Christmas Ornaments

New from Art by Bala! Hand-painted Christmas Ornaments ... a limited edition of only 100 with just 10 purple ones for the first 10 orders. I am thrilled to try something new again this year (last year I did the coloring book for the holiday season). These little approximately 3" plastic shatterproof ornaments are painted on both sides. I was able to find the disc-shaped ones in just red & blue and have painted the blue over for a few bluish green ones and purple. All of them had to be painted over before I could do the textures so the thick paint adheres better to an already painted surface rather than the plastic one. Initially I was thinking of offering custom words on the back inside the hearts, but given the time it takes to work on them & the price point, I am sticking with "Love" on all of them. Can't wait to start shipping these out.

Beans from the Garden

As the summer progresses, my gardening woes have also increased! We had a huge hail that damaged most of my squash plants. In its aftermath, all the squash, pumpkin & melon plants have been stressed & developed powdery mildew. In addition to that, we now have squash bugs :( However, not everything is doom & gloom. The pole beans & some of the bush beans not near the squash plants are happy & in production mode. 

Today I am taking the day off from painting & studio chores to spend time tending the garden. I also harvested enough green beans this week & took the time to make a sauté with some peas & coconut. I also have some yard-long bean plants growing on the vegetable garden fence & noticed a couple of flowers blooming yesterday. Hoping for more beans to grow in the next few weeks. 

Frontyard

Today the suet feeder in the backyard was empty - with so many birds at the feeders, it seems like a daunting task to keep all of them filled all the time! The White Breasted Nuthatch was having a tough time competing with the other birds on the regular feeder and managed to discover the feeder in the front yard. He even managed to bring a friend along today & this is the first time I have seen 2 of them at the same time. 

The doves also love the front yard more! Sometimes its useful to have the red-winged black birds (female in the picture below) come around to splash some seeds on the ground for the doves.

Downy Day

Among all the visitors to the backyard, my favorite is the Downy Woodpecker - the smallest of all the North American Woodpeckers, he is elusive and I have to sit still for a while before he will land on one of the pear trees. Last week he found his favorite suet in the feeder & gave me a chance to get some nice shots...

...till one of the blue jays chased him away for a bit! He came back & hung out for a while and I only accumulated about 5 dozen pictures of him :)

Fur, fur, Baby!

The sparrows have learnt to expect a hoard of soft fur when the dogs get shed in the backyard. They wait for me to finish shedding and as soon as the dogs run away, they swoop down to fetch their treasure. Eyes on the prize, they completely ignore me & the camera...

Backyard Birds

Recently I have taken to having my DSLR camera with me when I sit out in the backyard with the dogs. We have set up a few bird feeders and a couple of bird houses. It's been wonderful to see so many different birds come to the yard and there's also quite a few of them nesting! Here are some clicks from a couple of weeks back...I am hoping to keep this blog alive with at least posting a few pictures now & then :)

Happy Baby

Nothing makes my baby more happy than going for a long swim in a lake & playing with sticks :)

 

 

 

Weekend Rangoli & a Recipe

Shankar & I spent last part of last weekend in Chicago - we went to watch the show "Traces" which sure did leave  trace in me, had a wonderful dinner @ Le Colonial - a French Vietnamese restaurant. And staying in downtown in a room with a view from the 38th floor was a splendid bonus. On Saturday we had brunch at Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill and did some shopping. We also managed to gorge on the Diwali Special buffet at Priya Restaurant on our way home. After all the activity, Sunday was a relaxed day at home. I managed to spread out my painting supplies once again on the dining table and painted a small 8x8 Rangoli. The pattern extends to two of the sides. The best thing is, it is already spoken for :) Now at the collection of David Hill, Madison.

Rangoli with acrylics on canvas

For dinner on Sunday, I also managed to make a few dishes including this simple Brussels sprouts side dish. I simply halved these vegetables, sautéed them in olive oil + butter, added salt & pepper for seasoning and let it cook for a few minutes, Then transferred them into a baking dish, sprinkled some chopped toasted walnuts and shredded Gruyère cheese. I also sprinkled a handful of shredded parsnips (being used in another dish), for crunchiness. Baked for about 10 minutes in 350F oven. Yummy!

Missed you Chicago!

I was looking forward to spending part of this week in the Windy City, with plans to visit the Field Museum and the Lincoln Park Zoo, Devon Avenue, Vanille Patisserie and Tamarind Restaurant. Alas, Shankar did not get to go to his conference, and I missed Chicago, and all the wonderful things it has to offer.

Tamarind @ Chicago

Tamarind - an asian restaurant in the South Loop has become one of our favorite Chicago restaurants. They have a wide array of Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and now Indian cuisines in a beautiful setting. We had been there last November when Shankar attended the AME conference. We went to Chicago in August to show Shankar's parents the big city, and went to Tamarind after a long day downtown.

We stared the dinner with some Avocado rolls and deep-fried Tofu. This is the first time I had Tofu garnished with ginger and toasted Nori. Both of them were excellent.

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Shankar loves his fruit drinks with bobo and Tamarind has a selection of fresh fruits, from which you can choose up to three for a blended drink. We had a Melon trifecta - with water melon, cantaloupe and honey dews.

Shankar's parents had vegetable fried rice and we had a Cashew and Vegetables in a brown sauce with Tofu. This was a perfect meal for us. We noticed that they add a slice of cucumber to their water jars - a refreshing touch!

The staff were very friendly and we also got to talk to the owner. She promised us dessert, but after such a big meal we just couldn't order anything more. Tamarind is very reasonably priced, actually I would venture to say they are in-expensive for the quallity of food and their location. A must-go to restaurant in Chicago!