Kishley's Studio

Paper piecing

2012-02-19T12:00:00.001Z

and some coloring..

Here's what i made yesterday, when i was suffering from cramps, apparently common in 9th month and signs that body is preparing for the big day! :D So to take my mind off those cramps I made this -

The stamps that i used are really really old ones and of very poor quality, they are from a children's set and to get a crisp outline, I used a foam padding underneath cardstock.. And later on i realised, the inks just wont get off the stamp.. Which usually get off easily from all other rubber & clear stamps!

For the flower petals I have stamped the image onto different parts of the same paper so as not to get a continuity of paper's design in them.. :D

I made this for Yvonne's guest challenge - Paper piecing & coloring.
And ICR Challenge 15 - Love+photo inspiration.

Beaded Heart Tutorial

2012-02-10T10:41:00.000Z

Few days back I posted a card with beaded vase and a butterfly. So I thought i should share the technique to make beaded objects. I am going to show you how to make a heart with the same technique.

This is the vase that i posted earlier -

You'll need - Wire & beads. you should use appropriate wire thickness depending upon the size of your beads. Length of the wire depends on your object, for the heart i initially used about 30 cms of wire, with 2x10 cms added later on to complete the heart.

Step 1: Pass bead to centre, bend wire to hold bead in place.

Step 2: Pass 2 beads on one side of wire end, form a circle by passing the second wire through them.

Step 3: Pull both wires evenly until the beads sit on the first bead. Then repeat the same process with 3 beads.

Step 4: Continue beading in similar way. For this heart, i went uptil 6 beads.

Step 5: Once all the beads are done, secure the ends by clasping them together in the back. If i had thinner wire i could also have threaded the wire into the second last row and cut the edges, that ways none of the side will show wires.

Step 6: Take two more wire pieces and pass through 3 beads from either side of the row.

Step 7: In the same way as above, thread 3 beads and then 2 beads on top of it. Secure the ends by clasping them at the back and cutting extra wire.

So here's the final heart - :)

More ideas beside the vase -
For this butterfly, I have threaded 1 bead on each level and instead of clasping the ends at the back, i threaded small pink beads to form tentacles -
you can add fabrics of feathers to give it a butterfly look :)

Another idea is to make a purse, something like the pic below. To thread the smaller beads i have not looped the wire through (two wires wont even fit in the smaller beads ). After threading those two large beads on top, i passed only one wire through the small beads and then back into those two large beads, secured the ends at the back.

Many more things can be made through this technique, think about cakes (with different color beads for each layer), baskets, christmas tree, bells, crown etc.

Hope you enjoyed through the tutorial! :)

Different take on love

2012-02-07T17:23:00.003Z

I have always loved Iris folding and the last card i made using this technique was ages ago. Recently i got a book from library, which features lovely and absolutely amazing Iris folding cards, which inspired me to make 5 Iris folds in a single day! Yup! And three of those were made for this card!
Rest are in Pink & blue for my little one's scrapbook.. I have got so crazy over preparing scrapbook for him or her and since i chose to not know the sex of my baby, I am making elements in both the colors! How crazy i am!! I know! :) :)

Ok, so here's my take on a non traditional love card. Made in the shades of browns & oranges! Also, this one's my first tall-card! Incidentally I realised it is so difficult to take a snap for a tall one, I had troubles in just keeping it upright for a click!

Some pretty close-ups of the eyelets, ILU and the Iris folds -

On another note, weather in London has been, well, unpredictable.. I never knew It could snow for the first time in Feb in a particular season.. Feb is supposed to be a time when winters start going away!! :)
Here's a pic i took from my window on sunday -

For the record I have still not seen snow-in-action yet. It snowed in the night! :( I have seen a lot of snow before, Indian hill stations are full of them in winters.. I was looking forward to experience snow-fall here in London.. Well, either i'll have to see if it snow again this week or if i need to wait till next winters! :)

And would you believe, I took this pic from the same place exactly 9 days before it snowed? ignore the tilt in the pic, I think i was focusing on the tree n not on the houses in background! Weather here is really unpredictable!

Entering this Challenge for Crafty-Jc's Feb challenge - Love card with non traditional colours! and The Stamp Man - Embellish it Challenge!

Supplies -
Cardstock from a locally bought scrapbook.
Glitter hearts from itsybitsy
Eyelets from
Boeken Voordeel, Belgium
small crystal heart from A1 craft supplies
Papers in Iris fold are from saved gift wraps! :)

Thinking of you

2012-01-31T12:54:00.000Z

My creativity is flowing i guess! I have never done so much crafting in a week that i am doing now!! Here's what i made today -

Got inspired by the latest CAS-ual Friday's sketch -

Do you notice the diary-like look of the card? I absolutely loved this look! :D

Entering this card in these challenges -
CAS-ual Friday - Sketch challenge
ICR - CAS + Anything goes
Varna's Stamping Challenge

Supplies -
Tim Holtz Distress inks - Walnut stain & Milled lavendar
Stamps -
Background - Artemio manuscript backgrounds
Dots border - Papermania Mix N Match - borders
Sentiment - Papermania Honey n hugs - sheep
Coffee cups - Local Indian made stamp - no brand
Gems from stash

Welcome to the world

2012-01-30T18:22:00.000Z

Made this card for my little one.. Isn't it cute to give a card to your new born baby, though i know he/she won't be able to read it till a long long time!! :)

Also as far as i remember this is my first majorly stamped card, I stamped the background as well.. I bought a lot of stamps last year but i barely used them.. I started this card keeping Varna's stamping challenge in mind, though ended up with those two more sentiments near the ribbon.. Couldn't help myself!

I am entering this card for ICR challenge - CAS + anything goes & CraftyJC - Something new challenge.

Below is my first attempt at the same design.. I used a light purple colour in this, and the card still looked white.. The brown one was made on a special request by my husband, who didn't like the whitish background, and didn't want pink or blue either!!

Stamps used -
Background & toys-on-a-string - Artemio 'Baby' clear stamp set
Sentiments - Papermania 'Honey & hugs - Sheep & pig' clear stamp sets
Circle border - Papermania 'Mix N Match - Borders' clear stamp set
Background in the panel - Ippity 'A bit of Burlap' cling stamp

Dec & Jan ATCs

2012-01-30T08:52:00.005Z

Theme - New year
January 2012 ATCs

I am entering this set of ATCs for CraftyJC - Something New challenge.

Theme - Christmas

December 2011 ATCs

Details of the little Shaker on one of the ATC -

And I made these for December's ICRC13 - Christmas with non traditional colours - challenge as well as Pie lane - Glitter - challenge.. Don't remember why i din post them though! I guess at that time i was busy as hell in baby shopping..

Photo-Frame

2012-01-29T10:36:00.000Z

Hey, so this is my first modified photoframe, i think i have done a decent job on this one.. Bought this in local pound store and did some work of my own.. Made this for my little one's arrival, I know i'll not be getting time once the baby's here. :)

Photo-frame says - "The day you were born", obviously to put up my new baby's photo in there..

The original one was a bare wooden looking one, and unpolished too! Did the background using 3 of the Tim-Holtz Distress inks, embellished and finally sealed it with a Docrafts' Matte-finish acrylic paint.

Here's another gorgeous view of the frame in bright sunlight -

I am entering this frame for CraftyJC "Something New" Challenge and The Stamp man "Embellish it" challenge.

Embellishments -
Red square Buttons - Cheap Jack, Mumbai
Green epoxy buttons - Artemio
Shell buttons - De-Banier, Brussels
Heart-sequins - AVA, Brussels
Feet button - Itsybitsy
Hand buttons - Craft Embellishments from local store
Orange Alpha buttons - Itsybitsy
Green Alpha srickers - EchoPark's A walk in the park collection

A new craft

2012-01-25T22:31:00.002Z

I got a wonderful book from local library about bead-craft on the card & oh boy i have fallen in love with it!! This is the first card I made using the technique -

Some close-ups of the beaded vase, flowers & the butterfly -

Details of the stamped sentiment -

I am entering this card in two challenges -
Pie Lane's Recipe - flower + swirl + button
ICR - CAS + Anything goes

And please don't mind if i am not able to visit everyone of your blogs.. I'm completing the home-run of my pregnancy! :D almost 34 weeks pregnant now, not too long when my baby pops out! Can't wait for my preg to get over. I want some energy levels back! Baby shopping is the most tiring job of all times.. Over the next few days I think I'll be sharing some stuff I have been making over the last month.. Which includes ATCs, photo-frame and baby-bibs. I might not show the bib though.. I am not a sew-er and and i dont have a sewing machine either ! :D The work i tried to do on the bibs has been pathetic so far.. :)

Plus, I think scrapbooking is the toughest job of all times.. I started with a page atleast 10 times and ended up having a good laugh at my lack of imagination and no page.. Trying to make one for ICR's Scrapper's challenge..

Supplies for the card- Pink & black Cardstock, beads & wires from local store, buttons from A1 Craft supply, butterfly fabric from stash, glitter-balls balls in swirl from Pie-Lane. Flowers from Handpaper , stamp from DoCrafts Black & Gls phrases clear stamps.

Baby boy in the family!

2011-12-05T21:14:00.002Z

A new addition to our family!! :) My sister in law gave birth to a baby boy 5 days back and I'm so excited about it. My darling husband is in Delhi right now, he just had to go when he got the good news! A friend is coming tomorrow to stay with me while he's away, though I would still love to have my husband beside me all the time.

I just so had to make a card for her, I am a proud Maami now! For those who don't know, Maami is kid's mother's brother's wife! lol! It sounds so complicated, though is not, since we Indians have been brought up in a world where every relation has a specific name! Check this link if you are into reading all possible relations we use in everyday matter..

Ok, so getting on with the card, I was in a hurry to complete this in time. I seriously didnot want my husband to leave without a card! The design is inspired from one of my own baby-girl card that i made. I happen to purchase both boy & girl gift papers from Archies, which is why even the sentiments look same. Even the baby on both papers is same, only the picture frame is in a different color.

Details of the lovely glitter hands from itsybitsy & ribbon from A1 craft supply -

Sorry for not-so-nice pics, was in a hurry to click them too. The night time when i clicked these doesn't help either!

Edited later : Just going through my archives & realized, today my blog turned 6-year old! :D what an awesome feeling.. I started blogging as pure fun, when i was back in college and blogging was the new-est fad! There was no concept of followers, no page widgets and designing the blog was much more complicated. Through all this time, I've stopped blogging for a few months every now and then.. 2009 saw only one entry into the blog..For those who dont know, I have even churned out some fictional short stories on this blog, my fav one being this one. These days I'm majorly focused on paper crafts & general state of my mind & life.
My come back to blogging happened by chance, when i hooked onto indian ATC swapping club - found on ICR now. This blog allows me to express my happiness & my thoughts with so many lovely people out there. I thank each one of you for reading my stories, appreciating my work, advising me, doubling my happiness and sharing a part of my life!

Colourful Thank you

2011-11-30T10:41:00.000Z

Another card for today, first one's here..

This one was made keeping Palette #2 on CraftyJC's challenge #11 for the month of november.. I so love this colour combo!! Came out better than i expected!

I coloured a couple of white doily by blue,green & purple inks and cut one of them into pieces. The cut ones are tucked under purple tabs.

There's some Pie-lane chunky glitter around the doily & some chipboard flowers from a random-stuff shop in Brussels.

P.S. I need to buy some sentiment stamps, soon.. I have only "Thank you" & "For you" lol.. Plus my stash of rub-ons is dwindling! Any idea on which one will be good for starters? As in some set/Brands that will cover all basic sentiments..

With Love

2011-11-30T09:51:00.001Z

Well, something came over me yesterday night, I started with making a card for CraftyJC november challenge & ended up making two! :) I have used Palette #1 for this card..

Almost all the inspirations for the challenge used roses in some form & i got truly inspired :D

Details of the lovely roses! I got them from a party shop in Brussels!

And i have some wonderful news to share, my sister-in-law (hubby's sis) gave birth to a healthy baby boy today morning & i'm so delighted for her.. All i want to do is fly back to Delhi right now!
And wait for another post coming up in about an hour! :D using Challenge's Palette #2..

Shaker-Slider card

2011-11-29T10:00:00.032Z

My husband's birthday was few days back, and i wanted to try out some new technique which i had never tried before. I made this shaker & slide card for him. The color of hearts is same as the shaker, dont know why they both look a little orange in the pic..

The shaker box rolls on the sliding slit using two of the 1-pence coins :D I had fun making this!

I have used some of the scraps from itsy bitsy PP sheets, put stripes in alternate colour & did some free hand cutting around the edges..

& here's a lovely look of my shaker box.. Coated in Red glitter & filled with beads.. I wanted to fill chunky glitter, but while making this box I realized that glitter will work better in square box. It is impossible to arrange ALL the foam pieces together without a single gap in between!! A bangle might just work perfectly for a circular box filled with glitter or any such fine material.

&I love the way this bow has turned out! specially with those tine roses.. They *were* toothpicks!

On another front, my pregnancy is going absolutely fine. I just got back from a "Babymoon" in Edinburgh.. Apparantly the vacation taken normally in mid-pregnancy as a last-couples-only vacation is called babymoon! :) Edinburgh is a lovely place, more like a town than a capital city. The old town has a lovely charm to it with a castle in middle.
Recently I noticed a very surprising thing, my husband gets up with an alarm on his mobile. My baby almost always kicks 5-10 mins after the alarm, like he/she also wakes up by it. Once my hubby had to go late to the office and so the alarm was set for an hour later than the normal time. Courtesy my diligent body clock, I got up at the regular time, but the baby just did not kick!! I felt them only when the alarm buzzed an hour later!! & the same thing happened in Edinburgh as well when obviously the alarm was set for a late time to give us longer sleeps!! :) So many little things happening inside my *huge* body by now! lol! I'm enjoying every bit of being pregnant! :)

I am entering this card into two challenges -
ICR challenge #12 - DOTS AND/OR STRIPES + TAG IT
Priya's Use your scraps challenge

Love to travel

2011-11-18T16:38:00.002Z

Okay, so another orange card on the way, when i dont really like orange too much!!
I made this card for Yvonne's guest challenge this week. I had these wonderful 'Artemio' clear stamps bought from Belgium a few months back. This challenge by Yvonne to use postage stamps was perfect moment to put these to good use. The stamps in the card are used on a magazine to create faux-stamps!
I used the sketch i recently saw at Ujjwal's blog for The prickly pear challenge, hope i have done some justice to the sketch! I am otherwise generally hopeless when it comes to sketches!

The idea for this card came when my husband booked a vacation for both of us to Edinburgh next week.Needless to say,I Love to travel. Thanks to my darling husband I am a well traveled person, Scotland will be my 11th-visited-country so far (that count includes India though :D).

I once dreamed to be visiting 30 countries and atleast 5 continents before i die.. Looks like i need to upgrade my dream! I have already visited 3 continents so far and its pretty long life i have ahead! :)

Here's another view of the card, taken at a tilted angle so you can see the 'heart' before '2' and the dull gold rings below in its true colour. Btw, do you notice the background for this card? I used a Sizzix texture plate to stamp the background & I absolutely love the effect.

Supplies -
Tim Holtz walnut stain ink, Artemio Postal Mini Clear Stamp Set, Inkadinkado Inchie stamp set, Jef Circle punch & Echo park collection - walk in the park Alpha sheet.

you make my life Bright

2011-11-15T18:01:00.000Z

I rarely make cards now, no one (locally) to send them to!! :( I made this for my husband dear -

Details of the gorgeous flower -

I have cased Priya's Card in this one.. The moment i saw this card on Priya's blog, I fell in love with this Bargello technique of patterned papers!! I have used up all those old Itsy-Bitsy thin patterned paper sheets that were left.. Having been exposed to better papers, I dont feel the need to use them often..

I'm also entering this one for Using-Scraps challenge at her blog..

Supplies -
Alphas from Echo Park - A walk in the park collection. Dark green paper from Papermania chistmas capsule. Multiple thin sheets from itsy bitsy for the background. Flower from Khushboo :) Green leaves & twine from stash

how do you keep up..

2011-11-10T12:04:00.001Z

..with details of all the challenges going around?

I decided to take part in challenges this week, and went through ICR, CraftyJC, Kavitha's, Yvonne's & Priya's Challenges.. And when i sat down to make something, I totally forgot what was i supposed to make for each one!! LOL..If you have any idea on how to keep up with all the challenges floating around, please share!

Btw, do you know, pregnancy make you forget things and makes you a little more lost!! Thats a fact though no one knows the reason.. If you don't believe me, check this & this.. Yay!! Now, I have something to put the blame on :) Even though i have tendency to feel lost, pregnant or not!

One amazing thing happened yesterday early morning; I was laying on my back, with my hands on the tummy and i felt a soft thump on my palm!! And along with this thump i felt something inside my tummy.. A feeling i was experiencing since 2 previous days and which had me pretty convinced I have got some bad digestion problem and probably some *gas* (very very common in pregnancy).. All this while my little and tiny baby was kicking me hard to let me know he's there!! I am grinning from ear to ear now!

So ever since the 'realization' dawned on me, I have all my concentration towards the tummy.. Baby kicks a LOT, though the movement is so slight that i really have to be concentrating on my tummy to feel something! My darling hubby can't yet feel the kicks when he puts his hands on my tummy..
And I have been trying a lot of things that makes my baby kick more.. Friends told me various things that worked for them like, eating sweets, putting a slight pressure with hand on the tummy, hubby talking in the room worked for them! For me, turning the music ON works, specially the foot tapping numbers! I believe I have a dancing star on the way!!! Tejal coined that term for my baby.. lol..

And well, if you know some place in London to do craft shopping do let me know! I only know hobbycraft, which is damn expensive, prices are more than what it costs in India to get things shipped!!! :D Online stores here offer better rates, but i would rather see some stuff before buying.. tools etc are okay to order online, but i tend to like to see things like paper, ribbons, embellies etc. before buying them

Love is...

2011-10-31T13:43:00.001Z

Well, I have been away since a while now.. I'm having constant Backaches :( Courtesy my little baby!! Recently went to the mid pregnancy ultrasound scan and i could see my hyper-active baby, kicking n waving to me :D Its such an awesome experience! I'm waiting to feel the baby kick from inside my tummy.. :D

Anyways, so in the whole last three weeks, I have been making & completing this card for Craftyjc challenge #10 - Simplicity.

It was hard to not go overboard with embellishments & PPs for this one.. For the first time ever I have doodled an image & hand-wrote something on front side of the card! I dont really like to see my handwriting. But it was getting difficult to get the mesg printed here, plus none of the alphas i have were matching with the theme! :D
The image is colored with watercolor pencils!

Getting Nostalgic

2011-10-18T16:03:00.000+01:00

Getting nostalgic, not about India though :D My darling husband is in Berlin for 2 days on a short business trip. Which makes me remember all those lovely moments we spent there. Berlin was the first European city I visited with him, about 3 years ago.. I remember being charmed by the European architecture, ornamentation on walls, the history of Germany and the lovely street performances. I Loved being in Germany, and Germans are the most communicative species when it comes to no-common-language discussion!! I was amazed by the amount of effort put in by most people to understand me and answer my query, mostly by gesturing and moving their fingers, even though i would end up not-understanding-a-single-thing.. :)

The first thing i remember about Being in Germany was its Weather.. My husband was there a week before me, n told me not to pack too heavy woolens, since i was going only for about 10-12 days. And well, what would i know of the unpredictable weather.. When i reached Berling, Weather was slightly cooler than expected and the next day, there was chilled winds blowing and continue to blow till the end of my trip.. I wore (my hubby's) body warmers underneath my jeans & tops!

And believe me, its not a good thing to have ALL your pics clicked in only a couple of woolen tops.. And to make things worse, one of them was white and I was not carrying scarf/muffler to match the other one.. aaarghh... I still cringe at the memory of those chilled winds blowing on my neck!! I always HAVE to wear a muffler/scraf, even in Delhi winters.. My white top looked like it has seen the worst of dust storm when it came back to Delhi :D

Some clicks from around Berlin -

My favourite of all places - This chain link is Huge! & its built in between very busy road.

The first fountain i saw in Europe! I was smitten by the detailed designs.. sadly, i dont give a deep look into fountains i now see across every place in Europe..

I loved this style of gates :D

Old vs New :)

The remains of Berlin Wall.. Some part of it still kept as a memorial..

A distinctive marker runs through all roads, marking the place where Berlin wall used to lie..

A very Beautiful Church -

The Guardian Angel of Berlin :) Goldelse -

And this is the place i spent most time in when my husband was away in office.. There's a HUGE craft store called Idee in the basement that you'll literally go mad inside!

And the most exciting part, the street performances! Fairly common sight in rest of Europe, not seen anything like this in London though..

Sorry for the pic heavy post!

My first Easel Card

2011-10-12T09:58:00.040+01:00

So finally i did complete the ICR challenge #11 to create an easel card & use a basic shape. Here's my entry -

I have used only Rectangle as the basic shape.. Wanted the card to look simple :) I made this for a very close friends new born baby boy. Din want blue at all! :D The baby & the bear are done using 3D technique.. The multiple pictures come from the same book i used a few months back from Brussels..

Some more details of the card -

And every time i see this card or a baby pic or babies in prams in the market, i wonder whether i'll have a boy or a girl myself :D :D I wish for a girl, though everyone around is having gut-feeling about a boy! Surprisingly, i dream of boys as well!

On another wonderful note, my stuff from India arrived yesterday.. Have unpacked most stuff, but still need time to put everything in place.. My new cabin (my hubby calls it that ways) is overflowing with boxes filled with ribbons & papers & embellies..Can't wait to unpack it all! Plus, I realised, its been 3.5 weeks since i am in London and i have not seen a single tourist place! That also means, i dont have any picture to show around.. Been busy in shopping on weekends. It takes a lot of effort to set up a new house..

True Love

2011-10-01T10:45:00.000+01:00

My first card after along while! & my first one from London n my new craft room too! :) This one's for Piali's Challenge on Yvonne's blog.. Challenge was to do block stamping using an acrylic block!

Here's my entry -

I ended up inking too much i guess, cos now when i look back at Piali's work & other entries, my work seems a little blotchy! :D But i anyways love this card..

Luckily,all the new purchases i did in last month from India did not went into the Cargo! (My lucky mistake is what i call it!), so i had this big Acrylic block & 3 new distress inks. And the only stamps i have are background stamps from Ujjwal & a labels stamp set from Karuna! :D The label & flower vines comes from the label set!

And I learned about colouring white ribbon using stamp pads from Priya's blog recently. The link for the tutorial is here.

ATC club

2011-09-29T09:25:00.000+01:00

Okay, So now I have joined ATC club UK!! Here's the link.. The theme for this month was 'Shades of Autumn'.. The theme need not be Autumn based, as long as the color palette was formed of those colors..

Here are my entries - Everyone's allowed maximum 5 entries..

1. 2.

4. 5.

Most Supplies from stash. Others -
1. Chunky glitters & vintage garden beads from Pie Lane
2. Flowers from Itsy-Bitsy. Crystal Hearts from A1craft supply.
3. Wooden buttons from Khushboo, Tag was altered from a Thank-you-tag sent by Ujjwal.
4. Die cuts from Jaya, Wooden beads from a broken bracelet, Glitter balls from Pie Lane
5. Star button from Khushboo & crystal stars from A1Craft supply.

I'm in London!

2011-09-27T13:14:00.001+01:00

Hey peeps!! Holla!! After a long time..
I have shifted to London, been about 10 days now .. I spent about one month in Delhi without my husband, and that really was the worst part ! I was eagerly waiting to join him here & I am so loving the weather in London right now! Its not really chilly & not really warm.. Just the right pleasant weather, n it mostly is covered in clouds with sparse rains here and there.

Other than the weather & having to spend time with my husband, What i am loving about this place is that there's a small study room in my newly rented apartment. Its more like an office cubicle, probably made by the previous owner/landlord to serve as make shift office-at-home.. But it serves my purpose for doing all the crafting work with as much scattered or as neat as i want my work to be.. For the first time since my marriage, I have my own work-table!! :) :)

And well, it took me 3 whole days to look out for a white light here.. People apparently love the yellow bulbs & yellow lights everywhere, there's no concept of tube light either.. I bought several energy-saver bulbs & ordinary CFLs, trying to lay my hands on a white one!! Though i returned them back, I would have already spent a fortune otherwise.. And then, not to forget the really long conversations i had with a lightning store's salesman about what i mean by white.. Those yellow lights are called "warm white" and that's the whitest & the brightest they stock! By my good luck though, my husband, who was getting bored & roaming around in the store, found the white bulb on a highly costly Lampshade!!.. Salesman said, "Well, but that's not white, that's the blue light. Not very popular here, but we do have a few of those". The cover of that bulb said - 'Daylight bulb',and I really had to curb my desire to show him the word DAYLIGHT & tell him that Hey! even the cover says its not a blue light!

Now I am so eagerly waiting for the cargo to arrive here. The cargo stocks all my crafting supplies, i only have a few basic stuff with me.. So the first thing i made with all the limited supply - I altered this diary cover to make it look a little brighter!

The balloons n silver die cuts are from some RAK i received last year. I got about 2-3 packages n swaps n gifts with some die cuts n these were in one of them. The Bells & birds are from one-pound shop near my house :D. The silver hearts & flowers are from A1-Craft supply.

The end result is really very kiddish, but i like it for the brightness & cuteness!! :D I'm going to use this as my new office diary!

There's another good thing that happened recently, someone contacted me on my blog n sent me a pic of card she cased based on one of my previous posts.. I was touched to realize that your work is loved by someone so much that they cased it n showed them to you.. :) .. She made it for her husband, and she's not a crafter.. :D
So here's Bhawana's work - Alongside the card she cased it on, here's the link to original post.

frens!!!!

2011-08-24T06:25:00.000+01:00

:D :D someone just did a gag here, on my blog.. Posted something abt me puking.. Ignore that if it comes in your readin list.. In the meanwhile I'm planning how to kill someone!! :D

And I know I should be posting more often about what I am making these days.. Sadly, I am just not into crafting these days. My mind is off, my heart is jet-lagged & my body is tired.. No Mojo, no enthu & no fun.. Missing my husband a lot! He's in another part of the world right now! :( & I'll be able to join him in about 3.5 weeks from today! I'm counting days!!

I made some notecards though, for the indianstampers friendship day event.. Have not taken photos though to share with you all..

tid bits

2011-07-29T13:30:00.000+01:00

I believe everyone of you might have noticed my absence from blogging.. Though i am actively reading your posts, appreciating your new projects and getting inspired to do many new things, i am still not really doing anything in my own life.
Some of you already know the fact that i am moving to London for a few years. And to be honest, I am more scared than i am thrilled at the prospect. I have never been a homely girl, always finding fun & peace in outdoor activities. I don't love to cook, I don't really watch television and I definitely don't like to 'relax' by sitting at home (doing nothing). Take me to dinners, parties, movies, get-togethers and i am a content soul! Even working in office is better than working from home!
And, why the hell am i scared of moving? First thing, i am not going to be able to afford a maid there.. I'll be cooking, cleaning, washing and what not!! Even though, I know, my darling husband will be helping me, there's no denying that the amount of task I'll have to do there is going to be much more than what i have ever done in my life!
Then there's the BIG question of unemployment. It has been a long time since I have working & I do love my financial independence. I am not afraid of being bored at home, I have a lot of hobbies to nurture in absence of my usual programming job. I still am anxious for my future & career in the long term. I think I'll also apply for a PhD studentship in next study year. There's a big doubt if I'll get an admission & bigger doubt about whether I'll be able to afford the studies if i am not offered a scholarship! Keeping my fingers crossed.
I am really excited about one thing though, I'll have no dearth of crafty supplies there.. I was checking out an Australian scrapbooking magazine ( jan 2008 edition) and the stuff advertised in that magazine has still not reached India in mainstream retailing. I should have expected that nonetheless the fact still hurts me!!
On another note, you know what i have been doing past few days? I have been reading/viewing a LOT of scrapbooking & card-making books, I have a cute collection of about a dozen such books, and I love going through them again & again.. And, I have made envelopes for the note-cards I'll be sending next week for ICR secret swap event.. you read it correct, I have made only the envelopes, yet to make the note cards.. & I already have 3 Tags to send out (I made them in Brussels :D )

Just for you

2011-06-15T10:36:00.000+01:00

I made this card for two challenges, Indian Craft Room's challenge #4 and CraftyJC's challenge #7.

ICRC #4 challenge is about black/white card with a shade of tiffany blue & no PP.
CraftyJC's challenge is about doodling or using a digi image in the creation.

Here's my entry -

I have doodled the background.. That too on my husband's office diary while traveling in Delhi metro for 1.5 hours on a single stretch! This is really really time consuming.. I had plans to add a dash of red to it, but then decided to make this for ICR's blue challenge.. :D Today is last day for the submission, so i am just in time..

Some more details of the sentiment -

I have used a stamp from Hobby ideas in the background with blue ink. Square Alphas from Staples, Noida. Alpha beads from Itsy-Bitsy. Blue foam alphas from Hema.

Vintage fun

2011-05-31T18:08:00.000+01:00

Can't believe its my second card in a single day!

Have you ever noticed my answer about my handwriting in the blogger profile? Well, I just thought i'll put up some proof too ! Check out -

And here's my gibberish handwriting -

Made this card for Elizaveta's vintage-inspired challenge running on yvonne's blog! This is the first time i attempted a vintage look, & I think i have managed okay for the first timer..
I wrote some *gibberish* in my diary & used some wet cotton to apply the light brown ink.. & then blow-dried it to get the crumpled-old-look.. then used walnut stain Tim Holtz distress ink on the borders.. I used it on card-borders as well..

ICR challenge 3

2011-05-31T10:35:00.002+01:00

ok, so that one was not my last card.. made this one a few minutes back!! :D out of no where i decided to make an orange flower whose tutorial i read sometime back on the ICR forum (using a heart punch) Of all the limited things that i'm carrying with me, hearts punch was the one never used till now! :D

Challenge was to have some handmade embellishments & to use this pic as insipiration - ( My inspiration was the orange flower.. I have never used an orange flower before..)

So, here goes my card -

I have added some quilled loops to give some dimensional balance to the popping-up petals of the flower..

yOu ShAkE mY hEaRt

2011-05-30T20:26:00.002+01:00

Probably my last card from Belgium! :) Going back home this week.. It was a good trip!! Eager to go home now.. yay!!!

Aniversary card

2011-05-17T10:51:00.000+01:00

Made this card in bits & pieces..The flower was made first, using a tutorial (in french!) to make ribbon roses. I dont have those flat ribbon in colors of a rose, so tried with this pink thread! & lightly inked the outside. Then came the blue cardstock & lightblue paper from papermania.

The silver leaf stickers was bought from mumbai, and the inner backing left from the leaf was used in the flower! Alphas are from Hobby Ideas.

On another note, I am enjoying like crazy.. been to Paris earlier this month.. Disneyland is such a visual treat!! Eiffel tower is well, OK :D looks exactly like its pics!! :D :D

And I'm planning to visit Swiss this coming weekend!! yay!! Its like been on a European honeymoon, with a few days gaps! :)

Pink Love

2011-05-02T13:05:00.000+01:00

I am posting too soon i guess. never ever before have i posted so frequently!
These are two cards in pink i recently made..

I have used some more pages from the 3-D booklet for this sweetheart card.. And i am seriously short of embellies for my cards now.. I ve realised, itsybitsy has a far more variety & economical value than i have found across all the major craft supplies store here!!

Paisley Love

2011-04-29T22:25:00.000+01:00

Another challenge!! :) This one is for card patterns sketch 112.

I have used a very beautiful paper from papermania, and a matching paisley embossed paper which i inked a little in white. Everything else, the chipboard flower, purple heart brad, silver petal stickers, white lace, rub-on-sentiment and shaded purple thread are some impulse buy knick-knacks from here n there :)

The inside of card reads "Good times roll" & the details of the lovely flower--

go Dimensional!

2011-04-28T09:09:00.001+01:00

Another Challenge!! :D this is for Yvonne's guest blogger Donna's Dimensional challenge. Challenge link is here.
I have recently bought a small booklet which has multiple images (re-printed) to make 3D cards.. Do some cutting and you got ready to make them!! I bought the booklet long back & probably would not have started using them before reaching back home.. but this challenge really made me move my lazy bum and try this out for the first time.. i luckily had half a roll of 3D-double-sided-tape..

The first one i made - The boy looks soooo cute on that toy train..

Better view of the popped up images -

This is another one i made - My hubby was impressed by the effect this 3D car gave.

Here's a close up of the car. It looks so 3D with those layers! Even i was surprised !

These cards have turned out fantastic.. Now i am craving for another booklet. which alas i have not been able to find nearby.. I bought them on a sightseeing tour to Antwerp! & i'm sure my hubby going to blast if i even suggest going back to that place just to buy those.. lol..

**Thank goodness for husband who try to keep us sane from the maddening hobby! **

Have a bright day

2011-04-26T19:25:00.000+01:00

I am surprisingly getting a lot of time in Belgium to make cards.. A lot of them are kept unfinished though... Next week i hope i'll be posting a lot.. :D

For now, I completed this card for ICR's first challenge. The challenge was to use these colours - and interpret I.C.R for the cards.

Here's my take on this -

I - Irish Easter Lily

C - Circle

R - Ribbon

A challenge!

2011-04-05T08:41:00.004+01:00

Me participating in a challenge is rare, Still a challenge on yvonne's blog got me..This Challenge by Debbie is about using embossing folders & sanding/inking it, to get some amazing looking textures..
Never tried this before, so here goes my attempt -

I'm enjoying in Europe right now, & I'm so disapointed by the lack of any good crafting store here in Belgium.. I wasn't able to find anything nice in art n craft store.. There's huge selections of colors, paints, pastels, markers, sheets etc. but nothing for scrapbookers or crafters.. There's one big store still left to explore, i hope they stock some nice stuff.. :)

A week in cards - Day 5

2011-03-04T18:50:00.000Z

hmmmm, I have tried another take on celebrate & enjoy, using same bottles & sentiment as here.

Though i think i have not managed to do better :D :D
And last month there was a secret sweetheart event at Indian craft room where we had to send some love to our secret sweetheart!! It was so much fun!! And i feel so guilty of being one of the defaulters.. :( I'm so sorry peeps, & especially Asha, to whom i had to send some love.. I'll be sending some love to you soon!

So here's what i received from my sweetheart Mallika -

And Februray meant my event month :) I received some love from Sudha too - She sent me cards and some awesome awesome stickers! Will put them to use soon!!

Thanks so much girls!

Now back to our AWIC challenge,

A week in cards - Day 4

2011-03-03T13:42:00.000Z

Okay so here comes my 4th card in a row!! Can't believe myself.. really!! I used my newly (well 3 months old but put to use now) purchased blu-check-tape.. Have followed no pattern, no colour theme.. Was too tired to think of anything so just pulled out random stuff and made this..

A week in cards - Day 3

2011-03-02T18:43:00.000Z

I managed the 3rd day too!! yay to myself!! :) Left early for office & came late, still managed to pull off this card..
The pic is not a good quality since i clicked it in poor lights..

The card is inspired from this sketch - CPS 207 - part 1

& used purple colors for FF#68

A week in cards - Day 2

2011-03-01T09:37:00.001Z

So this is the second day of AWIC - A week long blog hop! I made this card around midnight and my hubby was so so surprised to see me working on a card after coming back from office! I usually craft on weekends only!

I have taken inspiration for my card from Card Patterns- sketch 104.

I am usually not good in implementing a sketch, but this one has turned out nice.. Its for my Brother's Birthday 3 weeks away. Sentiment reads "Happy Birthday BHAI".. Bhai is hindi for brother.

Supplies -
Ribbon, buttons,golden alphas, cardstock, Dark brown plain sheet, Patterned paper in grid - all from local stationers.
Check-ed PP - itsybitsy

A week in cards

2011-02-28T07:43:00.000Z

Heyllow everyone! I am back to crafting & blogging after a 3 month long siesta! I hope i was missed.. :D

My brother got married on 18th Feb & was almost just running around in circles for all the preparations!What a hoopla indian weddings are!!

And I was only thinking about getting back to crafting when this wonderful opportunity came from Jaya.. A few of us indian crafters are taking this week long challenge where we have to post a *fresh* card everyday for a week. from today till 6th March.

Here's my first card for 2011 -

4 Things tag

2010-12-21T11:51:00.000Z

4 SHOWS THAT I WATCH

Bigg Boss

Na Aana is des Laado

Dance India Dance - waiting for next season to start

hmmm.. There's nothing else that i watch really.. These too also are watched on & off.. I wld like to watch Jhalak Dikhla Ja which recently started with its new season.

4 THINGS I AM PASSIONATE ABOUT

Crafting

Travelling

Jewelery

Reading books

4 PHRASES THAT I USE A LOT

uff!

kya hai?

lolz

tum/aap bhi na!

4 THINGS I LEARN'T FROM THE PAST
Sometimes you got to let go of your ego and do things for people you love

Arguing over small things is sometimes not worth it... you don't really win anything.

Its good to pause before saying the first thing that comes to your mind.

There are no shortcuts in life.

4 PLACES I WOULD LIKE TO GO

Andaman & Nicobar Islands

Greece

Las Vegas

Egypt

4 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY
Read a novel

Did shoulder strengthening exercises

Went for book shopping

Drank a strong & hot coffee

4 THINGS THAT I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO

A party on new year's eve

My brother's wedding in Feb

A possible Europe travel by mid next year

Family planning next year :D

October Mayhem

2010-11-10T11:31:00.001Z

This whole month has went away in mayhem.. If I was happily crafting every weekends in september, I couldnot get a single relaxed day to craft in october.
To summarize -
I ran around & around the tailors.
I did too many round trips to my mum's house.
I visited a lot of shops to arrange stuff for my bro's engagement party.
I attended a lot of card parties and lost money in ALL of them, no exceptions.
I hosted a Diwali dinner party for relatives.
I ate a lot of sweets & gained a couple of pounds.
Had a gala time doing all this though i do feel real tired now. Up side to all of this, I'm going for a week long vacation to Malaysia, starting next Monday. Tuesday being my darling hubby's birthday. I hope i dont lose too much in Genting Casinos, going by my losing streak this year.
And this time, i'm glad i don't have office work to complete before i leave, so I'll be doing some pre-vacation shopping. I have decided to snip my oldie boot-cut jeans into shorts. I get a way to use those otherwise dumped jeans and i save money on new shorts :D Recycling rocks!

And though Crafty-JC challenge is not up till yet for this month, I made this card as DT for this month. I made this for "Ethnic Indian" theme and gifted it to my mum. She always loves my handmade stuff :)

This is the quickest card I've ever made, I ripped off 4 wedding invites for this one. Indian wedding invites are undoubtedly the best source for ethnic stuff!!
I hope you had a wonderful Diwali!
And, I'll be back & active after my vacation. BTW, is Malaysia a good place for buying any craft supplies? I'll be visintg Genting, KL & Langkawi..

Missing in Action

2010-10-15T11:04:00.000+01:00

I am missing in action since a week now.. I have got a lot of new goodie stuff, but just not getting time to sit down and create something or even read all your wonderful blogs. My brother just got hooked :D & his engagement is just 2 weeks away. There's soooooo much to do!! Shopping for new dresses/Sarees and jewellery for my Bhabhi (brother's wife is called Bhabhi in India). And I have to get my own blouses stitch! I dont think i can get that stitched in this festive season and that too in 15 days!!
I think i'll only be able to make a card as DT of craftyJC challenge#4.. and maybe one or two more!!

Will be back soon!

I miss you

2010-10-08T05:23:00.000+01:00

I was going through a card book by Nanc & co. When i stumbled upon one I Love you card which immediately caught my eye. I have used a similar concept of partitioning the space into such boxes and writing my sentiment. This card is dedicated to a close friend who is settled out of city and i miss him a lot.

Cardstock & red buttons from my local stationer. Red square, bigger hearts & metal basket charms from Cheap Jack's. Small hearts from Idee. Old scrabble letters were a find from my old wardrobe!

Best Mom

2010-10-06T09:45:00.000+01:00

I love this card a lot. This one's exactly my style,Happy & Bright.. Dedicated to my mom :)

The blooms are handmade, layering out flower punch outs.. They are lovelier in reality, with a soft tissue paper & that pearl. I made this card for Yvonne's current challenge by Sherryann to make handmade flowers!
Paper from stash. Ribbons from Itsy Bitsy. Alphas from Hobby Ideas.

On your Special day

2010-10-04T04:29:00.001+01:00

I bought some white lace a while ago. Had really tough time taming it :D To create ruffles from lace is not easy. I used some staples for the ruffles and then hid them behind another layer..

Here's another card using similar stuff but a different lace. The guy i bought the lace from, had a very very small peice of this gorgeous broad lace. I couldn't resist buying it, even though the guy was amused at what could i possibly do.. lolz.. And i can make another card from that same piece if i use along the smaller side of the card.. :)

Stuff used -
Laces from local stationer
Butterflies, flowers, sentiment and ribbons - Itsy Bitsy
Papers & cardstock from my local Stationer
Pearls from stash

I Love you

2010-10-01T11:21:00.019+01:00

I Had this Red Heart doily since a long long time. I think i have hoarded this for close to 3 years now :D And here's how i used it -

The blooms are handmade by layering a few flower punch cut outs. The thread is a lovely find from McLeodGanj market. The stamp is a wooden block, bought several years ago from a local shop. Red ink is from Idee and sentiment is printed.

And another good news. I'll be on DT for CraftyJC challenge #4 as a random participant for challenge#2. :D Super excited for that!

Series of similar Cards

2010-09-30T11:12:00.003+01:00

I made a yellow card with Green border a few days back, here's the link. I made a few more using same basic material. I call them my YGLace series :) short for "Yellow-Green Lace series"

1. You mean a Lot to me

2. Congrats. Well Done.

3. Good Luck. Do well!

4. Missing you .. A Lot.

5. Best Friends.. Always.

Random!

2010-09-29T09:57:00.000+01:00

I am so happy now that rains have stopped pouring in Delhi since past few days. The roads are better now, plus courtesy CWG, there are no Commercial vehicles running for major part of the day.
Which means i'm taking fewer hours in commuting to(& from) my office. I'm getting 9 hours of sleep and I'm able to attend my aerobics class without a miss. yay!! for that! If you compare it with 6-6.5 hours of sleep, I'm in heaven.. :)

Another important thing that happened to me this week is that I did a round of back strengthening exercises with 30 kgs of weight! I was surprised at knowing my own strength, most other girls were done with 5kgs & a few went upto 15.. My instructor warned me of back ache that might occur for putting in a some pressure there. And to my surprise, I went to my class next day without even a hint of any ache.. I got to know of one good thing about myself, I have a strong spinal strength! :)

Collages

2010-09-24T09:40:00.002+01:00

I was so inspired by Marit's Challenge on yyam's blog, that even thought it has been ages since i last made a collage, i wanted to make one.. Here's the Challenge link.

I know i could have done better than this, but today is the last day of submission and i was kind of wary of re-doing everything to get it right.

Title: Looks can deceive you

The lady picture is from some catalog for sculptures. That's why i have three perspectives of the same piece. The other tidbits of paper are from same catalog. I have done the background from Sketch pens , some crayons and a golden Artoons Pen.

Now, That one was from the challenge. I made another one while i was at making collages :D Took a while to collect the words from magazines. The most tough was to find "HAND".. And i originally had the quote "With the Touch of her hand, This world SPRANG to life" I had one in million chance of finding that word in the magazines i read.. So, here's my another take on the collage-making -

Title: With her Touch

A Baby Girl!

2010-09-23T15:26:00.000+01:00

So, Completed the entry to Crafty JC's challenge #2. Just in time :)
The challenge was to make a card from 1-2-3 recipe.

1 PP - i have used polka dot with stripes PP

2 colors - Pink n brown

3 embellishments - one thread & 2 hands

And how could i not think of a baby girl card when i'm forced to think Pink!! :D :D . So Here's my entry -

The inside of the card looks like this -

Supplies -

PP got from a friend who was celebrating her nephew's birthday and this paper was brought to wrap the gifts.

Plain brown paper & card stock from local stationer.

Pink thread from Mcleodganj market

Tiny hands from itsybitsy

Sentiment & baby photograph from a sheet bought from Archies.

On Another note, made this card a long while back & has the same feel. I made this for a friend's daughter's 1st bday -

Here's some details of the card, which are not as blurry as the above pic -

No card yet again!

2010-09-20T08:57:00.001+01:00

Yeah, i know i was supposed to post the pics of all the cards i made last week but i have become such a lazy bum, i have not yet taken out my camera to click them. I have atleast 3 reasons to give as an excuse :D but i know i also had loads of time when i could have done that.

Last week went in a tizzy. Its raining like cats and dogs here in Delhi, so much so that all my parents generation have only one thing to say, " I am witnessing this much rain in Delhi for the first time in my life". :D
Though i just LOVE rains, I hate the chaos it causes. Most of the roads are pot-holed with a lot of water-logging everywhere. Which invariably has pushed my travelling time to about 4-5 hours daily. :(

And my parents hosted a dinner to our Great Big Indian Family. Three generations together after a long time & what a lovely chaotic evening that was! Loads of laughter and cheers! And since i was the unofficial assistant hostess to my mom, I ended up running from room to room, for various little things! I got to catch up with a cousin whom i met after 2 long years, and realised, OMG, My nieces have grown so much!! I was having so much fun that my hubby had to literally drag me out at 1 am, reminding me we have office tomorrow! I slept around 2am, woke up at 6:30 and reached office sharp at 9. And its really becoming difficult to stay awake right now :D

No card, just ramblings of my happy mind!

2010-09-13T13:30:00.001+01:00

My in-laws were out of Delhi for most part of the weekend.
So what did i do? Well, I took out all my craft supplies, put them up on our dining table and started crafting. I made a few cards on saturday. I don't have a work-desk in my room and i usually take stuff i need from my drawer, use them & keep them back. Most of the times i get lazy and leave things in middle, thinking 'will complete it later'.
I so so so loved the whole process of arranging my stuff on the table & having everything at a hand away... My mum-in-law is a cleanliness fanatic and would have freaked out if i had put all my stuff on the dining table in her presence :D (Usually its my husband who freaks out when our bedroom is in a mess)
I found my other camera yesterday and will put up the pics soon.
And a friend of my hubby got a set of punches. One of them being simple flower one. I created some lovely blooms by stacking the punch cut-outs..
But to my disheartening, two of my punches refused to work :( They were working all right last time. I felt bad to see my hearts punch & my new butterfly punch going worthless.
Then, I also left two projects unfinished. One from the CraftyJC's Second challenge and another one a collage for yvonne's guest blogger. Both of them seem to be turning up well, though i left them halfway since my mind stopped working after making 4-5 cards that day :D Am going to complete them soon..

Thanx

2010-09-06T12:07:00.002+01:00

I have been online after a long long time i guess.. A new project has started in office & i was pretty busy in setting things up and running. Made a quick card for Yvonne's challenge here. The grid looks fab in real, this pic is very bad quality, clicked this from my phone, hence the washed out effect.. My cam's battery is not working anymore :( I do have another camera, but need to search it out in my wardrobe.. Will do so on next weekend, cant stand the images my phone picks..

The color of the card is also, a bit darker & vibrant shade of blue. And do you see the zig-zag ruffle? I just loved it.. And a small charm near bottom on the right side was a RAK from Shalini.
& i spell it as Thanx cos i din have letter 'K' in black!! :D :D

And yes, I'm still a little busy on office work. I do browse through all of your blogs, though not commenting on your lovely creations!

Friends Forever

2010-08-18T04:30:00.001+01:00

I had this green ribbon since ages! just couldn't find a way to use this.. & i loved the way it has turned out..

* Supplies *

everything here including

ribbon, golden tape, card stock, buttons, papers & leaves

are from my local stationer.

My firsts

2010-08-16T14:02:00.004+01:00

Amy is having a FlashBack Friday in which we have to post our first card we posted on our blogs. I started blogging about my card pretty recently, though i have been making cards since as long as i remember.
The first card i posted on my blog was this -

Just on another note, this is something i made a long long time ago - That small tile on right says princess.

Sorry for the bad light & the top of the card is also trimmed.. clicked this when i probably din know how to click a pic properly.

And this is something I made when i started working & wanted something on my cubicle's pinboard. :D - This card is important cos this is from where my quest for newer materials & styles kicked in. I bought my first designer (curvy) scissor for this, and did some embossing using fork & kitchen roller here.

And i realise that i used to make these human figures a lot before.. I probably have not made a single such figurine recently. Maybe i should try it once more!

Another Love card.

2010-08-06T10:39:00.002+01:00

Hey guys, I've been so so busy lately. Thankfully my grandPa's Surgery went well, we got him home yesterday. Considering he is 82, recovery is not going to be too fast i guess. The doc has suggested about 3 months.
Also, I'm not really getting time to read blogs or update them, i'll be back n active as soon as i can.

Today's card also was made before i went for my vacations, simple n cute :)

Sentiment is printed and then coloured with faber-castle colour pencils.I used a pink sticker on top of foam heart.

Supplies -

Cardstock & heart stickers - local stationer
Ribbon - cheap Jack
Foam heart - ItsyBitsy
Patterned paper - Archies

My longest 24 hours

2010-08-04T06:01:00.003+01:00

Its a very very long post. Read at your own risk. Here I am rambling about my life's longest. 24 hours.

Everyone asked me 'How was the trip?' And i always just replied it was gr8! And why it was great, well, for starters it kept on raining & raining & raining.. ALL the while...
On the day i had my early morning flight from Delhi, I woke up at 5 am, did some left-over packing and left hurriedly for the airport. On way, it drizzled with the soft plup-plop sound. Reached airport on time, and was really really surprised by the revamped look. Delhi Airport looks so much better now. :D
Reached Jammu on time too, & *smiles* it was raining.. caught a cab via puddles & some jumping over them. Our Hotel in Katra was already booked, rested for a while there, took our lunch at a famous Dhaba called Manoranjan (means entertainment) before starting our 12 km uphill trek.
We were enjoying the rains when it dawned on one of us that we have not taken any umbrella or even a raincoat with us! Thankfully our Pithu ( A man that treks along with you and carries your stuff, massage your legs, sometimes even carry young children ) provided us with raincoats for 20 bucks each, which were of very bad quality by the way, made of plastic-carry-bag-stuff. But then we couldn't complain for what we were getting for 20 bucks.
We finally started our journey at 3:30 pm, it was like a leisurely walk for us. we kept taking a break after about every 15-20 minutes, for lemon water, for chips, for chocolate, for anything. So,we managed to cover only a km in half an hour or so, we were definitely not prepared for an uphill trek, its difficult to walk upwards on a slope. To make things worse, our shabby raincoats started to tear, mostly from arm joints. one extra pull and it would tear like paper.. Then it was easy to get drenched for water would invariable seep in through torn parts. We all bought new raincoats after 3 kms :D After 4 kms, I decided I need two raincoats one over another.. I am sure I looked damn funny but WTH! i wanted to keep myself as dry as possible. Plus another nuisance being its lightweight, it slowly became very difficult to keep its hood steady on your head, slightest of the breeze would take it off. I tried to keep it place by holding the corners, somehow it always managed to get torn from the neck.. :(
By 7 pm we had covered only 6 kms, as the cold set in, we started having hot-chocolate breaks instead of lemon water ones ( coffee breaks for others :D). After 6 kms there are two ways to reach Vaishno Devi, one of them 1 km shorter, we obviously took that one. After walking for 6 kms, its easy to decide we dont want 7 more kms :D
But unfortunately our chosen path had a lot of small-small landslides in past week and our Pithu would always push us to travel risky areas quickly. I remember we were passing under a tin-shed & its roof was broken from middle and we saw a big stone beneath. Pithu urged us to walk faster in that srea, we were all tired by then, so ignored his advice & kept strolling. Suddenly there was a noise of small pebbles on the tin shed, which btw feels louder for ppl just below. And We RAN!! literally!! so much for tiredness..

We reached our destination at 9:30, last 6 kms clearly covered at faster pace, thanks to our landslide stints :D We directly went to the public ladies bathing rooms. Its customary to take a bath before visiting the temple, & my family even insists on wearing everything new, down to the basic garments. And oh boy, the chilled water took me by surprise. The kind you wouldn't even want to touch, taking a bath was like too much. I closed my eyes and went inside the shower, came out in about 10 secs with a shivering spine. And the lights were so dim there that everyone was changing in open, no one bothered to change in cubicles provided.
We took a locker to keep our stuff and stood in queue for the holy visit. We had some special pass whose queue was considerably shorter. The general queue was atleast a km long, could be more, um not good at guessing. My mouth was agape at that sight.
Once inside the temple, its a loooong path to cover before we actually reach the cave in which three goddesses reside. And the exit to that cave was through stairs overflowing with chilled water flowing in through all the directions.. I couldn't even close my eyes here, i would fall flat on someone..After coming out, everyone was tying a red fabric on railing of a stair, i did too. I guessed it was to make a wish as is associated with all types of things being tied in Hindu temples. I made a special wish there :D
It was already 11:45pm by the time we came out of the temple and started looking for food straight away. With so many people around, all the foodie joints were open. We started our downward journey immediately after dinner. It had stopped raining by now. We were relieved that we'll not have to bear those shabby raincoats again, but then our relief was short lived.
For the first hour, we were comfortable with no rains. And since downward journey is easier on legs, we did cover a lot of distance. Somewhere after one of our hot-chocolate break, it started raining again. ON came our raincoats, double ones for me! Soon it started raining not like cats & dogs but rhinos & hippos! ( Thats how a friend put it :D ) with heavy winds and more landslides. Soon, we were walking holding out raincoats together, heavy winds promising to blow them away. We were no good though, i managed to tear both my raincoats.. DUH! thankfully our Pithu had bought 2 spares already, he knew we wont get those so late in night. I was tempted to wear third one on top, but then realised i'll look like a funny mummy ( Those raincoats were white) So removed one and kept the total to two.

One more leg-wrecking experiment we did. We had already experimented with stairs twice, which were 50-60 each. Third time we took stairs, it turned out to be 526 stairs!!! YES.. 526 stairs in one whole go, thats about 37 floors! my legs are still complaining for that.. And soon after electricity went off.. Damn!! We walked in darkness, no moonlight either because of thick clouds. We kept walking & walking and couldnt even think of taking rest, weather looked like its going to get worse. My legs started quivering, my legs shouted that they cant take one more step, but we ket moving, sometimes taking baby steps, sometimes long strides (only cos my hubby kept pushing me to be strong) . Never know from where did i gain strength to take those strides. Held my hubby's hand and just kept pushing my legs.
On the end of our trail, our hotel's cab was waiting for us. Each step from the point where we could see the car till we actually reached it, was a huge task in itself. We reached our hotel room at 5:15 am. It was a longest 24 hours of my life. If you remember the start of this post i had woken up at 5 the previous day. I was awake for continuous 24 hours with the maximum of physical activity i have ever done or will ever do. I took a Hot Bath & slept like a log for next 4 hours. Why only 4? well, there's another long post coming..

Um Back!

2010-08-02T14:28:00.001+01:00

Okay. So i'm back from my week long vacation, and I sincerely don't feel like working right now.. I'm having a vacation hangover.. :D

So here's a card i made before leaving, to be gifted along with wine bottle on a friend's marriage anniversary. I wanted to use some buttons as embellishments near the sentiment, but was seriously short of time..

Here's the inside of this card -

Supplies -

Wines patterened paper with sentiment - Archies

Red & Grey cardstock, & glimmer tape - local stationer

Border Punch - Jef

Red/orange Ribbon - ItsyBitsy

I've a backlog of blogs to read, will probably take a day or two to go through them..

Life is passing by in a blink!

2010-07-26T10:37:00.000+01:00

I have been so so so busy this week that now i feel 'is it really possible to be that busy?'. I am going to a small vacation, will be visitng Vaishno Devi and Dharamshala, starting tomorrow and will be back on weekend.
That break from work should be look forward to and I should be happy from excitement!! But I'm so so overworked that coudnt feel that excitement in my ears :( I was asked to complete some work before i go and that meant hours of exhaustion and i also worked last saturday & sunday for it!!

The little time i had in between went into quickly going through malls & shops to get some new clothes for the trip. I hate it when i have to do this hurried shopping. That usually means i have bought a pair of jeans with not an awesome fitting, i could have got better at next shop. And i got no chance to buy a pair of new shoes!! And I did not buy some matching junk jewelery with those new tunics! Ahhh!!

So to sum it up, i did not get a chance this time around to enjoy the pre-trip luxuries and the time to build up that excitement!! :) But then, i am going tomorrow early morning , 'yay!' for that :)

I did make 2 cards this week plus i tried roses from a heart punch, read it from Anita's tutorial here. I just have been so busy (cribbing again!) that i din get time to pick up my camera & click them... I'll upload them after coming back!

55 Fiction: Longing

2010-07-23T11:01:00.000+01:00

Her eyes kept wandering to each direction, seemingly looking for someone. Her eyes were intense, moving inconspicuously towards her wrist every now and then. Then suddenly her expressions changed. Her taut face changed into a relieved one, with a noticeable twinkle in her eyes. Another joyous face, of her fiancé, stood in front of her.

June ATCs

2010-07-15T09:47:00.000+01:00

My june ATCs for the month of june'10. Theme - Ethnic Indian.

1. Trio

2. Peacock

What went in -
Peacock ensemble- from India International Trade Fair, 2008
Ribbons, copper sequins, brown rhinestones - local stationer
CardStocks - Recycled from old wedding invites.

online store

2010-07-14T12:13:00.000+01:00

Check out http://www.narulastationery.com/
some amazing stuff available online. Rotary paper trimmer available for 1350/- !! Seen here
and double-sided tape roller and 3M spray adhesives and sakura brush pens (for calligraphy).
Though i have never ordered from this site, you can check out the authenticity of the site if you want to.

Iris Love

2010-07-13T09:00:00.001+01:00

I wanted to try this Iris fold since i saw it in a book. This resembles Iris of a camera. The pic is not too good, clicked it in lesser light and later tweaked the pic using software.
I am not a challanges person, but did this for Yvonne Yam's atleast 3 Patterned Paper challenge. I dont think i would have tried this without being inspired by her challenge :)
I thought it'll be simple, but is not. I got this fold right on second try, and my husband was kept awake till late night while i made this. :D

Supplies -

Carstock - local stationer

Patterned papers - Archies

Alpha-beads - itsybitsy

Crepe ribbon - Idee

My sins against gender stereotypes

2010-07-12T16:16:00.000+01:00

Have you ever wanted or done something your gender is not supposed to? DewDrops asked me to list 10 such things.

1. I can do odd-jobs at home which are usually men's area. I am comfortable with manly-tools such as screw-driver, pliers, hammers and can use them when needed with ease. I don't flinch when i have to replace bulbs n tube-lights and i tend to fix things that i need to.

2. I carry my own luggage even when my husband insists otherwise. Once i was back from airport and needed my luggage carried over to our home on second floor sans lift. My father in law gave up after 2 steps (he insisted he'll carry it). And needless to say, i carried whole 20.5 kgs for the rest of the steps and did so without putting it down even once!

3. I love action movies! I so totally love them. And my husband loves it!

4. I love trekking, walking, climbing, running, cycling, jumping over fences, even though i am not a regular at them and don't have too much of stamina. I still love doing all of that.

5. I love to explore a new city on my own. I can walk down aimlessly in the lanes of a stranger city with ease and confidence and yet be charmed by it.

6. I rarely keep my room organised and tidy. I throw my clothes anywhere in the room and keep my footwear wherever! I place my phone, my hair accessory, my watch anywhere in the room.

7. I don't use makeup! I generally goto my office without applying *any* makeup. Not even a lip gloss. I don't wear much jewellery either except big earring and my ring. A married women in India is soooooo supposed to be laden with jewellery & make-up.

8. I drive recklessly, sometimes at speeds of 100 kmph and i do believe most girls don't know how to drive well! :( i so wish it weren't the case.

9. I donot want reservations for women in any place. I never use seats meant for women, rarely stand in girls-queues and sincerely believe in no special reservation for them in education institutes or jobs.

10. I hate cooking. literally hate cooking. I wish i never had to set foot in the kitchen... Though i know all basic indian cooking and can prepare a decent meal.

Okay. So i have completed my list. Would you want to list yours down too?

Fly away

2010-07-08T07:14:00.000+01:00

Another Birthday card.. I got a birthday gift last year wrapped in a gorgeous sparkle blue paper. As always, i kept the paper, but somehow never used it anywhere till this card got made. :D The paper is toooo much bling in itself.

So here's that simple card i made. Loved the effect my blue paper gave.. I thought of giving it a faux stitching but then decided against.. I loved the way it is, without distressing, inks, faux stitching & glitter, which is rare btw..

Supplies: -

Plane - ItsyBitsy transport theme
Square punch - Carla Craft
zigzag paper - itsybitsy
RedOHP marker - Stic

With Love

2010-06-30T11:50:00.001+01:00

Here's a quick card i made recently.

Stuff used -
Patterned paper & card stock from local stationer.
Ribbon, Hearts, Tree die-cuts, and printed sentiment - Itsy Bitsy
Purple flowers made from leaves set from itsy bitsy & silver-stickers from local stationer.
Heart Stamp - Hobby ideas
Purple ink - Idee

Indian Craft Challenge Blog!

2010-06-25T14:07:00.001+01:00

I just loved the idea of having an indian challenge blog :) Its the brain child of Jaya Christina

The challenge blog can be found at thie URL -
http://craftyjc-challenge.blogspot.com/

Go Green

2010-06-21T11:24:00.002+01:00

I made this green Birthday card this weekend.. Have used green colour for the first time. Somehow always felt this is not the right colour for a card. I took out this colour only cos it went well with the flower-plants-paper.. Bought it from Archies some time back.

And i'm not too dissapointed with the color scheme :)

And i also got a chance to use the Green "HAPPY BIRTHDAY".. I have a lot of Green & Blue "Happy Birthdays" left, since mostly i use other reds, pinks & goldens from the assorted pack :D

So, supplies from -
Flower pot pattern - Archies gift wrap.
Roses on Sticks - Cheap Jack, Mumbai.
Green gemstones, Golden ribbon, Brown button - kinari bazar, Chandni Chowk.
Web-pen from Artoons, Reynolds for faux stitching..
Flower Stamp - Staples, Noida.
Green Stamp-pad - Idee, Berlin.

The artoons webber pen is a real gem, makes it so easy to do the faux stitching. This pen keeps the ink flowing even when it is not writing, so i just keep using the pen to make dots, and the in-between line is auto-drawn. :D But yeah i used it for the first time and need to make it a little more neat. Practice! :)

Shirts Tutorial

2010-06-17T14:38:00.038+01:00

These are some shirts i learned to make, from a friend long time ago. I am writing down the steps to make them with some pics. I am not good in writing tutorials, so shoot a question if something is not clear.

Step 1. Take a sheet approx 10" x 4". You can modify the size after experimenting a bit and finding out what size suits your project. Hers, I took a page from Femina. You can use patterned papers as well, but then the collar always turn out to be white, so i avoid using them. Check out the bottom left corner shirt in the above pic, with white collars, made using a patterned paper.

Step 2. Fold the paper by roughly two-third of its height. As you can see the back of this paper is very similar in color scheme, i chose this to get a similar collar for the shirt.

Step 3. Fold the outer flaps towards center as shown.
( If someone noticed, the fold done in step-2 looks inverted, i did that accidentally but forgot to take pic with the two-third fold.)

Step 4. Now, Its time to make sleeves. Just take a point on central line, and fold the flaps outwards as shown.

Step 5. On the other side (length-wise) make a small outward fold as shown. This will form the collar of the shirt, so adjust its height accordingly.

Step 6. Now, with that fold towards the back side, fold the corner IN towards the central line as shown.

Step 7. Now take the lower side and tuck-it in the collar just formed. And then flatten the shirt, making a smooth crease at the bottom.

May ATC

2010-06-15T11:41:00.007+01:00

Theme for May's ATC on ATC Blog this time was "Anything but a Rectangle".

Here are my entries -

1. Stiletto

I made this in a hurry hence the simple look. I wanted to make something ornate, but then, loved this one too. The Paper is actually from a wedding invite.. I so totally loved the golden sparkle. The flower & that tiny winy ribbon is from my stash.

2. Circle of Life

Well, A friend of mine,Jaspreet Bhambra, sold/auctioned her paintings to raise funds for an NGO working towards Child rights and education. One particular painting was made together with her 5 year old nephew, Arnav Bhambra, who wanted to help in this initiative. He wanted to help in making the paintings so that they can be adopted to raise money for, in his own words, "kids who do not have anything and can't go to school, or buy paints, or colors, or books, and pencils...."

So this painting is the inspiration behind my 2nd ATC, and there are two of these ATCs because I sent one to Arnav along with the ATC swap hostess.On having a look at what the hostess received, i was a bit disheartened for the crumpled quilled center. Here's the pic which hostess posted.. :( And i have no idea in what state has Arnav received the ATC, that being sent in another country altogether.

My April ATC

2010-06-07T11:10:00.001+01:00

April ATCs-

Theme for this month was Beat the heat with 'Summer treats'

1. I scream Icecream

I used Pop-Corn Pens for the icecream.. Gives great 3D texture :D

2. YUM

Used Quiling strips & my paper crimper for this. And letters are from a 3D sticker sheet.

Waiting to receive the swaps..

I'm hosting this month's ATC swap

2010-06-01T08:08:00.001+01:00

Yippie!! I'm hosting June's ATC swap on www.crazyaboutatcs.blogspot.com.

Theme for this month is Ethnic Indian. Time for some wooden blocks, peacocks, paisleys, Intricate patterns, earthly colors and whatever else you can think of. For more details hop to the ATC blog.

Do Join in!!

For Make-it-crafty candy

2010-05-19T08:51:00.000+01:00

Zoe on 'Make it Crafty' is giving away a very nice candy. This is great especially for crafters in india, who dont have access to all this stuff in India :D :D and she ships internationally

So i am supposed to post which one out of three works iof her do i like most and why.

Here's my pick - Pop-up Card

I Loved this for excellent color detailing and layering of images. I just love layered cards.
Here's the candy content -

other details about the candy are here.

My new storage box

2010-05-18T11:20:00.001+01:00

I recently bought 2 medicine boxes for storing my craft embellishments from gaffar market, Delhi. And i am just loving it. It organizes my stuff neatly and boxes stack up taking up very little space. Here's a pic i took from my mobile - not very clear, but this is the only pic worth showing :D. Whenever i'm going again, I'm buying a few more such boxes.

I Love

2010-05-17T09:51:00.003+01:00

I love to travel. And not just to watch the important points in a place, but to feel that place. To roam around, to look around, to understand what makes a place so special. I love to know the history of the place i'm visiting. I love to observe how people behave in this another part of the world. I love to interact with locals and hear their views.

I love to read. Anything which is written crisply, not the kinds that go in circles explaining things. I love short stories as well as voluminous novels, biographies as well as scientific theories, craft books as well as coffee table books.

I love photographs. I am not too good as a photographer but i do like to try whenever out :D My husband thinks i'm good in noticing interesting & clickable things, but the outcome is never what i would want it to be. but since i anyways donot spend too much time in learning the finer nuances of photography, i'll have to be content with whatever beauty i can capture through my lens & my eyes :D Other than art-photography, i really like to have memories through them. Even a cousin commented on the VOLUME of photographs we have from our honeymoon.. :) she never even clicked a quarter of them..

I love to craft. Oh, I just love my artsy craftsy gene. I am mostly into paper crafts, but have pursued other forms in past (when i had more time with me ) . With so little time on my hands with my taxing job, ATC blog has been a saver. It requires little time since amount of detailing needed is not too much. and i can easily manage that on weekends. I have a HUGE collection of embellishments and papers, I buy them at twice the speed at which i consume them. I am already running out of space :D And i have decently big collection of paper-craft books. When i am not creating, I love to go through them. There was a time when i was not creating at all, in those times, I used to carry one book from my collection to my office and go through them during traveling (Which BTW is about 3 hrs daily ).

I love jewelery. I love jewelery BIG time!!! And every piece i own should have something unique in them. I love all stone-studded ones, i dont like much of plain old gold . My favorite possession being my mum's wedding necklace & earring set, which i got as a gift on my wedding :). They might look old fashioned to some, but i so love to wear them. I once was thinking of revamping them into something modern, but then on an occasion i got such lovely compliments for them that i decided to wear them as it is. I wont ever get something like them again, gold jewelery is simply not made that ways now.

I love to shop. I usually like to shop in malls or some air-conditioned environment when i am looking for clothes. I generally never buy clothes without trying them on, and never from road-side stalls. Road-side stalls for me exists only to buy junk jewelery, craft accessories, hand-made products and such things.
I love yoga. Its been a little while since i started going for Power yoga and oh girl! I am in love with it. It has made me a little more flexible and a little more active. And a lot more connected with myself. Thats difficult to explain i guess.

Birthday Card

2010-05-12T02:35:00.005+01:00

It was my best friends's Birthday on sunday, and this what i made for him -

More Details --

Materials used -

Background paper & red tape is from local stationer.

The red flowers & stones are from a gift that got broken. :D

Sentiment is from a Happy-Birthday-Confetti that i got from Berlin.

The red-pipe-ribbon is from Rajouri Garden.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T14:32:00.002+01:00

I made two cards for Mother's day. One for my mum & another one for my mum-in-law.. :)

Here are my takes -

Materials used -

Card base from an old diary's support page :)

Stamps from Hobby Ideas

Ink from Pretty Colors

Alphabets from itsybitsy

Dull-gold leaves and jute ribbon from CheapJacks

Dried foliage from a local vendor in Matheran

Golden-brown circular embellishments from stash.

All the materials used in this card are from local stationer & my stash.

Amazing Graffitti image

2010-05-06T10:31:00.004+01:00

Take inspirations!! :D

Mumbai Trip - part ONE

2010-04-27T13:07:00.001+01:00

Had a wonderful trip to Mumbai last week. This lovely & much needed break turned out to be an adventurous one.
We spent 2 days in Mumbai and the day i stepped out of my plane, i developed a sincere dislike towards unbearably humid weather. So finally ended up with a lot of time at home(my sis-in-law's) itself, within the comforts of AC. The good thing being, I visited a few craft stores in Mumbai and bought a LOT of nice stuff. My next post def would be about what all i got. I loved a store called 'Cheap Jack' for the amazing collection of buttons and 'Hobby Ideas' for stuff not easily available anywhere else in India.
We went to a museum called 'The Monetary Museum' by RBI. There are so many coins on display, from ancient India to modern times. Loved going through them, I don't remember much of it though. It was mesmerizing to know what different Indian rulers did to make their own 'style statement' when it comes to their dynasty/kingdom's Coins.And there's a place called Khau gali just opposite to this museum, It had amazing indian street food. The Bhelpuri was among the best ones, and i think this is what famous mumbaiya bhelpuri really is. The ones we get on Mumbai-beaches now is just rubbish in comparison. I always took a plate of Bhelpuri on beaches & ended up wondering, 'what's so special anyways?' .
Then we went to a the famous Prithvi theatre and watched 'Munshi ji ki gudgudiyan'. A play made from 4 stories written by famous Hindi short-story-writer Munshi Premchand. Loved the first two stories and somewhat liked the 3rd one. Last one was boring beyond comprehension. And I did saw 2 TV personalities amongst the handful of audiences the play had. One being Bumpy from MTV Roadies production team, he was there with a chinki girl, who, i recall, is also from Roadies Crew. I dont know the name of second guy. :D
The next two an a half days were spent in Matheran.

-- To Be Continued --

March ATCs

2010-04-15T10:53:00.002+01:00

These were my entries for March ATC, on crazy about ATCs blog.

Theme for march was "Cute as a Button!!"

1. Earring

2.Life is good

Updated on 26th April:

Received these lovely ATCs:

This one is from Shelly

Loved that cute little bird.

And this one is from Anita.

Super cute Duck buttons :)

Driving skills!

2010-04-14T13:05:00.002+01:00

I drove to office today. Now, you might ask, whats so special about it? Well, its usually my husband who drives the 80-90 odd kms to & fro daily, I only drive from his office to mine about 8 kms away.. I rarely drive full distance on my own.
I ended up doing a lot of thinking today while driving, and while listening to the radio sometimes. I remember the time when i was really really anxious while driving. Had to focus on clutch, gear, accelerator, stearing wheel and the neighboring cars ALL together. And that was a huge deterrent to allow me to drive.
Somewhere down the line, I guess i became so habitual of driving that i stopped trying too hard on everything i just mentioned.. :D I enjoy driving now, though only if there're no traffic jams and i get to drive on 5th gear all the time.. :) :) :)
I truly feel its an accomplishment for me to drive so naturally now, my feet respond automatically, my hand moves the steering without even thinking about it. I drive at 100kmph on highway without flinching about speed. And I Love it. I never believed i would be driving like this someday.
Oh and the thanks goes to my husband for pushing me into driving. Thats another matter that he pushed me so he won't have to drop me to my office everyday :D He hated to drive that extra distance :D

sleep deprived!

2010-04-08T11:38:00.001+01:00

Me thinks there should be more hours in the day....for sleeping!!! I am soo sooo sooo sleep deprived these days.. :( atleast 8 hours would do so good for me :D

Finally!

2010-03-29T15:00:00.001+01:00

So finally i got time to make this months ATCs.. I was really really busy this month, and really thought i'll not be able to send ATCs for march. Also this month's theme was a little tough for me.. or maybe i was going through artists' block.. couldnt think of much to do with the buttons i bought for this project.. I had never worked with buttons before..
I made two ATCs.. & not happy with one of them.. I ripeed it off totally and made it again.. not too happy with second attempt either.. I still think i could have done better, but lack of time did stop me to start afresh the Third time.. :D
I hope someone likes them :D

My Feb's ATCs

2010-03-16T10:20:00.002Z

Forgot to post them here..

They were made for February ATC swap, themed "Say it with Hearts!!".

1. Tenderness

2. Take My Heart

Wild

2010-03-11T12:17:00.001Z

It feels so amazing to watch your wild classmates get wild again at another classmates wedding.. :) Almost all of them had two left feet, still they were all *dancing* to the beats.. The whole scene was so hilarious, I just couldn't stop laughing by the end of it all. About 7-8 guys jumping mindlessly, without the sense of beat and occasionally trying to co-ordinate themselves.
Had they not been my classmates, i would have watched this bunch with a very disapproving eyes. Knowing them so well made the scene so happy and joyous. Only these people can pull such an act :D
And it did bring some good ol' memories back, Our principal had actually stated : "In my whole career , I had never seen such a bunch of in-disciplined students, and I am sure I will not come across ever again" :D When all of my class got suspended for burning crackers in the lecture room, no one even went to say sorry. The suspension was supposed to be indefinite, but the princi saw we were having more fun, not attending the classes, so he called us back after a week :D :D

Those were good times :)

I kept my promise

2010-03-08T09:36:00.002Z

Well, I kept my promise, i made to myself. I ordered the 4-book set of Twilight, Started reading the day it arrived, i think it was 4-march, thursday. Its monday today and i have already been through the first two(twilight and new moon) and have started the third one(eclipse). And i feel so pleased about the fact that my reading speed is still a no-compare to anyone i know of.

I also started working on the March ATC using buttons.. but somehow my heart was deeply set with Bella & Edward ( the main characters of the books i'm currently reading) and so i quickly left off that and continued with the books. And oddly, i didnot even miss my laptop.. It was not switched ON for two complete days, which i think was a first for my laptop, to be not turned-ON at all in whole weekend.. :D

And it was fun watching my husband next to me trying to coax me out of the book i was deeply buried in. I got threats of putting off the lights, warning about not to go beyond a certain page number and (mildly) violent attacks on my book.. Most irritating action of hin being when he would just close my book without even letting me bookmark it.. I hate to find where i was before.

And i think next time i'm going to turn off his Playstation while he is still playing :D :D *grinning* *With an evil smile* :)

U-turn?

2010-03-04T09:31:00.005Z

I have lately started a task, of visiting blogs i used to read some 2 years back, and reading my own older posts again. And i feel, why in the first place did i drifted away from blogging?
These last two years have been the most hectic years of my life. I got married, started living with new people, got into a very time-taking job, bought a home and hence a lot of financial burden. Spent some time in photography, then left it. Spent some time in paper-crafts, then left it too. Here and there spent some time in reading books too. My drawer is now full of things i kept on hoarding, intending to use it some day in some creation of mine. My book-shelf is full of books i picked, still lying un-read. When will i ever go through all of these? i really never thought about that.
In the process of trying to adjust into the new life i stepped into, i lost interest in most of the things that were close to my heart. I am no longer the person i used to be. That "I don't care" attitude is gone now. That will to do Everything in life has been replaced with sheer lazyness. I am always so tired. :D
And as to why i started writing again.. I somehow bumped into a blog, while searching for something else totally. The blog's writer was participating in an ATC swap, i got interested too and upon knowing that i'll have to give my blog address there, i visited my own blog, to check if its still there :D It very much is there..
And from now on, i hope to write regularly and re-follow my passions again.

Bhaang experience

2010-03-03T09:02:00.003Z

So many people have told me their bhaang experiences in past that i was so excited about having to say something of my own on that topic.. Had a glass of bhaang this holi, but guess what!!!! Somehow i managed not to have any experience at all!!! came home and slept.. and that is it :( slept for loooong, thats another thing.. but other than that, i have no story to tell..

But then, there's always next time :)

Gift Packing

2010-02-19T12:23:00.004Z

I gift - packed for my brother. And no points for guessing, the gift was a shirt :D

Close-up of the tiny-winy shirt that i made from a magazine page -

Wake up!!

2010-02-08T09:38:00.009Z

Alarm...
stop..
Alarm(again)..
stop..
Alarm(once more?)..
stop..
Alarm (hat the heck!!!)..
My phone just kept Ringing today.. (snooze mode)I had to really really really wake up to see that it stops by dragging a slider towards a place where "stop" was written!! (I got a new touch screen phone, thats why i din know)
what an innovative way to "really" wake people up.. :D

Bookmarks

2010-02-05T15:01:00.007Z

Some Bookmarks i made from wedding invitation cards -

Upgraded..

2010-02-04T15:00:00.002Z

Just changed my blog layout.. Very Girly.. I like it :)

Barefoot On Snow

2009-04-27T14:20:00.006+01:00

I noticed, through refererrs on flickr, lot of people search for "barefoot snow".. I got to know this because one of my pic has those two tags, and was thinking the photo would be one of its king where people walk barefoot in freezing temperatures..
So, just to check i ran this search myself, & was amazed to see soooooooooooo many results :)
Here's mine:

Power of Faith

Here r a few that i like:

When you're wearing shoes, you're always just walking on shoes 3.365

Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.

2009YIP - DAY 11 - BAREFOOT IN THE SNOW

Like a knight from some old fashioned book

barefoot in the snow 2

Day 13-Days Between

going wireless.

2008-07-29T16:20:00.004+01:00

well, I am discovering the blessing of free Wi-Fi access I am using right now at MGF metropolitan mall, gurgaon... I am waiting for my hubby to arrive here in about half an hour.. I got free from office early today and came in this mall to have a coffee in barista outlet..
Well, i am pleasantly surprised to see this free internet service here.. Thanks to whoever invented Wi-Fi. :)

Tonite is party time

2008-06-24T09:51:00.003+01:00

Its party time tonight.. :) BECAUSE .. Mom-dad on vacation... yipppie!!!!! dance.. drinks... playing cards... movie... friends.. dinner.. and PARTYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

come n join us if u want :)

I am stuck stuck stuck..

2008-05-15T15:10:00.002+01:00

In a damn confusing problem.. I am programming something in flex, Its working in a place and not in another, where i want it to.. looks simple.. felt simple...

yet.. yet.. success eludes me :( after a days work and undivided concentration.. :(

I am bound..

2008-05-15T09:58:00.002+01:00

to life..
and to the choices i have made..

eww!!

2008-02-04T12:52:00.002Z

somethings look just so awful.. I went to GYM yesterday and found a guy doing over dumbbell press... he was wearing a vest, but but but, did not get his underarms shaved.. It looked just so ewww!!

Getting married is no easy task..

2008-01-23T03:29:00.001Z

I never thought a marriage could be such a TIRING affair.. oodles of shopping!! Well, I always believed i can never get tired of shopping, now i AM.. Shopping ke naam pe hi i remember those gruelling sessions.. Once in a while it was enjoyable.. But I have been doing this daily, with a parade of people around me, telling me that what i like is not good, and what i dont like is suiting me.. phew!! and getting to a common ground takes so much effort and patience :)
And there is so much more in a wedding.. selecting wedding invitation cards, filling up boxes with sweets, wrapping all the wedding gifts, listening to everyone else's "riwaz" and then actually following them :) Telling everyone about the color of my weddind day dress, from its color,its style, its kind of embroidery,draping, down to its cost.. Everyone around keep teasing me about sushant (my fiance) and funnily i enjoy those moments..

Farewell !!

2008-01-10T07:20:00.001Z

NO, I am not saying farewell to Blogger.. This post is about a note, a friend of mine wrote when it was farewell time from my PG degree. I just found it in my computer archives and thought i'll post it here :)

Fair looks!! resembles a kashmiri girl, but she is a Punjabi Kudi with curly hair and long long earrings..
A fundoo girl who never takes tension for academics and give confidence to others to be cool and optimistic. A social girl with lots & lots of frens. Her jack finally made our ESD project especially ur stepper motor to run.
She is always logged into gtalk, never sign-out. Whenever she doesnt find anyone to talk to, she simply knocks my door & start idhar-udhar ki baatein. Total time-pass!!!
Friends, you might find shelfs of books, cassettes in every room, but she has a unique collection of earrings!!!!! She has a collection of long matching earringd which goes with every top, shirt, shawl, saree... and all other outfits.
This girl is too fond of music. While chatting, studying, sleeping, music always remain her companion. But she is not aware how much disturbance she is creating for the girl at her back room. you can guess her room in our whole wing through the beats.
But in her room, you will never find things in their place except her laptop. You may find a lot of junk in her trunk but a minute later you will realize how valuable junk is, when she transform them to one of her innovative ideas.
One of her too pretty saying, when you are deep in sleep in afternoon at around 2p.m., you'll get a knock at your door and she'll say, "bucket please!! ".. If you are a bit luckier she'll also say, "mug please!! ". You look pretty innocent when you say this.. :)
She is good in painting, she is good in dancing, she is good in photography.. with a very beautiful approach to see the world. Well to her credits, goes a death defined stunts like dancing SALSA in pencil heels..
I'm sure by now you have guessed to whom i am indicatings.. She is Dolly from Delhi !!

Friends, Laughter, Fights etc.

2007-11-29T09:24:00.001Z

I would not have been the same person without the friends i have had, as i passed through various phases of my life.
All moments, smiles, fights, sharing tiffin boxes, pulling legs, gossips, laughter, embarrassments, scoldings, back-bitings, saving money for someone's birthday, Bunking classes, Going to movies and hooting there, having innumerous crushes and then having looooong discussions over him..
Everything seem so distant now, yet remain close to heart..