Gifts

One thing that has amazed me in our crafty world is how selfless we become.. we share and give so much love without ever expecting anything in return

One such person who has always inspired, motivated and encouraged me from the day I started blogging is the multi-talented Meari. She is excellent in anything she does.. be it painting, carpentry, any DIY and of course cross stitch!! You can see all her works here in her blog

My brother had come from US for a short vacation and look what she sent for V and me through my brother

Three lovely sticker books and a cross stitch kit for V. Looks like I missed to take a picture of the kit

And a whole lot of goodies for me!!

I have been wanting to buy a Lizzie Kate for a long time and Meari just sent me one. Thanks a ton Meari for all these goodies..

There's a lot happening at my end here.. but that's it for today's post.. more next time. Till then.. Be Happy.. Keep Stitching.. Au Revoir

Diwali..and TUSAL

Wow, time sure has flown by and Diwali's gone, the most awaited festival of the year. Now all the festivals are over with that.

As new moon fell on Diwali day, I missed out on posting my Tusal for the month (well, I do have a valid excuse this month, hehe)

As I have hardly been stitching, all the inputs are from July Cottage.

As always, lot of preparation and planning went into Diwali celebrations.. what sweets/savories to make, what clothes to buy, what crackers to buy and for how much...
My MIL usually spends diwali with us every year and she takes pleasure in preparing some sweets for all of us. But then, I have to make a contribution as well right?? So, I wanted to try my hands at something(s) new this year. Well, all of them are new.

I made Mawa Kachori and jalebi for sweets and cornflakes chiwda for savory.

The only flop side was with the chiwda, which was a bit too salty. I had to then fry some more cornflakes, raisins etc and toss them in. This really balanced out the taste and turned out quite well.

The hubby and I decided to not buy any new clothes for ourselves and wisely use up one of the new ones from the stash. So, we just bought dresses for V.

We also bought a good amount of crackers, but decided to stick to the "fancy fireworks" kind and not the noisy ones.


In the evening of diwali, we all gathered at my aunt's house to burst the remaining crackers and share more stories. It was absolute fun

On the crafty side:
I made this necklace for my cousin for the upcoming wedding

The beads are all my cousin's, I just helped with the idea and the putting together.

I did some baking as well. Baked this yummy dates and walnut bread for breakfast

and served it warm with a littllee dollop of butter. Boy was it yumm... The recipe is from here. The only variation I made was use flax seed instead of the egg. It turned out very moist and fluffy. I also skipped the prunes as I did not have any.

And guess what V received all the way from the US..

..more stickers from aunty Meari. Isn't it sweet of her. Thank you soo very much Meari. V send you her hugs and a whole lot of thanks. She counted all her sticker to a total of 998 (individual stickers) :d :d

I do have some progress on July as well. But I have decided that I would post a picture of it only after I finish it.
That my friends is all the update from me for today. Till the next one.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Collections and a cottage swap

This has been an over-pending post for quite long. Today am going to show you the crazy collections I have made over the years.

First is the huge collection of stickers I made during my school/college days

There used to be this really small stationery shop near our place in Hyderabad, in a very residential locality. You would not even notice the shop existed unless you looked hard. But the kind of fancy stationery they stocked was awesome, especially in those days. I used to be crazy about collecting stickers and they had a huge variety of them, types which would not even be available in the Archie stores. The collection started building when I was in standard 10 and went on till my college days. How my mother used to freak out. Not that I spent all my pocket money on it. I always had a budget for this kind of expenses and never exceeded it, though it would appear as though I spend a lot.

Last night, while I was hunting out all my magnets, I "stumbled" on these stickers. After looking at them for a while, I decided to pass on the legacy to V. Boy was she thrilled to suddenly be showered upon with so many great looking stickers.

Next is my even-now-building magnets collection. I started this from my first trip to Singapore back in 1999 mainly because, I wanted a souvenir from each place I visited (I was obviously optimistic that I was going to travel around the world), and magnets occupy the least space. Then it went on to not just places I visit, but anything interesting.
As of today, these are the magnets I have collected.

The mural right in the middle is the latest addition, as of last saturday. I bought this at a craft expo we visited over the weekend

I have a few more at my mom's place. And there's this very pretty blue and white magnet set, which I bought at Metropolitan museum of art in 2001. Also, one that I bought of King Tut at the Philadelphia museum of art. I know they are in one of my suitcases, but unable to find which one :(

I started work on July cottage, but stopped now. Because I decided to do a "cottage swap". India Independence is celebrated in August, and there's a provision for a flag in July. So, the July design would be August and hopefully an Indian flag (if I manage to design one) and August design would be used for July. I hope this works


With that my friends I take leave from you today. Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir