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, Festivals and Stitching

Hola dear friends, I have been MIA for 2 months now thanks to more travels and crazier work! So, here are some of the key things that I think are worth mentioning here 

During my last travel to Bangalore (the 2nd one), I visited the Indian Music Experience museum, which was a very different experience. It gave us a picture of the evolution of Indian music, various types of Indian music, types of instruments and so much more

 

A picture at the entrance of the museum

A video of the various kinds of musical instruments 

Then we went to Amritapuri to be with our beloved Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi) for Vijayadasami

Had to take a picture with this life size cutout of Amma

Then last week, I went to Kolkata for a very short 2 days trip

 

I was blessed to visit Kali Ghaat and get Maa Kaali's darshan, which was totally unplanned

This is a picture of a beautiful skyline that I took in Kolkata while driving down in the cab

I managed to put in a few stitches on project Amma

Here's where I am at now..

..and this is all ORTS YTD. I have only one more page to finish Her!! Am hoping to finish it by end of the year

Amidst all the travels, Navarathri and Deepavali came and went. Both were pretty low key this time as I did not have enough time to setup a big golu for Navarathri and no time to make sweets for Deepavali. We managed with store bought sweets this time, but we enjoyed both festivals a lot in a simple way

So, friends that's all that has happened on my end. Until next time.. Be Happy.. Keep Stitching.. Au Revoir!! 

More Travels..

Hey friends, how are you all doing? I have missed last months post, but I have been travelling on work for the last 3 weeks and back today. It has been a very busy but absolutely satisfactory 3 weeks. 

Our office campus in Bengalurur is one of the best and has a lot of greenery. It is certified the most sustainable branch of ours in India. No plastics are allowed here and even mineral water bottles are glass. Here are some pictures 

This is a 100 year old banyan tree! It's just huge and every time I see it, it brings a lot of happiness

This is a metal sculpture, another one that I totally loved

This is a mural and sculpture that welcomed me at the Bengaluru airport

It's been 5 years since Ikea came to India, we have been wanting to visit and it finally happened!! We just love this store 

Amidst all this, some stitching did happen :)

..and here's where we are now. Just about 3 more pages to go!! Boy am I excited to see this one finish

 That's my story this time friends. Until 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!! 

2022 - A Recap

 Wishing you a very Happy 2023 dear friends!! 

My review of 2022 comes a few days later than I would have liked. Here goes..

Quite a lot of memories made last year:

- Travels: 

The year seems to have been one of travelling. I cannot remember travelling so much any other year!!

    UK to attend a wedding, 

    Kerala to visit my most beloved (Amrita) Amma after more than 3 years, 

    Pondy - We had planned a trip to Pondy several times before but would get cancelled due to some reason or another. This year finally the jinx was broken and the trip happened, 

    Finally Coimbatore - to visit my ageing aunts after more than 3 years. 3 of my very close people passed during the last 3 years and due to the lockdown etc we could never go and visit the aunts. Very glad that we could finally travel and spend some time with them. We were also able to visit my paternal village, Puducode, for the first time ever

- Health 

Firstly, on 1st Jan 2022 all of us were sick (down with fever). But the 10 days gave us some great memories as my daughter and brother took complete care of the rest of us and those days were actually a lot of fun

We also ended the year with some health issues - my dad had a mild heart attack. Thankfully, we took him to the hospital on time. He is back home now and is recovering.

- Hobbies

Reading

Here's a snapshot of all books I read during the year

Baking

..all that V and I baked last year. Some amazing new flavors we tried were rasmalai cake and elderflower cake

Web Series:

Another new hobby that I am adding to the hobbies list is the web series that we watched last year
- Crown (latest season)
- Succession

- Schitt's Creek

- Gilmore Girls (now watching)

- The gilded age (now watching)

Cross Stitch

I finished 5 pages on Mystery project and am almost done with the 6th page now

That's the ORTS from the whole year's stitching

Well, it definitely was a very active year with a whole lot of memories made and learnings and experiences to be cherished for life. Here's to a whole new year of making memories, more crafting, more reading 

Wishing you all a wonderful wonderful year again dear friends!! Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!