Updates and a reminder

Hello, here I am, as promised with a whole lot of updates and pictures .

Now as I have sooo many things to update, where shall I start ... I guess our diwali celebrations woud be a good way to start.

My parents had come over on the eve of diwali to burst a few crackers with us.

That's DD in one of her new diwali clothes.

You can see my dad right behind her, escorting her!!! This is the first year she handled some sparklers on her own. So, you can see dad being extremely concerned and is hanging around as close to her as possible .

When we were kids I remember we used to be woken up by my maternal grandmother at about 4am . We were about 5 cousins (we were a joint family then) and all my aunts and uncles. By the time all of us had the oil bath (Ganga snaanam), it would be 5.30. One by one all of us would prostrate our grandparents and take our new set of clothes from them. The previous night all our new clothes, the sweets, savouries and the fire crackers would be placed in front of God. There would be a contest (an unspoken one though) as to who bursts the first cracker in the street. My aunt would be the first usually, to our greatest delight .

So, here you see I have tried to keep up atleast some of the tradition. Though, we did not wake up at 4am, we managed to wake up by 5am and go down to start bursting crackers.

I made laddoos (the traditional ones) under mom's guidance and murukkus. Then tried my hand at kaaju barfi. Everything came out real yumm .

We had to travel on the night of diwali to Coimbatore to attend a wedding. As we have many of our relatives in and around Coimbatore, we used the wedding as an excuse to visit everybody there. The 3 days we spend in Coimbatore was extremely refreshing and energizing.

On the crafty front, let me first show you what Lynn sent.

The most beautiful pinkeep!! I love the colours and the choice of fabrics. Thanks a lot to you again Lynn .

Now on my finishes on the beading front. I managed to complete 2 new sets of necklaces and ear-rings.

This one is a choker. The actual colour of the beads is a light purple, though the picture shows it differently.

This one is slightly longer, coming upto the chest.

I found this store where they sell such beautiful oxidized beads and glass and semi-precious beads. I bought a whole lot of beads last saturday. I am sure DH is going to have a fit if I go there again!!!

Finally, the most interesting part. My stitchy update!!! Here is what I have done on the name board.

I decided to use a metallic silver. Thought it would look best against black. I am trying to put in a few stitches atleast daily.

Again, a reminder on my PIF. The last date for giving your names is the 7th of November. Please post your comments if you are interested on my post dated 27th October.

Now, that's about all my updates. Till I meet you with more updates, take care

Giveaways and a PIF

I wanted my pictures to be the next post, but as I had to keep a few promises, here I am with yet another no-pictures post.

I just came across these lovely giveaways at Kathy’s blog. She is celebrating her first bloggoversary. CONGRATS Kathy.

And as promised to Lynn, here I am with my PIF. Anybody interested for the PIF, please post a comment for this post alone. The winner would receive a gift from me in the next 365 days. Also, the winner needs to agree to carry on the PIF by paying it forward to somebody else. Am all excited about my first PIF.

All my holiday pictures and crafty (beady/stitch) pictures are ready to be uploaded. Hope to do so very very soon.

See you all soon with loads of pictures and stories to go with them :)

Diwali wishes

A quick post to wish everybody a very very Happy Diwali!!! Wow, I am so excited. This definitely is the king of all festivals I should say. The spirits are so high right now.

The bursting of crackers started about a week ago. DD is having a ball. She is beginning to get the hang of bursting crackers now.

We are going on a very short trip tomorrow night to Coimbatore to attend a wedding. We have also combined it with a visit to all the uncles and aunts who have moved to Coimbatore.

I owe you all a very very big/long update. There's soooo much to update and sooo little time. I am yet to upload allll of my pictures.

Guess what, I have received my first PIF from Lynn . It is soooooo pretty. This is my first ever cross stitch gift and I will treasure it for my life. I cannot express in words how important it is for me. Thank you soooo much Lynn!!!

I promise a picture-y update next. Till then, a very happy diwali again.

Back after a nice long vacation

I am just back and refreshed after a nice long vacation to the northern part of India. To be more precise, I am just back from the capital of our country, Delhi. DH could not accompany us and had to drop out in the last minute. So, it was just DD and me. We stayed at my cousin's place.

We were there during the entire Navarathri celebrations. So, golu this time was at my cousin's place.

On the crafty front, I do have a couple of finishes on my beading and a new stitchy start. That's right, I have started (though not a great amount) on the name board . I promise to post all pictures during the next week.

I am dead tired after a real long day. So, going to hit the sack right after I shut down and say bye bye. Till then....

Some celebrations and some finishes

Let me start with the celebrations. Isn’t that always a nice way to start?

Guess to turned 5 this month. Of course, DD !!! And she has been planning for the past few months for her bday. We did not want to make it a big celebration, just family. So, she came with this idea of visiting the Sai Baba temple in the evening and then cutting the cake at home. Could anybody have made a better plan than this . And her new dress had to be a salwar kameez WITH DUPATTA!!!! And where did we shop for that. Where else but my favorite Fabindia . I am a great fan of that store. (And now DD too).

So, on the evening of 19th Aug we set off to the Sai Baba temple. This temple is set facing the beach on East Coast Road. A very quiet and peaceful place. There's our sweetie on her bday.

This was the only picture I have at the moment that was taken on her bday. And that's her salwar kameez!!

I had made Rava ladoo to distribute there. My idea was to bake a cake for her bday. But then, what is life without hiccups. My oven breathed its last!!! I was devastated . I could not bake a cake for my own daughter’s bday. But then, the cake we ordered turned out to be yumm and was a feast for the eyes as well.

Doesn't it look yumm. It was choco nut!!!

That weekend we all went out for a nice family dinner to celebrate many events together (SIL’s bday, my bday, brother’s bday and DD’s bday). We had a great time there.

The next was Vinayaka Chaturthi. We celebrated Lord Ganesha's birthday with MIL this year. Here is our little Ganesha.

And there is the Kozhakattai (Modakam) that we made. This was a joint effort by MIL and me. It came out real yumm this time.

Now for my finishes. First, I completed a full jewellery set this time, a necklace and a pair of ear-rings. They turned out much better than any of my previous finishes.

And after a long time, I do have a stitchy update. I have completed the purple pansy . This is the first time I worked on perforated paper. I just love the way the stitches fall in place. It’s so easy.
And guess what, I finally got my black material as well. So my next is to get some nice shade of variegated thread. Am so excited to start working on it!!!

So, that's about allllll my updates for the day folks. Till I see you next, bye bye, au revoir !!!!

Harry Potter, Krishna Jayanthi and a finish

I have soooo much to update you all. So, let me do that in the order my title goes!!!

V got to watch her first movie in the cinemas last weekend, yes as the title says it, she watched Harry Potter and the Half blood Prince. Here she is all excited at the cinema hall, just before entering.

Well, it is supposed to be scary for a 5 year old to be watching. At least, that's what we'd assume if we had read the book. But what a disappointment, the movie did not at all do justice to the book !!! Boy, I really was disappointed. Anyway, coming back to V's first movie experience. After we were settled down in our seats (the movie had started by then), her first question to DH was "which channel is this running on" !!!! And then she was curious to know why it was so dark inside, was it still day?? This was just the beginning. This was why I had taken DH along (to answer her questions) . I think he did a decent job of that, though he was not an avid follower of Harry Potter. Now she wants to watch every movie !!!!

We celebrated Krishna Jayanthi (Lord Krishna's birthday) on the 13th of August. This is normally celebrated in the evening as Lord Krishna was born at night. As usual, any Indian festival is incomplete and has to start with a Kolam. Specially for Krishna Jayanthi, we draw small feet. This starts at the entrance of the house, right till the altar where we do our Pooja.

This is to denote the Lord entering our house and going to the altar.

The Lord loves butter and aval (flattened rice) the most. Apart from these, we make seedai. This is made both salty as well as sweet. The basic ingredient is rice flour for this.

So, I made aval Payasam (a pudding/kheer made out of flattened rice). Mom had made the batter to make appam and she had already made the Seedai.

Now to the more interesting parts . Guess what, I have added some stash to my beads collection!!! Here they are.

And here is the new necklace I made with some of the new and some of the old beads.
This is not a perfect finish. I am not completely satisfied with it . I think the 2 layers should have more distance between them. Any suggestions/ideas please??

I am yet to get black material for my name board !!! I have been behind the crafts store manager for more than 10 days now. So, I have decided to do something small while I wait for him.

This time, I am going to try working on perforated paper. Wish me luck!!! I have zeroed in on the purple pansy from The Cross Stitcher's bible. It's a very cute, quick design. Hope to get started soon.

On the cooking front, decided to try my hand at some starters this time. So, tried making Corn Cutlets. I found the recipe from one of Sanjeev Kapoor's books.

It was an instant hit. And was not a big hassle to make too. I did not deep fry it as the recipe suggested. Just cooked it on the tawa till the sides were brown and cooked.

Phew, that was one big update. See you guys soon with more. Till then, have a great week ahead .

My next project

Today I got a surprise day off. Well, the cause was that V (DD) fell sick and she did not want me to go to work. Was I not happy to oblige !!

This is how I used my day off. I decided on what I am going to do next . A name board for our apartment !!!

I found a beautiful alphabet pattern generator here. This is what I generated.

My idea is to use a black fabric and use variegated thread. Any other suggestions on how this can be done?

Have a great week ahead