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!

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

Gifts and Stash

Thanks to our blogging world, I have made a few good friends. Meari is one such very good friend and a very kind hearted soul!! Once I had mentioned in one of my posts about V's interests in collecting stickers and that's how our association really started. Every once in a while, she sends stickers and other gifts for us. Just check out the lovely gifts that she sent for us when someone came to India about 2 months ago

The lovely packaging itself stole our hearts away.. we just did not have the heart to open it

2 separate packages - one for me and one for V with lovely hand-written notes 

3D stickers and some eye makeup for V - she just squealed with delight when she saw these

Threads in beautiful shades; there's even a pack of metallic thread!!

There's also some fabric. Totally love the patterned fabric

V and I were so overwhelmed with her kindness that we were in tears!! Never have we seen such kindness. V says 'Amma I want to meet aunty Meari once for sure'. Now I will definitely put all these to good use

 Stash:

I know I had told myself that this will be a year of no buying more stash and that I should only use what's in my stash currently. But who can resist the temptation of ordering some patterns when somebody is flying back from the US!!

Seasons patterns by Lizzie Kate. I have been wanting to do a 4 seasons pattern for a very long time now. Found these very cute patterns on 123stitch and ordered these

Of late, I saw this being stitched up by many people and totally fell in love with the pattern. I had this also in my bucket list and took this opportunity to order 

Another Lizzie Kate. For a very long time, I have been wanting a snowman pattern. When news of Lizzie Kate retiring came out, I checked out all her patterns and found this as well

Now that I have ordered patterns, I do need threads to stitch them up right.. so here goes some threads as well

So, dear friends now that I have quite a haul, I better pull up my act and get stitching!! That brings us to the end of this stashy post. Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

First Finish of the Year

I can't believe I already have a finish to share with you all!!

Sweet Summer is completed!! I loved stitching this up - lovely colors and a real quick finish

I am deciding what my next project is going to be. Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep Stitching.. AuRevoir!!

Souk - Dubai 3, Sweet Summer

Last and Final part of our Dubai vacation!! A trip to Dubai cannot be complete without a visit to the Market aka Souk, as it's called. The spice and gold souks are located in old Dubai alongside the creek

When you are here, we feel as though we are at home. The are gives out a very Indian feeling, unlike the city, which is only high rise buildings and fancy cars. We get to see the original city here in old Dubai here

We took the metro to reach here. The metro station where we have to get off is also decorated in such a way as to reflect the traditional look of Dubai.. what were the original professions, trade etc are all reflected in the metro station here. Unfortunately I missed to take a picture of the station

We then walked to the gold souk first. I had no intention of buying any jewelry, yet wanted to see what it is like. As we were there during the DSF (Dubai Shopping Festival), the whole place was decorated and there were heavy discounts everywhere. A bright flash of yellow hit us as we entered the street

We got to see the world's largest ring here, as awarded by the Guinness records

I cannot dream of wearing any of these!!

From here we walked on to the spice souk, which is my calling!!

Nobody could miss the street, the smell itself would lead us there!! It was so divine for those who love spices

We got to see so many spices, many that we have not even heard of!!

Also there were these amazing cut glass work lanterns and other gift articles. I could only stare, take a picture and sigh over these as I was too scared of accumulating baggage and also because I was scared of breaking it in transit

From here we took a short boat ride on an old fashioned open boat

This model boat was outside the Dubai museum to indicate their traditional trade

That brings us to the end of our Dubai vacation dear friends.

On the stitchy front, I started on my next project - Sweet Summer by Lizzie Kate

That's about it from me today friends. Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Craft about.. Au Revoir