A sweet post

Hola dear friends. It's time for our monthly catch-up. The month started off with a much-awaited visit to see my Guru, my most beloved Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi)

Re-discovering one of my favorite sweets - Churuttu!! This is a sweet from Kottayam, Kerala. Our family friend, who's home town is Kottayam, used to get this for us every time she visited her hometown. Ever since we moved to Chennai (in 1996), I have not been able to have this. We do not get this, even in any other part of Kerala. 

Have you ever heard/realised that if we crave for something with all our heart, we somehow get it. Well, this is exactly that. 

A few weeks back, there was a small news snippet in the paper about a store called Little Kerala. And guess what - they actually had Churuttu!!

I ordered right away - and here it is. It has sweet filling made of Sooji, wrapped in rice pastry, deep fried and soaked in sugar syrup. Sounds sinful right - it totally is

There happened a G20 meet in Chennai on 25 & 26 March at ITC. Yesterday when I went to ITC to meet my cousin, I saw this beautiful display for the event

Over the weekend, I got to do some beading after a long time. Made one necklace for myself (the one in the picture) and one for my friend's sister (could not take a picture unfortunately), who recently celebrated her 50th birthday

And here's where I am with my mystery project. As you can see, the face is clear now - I am stitching a portrait of my beloved Guru - Mata Amritanandamayi. As it takes shape, I cannot wait for it to finish - am that excited. Am loving it every moment. 

You can see all ORTS from all the stitching last month

So, dear friends, that has been quite an active month!! With this I finish the post and we also say bye to March '23 and get ready to welcome April '23!! Till next time friends - take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!

 

Monthly Progress

Hello dear friends.. can you believe that February is almost over! Another new moon is gone and it's time for our monthly catch up

I am on a mission to clear up my pantry of existing baking supplies before buying new ones. First to be used up is coconut flour that's been lying in the freezer.  

 

First one in the series is coconut flour shortbread. I added mint extract and mint chips. Coconut and mint flavours work so well together. Here's the original recipe link - https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/coconut-flour-shortbread-recipe

On the stitchy front, the last month has been a great stitchy one. 

Here are ORTS from the month's progress

This is where my mystery project is. I have finished 6th page and half way through the 7th page. I guess you might have guessed by now that it's a picture to pattern that I am working on. I am thoroughly enjoying working on this

So, dear friends that's the updates from my side of the world today. Until 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

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!!

Snow Globes

Hola dear friends! We just wrapped up our festive season with Karthigai deepam. 

A small light up near our Swami mandapam

And lighting lamps outside our house

And now it's time to deck up for the holiday season. I just love snow globes and isn't this the perfect time to bring them all out

That's from Singapore

I bought this cute little girlie snow globe during our trip to Pondy this sumer

This is from my 2011 trip to London

And this during our trip last May. I know for sure that this collection is going to grow :)

A cute little snow man from Miniso

And my December ornaments are out too. I have to also complete the gingerbread family

I saw this beautiful hand embroidered mirror frame at a shop last week and had to share the picture here. How intricate and beautifully done it is

Here's a picture of progress on Mystery project dear friends. I am getting totally excited as it shapes up

So, that's the update from this end of the world dear friends. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!

A sweet, a cookie and some stitching

Hola, dear friends! Being Thanksgiving weekend, I want to start this post by saying a huge thank you to all my virtual friends here, who have kept me going and motivated me to keep posting! 

Recently my cousin had come from Australia and had bought an insta pot for her sister. Her sister did not want it and asked me if I wished to buy it at a lesser price. Of course, I grabbed it with both hands! Now, the insta pot was sitting pretty like a dinosaur in the room, both of us staring at each other. I would google easy desserts and then say 'ok, I will make this soon'

Finally, last week I took the leap and made moong dal halwa/Ashoka. It turned out absolutely divine and even the method was quite simple. Recipe source - https://myheartbeets.com/instant-pot-moong-dal-halwa/#wprm-recipe-video-container-15021

It's the season of cookies and baking

My first bake for the season is a very chewy eggless oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. I had saved this recipe several years ago in one of my FB baking groups

I have been able to make some progress on Mystery project too, amidst all the other activities 

Here's a pic of where I am at currently at page #6. On the side are all ORTS from last month's stitching

 So, dear friends, that's the update for today. Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep sticthing.. Au Revoir!

Crafty Weekend

I am breaking my trend of only posting ORTS every new moon for once. Lots of crafting has happened since my last post and I do not want to miss updating on my progress

V and I have been alternating between web series, new movies and old movies. This started, like for most of us, since the lockdown

In that way, we watched pretty woman this weekend. Just love her clothes in the movie - such classics. My favorite of them all is the brown polka dot one

Had a tryst with my beautiful beads yesterday. Getting the right idea is what takes more time than the actual making of the jewelry right

I realized that I never made anything in green for myself so far. So, here goes - a green crystal and pearl necklace with earrings

It took a while for this to take shape. When it finally did, I think it shaped up much better than how I visualized it

On the stitchy side, I reached a logical point - finished the first 5 pages, woohoo!!

Am so loving it. I just printed out the next 5 pages and assembled them and getting ready for the next part. Am totally excited to see this taking shape

 So, dear friends, this is alllll the progress today. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!!