Dinner At Carmelo's

 Carmelo's is a hard to find restaurant in downtown Chisinau that specializes in Italian food.  It's bright and shiny and the food is ... meh.  The chicken salad was the best part.  It had a lot of chicken in it and some taste otherwise.  The pizza margherita was a disappointment.  It was just plain bland.  More sauce or some basil leaves on the top would have done wonders.  The cappucino was average.  Since this was a spouse's dinner, I won't be dragging Andreas there any time soon.

Almost E'd

All I've worked on is the E.  It's getting there, though.  One more session and the letter itself will be done.

A Palm Leaf

Finally, the palm begins to emerge!

Weaving A New Rose

In teaching my students weaving techniques, I started this temari.  The base color is the one I bought here a few weeks ago.  I like it!  Now to just get to completing the thing...

Green And Sparkly

I'm definitely more than halfway done with this last corner, as I've gotten to use the green sparkly stuff.

Adding More Borders

I've started the next to last border and am starting to fill in a bit.

Casting On

I have finished the sampler through the cast on stitch.  It's getting closer to the end.  I think it looks kind of neat so far.

One Building

First building done on the last side.  Yay!

Nine Rows

The rows on top are the ones with the most stitching left, so I guess it's quite a bit of progress to have nine of them done.

Putting Up The Fence

The fence is coming along now; I have the feeling I've done this before.

Filled

All the little bits of the outer border are filled up.  Time to get to the fun stuff.

All Popped Up

Flowers all across now, and some stems go almost to the bottom.

Bits Of Next Page

Some of my colors have started bleeding over onto the next page of the chart.  Does this mean I'm getting close to the end of this one?

Topping

The top part of  the E's about done.  Now to work my way down...

Siding

This session was all about getting more sides done.  Still not done anything but borders yet, though.

We've Discovered Pani Pit

For quite a while, we'd been meaning to go to Pani Pit.  We just never got the opportunity.  My office had lunch there a week and a half ago, and Andreas went with.  It was excellent.  According to the locals in the office, Pani Pit's zeama is the best in Chisinau.  It was very good, truly, but I think El Greco's is better.  Both, though, use all white meat chicken.  I also had a pear and camembert salad, pictured second.  The salad was freshly made and wonderful.

 Andreas had the pork with pears.  You can see the presentation in this picture.  It gets ooohs every time it's brought out.  The red glaze is a pear and berry sauce that complemented the pork wonderfully.  Andreas loved it.

A few other people had these shrimp on zucchini fritters.  I tasted one of the fritters - they're sweet, but not too sweet, and definitely not heavy or oily.  The pesto sauce over the top is good, too.  We will definitely be going back.

Ready To Work The Corner

I'm to the point where I'm ready to start the blue corner motif.  Definite progress!

A Bit More Sheepish

Tu es Unique got a little more work last week, as I took it in because of its small size.  Keeping it in my bag for possible more work later.

A Few More Done

I have twenty six lines done now on my sampler and am within ten inches of the bottom of the fabric.  Getting toward the finish!

Shopping With Friends

 Carolina took Ana and me to two shops near her home.  They were in the same building just off of Alba Iulia.  The first is a Singer sewing machine retailer that stocks the full line of Madeira threads.  They also have a great selection of cones of sewing thread.  I bought quite a bit there, then we turned the corner to Clubok.  This place is floor to ceiling yarn.  I'll be going back!

To The Shoulders

I stitched more of the peacock today, and am over halfway done with the first two pages of the design.  Progress is being made, albeit slowly.

Little Brown Jug

 I was charmed by this little brown jug when I saw it for sale in the embassy cafeteria.  It was handmade and cost under ten dollars.  I think I got a good deal!

Just A Small Start

It's small, but it's a start on the last side.  Looks like I will have this building done next session!

A Drift Of Hair

Some real-looking progress on the hair.  It looks like I've done more than background now.

Making A Fence

I'm working on the iron fence now.  It's going to take a while to catch the right up to the left.

New Threads!

I bought these off of ebay and want to try them.  They're Garibaldi #5 perle cotton, and I'll be trying them on temari.  Now to find the time....

Thinking Spring

 I keep wishing spring would be here.  That's why I picked these colors for this ball.  I think it turned out well.

All The Way Across

I've got the flowers all the way across.  It's coming along a bit more quickly than I thought.

Building Green

Little bits of peach building and little bits of greenery done.

More Stitches Taken

There is less and less left on my length of fabric to fill.  I've had some fun with a few of these stitches, but my main thing on this is to push through to the end at this point.

Got Branch

Just more background and branch.  Soon, I'll be working on things that look different every once in a while.

Starting The Last

Yay!  I am now officially starting the last side of the town!  

Martisor

In Moldova and other parts of southestern Europe, March first is the first day of spring.  People celebrate by pinning red and white decorations on their clothes.  Sone of the above martisors were given to me; others were bought at the embassy.  All are handmade.  I think they're pretty.  The tradition is to wear them until March 31st, then pin them to a budding branch.  If you wish as you do it, the wish is supposed to come true.

Adding Flourishes

I've started working on what will become the final set of borders.  This involves a lot of smaller stitches, so the progress is slower.  

Pansied

Heartsease Pansy is now officially done.  This means I've got one more project crossed off my 2011 Crazy January List.  Yay, progress!

On To The Other Side

Doing the right side fence now.  I'll be very happy when I can just work this all the way across at once.

All Filled In

I've got the interstitial area filled in, but it's not done yet.  I need to add gold crosses.  Then, I can finally get to the fun part.

Taking One For The Chapter

I have been adding some tutorials to designs for my EGA chapter, CyberStitchers.  For the March meeting, I'm doing Egg O'Flowers from Mary Corbett's Needle'n'Thread.  So far, I've got the outline and a couple of things one.  The main lesson I've learned: don't use your Kindle as a light box.

On Old Things

This is my new project in the rotation from the 2011 crazy January Challenge.  It's going to be a wildflower garden worked in Danish flower thread.  So far, I've just got a few.  I bought the kit several years ago in Paris.

Starting An E

The conch shell's done and the E's getting its start.  Things are progressing!

Looking Like Progress

Working on the uprights, it looks like I've made a lot of progress.  Nothing done on the main design yet, though.

At The Loft

 I wish I had ordered the camembert and pear salad, but Andreas did and ate every bite.  He paired it with a chicken baguette. I had mushroom soup and my usual poached egg and chicken salad.  Both were excellent on a chilly day.