Diwali Weekend and The Kids Celebrated their First Birthday

Diwali was spent at the Sister's over the extended weekend. We stayed away from the crackers and instead had a great time chomping on homemade cookies (Meera is a pro when it comes to baking chocolate cookies), kachauris and guzzling Raw Pressery juices. This one time we all get into the traditional attire of the Sari and I was so thrilled with getting it wrapped in one go! That's an achievement you see! It was particularly thrilling to put on this gorgeous cotton handloom sari from Maharashtra Emporium, Nagpur and some of my jewellery from my wedding trousseau. 

The traditional Teep - the neck piece, is made from very dainty hand embossed floral panels joined together by rings and sewn by hand onto a thick piece of velvet. This is worn as a choker at the base of the neck. 

The bracelet - the Pahunchi is made of tiny patterned, hollow, oval shaped pieces handsewn on to velvet. This jewellery is typical of the Kumaoni bride and are great works of art. What makes these even more special for me is that they're all handmade. Am so grateful to my Mum for passing them on to me.

We made the traditional Seli too. The Seli is made from coloured dough. I don't know the significance of this, but we've seen my Mum make this every Diwali since we were kids in Nairobi. 

Our happiness didn't stop at Diwali, we had our kids - Franny and Zooey celebrate their 1st Birthday. These babies have filled our lives with so much joy and happiness over the last one year. 

We brought home these cutiepies when they were only 4 weeks old and now we want to run to Meera's every weekend to spend time with them. Franny was neutered two weeks ago and the poor gurl isn't allowed to jump around too much. So we had a quiet party for the kiddos on Sunday afternoon. They were thrilled with their Mama baking them a doggie cake and pampering them all day. They hated the Birthday caps though hhahahaa

These kids have sure given us all some really wonderful lessons on life. No other pets are quite like dogs. They love you selflessly to bits, run to you the moment they hear your footsteps in the car park, become your hottie - botties on cold winter nights, live each day only to please you, stay alert all night and are always always there for you, with no conditions attached! Its a blessing to have Franny and Zooey in our lives! Happy Birthday luvs!!

Hope you all had a great festive weekend! I'm glad to be back at the sewing table. Thank you all for reading so patiently :))

Runa