Deepavali, TUSAL

Belated Deepavali wishes to all. Deepavali is a festival that we all look forward to right from the start of the year. When the annual holiday calendar is announced each year, first thing we look for is Deepavali.
Here's a brief background on the significance of Deepavali. Deepavali is known as the festival of lights. 'Deep' means light. There are many stories associated with Deepavali. One is that this is the day Lord Rama returned to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile and winning over Ravana.
Another story is that this is the day when Lord Krishna killed the evil demon king Narakasura. Hence this is also called Naraka Chaturdasi
Also, this is the day when Goddess Lakshmi is said to have wed Lord Vishnu

In our region, TamilNadu, we wake up and have the traditional oil bath (known as Ganga snaanam) before the crack of dawn. Then we proceed to burst crackers till about 7 or 8am. This is the day when the entire neighborhood is able to meet and greet each other. We share each other's crackers - there is no sense of 'I, you, me, mine' on this day. There is total sense of joy and peace in the air

In North India, the festivities are normally held in the evening to invite Goddess Lakshmi home. There is a Lakshmi pooja conducted at dusk in almost all households and even shops.

As is the norm, V and I celebrated in our apartment along with friends and neighbors. In the evening our entire family gathered at my aunt's place. It was an evening filled with bursting crackers, fun, food. This year we had a time restriction imposed by the Supreme Court for bursting crackers - only 2 hours!! Despite this we had loads of fun

This year we asked our cook to make the sweets and savories. I only tried my hand at Chocolate Peda which turned out absolutely yummy.

 I am a part of this FB group called OPOS, where the only utensil required for cooking is a pressure cooker. This recipe was shared in that group and it turned out very good:

110 gms Sugar 
60 ml water 
A Tsp ghee 
Cook On high for 5 Whistles 
Mixed in 140 gms Everyday milk powder 
10 gms Hershey's Cocoa powder 
Allowed it to cool for 10 to 15 minutes if it is gooey (resting time depends on the texture you get soon after mixing and needs self assessment; if you feel you can shape it immediately do not rest as it tends to dry on resting ), Shape it.

Beading:

I have promised myself that after each stitchy finish, I will do some beading. This way I get to work on all crafts. I am sticking to this promise as much as possible and here are my most recent beading expeditions

I bought this pendant a few years back from 'Jew Street' in Cochin. I found the perfect beads to go along with it, which I think my brother bought from Michael's 

All the beads are imported - the pink beads are ones that my brother got from Michael's. The pendant and the elongated stone beads are from a site called 'Fire N Mountain Gems'

TUSAL Update:
Wow, the months just seem to whizz by!! It feels like just a few days ago that I posted my ORTs update and it's already a month

What with festival season, stitching has taken a back seat. But I managed to start off on Blue Lotus. All Orts for the month are from finishing off Pink lotus and start of Blue Lotus

Orts in the glass jar are year-to-date and on the right are for the month

That's all from me today folks. Till next time.. Take care.. Be Happy.. Keep Stitching.. Au Revoir