Thank You So Much Chantal!!

I thought that I would stop writing in English blog though I still "peek" on my favourite links here, and actually I still write on my Yahoo Chinese blog from time to time..

Well, I write again because I want to give my gratitude to Ms. Chantal, a great French lady who sent me some of these gorgeous chats that I admire so much... I couldn't resist the charm of her work so I use "goolgle translate" function to get her blog translated in English ~ Oh My God ~ you got to click in and see more of her works:

http://mamilou.over-blog.com/


Can you resist that??

I wrote to her on her comment field and was hoping that she might tell me where to buy the patterns or maybe she can sell me her chats.... But know what? She just sent them to me as a help ~ free of charge!!!

I can hardly find the right words to express my gratitude to this kind and generous lady!!!
Therefore, I will make a post here to tell her how much I appreciate her help, and I hope the whole world could see such talented lady's exquisite art work.


Millions Thanks to You Chantal!!!!



Now I only hope that I could have more time to do these gorgeous envelopes!! Can't wait to get them started!!!
















one of the greatest envelopes... and I have the chart now ~ Wow~~

















and this one too...yeah ~~















such stunning designs... will the letter/package be arrived safely?

新春大吉 ~ All the Best in Spring

It was before the Chinese New Year that we started writing these Chinese characters, but I was unable to upload them here earlier..

Chinese people love to decorate places with these good words (in calligraphy), especially during the Chinese New Year!

Most of my students focus on conversational Mandarin, and some of them are interested in reading + a bit of writing, but not many would like to practise writing, it takes time after all! Let's see how some of them writing beautifully though not professionally!


This is British student ~ Helen's work. She's writing "好"(read as "hao") which means "Good" in Chinese. She loves writing Chinese characters very much and we both are proud of her work, well done Helen!!


This is Dutch student ~ Alex's work. He's writing "一本万利" (read as "Yi Ben Wan Li") which literally means "ONE as cost, and gain TEN THOUSAND profit", paying little and getting great returns ~ a very popular greeting for businessman!! Alex speaks good Mandarin and he can read quite a lot of Chinese characters, the credit goes to his non stop studying! (not many students could persist studying like him!) Keep up the good work, Alex!! I have some other clippings on his writing, but failed to upload here, what a pity..

This is Australian student ~ Emma's work. Emma writes "出入平安" (read as Chu Ru Ping An), literally means "Out and In Safely", to be safe when going out and coming back.. Emma always goes for business trip, so this greeting is good for her too!

Right now Emma is enjoying her honeymoon trip, hopefully still speaks Mandarin well after this whole month holiday!!

I have more students' work to show actually, but right now I need time to learn all these computer stuff first... so hopefully there's an update posting soon!

Home Alone ~ For The Very First Time

Wow... It's been that long long time since I did my previous posting.. Well, I can explain for that ~ I am much busier now as I have stopped hiring any domestic helper ( a big deal for a single, working mom!). It forces Bryan to "grow up" more quickly, and independently!

It was middle of last month that he had experienced something unforgettable (the keepsake would always remind him of that, lol)...

On that day, Bryan was supposed to staying home alone in the evening, and he supposed to finish his dinner at home after buying it from those eatery... However, he called me (luckily I gave him an old handphone!) at the door, saying that one of the keys was not working! He's been using those keys for quite sometime, and there was no such problem before.. so I really doubted whether he used the right key and asked him to try again, and again..

I was still in a class then, that really made me feeling bad.. I could hear that he was trying so hard to open the door, but it just never worked.. So I asked him to look for the security post, and hope that they could help him to open it.. In stead of hearing the "good news", the security people told me (on the phone) that they dare not to make any attempt as the key has turned into a "fragile" item..

So, I asked Bryan to have his dinner at the eatery and wait for me there at the same time... After one hour's worrying, we met at the eatery. It was really a SHOCK to see the key's condition:

Gosh, no wonder the security people would not give another attempt;

And, I found out that the 2 keys were really like twins, so imagine in the dim light, and he was in big hurry to open the door (kids scare the noise from the quiet corridor!)...



I don't remember my first time being home alone, but I'm sure that I got used to it when I was as young as 5 years of age! The big difference is that I had many little friends to play with me then... As for my Bryan, he is really HOME ALONE..

The Secret Garden in Cross Stitch

I found this book in a public library here in Hong Kong back to 4 years ago, it was in very good condition then (first publishing in year 1999), and I thought that I could find it anytime so I had no intention to buy it at all... However, when I found it again few days ago, I was so shock to find it's poor condition, it has become a worn out book which could break any stitcher's heart!

There were some pages being stolen (!!) and no one could do anything to stop it from happening again!!!! The librarian told me on the phone "just let us know the damage of the book when you return it to us", and THAT'S IT, what if there are more pages being torn by someone again?? Well, I understand it's hard to catch such thief, nowadays we return our books simply by dropping it into a box... and the librarians would put them back on the shelves so long as no damaging reports... who cares, who knows the problems inside all individuals?? How can you prove the book was damaged by certain people??

Since I can't protect this book, I decided to own one at home and let it retain its charm forever! The original price was GBP19.99, I checked with local leading book shops, no stock, and one of them told me that "it's permanently out of stock at the publisher!!" I tried ebay, but the seller doesn't want to ship it to Hong Kong (I guess the shipping charges is very dear, it is a giant hard cover book after all), and I checked with Amazon online shopping.. Some of "used but in good condition" ones at US$25, but again, they don't ship to Hong Kong!!! Others are way too expensive to me...


Before the whole thing vanished, let's admire its beauty...







I bet you would love to stitch these plums too...











and the apples are so "real"...













Must stitch the cornflowers too!!














Can you resist the charm of these poppies?










and these roses...













Maybe I should think of buying a new scanner instead of getting a new book. It could be cheaper, and I could keep all these images forever.

Thank You

To my dear friends and students, and the blog friends online, I wish you all a Happy & Healthy, and Prosperous New Year!!

I had a very quiet Christmas and the new year day. Most of my students went back to their hometown during the festive seasons and came back with very tired body and mind! They surely enjoyed their time a lot, and some of them remembered their teacher during the holiday, so they bought me gifts! Hm... alright, I'll forgive you for not answering properly in Mandarin, lol...





This is a gift from my old student Michael who is in New York right now and he's preparing for his photo exhibition. You can click here www.asianimages.blogspot.com to see some of his brilliant work!

I normally use only pencils while teaching, and this is definitely the most valuable one in my pencil case now!



In return, I gave Michael and his wife this handmade cushion cover.

There's a Chinese character in the middle (that's my cross stitched work!), we read it "Fu" (in Mandarin), it means "happiness/ fortune", it's one of the most popular Chinese character especially these days as the Chinese New Year is coming soon!!




This is a gift from my Dutch student Alex, it's a book about the messure words in Chinese, one of the useful teaching materials he gave me!! Alex speaks good Mandarin and he can read quite a lot of Chinese charaters, he definitely knows the importance of these messure words! Big THANKS to you, Alex!!!



This is my favourite cross stitching magazine, and it's a gift from my British student Helen!!
This lovely issue is not available in Hong Kong, I have to buy it thru ebay each time... Now you see how happy I was to get it from Helen!!
There are many sweet designs that I want to stitch immediately!! I have already started the cover bear and it will be for Helen for sure!!





This is a very tasty gift from a sweet 20yrs old Korean lady. She's a cheerful university student and has returned to the US. I look forward to seeing her again by end of this year!





hmmm..... goodness inside out..











I failed to make my posting for a few times. Hopefully this time it works!! I started to doubt that blogger treats me as a stranger, I can't leave comments to many others and experienced so much hard time even on my own posting!!

I will be back soon!!

A Special Invitation..

I went to my Japanese student's apartment for his weekly lesson on Saturday. He noticed the change of my voice and asked me whether I had flu, and just after telling him that I was nearly recovered from cold, he coughed! Thank God, I felt less guilty then!! What a relief!! (maybe he felt the same, lol..)

He told me a true story of himself which is quite interesting.

Back to more than 10yrs ago, when he was studying in an university in China, he and his friend (another Japanese) went to Mongolia together during the holidays. Trying to explore the world with little money in hand, they reached there by train, and set up their tent on the grassland. There was a teenage mongolian girl (around 15yrs old) and her younger brother came to their place and invited them to have dinner at their yurt. My student had a hard time to understand her poor Mandarin but still decided to follow them (his friend chose to stay back in the tent)...

The Mongolian family was very poor, there was no electricity in the yurt, and it was an unsavory meal, however he managed to eat some... They asked him to stay there overnight but it was really too uncomfortable for him to stay any longer, so he thanked them and went back to his tent.

The next morning that Mongolian girl and her brother came again, she passed a note to him which was written by her father, it said : This is your bill for last night's dinner, please pay us $50 !!

What a surprise!!!

In tears, still stitching..

It's been quite a while since I did my previous post. There were some ups and downs during this period of life, and each of my stitching item carries some of the memories, I keep doing stitching all the time..



This is a very small project as it supposed to be a bookmark only! It's from "Off the Shelf" by Bucilla, there are many other pretty charts too, will stitch them later..

This piece of work took me... a few years time! I put it away after finishing most of it, and found it again recently, so got it done and it looks nice.. Will get it framed later. B is for my precious boy Bryan!

The little darlings.. got it framed but can't find a place to hang it up yet!




This is my first experience to make a small pocket, the backside pattern is from Cross Stitcher magazine (issue 176), unfortunately my photo does not show the colour combination well, it is a very very sweet and easy stitch item, I'm thinking to make one more for myself! (Yeap, it's a gift item for a dear friend)





This is the front side of the pocket, I chose the pattern from the book "Cross Stitch Greeting Cards", easy and fun to stitch!!

Stitching in the train..

I need to take underground train to work every day, the journey is always long and boring! Sometimes I do my reading, sometimes knitting, and now, I just do my cross stitching!! It makes each journey seems so fast and pleasant!!

These are some of my recent work:

I love Margaret Sherry's cutie cats, however their kits are so expensive! This pattern is from a free issue which came along with CrossStitcher magazine... I bought the magazine without a second thought!

I used 28 count fabric, (this is my first time!) so the size is really small.. Never expected it fits this card so well!!



This Calla Lily is one of the 4 designs from "Still Life" collection, a Korean design! I found myself love Korean designs a lot, their animated pictures always seem too beautiful to miss..

I think the backstitches on the flowers are a bit too dark, maybe dark green fits it better?/ looks more natural?

I'll make it into cards too!

This is something that disappointed me a bit, as it didn't turn out as nice as I expected. I prefer the way it looked on a flat fabric, so it might be better for a card!





Ooops, all of these for cards?
I haven't been doing bigger project for quite a while! I'm still trying to get a lap frame, I will stitch BIG projects after getting the right tool..

A Labour of Love

I had such a sweet pen pal from Denmark back to more than 20yrs ago. She loves knitting and other handcrafts and did her work beautifully. Back to then I know nothing about cross stitching, I definitely not know how to appreciate her gifts as much as I do now.. It's a Labour of Love!!




This is it, from my pen pal Tina. I found the date from the frame behind too, it was Dec 1988.











This is a birthday gift I made for my friend recently. I wonder whether people would appreciate my work when they don't know cross stitching?





I was thinking to make a card originally, but it fits this mini magnetic frame perfectly, so I just keep it there!









This is another gift I made for someone who doesn't know cross stitching.. Hope she loves it as much as I do..

Is it a rose?

After 3 months of caring and waiting, my rose finally shows off her beauty!! But hold on... Is it really a rose?

I know there are different kind of roses, however I could not find any picture showing a rose with only 4 petals like mine!! Can anyone tell me whether this is... really a rose ??






Few days ago, it was like this...




She's beautiful!!





It was such a sweet pinky hope...



Now, aren't you surprised too?

First Bud and the Extended Family...

My mini rose surprised me with it's first bud today!! This tiny thing stands only 3 inches height at the moment, but it's going to bloom anyway!! Thank God for this wonderful blessing!!













My brother doubted whether this first bud is acutally a new leaf as the size is really unbelievably small, well, maybe it is clearer to view it from the back side! Let's just wait and see...











This was a mini plant when Bryan brought home from school last November, (a regret that nobody knows its name!) its first bud also appeared when it was at about 3 inches height!! However, it looked stronger and with more leaves...




It is really kind of easy growing flower! Bryan watered this plant daily for the first 3 months, there were always 3 pretty flowers greeting us!! I added some fertilizer on top of soil when seeing the leaves turned yellowish, and then ------- it flourished and became a big plant!

I trimmed it a few times and it just keep growing.. with more buds and each time about 6-8 flowers staying, it is always pretty and the frangrance (from the leaves!) is just great!! Now I notice that the flowers look different from the time when it was a very young plant, you can see it from this picture too?



I aways feel bad to trim the plants, feeling like kind of killing or hurting something that looks so fresh and lively!! Previously I cut off this branch when it was still looking nice with a flower on it, and I just couldn't throw it away, so I kept it with some water and surprisingly, it looked nice just like never left its mother plant!! And there were roots came out from the bottom 5 days later!!! So, I bought this small pot, and kept it as a new plant... Never expected that it spread its seed here and another new life is here!! (Hope you can see it from this picture, it's just beside "its mother")



There it is, a new member of this extended family...

Mouse in the Cat's World

It's been quite a while since I had my last posting here. I've been enjoying my "easy life" and composed mails to my pen pal every night, it is always hours of time and I just love to receive the replies!!

The photos below shows some of the enjoyable moments I had:

This is from the yearly event "Cat Expo" 06, which took place in HK these two days.
I was surprised to see that there are so many cat lovers in HK!! (I don't mean the cat owners, but the visitors!!)
I think there should be more than hundred of cats, all of them were just beautiful!! I tried to take photos for them, but it was just so difficult! Cats never stand still
and there were always people blocking in front..
Initially I thought the cats were obedient because of the owners were beside them, but now I think maybe because they get used to the cage environment (most of them were from pet shops? It's a commercial event after all!!)..

Bryan was born in the year of "Mouse", so I joked that the mouse has gone to the cat's world!! And this "mouse" wished himself to be born in the year of "Cat" as he loves cats just like his mum does!!



There were many lovely souvenirs and paintings bearing cat's image on sale too!!














This is one of my favourite cats, unfortunately the bars blocked his beautifully eyes, he looked so sweet & smart!!




I've finished this sweet project for quite long time, will get it framed later!










This is my gift for a couple students, they are going to have their first baby in end August!! I should have taken some other patterns with blue or lighter colour, now the sunflower looks a bit too sharp.. but I'm too lazy to start all over again, so just leave it! Hope they would still like it.