My first

My first big accomplishment.  My first BIG project.  Finished it couple of months ago.  It has already seen a season!  Better LATE than NEVER :)  My Mom taught me the basics and cast the design.  Since its a monotonous design, its easy for even beginners.  I am HAPPY.

And my daughter wearing it.  Thank God! She liked it.  Else, these teenagers are unpredictable :)

This has given a lot of confidence to crochet more.

My Niece's Ta...dahhhhs!!

Perseverance thy name Akshata!

Heard of Super computers na?  Akshata is a Super human being!  A lovely soul. She is an Engineer, a crafter, a good cook, a great dancer, ever smiling with a never say die attitude, a super mom :) Its difficult to sum it all up.  I have missed out on soooooooo many other feathers in her cap!

She's learnt to knit and crochet recently.  It was last march.  She had come down with her lovely kids from USA and I had gone with my girls to meet her.  There, we used to have a lot of OUR time, sharing craft bits and sweet talks.  One of our activities used to be in blogland.  We decided to crochet something.  The lovely Tea cosies was what we chose to crochet.  And the inspiration came from Alice of  Crochet with Raymond. Here, have a look http://crochethealingandraymond.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/cozy/ .

First task was to find a tea pot.  My sis - in - law had one.  And I started to crochet the tea cosy for Akshata to take off. She was new to crochet but managed to get hold of the stitches.  This was probably a day before we left from there.  And this girl used to crochet a few stitches whenever she found time, that too no simple task. Managing three kids.  She has a son and twins - two lovely girls.They were then 10 months old.  I left the next day by train.  It was a long journey back home!  The next day, when I called her to say we had reached, she said check your mail :)

Here

A beginner, dabbling in crochet in a day's time!!  Why did it take me a year to post it?  :) People update on WIPs and I have missed out on a few Ta...dahs.... unpardonable.  Shall soon post about a jacket I completed last Nov!

She's learnt to knit too. Her mother in law taught her how to.   I took pics of her work. Mind you, she knit two of everything for her twins :)

All this, while managing a home and three toddlers!!!

Isn't that inspiration enough to work hard!

Have a wonderful week ahead...........

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory..... Friedrich Engels

Two B's

Talking about Two B's today .  One is a Batua I crocheted. Called Batua in common parlance.  Its a wallet for trinkets, glasses, nic nacs that women carry. Infact, feeling very proud that I made two.One for my mother in law and one for my Hira Pachi,  my aunt, who has been crocheting for more than 6 decades :) A day never goes by, without her crocheting something.   She ensures she gets her hooky time every day.

Here's one she made

The one I gifted to her is white.  How did I miss out on taking a pic?  Even white batua looks nice.

Here's the one I made for my mil.

The other B is a second Leibster Blog award from Pavi of  CrochetKumari . Thanks dear.  She is a working girl and inspite of the hectic schedule, finds time to crochet.  Her blog is full of beautiful Ta dahs..... that she has to her credit.

Let me have some fun answering her questions.

1.When did you start crocheting and from where/whom did you learn crochet from ?

I learnt the first stitch at age 15. My mother taught me the basics. 

2.If given a lovely turquoise blue ball of yarn and given one hour what would you crochet?

I would go for a sling bag

3.What habit would you give up if asked to do so from today?

The habit of not going for my morning walks regularly :(  I'd want to be more regular and not miss even a Sunday

4. Whats your Work in Progress ?

Presently this

Any guesses?

5. Which one do you prefer.. Thread crochet or Yarn?

Yarn.  Cause its faster 

6. One school friend you are still in touch with - ?

None from School :(  But yes.  I am in touch with couple of friends from 11th grade onwards..

Pavi, I'll nominate blogs very soon.  I need to work on that.

Let me call it a day with a thought to ponder upon.

Today's garden white board (where we go for our walks) read - A lot of problems would dissappear if people learn to talk to one another instead of talking about one another.

I

March 8th

Its 11 pm.  Finally I have my `me time' without interruptions.  And this post is inspired by two women :)

Was curious to know how the International Women's day took birth!  On googling I found this link http://www.internationalwomensday.com/about.asp . Read on if you want to know a lil' bit of its history

A Happy Women's Day to all the great women who light up homes :)  Yes Women bring cheer around a home.  Don't they play a pivotal role in converting a house into a home?

My little daughter Vandita has something special for us.  She's made this card and told me to post it on my blog to wish you all women :)

All pics in this post have also been captured by her.  She also wanted me to add a pic of her favourite key chain very dear to her.

So this was one little woman who took pains in creating a card, taking pics and inspiring me to put it up on the blog.

The second inspiration came from  Anna of Sunny Indian Days when she posted a pic of a jar cosy that she crocheted two three days ago.  Here's mine.

Gave me sooooo much of happiness when I lit it in the evening.  Mounted a T-light on some glass pebbles.  Thanks Anna.  See how unknowingly you made my day! I have used EIGHT colours to mark March 8th.

Plant Exhibition

There was a plant exhibition in my city.  I loved visiting the place.  A feast to one's eyes. And I had to firmly make up my mind not to get tempted to buy plants. :(  We are shifting to a new home soon and I have one balcony which is not big enough to accommodate even my present collection.  Phew! Such is life.  Lemme atleast share few pics here with you.

I don't know their names.  They were all lovely.

A twenty five year old Adenium. So claimed the stall owner !  My favourite plant.

More adeniums

Red leaved plants.  These are beautiful.  I don't know the name :) The leaves turn red as they grow.  Its a bright plant, brings cheer around.

Smiley flowers

Few more

These are simple pleasures. I read sometime back that gardening is a good stress buster.  When we sow and tend to the garden, the negative energies from the body  flow back into the earth!  Happy gardening.

Pep Talk

Read slowly

LIFEISNOWHERE

Did you read it as

Life is no where

OR

Life is now here

Life is what we make out of it

Its upto us how we want to live it.  

We go to a garden (whenever that happens) nearby, for our morning walks. An old gentleman writes a `Thought for the Day' on the white board there.  Most of the times thought provoking.   This thought today kept encircling in my mind while I walked and remained with me the whole day.  Thought I must document it here :)  How true na.  Some people are never happy.  Keep complaining about everything around them and it vitiates the environment around them.  And some, come what may, make the best of everything.  

Incidently, MARK INGLIS, was in town to interact with CEOs and business leaders from the State.  World's First Double Amputee To Climb MT EVEREST, the tallest mountain in the world. A New Zealander as was Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to scale Mt Everest. Mark is now a leading international motivational speaker too.  How rightly her says - Positivism is the only free thing in life! He got stuck in a snow cave on Mt Cook in 1983 at age 23 for approx 14 days due to extreme weather.  Being frost bitten, both his legs had to be amputated below the knees.  This did not deter him from chasing his dream of scaling Mt Everest.  And he did it in 2006.What he has to say about his amputated legs!  He says people see him as a man with no legs.  But for him, it is a man who will never get a frostbite Heights of positivism is all I can say.  The only black dot that does not diminish ever is the controversy that he and his team mates did not assist a stranded, gravely injured British mountaineer  David Sharp just 450 metres down the summit the day he scaled Mt Everest.  David Sharp did not survive.  

Here's a picture of Mt Everest.  Its the top right pic in the collage. As seen from Nathulla Pass. These are pics of Nathulla Pass in India.  My dream holiday yet to happen some day!

This moment reminds me of a lovely  book I read and re-read sometime back. `Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom'. Beautiful  thoughts and life's lessons.  Believe me, it peps you up every time you read it!

Ya... yarn

Finally.  I located a yarn shop where I could buy some yarn.  Atleast a few colours.  Else, I had to be content watching yummy yarn that my blog friends showed off on their blogs. Hardly any place where one can find yarn shops here :( Stylecraft, dk etc is a far cry.  Mummy had given me her stash last year which got depleted .  Gave me soooo much of happiness using it up on small projects. Learning to crochet.  And whenever I saw beautiful Ta ...dah...s of my blog friends, I would think.... next time I go on vacation, I must build on a stock.  Here's my find.  The colours are much prettier.  But this is the best pic I could manage.  

And I am going to learn from Sangeetha of Crochetkari      how to wind the yarn.  I have sent her a request :)  Talking about yarn, I must share this blog post by Nitya Kalyani.  She talks about various types of yarn.  

Thank you Crochet Kumari, my newest follower.  I am neither able to send you a message nor reach your blog :) Do leave me a link when you read next.

Today, I was so excited about this yarn find.  In the excitement of putting up this news, the mid night oil has burnt tooooo long.... Sleepy.... Off to bed.