I fell in love with her yard and who could not love Henry? He is the cutest. This was my first time seeing him though it seems like I've watched him grow - from his pictures. CUTE! So we were at the festival before 9AM. The first thing I noticed were people walking back to the parking with plants. There were some plant sellers at the beginning so I bought some (pictures later) and deposited them in the car. Then we were on yarn hunt. Jenni wanted to start at the main barn - that's where the most vendors were so there we went. On the way to the barn we saw the sheep! There was some sheep activity going on but we were on a mission. I was amazed by all the yarn and couldn't help but touch all the lusciousness.

Cherry Blossoms in DC a.k.a. Spring has Sprung Click to view slideshow

Castles in the air Floss Toss on SMF Garden Princess The picture is not showing all the colors accurately. The orange looks red, eggplant looks black. Coming up with the colors took longer than last time for Garden Grows. This time the designers have already included some colors -- blues, greens, neutrals. It seemed like anything I was including in the blue family was clashing with the existing colors. I did include a blue, I think it works. I reserve the right to change my mind as I see them in action. I decided to use a crystal for the center - 8mm top drilled clear heart. DMC Floss Designer chosen- 807 - Peacock Blue 3765 - Peacock Blue V Dark 3799 - Peacock Blue Light 610 - Drab Brown Dark 3046 - Yellow Beige Medium 3045 - Yellow Beige Dark 310 - Black 3072 - Beaver Grey V Light 317 - Pewter Grey White My Choice 3345 - Dark Green 3347 - Medium Green 3348 - Pale Green 742 - Floral 1 - Yellow 743 - Floral 2 - Pale Yellow 223 - Floral 3 - Lt. Mauve 3842 - Floral 4 - Prussian Blue 150

Socks Finished, Socks Started Socks for Girish Stitch = Decorative Rib Work with multiples of 4 Row1: K1b *P3 K1b Row2: K1b *P1 K1 K1b Quick Scarf Stash Report - I love KnitPicks

Posting from Philly I'm here on training for 2 days. I forgot my laptop charger and have to share my co-worker's during the training. Thank goodness for him! So this will be very quick because now I'm back at the hotel - no charger. I miss DH and Mehul so much!! Can't wait to go back home. Sock#2 is coming along great. I should try to finish it in these 2 days because there's nothing else to do here when I'm back at the hotel. I have about 4" of the foot left to do. I ordered a bunch of yarn from KnitPicks the other day. It should be there by the time I return. Yay! I won't have time for sightseeing or visiting any needlework stores. We drive back tomorrow afternoon.

Sock #1 of first pair Started March 2nd - Finished March 8th - It has been a very busy weekend. I had a major deployment starting Friday - March 6. Things went relatively well and we were out of the office at 11PM. Then on Saturday began the testing (UAT). That could have gone smoother but we survived. Done at 7PM. Today we had a family over for tea and chit chat. Between all the deployment worries I had forgotten about DST. We had to set the clock one hour ahead hence losing an hour. I'm so not ready for tomorrow. Apart from the sock knitting, I made 2 types of pickles. I hope they turn out well, it is my first time trying one of them. That one is Lime, Ginger and Green chilly. Spicy and super yummy. The smell had me drooling LOL. This will take a month to get ready to eat. The other one is a mix vegetable pickle that my grandma used to make and I adore - it has carrots, cauliflower, turnips & radish, and it is made in vinegar along with other spices. This one should be ready

Knitting finish I tried a Tam. Don't think M will wear it but I wanted to try it. It came out better than I had expected. Seed Stitch Scarf Today it snowed heavily. We got out and took pictures. I shoveled for a few minutes too. Took a few new pictures of M as it had been a while.

Sewing and Jewelery I have been sewing lately. The jewelery pics are from December and Jan pretty much. PJ Bottoms Truck Pillow Closeup of satin stitching Keyring Earrings - I made the top 3. And these Loved these beads at the Gem show. Finally made a necklace I'm happy with! Same style as above - made with sunstone beads from a necklace my sister gave me to redo. Made all of these except the left-most. Lastly, my ring. I love the way this moves and makes a sound.

Chucky The Hamster DH's boss got her kids a hamster. The hamster gave babies the day after. The boss-lady brought the babies to work. DH got Chucky (formerly known as Gluestick) home :) Working out in his exercise ball Sitting in his food tray and eating Drinking water from the bottle Chucky is pretty down to earth guy. He eats, sleeps and poops. Quality pet time. In crafy news, I finished this scarf some time back - Thistle Stop WIP 1/24/2009 We are surveying schools for Mehul. He is not eligible for public school this year because his birthday is 4 days after the cutoff date so our choices are to do Kindergarten in Private school or KG in current Daycare, or let him do Pre-K again in daycare. We want to do private KG. His daycare has a Kindergarten program too and we might just stay with this daycare. The problem with this daycare is that it is not State Accredited for KG and he will have to give a test to get admission in 1st grade in public school next year. The schools we are