thank god!its 20th century

This year has been with many sweet surprises so far. I did an international trip to Thailand and the experience was unforgettable.

As I landed in India I had my brother’s engagement to attend and plan for his wedding. As being from hospitality sector I was given the responsibility to look into event management and menu planning. I willingly took the responsibility.

As days passed I experienced lot of fatigue and insomania. After a medical checkup I got the best surprise of my life that I was expecting! This is a best phase of life for any women.

I was excited yet confused with a long list of do and don’ts in my first trimester. I had every single lady-friend, colleague and neighbors sharing their experiences. And all had a different story to tell.

I remember my friend’s granny telling me “She got to know her pregnancy in her second month as she never experienced vomiting and nausea. Also there was nothing called sonography or Doppler test. The only thing they relied on was faith that the little one was safe, healthy and active.

 I was a bit worried that how healthy my body was and the development of the fetus. It was the 11^th week when I did my first NT-Scan and a Doppler test. During the NT-scan I was amazed to hear the heartbeats and see the body part which was only 3inches in size. This made me more responsible towards my daily diet and fitness. A Doppler test is done to see the hormone growth and if any symptoms of Down’s syndrome in the foetus.All the reports were normal.

This is when I felt how modern day health care has made our life easier. In this fast paced life we suffer with so many ailments that need to be diagnosed and treated on time. Modern day health care helps with accurate diagnosis that is less painful and time consuming. Over a period of years the life expectancy of a person has also increased due to number of remedial treatment available for different diseases. The equipments used for health treatment cause less pain.

Thus I thank god that I live in 20^th century where modern day healthcare has made life simpler and better.

http://www.apollohospitals.com/cutting-edge.php

Presenting a Gift

I feel gifting a special one is like showing his importance in our life; whenever we select a gift we look for something special and make it look as beautiful as possible.

A gift has to be attractive from outside as much as it is from inside. Thus I thought of posting something on packaging of a gift this month.

To make a gift even more appealing this is something that anyone can easily do.

Material Required: Wrapping paper, scale, marker, scissor and glue.

Procedure: wrapping paper could be of your choice and color. Better to use two contrast color papers.

Depending on the size of the gift decide the length of paper to be used. After wrapping a gift we can use the remaining paper to make a beautiful flower from cut strips.

 Draw vertical lines with 1 cm width between each of them

With the help of a scissor cut these strips. 

 Join the open ends of the strip with glue to form a ring. Press the ring in the center to form a petal like shape.

 One after the other sticks all the six rings to form a flower.

I have used two wrapping papers to make flowers of different sizes.

 These flowers can be assembled together to form an attractive center piece.

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 We could place this flower on the gift as required. Special thanks to yogita!

Thus a beautiful present is ready!

Towel Origami

Towel Origami

Hi there,

This post is on similar lines of my first blog post. I have been doing towel art for a while now.

Every time I do this with my students they are amazed to find something so beautiful can be made out of towels. Our college Students won a silver medal at an intercollegiate competition on Towel Art recently.

This time I have demonstrated a cute dog with towel.

Material required: Bath towel, Bath Mat, big circular bindis.

Head Making: Take a bath mat and fold into half horizontally.

Now placing a finger on the center of the folded mat pick the open end of the bath mat and place it on the central line parallel to the finger.

Do this step on both sides to obtain a triangle formation as seen in the picture below.

Fold the triangle backwards,It should look something like this.

Start rolling the both the ends till the center .

Now hold the folds together and turn the other side around.

  Twist the open ends down to form the ears.

 Stick 3 bindis to show eyes and nose of the dog. Thus the head is ready.

Body Making:  Take a bath towel and start rolling it from both the ends till they reach the centre.

 Now fold these rolls and pull out the open ends from the center of the rolls

Hold the adjacent open ends in both the hands as shown in the picture.

Pull the adjacent end in opposite direction to form a body. The body should look something like this.

Now place the head on the body as shown in the picture.

Thus your cute loyal dog is ready.

 Do try making this one.

Water Fountain

 Hi There,

Finally I could find something to experiment .I visited my cousin’s place this December and was amazed to find a beautiful waterfall she had made. It was placed in the living room, the sound of tiny water stream lets created a calm and serene environment

The beauty and charisma of any waterfall is so immense that one can’t resist saying –“Wow”!  This is why I wanted to craft one waterfall with all available materials. Below is the description to make one

Material Required: Thermocol sheet, Cement, plastic container, water pump, artificial green foliage.

Procedure:  Break the Thermocol sheet into small pieces into any shape and size.

In one container mix 2 cups of cement with ½ cup of water to make a thick paste. Mix the thermocol pieces into cement and place them one above the other to form a mountain.

Cut 5-6 strips of thermocol to form steps on the mountain. Mix these strips in cement and lay them on the front side of the mountain. Allow the structure to dry for 3-4 hours.

To make a sturdy structure pours a cement paste on the structure again.

Fix artificial green foliage in between the gaps of the mountain. Allow it to dry for 3-4 hours.

Take a plastic container which can easily fit in the mountain and water pump inside it.

Apply a thick cement paste on the plastic container and allow it to dry. Make sure all the parts of the container are sealed with cement. We do this to create a pond Image.

A water pump is a machine which helps in cyclic movement of water. It is easily available in any hardware shop.

I have used a vase to elevate the mountain and placed the water pump in the container filled with water.

Attach the water pipe on the tip of the mountain so that the water trickles down the steps of the water fall.

I use the natural flowers to decorate the container to give a touch of nature.

 Thus the waterfall is ready.

Rangoli Making

In a city like Mumbai where life is fast paced we always prefer to pick something that reads “Ready to Use” to save time.  As festive season is approaching we have so many things to plan and so less time to make. Decoration is one such element that we all look out for in the market.

Traditionally Rangoli is a kind of decoration done on the floor in every Hindu house at the entrance. It is a decorative design of colors made on floors and has its own religious importance. We get to see a wide variety of designs and types of rangoli from different parts of India.

Nowadays we have so many modified forms of Rangoli making available in the market. Thus this post is on Rangoli which is easy to make and takes less time.

 Material Required :White sand powder, Powder colors, Pencil with a rubber end, tea strainer, chalk, some glass embellishment.

 Procedure:  I have tried to portray a peacock with the sanskar bharti motifs. With the help of a white chalk make 3 semicircles as the outlines.

Use a strainer to spread the Rangoli colors as it spreads evenly. While spreading the rangoli try to spread the colour only in respective blocks.

After all three semicircles are filled with colors with the help of a rubber ended pencil make the design.

The rubber end helps in easy mobility of the pencil and smooth design creation.

Below you could see the peacock  design made  by using  Sanskar bharti motifs.

Below is a circular pattern of design to shows the feather design of the peacock.

To enhance the appeal of the rangoli you could use some  embellishments. I have used some glass pieces in this rangoli.

Finally wipe the outer surface of Rangoli for any spread of colours. Place a diya on the rangoli. 

   below are some more designs with the help of  a pencil. Thus you have a traditional rangoli  which can be done without any expertise in this art. 

It can be quickly made and  saves time.  I would like to thank Amrita for helping me in this post.

Happy Dussehra to all you readers!