Dear friends, hope all of you and your families are safe and healthy. This pandemic has turned our lives upside down. None of us even dreamt that we would be facing a lockdown. I stepped out exactly twice in the last 40 days! V did not step out even that many times. Stores (only essentials) are open from 6am - 1pm country wide. We can order food from a few select outlets, but we are skeptical. 

We have been using this time for some spring cleaning. I have accumulated a whole lot of recipes from magazines and newspapers. Also, my aunt passed on a huge bunch of clippings when she moved away to another city. There were paper cuttings, hand written note books and some books too. This was the first I cleaned out - kept only those recipes which I am sure of trying atleast once and threw out those clippings which involved lot of effort, but I fancied trying at some point

To keep up our spirits, V and I are trying out new recipes - things we love but always thought were complicated. Sharing just a few highlights from the cooking expeditions

Cooking

Hummus - I had bought Tahini, a few months back, hoping to make hummus soon. It took a lock-down to make me take the leap finally 

Pizza from scratch - this is a no yeast pizza base. Yeast is a big demon that I am yet to conquer, but hope to tackle that too during this period. Here's the super simple base and pizza sauce recipe link. Pizza base recipe - https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/no-yeast-pizza-dough-recipe/

Tomato sauce recipe - https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/5-minute-pizza-sauce/

Stitching
Here's where Rose book mark stands now

I have finished the main stitching, only the blue background is left. The lose ORTS you see are from the past month's progress. ORTS in the jar are year-to-date. Am really happy with the progress in one month

I feel this might be slightly big for a book mark. Am looking for ideas to finish this 

That's all today from me friends. Stay home, stay safe. Till next time.. Keep stitching.. be happy.. Au Revoir

Crafting Away

Hope everybody is safe and healthy, staying at home. We are using this time to catch up on many long pending tasks

I had taken a 3 weeks' break from work for V's board exams. She loved studying in the drawing room, so I used to sit beside her doing my thing. There was a kind of peace in doing our own thing sitting side by side :)

I used this time well, catching up with my crafting. The beads came out of hibernation and saw the light of the day

Beading

I have been wanting to re-do this necklace as it had become very tight. I got it strung during my pre-beading days, and it did not fit any more. The left pic is the how it was earlier and the right is how I re-did it - added some red crystals and pearls to go with the pendant

The big orange beads in the center have been in the stash for quite a few years. These were part of the first bead stash that I bought, at least 8 years ago!! Added black crystals and orange seed beads

This was another necklace that I wanted to re-do. The left pic is how I had done it earlier, but was not happy even then. My friend had bought these beads for me from Singapore. The pic on the right  is how I re-did this now. Added black onyx and rose gold shaded metal findings 

This one is for V. She loved the pendant and wanted me to string something for her. So, used these green wooden beads with silver metal findings

I had bought these beads from South Africa in 2016. The middle part of all these are a set - pre-strung. 

Stitchy Update

 I also made a start and good progress on Rose

This is the progress in a week

Here is the ORTS for March

This is the update from me today friends. Stay healthy.. Stay Safe.. Stay home.. Stay Positive and keep crafting!! Till next time dear friends, Au Revoir

Finished & Framed!

Dear Friends, in the wake of the Covid 19 Pandemic, I hope everyone is safe and healthy. Do take necessary precautions, but at the same time please stay calm and do not panic. Probably, this is the time to slow down and take things easy, while we stay indoors

So, I have finished the project I was working on from Pinterest.

Worked on Perforated Paper with the anchor skeins from my stash

This is how it looks framed. I am going to gift this one to my cousin

Next up is a project that has been in my to-do for a very long time. One of my very close friends has a  Needlepoint by William Morris book, where the projects are just drool worthy. Every once in a while I borrow the book from her just to drool over them. Finally, I decided to work on one such project from the book

This patter is called Rose and it's a book mark. The fabric will be a 28ct linen from my stash and the threads will be Anchor from my stash too

I want to stitch this for V, my daughter. Her birthday is in August and I hope to finish this before that. Initially, I wanted this to be a surprise for her. But with her around, nothing escapes her sharp eyes. Even while I was trying to decide on the next project she asked 'Is this going to be for me'!! She has a collection of bookmarks and changes it with each book she reads. So, I thought that this would be a good gift

That's about it from me today friends. Stay safe.. Stay healthy.. Stay Calm and take it easy. Till next time.. Take care.. Be Happy.. Keep Stitching.. Au Revoir

TUSAL - Feb 2020

A very quick post to show you my progress on my current project, which is a free pattern from Pinterest

In the bottom left you can see the ORTS year to date. Very little left and I do hope to finish this by the weekend

V's 10th grade board exams have just started and I am taking a short break from work to be around and provide moral support - you know, just be around. Oh, talking about V and her exams, she has a post up on her blog about the same - http://vaishnavithinks.blogspot.com/. Do drop by and leave your comments

That's about it from me today dear friends. Till next time.. 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

November Progress

Getting back into the stitchy mood slowly, made a bit of progress in November on the pinterest pattern

I decided to use perforated paper as the medium for this as this looks great when framed

All skeins are from my stash

We have a just a month more left of the year, and I definitely hope to make good progress this month

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

Losses!!

This year has been quite a sad one for the family - between December 2018 and September 2019, 3 of my uncles passed away!! Our family is quite a huge one, both on the maternal as well as paternal side. Though we all know that this is life, when it actually hits us on the face, it comes as quite a blow

Especially one of the uncles was very dear to all of us - his nature was such. My brother and I lived with them for 3 years and the kind of love they showered on us, words cannot express. I am still coming to terms with all this.

When we face with reality, we start thinking and there's a total change in the way we start looking at things. What seemed important suddenly become trivial and what used to be trivial are actually the most important. I am trying to change my ways especially in the last 2 months - visit/call people more frequently, put our differences behind and move on, try not to hold any grudges, focus more on mine and the family's health. Hope I am able to work through these

In between all this, our festival season too has started. As always, Navarathri is the first big one. This time I was not at all in the mood for an elaborate festival. But my aunts and cousins encouraged me to keep the spirit up and we had a smaller golu

Finally, I managed to finish Summer Iris

I changed the border color, as the recommended shade was exactly the same as that of the fabric. This was the first time I stitched on 30ct fabric and I found it very difficult. I could not stitch without my glasses on :)

Up next is going to be a gift for one of my cousins. I found this pretty pattern on Pinterest.

I found all the shades in my stash. I am planning to stitch this on perforated paper

Hopefully, things will come back to routine and I get to craft more frequently. That's the update from me today friends

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