What's New?

New year and a new post! After all my aspirations, trials and tribulations I am here again finally. These past few months have kept me occupied in various things, craft being the chief one of them. More than anything else, I hone my photography skills(however insignificant) on my crafts these days. So dear reader, you can expect most pictures in my posts related to my crafts. Please bear with them.

Now, lets come to the main subject. I mean Coco. As expected from the son of a strict mother, he is turning into a fine gentlemanly boy, who tries to be of use by putting spoons back in the cutlery stand after licking chyawanprash off of them! Thanks to my keen eyesight and 'Vyomkesh Bakshi' like detective spirits, I spot them right away. So, you can come to my home and stay assured of being served with clean cutlery. Almost always. :D 

Oh, by the way, we have moved into a British era bungalow, that comes with a defunct fireplace et al. But, unlike the good old 'foot of the Himalayas' days, I am yet to discover the joys of staying here. The elaborate engagements of social life and personal matters have kept all of us too busy to look around and smell the flowers. Literally!

But, one can always hope, right! 

Read on for picture descriptions. It might be interesting, I promise!

The topmost picture is of two dreamcatchers out of which the white one is hanging one one of my living room walls delicately. The multicolored one is made on order for someone. It might be interesting for you to know that the rings for both of them come from a large embroidery hoop, that couldn't serve its intended purpose. It hung inside my closet for many years, until one fine day another purpose was found for it. Destiny!

 The second image is of few cards that I made for someone on request. They might look ordinary but they are the fruits of a couple of hours of painting, measuring, cutting, gluing, babysitting, snacking and homing in general.

Then there is one corner of my living room which I tidied up hurriedly before clicking a decent enough picture for the blog. 

The last picture is of Pink Pitari's jewelry, that was lying in separate mounds of necklaces and earrings while I was clicking their pictures for promotions. 

I think this is enough for the first post of the year. Hope to be here more often. 

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!

A 'Pitari' Full Of Happiness!

Hello wonderful people. After many weeks of busy crafting and quiet on the blog, I am finally back. And I have loads of news to deliver here. Let''s begin from the beginning..

Somewhere in the middle of August, I became fascinated with beads and my crafty mind could not rest after that. My sister brought me a little bagful of craft goodies from Bangalore and I found a few necessary supplies online. Even before the crafting for old age home ended (which is described in my last blog post), I had gathered quite a lot of jewelry making supplies and I was raring to have a go at them. I have never ever made jewelry except a pair of quilled earrings for a friend a couple of years ago. So, this kind of craft was new to me and hence full of exciting possibilities. 

The pair shown in above picture is my first pair, awkward but cute, and only I know how proud I felt after completing this. Back then, my bead supply was very limited and I could combine those wooden beads and metal spacers after a lot of thoughts, afterthoughts, hesitation and plain old frustration. My sister instantly reserved these for herself, if only out of kindness :)

After a few more near failed attempts at making good looking combinations with my limited beads, I ordered some more and after they arrived, I went into a reclusive living and except for basic household chores and pressing social needs, I spent all my waking hours and minutes to the fullest in making these bead earrings till my supplies exhausted. It was a sweet moment for me when one of my friends actually bought one of these pairs. Then went another pair and a couple more. I was delighted that people actually wanted to wear something I made.

Meanwhile, I heard about the upcoming Diwali mela and that anyone could put up a stall. Till now, I was making stuff with no specific use in mind. This information gave me a sense of direction and I immediately booked half a stall for exhibiting and selling my jewelry.

During this time my phone camera not working well was a major spoiler. I love taking pictures at different stages and later looking at them and sharing here. Using phone camera makes everything so quick and easy. When I thought of charging my long-out-of-use point-and-shoot camera, I found that Coco had poured a glass of water inside the drawer where its charger were kept :(

Anyway, I managed to dry up the camera charger and clicked a few pics to share on my Instagram. After this photoshoot, as I was again waiting for more beads and supplies to arrive, I could not keep my hands off of a gazillion packs of sweet colorful quilling strips which I had bought for no specific purpose.

I started making quilled earrings and became addicted to it. In about a week or so, I had made all sorts of jhumkis and danglers, all set to dazzle the show. By the due date, I had made one hundred and ten pairs of earrings, a showstopper necklace and a couple of handbag charms. My friends suggested me that I should make pom-pom jewelry because they are the most in thing nowadays. So I tried hard to find pom-poms in the local markets and ended up making my own pom-poms. 

I added pom-poms to my quilled jewelry and this was not only a novel idea, it also helped me create some of my most beautiful pieces out of ordinary quilled ones. Though, I was already challenged in photography section this time around and could not click pictures of my most beautiful pairs. Thankfully, a friend offered to do a photoshoot of my best pieces for promotion of the stall and the result was these stunning pictures which are the talk of the town nowadays here.

I have always loved crafting more than anything. During all those busy days, I realized that I could do it all the time and could not live without it. So it only made sense that I should sell my crafts so that I can continue making them. The stall seemed a great opportunity to launch a facebook page with a cool name for selling my crafts. After a lot of brainstorming with my sister and my friends, I finalized the name 'Pink Pitari' for my craft shop. I created a page and printed out little cards to be attached to the 'shagun potlis' in which my earrings were to be packaged. 

The night before the show, I was so excited, I could not sleep, though I had planned to sleep early. So I tiptoed to my craft table in the dead of the night and made a few more charms. The next day was and amazing day which went by as if clouds were floating around me. Ladies thronged my stall and at times I was overwhelmed with the crowd, totally lost at the great response that my quilled earrings were getting. The first piece that I sold was a handbag charm that I had made the night before. The quilled-pompom earrings were the first ones to vanish and all the festive peacock/flower earrings and chandbalis became extinct soon. They sold out so fast that I had practically nothing left in quilled ones post lunch.  

By closing time, I had covered all my costs, with only 5-6 pairs of quilled earrings and almost half of my beaded pairs unsold. I am nowadays getting many queries and orders too, through friends, neighbors and social media, because a lot of people actually missed the awesome designs that they saw in my promotional poster.
..and just like that begins my new venture, 'Pink Pitari'. Three cheers! 

I plan to start selling through my facebook page soon. Please do visit and let me know your valuable thoughts.

Craft And Perspective!

The lazy woman is nowadays racing with time, trying to keep up with craft projects, writing assignments, Coco's exams, his coughs and colds and fevers, ladies meet preparations, Zumba classes, decoupage classes, welcoming guests, managing maids and combating severe water crisis, all alone while her husband is away on some official field area tour or locked away in his room preparing maps and writing assignments. 

 

So, it was a difficult choice when I was asked to accompany senior ladies to a nearby old age home and assist the old people with some crafts that they could sell and raise money. But the senior lady told me that I required to actually visit them only once or twice in a month, I agreed to accompany her. She also said that we needed to get something ready out of waste materials for the starters. So, after a lot of vague ideas, I used torn newspaper and comic strips on handmade paper to make the following cards and clicked them from every angle, praising my bright bulb of an idea.

But when we reached the home, all my sense of designer accomplishment vanished. We were greeted by a cheerful and old nun who beamed at everything that we showed her, but refused to accept cards made with newspaper, saying they would not sell. So I tore up all newspaper parts and replaced them with good coloured paper and other material upto the possible limit. I also threw in the pop up sunny card that was sitting on my husband's bar for almost a year now, and which is seen in this picture with all my re-decorated cards and a few others created by accompanying ladies. The old nun was incredibly happy to see the pop up card and I promised to make more of them for her.

After spending a few hours with them, we returned, clearly knowing that they did not want waste material crafts, neither did they want to learn anything from us. We could make crafts for them and they could sell it. Dozens of other crafts made by other ladies who visited previously made this evident. The home already had dozens of string lamps, cards, folders and flowers. We were now asked to make something different that would also sell well. The old age home people sell these crafts very cheap and we wanted to give them something that would still bring them a good amount.  

While other ladies attempted making lamps, flowers and wall hangings, I thought of using my old experience with paper crafts and utilized my Pinterest account to the fullest to get ideas. After going crazy pondering and wondering about what to make, I settled on making paper craft pictures. I also completed the above newspaper basket that I had started before my visit.  

I made two pictures, the picture above and the one below and sent them off to the senior lady who got them cheaply framed without glass. I also prepared two pop up cards pictures of which are at the beginning of this post. I had also intended to paint an Old Monk bottle to make a lamp like in this post, but could not do it and sent the blank bottle back along with all the ready stuff.

It was an awkward moment when the empty rum bottle came out of their bag when the ladies visited the home on their next turn and were taking out their crafty stuff.  

Last weekend we had a 'Linen Fete' organized at the local club where the old age home also had a stall and the senior lady informed us that all the stuff made by us sold off quickly. She specifically mentioned that my two pictures were sold in her presence. This got me thinking, who would have bought it and for how much? Who has a piece of my soul and what did it bring to the old people? 

Making cards on our visit, listening to the old nun's endless stories..

I did not need to wonder a lot, because a sweet sweet friend of mine came home to meet me and told me it was her who had bought one of the pictures. Though she wanted the one with roses and lamp, another lady was already clutching it dearly. I promised my friend we would make the roses-and-lamp picture again together. FYI Each of the pictures sold for Rs. 100 each which is a good price by old age home standards. 

It is needless to say that visiting places like an old age home can be an immensely enriching experience. If only young people were nicer! 

August Craftathon: Wrapping Up!

I still have stuff remaining from August that I intended to show here, and that could have taken another two or three posts, but as I realized it is already October, and I am kind of getting tired looking at the same old stuff again and again, I thought of making this as a final post, and posting all the remaining stuff here. Additionally, I want to write about other things also, and that would happen only after I wrap this up. Fancy making stuff in one month and spending the next two months talking about it!

The pic above has the inside of the card, it's envelope and the paper bag, which was described in the last post. The envelope for the card was fashioned out of a card sheet, using the simplest pattern from the internet, as shown below, and was decorated with a few quilled leaves and paper roses like the paper bag. 

The last thing that was reamaining to do was to make a folder to be placed for the chief guest at the ladies meet. Now this was something that I had not done last time (Read about the last time here ). I was given a ready folder to see and find what type of folder was expected. It was made using a simple office folder. I did the same and cut an office folder to size, covered it in handmade papers of my choice front and back and decorated it in my signature style, using hand cut paper flowers, even used the paper lace from last year's card in this one. 

After delivering everything on time, as I was catching my breath, I came to know that two more folders were required. With only a few hours in the main event, I was not left with much choice, and I reached the venue, carrying a bag full of my craft supplies. On the senior most lady's advice, I used the two hand drawn circular backgrounds (from this post) and scribbled some more on the empty spaces of the two sheets, while all the other ladies were decorating the place. Then these two doodled A4 sheets were hurriedly pasted on two plain office folders and voila! We had everything ready.  

 While the main circular sheet became a green grassy field with giant leafy plants in the centre, the doodle for special personalized invitation got a colony of pretty little houses on a elevated ground, with a red fence. I would personally love to live in a cottage on a hill, and I guess that reflected in this hurriedly drawn doodle, because tiny cozy huts and red fencing were all that I could think of on that chaotic day.

August Craftathon III

After the invitation card fiasco described in the previous post, I was crestfallen, uninspired and cuddled up in my bed while Coco was in school, when the senior most lady of the battalion called to inform me that we would have to deliver the card personally, and therefore in style. It is not a great idea for three people to visit the chief guest and hand over a mere feeble card. So she was planning to buy a paper bag to keep the card in. I volunteered to make a paper bag, and immediately my mood lifted up. After all, all the handmade paper that I had bought in anticipation was finally going to get a chance at being used for the intended purpose. Plus, there was the opportunity of exercising my paper craft muscles in a guided way.

My next stop was internet, to find out how to fold a paper bag. It is wonderful, this internet thing. It really is interesting to observe how we have almost all the knowledge available to us, just in a few clicks. Anyways, I found a suitable pattern and made my bag. I am not sharing any links that I used because paper bag patterns are easily and freely available all over the crafting sites. And, I also forgot the link that I used :)

Then came the most interesting part of making cute paper flowers and leaves and decorating the bag. In order to enjoy this process, I completely disregarded the theme 'rain and smiles,' because that ugly smiling sun was a prime reason in ruining the whole idea of the card. (Read in previous post.) 

I used the same card sheet that I had used for the card, and made strips of pink colored sheet, which I used as ribbons to twist and make these cute roses. After trying various leaf varieties, I finalized decent looking quilled leaves. It reminded me of my lovely rosebushes, probably because of the same size and color of flowers and leaves.

I laid out all the flowers and leaves on one side of the finished paper bag and found a satisfactory layout. Then the layout was roughly outlined with fevicol and the flowers and leaves took their respective places on the rust background of the bag. It was a little difficult to make the stiff paper flowers stick to a soggy background, even more difficult due to their diamond like shape, and they kept rolling away. So I placed a heavy object on top and waited for a few hours.

It was comparatively a lot easier to paste the flat surfaced leaves and after finishing the floral arrangement, I punched holes on the two edges of the bag and inserted wide green satin ribbon handles. They looked okay because they matched with the leaves if nothing else. After finishing the bag, I really loved the look of the bag and proceeded to do my next favorite thing, i.e. click loads of pictures from every possible angle. 

Crafting this felt really good because it looked so pretty and neat at the end. It also kind of resolved my issues with the main invitation card. I think, it will be a great idea to prepare a few bags like this, maybe with less flowers, and using them to deliver gifts. In the army, it is customary to get invited to dinners etc. and we usually carry little gifts for the hosts. I think receiving a gift in this bag will make the host happier. I know, I would love to get a gift like this. Some of my friends ooh-ed and aah-ed and rolled their eyes in mock anger because they want these bags. Soon!