Crafty May.. ORTs

Hola dear friends, how's everyone doing

My crafting mojo has been on an all time high last month. 

Beading: It all started with making a birthday gift for one of Vs friends. Seeing all the beauties triggered something and there was no stopping me

 

This is a pretty baby pink crystal necklace for which V called dibs even before it was finished. I bought the center portion from Michael's when I went to the US in 2016

 

Another multi color crystal one, for which V called dibs again

This is a turquoise beads necklace. Bought the turquoise beads from Michael's 

Tried a new pattern with this one and love the way this turned out

A multicolor crystal necklace. This is a gift for one of Vs friends

A maroon crystal bracelet and earring set. This also was a gift for Vs friend. Whoaa am impressed with myself 😊

Project Amma

The complete view taken before changing the QSnap

Here's the progress since changing. ORTS from last month's progress on the right

I started using my floor stand actively now. I am much more comfortable using this now than I used to be earlier. Except for the fact that I have to keep taking out the QSnap from the stand each time I start or finish a line, this is much easier. Also, big relief for my wrist and neck

That's the update from me today dear friends. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. Keep Stitching.. Au Revoir

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!!

 

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!!! 

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!! 

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