Wishing you all a very Happy Diwali!!!

Wishing all my readers a very Happy Diwali and a prosperous new year!!!

From Shruti, Rohit & Aadi

Diwali 2011

Wondering where I am fluttering???

Diwali is just round the corner... I have been crazy busy with the preparations...

I have spent most of my last week preparing special traditional delicacies - we call them "Faral".

I have made "Besan Laddoo" - sweet balls made from gram flour and sugar

and Karanji - a coconut & sugar stuffed deep fried delicacy (a whoopng 1300 calories each!)

Shankarpali   - A king of fried cookie!

and some spicy Chiwada!

So whats so special about making them?

Every year one lady comes to our home to make it. This year she could not come. MIL is busy with the college exams (she's a lecturer) and I made it all by myself!

It actually turned out better than I expected!!!

Then I also spent one day with Aadi and his friends making a fort for them! Its a tradition here to build a stone and mud fort during Diwali. It felt so good as we played with a lot of mud!!!

Here's the fort - Killa - in all its glory!

Thats the main fort - complete with Ch. Shivaji Maharaj... Well, though Shivaji Maharaj ruled Maharashtra during the 1600's, our one has a helicopter, a train and also a fuel station! India's a lot more developed than we think!

We have a farm too! And dont mind that circular thing, its my attempt at a well... It holds water! And we also have some crop in the farm! Its mustard seeds!

We also have a jungle with some wild animals

It was fun and Aadi is really happy with the result!

I also used this tutorial to make a lantern for the house... I used paper circles instead of the flowers though...

I am writing a tute for it! Wait for it sometime early next week!

And here's a final one! The lantern hanging in its place in the front of the house!

Wish you all a very happy Diwali!!!

We are celebrating Diwali without crackers this year! I managed to convince Aadi that they are not worth the pollution! We'll buy him a bicycle instead!

Cheers!!!

I have a mantle!

Home Reveal # 1

I've always looked at mantles from around the homes of my fellow bloggers and always wished I had a fireplace, only to use the mantle for decorating!

When I was redoing my living-dining room, I had no idea I would have one! (What kind of a dumb architect am I?)

My initial plan was to paint something similar to this painting in between the H-shaped wall unit...

image source

Is is a painting in Cafe Mondegar in Mumbai by one of my favorite painters - Mario Miranda.

But when the cabinet was ready. I did not want to go ahead with my initial plan.

Instead I used the horizontal unit as a mantle!

It really turned out better than I had visualized.

This is a complete view of my Dining area.

Just thought I'd mention... The dining table must be almost a 100 years old! It belonged to my MIL's father (handed down to him by his father) which she used as a desk. I loved it so much that I overlooked the fact that its height is not quite enough to use a dining table and still use it!

Looking at the snap, I feel I need a new table runner. Dont you agree?

And the Living area

Since we have a formal living room downstairs (in my in-law's house) which we use for formal guests, we only needed a place where friends could plonk! This was perfect!

See the pillows I made

and my gorgeous elephant!

Welcome home, friends!!!

P.S. More reveals to follow... :)

Cheers!!!

O2ak...

I have kind of lost my mojo... Not sewing, but internet!
To really help things going, I just cannot log into my Flickr account! And theres' a stupid reason for that. I do not remember my password! And the backup email that I've left for it, hasn't been in use for a long time now. Also since I had opened the account waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy back - when I was in college! I had some stupid question as my security question, none of the answers that I can think of are letting me into my account!

I've just given up and will be opening a new account but right now, I'm too excited and busy to do that... Do you guys love Indian fabric? Then very soon I'll have something for you...

Here's what I'm busy with...

All those who know that I have an etsy shop must know that I'm on vacation (my shop is, that it, though I wish I were too)

So what have I been busy with?

This,

this

and this

and some more of this

I have been ironing and cutting and folding and some more cutting these beauties...

I, along with two of my wonderful friends Ashwini and Gazal, am reopening my Etsy shop... But we've decided to rename it

We will be selling authentic Indian stuff - fabric to begin with... We have cut all of the fabulous stuff into precuts - FQs and Charm Packs mainly... 

We will also have some lovely ribbons and other stuff very soon...