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!

 Food is a perfect example of creativity and uniqueness. I always enjoy cooking with various food ingredients. I have my own comfort food out of which one is Pasta.

It is a quick fix meal and filling too.           

 Pasta muddled in a coating of rich creamy sauce and some crunchy veggies is a sheer delight. I want to share my quick and easy pasta recipe that’s called

CREAMY PASTA WITH OLIVES, MUSHROOM AND CORN

 You may require:

Ingredients:

 Delmonte penne pasta - 1 cup
olive oil - 1 tbsp

Rosemary, thyme - 2-3 leaves

Basil- 2-3 leaves

Corn – ½ cup

Mushroom- 2-3 no’s

Olives- 2-3 no’s

 Chili flakes- a pinch

Mozzarella cheese - 25 gm

For White Sauce:
1/4 tsp of butter
1 cup milk
1 tsp Maida / all purpose flour..
Pepper powder - 1/4 tsp

salt a pinch 

 Method: 

 Take 3 cups of water, add ½ tablespoon of olive oil and allow it to boil.

 Add a cup of penne pasta and boil for 15 minutes.

Drain the boiled pasta and keep aside. 

Heat a pan, add 1 tbsp of olive oil on it.

Add chopped thyme, rosemary, basil  corn, mushroom olives and saute them for half a minute

To make perfect pasta always half cook the veggies to retain their crunchiness.Add little salt to taste. Olives may have salt, so add very little salt. 

Now add the prepared white sauce. How to make a white sauce?

For white sauce:

Heat a Sauce Pan, add little butter and let it melt, now add the flour and fry it light brown in color. Add boiled and cooled milk to the sauce pan and mix well. Remember to turn the flame to medium here. Keep stirring the milk with the flour, till it gets little thicker like sauce. Add little salt and pepper to taste and remove from the flame. Now pass this sauce through a strainer to get a smooth texture.

 Add the boiled Penne Pasta's to the pan and give a toss so that the veggies and pasta's mix together.

 Finally grate some cheese over the pasta. Serve hot.

                                   Plate the pasta with a garnish of chili flakes. 

Thus your Pasta is ready. I have not used ketchup in this recipe but i wanted to exhibit my delmonte product .

Nothing compliments pasta better than a bottle of wine.

“Bon appetite”.

 This post is an entry to the indibloggers contest “the del monte blogger recipe carnival”

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