Yay! 200~

I've reached my 200th sale on etsy today, which I am ecstatic about! It's come a long way since the beginning, it means so much to me because it wasn't a one night wonder and it's something I nurtured with my love and passion for cross stitching. My goal was and still is to introduce the joy of cross-stitching to first timers and renew the love of cross-stitching in oldtimers with simple and friendly imagery.
I thank all my customers for supporting andwabisabi! Thank you so much for all your love! It is because of you I am able to continue to make more new patterns. Please continue to give andwabisabi lots of loving. ^__^

Here is a new custom order I just completed.

Hello! My name is Yammy, nice to meet you! Please stitch me up and take me to your lovely home! I can be found at andwabisabi. I'm sweet and yammy and I hope you think so too!

Lovely Spring

I've been cross stitching since senior year of highschool, but you'd be surprised to hear that I've only finished about four (big) projects, two of which I gave away as gifts to two very special people in my life.

I have a lot of projects that I've started without applying "the rules" and I can't seem to get back into those projects because they seem tainted. At the time I was more excited about getting started rather than getting it right and learning the foundation. Now I cringe when I see the knots I made in the back of my very first projects, or when see the horrendous back of a piece, and the projects where I've cross stiched one direction in one section and then started cross stitching a different direction in a different section.

Nevertheless, I managed to get back into my 'lovely spring' piece which comes from this Japanese book I found in Little Tokyo. The book is called Cross Stitch Embroidery with patterns from six different designers. My pattern was by Misako Murayama. I'm not completely finished, I just need to stitch in a couple leaves, finish the window and salad bowl.

Got Rice

Today was a great day for me creatively. I've gotten several cs patterns up on andwabisabi

including the steaming rice bowl below. I love rice, I wouldn't be able to survive without it! Okay I admit it... My taste buds are totally Korean, and although I've never lived in Korea, I can't live without my rice and kimchi. When I'm at an restaurant you will probably hear me mutter the words, "it'd be nice if there was kimchi". :D

I need to have bab (rice) and kimchi at least once a day. And although I don't usually eat breakfast, I prefer to eat rice + banchan (side dishes) as the first meal of the day. If I don't get my bab, I feel rather grumpy.

My steaming bowl of rice with green peas. :)

Mes Recettes

This is from a while back and it was intended for the kitchen, but somehow ended up in the living room. :) My mom usually doesn't like the designs I choose to stitch, but she really liked this one.

Start of another room

I haven't been able to devote much time to stitching lately. I can't wait until I start on the room with the fireplace. I love bricks. Sometimes I go strolling around my neighborhood just to admire the houses with beautiful brickwork.

It's such a beautiful day out. The sun is out and it's wonderful weather out to go to the beach. Can't you just imagine sinking your feet into the warm sand, sipping on a cool drink and relaxing to the sound of the waves? Sigh. But the reality of it is I am home alone waiting for someone to come home.

New Dinos

I made some more dino cs patterns which are available at andwabisabi

My yummy Heart

I baked a heart shaped pineapple cake with lemon frosting and blueberry&raspberry topping. The cake was so moist and delectable, and the frosting was refreshing, and the blueberry & raspberry topping was just enough of sweet to balance the cake.

Semi Homemade~

This time I didn't have enough time to make it from scratch so I used a pineapple flavored store bought cake mix (+ eggs, water, oil). To that I added 1/4 cup of plain low-fat yogurt so the cake would be extra moist. I baked it at 250 for 35 minutes. (My oven is extra hot! Because the body is so small, the heat is concentrated and it burns the contents if you don't pay close attention.) I split the batter and baked it in two batches. After the cakes cooled I chilled it in the refrigerator for a couple hours. For the frosting I took the juice (1/2 cup) and zest of two lemons, 3 eggs, 3 Tbs of honey. I put this mixture over a pan of simmering water and stirred the mixture for about 10 mins. Then I let it cool and stored it in the refrigerator to chill. In the meanwhile I whipped up 3/4 cups of heavy cream, incorporated the chilled lemon mixture with 3 Tbs of low fat yogurt and there you have the frosting.

For the blueberry/raspberry syrup I took 3 Tbs of berry jam, 3 Tbs of grape fruit juice, and simmered the contents over low heat.

Next, I frosted up the cakes and decorated the edges with finely chopped roasted walnuts. And lined up blueberries in a shape of a heart and filled it in with the berry reduction. Then I put some of the leftover frosting in a ziplock bag, snipped the edge and wrote a short message.

Voila~ my yummy heart! And it was a success!

A tip

When frosting the cake, you can get crumbs in the frosting. To avoid this first thinnly coat the cake with the frosting. Then wash up your tool and add a second layer of frosting, now your frosting will be crumb free.

Also an update on my Doll house:

I wasn't able to get any stitching done on it yesterday, hopefully I'll get to work on it tomorrow~