My first win on the blogosphere!

This was supposed to be earlier on the posting list.
I was elated as soon as Mindful Meanderings chose my entry as the winner of the December Artsy Craftsy challenge in 2011. A great way to end a year and a beautiful beginning for 2012.
Thanks to Shruti and fellow bloggers!
And here I proudly show off my newly earned first award!!!

Cheers to Artsy Craftsy :)

Cricket theme party - quick and easy

V’s nephew was turning 14 the morning of December 24, 2011 and I was helping my co-sister by cooking a few dishes for her son S’s party at their place... The order for a humble 2 kg cake was given at the local Iyengar bakery…but I had to make it special for our little master who has always been fond of playing cricket…Picking up a couple of items from the neighboring grocery store, some newspaper, especially the sports section helped us put together a quick theme - CRICKET! J

If you have a little master at your home and if you wanna make it fun for him…here you go… One of the quick, cost-effective and easy to do themes...Creativity is the limit...Please share your link if you have tried anything on these lines...I would love to take a look into your grey matter.

For the cake topper - Wafer biscuit, Milky way choco choo, yam yam and a box of peanut candies.  It's all look and tell for me. The picture should help you out. 

The bat was made from milky way choco choo. The outer part for the bat base and the inner choco for the handle. The pre-ordered cake became the field and the wafer turned into the pitch. Yam yam sticks stood as the stumps on either side and the little reddish peanut candy said, I'll play ball. 

For the banner - newspaper clippings made way into the banner. Take a bunch of color paper sheets, chop chop pictures of the cricket sport and glue them on. Fill in the blank spaces with letters, punch holes in the corner and tie them up.

You may want to have a guessing game for the little fellas as long as you know who's who. Cricket is not my religion and I don't know all the Gods!

For the gift wrapper - Take an old newspaper, glue on the excess clippings post the banner use. Put a big smile, pat yourself for not wasting money on the wrapper that's going to the trash bin and say "Happy Birthday" as you give the gift!

What should I do?

A cold morning...

Narrow lanes with houses closely packed looked warm... 

The smell of freshly laid cow dung filled the air along with the scent of the wet earth that filled my senses, the morning dew were still on the little patches of grass that were strewn here and there on the so called side walks...

I recognised a familiar face walking in the opposite direction....

The face of the grocer who runs a humble grocery store right across my apartment.

Apart from being a regular shopper at his store, I have had no opportunity of meeting him outside his space.

As he walked by me, I wished to smile and looked at him

I saw his face dropped down as he passed me...

Would he have smiled in response if I had smiled the very first instance I saw him and recognised him? 

Would he have smiled if I had taken the little extra effort to greet him the cold morning?

There are these several instances where we come across people and just dont know how to react or there's this tiny time lag in responding....only to realise that, the instance has gone....

Oh Meluhan! - WIP

Loving the Shiva triology...
It's been almost a few months since I finished reading both - The Immortals of Meluha and The Secret of the Nagas by Amish Tripathi and the Meluhan has had such a mesmerizing effect on me...that I had to start sketching my version of HIM!

"Har Har Mahadev"

Recycle, Reuse, Rejoice this Season!

Yes....my entry for Artsy Craftsy as well as for Lisa's Christmas Linky Party this December!!!
V has been travelling a lot lately and I have a tough time throwing out the luggage tags...I seem to like the elastic and I have seen my granny reuse them more like a rubber band to tie groceries that were left in the plastic bag.
kutti "r" received a small Christmas tree as a birthday gift and the luggage tags just seemed perfect!
I had all I needed....lots of luggage tags, few tags from new clothes, some craft paper, ribbons, buttons, glue stick, and a lot of stickers that I have been collecting...

I simply coordinated the tags and the stickers :) Voila! here they are!!!

And well...More coming up :)

Of colors, candles and ceremonies!

From colors, candles and ceremonies

to uncles, aunts and kids...

From flowers, fragrances and feasts

to fabulous friends and fantastic families

From music, mantras and magic

to Vows, wishes and warm hugs

the journey together began!!!!

This was done in the month of May and I just couldn't find the time to put it all together...
It has become a common sight to see the Arati ceremony during receptions in TamilNadu...
My favourite cousin sister and my best friend's lil sister were getting married and I had to do something special for them...
I wanted to do the arati ceremony for both of them and I needed to handcraft the plates!
A couple of days material shopping and a night to put it together...
Thanks to my darling dad who helped me through this colorful project! 

Halloween, Aliens and Cake as kutti "r" turns 1

I had to make it memorable for him. 

His fascination for Aliens was all I needed. 

We wanted to see what he would do if we had a small cake for him. 

It was October 30, 2011.

The Halloween weekend!

The occasion was just right. 

The orangeliens set the backdrop as kutti "r" was given a mission. 

Mission photos below!!!