Snippets

Time is speeding these days in Cocoville. The lazy woman is literally juggling a multitude of activities and loving it all! Add the festive season to the scene and watch her going crazy multitasking. 

1. Celebrating the wintry festivals which arrive like a train, beginning way back at Dussehra and going on till Makar Sankranti in January. To us, festive season also means all our birthdays and anniversaries. Both Coco and 'Bringing Up Coco' became 4 year olds, one a naughty preschooler and the other a creative outlet, both of them bringing oodles of happiness to me.

2. Going dizzy receiving orders at 'Pink Pitari', making stuff and delivering them. It is hugely satisfying to watch my craft dream grow. 

3. Creating marvels like 'Chinese Chilli Idli', an absolute makeover of these desi delicacies into something unrecognizable. These turned out well.

4. Receiving such pictures from delighted customers and feeling great that my absolutely rustic work is actually finding place into people's nicely decorated living rooms.  

 5. Doing Zumba, getting fitter by the day and enjoying the company of amazing army wives full of energy, inspiration and good vibes. Seen above is my incredibly motivated and awesome Zumba instructor who by the way is also an army wife. 

6. Completing craft courses one after another and crafting to my heart's content. This place has a dedicated hobby centre and most of us are making the most of it. Last week it was candle making which I did with a close friend and we totally rocked at it. Before candles, it was decoupage and mural art is lined up to be the next. Not only did we make all the candles in the course package, we also shared a lot of new ideas from the internet and the very talented instructor herself learned a thing or two from our brainstorming! She is a local woman who does not have much access to the internet for ideas, learning new skills or selling her handmade stuff, but she still has a room full of amazing crafts, a lot of which has been picked from army wives like us during instructing them, I think. The above candle is one of almost a dozen candles and all those flowers are handmade with wax. Reminds me of my wild roses!

7. Learning to take good pictures with my new digital camera, highly inspired by the friend who did 'Pink Pitari's' first photo shoot. In the above picture, I have tried to go artsy by using one of my candles as a flower vase. I hope to learn soon!

8. Exploring an amazing craft outlet in the neighborhood and amazed to find great stuff and superb yarns in a place where it is difficult to find even the basic craft supplies. Bought a few supplies and made a wishlist of the gorgeous yarns that Pony craft store have at their factory outlet in the Nilgiris.

9. Visiting beautiful places and getting lost in the amazement. Visited a tea factory last month and saw the journey of teeny tiny tea leaves from gardens to tea cups. Truly mesmerizing...

10. Meeting talented army wives and getting surprised to find that there are many like me. This Diwali, I made these two handmade purchases, a paper lamp by an army wife who is also a Madhubani painter and sells her work through Facebook; and a tea-light holder candle, also by an army wife who shared my stall and goes by the name Candle CRAFT on Facebook. Not only this, my surroundings are buzzing with creative energy from other entrepreneurs like chocolatiers, bakers, painters... you name it, I have them here!