Rangoli-215

20 dots...10 rows then, 18, 16,14,12,10. Straight dots.

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Rangoli-214

Diwali Special

11 to 1 straight dots. Diwali or Deepavali means a row of lights. So there it is.

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Rangoli-213

Diwali Special

9 to 1, straight dots.

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Rangoli-212

Diwali Special

Swastika is a symbol for prosperity, auspicious. It is also identified with Elephant God Ganesha and also Goddess Lakshmi-the Goddess of Wealth and prosperity. It is drawn on special occasions.

11,9,7,7,3,1 dots. Join as shown.

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Rangoli-211

Diwali Special

Starting from this post I am going to post some Rangolis for Diwali. Every time I schedule the posts or try to post them just before the festival and something goes wrong. This time I am not going to take chances.  Any ways, it will also give you time to choose the one you like, practise it and keep it ready for Diwali.

I am posting small and easy ones more than bigger and complicated ones. 

This is 9 to 1 straight dots( 9, 7, 5, 3, 1).

I have drawn diyas(lamps) and flowers and swastika depicting the spirit of Diwali. Keep watching for more......

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Rangoli-210

Fishes

This is 9X9 block. I have coloured the center space with yellow ocher, which can be left uncoloured. If you need a bigger Rangoli you can add blocks of it on all the sides and make it bigger.

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Hello...

Hi Friends!. I have been busy with renovation going on in my home. I scheduled some posts on Rangolis for Dasarah. But something went wrong and they were not posted. I did not find time to check up. I am sorry about that. I will keep those aside for now till i can fix it.

For the time being a part of the renovation work has been done. We have stopped the work for some time to get things organised and also because of the festivals. Dasarah is over. This year I had the satisfaction of staying at home and observing certain rituals for all the ten days. These ten days are considered very auspicious for spiritual practices. 

I am yet to fully organise my things- especially craft books, stash and other materials properly. I just dumped the sacks in the shelves. While packing I just put them in what ever plastic bag or box I could find. Now I need to go through them and properly group the material craft wise and then store them. It will take a long time. 

I have many WIPs in various stages which I had to keep aside because of dust. Now I think I will have to slowly pick them up one by one. But first I need to make a list of them and the amount of work still to be done to complete them, whether any material is required for that and how much time I have to spend on them. Then I will have to prioritize them. Only then I can make some progress. I hope I can complete them one by one.

With Diwali-the festival of lights around the corner, we are slowly preparing for that. The the month following Diwali is also very important for us.

I am going to post some Rangolis and crafts specially for Diwali.....enjoy them...Keep watching my blog.....

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Rangoli-209

Dasara Special

This is 21 to 1, straight dots. Lotus and Swastika.

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Rangoli-208

Dasara Special

From tomorrow the NavaRatri/Navaratra meaning 9 nights start. During these days we pray to Mother Goddess Adi ParaShakti or Bhavani  in her various forms- Bala Tripura Sundari, Lalitha, Durga, Kaali, Gayatri, Lakhsmi, Saraswati, Mahishasura Mardhini and so on. The 10th day is celebrated as Vijaya Dashami- victory or triumph of Good over Bad.

Well I am going to post some Rangolis I created specially for this occasion. 

This is 21 to 1 straight dots. I chose lotuses as these are dear to the Mother. So let us welcome Simha Vahini(riding on a lion) Mata Rani and lay the carpet of lotuses for Her  inviting Her into our homes....

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New Additions ....

Well, friends the renovation work is still going on. There is chaos and dust every where. With Dasara a very important festival to be celebrated from next week, then followed by Diwali and the auspicious month of Kartikam, I just hope that the work is completed and I get to bring some order to my home. 

Till all this is done, my crafts, my stash and my books all are packed up and stashed away.

Amidst all these, we have festivals to celebrate. Well, can't be helped.

Here are a few additions to my garden:

 Here are some marigolds-golden yellow, 

 lemon yellow and 

  a combination of red and golden yellow colours.

Now this is a baby pink rose.....I have planted these quite recently and waiting for their first blooms....

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Knotted Loop Stitch-1

TAST-2012-Week41-Knotted Loop Stitch

This week the challenge is Knotted Loop Stitch. You can visit Sharon's site here for more details as well as the tutorial for the stitch:

http://pintangle.com/2012/10/09/take-a-stitch-tuesday-week-41-2/

Here are my attempts from the previous challenge:

Need to work something new now.....

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Bio Diversity Convention 2012

Bio Diversity Convention 2012 is being held in Hyderabad the capital of our State Andhra Pradesh from 1-10-2012 to 19-10-2012. 

I am doing my little bit of saving these species by providing food and shelter for these fells by growing plants and trees...

Are you???????

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Beaded Hedebo Edge-1

TAST-2012-Week40-Beaded Hedebo Edge

This week Sharon has given us the Beaded Hedebo Edge as challenge. Visit Sharon's Page here for further details:

http://pintangle.com/2012/10/02/take-a-stitch-tuesday-week-40-2/

I had done a small sampler of this stitch in the previous TAST challenge. The pictures are here:

I need to explore this stitch. With renovation going on at my place, there is dust and chaos everywhere. All our belongings are dumped in one room- books, clothes -everything. I think it will take another week or two to finish the renovation. After that I have to clean my place and arrange all our things in their proper places. This may take another two to three weeks. 

So with all this going on, I am not able to do much of my embroidery or any other craft. I am also afraid that my samplers and WIP might have been soiled because of the dust, though I have packed them in plastic covers. Any ways, i will try to work the sampler somehow. Can't wait that long. I already have so much to catch up with.

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Coconut Crafts once again...

I want to introduce to you various Arts and Crafts through this blog of mine. So here is one with coconuts and other parts of the coconut palm.Coconut is one of the most popular palms in India more so in South India. The entire tree has many uses. You can read about it here:

http://spiceomylife.blogspot.in/2012/10/coconuts.

But in this post I am talking about the crafts made from various parts of coconut palm. In one of my previous posts I have posted some crafted items:

http://summersofindia.blogspot.in/2010/02/coconut-crafts.html

I remember my childhood days spent in my maternal gran's place. There were some coconut palms. My gran used to weave the leaves to make mats and many other things. She also used to weave small baskets or balls fill it with snacks like roasted peanuts, puffed rice or such things for us. She also used to make dolls from the leaves-a groom and a bride. We used to dress them up and play with them. I learnt to make the dolls from her but now I don't remember. If I lay my hands on some coconut leaves, I will ask my mom to make some so that I can post them here. Oh and also a whistle - my mom also used to make us one with the leaf fronds.

Here are the links where you can see how the leaves are woven not only in India but other South East Asian countries where these are found in abundance:

Here is one link where you can read about various ways the leaf fronds can be weaved:

http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BucMani-t1-body-d1-d4-d3-d2.html

Coconut leaves are also woven into different types of mats or structures for decorating the pandals(the place where marriage is performed) in South India. Since they are green in colour which indicates prosperity, auspicious and also  new life, they are used for decorating or erecting structures under which all suspicious occasions are celebrated especially marriages. They are also natural, environmental friendly, cool and available at no cost.

Here are links where you can see how coconut leaves are used for decoration.
http://malayalamscrap.com/scrapcard/coconut-leaf-decorations-1
http://malayalamscrap.com/scrapcard/coconut-leaf-decorations-3
http://make-handmade.com/2011/12/02/palm-leaves-art-wedding-gates-weaving-%E2%80%8B%E2%80%8Bof-coconut-leaves/

http://www.dinodia.com/ImageBigView.asp?ImageID=120729

Watch out for more of Arts and Crafts in my next posts....