Homegrown Zinnia Bouquet

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On summer break. Will be back in August.
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Floral Expressions with Peruvian lilies (Alstroemeria)

Peruvian lilies or Lilies of Inca are pretty flowers. They are inexpensive here in Houston, and I buy them sometimes. I like how they instantly bring spring sunshine like warmth to the home.

Happy, flower filled July 4th weekend!

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Special Book Sale

Wanted: Food writers for Indiaphile website.

My deepest condolences to Dr.Sinha’s family. May God bless him and his family during this time and always.

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Every kitchen garden needs a healthy combination of both herbs and vegetable plants, and nothing beautifies the homestead like flowers. Cilantro is a great annual herb with memorable fragrance, flavor, and flowers. This old-time herb sprouts from coriander seeds, grows compact, flowers prolifically, sets seed gladly and reseeds with ease, offering a perpetual, perennial-like performance in the kitchen garden. The whole cilantro plant, from fresh leaves, flowers, root to seeds have valuable roles in the kitchen and many culinary uses.

I noticed that cilantro loves warm and humid Houston weather. I let my cilantro bloom this spring and then fruit. When seeds are plump, I removed the plants and arranged them in a flower vase to air-dry. They made a beautiful arrangement and filled the home with wonderful coriander fragrance. It makes me happy to think that in about a week when they are dried, I could harvest home-grown coriander seeds.

Cilantro in Bloom

Cilantro with Plump, Green Dhania (Green Coriander Seeds)

Cilantro with Coriander Seeds

Celebrating Mother Earth’s Generosity with Cilantro Bouquet

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When you plan a party, giving your guests, particularly to the little ones party favors that will be appreciated is a nice way to say ‘thanks for coming.’ This budget friendly and fun to assemble candy train is always a hit with the kids. We need a packet of life savers, double mint, and few Hershey varieties. Attach them with a glue stick for body, wheels and whistle of the train. And, hear the delighted squeals.

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Magnolia Serenade ~ A Needlepoint Design

A soothing sunset serenade. That is what I had imagined when I started this needlepoint design. It took me nearly two months to complete the 16″x18″ project, and now decorates our home in a homemade frame. The pretty lady serenades us to sleep with her gentle harp playing.

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Happy Thanksgiving, dear friends. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving (and a wonderful weekend to those non-US readers too). We spent the day with friends and of course eating too much food. It was a classic Indian celebration: curries and koftas, conversation about movies, cacophonic games, more food and then to home to sweet slumber.

For sweet slumber, some good pillows with pretty covers are required. So, I have hand embroidered two pillowcases last week. The design is store bought, printed on the fabric and it is a cross stitch and embroidery combination. The stitches are not perfect but I love how pristine and peaceful the pillows look with the new covers.

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I enjoy cross stitch very much. It’s relaxing to perform, enriching to learn and produces such varied and attractive end results. If you have been wondering about the lack of updates on the website lately, this is the reason. The art form is absorbing and I have been working on a Mandala cross stitch design for sofa pillow covers.

The beautiful Mandala design is courtesy of a wonderful website called The Floss Box. I downloaded the pattern, printed it on a paper and traced the design on to a pillow cover and started stitching it. It is a simple design, requires only few color threads and will be done in two to three days. I have planned this design for four pillow covers. Three are done, one more to go.

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Recently, when I was looking for some material suitable for pillow slipcovers, I came across an old cloth in one of my suitcases. I had brought this piece of cloth with me seven years ago from Nandyala. It was supposedly for kitchen curtains, but I have never gotten to use it. I stitched four small pillow covers out of it this weekend and they looked very nice. This has been the first project with my new Singer sewing machine.

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