Crafty May.. ORTs

Hola dear friends, how's everyone doing

My crafting mojo has been on an all time high last month. 

Beading: It all started with making a birthday gift for one of Vs friends. Seeing all the beauties triggered something and there was no stopping me

 

This is a pretty baby pink crystal necklace for which V called dibs even before it was finished. I bought the center portion from Michael's when I went to the US in 2016

 

Another multi color crystal one, for which V called dibs again

This is a turquoise beads necklace. Bought the turquoise beads from Michael's 

Tried a new pattern with this one and love the way this turned out

A multicolor crystal necklace. This is a gift for one of Vs friends

A maroon crystal bracelet and earring set. This also was a gift for Vs friend. Whoaa am impressed with myself 😊

Project Amma

The complete view taken before changing the QSnap

Here's the progress since changing. ORTS from last month's progress on the right

I started using my floor stand actively now. I am much more comfortable using this now than I used to be earlier. Except for the fact that I have to keep taking out the QSnap from the stand each time I start or finish a line, this is much easier. Also, big relief for my wrist and neck

That's the update from me today dear friends. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. Keep Stitching.. Au Revoir

May ORTS

Greetings and a very warm welcome dear friends. The year seems to be rolling by real fast, doesn't it. Here we are in May already!

Well, the daughter's board exams are all set to start from the 6th of May and they go on till 15th June!! 5 weeks for 5 subjects.. feel terribly sorry for the kids. 

There's a terrible heat wave all over the country and there are videos of people making rotis on car hoods in Orissa!! The only good thing about summer is mangoes. Can't wait to make several desserts/cakes etc for the season

Thanks to our monthly ORTS, I catch up with all you blogging friends and what's going on in your side of the World

On the stitchy front, I've made decent progress on Mystery project

I have completed about 1 and a half page of stitching. It's quite a lot of different shades of pink there :) 

That's the ORTS from the month's stitching. The lose thread from the month and year to date in the jar 

That's about it from me now dear friends. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir! 

May TUSAL

A quick post to show you my progress on gingerman 

You can also see my ORTS from the last 2 months - yeah, progress has been slow but am getting there :) The jar has YTD and the lose ones are for the last 2 months. I missed posting last month

And a closer shot of the progress

That's about it today friends. Till next time.. 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

TUSAL - May 2018

A very short and sweet post to show you my ORTS jar as of May - year to date

and a picture of where I stand with Coffee

As promised, this is a very short post friends. More very soon. Till then.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!

TUSAL and cooking

Before I go into my vacation (well V's vacation rather) updates, let me show you my TUSAL for the month

 The heat and humidity are very irritating. Our inverter's battery died and we are waiting for the technician to turn up and replace it. He was supposed to finish that over the weekend, but when do they ever come at the promised hour?! Luckily our scheduled 2 hour power cut has not been happening since the last 3 days (touch wood for that).

Despite all this, am really enjoying V's vacation. V and her friend decided to have a sleep-over last Friday. That's right, they just decided on their own and did the entire planning. They "asked" us for permission after all that, if you know what I mean. So, V and I picked up her friend last Friday afternoon and she was with us till Saturday evening.

On this occasion, I baked a veg bolognese for dinner on Friday

I was very pleased with the way it turned out. The best award was the fact that the kids literally licked their plates clean and their faces were glowing after the mean.

They then watched a movie while having dessert - a take-away family pack of black forest ice cream.

Before picking up her friend, V and I visited our craft's supply store and bought some stuff to organize my beads.

I am a lot relieved to just look at all my stuff like this. These are just the gold and silver findings. I still have stored my beads in individual Ziploc bags.

V has been asking me for this hip-belt, we call it the oddiyaanam. This is a traditional kind of belt, usually worn over a saree or a lehenga.

So, we bough the beads needed to make this and V came up with the design. I just helped attach the hooks.

Keeping up with the mango season, I tried out a new mango recipe - Mango muffins

Though it was slightly dense, I liked it. Here's the recipe for the muffins.

On the stitchy front, I have completed about half of November cottage. I will show a picture when it is all complete
Now, that's the story from my end tonight. Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

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