Where have I been!!!

Well, you must be wondering if I am still around!! Very much and definitely alive haha.

Life has now almost settled around the new routine, except that I just am not able to pick up my linen, needle and thread!!! I did manage to do some beading. Mostly coz, it is pretty fast to finish.


This is the project in which Vaishnavi participated in her school project. The entire project was about how our education imparts values to our daily lives. Other subjects that were covered were culinary skills, computer science, arts and crafts, drance and drama, english literature, mathematics..... It was amazing to see so much talent.





Vaishnavi spoke about God and that there is God in every thing we do. It was great to watch these small kids performing so well without any stage fear.







Yes, just one crafty picture for you today :(

I love this and made it to go with a black and mustard saree of mine.

I have decided to make a picture for Vaishnavi's room next and have asked her what she wants. She has selected 6 pictures of flowers!!! I just asked for one picture!!! But they are all small patterns. But with my current routine, wonder how fast I can finish. And this year, I owe a gift too!!! Should I set deadlines or should I not stress it out??

Ok guys, see you all very soon with atleast a stitchy start in hand and more beady updates. Till then, take care.

Hello there...

How'r uuu doin??? I simply love the way Joey says that in friends!!! Wishing you guys a very happy valentine's day.

I know, I've not been in touch lately. Work has been crazy suddenly. I'm just getting into the grove of things in my new role. Am working in the European timing these days, that would be 1pm to 10pm IST. When I get back home it's about 11.30pm!!! I know, sounds crazy. And have to wake up at about 6am to get Vaishnavi ready for school. DH does pitch in wherever he can, but still am still getting used to the new routine. If I feel very groggy after Vaishnavi leaves for school, I sleep for about an hour before I get ready to leave.

Above all this, our laptop breathed its last. So, we had to get a new one and get it setup!!! We went in for a Dell Inspiron this time in pacific blue. I simply love it. I am still getting used to Windows 7 though. Especially windows explorer is very different.

Yes, you guessed it right. With the above schedule, I am just not able to think crafts. But I miss my needle and the beads a lot!!! I do take out my cross stitch design books and sigh over what alll I would love to do!!!

You know what, Vaishnavi asked me a question which has kind re-kindled my spirit for crafts. She asked "Amma, you have not done any cross stitch lately!! Why??" I definitely am much more inspired by this, and intend to start up something new. So, hope to give you some crafty updates very soon.

No, am not going to say no pictures again!!! I do have some.

I tried my hand at a new DIY dessert. One of the late nights I had a major sweet tooth. When I dug into the fridge, all I could find was 1.5 measly scoop of ice cream. So, here's the outcome.






1. Crumble some cookies in an ice-cream bowl. I used some mixed-fruit Karachi biscuits.

2. Add your favourite ice cream on top. I happened to have mixed fruit ice cream too.






3. I had left over chocolate icing. Warmed it up in the microwave. Poured over the ice cream and top it with cherries.

Voila!!! There's my just-mix-it-up dessert. And I should say it was real yumm!!!

Crafty pictures, you say? Yes, I have some of those too.

Just look at all the colourful beads I got. Again, there's a bit of reflection from the lights!!! But am simply itching to bead away!!!

And finally, this is my completed name board.

Unfortunately I have still not got my pictures framed. I just forgot about that till I got down to updating the blog!!! What a shame!!!

Ok am signing off for yet another crazy week!!! Till next time, au revoir.. take care...

New look

How do you guys like the new look? I suddenly wanted something nice and girly for the blog. And this one immediately caught my attention :).

Just realized that this also goes with the fact that valentine's day is soon approaching. Not that it is very significant in our lifestyle, but it's good to keep the spirit alive all the same.

I know you all must be thinking "WHERE ARE THE PICTURES"??? Bear with me for just a little while more. Have a whole lot of pictures to post

Till then, take care. Sayonara...

Happy New Year

One can never be very late in wishing people a Happy new year!!! Well, that's what I have to tell myself for wishing you all so late!! Hope you guys had a great christmas and that the year started off in a great way. Wish everybody a very very Happy, peaceful, joyous, prosperous (well, everything nice and good and all you wish for or is good for you) 2010!!!

How was my year beginning??? Well, what a beginning!!! I really had a great entry into the year career wise. The last few months, I was without a project and trying to make my time as fruitful as possible. This new year, I am back into a project which I have already worked in before. And I think it might be good.

Crafty updates??? I do have quite a bit of those too. I got quite a lot of beads from firemountaingems. I got it shipped to a friend who was coming to India. Wow, what a collection of beads I have now. And guess what!!! YES, I did finish my name board last year!!! Isn't that great!!! I really feel great.

I doubt if I would be able to do any stitching/beading at all this month, with work and a whole lot of things coming up. Hope to catch on from Feb. And guys, sorry again for not posting any pictures at all. I do promise to post pic's of all my beads and my name board (hopefully framed).

Wow, I wanted to make this a quick update. Some, quick update this is!!! Ok guys, need to hit the bed now. You know what, these days am having to wake up by 5.30 to be able to leave home by 7.45!!! I am not able to believe this myself.

Ok then, take care and have a great, stitchy year ahead. Till my next post .

Updates and progress

As usual, there's sooo much to update you guys on. Wondering where to start, ummm . Ok let me first start with the small gathering we had at home in honour of my cousin's family visiting India.

My cousin, settled in New Jersey is currently visiting India for his annual vacation. As the visit is very short and they would be in Chennai just for a couple of days, I had a gathering of all relatives currently in Chennai. You see ours is a pretty large family. So, going around and meeting people would be a problem and extremely time consuming. We decided not to do any cooking at home and order some small eats from outside.

Except for the choco muffins, we ordered everything else. I could not take any pictures in my camera as I had run out of batteries. I will upload some pictures of the gathering once my uncle forwards his.

I made a small gift tag for my cousin's wife.

I got the design from "Cross Stitch Silhouettes". The card got slightly damaged while I was trying to punch a hole in it . But it was too late to re-do the finishing!!! Please, can you guys give me some suggestions as to how to finish it better??? Punching the card itself is not the thing, but how do I match the hole in the card and place a hole at the right place on the stitched piece? Also, what tool do I use to make the hole on the stitched piece??

And, yes this time I do have a picture of my name board too

Keeping my fingers crossed to meet my deadline of finishing this by year end and have it framed .

I start on my new project at work tomorrow (err, today)!!! Please do wish me luck.

Am sure, the christmas spirit is really high all over. Hope everybody has great fun getting ready for the day. Till my next update, aurevoir..

A Give-away

Karyn at The Teakettle corner is having a wonderful christmas give-away. Go over to her blog to see the entire list of things that are being given as a gift!!!

A few celebrations

We happened to have a couple of celebrations the last week.

One was our festival Kaarthigai Deepam. This time I tried making Pori with mom's help. All these years I only made appam and never ventured near Pori as it involved making jaggery syrup. I am slightly nervous making that. But it turned out to be a simple process and not all that time consuming.

Pori is made with puffed rice. We get various types of puffed rice. For Karthigai, we make the balls by mixing 2 types in jaggery syrup, which are Nellu Pori and Aval Pori.

The most important part is the lighting of lamps.

The significance being that, the month of Karthigai (as per Tamil calendar) is supposed to be inauspicious. So, by lighting lamps the entire month, we drive away the evil and bring home light. On the full moon day that falls in the month of Karthigai, we light many more lamps at dusk.

The second celebration that we had was MIL's 60th birthday. Though we normally don't celebrate birthdays in a big way, as it was her 60th b'day we decided to make a surprise visit. I had bought a beautiful Orissa silk saree in cream and copper-sulphate blue colour. I took the day off and baked a chocolate cake. Vaishnavi was extremeley happy with helping me decorate the cake.

It was her idea to add the cherries. So, while I cut the cherries in half, she decorated the cake with them. I added a few sprinkles. MIL was too happy with the gifts and the surprise. Doesn't it always feel nice to make others happy and see the happiness on their faces. Nothing can be more satisfactory than that.

You know what, out of the blue one day Vaishnavi said "Amma, you have stitched Vaishnavi and have not even started Akila. Go and do it now" !!! Of course she was talking about the name board. Now, do you think I would sit idle even with this. So, out came my project again after weeks!!! I am almost done with Akila (sorry folks no pictures of that yet). Hope to finish the project by year end and get that framed along with my peacock.

Of course, I made quite a few neck-hugging necklaces. Pictures in my next post for sure.

Meari wanted to know how to make samosas. You can find the recipe here http://sanjeevkapoor.com/Recipe.aspx?RecipeId=2944&Header=Searched%20Recipe&MenuId=0

So, with these updates, I am signing off. Till my next update...