Tusal

Wow, I have been away from the blog for over a week now, and definitely late with the Tusal for the month.

Here goes

The orts for the month are all from October.

My divine mother, Mata Amritanandamayi, was in Chennai last week - 18th and 19th. It is 2 years since she visited Chennai. So, do I need to mention the joy that we all felt?!

 The 2 days were total bliss, showered in total unconditional love. Every darshan from Amma leaves us totally energized and recharged. Now, am dragging myself back to reality.

October is really dragging. I picked it up after nearly 10 days last night!! There's just the border at the bottom left to complete. So, thought of showing a picture of the completed October.

Now, that was a very quick update wasn't it. Till next time, Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

April is done

And now it's time to display April, though a week late. V did warn me when I completed March "Amma, you better complete April as well, or you'd have to cram in the last minute", and that's precisely what happened. With my brother and family down for a holiday, I totally missed April and realized after V went on about April fool on the 1st!!

So, here it is.

I found these lovely trimmings last week during a trip to our crafts supplies store with V. Thought the beaded one would suit April perfectly, and it did.

I also bought V her first long stitch kit. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it's a simple starter one by anchor. She's super thrilled.

That's it from me today. Till next time.. Take Care.. Be happy. Keep stitching.. Au Revior

October and some baking

I've been on a baking spree lately. Especially, ever since I found the 6-min chocolate cake recipe. This time I used that recipe to make some Tiramisu

And that's a slice of the cake

 Finally, I got the consistency of beating the fresh cream right and was able to get the soft peaks. The recipe I used did not call for the lady fingers, so this is a different Tiramisu, but yummy all the same :) The recipe is from here. She has a whole lot of other eggless recipes as well.

My niece turned 2 on 20th. I baked a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for that.

The cake itself turned out pretty dense. That was because I used half oats and half flour. Also, I substituted the orange juice with milk. So, there was nothing to make the cake light there. This was my first attempt with cream cheese frosting, and am quite happy with how it turned out. I used cream cheese and whipped cream for this. As summer is setting in, the frosting started running by the time we got half the cake covered. So, I ran into an air-conditioned room and completed the remaining.

I am half way through October cottage.

I think I might need to frog out part of the wall (the portion that I have marked with an oval), as the color of the thread really blends in with the fabric. That part is actually stitched, but can't see the stitches there, can you?

Meanwhile, Dr.Flu decided to pay me a visit and has taken my vocal cords for a break. Have been sick ever since last Wednesday, with a bad throat. The fever is gone, but I still have a very bad cough. This is not allowing me to stitch at all. So, no stitching has happened since last Wednesday.

That's my update for the week dear friends.
Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

March TUSAL and so much more

That's right, there's soo much to share with you all today. Let me start with the TUSAL for the month

 

All of the orts are from the cottages, mostly from September and a little bit of October.

I did quite some cooking over the weekend. Tried making veggie pasta in tomato sauce.

I added some mint leaves for some flavor. The family loved it.

One of my friends had shared this recipe of a 6-minute chocolate cake sometime back. As I had this terrible chocolate craving during the weekend and wanted something quick, decided to try this

And the result was surprisingly great. The texture was I think the best of all my cakes so far. I think from now this is going to be recipe am going to use for a chocolate cake. I also chopped some chocolate and added it in for some extra chocolatey flavor. The recipe is from here

The oven is acting up again!! Strangely the microwave portion is not working, but the convection is. So I managed to bake the cake during the weekend. I think we are just going to ditch this and get a new one. I say friends, never buy an IFB product. The after-sales service is pathetic. We logged a ticket for this oven last Friday, and the technician has not turned up till today. This is not the first time this is happening.

As I said during my last post, I bought a few tools to facilitate the stitching. A floor stand, an easel with magnetic chart holder and a cooling rack for the baking.

I mounted the fabric for October in this first, but later found that the sharp edges were damaging the tender jobelan. So, I removed the fabric from there and went back to my q-snaps. Do you have some tips on how to use this? How can I avoid the fabric from being damaged?

Oh and that's the material for November and December

And now to show you all the September finish

Doesn't it look beautiful. I have also started working on October now. I can't wait to finish all the cottages and start working on the shells now. V made a comment "Amma, by the time you finish the shells I would have finished school"!!! So, no way am going to let that come true.

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

March is all done

That's right, before I realize another month is gone and it's time to finish and put up March!!

I tried using beads instead of the satin, and a combination of satin+beads, instead of plain green. But it did not work out so well. Going to try that for the next months for sure.

Over the weekend I baked some cookies - oatmeal raisin.

Got the recipe from here. The basic recipe calls only for flour, but I used half oatmeal. It came out really nice and chewy, shall I go out and say "a lliiitttle bit like pepperidge farm". There I said it :d

September cottage is almost done, will post a completed picture in my next post. Oh, there's so much more to show. I have got some new tools, bit have not taken pictures yet. So more from me very soon ;)

Till then.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Give-away

Mellisa of St.John's stitcher is having a great give-away and the last date to enter is 16th Feb

Hop over and check it out soon. Here's the link

TUSAL and a finish

Oh, sooo much has happened the last week. Let me start with a celebration.

My dear mom completed 60 years!! We had a small gathering at home. My aunts happened to be with us on that day. They had come down to Chennai to attend a wedding, so we had an impromptu gathering. I baked a cake of course.

My mother does not like chocolate cake. So baked her an almond cake with almond butter cream frosting. V did the frosting and the message. We initially started off with edible markers, but the frosting started sticking to the tip of the marker. So we used gel for the rest of the message

I tried a different version of the savory bread, with corn and paneer. 

This definitely is a super hit at home. The whole loaf is finished for a single breakfast. The hubby and V demand this for breakfast every Sunday now!!

Last night I baked some cookies. I call these health cookies, as I used a health mix powder instead of whole wheat. 

 The original recipe is for whole wheat walnut cookies from here. As I had a carton of the Manna health mix at home and not being used, I used that instead of wheat. The result was absolutely yummy. V had a few when they were still warm and was totally thrilled. Boy, I have been on a baking spree!!

Now for the TUSAL. 

 It's already the 2nd one of the year!!

 And finally, I have finished August, my version of it

Initially when I replaced the red with orange, I had a little doubt. But I love the was it has finished. I am also very happy with the Indian flag, standing there tall and proud. Now I am all set to start September. I have decided to finish the cottages fast and then resume the seashells.

Wow, quite a lot isn't it?? With that I take leave today. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir :)