In The Frame: From My MIL’s Garden

 

Bougainvillea

Photography is one of those hobbies I really enjoy. I take pictures around the house and whenever I’m out and about. Most days I just use my iPhone 14 Pro Max, but I also have a Sony APS‑C camera with a few lenses that I pick up when I feel like playing with something a bit more “proper.” I haven’t shared much on social media or here on the blog these past few years, so I thought this year I’d start posting more of my photos again.

These flower photos are from my MIL’s garden. A lot of the blooms are wilting because of the heavy monsoon rain, but she still manages to grow the most beautiful flowers. I don’t have green fingers at all, so I just enjoy photographing whatever she grows.

Camera: Sony ZVE-10

Lens: Sony E 55-210mm f/4.5-6.3 OSS (SEL55210)

The lens is not the sharpest but that was on my budget when I bought the camera last year and I enjoyed taking videos and some sewing videos with it. 

Bougainvillea

Pink Trumpet Vine

Butter Daisy Melampodium or Mini Sunflower and Violet Salvia

Female lacewing butterfly

I had fun taking these, even if the garden is a bit weather‑worn right now. Hopefully I’ll have more photo posts to share as I go.

Thank you for stopping by, 

Have a nice day,

Elvira

Linking up to these wonderful BLOGS

Mobile Photography

As much as I like to take my camera out, my phone is still the one I use the most. Here are my recent photos I took with my mobile phone. 

Phone Camera : Oppo Reno 10x Zoom 

Editor : Snapseed

I tried manual setting for this sunset photo. The winter sky in January was really brilliant. 

Location : my rooftop 😄😄

Have a nice day,

~ Elvira~

Tokyo Discovery Day 2

The previous day, we went to Swany and I bought a few half yard cuts mostly suitable for making wallets and bags. The shop has 3 sections in different floor, but since it was almost closing time, we only explored the 2nd floor which mainly section for bag making. And if your purchase is more than certain amount, you could get any bag pattern for free.Yes, the pattern for all those bags that are on display!

Swany Yokohama

 On Day 2, we wanted to visit Country Quilt Market fabric shop. But first, in the morning we visited Inokashira Park near Kichijoji Station. The park is huge with many recreational facilities, a shrine, zoo and pond. The area around the Kichijoji station is really worth checking out. Many antique and vintage shops, cafe shop with interesting design. I think it's called for the second visit and hopefully in different season ;)

Inokashira Park

From Kichijoji station we headed to Country Quilt Market in Nishi Ogikubo.  It's a little fabric heaven! I say, they have my kind of print and colors!! It's a 2 storey shop. On the ground floor, mainly fabrics from pre cut to yardage. On the 1st floor, they have laces, button and liberty fabrics. I had to hold on my wallet extra tight here. LOL

Country Quilt Market

They also have a small room where classes are happening. I can easily spend a day in this shop!

The owners are super nice and they even gave us a free ticket to Tokyo Quilt Show. Opening ceremony tickets! Thank you so much!!!

At Country Quilt Market

I love the Hexies Tile 

We had an appointment to meet mbak Sari from Handcraftku at lunch time, so we had to leave the shop but not without filling out small suitcase with lovely fabrics! 

Indonesian Halal Food!! at Bintang Bali 

Love the Roof at Okubo Station

After lunch, we planned to go to another Patchwork Show which according to the post we saw on Facebook was happening in Tokyo Hilton. We supposed to catch the shuttle bus from Shinjuku station but we got lost in Shinjuku LOL. Who doesn't?? We could not find the Shuttle bus stand!! Anyway, it was not meant to be, but there was an interesting story related to this when we were in Osaka. That will be in my next post!!

Alright, if you're a muslim traveller and looking for a praying room, there was one in Takashimaya Shinjuku. The room is quite spacious and we spent few mins here to read our prayers. 

Since the Hilton plan failed and we were in Shinjuku we decided might as well we go to Okadaya. The best thing about Okadaya is they have everything craft related from Quilting, embroidery, knitting, crochet, etc! and plenty of fabrics!! 

Stay tuned for next post about The Great International Tokyo Quilt Festival. 

Thank you for stopping by!

Have a nice day!

Elvira

A Short Break and Travel Wallet

Hello,

Last weekends we went to Shillong for a short break. We stayed in a new B&B resort called Windermere Resorts. Currently they only have 7 rooms available but the rooms are lovely. It has a feeling of country home. The resorts is on the hill top, surrounded by pine trees. It was nice relaxing trip for all of us!

Windermere Resorts

The boys just wanted to stay in and watching soccer match on TV. Luckily I brought a couple of wallets that needs to be handsewn. 

This purple travel wallet was for Nia. She wanted purple polka dots and chose this fabric from the photos in my Instagram page. The fabric is a lightweight Indian cotton fabric. 

I combined the polkadots with a matching solid purple to tone down a bit so that it won't look too busy. 

Wonder clips always be a great help when finishing the binding. 

And here is the view when it's filled up. It can hold up to 6 cards, 2-3 passports and boarding passes, pen holder, slip pockets and zipper pocket.

 All in one wallet! If you want to make the wallet, you can get the pattern HERE. 

As I work with different thickness of fabric, I often experimenting with the interfacing. For this purple wallet, since the fabric is thinner, I used heavy weight interfacing on both main body and added a layer of thin batting. If you're in India, you can read about interfacing in this post. I hope she will like it! 

Thank you for stopping by,

have a nice day!

~ Elvira~

Linking up to:
Finish or Not Friday
Show Off Saturday

Trip to Hong Kong

Few days ago, a facebook friend Sunita posted about taking unpaid leave  to travel. Well, I certainly would do it. Life is too short to spend in one place, right? 

After marriage and kids, travel seems to be a distant dream, but believe me, we need to go out there, take the kids off their gadgets and start looking around you instead of glued to the HD screen. 

My 13 and 11 years old boys are just like any other boys who prefer  lounging around and play games  in their gadgets during holidays.

Hong Kong 

Last summer we went to Hong Kong, which they enjoyed.  We still laugh at how my younger son kept disappearing to explore the stalls in the Temple street night market or any other places we visited. 

The boys enjoyed reading GPS map to find our Big bus stop. The younger one was fascinated by double decker busses and always made us sit in the upper deck.  

How we were all  so worried during our day trip to Shenzhen when one couple in our group was detained in the immigration because he forgot to bring their return air ticket. 

ShenZhen Window of the world

{this is why you need a travel wallet, esp if you travel with family }

Family Travel Wallet 

 Even though they were tired of walking around in Hong Kong summer heat, they still enjoyed street shows and looking around. 

Big Bubble street show 

street show

They learned that there are  more interesting and exciting things to see and to do out there then looking at their gadgets.

Cable car ride in Ocean Park Hong Kong

Travelling indeed is life lesson : learn to be away from the comfort of the home, to be discipline, to be aware of what's happening around you, to be alert, and most importantly to enjoy yourself. 

Yes, travel will definitely enrich you as a person, as a family. Give your children memories to treasure.   

What about you? Where are you heading this winter?

Until then,