A birthday and some stitching

Hello dear friends. It is the festival season and also season of birthdays in the family. It was dad's 75th birthday on the 18th and we threw a surprise party with a few very close relatives. Dad was totally overwhelmed and extremely happy

We ordered a blackcurrant cake which was absolutely delicious

V started college last month. She's now doing her undergrad in BSc psychology and she's loving it so far

After quite a long gap, V baked these delicious snickerdoodles - the recipe from my William Sonoma's Baking

I was able to catch up on some stitching this month

..and here's the Orts from the month's progress

..a closer look at the progress. I am almost done with the 4th page now. With the holiday season coming up, hope to get some more stitching done

That's the update from me tonight dear friends. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!

All About Vacations and some Stitching

It has been a very happening July and August in my side of the world. Being vacation time in all places but India, this is the time when cousins and family living in Dubai, USA etc come here for vacations. 

This year we went to Pondicherry for a week. While my niece attended an eye camp, it was a workation for me and vacation for the daughter and cousin

Our guest house was exactly opposite to the beach and we spent every evening there

some of the very different unique shells that we collected at the beach

We witnessed an absolutely brilliant sunrise

Being a sunset person, and being so close to the beach, how could I miss this wonderful scene

Some baking happened too. One new flavors that we discovered in London is Elderflower. We found this quaint little home run store at Borough market, where we got some Elderflower syrup

V baked this Elderflowe lemon bundt 

.. a slice of the cake and the extracts in the background

The daughter celebrated her milestone birthday last week and I baked her a lotus biscoff this year for her birthday

With so much happening, progress on my Mystery project has been quite minimal

This is the moving the QSnap picture

..and the current progress picture with the ORTS

So, dear friends, this is my story for today. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!

A wedding and a holiday

After over 2 years, we finally went on an international trip to attend my niece's wedding in London

If weddings in India are full of fun, music and dance then this wedding was that and all class

where we all had reserved seats and printed menus

We all planned to stay a few more days to do some site seeing. I had visited London officially in 2011 and was able to recreate some memories 

Open bus tour - then and now

Outside Windsor castle - then and now. Last time I did not have time to go inside the castle, this time we took time to visit the castle. The doll house was my favorite part of the castle. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside 

Our visit coincided with the platinum jubilee and the whole city was decked up with flags

Hand knit ornaments outside Windsor gift shop to commemorate the platinum jubilee

My next favorite of the visit was the borough food market - so many stalls selling just cheese, olive oils, extracts...

This was a stall selling home made sauces and syrups. Look at all the yummy little bottles there. I was left spoilt for choice there

Fell in love with the variety of blooms. This was outside an apartment. Reminded me of the rhyme where it says 'chubby cheeks.. dimple chin..'

Now for some stitchy update

A fair amount of progress on mystery project

And orts - year to date

More from our trip and more in my next post. Till then.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir

May ORTS

Greetings and a very warm welcome dear friends. The year seems to be rolling by real fast, doesn't it. Here we are in May already!

Well, the daughter's board exams are all set to start from the 6th of May and they go on till 15th June!! 5 weeks for 5 subjects.. feel terribly sorry for the kids. 

There's a terrible heat wave all over the country and there are videos of people making rotis on car hoods in Orissa!! The only good thing about summer is mangoes. Can't wait to make several desserts/cakes etc for the season

Thanks to our monthly ORTS, I catch up with all you blogging friends and what's going on in your side of the World

On the stitchy front, I've made decent progress on Mystery project

I have completed about 1 and a half page of stitching. It's quite a lot of different shades of pink there :) 

That's the ORTS from the month's stitching. The lose thread from the month and year to date in the jar 

That's about it from me now dear friends. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir! 

Mystery Project Update

Guess what - I have 50 followers now! Thank you so much, dear friends for your kindness

So, let me give some more details about my Mystery project. This is going to be my biggest project ever. The pattern is a self generated one using StitchingJoy.com. The pattern is 24 pages.. yes you read that right - 24 pages!! And it's a full coverage project too

You can see how big the material is. Of course, there's enougghhh spare linen, which I will cut off after I finish. I just am too scared to cut the fabric for fear of falling short

Here's a closer look at my progress. Considering the amount of time I am getting to stitch, I wonder how long this project is going to take me to complete. I am very excited and nervous about this project. Also, extremely eager and restless to finish it, to see the outcome

So, here's my ORTs for the month. All ORTs are from progress on mystery project

That's it from me today dear friends. Till next time.. Take Care.. Be Happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Tusal & A New Start

I am going to call my next project 'Mystery project'. This is going to be my biggest ever project and am quite nervous about this one!

I have put in the first few stitches, stitching @ few stitches each day. 

ORTs for the month are all from Mandala lotus finish and some from my mystery project

That's from me today dear friends. Till next time.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir 

A Finish & my Mega Project

 Yes, my dear friends.. I have my first finish. You guessed right

Here's the all finished Mandala Lotus!! Took me 8 months to complete. I started this in June 2021 and finished in Feb 2022. This is going as a gift to someone very dear

My next project is a very special one and really huge. Am extremely nervous that it should turn out well

I have it all kitted up. The fabric is a 28ct Mushroom Lugana and all threads are DMC. This is a very personalized project, so even more nervous

That's from me today dear friends. Till next time.. stay safe.. Be Happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir