April Check in for Flower of the Month SAL

I'm really enjoying participating in SALs as these keep me motivated to stitch for monthly progress reports.

As the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL hosted by Jo and TUSAL hosted by Daffy require posting in the middle of the month, I have now joined a new SAL where I will be posting at the end of month.

This is the 2015 Flower of the Month SAL hosted by Alyssa. The patterns are the flower of the month charts by EMS Designs.

Though I enrolled in this SAL middle of the month, I kept delaying the start thinking that I have enough time in hand and then on the Tuesday , I panicked realizing that its 26th already ;)
So after 2 hours of stash hunting for appropriate fabric and threads ,here is the progress for the April flower "Sweet Pea" so far

I'm stitching this on 14ct white Aida gifted to me by my friend Ms. G using three strands.
This aida is a lot stiffer than what I have used all my life and I feel three strands is a bit two much for this count.

I'm happy to tell that I'm using pin stitch for starting my thread for this piece. Its my first time using Pin stitch and I find it lot easier than the dreadful French knots.

I'm looking forward to a creative weekend ...what are your plans for the weekend folks?



 

Adventures with Food(Continued)

There is a famous proverb in Hindi which says "Why do we live, to eat "...and that very much defines why food and cooking is such a big deal in common Indian house hold.
Until a decade ago, the practice of eating in restaurants/hotels/cafes wasn't so common in India. With more females starting to work full time in offices and daily commute to work places eating upto 3-4 hours of a day..eating in restaurants has become a more of a necessity.

Not that I think low of females who don't cook three meals at home...I still am a traditional at heart who loves to cook for family and guests.

What fuels my passion for cooking and food is that my partner and I are big time foodies .We get bored of eating the same cuisine daily and crave for "something different" everyday.

So it turns out that I tend to feel guilty if I don't try a new recipe for a long time or cook an elaborate Indian meal each week.

Here are few new recipes I tried this week. I'm sure many of you must have tried these many times.

1. Guacamole en Molcajete

This is a new dish which I ate at one of the restaurants in Covent Garden in London. It was the restaurant's recommended dish and I'm must say it met the expectations.

It's essentially freshly prepared Guacamole served with nachos.

I followed the method they used  :

Ingredients:

1.Avocado - 1big
2.Chopped onion
3.Chopped tomatoes
4.Chopped coriander
5.Lemon juice
6. Jalapeno
7.Salt and black pepper

Recipe:

Mix salt and black pepper in the lemon juice. Deseed and scrape the avocado from its cover and mash it nicely. Mix all the ingredients above with mashed avocado and lemon juice mix.The dip is ready to be served with Nachos .
As I wasn't able to find Nacho chips nearby I served Doritos with the dip. A bit sad that I had to settle with Doritos as they contain MSG or E621 which is not a healthy ingredient.

2.Dal Baingan(Lentil-Aubergine with spices)

Another dish I ate at one of the most famous Indian restaurants near Brick lane in London.

It's amazing how even after eating and cooking Indian cuisine for 33 years I still find dishes in Indian cuisine which I haven't eaten .

I used the recipe from this source:

http://sanjeevkapoor.com/recipe/Baingan-Chana-Dal.html

The dish turned out it to be a bit different from the way it was served in the restaurant may be because I  over cooked the dal. The one served in the restaurant was cooked such that lentil retained the shape of the grain and whole aubergines were served on that.

3. Dosa chutneys(Red chutney and coconut chutney)

I'm usually reluctant to make chutneys or dips as I think it takes too much time to make them and  if the main dish itself is tasty...who needs them ;)

Today I decided to make these chutneys to make the meal complete and DH was so happy.

The complete Dosa meal

Recipe source:

http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/coconut-chutney-recipe-coconut-chutney/

http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/red-chutney-for-dosa/

April TUSAL Update

It's time for TUSAL and stitchy pie update.

Here is picture of my ORT jar, which is now richer in colors  :)

I had a relaxing weekend with ample time to do everything that includes doing nothing ;)

I'm happy to say that I have managed to stitch 893 crosses since 15th April which is a lot for me. My target is to complete my current WIP by next GG post and am thinking of joining one more SAL.

DH & I are big movie buffs which can sometime means a movie a day. This weekend we watched two movies and I particularly liked 'Amazing Grace'.If you haven't seen this movie, I recommend watching it. Its a tale of a great human being William Wilberforce who worked hard his whole life for a making world a better place.

That's it for today...

Goodnight my friends

P.S. Mrs. K hasn't recieved my card yet :(

Gifted Gorgeousness Overload (April link up post)

Hello Fellas,

I had a fabulous trip to London and have brought back loads of cross stitch supplies.

Those who have read my earlier posts know that I wasn't quite excited about my trip to London which is not the usual me. Travelling and exploring the world is one of my passions.

The fortnight spent in London was full of meeting new people, exploring the historic places of London, its natural beauty and some yummylicious food.

The weather was a bit cold for spring but I loved it, as I'm a winter person.

May be I'll write a separate post about my London experience.

This is the card I made for Mrs. K from whom I bought a few charts .She hasn't received the card yet so I don't know whether she likes it or not.

Here are details of this piece.

I had a great chance to meet a cross stticher "in person" while I was in London. A while ago, Ms. G posted on WOCS page that she wanted to give away some 18 ct aida . I jumped on to the opportunity and told her that I will be in London shortly and can collect it from her. After a few interactions, she kindly agreed to come down to my hotel. It was lovely to meet her and her son. We talked about cultures, food and the world. This is what she gifted me :

These are the charts I bought from Mrs. K :

Some goodies from Mrs. K:

Ms. G overwhelmed me by sending a lot of magazines, needles and 14 ct.aida, the second time.

Sorry for the flash :(

I plan to stitch Pretty Little London from the latest issue of Cross stitch Crazy some time soon

Few pics from my trip




Chapel at the Windsor Castle



Tower Bridge

One of the exhibits at British Museum



Wouldn't this make a beautiful cross stitch design? Exhibit at National Gallery

I have stitched only once during last 15 days and I'm surely not feeling bad about it ;)

Kuwait has been hit by a series of sandstorms. The one on Sunday, the day I came back, was the worst I have seen till now. I got a little scared and poor DH had to seal close every possible source of air / dust.
Hope I get some stitchy time today after 3 days of consecutive cleaning. I'm planning to complete my fractal since now I have got the colors which were missing.


What have you been guys upto?