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!! 

Book Haul & ORTS

 Hola dear friends! Beginning the account for the year with this happy happy post. After almost 4 years V and I visited the annual international book fair this year. 

Can you see rows and rows of books behind me. My agenda was quite clear - I only wanted to buy the English translations of Ponniyin Selvan - if possible the ones by Pavithra Srinivasan

..guess what, I got just that!! Aren't I thrilled

This is our complete haul

On the stitchy front

.. here's where I am on Mystery project. I have completed page 6 and half of page 7. I love the way it's coming along

That's the ORTS from all of mystery project

That's all the updates from me today dear friends. Until next time.. take care.. be happy.. Keep stitching and reading.. Au Revoir

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!!

2019 - A Crafty Review

Yet another year just whizzed by in the blink of an eye!! So here's a crafty review of the past year

Reading:
Here's a snapshot from Good reads of all the books I read

My favorite of these are:
The Help by Kathreen Stockett
Precious Time by Erica James
You are the Best wife by Ajay K Pandey

Baking:

Complete List with Recipe links:
Oatmeal Peanut butter chip cookies - Recipe from HBG group
Nutella Brownie with lemon buttercream - http://www.morphyandme.com/nutella-brownies-eggless-recipe
Avocado brownie - Google
Gulab jamun cookies - https://www.morphyandme.com/3-ingredient-gulab-jamun-cookies-recipe
Lavender cake with lemon drizzle - https://www.peacefuldumpling.com/recipe/vegan-lavender-cake-lemon-drizzle
Cinnamon muffin with cinnamon chips - https://www.facebook.com/groups/homebakersguild/permalink/2016950071680483/
Brookies with sweet cherry chip - http://www.naivecookcooks.com/brookies-soft-chewy-brownie-cookies/
Baklava - https://www.fifteenspatulas.com/baklava/
Peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip bars - https://pin.it/wtykun2qhpnnbm
Choco cranberry cookies - http://www.naivecookcooks.com/easy-cranberry-cookie-recipe/
Gingery brownie crinkle cookies - https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020655-gingery-brownie-crinkle-cookies

Stitching:
The Summer Iris by Blackbird designs was the only finish of the year

My current WIP is the below pattern

This is a free pattern from Pinterest

Here's wishing all my dear crafting friends a very very Happy, Prosperous and Peaceful 2020!!

Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep Crafting.. Au Revoir

January Update

Feels like we just wished each other a happy new year and we are almost at the end of the 2nd month!!

January has been a very active month with..

The annual book fair

V and I picked up these books. We are trying out new authors and genres. I have been wanting to read more about Indian/World history. This book is my first attempt to start 

Pongal 2019 was a low key affair as it was only V and me this year. So, not much enthusiasm to cook up a feast

My dearest darling Kalima's annual Chennai visit - to get energized and soaked in pure love for 2 whole days. Fortunately this year I was able to take both days off 

Having been such an active month and a half, I could not find much time to stitch

I did start work on Summer Iris by Blackbird Designs. I am stitching this on 30ct linen with all the recommended threads

This is the first time I am working with 30ct linen and it's a little tricky.. I am having to wear my glasses while stitching, hehe. I can manage without the glasses for 28ct, but not for 30ct. 

So, that's the story at my end dear friends. More next time. Till then.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Some Reading

I have been trying out various genres of books of late. I recently realized that I love to travel. And reading travel books is one way to get to know places

I started with a book of our own Chennai.. to know our own history before moving to other places.

This was my first 'Travel' book. It appeared like a slow read to me, but learnt quite a lot about our own city

I never scored great marks in history, but my interest in knowing our past has been growing quite strong of late

This book gave me a very good insight into the Mughal period and I finally can now recap which emperor is whose son.. can I appear for my history exams now.. hehe
There is such detailed description of the jewels and clothes worn by the women.. it has now triggered my interest to visit the Taj Mahal even more

For some reason or the other I never got to read a P.G.Wodehouse till now. While browsing through the various sections in the library I came to this section and picked a book in random, going by the cover of course

I loved the book and still wonder why I never read a Wodehouse till now. Anyway, am happy atleast now I read one

I am reading an Indian mythology series currently and am loving it so far

This book is the first of the 'Krishna series' and takes us to the period prior to Krishna's birth. The main character in negative role in this book is called the 'dark lord' which sounds like it has been inspired by Harry Potter. But the overall book is good so far.

So.. that's it from me today friends. Till next time.. take care..be happy.. Happy crafting.. Au Revoir