My work on Colours Dekor!!

The very talented Patricia from Colours Dekor featured N's 1st birthday celebration on her blog!
Needless to say I'm extremely pleased to be showcased by her :)
Thanks Patricia!!

You can check the post here and leave your comments.

Birthday fun - table centerpieces

Its time for N's 2nd birthday (it actually is a month and a few teeny-weeny days away).
I believe in the "plan-plan-and-plan-in-advance" mantra. S is at the opposite end of this chain of thought. So he told me to talk to him about this when we have just about 15 days left for the event. Yeah you could hear me screaming (silently) till miles away.
I have decided to keep S away from my secret planning which I have started already :)

I was thinking of what theme should I put up this year which brought me back to his 1st birthday pictures.
I had organized his 1st birthday party with the theme "Twinkle Twinkle li'l star". It being N's favourite rhyme at that time.
I did some star centerpieces for the tables to match the theme decor.
Here are 2 pictures -

A few friends asked me for the details on making these.  Here is how I made these -

Materials needed -

1) Thermocol pieces or foam pieces (used in flower arrangements) for the base

2) Cellophane paper or coloured tissue paper used in gift bags to wrap the base 

3) Curling ribbon or satin ribbon

4) Wooden skewers or long ice-cream sticks

5) Foam star cut-outs - I picked these ready-made from the craft store. You can use construction/craft paper to cut out shapes.

6) Glitter glue in silver colour

7) Glue stick and

8) Transparent cellophane tape

You can start with drawing shapes on the foam star cut-outs with glitter glue and keep them to dry for some time. Glitter glue tends to run down while wet so keep the stars horizontal on a flat surface till the glue dries down. In case you are using craft paper - the thicker it is the better.

Once the glitter glue has dried, stick the stars on the skewers with glue and tape. You can stick stars on one side or both (back to back).

Next, stick the skewer or ice cream stick in the centre of the thermocol square from the top . Insert till almost the bottom or as close as possible.

Keep the square thermocol piece in the centre of the cellophane/tissue paper. I got readymade square pieces of thermocol from the craft store so did not need to cut thermocol.

Lift the cellophane paper from all sides and gather at the top (where the skewer goes in).

Tie a ribbon around it to give it the toffee wrapper-end look.

Voila! Your star centerpieces are ready!!

You can use the same concept to make other themed centerpieces. Hope you have fun making these.

Photography - my clicks - part 1

Along with all my other 'ahem!' talents I sometimes click pictures.
Jokes apart, I am a jack-of-all-trades and a master-of-a-very-few. But I definitely like trying out new things.
I like to capture moments, people, places and look at them later.
People who know me might even say that they always spot me with a camera.

These are a few of my shots -  

Restless, overwhelmed

These 2 words describe me best right now.
Its been like this for the past few days.
There is this feeling of doing something, a spark somewhere and a dream to follow.
But there are a lot of thoughts too and I need to sort them and pick the one I love most from the pile!
I need to implement my vision practically and not lose this burst of energy and ideas.
Hopefully this phase shall result in something good and not crash like a big ocean wave!

Rest or Jump??

S to a very sick N: You need to rest today so that you get well soon. No school, stay at home.

N: Rest??

S: Yes, that means you can sit and do your puzzles, read your books and maybe watch one cartoon.

N (still puzzled and looking at S)

S: Do whatever you like but spend time on the bed. Ok?

N (dashing on to the bed and jumping on it): Jump! Jump! Jump! N like jump jump on bed!

Firsts...

This has been a month of few firsts..... for N.

N came third in his first ever competition (if it can be called that). It was a a Mommy and me day  and a "make-art-out-of-scrap" activity at his playschool.
Mommies and their kids had to make something out of material like paper plates, old newspapers, straws, coloured streamers, shower caps etc.
The prizes were going to be based on the level of the child's involvement and creativity. So N and I made an Indian flag (it being Independence day this month) from straws and a newspaper cutting. I drew the map of India on the paper plate and N coloured it. We hung streamers of the flag colours onto the paper plate. N had a great time colouring and getting stuff from the common basket - glue, pencils, colours.
He never knew what a prize meant. So when he got the 3rd prize he kept looking at the gift wrapped prize and saying " N pize mine".

Another first was celebrating Independence day in India - it was N's first. And he was very enamoured with the Indian flag. Kept pointing at it wherever he saw it and learnt to name the colours too.

He participated in the celebrations in our apartment complex. The grown ups and children performed on the song "Mile sur mera tumhara". The children were dressed up in dresses from different states and were supposed to walk onto the stage as the grown ups sang in their state's language.
N was supposed to be represent Haryana. He wore a kurta and a dhoti (that was a first too!) and ran around.

He walked onto the stage when his turn came and stood there for an exact 45 seconds!! After which a water sprinkler on the ground caught his eye. The remainder of the song was spent in N walking around the sprinkler, trying to touch it and figuring out why the water wasn't coming out.
It was hilarious and cute at the same time. N of course was least bothered - he still had a full audience looking at him and smiling!

I hope he always retains this confidence and curiosity in life!!

My 1st pencil sketch...

This is a long due post.... I started my painting efforts with pencil sketching first.
And this is my first ever pencil sketch.
I would rate it as "not bad for a 1st effort" - of course it could be better.
I had help in the form of a sketch I could look at and recreate.

Here is one more - the 2nd one -

Who says all auto-wallahs are bad?

I was on my way to the Dastkar craft mela at Palace Grounds on Sunday.
Being new to the area I am still not familiar with the routes. Doesn't help that I have been to couple of fairs in and around the same area now.

Based on past experiences, if I am not sure I usually stop and ask people for directions . I spotted an autowallah and stopped on the side. My friend asked him for directions to Palace Grounds.
He thought for a few seconds and gave us a set of directions.
My friend and I looked at each other - slightly perplexed because the directions didn't seem to make sense and our faces showed that we still felt lost.
Looking at us the auto-wallah smiled and offered to take us till our destination and told us to follow him.
He took us through that confusing set of u-turns and half right turns and brought us close to our destination.

Thanks to the good samaritan we reached the place without going around in circles!

Arty Crafty sunday

Sunday morning was bright and sunny - loved the weather!

I went to Dastkar - with my mom and a friend. It is a craft festival and this year is the 6th Bangalore NATURE BAZAAR showcasing crafts and craftspeople from across India. 
It is on from the 6th August 2010 to 15th August, 2010, from 11:00 AM to 8:30 PM at Palace Grounds, near Mekri circle.

Thanks to blogger Artnavy for letting us know. Like she said it was worth it. A little pricey in some cases but it was a visual treat and was a very culturally satisfying experience.

There was a rajasthani puppet show and dance shows at regular intervals.
I kicked myself for not taking the camera.
 
I picked up some beautiful Madhubani paintings (had been eyeing them for a long time) ... 
 

 

and a wrought iron mask from Chattisgarh....

Also picked some kites for N. Am sure both N and S will love flying those.

A perfect example of bad service - Oasis Mall Koramangala

Weekend was here... Saturday evening .... what could be more ideal than to spend some time at a local mall and eat out too! (I know there are better ways, but blame it on a brain freeze and lack of ideas).
We (the husband, wife, baby and grandma) decided to visit Oasis mall on the Inner ring road (near Sony World Junction in Koramangala) which houses Lifestyle, SPAR, Max and some other stores.
The journey started with the torture of weaving through Bangalore's narrow roads and haphazard traffic combined with the weekend evening madness. After a lot of traffic lights, honks and speed breakers we reached close to the mall and the woes of a weekend-mall-goer began -

1. There were autos and cars parked on the left side of the road  just before the entry to the mall (it is supposed to be a no parking zone). As a result all the vehicles that wanted to enter the mall had to disrupt traffic and butt in right to overtake these stationary autos and cars. There was no traffic cop or mall security to clear up the unmoving traffic.

2. Then began the looonnng queue to park. If you have been to this mall you will know that the transit from one level to the other is difficult, badly planned (who was the architect here?) and very irritating (because you are made to go up around 5 to 6 levels and wait on 45 degree ramps). We saw quite a few drivers backing up at every turn and then driving up the curves.

3. As if the upward journey wasn't enough once we reached the top we were made to wait till a parking spot became available which was about 10 minutes. The guy in front of us had been waiting for 10 minutes already. There were a row of cars behind us including some standing on the awkwardly angled ramp. There was no coordination between the parking attendant on the top floor and his counterparts on the other floors. So the staff on the ground floor had no clue that the terrace parking space had run out and they kept on sending cars to the top floor.

4. Enter the mall and search for a restroom - they are tucked away into one stinking corner. Dirty, smelly, wet and leaking is how they can be described best. There was not even an effort being made made to clean them. Hygiene was at its worst!

5. The way out of the mall isn't great either. Cars were backed up till the 4th floor and it took 30 minutes to reach the ticket collection point on the ground floor. What we thought was a delay because of cars merging with traffic on the main road was a result of inefficient service at the ticket collection booth. The guy was taking his own sweet time - least bothered about the cars backed up till the top floor. Had they been more sensitive and organised they would have employed 2 to 3 people to speed up the ticket collection process. This was sheer callousness on their part.

It is hard to believe that this is one of the newest malls in the city and it lacks space management and good services. This experience has definitely taken this mall off our weekend-to-go places.

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UPDATE - I sent this article to the Bangalore Mirror and they published an edited version of this on 9th July as a feedback in the "Letters to the Editor" section. Felt good about voicing my opinion and seeing it in print!

Colours

I have been away from the internet for a few days (thanks to a nonfunctional laptop & house guests). My sister left this week and my mom arrived so I have been busy. N has been having a great time of course!!

I have been slowly collecting things for our apartment. Last week I put together N's room (its still not fully done) and this is how a part of it looks -

Here is a close up of N's art work & keepsakes that I have put up. Most of it is laminated so that it lasts longer.

The colourful cushions idea was borrowed from my sister-in-law (actually S' sister-in-law - his elder brother's wife). She is very artistic and has a great taste in things. Her house is spotless (even with 2 kids) and is a reflection of her creativity. I decided to get the multi-coloured cushions since they go with almost all of N's bedsheets and they bring an instant pop of colour that I like.

I picked up the bedsheet from FabIndia - its got cock-a-doodle-do's (as N calls them) all over with an orange border.