Crochet cover

Hi !!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend.

I was finally able to finish this small crochet cover.This is a orange colored mat with dark blue edging. I have used 2 ply yarn and  hook size pony 12g . I picked up this design from one of the videos in you tube.

I think I messed up again, I should have kept something light in the background because now the edging is not clearly visible.

 A more closer look at the design.

I think this might give an idea as to how the edging looks.

Thanks for dropping by with your lovely comments.

Have a nice day .

luv

Moushumi

Crochet Book Mark

Hi!!!

Summer holidays have started and so has my busy schedule. In addition to this water and electricity crisis are  not making my life any easier. I still haven't test tried my sewing machine because of erratic power failure. My WIPs are piling up and I just hope that in coming days I get enough time to finish at least one of them.

In fact I got so engrossed in my daily routine that I forgot that I have missed my blog's b'day (May 15th 2011). Its been 2 years since I started my journey in blogging. This journey no doubt has been very exciting with being able to connect to so many craft loving people all across the globe, who have been so open in sharing their creations. In this voyage I have made friends. Friends whom I have not met  personally, but nevertheless who have been there in my  good and bad times thru their comments/ suggestions and making me feel special. God bless you guys and I hope you will continue to provide me your luv and support.

In today's blog post I am going to share a very simple crochet bookmark.  I have used dc in this.In the center, I have made cross stitch pattern with red and blue yarn.

  

I wanted to jazz it up with beads, buttons, but I couldn't find the appropriate ones in my collection and I was feeling too lazy to go to the mkt in this heat and buy some so I left it as it is short and sweet.

Do leave your comments.

Thanks for visiting my space. Have a great weekend.......

luv

Moushumi

My new sewing machine !!!!!!

Hello friends !!!

Hope you all are doing good. I wanted to share this good news with you. My much awaited anniv. gift, yeah that's right, the sewing machine has finally arrived at my doorstep. It is I tell you much more than I expected. I had asked for a simple light weight machine which I could use for minor stitching errands. But with this I can do my craft projects also like embroidery etc. Even though I got it late but is was worth waiting for. So a big thanks to my hubby.

Its a Japanese make called brother. Isn't it cute ????????

As you can see it has 27 built in stitiches with LED lighting option to make stitching easy and comfortable.

These three buttons I believe allows you to choose the gap between the stitches. 

These are the accessories, needles bobbin etc. Wow so many things. I am so excited that I can't wait to try my hands on this.


But I still need  to go thru the instructional DVD to get acquainted with all the features . While I do the same, you guys have a wonderful and crafty weekend.

Also I would like to wish all the mothers out there A VERY HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY !!!!!

Bye !!!!

Moushumi

Madhubani Painting

Hello everyone!!!

Hope you all are doing well and busy with your crafty projects and WIPs. I have also few......... noooo, honestly  a lot of  incomplete projects in hand but I don't know why, somehow I am not able to finish them. Frustrated and depressed I decided to keep all my pending work aside and picked up my sketch book, to do some sketching which I haven't done for quite some time now. I had got this book on Madhubani painting, long time back and it seemed the  right time to give it a try.

If we look at the history of Madhubani paintings has its origin in the Madhubani region, in Bihar. The term Madhubani means forest of honey and this style of painting was generally practiced by the women of villages in Madhubani and Mithila region of Bihar. These are characterized by line drawings, geometric patterns, double line border,floral patterns, deities etc. Vibrant in colors these paintings usually depicts Raas Leela, social events like wedding of god goddess etc. Traditionally natural vegetable colors were used but nowadays people use acrylic/fabric colors for the same.

This is a painting of Radha and Krishna. Usually for this particular kind of art form handmade sheet or silk cloth is used, but since I didn't have any of them, I went for  A4 size parchment sheet and acrylic colors. It took me 3 days to finish this and and though I am not a prof. painter I am feeling very happy with the end result.  

They say madhubani is all about vibrant colors, hope fully I have done justice to the same.

 I know it has some flaws but still your opinion does matter. Do give me your feedback. 

Take care and thanks for visiting !!!!




Moushumi

Pepper Chicken

Hi !!!

This is a very simple recipe which I learnt from one of my friends. The best thing about this recipe is its quick and doesn't require elaborate preparation.

Ingredients

Boneless chicken : 400 gms

Curd : enough to do the marination

Pepper - 2-3 tbl spoon

Salt : according to taste

Coconut milk : little more than 1/2 cup

Bay leaf  : 1-2

Cinnamon stick -1-2

Garlic : 2-3 teaspoon (finely chopped)

Green chillies : 2-3 finely chopped

Method 

Marinate the chicken with curd, pepper and salt and keep aside for 30-40 mins. Heat oil in a pan and add little bit of butter in it. Now add bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, green chillies and garlic. Saute for a while and add the marinated chicken. Mix well and let it simmer until the chicken is cooked completely. Now add the coconut milk and cook for few more minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves. This dish goes well with lacha/plain paranthas.

Do try out this recipe and let me know. I would love to get your feedback on the same.

Till then happy cooking !!!!!!

Moushumi

Papermache Painting

Hi !!!!!

I just hope that all my blogger friends and readers have not forgotten me as I have been out of picture for quite some time now.After coming back from the last rites ceremony I got busy with my kids re- admission for the new session. New books, uniforms, bags ............... the list goes on. Then when I finally, thought O.K now I can relax and do net surfing//blogging ,  wow, just then my son informed me that there is a system failure due to some virus and that I cannot use it until it gets repaired fully . 

Very disappointing, but couldn't help it so I took this time off to learn a new art form. Clay work has   always fascinated me, so I decided to learn the art of papermache clay making. This is a very simple cheap form for clay making whereby you recycle old newspapers and create beautiful artifacts.This is the painting that I learnt. This is basically a poster which I got fixed on the board. then I used the paper mache clay to give it a 3-d effect. The white portion that you can see in the pic below is all clay work.

This is how it looks after painting and decoration.

Today, is our 17th Marriage Anniversary, so I decided to to gift it to my husband. He knew I was going for some classes but had no idea that I had planned to gift him this painting, Thankfully he loved it very much and all my hard work for 10-15 days finally paid off.

And look what he gave me on my anniv.............................

a beautiful gold Ganesha pendent. Its very cute and sweet, but you know what this was not on my wish list. For some time now I have been after him to buy me a light weight sewing machine, and I had found my answer in Usha Janome. But then he said no, he will buy me something better than this, a better machine with more options. But finally, till now no machine has arrived so I think this is my final gift. Its not that I don't like the pendant, but its just that machine would have made my day complete fulfilling.

Still I have full faith in him, he will get it for me either today or tomorrow or maybe day after...............

Till then enjoy and have a nice time!!!!!

Thanks for visiting 

Moushumi

Peacock in Embroidery

Hi ...............

I am doing this blog post with mixed emotions. Mixed emotions because i am feeling very happy as today I am finally able to share my 2 month long project in embroidery. But at the same time I have some bad news to share. My brother-in-law's month long fight with life finally came to end on this Monday ie 4th March 2013. He was like a elder brother to me and he and my father shared the same name. He was a very nice soul and I will miss him. I just hope and pray that wherever he is, he is happy and at peace.

Since last Dec I haven't been able to do much. This was the only thing that I have been busy completing. I have redone this 3-4 times.... and I hope that this has come out well finally. This is the completed version.  So what do you think ?????????????

I have used silk and metallic threads and multiple stitches in this. Like for the neck section and the upper portion of the feathers I have used chain stitch..

                                           

For the body portion I have used a combo of button hole stitch and long and short stitches.

For the feathers I wanted a 3D look, so I picked up cast on stitch from Mary Corbet's http://www.needlenthread.com. A must visit for embroidery lovers or those who wants to learn embroidery or are looking for new ideas.

                           

For the legs and crown (sorry......... the pics got hazy) I  used golden, black and green metallic colored thread and decorated it with yellow colored small stones.For the eyes also I used the same stone.

I will be going to my in-laws place for a week-10 days for the last rites so there will be no blog post for some time now. 

Till then take care and have a nice weekend !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

luv

Moushumi