Krishna Janmastami 2014

Yesterday we celebrated Janmastami at home. Many people celebrated Krishna Jayanti / Janmastami (birthday of Lord Krishna) a month ago this year. But, as per the calendar we follow - Krishna's birthday is last night.

This year again S's mom is with us and we ended up cooking a whole lot of goodies. I took the second half of the day off. Here is everything that we cooked.

Of course there had to be a rangoli - This time Krishna's feet :)

Happy Krishna Janmastami! :)

Somebody Stop Me!!

I have been painting quite a few peg dolls in the past week. Another fellow crafter told me I wasn't going be to able to stop painting dolls once I start off... SO true!

Here is a snapshot of all the tiny people that have joined us in our home...

The ladies! :)

The men...

The men and the boy...

And... .here is Everyone!

And I have 8 more unfinished peg dolls waiting in my mail box. Oh No! what have I done :)
Lucky for me - The dolls festival - Navratri is just a couple weeks away and I am ready with gifts for all our friends :)


Linking it to:
Made by you mondays
Sunday showcase
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Wooden peg dolls

It is Doll season. What I mean is Navaratri is around the corner.

So I tried to paint some wooden pegs as Radha and Krishna.

The design and colors are inspirations from across the internet. Thanks Ambika for tips on Painting wooden dolls. Ambika has a lovely store on etsy. Do check it out.

Unfortunately this time I do not have any step by step pictures - just the finished ones.

Linking to Sunday Showcase.

caffinated crafters

made by you mondays

wake up wednesdays

Ganesha Habba 2014

Happy Ganesha Chaturthi everyone!

Today's menu was traditional south Indian festival food with highlights being Aapam (sweet - we made it last year too), Karida Kadubu (or karigadubu) and Tayir Vada. 

S and me come from different states in south India. So our festival food and traditions vary slightly. As far as possible, we try to incorporate both traditions - so D gets to see all of it.

On the decoration front, it was a modest set up :) With a rangoli at the front door and few colorful tit-bits at the God's pedestal.

Here are a few pictures:

Made this Rangoli the night before. I tried to follow a style of rangoli called Sanskar Bharti rangoli - generally found in Maharastra and done using all 5 fingers. But this is just my version of it and there are tonnes of authentic beautiful sanskar bharti designs out there.

The set up before being adorned by the lord.

Some more pictures by daylight.

There is D! I cant believe this orange Kurta will soon become small for him. They grow up so fast!

(failed) Burlap banner.

Burlap is everywhere now a days!
Saw this lovely subway print banner DIY on pinterest and wanted to give it a shot.

With a 2 year old around the home - mess is an integral part of life! I thought this sign will be appropriate for our home right now..

I printed out the words on A4 sheets. Placed that sheets behind the burlap and just traced out the letters using a sharpie paint pen.

Personally I am NOT satisfied with the way it turned out. It looks like it was hand written as against printed..
It feels incomplete too.

I am not ready to hang it on the wall yet - May be someday I will, if I can make it better. 

I am sure our house will stay messy for a while to come ;)

Gearing up for Ganesha 2014

Ganesha Chaturthi is coming up and soooon.
Here is how we are preparing for the festival. Few quick and small projects to add to the festival spirit!

Made some rangoli with Kundan / rhine stones. These are generally kept transparent, somehow. But I feel it works better with a traditional colored back ground.
Tried out a few colors for the back ground.

And - I obviously settled on yellow! It just makes the design pop! :)

I scored a small clay pot at one of the Indian stores. When browsing, I found it in a very remote corner of the store. So remote a corner, that the owner did not even remember having it. So, he let me have it for free! Small joy to bump up the festival spirit  :)

Was not the smoothest of finishes, but I wasted no time - Painted the pot with lovely yellow and blue and decorated it with rhine stones.

The almost finished product. Could serve as a small vase :)

At Joanns, found this small wooden pedestal. Wanted to paint it and make it a little more ethnic looking for all upcoming festivals.

Started with an antique gold paint... And embellished with Kundan and pearls.





Some more pictures - This time hubby dearest - S - decided to take pictures in his camera! Lucky us - we get to look at some real nice pictures!







What do you think - Festive enough to welcome Ganesha? :)

Happy Birthday D!

Phew! we did it! Finally!
D had a birthday party in California - with all his and our dear friends!

I have been preparing for this day for almost 2 years. When the first birthday party plans were scratched - I ended up adding more decorations and ideas to the birthday basket and carried it forward to the second birthday!

All of our dear dear friends helped out. This must be the millionth time I am saying that, S is not very mobile due to his foot - So I shouted for help and cousins and friends responded. B-I-L and Co-sis were also here at that time. So more hands to put things together.

Here are some main highlights from the party.

A backdrop for the cake table made with honeycomb tissue balls. "D is 2!" banner and a string of Christmas lights. Thanks cousin A and P for executing it to perfection! :D

I love paper lanterns - for years now I have been trying to fit them in my home decor, and each time I have backed out for some reason. Finally I found them a place in this party and they did NOT disappoint! Love paper lanterns - they just liven up the place - especially in yellow ;) We also had some photo props.

Here is the cake table. We sampled the cake at one place and it was heavenly! But they said since it was so moist and soft it could not hold any fondant decorations on top - so we ended up having 2 cakes. One cake just for the train decorations and another one to - well - eat! :D

This is the choo-choo train decorated cake. Pretty closely duplicated from a picture I gave them. Which I found on - of course - Pinterest! BTW, the cake stand is a DIY. *grinn*

Here is the second delicious cake.. And all decorations on top made by yours truly :)

I am not sure if you already caught the DIY tray post - We filled the tray with cups of cheerios and goldfish and some toppers for glamour. Thanks A for arranging them.

When I browsed through various party sites for ideas - one idea that really registered, was the menu card for the day. Such a simple DIY and so easy to add color to the party.

A look at all the food that was served - All of these are south Indian dishes. Food labels were a DIY, not that our crowd needed labels for food - but me needed excuse to DIY ;)

                                                     

By now you must have guessed that theme we were going for is yellow and white.. One more easy way to add more of those colors was the drink stand. We served Badam milk and in yellow cups :) Thanks V for arranging them and much more!

Straws, spoons and forks continue to add color. The silverware and straw holders are both DIYs.

Finally, favors! These bags were for kids. Contents and tag tutorials can be seen here.

These purses and small boxes are favors for adults. They held 2 french macaroons each - chocolate, salted caramel and pistachio flavors - my personal fav was salted caramel.

D was happy! Many of his friends all in one place that night. And there was cake and Vada! There is not more that a 2 year old asks for. Love you D - you are so so special!

Huge thanks also go to cousin K, K, BIL V and P for all your help :) (If you are reading this you know who you are ;) ).

Linking this to caffinated crafters.