Rangoli-21-Borders-1

Borders around a Rangoli enhance its beauty. Here I am posting some of the borders. These are all free hand drawings, that is with out use of dots.

I will be posting more as I pen them.So keep watching.....

Rangoli-20

Here is one more design.

I have collected many other traditional as well as new patterns on my recent travels. But I need to pen them down properly, before I can post, so that it would be easy for you all to follow. So keep a watch on my blog......

Quotes

I have this habit of collecting quotes when I come across them. Iremember them when I come across something which triggers my memory. Recently I have been clicking away in my garden and on my travels. Some of the pictures have made me remember these words... So I have written them on those pictures...

Here I saw a little fellow in one of the flowers in my garden. So I carefully clicked him. How I wish I could also rest in such a beautiful place. Wish I were Thumbelina. But actually this little one was feeling threatened  and was sending warning signals. LOL! He didn't attack me though.

This is a bud of Pomegranate. I love its flowers. There is an Indian love story of Anarkalli -means the bud of Pomegranate)-name given by the great king Akbar who ruled India, to a beautiful girl from Kabul who later fell in love with Prince Salim, son of Akbar. Their love came to a tragic end when she was sentenced to be put into a tomb live. This has been made into movie in Hindi and Telugu languages and was a great hit.
Some say this tree had come from Afghanistan to India. Well I have some in my garden which give out very beautiful and tasty fruits.

Catching a butterfly on camera is easier said than done. Its very difficult unless its resting. But what I observed is in winter time early in the morning they sun themselves to dry their wings or perhaps bask in the warmth. It was then I captured him.

Hope you like them...some more next time

Heat N Dust

It was back to traveling during the last week. Its so hot and traveling in summer is really difficult. But still there is no way out. These places are not connected with A/C coaches and it becomes so difficult to travel in the hot Sun. The Driver of the bus, and the poor rural folk, still go about it cheerfully. Though we do see a lot of flare ups in this season due to heat and dust.

Drinking cool water, coconut water, eating water melon and drinking iced lemonade..but nothing seems to beat the heat. This only beginning of the April. I fear to think of what comes next . Its summertime till June mid month and many places till July, if the Monsoon arrives on time.

But here are some of the pictures I took early morning. At least its cool and pleasant during that time.

This is the reason for the drastic climatic changes. Mountains are turned to dust, for stone and concrete material, as the building industry is on the boom. I dont know whether these do get permits to do so. How does one give them permission to mindlessly break down hillocks? This will definitely spoil the Eco system. Without mountains and hills, how will we get rains? I just shudder to think. There has been a lot of change in the surroundings in the past decade or so as I travel frequently around these areas. Less and less greenery and more and more barrenness in the name of development. Trees which are old and huge are cut down in no time. 

Where as when it comes to planting new ones, the number is far less when compared to those which are cut. Even after planting, no one is bothered to check up how many are surviving.

Hmm..I can go on ranting and raving like this. But is there any use? I only do my part and maintain greenery as much as I can and try to educate people on this.

Doesn't this look so beautiful and peaceful. I just pray that these too don't disappear with time.

Goats grazing on peacefully. You can see the mound of the remains of the crop after harvesting. This would be dried and used as feed to cattle in the hot summers when green feed may not be available.

Blue skies and green fields...I love them. Tall Palm trees give, palm fruits, leaves for thatching, wood for fuel, boats and other purposes. But the reason these are still surviving though in few numbers are for the Palm Toddy, to which some of the rural folk are addicted to. It does help them in earning some money perhaps, apart from providing them a drink.

TAST 2010-3Week-Beaded Hedebo Stitch

This was third weeks stitch. Beaded Hedebo Stitch. Visit Sharon B's site for the basic stitch.

http://www.pintangle.com/journal/2010/3/16/tast-2010-week-3-beaded-hedebo-edge.html

Here are my experiments with the stitch. The first one is the original as shown by Sharon.

Here I just practiced it.

Here I tried it in a zig zag fashion

Here I put it in ZigZag pattern
 
All in one picture.

I need to practice more. But don't have time. Already I am lagging behind and signed up for TAST I too. Look how greedy I am? LOL! Hope I can pull up my socks and get on level with the others this week end as we are going to have a long week end.

Rangoli-19

Here is a small one

This is 9 to 1. You can see the dots.

Indian Villages-3

These are some more photographs from my travels. I hope you like them.

You can see our women folk be it urban or rural strive hard rather more than men. But they dont get equal pay or recognition. Many a time its the lady of the house who supports the family members through her earnings. Here you can see some work relating to laying or road going on along the high way. See the way the ladies wear their saris. This is the way women (especially rural women) wear it when they work in fields.

Below is a fruit vendor selling, watermelons. Its quite hot in summer in India. So you see such vendors on the roadside. Its a very cheap and effective way to quench thirst.

Below you can see the coconut seller. These are tender ones with lot of water only. As the fruit ripens, the meat appears. Tender cocnut water is highly nutritious and good during summertime as it not only quenches thirst but also energizes by supplying salts and other nutrients like water melons. Its quite popular drink in South India.

You can also see a cobbler sitting under an umbrella mending footwear. Their tools are so simple. You can also see a little Panwala-beetle leaves and beetle nut seller who sell nut powder, cigarettes and bidis.

You can see fruit sellers selling various fruits of the season. They just have a plastic sheet or an old bedsheets to protect them from heat and dust during the hot summers. Its mostly apples, oranges, grapes during the early summer months. Lateron its musk melons, water melons, cucumbers and the likes. You can see a milk man on his bike, with his cans. Since it was in the afternoon, he might have been on his way home after selling the milk in the morning.

Below you can see the green fields, dotted with palms and grooves. I feel at peace when I look at such sights. I wish I could be there to enjoy them.

Terracota-2

Here are some more of the terracotta.... Hope you like them. Please leave your comments.

You can see little Ganesha hugging Shiva Linga. You can also see the vases in the back ground, painted in metallic shades. On one of them you can see fishes and underwater plants, on the other you can see the bunches of the grapes.

This is the face of Ganesha. This can be hanged on to a wall. See the way it has been decorated.

These are some of the shell and conch shell shaped plant holders. These can also be used for other purposes depending upon our creativity.

Here are some more plant holders. These can also be used as decorators. It can filled with water and then flowers can be floated in them or fragrant candles can also be floated.

Here you can see some more wall decorators.You can see the Sun God riding the chariot with seven horses, representing the seven colours of VIBGYOR. Then there is the fish. Next to it is again Sun God.You can also see the conch shell and lamp container.

Now here is the Soop (in Hindi) and Chaata (in Telugu), which is widely used in Indian Kitchens. It is made of bamboo strips woven like a basket. It is coated with cow dung, or pulp of fenugreek seeds and paper soaked over night in water, grounded to a thick paste along with turmeric. This seals the holes between the woven bamboo strips and retains the grains in it . This is basically used to separate the husk , small stones from the hand pounded grain. Its also used for separating the broken grains from the unbroken ones. But I could not find the correct English word for this. If some knows it then please tell me.You can see the grains. How skilled the artist is....

Rangoli-18

Here are some more small, simple and easy ones....

 This is 7 to 4 dots.

This is also 7 to 4

This is 9 to 5

Some more next time

TAST-2nd Week-Knotted Loop Stitch

Here it is. My experiments with Knotted Loop Stitch.

 I could only do a few due to paucity of time. The ones with green floss are the ones I tried first.

Here is a closer look at the one where I used cut glass beads.

Here I have used the round white beads in the center.

Here I have first stitched with green floss, then used yellow floss to weave in and out of the base stitches. The yellow floss is only on the surface. No need to enter into the fabric. It can be done more neatly, I dint have time to do it again.

Hope You have liked them. Please leave your comments and suggestions. 

I am back

Friends! Here I am back for a very brief period. I wanted to share so many things with you very badly. I will do so as time permits. It was hot there. But back home its much pleasant. Thank God for that. 

I enjoyed my travels, my stay and of coarse loads of work. But now I have a very short break, want to spend that with my family.

I have my experiments with TAST 2010 to share. Apart from that celebrations of Sri Rama Navami, new Rangoli designs, new recipes, latest saris and much more

Keep watching my blog......

Enjoying my travels....

Hi Friends. I am busy with travelling and my work. Its quite hot here. I am exploring the TAST second week and third week stitches. But I am afraid I am not able to post the pictures. There seems to be some problem. Its quite frustrating as to why I cannot load them. May be the net I use in the net center is slow or some problem with the computers. I think I have to wait till I get to post these from my own computer at home. Hey the spell check is also not working and I dont know how to make it work. So you may come accross many a printers devils.

Here the people are gearing up for celebrating Sri Rama Navami on 24th. Where I am staying, Lord Rama is worshipped with great reverence. So there is large scale celebrations of Rama Navami. Navami or 9th day of Chaithra month is supposed to be the day on which Lord Rama was born. But here in Andhra Pradesh, his marraige with Sita is also celebrated on the day. If I am lucky, I will be able to can some of the celebrations. I am eager to I used to participate as a child. Now after a long time I am going to do so again. For nine days starting from 24th, these celebrations go on. There are also some special dishes made on this occassion. I am afraid I can only share these recepies only after I come back.

I am also shopping liesurely in my limited spare time, especially for cottons and silks. The range here is mind boggling. Oh I also landed my hands on some of the Kalamkari patches. I am very exicited to share them with you. But alas! I cant. I have also bought some plain saris, on which I can applique them. But that will have to wait till I return home as I dont have any stitching resources here.

So keep an eye on my blog......

Indian Villages-2

Here are some more pictures from my travels. You can see the lone Plam tree, amidst the lovely green fields. Actually Palms are quite common in South Indian country side.

Below is the quite shaded grove on the road side. There is a small tent and also a structure made of mud and dried palm leaves. You can see people relaxing in the shade away from the hot Sun.Isnt it quite beautiful? Usually villagers relax under the shades of trees, chatting up, drinking tea or buttermilk during the hot summer afternoons. Infact its quite cool under the trees than under the tin roofs.

The mountains in the distant and the rolling fileds under the blue sky....

Here is an interesting one. This is a typical village dwelling. The roof top is covered with clay tiles. There is a little shade with tin sheetsin the front yard. In summer it could be quite hot under the tin roof. You can see the clothes drying and ofcoarse the Red hot chillies for which Andhra is famous for, drying in the Sun. I could not capture it properly due to the stones in front of the house. Its quite common to find the agriculutural produce, like corn, lentils, chillies etc, drying out in the front or back yards under the hot Sun.

Here is again the various shades of greens...

 

This was taken sometime in the late afternoon. So you can see the shadows. 

Hope you have liked them too. Some more next time.....

Rangoli-17

Here is one more design of 4X4.

This is a single block. It can be combined to make the one below and many more.

Blouses In Fashion-Crocheted Blouse

Friends I have been out of touch with the happenings in fashion arena for some time now with me so busy with my work. But when I went around for shopping, I was amazed to see so many new designs and patterns especially in saris and  blouses. Here is one of them - a sari blouse-crocheted. The colour is showing as gray instead of light lavender shade. I just could not get it right. The thread used for this seems to be having a silvery sheen. Even the buttons have been covered with thread. There were only few colours, like the shocking pink, black, apple green, light blue and lavender all shot with silver metallic sheen. All of them looked like pearl shades with the silvery sheen.

Here is how it looks-so simple.

This is the scalloped neck on the front side.

This is front opening with the buttons too covered with the yarn used for crocheting.

This is the view of the neck on the back side.

This is the sleeve. Note the edges.

This is the bottom of the blouse. Those who can crochet can make this. It has been made in parts-two for the front one for the back and the sleeves and then attached with stitching. Hope you have liked this.