A Trip and a Trophy

WARNING!!! LONG POST HEAVILY LADEN WITH PHOTOS

(You might want to get that cup of tea) 

Hi friends!! I hope March has been treating you well so far. I am guilty of going MIA, but that is because I had a lot of WIPs and no FOs. Things are not going so well on the crochet front. But more on that later.

Today I thought of sharing something non-crochet. That's right...its about a trip and a trophy. As a Valentine's Day gift, hubby took me for a short trip to Udaipur. Udaipur is a beautiful city in the neighbouring state of Rajasthan. Very picturesque and laden with history. But before that let me tell you why we went on this trip.

My son had gone to Mumbai to attend a four day All India animation workshop arranged by his Institute. He extended his stay for a further 10 days to catch up with old friends and to generally soak up the Mumbai atmosphere which he dearly missed. While he was having fun, I was bored out of my skull. Yes, because inspite of the arguments, pranks, ribbings and fights, he is the only company I have for a better part of the day.

Sonny boy returned just in time for his twentieth birthday which turned into a double celebration, as he had come home with a trophy!! He had won the Star Talent Award (for UI & UX design for Mobile) which IS an achievement considering that the event was attended by around 300 students.
Definitely a Proud Mom moment!

While he was away, hubby arranged a two day trip to Udaipur. Let me share some pics .....

Exquisite carvings on the outer walls of the Shamlaji Temple on the way. Photography is prohibited inside Indian temples.

A camel welcoming us into the hotel.  :)
As soon as we checked in we made a beeline for the City palace which was a five minute walk from the hotel.

Impressive... isn't it!

The main entrance

The royal emblem and coat of arms (I think)

A view of the Lake palace on Lake Pichola (now a luxury hotel) from the City palace

These windows called "Jharokhas" are typical of Rajasthani architecture and are seen all over the city.

A view of the kingdom sure to please any king...

Hubby helping another couple (unknown) with their photo

A fountain in the middle of the palace, maybe as a relief from the heat

Those are colourful mirrors you see on the walls of this beautiful room

The king's study. Can you see that wonderful fan on the right side? Obviously there was no electricity in those days... so how do you think this fan worked?
Using kerosene... ingenious!

I just love these mosaic peacocks in the courtyard. There are a few more in different poses.

Can you see the intricate, neat and painstaking work done on them?

It must have been a pleasure to live in such an ornate, beautifully decorated palace!

The detailing is mind blowing..

This beautiful chandelier is part of the princess' parlour (below) where she entertained other royal ladies...

To visit all these rooms you have to go through a labyrinth of steep narrow staircases like this one. The royals must have been quite fit... and slim too  ;)

The exit doorway...

I hope you enjoyed these pics. There are heaps more photos which I will share later (don't want to burden you too much on one day).

As I mentioned earlier all is not well on the crochet front as "another one bites the dust". (Not a Freddie Mercury fan...... okay(smile), never mind!) The white and aqua baby frock, which all of you guessed so correctly, was not turning out so well, with the skirt becoming ginormous with each row finally had to be frogged. Can't imagine any baby going around with such a huge skirt. I must say, you crocheters are so clever to guess it right away. Actually if you crochet (or craft) you have to be clever... isn't it?!! A little shameless back patting there ;)

But I was not going to let those cute granny squares go to waste. So what do I do.... nothing, just make some more grannys. And now they are all joined to form a lovely baby blanket. I will be blocking the blanket over the weekend and will be sharing it soon.
Thank you, lovely people for your wonderful comments about my yellow purse. I am glad all of you liked it and took a minute to write to me. The pattern is very nice so do try it out.

A big welcome to all the new friends who have joined us.
Wishing everybody a fantastic fun filled weekend. Phew... that was one long post, I hope you are still with me  :)

See ya soon,

A Long Spell

Hello there, beautiful people. Remember me? Are you still with me or have you moved on to a more crafty, witty and regular blog? I wouldn't be surprised if you have. But I am hoping against hope that you are out there and that you have been checking my blog once in awhile. 

I know there has been a long spell of silence from my side. There is no particular reason for that. And thankfully, no "sick" stories this time, God knows I had quite a few of those in the past couple of months. Actually I was just a little bit distracted. I also think I had Blogger's block. (Is there such a thing?)  I did have a lot of things/stories to share but just could not sit down and put them in words! 

Another reason being that my dear mother-in-law accompanied us on the trip back from Mumbai and most afternoons are spent chatting with her. Or rather she reminiscing about the good old days and me making the right noises at the right time. No, I am not being rude. I do agree with her that the good old days were really good and uncomplicated and happy and of course so much cheaper. Not much I can add to that conversation! Also it seemed impolite to go clackity-clack at the keyboard while she was  so eagerly taking me on a "Golden Days" journey.

Okay, okay I know excuses, excuses! Maybe I should just admit that I was lazy. But of course I was very much online and in these past few days I visited most of you out there and even gave my "valuable" comments on some of your posts.

In the meantime, a lot of new friends have joined us, so let me begin by welcoming them;
           Onilda e Maria Isabel at Cantinho do artesanto Nina e Bel
           Cat at Through the Eyes of a Domestic Goddess
           Bobi Jensen at Western Warmth
           Maven at Fiber P*rn
and    Mitzi Christian

Now for the real McCoy, the pansy doily was not working out as I would have liked so I frogged it. Now I am searching for another Pansy doily pattern. To cover up my disappointment I made a lovely yellow/mustard doily. Only two more rounds to go so I shall be sharing that with you soon.

Since last week, I have a young girl coming to learn crochet in the afternoons. At age 25 she is an associate professor at CEPT Ahmedabad..... Wow!! She teaches History of Architecture and comes over to my place in the afternoons during her lunch break.  She is not regular but I like her dedication. I love teaching crochet and I am hoping that more and more women in India will take it up as a hobby and also as a stress buster. 

And now for the news that I am dying to share. On Sunday the 28th, I shall be meeting one of my blogger friends, for the very first time. Isn't that just super!! After commenting on each others blogs for a few weeks we realised that we stay in the same state. We kept planning to meet each other some day and now after months of waiting I finally get to meet her on Sunday as we will be in her city to visit my aunt. I am sure that bloggers do this all the time. But this is a first for me, and I am soooo excited. I hope the meeting goes off better than expected and we have lots of stories to share. I will certainly tell you about our get together, wish me luck.

A picture-less post. Nah...that would be boring. So I am going to share this doily I made a long time ago. I am sorry I do not have the link to the pattern.  :(

I love the way the petals overlap each other.

My MIL says it is too pretty to be used as a hot pad.

So, finally THE SPELL has been broken. ;) Maybe for a change I should try a Wordless post. Hmmm..... a post without my jabber jabber. Very difficult but I will try it someday in the future.... distant future you see.

But until then, I will be back with some more exciting news, a "First" of another kind, soon.
So take care, happy hooking or knitting or scrap booking or cooking or whatever makes you tick. Enjoy life, you only live once and Thank you for visiting me.

Love xxx

Birthday Bonanza

Hi friends. Aren't you glad that it is already Thursday? We are on the right side of the week. :)

Let me begin by welcoming our new friends;
          Ana from Tejedora de Nanduti,
          Beck from BECK to Vintage,
          Nilgun from Nilgun"den guluckler,
          Kamoni (Dear Kamoni, please let me have the link if you have a blog),
          TehSoune fromHooks and Yarn!,
and    Kevser from Kevser'in Penceresi.

It was my husband's birthday on Tuesday the 28th. The celebrations started at midnight (27th) where we kept up with our usual tradition of waking up the birthday person with the Happy Birthday song followed by cake cutting. This year my son decided to choose the gifts and the cake for Dad. So, this is the cake he bought:

We debated for a long time about the gift. It was difficult because what can you get for someone who already has most of the things. (My husband would have loved a ticket to Switzerland.... but as you imagine... way way beyond sonny's and my budget - LOL). After searching  the internet for some time we decided to get a few practical items. And these are the items we got,

A Nokia Bluetooth Headset.

And a set which included a Polo watch, a belt and a wallet;

I have my eye on that Polo tin. Would make a nifty storage for buttons and stuff. This set came with a pair of formal black shoes and a pair of Lotto sports shoes, but one disgusted look from my son prevented me from clicking photos of said item ... ha ha. (Secretly both my son and husband think I have gone bonkers, going around the house with a camera and clicking random objects, birds, books and balls of yarn!) If only they were aware of the pleasures of blogging. ;)
The day ended with a movie (not so good) and a visit to KFC (very very good.... definitely finger licking good). I was given strict instructions not to take the camera along. (He he)

And now for a Ta Da moment.....
Yesterday my brother did some techno tinkering with the blog (he is my 24x7 tech support for the blog and all other computer related stuff) and now my blog is in its own domain!! I think it is wonderful. Thanks dear Bro.

Friends, if you have not yet visited my Facebook page, please do and give me a "Like" there. I know it does not have anything much on it yet but I am working on it. Hmmm... I think I should start that right away. So see you soon.

Have a lovely day. Buh-bye.
Love xxx

Monday Musings

Good afternoon, friends. I hope your Monday has got off to a roaring start. 

Is that groaning I hear out there?  Ha ha... don't worry we can groan together! 

Now as a SAHM for me Monday mornings only mean getting up a little early to make breakfast, and lunch for hubby to take to office.  Sunday mornings I am allowed to wake up a little late, but mainly because I think my husband thinks I just might kill someone if woken up too soon. Yeah..... I confess I am not a morning person and it takes a big pot of tea to bring me into the land of the living. 

But Monday mornings never fail to take me back to those days when I was a full time working mom. The only regret I have is that I never got to spend enough time with my little boy. I don't even remember watching him grow. Memories of hurried breakfasts, bus stop deadlines, dropping and picking him up from the babysitter's, PTA meetings, struggling to get the homework done before bed time and then off to sleep. Life was like a train hurtling down the fast track, you are sitting eagerly at the window with you nose pressed against the window. But stations just fly by before you can read the names and before you know it your destination has arrived.

Now that he is a teenager he is so busy with his smartphone, iPod, laptop and God knows what other fancy gadgetry, who has the time for parents? BUT yesterday he very sweetly agreed to drive me to the book fair as he loves to drive and he knows how crazy I am about books!!

And yes..... if you have not already guessed, that is my son posing at the steering wheel in my last post. 

And now (gleeful rubbing of hands) let me show you the treasures I acquired!

A couple of novels

Catherine Cookson

Catherine Cookson is not really my favourite author and I do find her books to be a tad depressing, but I have a weakness for fat books.... so there.

A few cookbooks 

Cookbooks

Cookbook

Young housewife...who me? (He he) But seriously, this book has some great recipes and covers everything from soups to desserts. And also, because I often read cookbooks for reading pleasure. Especially the really descriptive and narrative ones where they go into stories about their childhood memories, how this dish was invented, and blah, blah blah. Yeah...good fun.

And now a lovely mouthwatering book

Cookies and Biscuits

I love baking but I don't bake nowadays as all three of us need to seriously lose some weight. (I can imagine my brother exclaiming "some weight!! write a lot of weight".)

This next book is chock-a-block with information and photos of my favourite deity Ganapatiji. And it was a real steal at that price.

Ganesha

 

 Of course, saving the best for last,

Join as you go Afghans

This is one lovely book with gorgeous, gorgeous projects. Absolutely fantastic afghan designs which deserve a "guided tour", which I will give you in a few days.

Kid's Quilt's Weekend

One more quilting book added to my bucket list. You know.... make at least one quilt before I die. LOL Now that I have totally four books it is high time I made at least ONE quilt...shame on me.

Well, now off I go as I have lots to do, which means deciding whether to drool over the afghan book OR the cookie book. Life is so full of tough decisions :)

See you soon, do let me know your Monday woes, keep your hooks busy and take good care of yourself. 

Love xxx

Steering Sunday

Hello beautiful people. I hope you are having a great Sunday.

I started to write this post today morning. After lunch dear hubby decided to take a nap and that is when sonny boy and I took the car and went for a spin. I tell you it is such a blessing for me that my son now has a driver's license and also that he drives pretty well! So, where did we go? Of course to the Book Fair I told you about yesterday. I got some lovely books but I will share them with you later.

Now it is 11.00 pm and I am trying to type as fast as I can so that I don't have to change the post title...!!!??

 One day DH complained "I always see you with a hook in hand and yarn trailing behind you, but you have never made anything for me."  Upon some reflection I realised that he was in fact quite right. The only excuse I can give is that since we don't stay in a place which has really cold weather, scarfs, sweaters, gloves, hats are all out of question. So then, what does that leave me with! What can you actually crochet for a man?

I did make something special for him some time back with hilarious results for which you HAVE to go and read that post. So that item does not really count. In THIS post I showed you something I was making for my hubby. Finally I have completed it.

What does it look like? It is not a scarf or belt or anything wearable.... it is in fact a steering wheel cover. Yes, that is what my hubby wanted me to make. See my army of bobbles marching in formation.

 After crocheting for an appropriate length and measuring it against the steering wheel I stitched the two ends together.

Then I stretched it over the steering wheel and stitched it into place.

 

And voila there it is firmly in place.

Yep, those are my hands. Only posing of course as I am shit scared to drive, even though I have a license.

The yarn store had limited choices and this was the closest match I could find to the car's upholstery.

 

Some unknown 19 year old who agreed to pose for me... ha ha. Isn't he a dear?!

 It is hubby's birthday on Tuesday the 28th, do you think I can pass off the steering wheel cover as my handmade gift for him? LOL. Just joking as I Have got something else for him. Will show it to you soon.

Yes, yes, yes managed to finish writing this post AND it is still Sunday....Yeah! I am praying there are no typos I have overlooked.
So see you tomorrow my sweet friends. Lots of things to share.

Take care, happy hooking.
Love xxx