Typhoon Megi damage photos

Typhoon Megi hit Taiwan on Tuesday September 27th.  This is the 4th Typhoon of the season here and it was the third one in a week and the first one that we got to experience in Taipei.

This was the sky on Monday evening...


This is a down wire in front on our apartment building.  We were very lucky that our power didn't go out when some of my friends in town did lose power.



Here are some more shots around my neighborhood of the damages...

This was a scaffolding that got knocked down.



Lots of trees got knocked down by the wind...








This awning was damaged.



This sign blew over.



This sign got ripped up by the winds.



But people were busy cleaning up the mess because life goes on in Taiwan.



I also have a video that shows the wind and the rain during the peak of the storm but I can't figure out how to upload it from my phone...oh well.  There is another Typhoon that might come our way next week.  We were very fortunate that my family was safe and we didn't lose power or water during the storm.  I know this definitely won't be the last Typhoon because the season lasts until November.  I did get two days off work and school for my kids and I was able to get in a little extra stitchy time :).  See you soon and Happy Stitching!

Around the World in 80 Stitches Part 7

I completed Part 7 of this SAL sometime last fall.

I missed getting a photo of it before I started on some of the specialty stitches, but here is the first progress shot.



Here is the view of the overall design with Part 7 in progress.



I really love the delicate look of these specialty stitches and how they really resemble flowers on a vine.



I am almost done with this part of the SAL...



And here is Part 7 Completed!



I really love the design of this block and I think it came out well considering this was my first time attempting some of the stitches.  I still have a few more parts to catch you up on.  Until then...Happy Stitching!

Taiwan Post Office Visit in photos and Giveway Winner Last Chance

This week I visited the local Post Office in Taiwan to mail out the prizes from my 4th Blogaversary Giveaway.  (I am running a bit behind on sending them as usual).  I had only been to the post office once before to buy stamps to mail some local paperwork.  I had heard great things about the Taiwan Post Office and I also had a good experience.

This is one of the larger offices in downtown Taipei.  It looks a little different from the US Post Office depicted in my Mill Hill Post Office project I completed in 2014.



Everything is well organized and you need to take a ticket to get your number to wait in line for service.



I was lucky when I went at lunch time I only had to wait a minute before my number was called.  Here is the window area, and lucky for me that the signs were in both Chinese and English.  The employee that helped me only spoke a little English but I was able to communicate pretty well with him and I used the Google Translate app on my phone when I needed to try to tell him that Craft Supplies were in my envelope.



Outside you can see the classic, colorful post boxes and the green mail delivery van.



A closer look at the post boxes.



This is a lovely mural that decorates the outside of the building with beautiful examples of stamps they have produced over the years.



A closer view of some of their stamps.



And some more beautiful stamps!



I hope you enjoyed this little tour with me.  I definitely will be back to mail some more things.

Michelle Lucas please email me at lucyrmitchell@yahoo.com your address so that I can send out your prize.  If I don't hear from you in a few days I will draw another name for the Cross Stitch and Beadweaving Book.

Until the next time...Happy Stitching!

Around the World in 80 Stitches Part 6

I moved along to part 6 of this SAL.

Here is the start of the cross stitch outline...





Sorry this picture is a little blurry, but this part stitched up so quickly that I didn't have time to take any progress shots before I completed it!

Cross Stitch Stash Closet Organization

Hello everybody!

A few days go we had a local holiday in Taiwan the Mid Autumn Moon Festival and I was lucky enough to have the day off of work.  I spent the morning playing with my children but when it was nap time instead of sitting down and stitching I decided to try to organize the avalanche waiting to happen that was my Cross Stitch closet.

Here are the before pictures of my storage area.



You can't really see the mess that is hiding behind these closed doors...



Surprise!  Do you see what I mean about an avalanche waiting to happen?

I hatched this whole organization idea because I had just emptied a set of plastic storage drawers and thought they might fit nicely in this cabinet to take up some vertical space and make things more organized.

And after less than an hour here is the nicely organized space most of my stitching supplies get to call home now...



There are only two very light weight boxes balancing on top of my sewing machine on the bottom right corner.  The biggest issue I had was that my Cricut machine box is 1/2" too wide to fit sideways on the shelf and allow for the doors to close.  So I put it up on the top shelf the long ways wide.  Sadly I also have one more plastic drawer organizer that is a little bit smaller than the one in here full of stitching supplies in another room.  But I am happy that there is not a danger from falling objects anymore when I pull out a WIP to work on!  Happy Stitching!

Around the World in 80 Stitches Part 5

I also completed Part 5 last fall of my Around the World SAL.

Here is the start of the cross stitch outline.



I started the specialty stitches!



Getting ready for those tricky lazy daisy stitches...



And I finished!



This is how the design looks overall right now.



I am really enjoying the challenge of attempting all of these new stitches and working with metalics (although there aren't any in this part).

My purchases from Xu Crafts

I was so happy when I found the Xu Crafts shop in Taipei!  I loved so many of the kits they had, but I decided to try to be good (even though they were all very affordable) and only get a few things.



I bought this Harvest kit because I really loved the Taiwan themes in the design.  The Farmers are wearing the traditional Asian straw hat that you still find people wearing in Taiwan who perform landscaping work.  I really love the bamboo and all of the adorable fruit in this design.  I wish I could start it tomorrow, but I think I might start it for the Crazy January Challenge...



I also bought this iris pouch kit.  The flowers are beautiful and I am hoping it will be a quick stitch.  I would like to use this to store all of my scissors.  I misplaced my beautiful new scissors that I really liked using during the Stitch Maynia madness.



I bought these bookmark kits to make as Christmas gifts.  They look like they will stitch up quickly and I am excited about starting these before January :)



I also got these needles and scissors which were all very affordable.

Xu Crafts was in a shopping center that had a very large bookstore.  In the bookstore I found this British Cross Stitch Magazine!



I almost bought it just because it was there, but I wasn't sure if there was anything I wanted to stitch in it so I decided to leave it for some other stitcher in Taiwan to find...

I hope you enjoyed seeing the stitching goodies I found locally.  Happy Stitching!

I found a LNS in Taiwan!!!

Hello :)

I had found a stitching supplies in a few shops in Taiwan before (that I plan on showing you in the future), but they were usually in some general stores with a craft section, or a craft store with a small cross stitch section.

It was so funny on Labor Day I went on a shopping excursion with a friend in Taipei and I was just telling her how I haven't yet found a Local Needlework Shop in Taipei...when I stumbled upon this amazing find!

It is called xu Crafts and they mostly sell cross stitch kits, but they had a few supplies as well.



This is a nice place to sit down and stitch or set down your kit choices when trying to make a decision on purchasing.

Here is a WIP near the cash register



More beautiful kit choices!



Some finished pieces decorating the cash register area.






Some large beautiful finished pieces from the kits.



Thread Bobbins that I think are just for show...



A Chinese style wall hanging kit.



Stitching Notions: scissors, hoops, needles, eraseable pens...



So many finished examples.





The bird design here comes in a kit with the beautiful wood jewelry box!  I really wanted to get it but I held myself back and decided that I might purchase it the next time I visit this shop.



So this shop was all from the xu Crafts brand.  Everything they had for sale was in a kit form except for the notions.  Most of the kits had a printed background so there was less stitching to do in the designs.  The kits looked to be high quality and contained everything needed to finish each design including TWO needles.  For example the pouch above included everything to finish it into a zippered pouch.  They even had some adorable ornament kits for sale that I might want to come back for.  I bought a few things which I will share a little later.  

Also the extremely nice salesperson was a stitcher too, and with her limited English and my limited Chinese we were able to ask her where I could find a shop that sells cross stitch fabric.  I have another Stitcher/Blogger friend here who had just asked me if I've found that here and I hadn't.  I am hoping that I can check out the store soon from the lead the sweet salesperson gave me.

This was the first time since when I lived in Norway almost 3 years ago that I have been able to find a LNS in the foreign land where I live!  I hope you enjoyed this little tour with me.  See you soon...Happy Stitching!