Guest Post at Aalayam

Good Morning! It's totally my kind of day today - slightly cold, the scent of a light drizzle from last night, and birds shaking off their wet feathers on rooftops, chirping away!

I'd like to share with you all a wonderful blog that one of my girl pals co-writes - Aalayam. Here's what the writers say about their blog -

Aalayam is co-authored by Deepa and Supriya. We are passionate about living the good life and by extension we love design, décor, travel, photography, good food, and the vast richness of world culture! The entries in Aalayam will reflect our ethnic Indian culture while juxtaposing the global appeal for readers, followers and pinners from all over the world. Via feature posts on topics as varied as the red ochre of the Warli paintings to the weft weave of the Ikkat dyeing, Aalayam will strive to be an intellectually and visually stimulating experience for our readers. Come join us at Aalayam! 

Supriya & I go way back. We went to the same school and have had some great times together. And it's so wonderful to be able to stay in touch and be connected, even after all these years! That we both love everything arty and chic and eclectic just makes the friendship even more colourful and sort of close to the heart :)

I'm guest posting there! I have a really fun and easy DIY project for you. So head over to Aalayam to see my post.

Have a wonderful day you all!
Happy Crafting!

Putting in some Love into our (new) Home...finally!

A bright 'n' cheery 'Hello' on a lovely morning!

One thing checked off my work-in-progress list.

We moved into our own little nest about three months ago and I'm still amazed (and kind of disappointed) that I haven't given our new home enough TLC. There are ideas sitting in my head but I just haven't got around them yet. We only recently made up our minds about the arrangement for the family room and finally got the two chairs we'd been musing about. I had my mind set on either paprika or mango (colours for the chair! Although I could do with some slices of mango with paprika sprinkled on them, yum!) but somehow at the store I suddenly changed my mind and we got dark grey ones. With Pinterest in my life, the whole equation changes you see. There's an explosion of ideas and inspiration and sadly, nobody really accepts Monopoly money! So neutral is always safer. Any time we feel like a change of decor, we just have to change the accents and not all the furniture! 

Anyway, so we set up this nice little seating area and then the wall started looking really bare. So I pulled out one idea I had inside my forever-teeming-with-craft-ideas head. I knew I'd make something in true Indian style - lots of bright colours and it had to have elephants in there somewhere. So I made these canvases. The idea was to make something like pop art, but ideas always change along the way, and mostly for the better I'd say :)

And before you go 'Wow! How did she paint those elephants so neatly?', I'll let you in on my little secret - I did not! Ever since I had the idea of colourful elephants on a solid background, I was hammering my brains as to how I would actually draw them, you know so they look like elephants, heh! Then I had a light-bulb moment and I decided to print out the picture in its full glory and Mod Podge it onto the canvas! Sometimes, the simple solution is just lurking around the corner, no? And I didn't have to worry about fussy cutting, I simply let my Silhouette do it for me :) All I did was paint the canvases in a solid colour and the rest was just a matter of PVA glue and Mod Podge. Oh, by the way, the image is something I found on the Internet and meant for personal use only. Unfortunately, I did not note the source :( 

I'm We're really happy with how they look so bright 'n' cheery 'n' Indian on our wall! What do you think?

Happy Crafting!

Work(s) in Progress...

Hello Creative Goddesses (Gods too may be?)

I've been spending some time in my craft room lately and it's a great feeling. I've been on a crafting high and it's way better than a glass of red wine ;-) I've started off with a couple of projects, still work in progress...here are some pictures -
 

Will tell you all about it when I'm all done :)

Until then, Happy Crafting!

Crafting will always be a part of me...

It almost made me cry when I saw the date on my last post!

Suddenly, I seem to have lost control over life. Not that I was in total control before, still. There's just so much to do and so little time! I had never imagined that I would be so swept away with the tide...it's almost as if a strong gust of wind is trying to take (a reluctant) me along with it. Where to, I don't know. All I want to do is stay still for a while, with my eyes closed and pretend that I never have to open them again. Keep them shut while gazing into my inner peace, forever. Sigh! Overwhelmed is what I am right now...

I thought I could do it all. I thought I'd be this super cool mum who reads to her little girl, cooks for her darling husband, does the laundry, diets, exercises and stays slim, and makes gorgeous stuff in the craft room. How I dream! Reality is a totally different picture.

These should tell you something about my state of mind right now :)

(Courtesy: Pinterest, of course!)

Yeah! Being a stay-at-home-mum IS a job! A job that goes on and on, doesn't have an eight-hour shift and no weekends off, well technically. Oh don't think I'm complaining though...it just gets too much to handle at times and a good rant usually lets off some steam :)

Anyway, so I thought I'd do something about the 'I-miss-crafting' itch that's been there for way too long now. 'Even if it means something really simple', I thought and made this peg-pail (well, technically it's not a big project, but was just enough to whet my appetite for something make-y do-ey). It's an empty yogurt container. I had to rinse it out anyway before I chucked it into the recycle bin, but then the hoarder in me somehow made me put it on the dish drainer. So there it was, all clean and white and I had to use it for something. So I grabbed a few Sharpies and sat down with Little Miss on her play mat and turned an empty plastic pail into something simple and very useful in my laundry room. 

And it wasn't a big ordeal too as Little Miss seemed to enjoy picking out the colours for me :)

Crafting mommies out there would nod with me when I say it could be a challenge to sit down and craft with a little crawler who wants to touch every little craft supply that mommy has out! But this was easy...

You know something (I told you I was going to ramble) this little project made me think of my Grandma. She is one person who inspires me to be enterprising and productive. She would never waste anything and would try and get as many creative uses out of an object. Hers were simpler times where an empty cough-syrup (glass) bottle would turn into a little kerosene-filled lamp with thick twine running through the drilled bottle cap. Several of these would dot the beautiful old country home during power-cuts, lighting the rooms softly as rain and thunder ruled the night outside. 

I love the heart-warming effect crafting has on me, sigh!

Here's hoping for more!

Happy Crafting!

Quick 'n' Easy!

This project was so much fun and was really easy! I love taking pictures - at home, on a holiday, on a special occasion...I'm mad about photographs :) I love having them around the house. They make me smile, they bring back beautiful memories and add a great personal touch to home decor. So I made a couple of these. Now, they scream 'COLOUR!', but hey that's me! I love reds 'n' oranges and anything earthy. I got these packs of plain wooden frames from Ikea and simply painted them in my favourite colours. I used acrylic paints. And then, all I did was glue on some funky tiny faux mirror embellishments. ( I stamped the red and yellow ones)

 

 They now adorn the wall on our book shelf. Love them! More to come in that space soon :)

I'm sending this to Order of the Opus Gluei's Challenge #60 - It's as Easy as ABC.

Happy crafting!

It's Coffee Time!

I wanted an interesting clock for my kitchen. I had a specific project in mind - a cutlery clock. I'd seen it in one of the issues of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The original project had a salad bowl for the clock face and I couldn't make that work as I don't have a drill. So I made an ambitious trip to the Op Shop one Sunday afternoon and came back home with a dozen forks 'n' spoons and an old clock. I thought I'd improvise and make one using the old clock. However, a couple of hours later, I ended up with spoons 'n' forks that wouldn't stick to the plastic hiney of the clock and three of my fingers that were almost glued together permanently! Anyways, once I recovered from the sticky trauma, I decided to wrap up the cutlery and stow it away for some other time. Instead, I kind of just went with the flow and made a simpler one. I pulled the clock apart carefully, traced a circle onto black card stock to make the face and wrote the numbers using my white gel pen. I had a set of 'coffee' cards from Ikea and I simply cut one to fit my clock and glued it in the center. Then I attached the clock mechanism, painted the frame yellow and finished by fixing the glass back. I love it!

A couple of days later, Husby & I were in a mall and I saw my dream clock in one of the stores...complete with six forks, six spoons, a plate for the face and tiny knives for the hands. Oh the irony!

Never mind, I still love my shabby, handmade one that ticks away on my kitchen wall :)

Laundry Woes!

It's a feeling well known. Frustration, laziness, irritation and desperation - all mixed into one big lump of a feeling called 'doing the laundry'! As you may have already noticed, I don't enjoy it :) So then I thought, 'why not make something fun and have it staring me in the eye as I enter the room of gloom?' and here's what I came up with.

 Click on the pic to read my wise old saying more clearly :)

I know, the cuteness and charm of this handmade laundry room plaque will soon fade away...but the heaps of unwashed clothes will remain. Sigh! But until then, it'll at least make me smile :) The words of wisdom are from yours truly's experience in the laundry room area. And that's why I'm sending this to Order of the Opus Gluei's Challenge #53 Can I Quote You on That?


"Clothes maketh the man" and so this woman has to doeth the washing so thine man can weareth the clean clothes!
LOL!

Happy Crafting!