Kid’s first dress – neatly ironed and saved inside a cover.
Kid’s first shoe – properly cleaned and stored inside a shoe box.
But what do you do with your kid’s favourite crib?
Dismantling it and keeping it in the attic doesnt sound very interesting. We dismantled it – in parts, such that each part gets a new name!

Strengthening the base ensured that even us, who weigh a little more than our kids, can comfortably sit on it

Part 2, the crib rail, transformed into a photo frame wall.

So, what do i transform next???

I decided to go with option 4 and this is what happened. Once we had seen a wall mounted magnetic scrabble board at Toys’r’us. It looked so cool that we wanted to buy it. But, it was something created just for a display and not for sale. We came back dejected, but inspired!

So, when the time came to “throw” the old carrom board, we decided to convert it into the magnetic scrabble board we always wanted.

The steps that we did…

• We first tried to paint the board directly with a magnetic primer. But then we found out that such primers were not easily available in India and even the ones we found were very expensive. Also, our carpenter told us that they don’t really work so well.
• We got a very thin steel sheet and nailed it on to the board

• The painter helped us give the green spray paint coat on it to resemble a traditional scrabble board.
• With the size of the sheet as the base, we had calculated the size of each square. A scrabble board is 15*15, each being a square.
• The grid was drawn with a permanent marker and required some double decimal calculation

• Next came the coins. We had some carpentry work going on in our house at that time. So, we gave the dimensions of the square pieces we wanted to the carpenter and he cut out 100 such pieces out of plywood. The ply was cut and white mica was stuck on both sides. The letter and the score on each coin was written again with permanent markers. On the back side, we stuck pieces of magnetic sheet.

• Now to come were the various markings on the board grid e.g. double letter score, triple word score etc. This turned out to be a bit complicated to create. It required work on photoshop to correlate the size of the print required to the size of the image to be created. Then the image was printed on sticker sheets at a local printer. We had done a similar customised sticker print for Akshara’s 5th birthday (a cover for a cadbury’s diary milk).

• Then came the last part – mounting the carrom board scrabble board on the wall.

So, the next time you visit our home, let’s have a stand-up scrabble game

My recent trips to Himachal, Punjab and the Kutch region in Gujarat have made me appreciate our country’s diverse culture more than ever before and I stand amazed seeing the quantum of richness that we are gifted with. Well, one might think what is there in the barren Rann of Kutch, but then the beautiful artisan villages surrounding the Rann remove all the barrenness in the heart, especially for the art lover in me. Its fascinating to know that each tribe from that region has its own signature textile embroidery and the name of the karigari is derived from the name of the tribe e.g. Rabari, Aari or paako. So,the next time I step into a Gurjari Emporium I know what to ask for

Its interesting to see that some of the art styles have evolved because of a need. One such art is the Lippan Kaam, a traditional mural craft of the Kutch region. It is a simple mud and mirror work done on the inner and outer walls of a house. This is believed to keep the house cool during summer and a single lamp would be enough to light up the whole house. I was so impressed with this work that i designed a small patch for our house. As usual I added a flavour of the South and went with “Aishwaryam” kolam pattern in the center, which is a symbol to welcome Goddess Lakshmi. In this way I also make sure that even if the states in our country are not united, my artwork will have them bonded This time, I was pleased to see the Gujarat float in the Republic day parade completely embellished with the Lippan work. As the saying goes “Kutch nahi dekha toh kucch Nahi dekha” …is so true!

Akshara wanted a Candy Theme for her 8th birthday party. This time though, with Advika around, it was difficult to do all the elaborate planning which we usually do. So, it was a last minute rush to get all the ideas and decorations ready for the party. The presence of my BIL & his wife, Rajaram’s mom helped a lot to get things done on time. Rajaram of course contributed by staying away

The ideas were split into decorative items, menu items (that which can be consumed), return gifts and wearables.

We made candy necklaces. This was made using a satin ribbon and tying up candies on them to resemble a necklace. I wasn’t sure whether the boys would fancy wearing a necklace, so i made a bow-tie for them. Gems has a 10 rupee long packet. A black satin ribbon was used to tie by pinching it at the center to resemble a bow-tie.

We created an arch with couple of cardboard boxes and some chart paper. The candies were made by rolling coloured cellophane paper on thin bottles. The lollipops were made by sticking coloured paper strips on circular pieces of cardboard and rolling up newspapers to make the stick.

I made a simple chocolate bouquet by sticking various long chocolates onto a circular thermocol piece placed in a vase. We also made candy skirts for barbie dolls. The candies were chosen based on the colour of the dress.

I wanted to make many things for the kids to munch on. We stuck coloured jujubes on a stick and then put them up on a thermocol decoration to resemble jujube kebabs. I had also bought cooking chocolate bars and then using a smiley mould, made smiley chocolate lollypops.

We made vanilla muffins and put a candy on top of each of them. Using gingerbread man cutters, i made cookies. Going with the colourful theme, we put a small amount of assorted gems in a small cup and topped it off with strawberry cotton candy.

For the return gifts, we included a small glass jar filled with various types of candies and a satin ribbon for a bow. The first idea i got when planning for this party was to make a train. We made one by stacking a kit-kat and a five star for the body, hershey’s kisses for the steam spout, glucovita bolts to make the circular section of the engine, coffee bite for the back and stuck together with a cellotape to bring in the brown colour. For the wheels, we originally had thought gold coin chocolates, but we couldn’t get enough of them. Then, jim jam biscuits were used for the wheels.

What’s a birthday party without games? We had many small games, the prizes for which were, of course, chocolates and candies.

“Monogram” – A design with one or more letters, mostly the initials of a name, used as an identifying mark.

It was Advika’s first birthday party and I wanted to come up with customised return gifts for the kids.I thought of making monogram picture frames with kid friendly designs with the first letter of each kid’s name. The easier way would have been to get them done online through some print shop, but then i wanted to completely customise it to my interest and hence decided to do them myself. I started off with the basic raw materials like card stock, flashy stickers, buttons etc. It was fun creating my own designs , letting my imagination run wild with all the scrap material that I had at home. The result was quite satisfactory and I got them box framed.

Monogrammed initials are not something new but have been around for centuries. History suggests that a ruler in a particular period used to stamp the coins with his initials for authentication purposes. It has also been widely used by artisans, craftsmen to put their initials on their piece of work.
So, what are you waiting for? Get yourself monogrammed and make your identity seen for ages

‘Bib Necklace’? What’s that, exclaimed Rajaram!

I then had to explain to him that it’s nothing but a necklace which is huge like a bib and usually worn with a low neck evening gown. There is more to a bib necklace than it just being an accessory. Bib necklaces have been prevalent right from the period of Cleopatra to Victoria to Alexandra to Elizabeth ..and finally have found their way to my princesses:) It’s also interesting to note that the intricate design and the vibrant colours of the beaded bib necklaces worn by the Maasai tribe in Kenya not only add to their beauty but also make a statement about the person wearing it. I never thought that a colour in our accessory would mean so much, like red for bravery, white for peace, blue for the energy & sky, orange for hospitality, green for health and black representing people and their struggles.

I came up with the idea of making bib necklaces for Akshara’s fashion themed birthday party. Well,I didn’t have organic beads, ivory or heavy metals to make them and hence i resorted to simple materials like felt and gemstones that the little girls would adore. I chose to create my own designs and the glue gun came in handy for the sticking part. As a final touch, i tagged a piece of satin ribbon on the edges of the bib necklace so that it could embrace the pretty necks.

With Diwali just around the corner, here are some more ideas to dress up a LED light string. These are more of “Best out of waste” projects.
Pretty flowers made out of egg cartons

Origami cubes made from colorful flyers & waste paper which deserve a much better place than a dustbin

The tartness of this fermented drink caused by the action of lactic acid bacteria and the health benefits due to the probiotic microbes in it make it a favourite for the summer season. Btw, this drink is known as buttermilk, in simpler terms! Effect of writing a post after reading too many “3-idiots” jokes

Since the “flavour” of the season seems to be “go green”, I decided to add a dash of green to the standard buttermilk. Blend together a handful of mint leaves, curry leaves, coriander leaves, pieces of raw mango, ginger, gooseberry along with some curd,salt and asafoetida. Strain the blended mixture by adding lot of water to get the thin desired consistency.
Sip away your drink and have a cool day !

Joy of giving week is an annual charity event celebrated in many companies across India. As part of the event, Rajaram’s workplace organises a “food fair” where employees/spouses put up food stalls and the revenue generated from the sales is given to charity.

Rather than making just any dish for the stall, I wanted to make something which was attractive to see and to taste but still conveyed a meaning. So, I chose to make a flower. Giving a flower to someone symbolises affection and the feeling of sharing. This is the essence behind “joy of giving” and I wanted the person handing out the “flower” and the person buying it to feel this.

Last year, I made a “honey bee”. That was much more time-consuming to make. This year, it was a bit simpler (or at least I thought so when I planned). The dough (made of biscuits,milk powder and milkmaid) would form the main part with different coloured chart papers forming the petals. I melted chocolate bars and dipped the flower in them forming the topping for the flower. The paper cuttings did take up a lot of time with me having to outsource part of the work to Rajaram. So, all the irregular shaped ones are made by him

The memory of Rakhshabandhan from my school days is that it used to be the only day when girls used to run after the boys to tie Rakhi Every year I step into a shop to buy a Rakhi for my brother. But this year I chose to make my own Rakhi. As expected, Akshara wanted to follow suit and make some Rakhis for her friends. So, we sat down together and started crafting the Rakhis based on some themes (chota bheem, lion, bird..). The raw materials that I used are very common things that one can find in any household. Just let your imagination flow freely to build these beautiful strings of love and affection.

A closeup of the Rakhi. The base is a circular piece of thermocol. On top of it are multiple layers of paper quills. The ‘pearls’ have been made with Sago (Sabudhana). Click for a better view.