A Privet from My Parents

Hello dears!!! I am not going to start with apologies and explanations of my absence. For some reason life has become really really busy here. My only nook these days is chatting with parents. Because it is a spring time there in cold Kazakhstan, the images of blooming trees and strikingly green leaves make my heart long for home more these days. Especially when Celsius hits here in India the mark of more than +40, the freshness of the views from a native land is precious. Today presenting a quick and easy on the eye post :) Enjoy!
The apple tree, this year is strewn with flowers. I never get a chance to visit dacha during this time of the year.

 The blooming cherry bushes. The white flowers reflect the sunlight. Cherry grows just next to the pine trees there - doubtful neighbourhood but they have managed for the past few years this way.

 The row of pine trees on the left - my parents are particularly proud of them,

 The same pine trees have given peculiar flowers too, hence there will be pine cones afterwards!

I am sorry I couldn't make a post about Moscow visit last year, let's see if I will be able to find time for this, otherwise, will try to provide more of recent photos :)

Have a nice and fresh new day ahead!

Holidays' Spirit Created by Yourself :)

Hello my lovely friends! West Christian Christmas is just round the corner so is the New year! I am full of holidays' spirit these days, creating the mood myself for myself and wanting to share with all of you. I will also visit your lovely blogs soon, since I absolutely LOVE all the holiday posts made by you, and I want to finally keep a pace too :)
(Maybe not related to this post, but I started reading the Thirteenth Tale by Diana Setterfield and I love it! Anyone read it too? Perfect read to divert your thoughts).
My holiday spirit started with ... baking! I tried for the first time to bake cookies in our IFB convection oven. First attempt... hmmm, too sugary and buttery and crunchy, but we ate it all :P

Second attempt - much much better! I am going to use the same recipe with different flavours for Christmas treats. In plans, let's see how it realizes itself, to make a traditional winter wine gluhwein! :) Yumm! I will find this eggless recipe among my notes and provide a link here.

Yahoo, I managed to make some tree ornaments! Which cost zero I believe. Here is a Pinterest inspiration  - a Christmas star ornament made of sticks :) I later painted it golden, and also painted pine cones my D got from Manali last year, more photos are yet to come.

 We went to buy a New year tree few days ago, and it was proudly placed in the drawing room :))) Of course I wanted to have it primary for my little A to enjoy all the celebrations related to Christmas and New Year, since we cannot go to Kazakhstan this winter. But.. I am a big child too, therefor it brings loads of joy to me as well. It is not yet fully decorated in this picture.

And at last... My little boy is now a Christmas elf! :) I don't usually post his pictures in my blog, but it's a special occasion now. How do you like his look? D's childhood sweater (more than 30 years old!), and a red hooded shirt along with a hat created an unexpectedly elf-looking costume. Little A loves wearing this Santa hat, especially that it has become really cold at home. Here are his photos to compare how much he grew since last year. I cannot believe this! :)

To conclude my post ;

Happy holidays and happy coming up Christmas, dear friends, from our family! 

Blissful Moments on Rainy Days

I know I am very spontaneous this week. I do posts about this and that - things my life consists of. My soul was very happy today as well as my body, which truly got heated up in the last couple of weeks. Yes, it rained heavily today. I finished my office the exact time it started pouring water from the sky... I was more than grateful to the Nature for giving us this relief. I expect evening to be cool and soothing.

I reached home, did some house things quickly and made a cup of black coffee for myself. After that I went back to the house, but a timely and wonderful thought struck me to go out and have a pleasant time under the cloudy sky.. with the same cup of coffee - it tasted special. It looked special, reflecting the sky on its surface. I haven't felt such joy for a long time... I was looking around, on our plants trying to guess their feelings about this blissful weather today. They were grateful too, I could see it.

My eyes fell on this waving plant which grows in the pot under the citrus tree you can see at the background. Last year it was very small, continuously drying, loosing its leaves, I thought it wouldn't make it. But look at it now - so green, so lively and ready to meet sunshine every morning and kiss the stars every  night. 

Rainy weather always makes me dreamy... makes me happy... makes me feel good and content. It makes me feel I am home.

Wishing you all a blissful weekend!

Inspired By Nature

Today be ready for some unusually long tales from me, my dears, as I was really missing you all and want to share my little things :) The week was pretty much diverse, in a sense of weather. I hand't even have enough time to complain how much hot days had become, when sudden rain and drop in temperature brought immense joy. Yes, I mentioned in my profile that I like rainy weather, no, actually, I love it! As I was waiting for my conveyance (which I'm going to show you soon) to pick me yesterday morning, I had few minutes of communication with nature. I can't describe how good I felt inhaling wet, fresh air, listening to the rustle of the trees, and observing this incredible sky... It is amazing how nature creates patterns from its elements - I have never seen such clubbing of clouds ever! 

When I arrived to the sector I work in, everything was quiet, looked clean and fresh. The plaza  was totally different from what it is usually. And usually it's a crowded place, noisy because of the people's talks and birds' chirping.

Besides adoring changing weather, I occupied myself with few projects this week. This one was inspired by Magaly's wonderful  candles, you can find her tutorial here. I managed to make only one so far and wasn't that clever to tie the wick around pencil to keep it up while wax is getting cold, but I do love this cute white candle, which is by the way, scented with lemongrass! My D liked the candle very much, as he likes lemongrass fragrance too.  I haven't tried to burn it yet, but will do today in honour of our 2 years and 9 months marriage anniversary. Oh yea, I always say, that we have to celebrate not only love, but patience. We went through so many challenging  moments already, and I believe they made us stronger and closer to each other.

Among all the doilies I had made before, this one is very special. Not only because of the colors, which I myself like a lot, but also because it was made for my parents. You see, I'm getting ready for my trip back home. I picked the doily pattern immediately I saw it on Debi's blog. She took it from Rita's blog, and  thanks to her for highlighting this pattern. My doily didn't come out that lacy, because I used DK acrylic yarn. I tried to block it later on as to stretch the stitches more to  show the spaces.

And now something special (again). My first painting on real canvas - it was such a spontaneous decision of mine! I used acrylic paints, oh dear, I really like them now, as I tried them only on plain paper before. The canvas texture is also pleasant to paint upon. First, I planned to make the picture fairy tale like, but later it turned out more realistic. I love sun set, as it sometimes gives wonderful color to the sky... The whole painting is a pure inspiration, with no drawing rules :)

The current week is a big long 7 day celebration of Maslenitsa holiday, which precedes the Great Lent in Orthodox calendar. Every day of the week has its own name and purpose, and usually, everyone bakes Russian pancakes "bliny" during the whole week as to share with their relatives and friends. Today is a day when mother-in-law visits her son-in-law's home and he offers her pancakes :) Here is my version of pancakes - they tasted the same as my father's ! Yumm : )

The last day of Maslenitsa is called a Forgiven Sunday, and this is the day when you ask for forgiveness from your close ones and they ask from you. You have to forgive, even if offense is big, or simply say "God will forgive you". 

I wish you all to have good mood, peace of mind and love in your heart.

Our Happy Diwali

First I can't recognise myself as this month I make posts again and again, and it's only mid of November :) Well, may be I discovered more things to blog about Sunny Indian Days which continue to be as such. Today is the eve of Indian Festival of Lights called Diwali or Deepavali. This one is one of my favourite holidays! House decorated with bulb lights, in the evening we will put lit diyas (small vessels made of clay) around the house and outside. This looks so festive! However Diwali is also such a joyful holiday because the families get together. Diwali for Indians (Hindus, Sikhs) is like Christmas and New Year for Christians.

My husband, thank God, came back from his awesome trip exactly before Diwali, and this what makes it so much happy for me. He brought so much joy in the house straight away and was like Diwali Santa, giving away all these yummy and fragrant stuff. I must say that he knows what we both like, and we like chocolate a lot!

This chocolate bar is made in Lippstadt, it has some of the city views on the cover. We haven't tasted it yet, I am sure it will be yummy!

 A set of sweets and a mug with Mozart's picture as a souvenir from Vienna.

 In order to celebrate my D's arrival and coming up Diwali we opened this lovely fizzy wine yesterday evening.

 We sat comfortably on the sofa, poured it in the glasses, and then I threw a look at the crochet cushion case... I said "Hey, dear, I spoke about it so much in my recent blog post. I need you to hold it tight and I'll take the picture!"

So here is he, clutching the cushion :) Yes, he liked it a lot!

And here's me hiding behind it. I am happy... Diwali is going to be great! We will go to buy different crackers and will make some noise in the evening! See how many of exclamation marks I inserted in my post!

Happy Diwali to you, my dear friends!Be Happy!

The Small Joys of Stationery Shopping

   Yuppiee, I am doing my 10th post in September, which is not common as I usually come up with only 8-9 posts a month. Today I wanted to tell about my small joys I get here in India. This week I discovered few stationery shops near my office in sector 17. It means that now I don't have to go especially to any other sector for purchase of crafty supplies and can buy them in my lunch time or after office hours :) These stationery shops are mainly "built in" the book stores. First time I went there with my nice colleague and friend J, she is also a foreigner married to an Indian. I bought these nice wrap paper sheet, my friend approved the choice. I really enjoy their designs!

                               

                               

                               

  Today I went shopping again and picked up 8 colorful craft tapes and three pens and paid 70 rupees for all. I mean to say that the stationery in India is very cheap and this is my joy too :) I was longing also to buy "craft scissors" as I call them. How happy I was when found a set of four such scissors with zigzag, cloud, wave and mountain shaped razors. However I didn't want to buy so many of them straight away and continued searching for a single item. I ended up buying these awesome colorful zigzag scissors from another shop. Oh well, there is loads of stuff left over there still, so will plan another "trip" sometime later ;) 

                                

                               

                                

***Have a joyful weekend ahead!***

Granny Doily featured on CraftGossip

  Blogging has made me more adventurous and decisive. A little bit more than one week back I submitted a tiny form on the site called CraftGossip. The site features crafty ideas, tutorials from around the world from different bloggers and designers. I decided to try it out and sent the idea of my granny square doily with red flower decoration. Was I happy to receive a positive response from the crochet editor of the site JD Wolfe that my project would be featured on the 12th of September! 

  I made the doily while being at my parents' dacha last month.  The doily stayed with parents, but who knew its adventure would continue! If you are interested you can go and check how it looks like following the link Granny Doily. The editor wrote a nice brief article about it. Well, it is not that grand project I think and the deal is not in being popular by showing  it to everyone. The joy comes more from participation and I hope that someone would find this idea of home decor useful. I was advised by my fellow blogger Bonitabonbons to make a whole granny square blanket out of such doilies ;) Let's see. I am ready for new projects!