New Start

Hola dear friends! Am still here, in case anyone was wondering 😀 

Life is going so fast and this year is almost over! Sooooo much has happened this year, at home and at work. Am not even thinking of what lies ahead, just taking it one day at a time. 

After finishing the mega project, I wanted to make something cute and quick

So, here is my next finish. I made a fridge magnet..

..from a book.  

My friend gifted me this book which has many quirky and cute patterns.

I have now started my next project, which is a kit.

This was the first ever kit I purchased from Michaels, during my first trip to USA in 2001. This has quite a bit of metallic floss, which I hate 😔

This is the ORTS so far this year. 

So, that's about it from me today dear friends. Till next time.. Be Happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!!!

Life.. and some stitching

Ever since the beginning of the year, life has been life-ing big time! Dad's health took a turn for the worse and has been in and out of hospital. He's slightly better and things are falling into a new routine now.

So, feels like a lot has happened in 3 months, yet not much has happened 😑

I did manage to put in a few stitches on project Amma

..and here's where I am. Just about 10% is left and I just can't wait to see Her completed

..here's the ORTS from the last few months' stitching.

That's the story from my end dear friends. Till next time.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!

2024.. A Recap

Hola dear friends! Here's wishing you and yours a very Happy, Healthy, Peaceful and Prosperous 2025!

Can't believe it's already time for a recap of the year that was 2024. The year seemed to start off normally, but turned out to be quite a year with so many travels and learnings and coming out of my comfort zone on the work front 

Travels - The year took me to Bangalore 3 times and Kolkata once on work. We also went to Amritapuri, Pondy and Trichy 

Reading - A summary of my year in books. Fountainhead seems to have been the longest read - in the year and I am pretty sure in my entire reading history :d 

..a detailed list of all the books I read

Baking - Not much happened here, except for this fruit cake way back in Feb. Hope to bake more this year. Absolutely no beading happened as well. Hope to make up for all that this year

Stitchy front - This is where I was in project Amma when the year started

..this is where I am now. I am in the last page and hope to finish soon!

ORTs from the month's stitching

..and ORTs from the whole year's stitching

Overall, quite a year it has been. Hoping for more learning, more crafting and more peace and health this year! 

Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!

Of Travels and Weddings

Hola dear friends, it's been 2 months since my last post! Sooo much has happened since my last post

April has been a month of weddings and travels. There were 2 weddings and 3 trips. I am going to walk you through the last 2 months in pictures as, otherwise this post would probably be my longest one ever 😀

We started the month by a trip to Amritapuri with my aunt. This time I decided to work from Amritapuri and not take leaves. After more than 5 years, we also took the train while going instead of flying. We were pleasantly surprised that there have been a lot of changes in the railway stations. I realised how much I missed an overnight train travel. This was fun and should definitely do this more often

Now here are some pictures

A snap of the backwaters from over the AmritaSetu bridge

Despite the heat, the breeze actually made it very pleasant to enjoy the view from atop the bridge

Next trip was to Kancheepuram, which is about 3 hours from Chennai. It was a day trip, we left early morning and were back by 10pm . The day was quite tiring but was quite a fulfilling day. Last time I went there was before COVID!

This is a picture of the mandapam in Kamakshi temple

Had to recreate this memory 

A view of all the gopurams together

Then we had our LokSabha elections too this month and I am glad that I fulfilled my responsibility as a citizen

Next trip was one to Bangalore to attend my boss's son's wedding. My boss now, is one of my first managers. He was my first project manager since 1998 till 2001. After I moved to a few other teams and rejoined this team, he's now my boss again since 2014!  Here are a few pictures from the wedding and the trip

Taken at the reception 

In front of the bull temple in Bangalore

Look at the beautiful fresh colourful flowers at the market 

Amazing how many dosas he could carry at a time!!

That sums up my April dear friends. Amidst all this, I stitched just a little bit and making some progress on Amma

Here's where She is now! Doesn't she look awesome!

Here's a view of the ORTS from last 2 month's stitching

So, dear friends that's allll that has been happening at my end of the universe. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!! 

Only TUSAL

 Hola dear friends

Dropping by to say hello and to share my monthly new moon progress on Project Amma. Not much has happened at my end since my last post other than work work and more work. People are normally most productive in the first half of the year, after returning from their holidays 😄

Looks like I was mistaken on the progress on Amma. I am 75% done and have only 25%!! Ain't that great :). I have only the last 8 pages left now as against the last 16 pages 

This is the 'moving the QSnap' picture. I have goosebumps every time I see Her 

A closer picture of where I am currently and ORTs from the month's stitching

So, till next time.. take care..be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!! 

Immersive Experience

 Hola friends! Hope you are doing well and have settled into 2024. I felt Jan was ok, was neither too fast nor too slow.

To update you on some of the interesting happenings from my end, here we go..

I am an art admirer, but only know a handful of artistes, definitely none of the contemporary artistes. When I visited my cousin in New York in 2001, he took me to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which I loved. I was attracted to a certain kind of art and he pointed out that they were all by Van Gogh. That's when I started reading about Van Gogh. Since Last year, the Real Van Gogh immersive experience has been travelling around India and I have been waiting for them to come to Chennai. Guess what, they finally are in Chennai!!

V and I had to go the first week itself for sure. I am totally camouflaged in this picture 😄

This was the view from our corner. We were there for an hour, and did not feel like coming away. It was an absolutely magical experience. We hope to go atleast once more

Baking

I finally got down to baking the 'Christmas' fruit cake! I never ever have baked it in time for Christmas, though I soak the fruits well ahead. This is an eggless, non-alcoholic version and here is the recipe I always use

Stitchy Update

Relatively lesser stitching in Jan due to life happening. I need to plan things better to be able to stitch some more. 

That's it from my end today dear friends. Till next time.. take care.. be happy. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!!

Books and some stitching

Hola dear friends! I guess everyone is getting over the holiday hangover and getting into routine. Pace at work is slowly picking up momentum. We have one more festival, Pongal, before we get back into work mode 100%

Every year we have the annual book fair in Chennai during this time of the year and V and I make it a point to visit. It is not necessarily to buy new books, but more to find out what books are trending now, who are the new authors etc. This year too we went last weekend.. 

..and they had some good photo spots for people like me who love to get clicked and drive V mad 😀.

I was looking to buy translations of Tamil classics like Paarthiban Kanavu or Sivagaamiyin Sabadam. I did find both books but did not buy them. Paarthiba Kanavu was a hard bound and too huge and I did not want to hurt my wrist. I felt Sivagaamiyin Sabadam was an abridged translation.

So, here is what we bought this year:

- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I had this as a text book in 10th grade and I have been wanting to read it, without the thought of exam and syllabus

- Ram and Sita by Amish. These are the 1st two volumes of a series. Our library has vol 3&4, so bought the first 2

- V bought a book by Murakami. I have never heard of Murakami and am planning to read it once she finishes 

Now for the stitchy update. I have been able to make a decent progress on project Amma thanks to the holidays

That's a pic of the progress and ORTs from all of last month's stitching. I am almost finished with this page

So, dear friends that's the update today from my end. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!! 

About Cyclones, floods and some more

Hola dear friends! It's the last month of the year and time for the final ORTS post of the year!! 

Meanwhile, earlier this month we faced a very bad cyclone, and our city was flooded. There was no power for 4 days and no network too. We were travelling during the 3 days and our return flight was cancelled due to the floods in our city. Finally, we got a flight for a day later. Thankfully, most of the water had drained, but power and network was still patchy. 

Finally, I took the metro to return home from the airport due to poor and flooded roads. Took me back to our Singapore days. Life is now back to normal and we are trying to overcome the trauma and not panic at the slightest mention of rains. We still have some more monsoon left

Moving to stitchy news.. 

..here's a view of the month's ORTs. Lose threads are from the month's stitching and the jar is YTD

..a closer look at the year's ORTs 

..this is the progress on Amma last month. I am loving the progress here

 I am working on a cross stitch journal, trying to capture all the projects I have worked on till date. Hope to make a detailed post on that soon. Till then.. take care friends.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Of festivals, sweets & stitching

Hope you all had a great Deepavali dear friends!! Ours was a quiet but a good one this. We had our get-together in the evening and burst some crackers. Crackers have become so expensive now though 

This is me in my new Deepavali saree, which is a hand painted kalamkari in tussar silk

This year I went light on the sweets. Usually I prepare all sweets myself. But this year I ordered sweets and savouries 

The only 'sweet' that I made was this Baklava cheesecake to take to our get-together and everyone just loved it. This was a perfect fusion of baking and ethnic 

Stitching has been slightly slower this month owing to a bout of viral fever 

So, here's the progress from the month of stitching Amma

So, dear friends that's the update from my end today. Till next time.. take care.. be happy. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!

Of Birthdays and stitching

Hola friends. It's festive season here and we are well into Navratri (which literally means 9 nights) where we worship the divine Goddess for 9 days. This year we have kept the golu and we have loads of golu hopping invites to do, which in turn mean loads of dressing up and loads of yummy food :). Will post pictures from all the festivities in my next post

We celebrated the man's 52nd birthday earlier this month..

..and he chose a coffee flavor cake. We decided to skip the frosting and go for a coffee glaze instead

On the stitchy side, I completed page 11 and into page 12 now

Here's the pic of when I moved the QSnap. Am totally thrilled with how Amma is coming up. 

Here's the ORTS from all of last month's stitching

..and this is where I am right now

So, that's the quick update from me today. Until next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!

Of Families, vacations, birthdays and stitching

Hola dear stitchy, bakey, crafty friends!! Am back after being MIA, from the blogger world, for 2 months. That's because life has been crazy busy in a good way. July/August is always like that when cousins and families, brother and family all come from several parts of the World and hence the busiest months of the year for us. By the end of August, they all return to their worlds and we to ours hungover from the holidays holding on to the energy till the next year

This year we all went on a very short trip and almost all of us cousins were there, making it even more special. We travelled to Pollachi, a short drive from Coimbatore. The resort where we stayed was a quaint little one and we had the resort almost to ourselves, so we could make all the noise without fear of disturbing other guests. 

There was beautiful river flowing right behind the resort and we had full access to it. A very scenic place and so many peacocks around

It was a very nostalgic trip - recollecting childhood memories, catching up with the new members in the family, getting to know them all better. Our kids enjoyed themselves too, with so much open space to run around and no fear of traffic etc

We celebrated a few birthdays too in August and September

August is V's birthday. I baked a pinacolada cake this time with fresh cream frosting

Dad turned 76 last week. As his birthday coincided with Ganesh Chathurthi this year, we decided to bake a Kozhakattai cake

Amidst all this I did manage to stitch some the last 2 months

That's the progress on project Amma. I have progressed 2 more pages since my last post and can say that I am a little more than half way through

..and here's the ORTS for the last 2 months

That's all that's been happening in my part of the world the last 2 months dear friends. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!