Active October Updates

This year is turning out to be an action packed one! We attended a totally wild concert last weekend by Anirudh, who is the latest sensation in South India. I had attended a Vidhyasagar concert many years ago. But this one was a totally rockstar performance

Here's a small glimpse when he came on to the stage that was setup near where we were seated

..and managed to click a selfie at the end of the concert, with the stage in the background

We just finished Deepavali and getting over the festivities, gearing up for regular days. Here's a glimpse of how our Deepavali went. First for the sweets & savouries 

This time I tried my hand at making Jeera poli, which my mom makes really well. Turned out quite decently for first try

Manoharams, which has been a childhood favourite and another of Amma's specialty. She used to make these every time any of us went out of town. Last year we made this together, this year I tried to make this on my own and quite happy with how it turned out

..and cornflakes mixture, mohanthal, thenkuzhal & deepavali lehiyam

And on the stitchy front, I have been able to make decent progress

Here's a picture when the QSnap moved

Here's where I am now. The lose threads are ORTS from the month's progress and the glass bowl is ORTS from YTD

 So, that's the progress today friends. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!! 

Milestones & TUSAL

Hiya friends, dropped by for a quick update

Celebrations

October was a milestone month for us. First the hubby celebrated his milestone birthday (half century) and we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary! 

The festival that we all wait for from the 1st day of a year, Diwali, just finished. This time our get-together was at our place. We had a whole lot of fun - family, food and of course crackers! 

This year I made thenkuzhal

and boondi laddoos for Diwali

This was the first time that I made laddoos on my own. The last two times have always been under 

Amma's guidance. For the first time, I am quite happy with the outcome 😃

Stitchy Update

Amongst all the festivities and work, I managed to work some on Mandala lotus

Am just loving the colours. I have just the outer most petals and the leaves to finish

These are the ORTS (YTD) from all the stitching this year so far

So, dear friends, that's the update from me today. Till next time.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!

Nov ORTS & A New Start!

We are almost at the end of the year (with just a month and a half left) And all our festivals are almost done, we just have Karthigai left. This year has been different, but we definitely had fun. We limited the number of in person visits for Navaratri, and 'met' people virtually. We sent the vethala paaku and diwali sweets via swiggy/dunzo (local delivery apps).

All through this year, I have been posting an entry @ of one post per month - mostly for ORT update. This is another ORT post

Diwali 2020

So, this is how we spent diwali

These were my diwali looks - white saree for diwali eve, garden picture on diwali morning and the red saree on diwali evening

V and I went totally crazy with the sweets, as you can see here. We started preparing about a week before diwali and went on till the diwali afternoon!! We had lots of fun preparing and sharing with everyone

Stitchy Update

I started this new project, which is a free coffee pattern from Pinterest. I am stitching this on perforated paper and using anchor thread from my stash

All ORTs are from coffee progress. The jar shows YTD-am quite happy that it's almost full this year😊

So, dear friends, this is the update from me today. Till next time, Take care.. Be Happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Diwali!!!

Yes.. the festival that everybody looks forward to the most all through the year is over!! Some parts of India celebrate Diwali today. Wishing all my friends here a very Happy, prosperous Diwali

I do not know how many do this, but as soon as the annual holiday calendar is released, first thing I check for is Diwali. This is one festival that I look forward to each year from the beginning of the year. Even thinking about Diwali brings so much joy and happiness. And just like each year, Diwali is over in the blink of an eye.. sigh!!

I tried a new sweet this year - Maalpua. It's a north Indian sweet dish. These are basically crisp pancakes made out of refined flour and milk, soaked in sugar syrup. I wanted to make this a diabetic friendly sweet as majority of my family members are diabetic - the husband, dad and mil. I got the basic recipe for Maalpuas from here. For the sugar syrup I used Sugar Free Natura and used the recipe from here. It was a big hit with everybody - except me :( I did not like the taste of sugarfree, but the hubby, mil and my dad just loved it!! I thought it left some kind of a bitter after-taste

On the stitchy front, I have a picture to share my progress.

With only a month a half more to the year, I am sure I cannot finish this project in 2015. But I am pretty sure that the day is not very far when I share a 'completed' post!!

So, till next time.. Take care.. 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