Wrapping up 2020!!

It's time to say goodbye to the most memorable (?) year ever!! As bad and challenging as it has been, on a positive note, it has done a lot of good for my crafty progress. Here's what I have done all year

Reading

                                          

The most memorable books were Becoming and the Maeve Binchy ones. Erica James and Ava Miles are light and feel good books. Bomb girls was good too - my first ever war time read

Baking

These were the only baking that I did. Most of the baking was done by V this year 😊

Beading

We did quite a bit of beading this year, lightening the stash considerably 😄

Stitchy Finish

I can't believe that I actually managed 4 stitchy finishes this year - all thanks to the lockdown!! 

While we step into a brand new year, hope we are able to go back to some of the old normal while retaining some of the new normal. Let us be able to have a fine balance between the two. Hope we have a healthy, peaceful, prosperous year and have loads and loads of crafting 

With that signing off for this year dear friends. Till we meet next year.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!

A Finish and a start!

Hope all my dear blogger friends had a Merry Christmas!! We are finally in the last week of the year

Baking

V and I wanted to bake Christmas cookies this year

Linzer cookies and 'snow' cookies as we called it. We did not add food color to the icing, and with the silver balls topping, don't they look like snow :)

Stitchy Update

Put in the last stitches in Coffee last weekend. I am very happy with how it has turned out. I will be taking this and a few others that I finished earlier this year to the framer later this week

Started on a new project, which is going to be a gift. So, I am not going to talk much about this or post any further update pictures, till it reaches its new home :)

So, that's from me today dear friends. Enjoy the rest of your holidays. Till next time.. Be Happy.. Keep Stitching.. Au Revoir

Dec ORTS 2021

 And here's the final ORTS post of the year dear friends!!

I wanted to post only after I complete this, but that might take another week based on my stitching speed 😀

I am totally in love with this one and how it's coming up. So, that's it for today friends. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Nov ORTS & A New Start!

We are almost at the end of the year (with just a month and a half left) And all our festivals are almost done, we just have Karthigai left. This year has been different, but we definitely had fun. We limited the number of in person visits for Navaratri, and 'met' people virtually. We sent the vethala paaku and diwali sweets via swiggy/dunzo (local delivery apps).

All through this year, I have been posting an entry @ of one post per month - mostly for ORT update. This is another ORT post

Diwali 2020

So, this is how we spent diwali

These were my diwali looks - white saree for diwali eve, garden picture on diwali morning and the red saree on diwali evening

V and I went totally crazy with the sweets, as you can see here. We started preparing about a week before diwali and went on till the diwali afternoon!! We had lots of fun preparing and sharing with everyone

Stitchy Update

I started this new project, which is a free coffee pattern from Pinterest. I am stitching this on perforated paper and using anchor thread from my stash

All ORTs are from coffee progress. The jar shows YTD-am quite happy that it's almost full this year😊

So, dear friends, this is the update from me today. Till next time, Take care.. Be Happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

A Finish!

It was dad's 73rd birthday on the 18th. We had a small cake cutting at home with my brother's family joining us over zoom

We wanted to try a new flavor cake this time - use some recipe that we had saved but not tried yet. Dad is not a great fan of chocolate cake. So that was out. I had some mawa in the fridge and dad likes the Indian flavor. 

                                                        

                                            Eggless Goan Mawa cake with saffron buttercream frosting

Another cake V baked was this apple dates cake. Link to the original recipe is here - https://www.davidlebovitz.com/apple-date-cake-salted.../

                                                

The changes we made are - use whole wheat flour instead of apf; olive oil instead of butter; flaxseed powder instead of egg

And yay, I have a finish!!

Snowy Day by Lizzie Kate. I used 18ct Aida from my stash. All threads are anchor from my stash too. I do not have the shade numbers as that's how I got them from the nearby craft store. He had just kept them in a cardboard box and sold them all to me. So, some of the skeins do not have the numbers on them. I tried to pick the closest match based on colors

Here's the ORTS from last month's stitching. The jar has YTD 

I have not yet decided what to stitch next. Probably I will do some beading before the next stitchy project

So friends, that's the update from me today. Till next time.. stay safe.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Sweet 16!!

Guess who turned 16 this week.. that's right, V is sweet 16 now!! 

She wanted a chocolatey cake this year. A friend had shared this recipe for Salted Caramel chocolate cake sometime back and I had a bottle of store bought salted caramel. 

Basic recipe idea is from this link - https://bakerbynature.com/salted-caramel-chocolate-cake/. I used my go-to eggless chocolate cake recipe from Nita Mehta's Eggless Bakes book. Used the buttercream frosting recipe from this link. For the first time, tried caramel shards as topping

Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel buttercream frosting

Stitchy Update

Here's progress on Snowy day

All I have left now are the whites. Hope to finish it by next weekend

So, that's the update from me today friends. Till next time.. be happy.. stay safe.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Lockdown.. Cooking.. Stitching

Hope all my dear blogging friends are safe and healthy

As almost everybody, we have been cooking quite a lot during the lock-down.

Cooking
Normally, we would only order things like burger, pizza, falafel etc. from a restaurant, as we think these are difficult to prepare. But only when we actually make them at home do we know how simple they actually are. In addition to a hygienic home-made meal, we also get the satisfaction of learning something new

Here are some of the dishes that we tried

Falafel sandwiches

Veggie Burger - the buns were store bought. We do want to try making the bun at home too once 

Banana chocochip cake with peanut butter frosting. Originally, we did not want to do the frosting. Then, V wanted to go the full length and decided to make that too. Wow, were we glad that we made the frosting too. What a divine combination it was. Here's the recipe link - https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/banana-chocolate-chip-cake-with-peanut-butter-frosting. 

We used flaxseed powder instead of egg and yoghurt instead of sour cream. We did not powder the sugar for the frosting, but that added a lovely crunch 

Stitchy Update

I started stitching Snowy day by Lizzie Kate

Though the progress is much slower than the earlier finishes this year, I am totally loving working on this. I picked up all floss from my stash, with shades as close as possible to the one in the picture

ORTS - the lose ORTS on the right are from progress for the month and the jar is year-to-date

So, that's from me today dear friends. Till next time.. stay safe.. stay healthy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!

A Finish..

..Yes, here's my next finish in 2020!!

This project is the closest to my heart. I have been wanting to stitch a portrait of Amma for a very long time now. That is still some time away. So, while I work on kicking that off, here's a starter.
This is Amma's official logo and I have had my eye on this for a while now too. About 2 years ago, I tried several online pattern generators and selected one that worked. But, I never actually started working on it. Now, I wanted to start fresh. So, again I generated several patterns and found one that I thought was closest. Though the pattern suggested many colours, I worked only with 2 - blue and red. 
I strongly believe that everything fell in place for this project this time. The fabric is a gift from my dear friend Meari (who blogs here). It has very pretty pink flowers in the background. I think that was just perfect for Amma

Next up is a Lizzie Kate pattern - Snowy Day. This is a part of 6 fat men series, but I am just going to stitch this one up

I love snowy, christmasy patterns, and this will be my first of a festive pattern

I have it all kitted up. I am going to use 14ct aida for this, as I do not have the right shade of linen with me in my stash. I am going to use the anchor threads from my stash. I know that this will not have the same result as WDW ones, but I am not sure when I will be able to get any threads ordered from the USA. I am totally impatient to start stitching this up

So, that's from me today dear friends. Do stay safe.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!

June Updates

Hello Friends, hope you and your families are safe and crafting away like crazy!! 

Number of COVID cases have been on the rise in our city. So, now we are under another 15 days of total lockdown. We wait for Vs board exam results to be announced and school to re-open

So, here's what I have been up to on the crafting front

This is a mini kit that I had bought while we were in Singapore and when I was pregnant with V. I had finished stitching this around the time V was born, but never properly finished this. I did not have an idea then about how to finish this up. So, I had put this away to be happily forgotten. 

Now, during a clearing spree, I found this again and thought that it's high time I finished this up, but how

And then it occurred to me that I could stick this in Vs baby album

So, here it is - all done!!

I have started working on this very special project. I have been wanting to work on a picture of my Guru - Amma. Finally, I was able to start work on this. I used stitchfiddle.com to generate a pattern from my picture. I tried several online sites, but found this worked best for me

The pattern generated involved many shades, but I am just using 2 as the main picture uses just 2. The fabric has a very pretty pink floral pattern on it. This is a gift from my dear friend Meari

The basic pattern is done, I just have the word 'AMMA' to be stitched in now. I love the way the fabric and the threads worked out - like they were all meant to be!! 

My ORTS for the month on the top right are all from this

V has been painting, with the help of videos available on Youtube, ever since her vacations started. She found 2 online classes that interested her - an acrylic painting one and a doodle workshop
Here are some of the works that she worked on

Zentangle - as part of the doodle workshop

The final assignment from her doodle workshop

Acrylic painting 

So, that's the story from me today friends. Till next time.. stay safe.. be happy.. keep crafting.. Au Revoir

Finishes, Finishes, Finishes

Hope all my dear blogger friends and your families are safe and healthy. I am sure all of us are using this time to learn new things, or tick off things from our bucket list, or just be and take things easy

We are in the 4th phase of lock-down now, Lock-down 4.0 as it's popularly known! I have stepped out exactly twice ever since the lock-down began. We have been ordering most of the essentials online and the husband goes out once in 10 days 

Apart from cooking and learning new recipes, I have been able to stitch a lot more. What with no 3 hour daily commute!! 

Let me quickly take you through my finishes

Here's the Rose book mark - stitched and finished up too. This was supposed to be a birthday gift for my daughter, which falls in August. Normally, if I had started this in March I would have finished this probably in time for her birthday, or maybe even later. But now, I was able to stitch and finish this up too

This is the finished up picture. The picture on the right shows the back. I simply could not resist clicking this. 

This is the finished bookmark. As the size of the stitched piece itself is quite big, I did not want to add much to the backing and increase it further. So, used thick handmade paper. I think the finishing could have been much more neater

Next up is Lizzie Kate's sweet summer

I had stitched this back in September 2018 and finally got to finishing this up. Followed the finishing instructions as per the kit. The cording is from Michael's. I am pretty happy with how this has turned out 

Best part of the lockdown is that, my daughter too has taken to cross stitching now!! Isn't that great. Our dear friend Meari had very kindly sent a starter kit last year. 

V finished this and simply loved stitching this. Then she asked me if I will share supplies with her from my stash. Wasn't I glad to hear this. Also, more excuse for us to shop :) 

She then found this cute little pattern on Pinterest and badgered me to give her the supplies

The colors are nice and bright. We finished this up as a fridge magnet

We have quite a bit of Orts this month, from all that stitching.  

The lose Orts are from this month and the jar is year-to-date

That's all from me today friends. Till next time.. Stay home.. stay safe.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Dear friends, hope all of you and your families are safe and healthy. This pandemic has turned our lives upside down. None of us even dreamt that we would be facing a lockdown. I stepped out exactly twice in the last 40 days! V did not step out even that many times. Stores (only essentials) are open from 6am - 1pm country wide. We can order food from a few select outlets, but we are skeptical. 

We have been using this time for some spring cleaning. I have accumulated a whole lot of recipes from magazines and newspapers. Also, my aunt passed on a huge bunch of clippings when she moved away to another city. There were paper cuttings, hand written note books and some books too. This was the first I cleaned out - kept only those recipes which I am sure of trying atleast once and threw out those clippings which involved lot of effort, but I fancied trying at some point

To keep up our spirits, V and I are trying out new recipes - things we love but always thought were complicated. Sharing just a few highlights from the cooking expeditions

Cooking

Hummus - I had bought Tahini, a few months back, hoping to make hummus soon. It took a lock-down to make me take the leap finally 

Pizza from scratch - this is a no yeast pizza base. Yeast is a big demon that I am yet to conquer, but hope to tackle that too during this period. Here's the super simple base and pizza sauce recipe link. Pizza base recipe - https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/no-yeast-pizza-dough-recipe/

Tomato sauce recipe - https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/5-minute-pizza-sauce/

Stitching
Here's where Rose book mark stands now

I have finished the main stitching, only the blue background is left. The lose ORTS you see are from the past month's progress. ORTS in the jar are year-to-date. Am really happy with the progress in one month

I feel this might be slightly big for a book mark. Am looking for ideas to finish this 

That's all today from me friends. Stay home, stay safe. Till next time.. Keep stitching.. be happy.. Au Revoir

Crafting Away

Hope everybody is safe and healthy, staying at home. We are using this time to catch up on many long pending tasks

I had taken a 3 weeks' break from work for V's board exams. She loved studying in the drawing room, so I used to sit beside her doing my thing. There was a kind of peace in doing our own thing sitting side by side :)

I used this time well, catching up with my crafting. The beads came out of hibernation and saw the light of the day

Beading

I have been wanting to re-do this necklace as it had become very tight. I got it strung during my pre-beading days, and it did not fit any more. The left pic is the how it was earlier and the right is how I re-did it - added some red crystals and pearls to go with the pendant

The big orange beads in the center have been in the stash for quite a few years. These were part of the first bead stash that I bought, at least 8 years ago!! Added black crystals and orange seed beads

This was another necklace that I wanted to re-do. The left pic is how I had done it earlier, but was not happy even then. My friend had bought these beads for me from Singapore. The pic on the right  is how I re-did this now. Added black onyx and rose gold shaded metal findings 

This one is for V. She loved the pendant and wanted me to string something for her. So, used these green wooden beads with silver metal findings

I had bought these beads from South Africa in 2016. The middle part of all these are a set - pre-strung. 

Stitchy Update

 I also made a start and good progress on Rose

This is the progress in a week

Here is the ORTS for March

This is the update from me today friends. Stay healthy.. Stay Safe.. Stay home.. Stay Positive and keep crafting!! Till next time dear friends, Au Revoir