TUSAL and festival

Am reeaaaally late in posting the October Tusal.

Though I had forgotten earlier, I got caught up in the festive season here in Chennai. Have not been able to go on the net for about a week now.

The festival of Navrathri, which means 9 nights, just finished. The festival is basically to drive away all evils and bring in wealth and prosperity. The 9 days/nights are split into 3 - first 3 days symbolize goddess Durga (Shakti), next 3 days goddess Lakshmi (welath) and the last 3 days goddess Saraswathi (wisdom). Many homes are decorated with a golu (display of gods/goddesses in the form of dolls) and women and girls are invited and honored.

 This was our golu this year. We did not have a golu the last 3 years due to various reasons. We invited and also visited many of our relatives to see their golus

We just had 3 steps, some people have upto 11!!! Can you imagine the number of dolls they'd have collected over the years. And imagine putting them all back, gosh

 This was a new addition to our doll set this year - the Tirupathi set with a few devotees

  

 and a view of V's little park and farm with a little pond. Check out the rickshaw and the bi-cycle!! We bought these at a crafts fair recently. They are such cuties

 

 And there definitely has to be a picture of V showing off her golu :)

 This is V doing the honors to her best friend and her mom. 

 Look at all the lovely goodies I received from US

2 bottles of lotions from bath&body works, a sewing machine for V, dark chocolate mints from Trader Joe's (thank you Edgar, they are absolutely yummy) and a few strands of beads

 I have not been able to spend any time on stitching the last week. So, no stitchy update today. I did bake some cookies to give people during the festival.

These are almond-coconut cookies. The recipe is from here. The only change I made was to add a bit of cardamom powder and that really added to the flavor. They turned out absolutely yummy

With that I take leave today. Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Collections and a cottage swap

This has been an over-pending post for quite long. Today am going to show you the crazy collections I have made over the years.

First is the huge collection of stickers I made during my school/college days

There used to be this really small stationery shop near our place in Hyderabad, in a very residential locality. You would not even notice the shop existed unless you looked hard. But the kind of fancy stationery they stocked was awesome, especially in those days. I used to be crazy about collecting stickers and they had a huge variety of them, types which would not even be available in the Archie stores. The collection started building when I was in standard 10 and went on till my college days. How my mother used to freak out. Not that I spent all my pocket money on it. I always had a budget for this kind of expenses and never exceeded it, though it would appear as though I spend a lot.

Last night, while I was hunting out all my magnets, I "stumbled" on these stickers. After looking at them for a while, I decided to pass on the legacy to V. Boy was she thrilled to suddenly be showered upon with so many great looking stickers.

Next is my even-now-building magnets collection. I started this from my first trip to Singapore back in 1999 mainly because, I wanted a souvenir from each place I visited (I was obviously optimistic that I was going to travel around the world), and magnets occupy the least space. Then it went on to not just places I visit, but anything interesting.
As of today, these are the magnets I have collected.

The mural right in the middle is the latest addition, as of last saturday. I bought this at a craft expo we visited over the weekend

I have a few more at my mom's place. And there's this very pretty blue and white magnet set, which I bought at Metropolitan museum of art in 2001. Also, one that I bought of King Tut at the Philadelphia museum of art. I know they are in one of my suitcases, but unable to find which one :(

I started work on July cottage, but stopped now. Because I decided to do a "cottage swap". India Independence is celebrated in August, and there's a provision for a flag in July. So, the July design would be August and hopefully an Indian flag (if I manage to design one) and August design would be used for July. I hope this works


With that my friends I take leave from you today. Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Sooo much to share

I have been very busy meeting my target of making beaded jewellery for my cousin. Let me show you everything!!

 Each set is so dear to me

I love Reese's peanut butter cup, the texture, everything about it. About a few days back, to my horror, I realized that V and her friend had finished even my share of it!! AArrrgggh, how annoying.So, I decided to try and make something similar.

Of course, nothing can beat the original, but I'd say (if I may say so myself) this really did come very close. Recipe from joyofbaking.com

Also tried my hand at making some cookies - Nutella cookies

I used some of the left over chocolate from the peanut butter cup to top a few of the cookies. Recipe is from here

Last night V and I were all set to bake coconut-almond cookies. The dough was (is) ready and had even arranged them on the cookie tray ready to be baked. Switched on the oven to pre-heat. after a minute or so, it just went off!!! Eh, what, how could you do this to me!!! I was almost in tears. But what could I do, except pack the dough in a ziploc and pop it in the freezer. I really hope the technicians come during the week and get it back in shape for the weekend baking. Oh I so miss my oven.

And guess what, amidst all this I did manage to finish June

I have now crossed half a year. All set to start July now. I am yet to order Sep/Oct  and Nov. I have to also start thinking of actually finishing these, to atleast put them up the coming year. My thoughts are navigating between a calendar and a memory board.

Wow, that was quite a long post by my standards. Thanks for dropping by.

Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir