Of Families, vacations, birthdays and stitching

Hola dear stitchy, bakey, crafty friends!! Am back after being MIA, from the blogger world, for 2 months. That's because life has been crazy busy in a good way. July/August is always like that when cousins and families, brother and family all come from several parts of the World and hence the busiest months of the year for us. By the end of August, they all return to their worlds and we to ours hungover from the holidays holding on to the energy till the next year

This year we all went on a very short trip and almost all of us cousins were there, making it even more special. We travelled to Pollachi, a short drive from Coimbatore. The resort where we stayed was a quaint little one and we had the resort almost to ourselves, so we could make all the noise without fear of disturbing other guests. 

There was beautiful river flowing right behind the resort and we had full access to it. A very scenic place and so many peacocks around

It was a very nostalgic trip - recollecting childhood memories, catching up with the new members in the family, getting to know them all better. Our kids enjoyed themselves too, with so much open space to run around and no fear of traffic etc

We celebrated a few birthdays too in August and September

August is V's birthday. I baked a pinacolada cake this time with fresh cream frosting

Dad turned 76 last week. As his birthday coincided with Ganesh Chathurthi this year, we decided to bake a Kozhakattai cake

Amidst all this I did manage to stitch some the last 2 months

That's the progress on project Amma. I have progressed 2 more pages since my last post and can say that I am a little more than half way through

..and here's the ORTS for the last 2 months

That's all that's been happening in my part of the world the last 2 months 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!!

Vacation Time

Every year in August, we go on a vacation or have a get-together, when our cousins come down for their holidays. Our last vacation was in 2018! We could not go in 2019 due to V's board exams and then 2020 happened. So, it was a really good break and a change to be able to get away for a couple of days to Kodaikanal. 

All tourist spots, except the lake, were closed. So we relaxed in the resort and made use of all the great amenities that they offered. 

Some pictures from the trip

First thing that I noticed was this poinsettia tree. I always thought that they only grew outside India, so was pleasantly surprised to find them here

I was totally in love with these potted beauties that were placed all around the resort. 

Another really pretty wonder of nature

A friend told me later that these were succulents. So beautiful they are

A complete view of the lake from a specific view-point

We stopped over for lunch at a place where these I saw these stone sculptures. Don't they remind you of the dementors in Harry Potter 😁

Now for some stitchy update. 

A quick look at my mandala lotus. ORTS from last month's progress are on the bottom right

These are the YTD ORTS collection

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

New Year with Cousins - Dubai 1

What better way to ring in the New Year than with our cousins who are also besties. We went on a vacation to Dubai last December and were there to celebrate New Year's eve. We were there for about 9 days and what fun days they were. After about 16 years, I got to spend some solid time with my cousins and it was just like our good old childhood days

We all grew up together (5 of us altogether) and are very close. Fortunately so are our kids, as they are just a year apart. The girls, being typical girls, were giggling for the smallest of things and that was totally infectious.

There is so much to write about the trip that I am going to do this in 2 parts. Here's part 1 in no specific order

The Dubai frame is a new attraction that was inaugurated on 1st January. 2 beautiful towers are connected by bridge. The bridge has a glass panel on the floor and we can walk on that.. and what a creepy walk that was!!

From the bridge we get a lovely view of both sides of Dubai - the old and the new. In fact I liked the view from the Frame better than from Burj Khalifa!!

My next favorite spot was the Global Village. This is a shopper's heaven. Shopaholic that I am, this is the best place to be able to get artifacts from across the globe under one roof. 

The Korea pavilion - a display of Korean dolls

Thai Pavilion - the girls with the soap carving lady there

A visit to Dubai is not complete without a visit to the actual Desert - yes the Desert Safari of course! The vast expanse of sand dunes, the squad biking, the sunset.. everything about this safari was just wonderful
Before going on the sand dunes, we stopped for the squad bike drive. Initially we were a bit scared, but later the experience was a whole lot of fun. Even the girls were able to ride the bike with great ease

The girls on a ride

We then went on to the actual drive on the dunes.. wow this was one roller coaster of a drive. Even on a roller coaster we know what to expect when. In the dunes, we never know as there's a dip all of a sudden
There was a stop for a few minutes to watch the sunset, which was the best part. I love watching and capturing sunsets. Each sunset is different and unique in it's own way!

This was one of the best views, with the vast expanse of sand and sun going down into the sand dunes

The lovely golden sunset

 ..and me trying to hold the golden ball!!

We then went onto what was called the 'tent' where there were several activities. In the center was a stage where performances were held and seats were setup around the stage in traditional UAE style. Finally this was followed by dinner

Let me stop here today friends. Will come back with more details and more pictures very soon. Till then.. Take care.. Be happy.. Enjoy every day of life.. Au Revoir

A Trip down New York..

That's right.. V and I visited my brother's family who live in New Jersey and spent our vacation with them

When the trip was finalized, I had already fixed my agenda of the few specific places I wanted to see and specific things that I wanted to buy. Top of my list was to visit NYC at least twice and visit the largest Macy's store there

We spent at least half a day and did not cover even a quarter of the store. I actually just realized that we did not even visit the children's section!! Wonder how V did not bother me about it at all

This picture below has a funny story behind it. While walking along times square we came across so many 'characters'. My brother did warn us not to click any pictures with them, else we would get rounded up and asked for money (and none of us had any small change). Apparently V did not gulp this down her throat (we realized this much later).

When she saw these characters she screamed 'Hey angry birds, minions' and rushed to them even before any of us had time to react. When we came out of the shock she was happily shaking hands with all  of them and was posing proudly in the middle for a picture to be taken. And I, like a robot just clicked while looking on in horror. After the picture all these characters were on me demanding 'mommy we need money'!! My brother and family had gone on a few steps ahead of us. When they turned around they saw this commotion and did not know what was going on. Finally they gave the smallest of notes they had and said bye to our dear friends!! Still when we look at this picture we shudder and then laugh at V!!

Next on my agenda was to buy all the berries I could as we do not get fresh berries (other than strawberries) in Chennai

Boy was I happy when I found all these berries. 

I had decided that I will not buy any more stitchy stash and that my next purchase will be only after I finish seashells and start off on the next project

Speaking of which, here's where I am with seashells

All I have now is to finish the sand and all of that is half cross stitch. And the back stitch. 

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

A Trip and Summer Lessons

We got back from a wonderful vacation about 10 days back. This year we picked Singapore, a place very close to my heart for many reasons. My first trip to a foreign country was to Singapore in 1999, my husband and I began our journey here and V was born here as well. So, very close to my heart. We went back there after 10 years.. to see our old haunts and visit people and new attractions. What a lovely vacation this was.. my most memorable one

This summer, V and I discussed how to keep her occupied and decided that we would do something different and not the regular summer camp. So we rounded on daily life skills - baking, basic sewing etc.

First was a cake that V baked from scratch. She has been my little elf all along.. mixing the batter, stringing beads etc. This was her first ever cake baked from scratch - an orange chocochip cake

It turned out very moist and soft.

I have not been stitching on seashells the last 2 months, but I have reached the half-point. The first page of the chart is complete and I have begun the second page, yayyy!!

Back..

..After a short vacation. We had gone to Mysore for a few days. The day we left Chennai, there was a bomb blast at the Chennai central station about an hour after our train departed, killing a girl!! Wow, what a start to a vacation. Other than this shock, we had a great 3 days.
Even the weather was very kind to us and cooled down the temperature by sending down mild showers. We visited the Mysore zoo, palace, bird sanctuary, the temple atop Chamundi hills. My favorite was the sand sculpture museum. Here are a few pictures taken during in and around Mysore

Of course, no trip is complete without shopping. But I did not go on a spree, and did only sensible shopping (if there's something called that).

Summer is here, and with that MANGOES!!! Here's my first mango bake for the season - a mango cake.

As my experiment with various egg replacements continue, I used only curd this time. I am happy with the result, but thought it was slightly dense.

No stitchy updates this time friends. I have been in and out of the house the last few months and no time to put in any X's.

Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep Stitching.. Au Revoir

More on Summer

I had taken almost the whole of last week off to be with V. We normally do not go anywhere for summer, but have a nice relaxed stay-cation. Last week was a good stay-cation for us with some trying-to-catch-up-on-local-events.


V finished painting the sun/moon figure and it's ready to be put up on her room door. She's thrilled with the outcome.

 We went to the beach 

and V had her first ever horse ride.

She was terrified and would not climb the horse. With some coaxing, she finally agreed and though a little scared she did enjoy it.

Cashing in on the mangoes, I made some mango kulfi.

This is my second attempt at kulfi and I should say it came out very well.

Here's May all done up.

I did not have a suitable ribbon or an embellished cord. So decided to make one with the 3 main colors used in the pattern. I love the effect the combination of the colors create.

I have now started November and as luck would have it, the ugly frogs paid me a visit. I did the flowers along the border in the wrong shade!! Ugh, so much for concentration

Well, that's all I have for today. Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Summer is here

Ohh yes, that's right.. it's May and very much into the summer.
Vacation has started and it's time to think how to keep V occupied, something that interests her, something useful, but not related to studies. Now for a girl, there are a whole lot of things that could be done.

So, we have been to the library once so far and borrowed a few books. For the first time I allowed her to pick the books that she wanted, so am I learning to let go?? I don't know, but it was a lot less stressful to allow her to handle even the smallest thing. We then went to this fair, where self-employed ladies, who were mostly home makers, had made kits of various kinds. We bought one of those, which had a finished shape of moon/sun made of plaster, but had to be painted. Now, that's how the vacation started.. let's see how the rest of it goes.

Summer and mangoes go hand-in-hand. I decided to try my hand again at mango cheese cake.

I used britannia cream cheese this time (I had used home made paneer the first time) and the result was awesome.

Tried the coffee milkshake last sunday afternoon.

Added a liii'll bit of chocolate ice cream to it and topped with hershey's syrup of course.

Also baked a savory bread for breakfast

This is a tomato herb bread. It was great, but I think a little more kneading would have been good.

Now, on the stitchy front.. I have (finally) completed October

I changed the color of the cottage and made it all white as the original color was the exact same shade as my fabric. Also, this was stitched on jobelan. That's what 123 sent with my order instead of the regular linen. Jobelan is so smooth and soft to touch, loved the feel of the fabric.

I have now started working on November. And, oh I have to "finish" May!! Gosh, how fast a month can go by.

That's all from me today dear friends. Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. And happy holidays :) Au Revoir