An Owl Pouch for Toffies

My son has a great attachment to his grandparents, which is so natural. While me and D are "bad bad always prohibiting everything and stopping him from doing anything he wants parents"! I believe though that grandparents contributed to my little A's  sweet tooth development. But if I think more, it couldn't have been any other way when his dad can never resist a bite of chocolate or some Indian sweets whenever offered (or not offered, and he grabs them himself :))
A's recent obsession - toffees of different kinds (in wraps). He might not eat them but will be carrying around the house everywhere, eventually losing them and asking me where have they all gone. What's more, yesterday he didn't want to fall asleep until I put two little toffees in his hand! Hence, to ensure he always has his favourites in one place and won't be dropping them here and there, I crocheted this super easy owl pouch, and EVEN inserted a lining made of an old T-shirt.

It seems to be very handy, and little A loves wearing bags too (often wears a similar cross shoulder pouch of mine which is too long for him). The days have become colder in Chandigarh, we wear sweaters and socks at home and sleep under thick quilts at night. This might have promoted my wish to crochet cozy little things. My A enjoys wrapping up himself in various blankets and not resisting to wear sweaters and socks anymore.

One more owl to our collection, this time, a useful one. I can improve the pattern and make it in bigger sizes with a zipper or any other type of lock. Attaching the lining was not that difficult and scary (lol) but rather interesting.

Here are our owl-y wishes of a warm and welcoming home for you to have and to live in! Blessed be!

Life's Challenges and Gifts

I am not in a position to critisize and judge, but you would agree that events which happen all around the world sooner or later echo in other parts. I am not feeling any change since the US election result came up, but I know that it would reflect in some of the areas of our lives at some point of time.
Indian government has also surprised us with a sudden scrapping of 500 and 1000 banknotes in order to extract black money from turnover. It created a real panic and hurdle among people as not everyone had proper information what it was all about and why. Right now things are better and getting calm and in order slowly.
Politics, economics and world problems aside we continue our lives because this is what we have to do for our families, we have to move on and continue dreaming, hoping and believing.
And honestly speaking, I don't care as of now about these big things, because our family has got a real challenge to deal with. On Tuesday I received a bad news from my dad that my mom broke her shoulder joint bone. She is going to be operated today, and the surgery is not the easy one. I cannot tell how much scared and worried for her I am because she is not young of course (not old either) and the fraction itself is dangerous but surgery I dread more actually... I pray she stands the operation well and gets fine very soon! She promised she would be fine my summer for sure. My little mom... I miss you so much, and I am sorry I can't be with you right now when you and dad need me so much... I rely on our good friends and family whoever are left in the city to take care of this situation. My papa is a great help to her these days! And I know he always tries to cheer her and me up. He made smile many times yesterday when I was talking to him on the phone.
November is my and my dad's birthday month, and our dates are just back to back. :) How cool is this? :) Next month, December, is also wonderful and magical, and I have started preparing some handmade New year decorations which I will showcase a little later.
Recently I have started following some of the wonderful upcycle ideas by Jill of Creating my Way to Success, and here is what I came up with: my first sock puppy. Hmm, looks slightly creepy but kind of naive too, maybe because of the colour. I have some more bright and cheerful socks to upcycle, so more sock animals to come.

In addition, I am in the process of making an up-cycled clothes purse/clutch/wallet. I absolutely had no plan of HOW to stitch this purse, how to cut pieces properly, so it is rather tacky and totally handmade looking. I am also not sure how to close it and what kind of handles to attach, but I am in love with the idea of re-purposing old clothes. I have also started making T-shirt yarn and probably will make a storage bag - they are really useful around the house.

 To sum up my today's blog post on a positive note, here is a little gift my D got from his colleagues from Russia yesterday. Can you say how happy I am? I have two Russian dolls now! One is a nesting doll with two more inside her, and this one contained a VERY Russian surprise - a small bottle of vodka :P

 So, cheers to life, to our families, to their and our health!

Crocheting Useful and Beautiful

Hello dear friends! I guess that our Indian winter has come to an end... Sun is shining bright, temperature is around +24, birds are chirping. Hot Indian Summer is round the corner!
We celebrated my father-in-laws birthday last Monday, the cake my D brought was awesome - fruity delicious!

However last week had also stored unexpected health issues. First my little boy had fever for 4 days, then when he started recovering, another boy, D, fell ill... Both are fine now, but I was taken a little aback and stayed home for almost a week. Hopefully no one else in the house will experience this nasty viral.
Thank you all for encouraging comments on my last post, I must say they moved me, literally! I did start crocheting after little A goes to bed. And the feeling of being able to create again is awesome, even if I get a little less sleep. I am not yet ready for any big crochet adventures, hence I am warming up by going for the small ones.
I have been wanting to have a storage basket (-s), which I finally own, and this is not the last one. I have not used any particular pattern, but got inspired by many on Pinterest, especially by the one with handles. It looks awesome, works up in no time, and organizes little things in the house so well - what more would you wish for? I put two strands of yarn together and liked the marble like effect it created.

Another rather beautiful, but maybe not so useful project is a Mega mandala doily, consisting of 23 rows. I loved crocheting this one a lot because it uses various stitches, and each row is in a different color. It can be called a stash buster project.  I used Indian yarn brand Vardhman, Brilon as usual. The doily was emerging throughout few creative nights, here it is how:

It measures about 35 cm in diameter. I am going to place it on a crockery table in our drawing room.. and make one more for the sake of enjoying making it once again, lol :) Crocheter's madness.

In plans to crochet a set of coasters, maybe something like a set of mats for my little A's meal time, 2 pillow covers for my parents and start another blanket (shall start soon, because this project will stretch till next year for sure, lol). I particularly liked Linda's Greg blanket - the square patterns and colors, aww...! So perhaps I will steal the idea :P
That's all for now, enjoy your week, enjoy your days!

Time for Handmade

Hello dear friends! You might have thought  I wrote such title for this post because it is time to Handmade! yey! ...Oops, no... I meant HOW to find time to handmade?
I would not like to give excuses WHY I have no time to do this, there are many many moms who have more than one child, and still they do  hobbies, go to work, keep the house etc. Well, I am not one of them.
After I come home from office in the second half of the day, I get occupied with my little A, whether it is to make him sleep or give him food, or play with him, or read to him, or simply hug and kiss him.. it continues till evening when my D comes from his work, and I first of all make chai for him. We sit together in the drawing room, sipping milky chai, little A running from us towards the door and back, and we play with him, have fun etc...
Then just a few more moments, and it is time for little A to sleep again... And it is already time for us to go to bed too, because we have to get up in the morning and start the new day...
As mush as I am enjoying every single moment of motherhood, I feel slightly frustrated because I am not able to figure how to still do things which I had been doing before becoming a mother. How to manage time, or when to find time to crochet, sew, draw? I definitely would like to sleep at night... hehe.
But that's all right, I am immensely happy that little A is the reason for me having less time for other things. Let's see maybe when he grows up and will start doing many deals on his own, the situation will change. So far he started eating with spoon by himself, and helps me to dress him up and groom :)) Last Tuesday we had a lovely time with crayons! He enjoyed putting those lines on paper, selecting colors, holding the crayons in his little hands, broke few of them though.

At one point he selected these colors, good combination I must say. So well, actually I am having time for hobbies, now - with little A :)

It was  a Republic day on 26th, and we had a holiday.We went out to the park with little A. I love taking photos there, the light is awesome, colors appear so bright. Little A enjoys open ground a lot, he runs away from us in such a funny way - bending his upper body slightly forward, his hair long and fluffy fluttering because of movement, little feet moving fast on the grass.. my happiness in jeans he is! :)

I am planning on the next post about how we are raising a bilingual (multilingual?)child :) Stay tuned!

Wishing a peaceful and enjoyable weekend to all of you dear friends!!! 

P.S.Some of you have left my blog but I totally understand why , however will be missing you... best of all to you too!

Flower Dream Catcher, Russian Doll and Fern's Flower on Birthday

Having +40C and above in day time, air feels like hot "milk" if you walk out, it is not possible for me to be without air conditioning and fans on, craving for juicy fruits and milk shakes - all that means that the Indian Summer has put its foot firmly in the city. I have a hope (a tiny one) that by the mid July the weather will get "better", however most probably it is going to be humid then, the monsoon season will be on its way.

Meanwhile I am getting more and more worried for all the things which need to be done in the house - cleaning, rearranging, refurbishing etc. I read somewhere not to try to get all done, not to stress and exhaust yourself - easy to say. When having a baby is no more just a "talk" but a reality you cannot help but keep on thinking how all is going to be. In order to divert that persistent thinking I devote some of my evenings to craft activities.

"Aunt Alexandra was hooking a rug and not watching us, but she was listening. She sat in her chair with her workbasket beside it, her rug spread across her lap.  Why ladies hooked woolen rugs on boiling nights never became clear to me".- a quote from Nelle Harper Lee's "To Kill a  Mockingbird". Okay, so I don't weave any blankets these hot days but on a "lighter" side. I remembered that many years ago I made a crochet wrist band with cross stitch floss which thought gave me another one "why not to use the cotton floss for something other than cross stitch again?". The inspiration for that "something" was also one broken plastic curtain ring. At first I did't know what I was going to do with the emerged flower but then... okay you know how the ideas are born - it turned out to be a flower dream catcher I made almost two weekends ago. I love it! The thread colors make me happy and the colored wooden beads which are actually embellishments from some scrunchy finally found their use. I blocked the flower and now it hangs above our heads on the wall.
           

But where is the Russian Doll? Here she is in her new custom frame, and I shall tell about the experience. 

It was done from a local shop which deals in making of frames for photos and pictures. It seemed natural to me to do the same for a cross stitch picture. My D went with me to the market, we chose a frame and I (fingers crossed) handed over the Russian doll to a shopkeeper. After three days he gave it back: it looked nice, my first ever hand made work under the glass but.. it was tilted! Obviously that the person who executed framing had no idea of how to actually do it. I regretted that I simply didn't customize a frame and didn't do the fitting myself. Well, now it cannot be undone and I like my Russian doll as she is, though slightly constricted.

Yesterday was my D's birthday. Yey! I made something special for him this year - Slavic vedic amulet called in Russian "obereg". The symbol itself is called "Fern's flower". It was my first such kind of cross stitch and I enjoyed creating it. I put it in a hand made frame, and we will be hanging it on the wall in our room so that he can see it every day and get charged with its energy.

I needed to decorate it with oak leaves and acorns and found a very cute cross stitch pattern which I altered a little. Now I really want to cross stitch oak leaves and acorns alone :) Maybe to add some forest berries too?

Have a happy weekend ahead, my dears! 

Crocheting for Home and a Baby

➳It is time for a crochet tour. Crochet made its way into my life and established itself as a much needed, joyful activity at least on weekends or very much inspired after office evenings. Ever since I saw Sangeetha's rainbow mandala doily, and many other round doilies of the same type in the Internet I wanted to make one or two or.. for myself. Bearing that in mind I found this pattern on the net and went on crocheting tranquilly this one, in one of my favorite color combinations.

Nearly the next day I felt an urge and itch to make one more mandala doily, this time in different color pallete. My D even had a question (again) why I make the same things again and again... Well, dear, because it gives me pleasure and peace of mind. One doily found its place on our room's  table, but this one is waiting for an owner perhaps. This doily would turn into a  lovely cushion cover if ... I have time.

Besides home decor crochet I of course tried my hands a hook in crocheting some baby clothing items. I made a sweater for the first time, and I liked it. The free pattern is called Baby Cardigan, click on the Baby Hat with Earflaps for a free pattern. I am so grateful to those who invent and post the patterns for us to use! I suppose that the white row of stitches I let in a sweater and a hat kind of makes it a set. I made both for a bigger baby, 3+ months old, for Indian "colder" months. I used my favorite Vardhman Brilon - purple is a left over of the summer blanket.

On the list of the clothes I planned to crochet for a baby was a vest. I noted many of the patterns, including Linda's wonderful Kids Sleevless Tops, but hesitated to adapt the pattern to a smaller size, and finally designed a vest myself, involving much loved granny square stitch and granny squares - it works up in no time, really. Once again I used Brilon yarn.

A finished vest on the clothespins. My husband said it looks like a bag... Thank you so much! I am okay with the result myself, the main thing it fits a child and will be comfortable to wear. I hope the neck line is not narrow... Otherwise I will HAVE to turn into a bag.

A close up of the  little granny squares before I wrap up a post.  They turned out to be 2"1' each, sewed together with a slip stitch and then edged with a single crochet stitch. I would like to try this way of clothing making for some accessories too, like booties and caps.I might try it out tonight itself! Yey! But first need to complete a blankie I have never even shown in blog.

I am oh so relieved this working week is getting over and the weekend is just round the corner! Can't wait to have my usual brewed cup of coffee tomorrow morning and watch favorite series (while D is still seeing dreams) - a rare Me-time. I hope the weather will not hit us with sunshine and high degrees. This Sunday is coinciding Orthodox and Catholic Easter. We might go to meet few friends.

♡♡♡Bye for now! Have a nice weekend!♡♡♡

Hobby Time

You know that I have already expressed my worry regarding ability to do hobbies after I get busy with my baby, but I am sure with time I will find some place for them too, just need to get used to new routine. Four days ago I started prenatal exercise classes after my office hours – a useful and a pleasant activity. I will be getting rid of feet swelling which has already begun a little, and also relief mild back aches. My belly is not that big yet ( I hope so) as to cause me much discomfort and I feel well too, but oh, I am so grateful for the time we live in – so many things to use for your benefit. My mom never attended such classes, she was anyways fine when pregnant with me, but who knows, may be many health problems could be avoided if those were available that time too.

As of now I am still free to do my hobbies anytime and anywhere. I don’t get much of work these days and pass my time in the office by reading books. Recently I finished “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott, “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte, I also found Hermann Hesse’s “Siddhartha” in the net, and read “The diary of a young girl” by Anne Frank. The latter shook me - may be not the best read during pregnancy, but what is done can’t be undone. I am still under impression of this story.

To other hobbies. Before New Year I found real pleasure in cross stitch. Since then I haven’t done much of the projects but I am not in a hurry. One of them I already presented. The cat became a part of a postcard I sent to my parents. I stopped with this hobby for a while, as well as other things, when I was in some kind of depression after pregnancy news (yes, now I know it was that).When my mind cleared and all the pregnancy related business took over me, I began enjoying myself again and renewed crochet and cross stitch too. 

Not long ago I made one simple cross stitch which is called Valentine’s birds, but due to the limited number of cotton colors I had, it turned out of a different style, though I like it this way and want to use such color combination (or black and blue, pink and so on) for other projects in future.

After that a wonderful (as I consider it) thought came to my mind to cross stitch a Russian doll! I wanted to have a Russian doll in my house for long, but only now realized this small dream. I purchased gorgeous colors of Anchor and Rose cotton , and I LOVE this cutie in her blue kerchief! My D is also liking the doll. (Update* The doll hasn't been finished yet, I am thinking of putting it into simple wooden frame).

s

The flower I put in the middle is a Russian  pattern from a beginning of the 20^th century lithography found on this cross stitch dedicated website. I am thrilled to revive it in modern days! The doll pattern itself came from Danceneedle. I have many other projects in my mind, particularly with traditional and old Russian patterns, let’s see when they get realized.

 Besides I finally made another item I not only wanted to have but also needed to – a pincushion.I saw something like this on the net. It consists of a crochet granny square sewed to the fabrics cushion. The snips of it I used are from my Indian suit. The cushion is filled with polyfill and yarn scraps. I need to buy more of polyfill by the way. The pincushion is such a simple but a handy little thing!

I suppose this is all for now, enough to inspire me to finish what has been started and begin new! Thanks a lot for all your sweet and kind comments, they make my heart happy and lift up my mood immensely. Have a lovely weekend and take care!!!

North Goa - Little Vagator Beach - Part 4

Hey, friends! Hope you all are doing fine and are happy at your places. I am yet to finish my Goa tale, and to my surprise, we had really done many things in just 1 week, as I can see now from all the photos.
What concerns my pregnancy - we are doing just fine. Three days ago I had 2 level scan, which revealed that baby is fine :) I have started feeling kicks now more clearly; they are light and not yet that frequent, but good enough to make me smile and love my baby more and more with each passing day! Thanks for all kind comments on last post - I know that all a woman is going through is worth the result!
My D is a great support to me these days, I am so grateful to him for all his care and help.I guess he also hasn't realized he is going be a "daddy" soon, but he feels good about it and starts discussing things like names already.
Well, and for today I have few snapshots of our very first day in North Goa, Little Vagator Beach. I had already showed our stay, but wanted to keep some more of them. Such a classical exotic scene!

Another through palms view. Te palm trees were very tall and all had coconuts on them!

As soon as we left our bags in the hut, we rented scooters and went to visit a famous Anjuna Wednesday market. The parking was full of scooters and bikes. 

There were many locals and foreigners. Very noisy and colorful rows of goodies. We bought 2 t-shirts for D and some small gifts for our parents.

 The trading rows were endless. We got tired very soon there, considering we didn't have any food since morning and traveled whole day. So after some time I said I'd like to withdraw from there, as in such mood we were not able to enjoy shopping.

 The best part was that after all we were back to our cozy peaceful location and swam at the sunset.

 Aww, now I again have that nostalgia coming back... Missing that place a lot. 

 Meanwhile our hotel cum restaurant lit up the lights, and later one we went there for dinner, thinking of our next day's activities. And for that we planned rather tough schedule, however we enjoyed it a lot.

 Today we both are visiting Delhi, I am at my D's relatives' house, and he is at work as it's an official trip. So I've got few minutes to greet all of you and tell something new. Day before yesterday I finished reading "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini - a book which will stir your feelings for sure and will make you look at your life at different angle. Blessings to all!

Christmas and Cats

Well, as you know I live in the of the North India which doesn't have that real change of the seasons. These days we have +25 in day time and around +8+9 in the evening. The house feels more cold than outside. We never get snow here, and hence I cannot FEEL winter. So as I have been doing for the past 3 years, I IMAGINE winter.. :) I imagine the frosty morning air, and looking at the evening sky I expect it'd snow... I also try to create that winter holidays mood around me, preparing little gifts.

This time I couldn't wait more and tried my hands at cross stitching. I used to admire all the beautiful needle work people do: absolutely amazing pictures, made with love and warmth of their hearts. I wanted to start learning this craft. My D took me to the local shop called "Chhotu Motu" in Hindi, means "Big and Small", miscellaneous. There I purchased 10 skeins of Anchor thread and 50 cm of fabric + 2 tapestry needles. All cost me 130 Rs. or 2.09 USD. I think it is damn cheap! 

Here is my first cross stitch picture - a Christmas cat :) I know the stitches are uneven, and as I used 3 strands of thread, the crosses came out too thin. But I am happy with this first try and enjoyed the process a lot! This cross stitch was washed and intended to be made into a card. The pattern is here.  I have started another small picture, and I am using 4 strands of thread, which looks way better.

 One more very quick Christmas themed project was a mini stocking made with this pattern. I didn't make any more stockings so far. It's a good project to engage with as you can use scraps of yarn to hook it up.

Meet Mellow, a toy cat. Mellow - Meow + Yellow and it is soft :) Hehe. It was such a spontaneous thing to make, originally it is a crochet applique. I made two such appliques and stitched them together.  Pattern is here, it is a Russian forum/website. 

 I didn't really like the idea of making so many cat appliques for a blanket, it is too boring, and now a toy makes me smile and meow every day :) I am definitely a cat girl!

Tomorrow I am joining new office, and I am very excited about a new job and a new place to work in. Details later and wish me luck! Thanks for wonderful comments about my blanket, you made my day and days to come!

Have a wonderful second half of the week, my dears! Take care! Meow!

Granny Triangles Pouch & A Mystery Stripy Case

Hope your week is going on a good note, my dears. I resumed my work on Wednesday,  it was difficult to get up early after Diwali break, go by auto, spend 8 hours in the office, just dreaming of time when I can finally pack and go home. I failed to post Diwali pictures, but maybe will do it in the next post, as of now  I cannot wait to share some new mini-projects I added to my list. I did them taking rest from my blanket, to which I am about to give a border.

I first wanted to make another drawstring bag using granny squares, when granny triangle idea came to me suddenly. I crocheted 4 different granny triangles, single crocheted them together and voila, my very useful and pretty pouch! I noticed that I used the same colors I have been attracted to for the past few years. Hope this color addiction goes away soon, but perhaps I can never live without purple.

I like that you can change the whole look of such project by simply turning its sides. I already filled the bag with another lot of miscellaneous.

Now guess what is this? Yes, it is a case for something I purchased few years ago and didn't have a chance to make proper "clothes" for... a set of tarot cards. Just recently a friend and a colleague of mine inspired me to make some spreads. Once again when I took out my deck, I felt pity for its already starting to wear off paper cover.  I finished this acrylic attire for arcanas day before yesterday and hope they like their new "sweater". Come on, it's getting colder here too now! 

 As usually I used one of the buttons I have in my stash for such kind of projects - perfect color match and a cute flower in the middle. I went for a simple case design, randomly choosing the stitch type for each row. There are single crochet, double crochet, puff stitch (or corn stitch?), and crocheting in back loop stitches technique. The triangle cover attached at the back of the case was made by decreasing the number of stitches in the rows. 

Linking to the November Stash-buster challenge at Linda's Crafty Corner.

I attempted to get a navigation drop down menu in my blog, but got a problem with it hiding behind the gadget, and if I increase the width, the whole gadget stretches what doesn't look good at all. I might try again today, so if you see some changes in my blog, it means I am up to some blog renovation :) Have you started preparing for any other holiday, festival? Like Christmas? I know that many are still to celebrate the Thanksgiving day. This is my birthday month, so I need to do something good in my blog very soon, I mean a giveaway for example. Thanks for your praising (as usual :)) and loving comments on my posts, my dears! 

Have a great weekend and keep warm! It got pretty chilled in the mornings here in North India :)