Little heart

 Come Valentine and little hearts pop up everywhere.  We never heard of such a day while growing up though.  Now, its celebration time everywhere.  Specially the youth. So I remembered this little heart that I crocheted sometime back.  I have stitched a press button and kept a small opening so as to be able to stuff a few napthalene balls or potpourri. I could then hang this on cupboard handles or on hangers in the cupboard.

 Crocheted a jasmine flower with a pair of leaves as embellishments.  Easy and fast project.  Learnt how to from Lucy of  attic24.

Today is the auspicious day of Vasanta Panchami, a day dedicated to learning, to Godess Saraswathi bestows knowledge, fine arts, science and music. May the flame of knowledge keep burning and bless you and your family and enlighten with knowledge.  It is also the onset of spring season in India where trees shed leaves and grow new leaves and flowers.

May you all blossom like beautiful flowers and learn something new everyday cause life teaches us something new every day.

Lamp, Lampshade... that too crocheted from scratch

It is not hot out of the owen!  I mean the lampshade is now good 25 days old :)  I have been wanting to write about it for lonnnng.   And kept postponing it for various reasons.  Why do we postpone things for tomorrow?  I have still not found a solution to this habit of mine.  I had blogged about it here.

I crocheted this lampshade.  Yes, I even created the lamp's skeleton.  Gifted it to my V on his b'day on 5th Oct.  

I had this idea in mind for a long time.  But I did not find a simple plain lampshade.  One day, somewhere mid September, I so badly wanted to crochet a lampshade, that I found a solution.  Necessity they  say is the mother of inventions.  I had these alluminium wires, which I bought for creating a bonsai.  They are flimsy and bend easily.  And I created a skeleton for the lamp.

Its not at all strong. And has become very delicate but I managed a good shape.  Thats all I wanted.  I played around with the little stash of yarn that I have. And....

Ta...daahh...

This is by the night

Wanted this to be a lil' surprise to V.  So while I was fixing it ( took me good 10-15 minutes to fix it), it was past 12.10 am on the 5th.  He woke up because of the other light in the room probably.  Happy that I could wish him and give him this lil' cute surprise.

This month has kept me busy.  Cleaning up and sprucing the place, readying for diwali.  Loads to do.  But I enjoyed every bit of it.  Very satisfying too.  Had lot of fun today with painting earthen lamps and making candles with the kids, readying the balcony with sparkles and lampshade.  More of it to come... I'll make Rangolis tomorrow. 

Happy Halloween to you all.  Its less known in this part of the world.  But I get see lot of happenings on this front  in blogland.

Heart bunting

Sun burst Granny Hearts caught my eye looonnnggg time ago.  And saw the light of the day a couple of days ago.  These pics were taken a few days ago and I have been wanting to share it here on my blog. Finally!

They brighten up the area no wonder.  It brightened up the time I spent crocheting them too.  Got to play with colours.  Such an easy pattern shared by the lovely lady Jacquie of Bunny Mummy  here.

The progression of circles into hearts :)

Turquoise blue can never be photographed in its original colour...

I tried out at different places and finally it adorns the doorway to my kitchen.

Pretty.... and satisfying.... and quick.... and ADDICTIVE.

A lovely handmade gift and some brownie baking

Thank you Tammy.  I received a lovely handmade gift from Tammy of  t's daily treasures.  Its a crocheted dish cloth.  Its crossed the seven seas and reached me from USA.  And she took out time to send a little gift while on a holiday there.  That makes it more lovely. I will preserve this and not use it as a dish cloth cause hand made gifts are precious.  May be I'll use it as a base for some dolls Oh! there's a handmade card too.  

Here....

I had some cake baking fun too.  My time tested brownie recipe.  My friend Minu gave me this recipe and I have made it umpteen times.  A no hassle cake.  It can be made in a jiffy.

Let me share the recipe.

Ingredients :

Refined flour  2 cups

Powdered Sugar 1 1/2 cups

Curd   3/4 cup

Oil      3/4 cup

Baking powder 3/4 Teaspoon

Cocoa powder 3 - 4 teaspoons

Mix all ingredients in a bowl 

Add a little aerated water (soda) for consistancy



Pour it into the baking bowls and I put some in cup cake bowls too :) Sprinkle some cashew nuts.

Bake it in an OTG  at 200 degrees for 45 mins.  In a microwave it takes approx 7-10 mins.

and its done :) Simple isn't it?

One can decorate the brownie with icing too.

Here's one I baked for my daughter's last b'day

Have a nice week end.  I have a packed week ahead.  Though its a long weekend, my little one's exams are round the corner.  So its study time with few fun moments here and there.

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.

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.

Lets make 2013 bright

HAPPY NEW YEAR

To make the New Year bright, I thought of making something bright and colourful.I created a `Mandala'.  

I saw a lot of crocheted mandalas on the internet.  I was surprised to learn from SANGEETHA sometime ago that madala is a Sanskrit word meaning a circle.  Is doily and mandala the same?

I zeroed down on Barbara's Spring Mandala She has beautifully put up a tutorial which is very clear.   I Learnt two new crochet stitches

The surface stitch which look like a chain of hearts... the second pink circle and the interlocking stitch... The one next to it in blue and green.  Such an easy stitch and looks stunning.

Happy that I could complete the mandala quite fast... thats like starting on a positive note in the New Year.  Onto a second one now :) Mandalas are addictive. I'd gift this one to a friend.

There's a crochet crazy world out there.  Lets make it bright and work out new projects.  To those who love crocheting.  Does it not give so much of pleasure?

Oh! how could I forget the Brownie!

I baked a cake... a no hassles cake.  Will share the recipe the next time

 Signing off for now. Wish you all a Happy, Healthy, Peaceful and a Rocking year ahead :)

Dancing girls

I crocheted a doily recently.  `Dancing Girls Doily`.  This is for my daughters.  We would be shifting to a bigger house where they'd have a room of their own.  The girls were very excited.  So was I.

Here's a pic

  Doily in the making. 

.
Happy for this TA...DAAAA :)

An easy peasy potholder

The moment I saw it, I just wanted to do it.  Its really an easy peasy potholder.  The Ta...dah.... happened in a jiffy :)  Thanks to Sangeetha of Crochetkari .  Here's her tutorial . It has been detailed well.  I couldn't even wait to make the twin potholder before sharing it here.

To begin with, I did not have the right kind of cotton thread.  Unfortunately, crochet isn't a popular craft here and so getting yarns is a task in itself.  But where there is a will, there is way.  I had this binding thread, made of jute.  Its lasting, durable and can withstand a hot pot's heat! Only thing is that it is very rough and so a lil' difficult to crochet.  But serves the purpose of  a potholder.

So here's my potholder....

The only change I made in this patten, is a row of SC on the top edges, to give strength to the potholder and a neat look.

This was my fastest Ta...dah..  Thanks to Sangeetha.

Taaa....dahhhh.. round the corner

Yup.  My first big project........nearing completion.  It feels so happy.  Inspiration came from my mother, my aunt and yes...blogland.  There are so many out there.... giving inspiration to create.  Tina from `the quiet home' ,  Lucy from attic 24 , Kate from greedy for colour , Alice from crochet with raymond .  Here's what I am at.... WIP...chugging along......

Guess what

Sense of Achievement!

I love crocheting and it has intrigued me since childhood.  I have always  seen Mummy and Aunt crocheting something or the other.  I learnt the basics as a child but never got the sense of achievement of completing a piece all by myself. This is the beginning.  I completed this all by myself.  Ah! felt so happy.  I downloaded this design from http://www.free-crochet.com/ . It is a must visit site for beginners.  There are numerous patterns and the pattern also suggests difficulty levels.  One can choose accordingly.  This has given me enough courage to start on another. 

Crocheting I found has many advantages.  One, a satisfaction for having created something. Two, generally, involves repetitive action, which augments in calming the mind, of being able to concentrate and generating positive energy. Happy crocheting.....