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!!

Sweet 16!!

Guess who turned 16 this week.. that's right, V is sweet 16 now!! 

She wanted a chocolatey cake this year. A friend had shared this recipe for Salted Caramel chocolate cake sometime back and I had a bottle of store bought salted caramel. 

Basic recipe idea is from this link - https://bakerbynature.com/salted-caramel-chocolate-cake/. I used my go-to eggless chocolate cake recipe from Nita Mehta's Eggless Bakes book. Used the buttercream frosting recipe from this link. For the first time, tried caramel shards as topping

Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel buttercream frosting

Stitchy Update

Here's progress on Snowy day

All I have left now are the whites. Hope to finish it by next weekend

So, that's the update from me today friends. Till next time.. be happy.. stay safe.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

My baby is a TWEEN!!!

Yes, she is 10 going on 11!!! I am unable to get over it, she's growing up.. or has she already?!!

We had a big family party to celebrate 3 birthdays that fall in August. So her actual birthday was a very low-key at home celebration.

I had a very adventurous experience baking her birthday cake. V's order was quite simple - a basic vanilla sponge with strawberry frosting. I had everything planned out perfectly and had the vision of a perfect looking cake. Now "Man proposes God disposes" right - so my perfect plan was not to be!! I started the baking quite early. A few minutes after the batter was in the oven I could smell something burning - of course it was my cake!! I realized only 25 minutes too late that I had started the baking in microwave mode and not in convection mode!!! Silly, stupid, **##@@** me!!!! So, I started from scratch all over again. This cake was just the perfect sponge
Next step - the frosting. My brother had got Wilton stamp set last year and I wanted to try that. But by this time I had run out of patience and did not work enough to get the smooth finish that is required for neat stamping. So, the stamping did not look neat. But all that matters is the taste - that's what I tell myself. My dad who's quite tough to please actually said "It is yummy and had 3 pieces" and V and her friend loved the cake too.

That's it from me today friends.. Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep crafting.. Au Revoir

Holiday and TUSAL

Am back after an absolutely wonderful, week long holiday to Kerala. I should say this was more of a spiritual trip and a refresher.

The place we visited is called Vallikkaavu, a very small island village surrounded by the Arabian sea. In the middle is situated the beautiful ashram of our beloved Amma, Mata Amritanandamayi.

There were pooja sessions, meditations, bhajans, question and answer sessions with Amma Herself. We had a meditation on the shores of the beach one evening.

Meditating with Amma during the sunset was absolute bliss. V's bday fell during the week and we celebrated it in Amma's presence.

We got a cake baked at the ashram canteen and was cut by Amma!!! An unforgettable experience for all of us.

And now we are totally re-charged and refreshed. A trip to the ashram always makes this to us.

Hehe, Meari I thought magnetic nail polish was the in thing!! Am yet to apply it as we went off on our trip almost as soon as we got the gift. Will definitely post a picture once I do :)

With so much said, it is quite obvious that I did absolutely no stitching. And yes, am late for the August Tusal.

All the progress is from sea shells this time. And now to start with June cottage

That, my dear friends, is all I have today.. Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir