For That Sweet Smile!

I spent a few years of my initial life in a village in eastern UP, with hand pumps for water, no toilets and no electricity, only plenty of fun with a lot of village kids who would play hide and seek with me in and around cattle sheds and farm equipment.

One of the many vivid memories is how my mother tried to keep me well groomed and how I always ruined her efforts by playing with tractor grease.

I clearly remember how she took time off from her busy schedule, made me sit on a peedha (low wooden seat) near the hand pump and brushed my teeth with a simple kids' toothbrush and Colgate tooth powder. That made relatives make faces at us, mommy and me, for spoiling me silly. They would smirk and taunt 'There's one more of this kind, in my brother's house, a spoilt little brat whose mother brushes her teeth like this. Huh, so much Seva (service) for a Beti (Daughter).' (My mother did a lot for me, but I remember her brushing my teeth from my early childhood because of such comments from visiting relatives.)

Why am I saying all this? Because Coco has got his first toothbrush and toothpaste that look more like toys than toiletries. First of all we did not know that babies' toothpaste is different from adults'.Also, never before had my husband and I imagined that a toothpaste tube could have a cap that looks like a rooster! Welcome to the joys of parenthood, y'all! 

All that, and we keep them in the kitchen because Coco uses RO water, since he does not know how to spit and gulps down all the water that goes into his mouth to rinse it and we are worried  that the bathroom tap water might just not be right for him. 

Every time I make him sit on the kitchen slab near sink and brush his teeth, I cannot stop smiling...not only do I love doing it, I also remember the above story and my mom. Son or daughter, every child requires mommy's help. Coco, mommy at your service...happily always! 

The Attack of e-Ghost

The above picture was taken with my half- broken-down phone on Janmashtami, Lord Krishna's birthday. Coco was looking super-cute in his blonde Kanha avatar and we parents were all over him. Only we had little means to capture these precious moments. Camera not charged and both our phones sick, we somehow managed to do this photo shoot. How did we reach this poor state of affairs? 

Before shifting into this house, I had heard stories about it being a haunted place. Now I know for sure, that it is haunted, by an IT-enabled e-Ghost, who loves to break down our Wi-fi, shakes laptop's memory, so it erases all the data including precious memories captured in pictures, hijacks all the smartness off of smartphones so they become dumbest ever, or worst, crushes them to bits, so we end up buying new smartphones. 

Not only IT, this one enters my kitchen too at times and messes with my pots and pans. It probably knows how I hate handle-less pans or loose screws of lids. So it did precisely that. And many utensils were suddenly found in a handle-less, screw-less, wobbly state!

I know it is there is an assortment of reasons for these incidents, but when everything falls apart at the same time, we tend to find something to blame for all of it.  Then we pacify ghosts with some offerings. :) Only our e-Ghost has already had its fill with all our pictures and data, plus a lot of money.

I had accumulated a lot of pictures in my laptop to be put up on my blog, and they all vanished in a blink. Being lazy took its toll big time! 

Mommy Goes Quilling!

Where does my day go? Where do my weeks go? Or my months for that matter? Well, apart from the usual house-and-baby-keeping, I tend to have a gazillion ideas floating in my head, which soak up my time, so much so that I am no good to write about them at the end of it all. There are numerous projects lying around me, in various stages of unfinished and finished craft. So what is the latest? See for yourself!

Paper is my new love. And creating cutesy little stuff from it, including quilling which seems to be ruling the internet space nowadays, slowly crept into my craftspace as well, though I kept trying to not involve my lazy crafter self into it. I was literally shoved into it by my Ladies Club here, for which I was asked to create a couple of invitation cards and a circular for the monthly Ladies Meet. For those who do not have a clue what on earth is Ladies Meet, stay assured that it is your regular Kitty Party on a Fauji scale, a monthly get together for all the army wives in a location, hosted by ladies of different battalions when their turn arrives.

So, at the first opportunity of making cards, off went my mind to quilling. Then I also remembered the paper craft crash course that I had attended last year when I was writing these posts ( Link) last June. And then my gazillion ideas started colliding violently with each other, causing a chemical release of some kind which would not let me sleep till I completed the cards.

After seeing the samples, the ladies agreed upon an explosion box card  and a simple card in a box. The theme that we all had agreed upon was 'Retro Bollywood' and the cards also needed to show some of the spirit. And then I was left to my own devices, with my coloured printouts, handmade paper sheets and quilling kits. The explosion box was going to have three layers, each of which will show some 'Retro Bollywood'.

For the bottom layer, I took color prints of old movie poster images from our own Google Baba and pasted them along with some fun-funky words which would coincide with the theme and some cut-paper itsy-bitsies.

The middle layer would have vintage style machines like a car, a gramophone and such, along with sticker bindis which were a last minute idea to give it a polka dot background.

The topmost layer was going to have the actual invitation in the centre, with more 'Retro Bollywood' on the four panels surrounding it. Notice those dance poses of Helen? I am in love with them. I even used one of them as the backdrop of circular. Aaand done!...wait! Did I not mention quilling above?

Yes ma'am I did, and I would decorate all the four outer walls and the lid of the explosion box with quilling, which I have never done before but claim to myself that it was a no-brainer, simple thing. After all, how difficult could rolling paper be?

Not Much! Except that I have a limited knowledge of making colour combinations and I had a hard time choosing the right colours of quilling strips for each arrangement. And it took a lot of time too. The fact that I could only get assorted strips in the local craft stores added to my woes as I had to use different colour combinations on all five surfaces, even after buying four different packs of quilling strips. Each colour has only five strips in an assorted pack which hardly complete a single flower, let alone a whole arrangement. And so, I did not get the more professional colour-coordinated look in the finished box that I wanted. But people who saw it liked it for being the kaleidoscope that it was.

                                        

Getting the other card ready was comparatively easier. I had saved a sweets-box made of cardboard a few months ago for crafting. After searching the local bakery and a couple of other options, I remembered I had this box stashed away waiting for its stars to shine. I pulled it out of its hibernation, covered it with a lovely gold-printed handmade paper sheet, cut out some lace out of tracing paper, pasted around the box and the lid and sat a neat little flower on top of the lid. Voila! But the card that was to go inside the box could only be ready in the last hour before delivery.

                                         

This card was a simple affair with two sheets of handmade paper pasted together for stiffness, folded into a card. On the front went a beautiful portrait of Madhubala, to show some old Bollywood charm, inside a handcut 'Photoframe', decorated with a hint of quilling. It carried a similar invitation as the explosion box on the inside.

And off she went into the box, which would later include the circular too, scrolled and tied with a ribbon. 

As my five day marathon crafting session came to an end abruptly, I suddenly felt very sad that all this colourful, crafty goodness was about to leave me. Those five days had been nothing short of a fever for me, with the frenzied crafting, messy home and kitchen, everything going haywire, and nothing on my mind but colours, patterns and handmade paper. As much as I had wanted it all to get done soon, I did not like the emptiness that was ahead.

As I was already an hour past my promised delivery time, I quickly took as many pictures as I could and hurried off to give the boxes to the senior most lady of the battalion who would be inviting the guests next day. It was great to see that she liked it. Even better, she asked me to accompany her to deliver the explosion box card and I quickly said yes. After all, I always wanted to know how did the person who actually received it react. And it was great to see her (our guest) looking at it again and again, sitting on her beautiful coffee table among expensive objects, looking so rustic and homemade.

She is known to be an artist herself, and made me really happy by saying that she would convert it into a jewellery box later. But happier than me was my husband, who got rid of taking care of the little tempest known as Coco round the clock while I was locked away in his study room, crafting away to glory!

Baby Alert!

                                         

Sometimes, immersed in my thoughts and daydreams, I go back to my old self and almost forget that a baby now rules my life. But then some or the other mark left by Coco appears before my eyes which brings me to today's reality.

'Hello madam, you should know a baby is around when you see.... 

 1 ...your precious bedroom wall has a new artwork, created during last five minutes when you took a loo break.

2 ...your sitting room is now a parking lot and a dumping ground of sorts.

3 ...unusually small stuff appears on your balcony.

4 ...a newly acquired book is found in above condition. :'(

5 ...an uncommon addition to your knick-knacks collection.

6 ...a birthday cake of this nature. ( Birthday cake at a party where Coco was invited as the youngest party-goer!)

7 ...people less interested in the tourist spot (Rock Garden, Chandigarh) and more in finding companions of their own age.

8 ...a heterogenous mix of all sorts of stuff in vivid colours used for entertainment purpose cluttering your side tables, bed and all such surfaces .

9 ...these guys appearing in your laundry. Regularly.

10.  And the best one... You know you have a little tyrant at home when...

...otherwise talkative you and your spouse keep hushing and shushing each other and everyone else and resort to sign language when the little one is sleeping.'

'Yes, thank you, my dear little sir, to bring me back from my childhood to yours.' 

:) 

Happy Flowers

It takes little to get inspired. As I keep going through my favourite craft blogs as a daily ritual, I promise myself that someday I am going to make this or paint that. During one such inspired trip to the market many years ago, I bought boxes of mercerised cotton thread. And then packed them with heaps of other crafty stuff into boxes to carry along wherever our nomadic life took us. Now, I cannot sit doing nothing. I think about creating stuff all my waking hours. That I cannot get it done due to various reasons is another matter.

One day the auspicious moment arrived when suddenly all my reasons of not crafting vanished and I started out with this pattern from 'Attic24' in mind. A happy flower hanging, colourful and charming, crocheted to perfection. In India, we do not get the wide range of craft yarns that is available abroad. So, we make do with what is available to us. The yarn that I have stashed is mostly meant for sweaters and other warm stuff and it does not look good in a crocheted form because it becomes bulky. Also, mostly the yarn is a little 'hairy', even the yarns meant for babies are not completely smooth, and no, we do not get as many beautiful colours too. So, I looked towards my crochet thread collection and thought of using them. I had quite a few colours too, so the plan looked good. Only after a couple of rounds did I realise that thread and yarn are not named differently for no reason. They actually differ in many ways, the most obvious one being the gauge. :'(

And this teeny tiny flower was not going to be even visible on a wall if I went ahead with it anyway to complete the project. So what do smart people do? We double the thread to get a bigger gauge....but nopes, it is still way below the expected size. My 'happy flower' is going to look malnourished, underweight and unhappy. It was already past midnight and my inspiration was vanishing speedily. So, I gave up the hopes of making the 'Happy Flower' that night or anytime soon. But I completed the two tiny flowers anyway, because I wanted to see how we block crocheted work and how does it look, since I had read a lot about blocking and had never done it.

The two little flowers went to lie down on a towel and were soaked with water. Then...oh wait! We need to pin them, right? But there were no pins around. Uh oh, what are we gonna do?? Doesn't matter, we do it our own way, like a true blue MBA. I can put some weight on it. But then how will I see the magical transformation of crochet?? Haha... I will put a see through weight- a glass baking dish :D... see?

                                         

Ahh...I can rest in peace, now that I have seen everything that happens while crocheting and even the divine process of blocking. Or have I?

Meanwhile, the two flowers are happily tucked away with the above mentioned thread and yarn stash. 

No Crying Over Spilled Raita

A couple of weeks ago we invited a few friends over for lunch. In order to impress them with my culinary skills, I prepared food since morning. I was expecting this particular bowl of cucumber raita (spiced curd) to become a conversation piece as the guests would pile up their plates. After all, I had used so much ingenuity and improvisation, cutting out the bottom of a paper cup and bending the hole into a heart shape, then using the heart shaped hole as a stencil held above the curd, sprinkled red chilli powder ever so gently . Caution: never blow away the excess chilli powder as I foolishly did. After removing the paper cup, I patted my own back and admired myself for inventing something genuinely in the era of Internet, when I could have easily copied someone else's idea. 

After some more decorating, and photo shoot to my satisfaction, I hastily proceeded to keep the bowl in the fridge. There was still a lot of work to be done in other departments. In my haste, as I was putting a lid on the bowl, it slipped and shook the entire liquid and my red chilli heart broke! Raita fail gaya!!

But as I was in no mood to give up (the chances of my hospitality being talked about), I stirred the red chilli in, and created a similar heart again. This time I was very careful and the bowl with a red fiery heart made it to the dining table intact. The guests talked about the raita, but about its lip-smacking taste. Even better!

A Moving Story

                                        

So where were we busy the whole month? Guess what, we moved again, though only to the next block of houses this time. Ever since we settled into house number one in the current location, we were trying to squeeze ourselves with all our stuff into the cosy fauji home that was allotted to us. Though I had grown comfortable in it, because as lazy as I am, everything was just at an arm's length literally. Coco's dad kept convincing me into moving again to a bigger home, but I dreaded all the hard work that goes into upsetting and resetting, especially when I tend to grow roots wherever I stay for a couple of days.

Then, he tried the oldest trick. He gave me a tour of the prospective homes that could be ours. I tagged along, thinking that with all the long wait lists, he might not get a new house so soon. But who knew, God had been reading this post and granted me another shifting of home.

I was still very lukewarm to the whole idea of changing the house within 3 months of settling in when I came across this awesome rosebush, and even without seeing the house from inside, I wished I could move in here in the vicinity of these beauties at four corners of the garden. Though the unoccupied house and uncared-for garden were not quite flattering with dry leaves strewn all across, the roses were quite something. A luxury which reminded me of my childhood. Oh, how I always wanted such lovely bunchy roses in my home!

"There are Mango trees and Litchi trees here, look there is a curry leaf plant too." He is trying to convince me. I am still all over the roses, looking at them from every angle, taking their beauty in, clicking pictures for I might not see them again if this house is not allotted to us.

'

"Relax dear, this one is the house that is most likely to be allotted to us." Sigh!! Lets move in then.

And the receding flower season had some relics here too, which were promptly clicked for my archives.

                                        

As it was destined, the house with four rosebushes was allotted to us and we moved in here. Since there was not much of packing and unpacking to do, we settled here quite quickly.

The new house that we now call home is quite big and comfortable, a notch above regular army houses. There are quite a few stories about this house too which will be shared in due course.

                                        
But what really is the icing on the cake is the greenery surrounding this place. Though House No. one had a garden and trees too and birds used to make sweet noises all day long, the new place has another look and feel, like a forest resort.

Though most of the flowers have dried up, we are trying our best to grow some summer plants in the flower beds. The grass is green and the trees are bearing fruit. What else can I ask for!

Dear God, thank you for all this beauty surrounding me. May I always have enough flowers to see and enough happiness to enjoy their loveliness.