Cross stitch : Carp Complete

I finally completed my cross stitch carps after working on it for about 2 months. Doesn't it look beautiful? Have yet to decide whether to take it to the framers. As I've mentioned before, I made some changes to the original pattern. I changed the colour of the green carp to red whom is now known as transcolour =D. I've also decided not to stitch the red border as I feel that it would limit my framing choices such as size and colour.

Actually..I lied, this is not how it looks like now. I took this picture when I really thought I finished it...but then I was lazing on the sofa reading a book when it suddenly hit me...I forgot to stitch the Chinese characters on the left. But then I was too lazy to snap another pic...so that's why this pic below is without the Chinese characters.

I'm so proud of myself =D

These are the shiny threads I used to stitch the scales on the carps. It's 3 times the price of normal threads.
Of all the carps...I don't fancy these two the most. The red one looks kinda weird. Nothing really wrong with the gold one...just think they look awkward together.
This is transcolour. Supposed to be green but I made him red...he didn't turn out too bad did he?

Unfortunately, the black carps didn't really stand out even after I stitched it's scales. It sort of blended in too well with the water. And also it got overshadowed by the beautiful gold carp just next to it.
I like this carp the best. Maybe because of how the body is positioned...I can be so biased =P

Close up on the shiny scales. It seriously was a pain to stitch the scales on all the carps.

So...now that I've finished my carps, I'm moving on to other stuffs. Currently I'm working on some smaller stitching projects which I'll post here when the time comes. I also have a wonderful cross stitch project waiting for me in Macau. That one is a long story so I'll save the story for some other time.

Cross stitch : Carp update 6

With much hard work and strained eyes, I finally finished stitching the water. It ain't easy as it's all in half stitches! Now all I have to do is the back-stitch to make the fish scales. I hope I can finish it in the next week or so. Back-stitching is really tough on this pattern as there's no outline to follow instead, it's sorta scattered all over the fish.

This is before I started on the water...looks a little disconnected with the empty spaces...

Look at it now =D The effect is great isn't it? Though I think it makes the black carps less outstanding.

I tried to put the pics side by side for comparison but for some weird reasons, not able to do it in blogger. Not really in the mood for stitching today so I guess the carps would just have to wait for a little while more to get their scales.

Cross stitch : Carp update 5

I finally finished stitching all 9 carps. It was all done with love despite the drama with transcolour. So now what's left is stitching the water, some small leaves and also to add bling bling scales to my carps. I've already bought the bling bling threads and it's triple the price of normal threads. I hope it'll look nice on my carps as it's the first time I'm blinging any of my cross stitch projects.

Yay...It's almost done. It looks much better in real life than in pictures.

When it's finished, it should look like this. Guess which is transcolour?

Yup...this is transcolour. It's a male just because it gave me so much pain and drama ;P

Was out shopping today so I'll work only get to work on my carps tonight. I'm sort of in a hurry to get this done as I have another hobby of mine that needs attention. Ooooh...I can't wait =D

Cross stitch : Carp update 4

Didn't get much stitching done since I got home as there's so many things to do back in Subang...such as eating =D Spent the day in Aunt Helena's house hanging out with Mum, aunts and cousins. It's great to be back and being able to have gossips sessions with them and get the latest on the family =P Our family is kinda large so the gossips are never in short supply...and they're juicy too =P

Looking back, life is much simpler back when we were little and our mum's have no wrinkles on their faces. Seeing my cousins grow up so fast reminds me of how much time has passed. The cousin who wore the cloth diaper I helped fold when she was baby is now out working. Cousin whom I shared his Mum's confinement food (can't help it okay...I love the Foochow red wine noodles!) have just finished his UPSR and next year would be in secondary school. I myself have left secondary school 10 years ago. But the memories are still so clear in my mind. I can still remember the day I got my SPM results. Where did 10 years go?

Okay, I got sidetracked from the topic. Anyways, my carps are doing well, not sure bout my sea monkeys though...if they all died when I get back to Macau, it's all Eric's fault =P These few days I've managed to get started on the golden carps and almost completed the black ones. Hopefully I'll finish the gold carps this week.

Three more carps are still missing...will start on them soon.

The black carps look nice don't they? Mum is still bugging me bout the eyes -_-

A gold carp in the making. It's really hard to stitch in yellow at night as all the shades of yellow seemed to look the same and it messes up my counting 0_o

I can't wait to finish this project and I believe it's going to look beautiful...just like me *looks in mirror* =P It's Monday tomorrow. Can't believe I actually like Mondays now...the blues are gone =D

Cross stitch : Carp update 3

It's been raining here again as Typhoon Higos is nearby. Thank goodness it missed us and headed for Hainan Island. One typhoon a month is more than enough. Since we're forced to stay indoors by the rain, I spent more time stitching. Got myself some more leaves and some stalks. Have not been touching the fishes much as I'm still thinking how I'm going to mix in some shiny threads to make my carps a little more 'bling bling'. Still can't decide...I can be so fickle sometimes. There's 9 carps altogether and I've only started on 2 and a half while not finishing any!

More leaves at the bottom. So much green -_- Not one of my fav colours at all. But they do look petty don't they? Eric says my leaves look real. I guess that is good thing =)

Mum likes the small round green things I stitched today. Those are supposed to be leaves too. I think she lost the plot.

Tomorrow is a new day, with new decisions to make. And a few more stitches to complete the big picture.

Cross stitch : Carp update 2

I'm feeling dead tired today. Didn't get much sleep last night and it's not because of Eric's snoring. His snores have now downgraded it's decibel level so we can actually sleep in the same bed without me trying to kick him ever so often to stop the irritating snores. Last night, I think it's insomnia. I tossed and I turned and I counted sheeps...nothing worked. I then had evil thoughts of people I really dislike...see what the mind could do if it can't rest at night? I wanted to have a nap so badly this afternoon but decided not to...I wanna be super dead tired so I can drop dead on the bed tonight and have a nice dream in slumberland.

To keep myself awake this afternoon, I continued stitching. My eyelids were drooping and my mind was tired but I kept on going. I should've stopped, I really should've...coz I made so many mistake it was a torture to undo it and then redoing the stitches...pure torture =( I also couldn't read the stitching chart properly with my blur eyes...not to mention, my crazy brain kept replaying scenes of me falling asleep while stitching and the needle conveniently poked into my eye. Only God knows how I managed to stitch anything properly at all today.

Past couple of days, I was working on the bottom part of the picture. Got myself a small lily bud, a shark look-alike big red carp and just the tail of the black carp. That black carp is a pain to stitch as it's hiding among the stalks. That's why only got the tail. Again Mum complaint saying my fish is freaky with only half a body...I've also yet to stitch the eyes for the red carps...=P

The unfinished red shark/carp looks like a ghost fish in the pic.

Hmm...Mum's right, all my fishes does look a little freaky. Lily bud seems to be leaning to the right, hopefully I didn't stitch it wrongly 0_o

Wish I could stitch much faster than this, but the truth is, TVB is pretty distracting =P Mum and I are watching To Grow With Love staring Myolie Wu and Andy Hui. It's a story about how a fat girl gets ridiculed and how she's looking for true love. Too bad this drama/comedy is only airing for 30 minutes each day...love this drama.

There's also another drama Last One Standing which just started a few days back after the conclusion of Moonlight Resonance. This drama is about how a guy (Kevin Cheng Ka-Wing) went to jail for 10 years for a crime (my speculation) committed by his cousin (Roger Kwok Chun On), so now he's out and wants to clear his name, at the same time, probably take revenge as well. That guy who went to jail, he has a super irritating sister and I feel like slapping her everytime she's in the scene. Her acting sux to the max and she keeps calling her brother "kor kor". I know "kor kor" means brother but then don't overdo it lar. Let me give an example:

Brother wants to report to police...irritating sister says...

"Kor kor, don't do it. Kor kor, I beg you. Kor kor,kor kor please don't do it.Kor korrrr..."

Try saying the above sentence out loud. Get what I mean by damn kau irritating? How many times must she use the "kor kor"? Talk about overkill. I was even tempted to write to TVB to complaint about it...really cannot stand it.

Okay, I think enough of drama bashing tonight. I just hope her character gets killed off soon. I don't care how, just get rid of her. Okay...enough already...nite nite *yawn*

Cross stitch : Carp update

I've been stitching like crazy the past few days. Needed the distraction to keep myself calm in this crazy period of time. As a result, I managed to finish the humongous leaf, the lotus flower and got started on the red fish. Mum was so happy to finally get a glimpse of a red carp =) I like how the flower turned out, the colours go well together and it's really pretty though it took me hours to finish it 0_o

Have yet to finish the stalk. Hopefully more fishes soon.

Little red carp with no eyes yet...Mum says it looks freaky without eyes, so now she's bugging me to stitch the eyes.

Beautiful lotus flower with many shades of pink and red.

I've been looking through some website and saw this 2009 calendar by Margaret Sherry. There is also a "Cattitudes" Calendar which I'm really interested in as well. Unfortunately, I don't think I can buy the 2009 calendar anywhere in Macau or KL and the Cattitudes calendar is now kinda have the endangered status. I guess the only way to get the 2009 calendar is to purchase through the website or ebay.

Aren't they cute?

I'm now a little obsessed with cross stitching. Eric and Mum has been asking me to sell my completed projects but then who wanna buy cross stitch that's been finished? Half the fun is the stitching it in the first place and the half of the fun is seeing it framed on the wall. I've always been quite attached to my cross stitch projects and only ever gave a big one away to Jayne & Glenn for their wedding. BTW, it's no fun stitching the same pattern twice. It gets really boring. Unless someone is willing to pay me really good money to stitch for them, I'll just stick to making projects for family and friends =)

Cross stitching again

Can't help it. I've been itching to stitch for quite some time now. I couldn't start earlier as I can't find something that I like to stitch. I'm picky =P Since I have loads of time now since I'm not working, I've decided to stitch carps below for Mum. She actually wanted horses but we couldn't find one that meets her requirement. First of all, it must have 8 horses. The horses must not look like they are smiling(this is my t & c). Secondly, the horses must be galloping beautifully and finally, it must be big. Big as in at least 4 ft wide. I'm afraid I'll never be able to find such a pattern to stitch.

Anyways, the carps we have chosen is pretty decent in size. When it's done, it'll be 13.6" X 27.1". It's not very big but mine you, it's not a small project either!

Koi Carp II by DMC

This is what I've managed to stitch the last couple of days.

So many shades of green on one small leaf!

I'm so sick of green now. All I've been stitching are shades of green. Can't wait till I get started on the fishes. Mum has been bugging me to work on the red koi coz she wants to see if it's going to be red enough -_-

I've now become a TVB junkie. Those Hong Kong dramas are really addictive. You know how in Malaysia we can only watch chinese drama from Mon - Fri(on free tv, not Astro ok)? Well, over here it's everyday. It's really a good way to keep people of the streets! Tonight we watched the most awaited finale of "kah hou yuet yuen" which I think is called Heart of Greed II or Moonlight Resonance. I'm confused myself. Anyways, this drama has a really fascinating storyline. Never in my wildest dream I would've imagine a drama about mooncake. It's a drama that guys should watch too. I like the underlying message of the drama, though it took like 40 episodes to get the message out. A man should appreciate his wife. If not, bad bad things are going to happen...lol. Well...it's a good message to keep in mind don't you think so?

Source: http://drama.tvb.com/moonlightresonance/

I can't wait to stitch some more. Will post pics of my progress. Oh yeah, the sea monkeys are doing pretty ok I think. They've gotten really big and ugly now. Sadly, they haven't started mating yet ;P