Thursday, May 31, 2012

Finished!!!

With all it's imperfections, finally here is March in all its splendor!!
Isn't it a beauty!! But now, I havveee to tell you alll (yes there are many in there) the mistakes it's going to live with
1. 'M' of March is a square longer
2. The tiled roof should be only 18 squares per row, I have 19 in there
3. Because of mistake #2, the cottage is a square closer to the little bush. So I do  not have enough space to put in the fence. I am contemplating removing the sheep and putting in the fence instead. What say you guys??
4. The border at the bottom is an entire row lower than it should be

Can there be any more mistakes in such small a project. My goodness. If not for the beauty of the cottage, I'd have given up working on this looong back.

I am going to take up the seashells next for a few days before I start April.

That my dear friends is my update for today. Till my next one.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Some baking, some beading and some stitching...

Hello friends, here I am with my weekly update. I have realized it's much more fun to provide an update in the beginning of a week s as soo much has happened over the weekend. So, here I go...

But then the weekend was mostly an @ home weekend. We hardly stepped out except to pop into mom's place for a while. But quite a bit of crafting/hobbying happened. Should I say any more to understand that it was a great weekend?

Firstly, my cousin and I decided to try our hand at baking a new recipe - a mango cake. But then we have these scheduled power failures, in Chennai now, from 2-4pm daily!! So we had to time it accordingly. I put the cake in to bake and when there was still about 10 minutes to go for the cake to finish, boom went the power!!! Could there have been a worse thing to happen for a cake?!

Finally, though the cake was not un-cooked, it was still a little sticky than fluffly. I assume it was to do with the power cut. Any other thoughts to that?
This was the final cake, does it not look yummy..

It really was. The recipe that I used is here. I substituted the eggs with 2 cups of milk.With all the sugar and the mango, I thought it was a little too sweet. Am definitely going to try this again, and time it better around the power cut :)

Then there was some beading too for V.




When we started, I was actually in no mood to bead. But V's enthu' for some activity rubbed off on me and we ended up with this cute set. V picked up the center piece used as 'pendant', she wanted some pink and some glitter.. so here is the end product.


I made a dish called Pesarattu for dinner. This is basically a type of pancake made with green gram and rice. 

The best accompaniment is a dollop of butter, but as there was none at home, I had it with jaggery.

I am almost done with March, but am going to show it to you only on finish...

So, dear friends, with that I take leave today. Till my next update.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Monday, May 21, 2012

TUSAL, progress

Hello friends, let me show you my TUSAL for May 2012.

Being a Monday, I think it would be great if I gave you an account of my weekend. I downloaded angry birds onto my kindle fire..

oops, did I make a mistake by doing that?! Boy, is it addictive. Now all 3 of us at home fight for our turns at the kindle. It's great fun. I used to hate reading books on the computer. But the kindle is a different thing altogether. I now read so much, am simply loving it

Saturday evening we took V out for a movie. It's a kiddie movie "Chota Bheem"

When we entered the theater, it felt like the kids were out on a picnic. There were kids all around. When the movie started, they were all singing the title song together, clapping and cheering on Bheem's introduction. It was such a cute experience. For a while we were transported to being kids ourselves and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Just looking at the joy on all the young faces made the parents happy.

Sunday was just a lazy day at home.

A colleague had come from UK and look what some of my colleagues from there sent for me

Jinxed as it may be, March is definitely marching forward.
I cannot believe the number of frogs I had to do in this. In fact, the 'M' of March is a whole square longer than it should be, causing everything after that to go down a line!! I realized the mistake much later. Thankfully, everything below the 'M' is evenly incorrect. So, I am just letting it be. I think of all the projects I have worked on, this must be the one with the maximum frogging!!! Still, I am loving the way it's shaping up and hope to finish it over the week.

That, dear friends, is my update for today. Till my next update.. Take Care.. Be Happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

A jinxed start

What else can I say about March start, but a jinxed one?! I had to start it over thrice and I think (and hope) am going to be 3rd time lucky
The first time, I had started it too much to the right, so frogged it all out and centered it. 2nd time it was too much on top of the fabric as compared to Jan and Feb. So, no this time I did not frog it, but retained the line, and re-started it a 3rd time. Without any further ado, here is where March is as of now
But all said, doesn't it look pretty. Am already loving the colors. Hope to finish this fast and get started with April.
We had a wedding in the family last week, it was my cousin's. The wedding took place in my native town of Trichy. I went there after years and what nostalgia
Let me share some of the moments with you all
This was the first sight that welcomed us near the hotel we stayed. Isn't he beautiful
That's the Rockfort temple from a distance. To view the deity we have to climb over a 100 very steep steps. But finally when we do reach there, it's beautiful to just be there on top of the rock there.
This is the main entrance to the Srirangam temple, known as the Raaja Gopuram.
No wedding post is complete without a picture of V :) Beside her is my cousin's daughter, V's best pal
Another one of V :)
I also made a necklace for myself to wear during the wedding
After all the family fun and activity, hope to get back to my cottages with full vigour

Till my next update my dear friends.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir