Hi there!

Hi people, did you all miss us?? hope you did coz we did too. I am back to work after a looong leave (spending the most cherished time of my life with my little one). Moved to Sydney from Melbourne. So now you know what kept me away from blogging, but I did try to catch up with all the updates happening around and did try to visit most of my awesome friends in this blog land.

This layout features my daughter in her crawling stage. She was so fast when crawling, she would be at one place a second ago and in another room the other second. She loved all the nooks and corners of the house and enjoyed playing with the wires.

Used lot of 3-D animal stickers. I found them very cute and with similar expressions as my daughter. :)

The top right photo is her under the chair! The bottom left photo is her looking at an insect from the big glass window. I went out of the house and took her picture from there.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you like my layout.

Sending this to:

http://scrappingeverydaymiracles.blogspot.co.uk/

http://purplepumpkincrafts.blogspot.com.au/

http://sketchesinthyme.blogspot.com.au/

ICR DT Blog Hop

Welcome to the ICR Guest DT Blog Hop. ICR is Celebrating their 2nd year of Awesomeness in the month of February and I am honored as one of their Guest Designers in 2012 to put together this blog hop for you. ICR is having some cool fun activities and challenges as part of their 2nd Anniversary and I hope you stop by ICR Link to check out all the fun & win a token for every single activity you participate in through out the month.

Please do leave a comment here on my blog post as well as the other Guest DT's on the Blog hop to win some fun anniversary tokens for the Anniversary celebrations. You can get more information on Tokens on ICR Here. The more tokens you earn the better chances of winning a prize. Plus, one random commenter from all the blogs will be selected to win a special prize sponsored by Color Conceptions.

It is giving 6*6 Carta Bella Paris Girl paper pad.

Color Conceptions craft store was started with the whole aim of bringing best craft supplies from around the world at nominal prices.We specialize in all the craft materials and we are most people's favorite store in India!!

If you have come from Indira's blog then you are in the right place, if not, please go to the ICR GD POST and start from there.

Sharing with you today a layout I made to refresh the memories of our first anniversary. All memories are precious, but the first ones hold a special place in our heart.I have used lot of flower 3D embellishments to match the pattern paper and lot of glitter. Hope you like it. Thanks to the awesome ICR for giving me a chance to be a part of this blog hope. I had always wanted to participate in one and I am really proud to be a part of ICR. Wish a very happy anniversary to ICR!!

Thanks for stopping by. Next up in the hop is, Priya

In case you get lost, you can always go back to ICR GD Post Link and start from there.

Also sending this to
http://itsybitsyindia.blogspot.com.au/: Pattern paper challenge
http://crafterscornerindia.blogspot.in/2013/01/crafters-corner-challenge5-expressions.html

Precious moments with mama - Best wishes on your birthday!

Hi Friends, wish u all a very happy new year.
Here's a layout I made featuring my bro n daughter. Love this photo of both of them. Wanted to keep the layout simple. Painted some circles using kitchen roll, hand cut the rectangle frame from corrugated sheet. Used a twine on the heart which was present on the paper, to match with the color of the frame.

Many many best wishes to my little bro on this special day, may God bless you and give all the happiness.

Sending this to:

http://lulupu.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/lulupu-challenge-8-love-is-in-air.html
http://lessology.blogspot.com.au/
http://blog.scrapfriends.com.au/ - sketch
http://scrapforhelp.blogspot.in/2013/01/january-challenge-and-december-winners.html - use twine

Quilled house-warming frame + tag

A very merry christmas to all my friends out there. Sharing with you today a photo frame I made for a friend. It has a quilled house, tree, garden, an ideal gift for house warming with lots of lovely wishes on the tag!

Sending this to:

http://itsybitsyindia.blogspot.com.au/

http://crafterscornerindia.blogspot.in/2012/11/challenge3-make-set.html

http://beyondgrey.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/bgc23-new-year-tag.html

Quilled hearts - anniversary card

Hi Peeps, sharing with you today a anniversary card with two hearts in red.

 Sometimes in a project, you wish you had stopped yourself a little earlier and not overdone the project :( This is one such project. I wish I had not filled the bigger heart completely, it was looking so pretty with the smaller one filled with beehive and the bigger one outlined. But alas, what is done is done. Does this happen with you? 

Little S's First Diwali - GD post for lulupu

I am so excited to be the guest DT for Lulupu - our very own indian craft lounge! Please hop over here to view the entire post with 'in the making' pics. 

Cheers!

Tidbits

With the 100th post of my blog, I would like to introduce you to my little S and share some of the fun that I am having as she is growing :)

Dear S

I am really enjoying this phase of your development, when you are trying to repeat and speak almost everything we say in your own way. You very comfortably say 'Babaji', 'Ma', 'Pappa' and not to forget 'Mummy' :), 'Nanaji', 'Nani', 'Mama', 'Mami', 'Bua', 'Sakshi', 'Harsh'. 'Tata', 'Bye bye', 'Saachi shani'...

Since last two days you also are crying calling 'mummy mummy' when you woke from sleep and are looking for me all the time, my heart melts when I hear this.
I am taking you to playgroup since 2-3 weeks and you are having a good time there, you are learning to interact with other children and trying to be assertive.

You walk so fast that it is as good as running. Sometimes you would walk ahead and look back sneakily to see if we are coming behind you! That looks so cute n funny, just like the incy wincy spider in the rhyme which we see together. Be careful not to bump.

You jusssst love to go out of the house, as if you are held in a captivity. You go to anyone who is going out and enjoy your round!

This is the first craft project that we did together. You enjoyed sticking the pieces on the star and saying "stick stick stick"

Almond Chutney/spread

Hi Friends,
Recently I tasted this chutney/spread at a friends place and fell in love with it! It is a yummy side dish with all healthy ingredients. This chutney is also very good for kids and acts as another option to feed them almond (main reason why I got attracted towards this dish!)
It taste somewhat like the peanut-coconut chutney but more richer and healthier.

Ingredients:

To Grind:
10 - 15 almond (soak in warm water for 5-10 mins)
1 tbsp daaliya (roasted chana daal)
1/2 tbsp jaggery
1-2 pods of garlic
small piece of ginger
2 tsp jeera seeds
handfull of coriander leaves
2 tbsp coconut powder (u can use fresh also)
1/2 tbsp tamarind paste
2 roasted green chillies
salt

For tempring:
1 tbsp ghee/oil
2 tsp mustad seeds
hing
1 tsp red chilli powder (optional)

Method
In a frying pan take 1 tsp of oil and roast the green chillies. Grind the ingredients mentioned under to grind along with the chillies into a paste. You can increase or decrease the green chillies depending on how hot you want it. Temper with the ingredients mentioned for tempering. Enjoy this yummy and healthy chutney with fried snacks or any of the south indian dishes like dosa, uttapam, idli.


Note: Daaliya (chana daal/bengal gram daal) here, I am referring to the one we put in chiwda and coconut chutney. The roasted chana daal or phutane. Not the broken wheat daliya.

You can adjust the amount of jaggery if you dont want it to be sweet.

Sending this to Pari's event 

http://cooking-goodfood.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/only-event-announcement-for-february.html#more

hosted by shruti at

http://shrutisrasoi.blogspot.in/2014/01/event-announcement-only-food-for.html

Nanaji's doll

This is layout featuring my dad..(also called Nanaji i.e maternal grandpa) and my daughter. As in the case of most young children, my daughter is also a darling of all her grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters. My dad is no exception. He loves to see the little one first thing in the morning and enjoys playing with her. Love this photo, which captures one such perfect moment. 

Here I have used a sweet cup cake tag for the sweet moment, also matching the patern paper I have used and my daughters dress. Highlighted the photo with a lovely lace as a frame. Used "Smile" sentiment from my scrapbook kit, covered with crepe paper flower. Stamped the "You are special" sentiment on another blank label and highlighted with the crepe paper flower, love the symmetrical look.
Also stamped a few stars and colored them in orange.

Tiny little eager legs, very excited to see the book and the pictures!

Thanks for stopping by, do let me know how you liked it.

Sending this to:
http://frosteddesigns.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/fabulous-friday-challenge-sketch.html
http://cestmagnifiquekits.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/november-sketch-challenge.html
http://scrapafrica.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/sketch-no11.html
http://creativescrappers.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/sketch-233.html
http://purplepumpkincrafts.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/november-sketch-challenge.html
http://birdisthewordchallenge.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/new-challenge-word-sweet.html
http://itsybitsyindia.blogspot.in/2012/11/keep-it-sweet-and-simple-for-christmas

Oil painitng - Anarkali

Hi friends, sharing with you my very first oil painting frame. It is quiet huge and adorns the wall of our big hall at my native place.

This is the painting of a Indian queen/princess in olden days. It was fun to draw and paint the entire thing. She is all clad in lovely jewellery which i highlighted using kundan/color stones(not very visible in the photo). Her dress is a traditioanl ghaghra. I loved making her chunri (veil), love the translucent effect.

Sorry for the not so good pictures. This is all I could manage to take at night and also the outer cover made it difficult to get clear pics.

The main fun and challenge with this paining was how we transported it on my two wheeler. The person sitting at the back holding it with great difficulty and almost ready to fly with the frame!!! 

Do let me know how you liked it!